470 



FOREST AND STREAM. 



[Jastjaby 12, 



The Lbuigh Vaaujy.— A Meml writes of his last shoot of 

 the season in the Lehigh Valley, Pa.: "We closed the season 

 yesterday -will) a nice bag of birds, five pheasants and about 

 twice the number of quail. There are some birds left; over 

 where we were, and if there are bo deep aod continued snows 

 we may look for good shooting next year. If the snows 

 come we have made arrangements to have the quail trapped 

 and housed. The pheasant's can take care of themselves, and 

 there are lots of them. The -winter has been so open they 

 have just come down off the mountains into their winter 

 quarters since the late rain and cold simp of last week. We 

 never followed coveys when they went into the woods, and 

 that they invariably did on first flight, Vixen is looking 

 well, and, I think, will come out all right." 1 have taken to 

 pointers lately, and "Vixen" is a jewel, Nobody shall hear 

 a word more of her until she is ready for the field, and then 

 I wish to show her work. — Homo. 



A Soutiibhn Excursion.— Messrs. Leve and Alden, 207 

 Broadway, New York, announce a personally conducted 

 Southern tour, from January 33 to March 25, 1882, vis- 

 iting most of the prominent Southern cities and winter re- 

 sorts, Nassau, N. P., Ma' t anza9, Cuba, Caves of Bellamar 

 and Yuruuri Valley, Havana and surrounding country, Vera 

 Cruz, Mexico City, New Orleans, the Mississippi River, 

 Vicksburg, Memphis, St. Louis, and many other places of 

 interest, returning thence by rail to New York, comprising 

 sixty-one days of first-class traveling, including palace cars, 

 hotels, carriage rides, fees for passports, etc. , for $4-50. An 

 interesting pamphlet containing full particulars of the trip 

 may be obtained by mailing a postal card to the above ad- 

 dress. 



A Wholesome Fibe-akhLaw — Philadelphia, Miss., Dec. 

 8, 1881. — Our State has a law to prevent the careless hand- 

 ling of fire-arms, which 1 tMuk is a step in the right direction. 

 According to this law any person who shall intentionally 

 point or aim any gun, pistol or fire-arm, at or toward 

 another, except in se.f-defence, or in the lawful discharge of 

 official duty, shall be punished by a fine of not more' than 

 five hundred dollars or imprisonment in the county jail not 

 longer than six months, or by both. If the gun should be 

 discharged while pointing it in this manner the fine and im- 

 prisonment is doubled, and if the person aimed at shall be 

 maimed, killed or injured, the person pointing or aiming the 

 fire-arm shall be punished by imprisonment in the peniten- 

 tiary not exceeding five years. This law reaches the 

 " tbought-it-wasn't-loaded" class. — Forest Field. 



Massachusetts Coast Shooting. — Lynn, Mass., Dec. 27, 

 1881. — No gunning here just now to amount to anything. 

 Thomas Stanley, of Swamksol.t, has shot 425 coots this 

 season, and is not done yet. The best day's work was put in 

 by Harry Proctor, he getting thirty- eight coots in thirty 

 shots. J. Porter Thomas, one of the most successful gun- 

 ners alongshore, has not been out but twice this season ,• 

 " too much shot in the air to be perfectly comfortable" is his 

 reason : and on a good morning when the birds are here there 

 is a f usilade 1 I should think they would drop dead from 

 fright. The most of us have set aside our guns, waiting for 

 summer and the shore birds, and in the meantime to rearfand 

 enjoy our numbers of Forest and Stream,— T. M. S. 



Cazbnovians in Florida.— Cazenovia, N. Y., Dec. 31.— 



Will Thomas, George Atwell, Seymour Brown and George 

 Brown arc camped a quarter of a mile from Titusville, 

 Florida, awaiting the arrival of Mr. M. L\ Card, who leaves 

 this place next Thursday to join them there. They intend 

 to build a boat and to do the Indian River country. Mr. 

 Card has been there before, and the boys are anticipating fine 

 sport with him for guide. They write home even now some 

 good-sized stories about fishing and hunting. It makes ouc 

 a little uneasy to think about the fun they will have. — Ham- 



MBELB8S. 



Chas. A. Pboitk.— The ' l Cbas. A- Peoke" who wrote the 

 letter referring to the Gunpowder Bridge duck shooting, in 

 our issue of Dec. 8, 1881, was not the "Chas. A. Peoke" 

 whose letter on the same topic appeared in our issue of E>ee. 

 22. The pseudonym belongs to the first writer by virtue of 

 pre-emption, and his claim to it cannot be out-claimed by 

 another, as the ducks at Gunpowder appear to have been. 



The Remington Arms are among the most approved pat- 

 terns and grades of rifles and shot-guns. The firm manufac- 

 ture a great variety of leng range target and game rifles, and 

 shot-guns toauit varied tastes. The name of Remington is one 

 which has gained a highand honorable place among American 

 manufacturers ; and their goods are first-class. 



Toronto, Canada, Dec. 31.— Several gentlemen iti the 

 Bay of Quinte interested in sporting matters have formed a 

 club to be known as the " Bay of Quinte Sportsman's Club." 

 Messrs. Q. M. King, P. J. M. Anderson, R. J. Bell and D. 

 R. Leavens were appointed to prepare a constitution and 

 by-laws. 



Illinois— Savanna, Dec, 1881.— Duck shooting has been 

 unusually good this fall, bags of twenty and sixty to one 

 gun have been the usual average ; as high as 150 to one gun 

 have been made for one day. Snipe have been scarce, owing to 

 the high water overflowing the low ground. Winter mild. 

 No ice in the river. — 8. 



California.— The Sportsmen's Club of California offers a 

 reward of $50 for the arrest and conviction of any person 

 engaged in violating those portions of the game laws of the 

 State of California applying to game tish and game birds. 

 No reward shall be paid unless the fine imposed shall be at 

 least $50, or the imprisonment at least thirty days. 



Illinois— Charleston, Dec. 29, 1881.— On the 27th inst. five 

 business me of this city and one farmer left for Bay Bridge, 

 Arkansas, for one or two months' hunt. They were C. 

 Swarts, B. llazelton, A. N. Bain, James Slddmore, Daniel 

 H. Calvert and Jacob Linder.— J. B. D. 



Sherbuookk, Canada. — We have read the articles on " Gun 

 Measles" with some interest, but what we are looking for is 

 something that will keep a gun in good condition in camp, 

 where it may He all night in the rain. Blue ointment is 

 our favorite protector. — Canada. 



Tub New Jersey Sohtetzbn Coups, Capt A. B. Harde- 

 kopf, will have their nineteenth annual ball on Jan, 18. 1882, 

 at Odd Fellows' flail, Hoboken, 



|«* md §iver ^gishmg. 



FISH IN SEASON I IV .TANIJAB.V. 



FBBSH WATEB. 



Yellow Perch, Perca JltwiatilU. 



Pickerel, TSsox retuMiatua. 

 Pike or Pickerel, jsnot luciun. 

 Pike-perch (wall-eyed pike) 



Stizolethium emuxricamem, £). 



grixeum, etc. 



- - 1 --.' > . ' I . ! . ■:•'/ ,' r,' ., I, , , . ■ i 



War-mourh, Chmnobryttmijuloitm. 

 Crappla, Pomoxps nigrmnaculatus. 

 Bachelor, Pomoxye annularis. 



ISPiy S""™ 8 m ;r !ax i , I wwl - e p ereh. Mormu amerieana. 



hipped Bass or Koeknsu, -Shock* I Pollock, Poliachms carbmiarius. 

 uneatua. | 



earns, dice and tables pick thy purse, 

 iniukiiiganuurabhmg bring a curse ; 

 Uawking and hunting spend thy chink, 

 Bowluig and shooting end in drink. 

 The flgluhig-eoek and the horse race 

 Will sin!; a good estate apace. 

 Angling dot h bodyes exerclce, 

 And wakel b soules holy and wise 

 By blessed thoughts and meditation. 

 Tins, nils is anglers' recreation ; 

 Health, profit, pleasure mlx't together, 

 A II sports to this not worth a leather. 



Napour Xotfole, in Barkers' Delight, 1655. 



NIGHT FISHING ONCE MORE. 



AN attractive feature of Forest and Stream to me is 

 the conversation which runs through its columns up- 

 on topics which do nut relate to the rapacity of landlords, or 

 the knavery of guides, or the rejoinders and counter-charges 

 of the partieB attacked. One of these topics is night fishing, 

 lately discussed. By some of the writers, the taking of fish 

 after dark with hook and line seems to be thought a dis- 

 covery. Assuming that others of your readers besides my- 

 self like these secular "experience meetings," I will tell a 

 part of what 1 know of night. fishiDg. 



When a boy of ten— iJnu pig<i<y* .' now a quarter of a 

 century gone— my summer days were spent at a farm iu 

 Cape May county, New Jersey. In front of the house, and 

 across the main road which formed the dam, lay a lanre 

 mill pond. The country is nearly flat, and the ponds in that 

 region are formed by making a low dam across a cedar 

 swamp. The water is thus backed over a large tract, and 

 makes a broad, shallow pond, furnishing water power 

 sufficient to drive a small saw-mill three-fourths of the year. 

 After the newly-made pond has reached a head, the best of 

 the cedar and swamp timber is cut off four or five feet above 

 the water, leaving the stumps standing high and thickly 

 over the whole surface. Here and there are clumps of cedar 

 bushes growing greenly out of the water, and shadowing 

 dark pools where lean and hungry pike lurk to snatch 

 fiercely the chunk of pork skimmed over the surface by the 

 urchin who has secured the saw-mill scow, the only boat. 

 Pike and catfish are the only fish abundant. 



The daylight was not long enough for me in those days.. 

 Every evening after supper, and at the end of a long day's 

 pursuit of pike, 1, equipped with a short line with a cedar 

 pole tied to ouc end, and a square piece of pork to the other, 

 would meet the village boys on the dam, and, standing close 

 together, we would begin an hour's "cattin'," as they 

 called it. 



The first operation was to call the fish. This we accom- 

 plished (or thought we did) by throwing high in air peb- 

 bles which, falling vertically, would " chug" into the water 

 with a noise similar to the rise of a cutfish. We would 

 then throw in our lines, and when a pull was felt, by a 

 dexterous jerk throw the fish upon the bank, the bait leav- 

 ing his mouth as he passed through the air. I tried, at the 

 first, usiug a book, but found that the greater part of my 

 time was passed in very unpleasant surgery upon the slimy 

 vermin. That summer ended "cattin'," and with it my 

 first experience o£ uighi-fishing. There is another and 

 more profitable kind which furnishes the best sport piscato- 

 rial to be found in this region during the month of June. 



Any one who has passed over Delaware Bay will recollect 

 Ship John Lighthouse, which rises like a gigantic black 

 rocket-head, or lop of a campanile, sheer out of the centre 

 of the bay. about midway between Bombay Hook, in Dela- 

 ware, and Ben Davis' Beach, in New Jersey. Upon the 

 latter beach is a Comfortable hotel, or excursion house, 

 called "Sea Breeze," distant an horn- and a quarter's drive 

 from Bridgeton. In early June, and a month before the 

 weak fish, or sea trout, begin to take bait on the oyster beds 

 in the lower bay, they bite ravenously at, times, during the 

 day time, at Kbip John Light, but the night fishing Is al- 

 most invariably good during pleasant weather. At that 

 season I sometimes drive down to Sea Breeze toward 

 evening, and after summer, with a party of friends, pass 

 over, in the comfortable sail boat belonging to the hotel, the 

 five miles' sail to Ship John, tie to the iron cylinder, and 

 fish until midnight. 



At this part of the Delaware the tide runs with great 

 speed and power, and Ihe eddy formed by the lighthouse 

 furnishes a harbor and resting place for the trout, and, it 

 may be, a refuge from the porpoises which abound in the 

 channels on either side. At all events, the eddy is at times 

 swarming with these beautiful lilac-sided trout, which are of 

 much larger size than those caught later in the season. The 

 fishing is good only during 'lie months of June and Septem- 

 ber at Ship John. During favorable weather the fish bile 

 very rapidly. Upon some nights small trout are taken, but 

 usually they run not less than two nor more than four 



Mo 



;ems to make little differ- 

 rse, is more agreeable to 

 i for size and numbers, is 

 the surface and the bait is 



pound: 



ence. although 

 the fisher. The 

 when the schools 

 allowed to float 



The huge sombre lighthouse, with its crimson eye glowing 

 angrily above; the great, shadowy forms of the ships' steam- 

 ing or sailing in the channel close by, and the sounds, too, 

 weird and merry both ; the rush of the tide around the im- 

 mense cylinder to which our boat is moored ; the im- 

 patient sigh of the porpoise; the steady grating bur-r-r of I 

 the tish beneath the surface .- and last and. pleasanter, the 

 joyful screams of the ladies of our party, as fish after fish, 

 and simultaueou led struggling Into the boat, 



make an experience which shows that night fishing, if it 

 rigg to the dignity of sport, is truly an amusement. 



F, 8. J. C, I 



ANOTHER TALE OF AN ALBATROSS. 



IN a late number of Fohest and Stkeam is an account of 

 the capture, with hook and line, of an albatross, of which 

 the dimensions were 7 ft. 8 in., or 8 ft. 7 in., from tip to. 

 tip, which the WTiter thinks of average size. Thia was off 1 

 Cape Horn. 



In July, 1836, while off the Cape of Good Hope, returning 

 from China, these birds being abundant about the ship f 

 captured one with hook and line which measured 10 it. it i' n 

 from tip to tip of the wings, and I Saw many of larger size. 

 perhaps from 12 to 15 feet. 



To haul in a bird as huge as a swan, with ten feel 

 of wings— it stoutly resisting— was too much for me, and 

 finding I was more likely to go overboard than the birHH 

 come inboard, I called for help, and we turned th 

 loose on deck. On account of its great Btretch of wing this 

 bird cannot rise from a plain surface, and when i 

 flight has to start from the top of a wave. So it was safe otfi 

 deck, where it remained, sullen and savage, snapping witls, 

 its strong hooked bill at all who came near. 



Our colored steward had brought with him from Batavia 

 two of the large Javanese game cocks, which stand two feet 

 high and are very pugnacious. One of them had killed to- 

 other a tew days before, and there was nothing on board for 

 the survivor to fight with. So John turned it out. of its coon 

 and it attacked the albatross on sight— perhaps the firstM 

 stance of a battle between birds of such different climes 

 habits and species. 



The albatross, squatting on the deck like a great goose 

 took no notice of the cock at first— perhaps did not undsr'- 

 stand what he was after — but when it received two or three 

 digs with the spur it slowly raised itself to its feet, darted' 

 out its long neck, and seizing its antagonist with 

 proceeded to devour it, which it would have done had 

 not John come to the rescue. As it was, the gamecock. 

 retreated, with his comb cut, and quite crestfallen. Th? 

 next day the Captain ordered the albatross to bo made into 

 sea-pie : it was rather tough and fishy, but served as a change 

 from salt beef, and the crew, not being familiar with Cole? 

 ridge, enjoyed the dish. 



We also caught in the same way a small species of gall 

 called the Cape pigeon, and the stormy petrel, or Mother 

 Carey's chicken. At that time canned provisions had not 

 been added to sea stores, the pigs and poultry were soon ex- 

 hausted, and we were glad to eat anything unsalted. People 

 on shore may inquire : "Why not catch "fish ?" b 

 ant that in mid-ocean there is a desert barren of a] 

 that anywhere off soundings few fish are to be found. 



i);<nittd<a exwlam can hardly he called a game bird,: 

 though it made game of our gamecock— nor can i be 9 

 eluded among the game fishes, though fishy— and taken 

 with hook and line. S. 0. C. 

 — -», — « 



GAME FISH. 



IN the issue of Forest asd Stream for October 27, I88fj| 

 I was pleased to see, under the caption of •' Sea and 1 iiver 

 Fishing," a quotation from the writings of Air. Hnllock on 

 the above subject, and considered them very timely. 



The fish there described should belong "solely to the pot- 

 fishers who so wontonly use the sportsman's pri rogative and 

 privilege to kill good fish and bad indiscriminately, and sadly 

 deplete the waters that have, been stocked by the State or 

 private enterprise, and who db not deserve the name of ang- 

 lers. 



It wotdd be well If such fishermen — if men they can be 

 called— could be confined to the dark and sluggish waters 

 where catfish and other ignoble fishes abide, and there, and 

 there only, made to disport themselves at will, leaving tuej 

 clear streams and bright waters for the true brothers of the 

 angler. 



There is no denying the fact that the preservation - of good 

 fishing waters and the re-stocking of others will henceforth 

 receive the close attention of legislative bodies and of angling 

 clubs, and all interested in the "gentle art" should he alive 

 to their interests, now that the law-makers — and, in too many" 

 cases, law-marrers — of several States are about to convene; 



Fine fish and fine tackle make fine sport, and how best tOi 

 secure all three should be the present problem of all sports- 

 men. Although shooting and fishing are so unlike, they havw 

 much in common, and their devotees should be close allicsi 

 and ever ready to help each other in the preservatii >n of game 

 and in the keeping of their several crafts above reproach. 

 Every true sportsman is, in a curtain sense, a Chevalier 

 Bayard, and should eschew all ignoble ways and means as 

 well aB all abuses of their rights and privileges. 



Every angler, shooter and huntsman, 1 am sure, will be- 

 glari that they have such a helper as the Forhst and Stream, 

 and to make the paper of wide interest and benefit all should 

 Strive. Personal incidents and adventures in field and by 

 water should be sent to its columns, that all and i 

 share a pleasure once enjoyed by the takers of an " outing." 



Wishing all sportsmen a happy New Tear, I may follow 

 the abovo suggestions and write more anon. O. YV. R. 



SCIENCE AT THE BERLIN FISHERY EXHIBITION, 



NUMBER FIVE of the official report on the International 

 Fishery Exhibition in 1880 is before us.» This is the 

 last of the series, which when bound will form an attractive 

 and instructive volume. 



The report opens with a consideration of instruments for 

 investigating the waters, those of the P.oyal German Ad- 

 mirality coming first. Plummets for shallow and deep-sea 

 sounding of various patterns and most complicated forms] 

 which would puzzle a landsman to even guess what such in- 

 tricate machinery might he used for : thermometers for deep 

 sea, surface, hot springs, etc.; apparatus for bringing up" 

 water or specimens of the bottom j ground nets ; stream. 

 gauges for surface and bottom, appear in great variety. 

 These are followed by implements from the scientific obser- 

 vation station at Kiel, where devices for obtaining the spe- 

 cific gravity of waters and more deep-sea thermometers are 

 shown. Carl Bamberg, of Berlin, showed Beveral imple; 

 ments; and the hanging for a compass is illustrated. P. 

 Dotfl'el, Berlin, showed an araometer for specific gravity and 

 a plummet. 



A stream gauge from M. J. Arrvidsou, Stockholm, and 

 implements for deep sea-sounding and searching r 



■AmtHcneBertohte i ubermelnternal a ■AusteUung] 



m r.eriin i- I i loeJety] | v. | WisseDscbattUcne Abihel- 



lung | von | J. AsniL- ; E. Tried 



. .-. Magnus ; Dr. K Thorner ; Dr. I, Wlt.tmo 



; agvonpaia 



