2 



FOREST AND STREAM 



[August 3, 1882 



which has been noted from year to year, will undoubtedly 

 continue, and we shall this year probably be culled upon to 

 chronicle some of the best work thai lias yet been recorded. 

 This is oin> of the chief objects for which the Trials wore 

 instituted, and that they have in a great measure accom- 

 plished this, a glance at our report of the different meetings 

 will show. Never in the history of field sports were they 

 more popular than now. Much of this is the direct result of 

 mil public trials, and we trust that from year to year they 

 will exert an ever widening influence and develop and foster 

 an ever increasing love for the healthful and invigorating 

 sports or the Held. Not the least amoug the benefits derived 

 from the trials has been the manifest improvement iu the 

 manner in which the competitors handle their dogs. The 

 measure of this benefit cannot he estimated, as not alone do 

 those who participate in the trials profit by the improve- 

 ment, but every sportsman who attends returns home with 

 broader views and increased knowledge of the possibi lilies 

 foi enjoyment of his favorite sport, and by putting to prac- 

 tical iw the advanced ideas there obtained, he adds much 

 to the pleasure of his outings, and by the influence of his 

 example upon the friends who accompany him, the good 

 good work is continued ami the best and noblest purpose of 

 the founders of our field trials is surely accomplishing its 

 mission liy elevating and popularizing the sports of the field. 



ADIRONDACK SURVEY NOTES. 



111. — FISHING TAClvLE. 



i 1 OI.NG dowu the Fulton chain of lakes the party pro- 

 V " ce«ded as before, Mr. Oolvin leading iu a boat 

 rowed by ••Jack" Sheppard. and the others following. At 

 one point L happened to use a Chippewa word meaning to 

 gq on. saying "we must pucachee." a very common expres- 

 sion and rather a pet word of mine, and thought to be 

 all that remained of former linguistic acquirements in that 

 line; therefore it was a surprise to have a whole sentence in 

 that tongue shot at me by Sheppard. This was a little 

 staggering, but we managed to jabber so as to give Messrs. 

 Mosserop and Baker an idea that they formed the topic of 

 conversation ana that there were unknown teirors in store 

 for them. This proved only ammunition wasted, for they 

 didn't seem to scare a bit, perhaps the sign in the moon was 

 ncit right. Later conversation with Sheppard developed the 

 fact that we had hunted the same ground in Northern 

 Minnesota and afterwards had served in the same army 

 coips: and he was henceforward assigned to take care of 

 me, Mr. Colvin giving us mrte blamhe. to make forays into 

 such waters as we pleased and to eapture the fishes con- 

 tained in them. Under this arrangement we have visited 

 the Fulton chain by going back to Blue Mountain Lake, 

 forayed into Forked, Long, Raquetto, Big Moose and Little 

 Moose lakes with the numerous "ponds" which lie about 

 them; and have taken fishes of all kinds and sizes. 



While the party was all together and camped In tents on 

 Fourth Lake, on an island near the camp of Fred. Hess, it 

 became necessary to administer a great amount of punish- 

 ment to our two young assistants, Messrs. Mosserop and 

 Baker. 1 had explained to them in a fatherly way that a 

 fishing-rod was not a "pole," hoping thereby to start them 

 right in the nomenclature of angling; but they persisted in 

 their erroneous ways, evidently with malice prepense, and 

 for the purpose of casting ridicule upon the angling fra- 

 ternity. They had retired in a small tent, and were con- 

 versing in a low T tone, when one said to the other, "Ask. Mr. 



if you can borrow his split-bamboo pole to-morrow, 



iust to see what he will say." The question was loudly 

 asked, with deliberate emphasis on the obnoxious word; 

 and in a moment after a veritable sapling was introduced 

 into I lie tent and the dust was threshed out of the blankets 

 which covered them. They begged hard, and shouted, 

 "li"(/, 1 meant mil," and upon promise of reform they v 

 let off. It is sad to chronicle the fact that this treatment 

 bad to be several times repeated before the lesson was firm! 

 fixed. In all other respects these young gentlemen were apt 

 scholars. 



Two rods, a stiff bait-rod of split-bamboo for trolling, and 

 a fly rod of iron wood or hornbeam; two reels with water 

 proof silk Hues, flies, bait-hooks from the smallest minnow- 

 book up to those lit to take a "laker,'' trolling line, spoons 

 of several patterns, swivels, gangs, sinkers, split-shot, land- 

 ing net. and a twenty-foot minnow seine comprised my ap- 

 pliances for taking specimens of all the fishes to be found in 

 i bis region. The ironwood rod was new to me and with 

 i be exception of being a trifle heavy it worked well; the ac- 

 tion was very fair, and it was quick to strike; its weight, 

 however, would be an objection to some. men. 1 found that 

 it was a good developer of muscle, and why has not Dr. 

 Henshall, and other advocates of heavy rods, thought of 

 this. By the way, I have lost ten pounds of flesh in the 

 woods in three weeks, and the loss has been a great gain. 

 W ben I went in 1 was fat and my flesh too soft, and a pack 

 of seventy-five pounds on my back over the carries took the 

 fluids out in copious floods, but left the muscle down to 

 fighting weight, and the heavy rod has increased the muscles 

 of both arms, for 1 hold it to be a great accomplishment to 

 cast with both hands. 



The reels both came to grief. One was of a new pattern and 

 became loose on the plate so that it was a nuisance, and I 

 want no more of it. The other had a eliek on the outside 

 covered by a cap, and this flew off while handling a good- 



sized trout, which was lost in consequence. The click served 

 as a drag and after this the line would overrun on the reel, 

 if not closely watched, but it had to do its work, for there 

 was no alternative. How often has the proper position of 

 the reel on the rod been argued? The advocates of placing 

 it on top of the rod are as firmly convinced that it is right 

 as those who believe it should be on the under side. Perhaps 

 both are right; and it may be that the proper place for it is 

 where a man can handle it. to the best advantage; 1ml if a 

 rod were placed in my hand with the reel in any other position 

 but the accustomed one, I would be the veriest dutfer yon 

 rsaw when a fish struck. For my use a reel must be ou 

 the. underside, and the crank must be so placed that it comes 

 to my right hand as 1 hold the rod in my left This would 

 be on top of the rod for a man who held his rod with his 

 right hand and reeled his fish with his left, a thing which 1 

 doubt my ability to do, only that his line would be on the 

 reel the wrong way. [ fish with both hands alike, and if a 

 fish strikes when the rod is in the right hand it must be 

 shifted before any reeling can be dune. This is force of 

 habit merely, and I hold that the easiest way for any man 

 to do a thing is the way he learned at first , no matter how 

 awkward it may seem to others to adopt his plan. 



In the matter of flies I would say ; 111 can not have but one 

 fly let it be a red ibis. In all casts this fly has its place as the 

 stretcher. The droppers may be changed if the trout don't 

 rise, but it takes a long time between bites to rouse a sus- 

 picion that any other fly would be more aeceptible than Ibis 

 scarlet one. Flies may come, and flies may go, but the 

 scarlet ibis, Mr. Boffin, goes on forever. In the language of 

 Patrick Henry I may say: I know not whal. course others 

 may take, but as for me give me a scarlet ibis or there will 

 be no trout for dinner. I find my books full of flies which are 

 never used, for the reason that a few favorites such as the 

 palmers (commonly, but erroneously called hackles) the 

 queen of the water, the professor, and half a dozen others 

 whose names seem to lie badly mixed by (he different makers, 

 are always first chosen. 



The nomenclature of artificial flies is a thing which, in its 

 present state, it would be base flattery to call a science; per- 

 haps inquiry at the insane asylums might show how much 

 the study of the different names attached to these monstrosi- 

 ties has contributed to the mental afflictions of mankind. 

 Having abandoned the hope of acquiring this branch of the 

 subject when the suspicion dawned that it was purposely 

 muddled by the fly makers and rival dealers, there is a feel- 

 ing of security that my reason will not totter from this 

 cause, but there are some fellows who are in a bad way. 

 Determined to master the subject, they have thrown aside 

 all Conner knowledge and applied themselves anew to Hol- 

 berton's "Standard." Why should I renew my exertions to 

 save them? There must be mental wrecks or the keepers of 

 the asylums would be out of work, and thus kindness to one 

 man is cruelty to another. 



The fishing in these lakes suits my constitution, which is 

 eminently adapted to fishing from a boat. Even the inlets 

 cannot well be waded. There are anglers who love to get 

 into cold water up to their knees, or higher, and wade 

 along a stream and have fun sitting down on a particularly 

 slippery stone at intervals not. of their own choosing. The 

 old Spanish proverb of a dry r cellar and a wholesome ho 

 conies in here, and if any gentleman prefers a damp base- 

 ment no one should object. Another reason for preferring 

 a boat, is that while wading a slippery stream is good exer- 

 cise and makes one enjoy his rest afterward, fishing from a 

 boat enables you to enjoy your rest while you are fishing. A 

 friend says: "It never tiros my feet, to sit down." Do you 

 think boat fishing lazy? Well, perhaps it is, we. won't argue 

 that, comfort and laziness mean the same filing to some, 

 while others regard them as different things: they are evi- 

 dently related. F. M. 



TEMeKii.vruuio pott Trout. — At Fulton Market Mr. 

 Blackford has usually kept one or two tanks of live trout 

 through the mouth of May, and sometimes into June. This 

 year he has a large, glass tank with a large flow of water 

 from the city mains coming in at the bottom and going out 

 at the top. We were surprised to see Ihe trout alive on 

 July I, and learned that the water bad been cooler. At, our 

 suggestion Mr. Blackford left a dozen of the fish in the tank 



Greenwood Lake. — We were on this lake last week ami 

 took some, small black bass with the fly, and heard of a few 

 good strings and some three-pound fish, although none of 

 the latter size fell to our rod. The lake is u pleasant ride of 

 forty-eight miles from the city, and a small steamer takes 

 visitors to any portion of it. We had the pleasure of attend- 

 ing an informal reception am' bop at the club house of the 

 Greenwood Lake Association, and met many veteran anglers 

 there, some of them expert salmon fishers, who find in the 



proximate, bass a 

 feature of the lake is the encai 

 lands, Where the angler can find 

 with board floor, bedstead, etc 

 take his meals in the dining roon 

 camp meeting and revival is i 

 again. 



• the distant salmon. A 

 lpment at Warwick Wood- 

 i comfortable and airy tent 

 , at the water's edge, and 

 . all at reasonable rales. A 

 ear at hand. We will go 



and placed a thermomel 

 itand. On Hie 17th the 

 WSl'e uneasy and Ineathin 

 lOth, when one more degr 

 the last fish succumbed at 

 Ideas brook (rout havi 



in it to see what they would 

 eury showed 73 and the trout 

 iiickly. Several died on the 

 'as reached, and a week later 

 degrees. July 24 is probably 

 ever been kept alive in the water 



of New York city without ice. We noticed much fungus 

 on many of the fish as the temperature rose. May not 

 temperature be at the bottom of the "salmon disease" in 

 Engiauil? 



Thoi cm Major V kr it y is a veteran officer in the Horse 

 Marines, bis tales are not wholly intended for the Marines 



An Incoiiuect Oorukctok Oohrecti.y CORUKCTED. — We 

 could wish that by some reflex ael.iou the Sag Harbor (Long 

 Island) Corvirtor might react upon itself, for it needs correc- 

 tion on a point upon which it has been trying to correct 

 others. In its issue of July 82 it slates that there is some 

 disagreement by the Long Island press as to the dates of 

 the open woodcock season, and it, proceeds lo stale as the 

 law in force the clause relating to woodcock in the Newman 

 bill, which was no! passed at Albany. The woodcock season 

 on Long Island opened August 1st, Our Sag Harbor E. C. 

 means well, but it has made a mistake. We would reconl- 

 mend it, when discoursing on the game laws, to come to 

 headquarters for its information. Verb, sap 



%he ^portsniHn <K>ottri$L 



THE WARWICK WOODLANDS. 



BY UAHKISON W. NANNY. 



X T EARS before " [nfilirissiiinm" was graven upon a tomb 

 X stone, in the noonday of a joyous life, that prince of 

 sports i uen. that, American Xenophou, who, though his 

 achievements were perhaps less heroic, y~et wielded the pen 

 with all the grace of the Xenophon of Athena, paid a glow- 

 ing tribute to the vale which had been the scene of much 

 which was fair and beautiful in his life, and whose recol- 

 lections thronged him in all (heir splendor to the hour when 

 that life w T out out in sorrow and darkness. 



It was a spot then as now, "fair as the garden of the 

 Lord," though no wizard hand had smitten it into immor- 

 lality. Since then the years have come and gone — years 

 bringing peace and years fraught with war, years of harvests 

 and of golden fields, but the \Varw ick Woodlands and the 

 vale of Warwick, forest-crowned and wood-embowered as of 

 old, breathe out the same inspiration as that which quick- 

 ened the heart throbs and fired' the genius of Frank Forester. 



The mountains sentinel the vale as of yore, time-worn 

 Sugar Loaf yet lifts its hoary head and bars the northern 

 entrance, while to the westward, across the drowned lands, 

 the Shawangunks still keep watch and ward. The range to 

 the south yet holds the mountain tarn, but the great trout, 

 in whose capture Squire Vandergriff, of Vernon, made him 

 self famous, have become extinct, victims to a new race — the 

 black bass — which like their human compeers, the Aryans, 

 have swallowed everything in their course to empire. The 

 sportsman may indeed dream the olden dream, but the day 

 id' overflowing game bags hasdeparted; the runs and coverts, 

 still alder-grown, no longer throng with ruffed grouse and 

 woodcock, while the streams once abounding in brook trout 

 are of less attraction to the angler. Even the unrivaled but- 

 ter of the days gone by is seldom seen. The cattle upon 

 the hundred hills are indeed as fruitful as in the days when 

 Frank Forester's feet pressed the greensward, but the 

 olden housewives who turned the golden rolls upon the 

 "pats" are, alas, no more. The churning machine, that at- 

 tachment to the rear of every farmhouse, whose early clank 

 roused from their slumbers of the morning the tardy inmates, 

 has been cast away, and to-day is almost as much of a curi- 

 osity as the great-grandmother's spinning wheel in the gar- 

 ret, or the great-grandfather's flax erackler behind the old 

 barn. The pastures arc as teeming as ever, the same farm- 

 houses— most of them, at least the veritable ones— wduch 

 half a century ago gladdened the sight of the passer-by, peep 

 out from beneath a canopy of leaves, but in the cellars the. 

 long benches filled with pans of golden cream ready for the 

 morrow's churning are no longer to he seen ; the great churns 

 standing under the "sweeps," and the rows of pails packed 

 with that far-famed product of Orange county, rivaling iu 

 its hue the buttercups in her meadows, have vanished fur- 

 ever. Iu the dairy yard, where once the daughters of the 

 house milked the patient cows and carried the warm, foam- 

 ing pails of milk to the cellar to be strained, one finds two 

 or three brawuv men who, in the years gone by, at this hour 

 of the day, would have been swinging their scythes iu uni- 

 son in yonder meadow, and making the morning ring with 

 lie music of their whetting, in the same meadow where now 

 a Buckeye or Champion mower is doing with a deal of clat- 

 ter the work of half a dozen. The farmers of those days and 

 their helpmeets are most of them sleeping side by side in the 

 old village burying ground, or perchance in Ihe uew cemetery, 

 heedless of the march of progress. And w ho and what, do 

 you wonder, has taken their places with its toil and dignity 

 of labor? 



Throughout, the valley, here and there, stand plain, un- 

 padded, unpicturosque buildings with a platform in front 

 which is worn and torn with the bumping and friction of 

 wheels of farm wagons and furrowed and creased by the 

 rolling of milk cans and greased with their overslopping of 

 pure Orange county milk. Whal the- churn was to the 

 farmer in this valley in the days of Forester, I his pagoda is 

 io his descendant. "Here his main product is absorbed and 

 here he seeks his monthly revenue. Here daily comes the 

 milk wagon, driven by a" small boy or the laziest of the 

 family, with four or five cans of milk which are received 

 upon "the platform, gauged, emptied and the cans returned 

 to the wagon with a possible suggestion to the driver that 

 less water is desirable. Here is made the Orange county 

 butter of to-day: here and at the railroad stations is received 

 the milk which is seldom churned at the farm. Down the 

 valley fiom the village of Warwick to near I hat. ueathamletof 

 Vernon stretches away an embankment with its iron track- 

 one of the highways of the nation— upon which, as if in 

 mockery of that prayer of Forester, "May ihe lines of no 

 hideous utilitarian railroad ever deface tin- velvet of your 

 green pastures, the fiendish howl of that veriest car of 

 Juggernaut — the thrice accursed locomotive — never awake 

 the echoes of your breezy hills," is heard the thunder of iron 

 wheels, w bile the whistle of the engine echoes from crag to 

 crag along those mountain sides and across the meadows 

 aud° through the shades wliieh he loved. In one respect, 

 however, fate wove his fancy into history yet to be, The 



