FISH AND FISHING 



293 



the second and third arc small snails, and 

 the other 2 are small bivalve shells. 



Apparently the most abundant animal 

 in the lake is the little newt, or eft, Dicniic- 

 tylus viridescens, which in the fall literally 

 swarms everywhere in the shallow water 

 along the shores. They were seen every- 

 where and hundreds of them were collected. 

 This little salamander lives only for a 

 portion of its existence in the water, the 

 rest of its life being spent on the land. 

 It does no harm in any way, but doubtless 

 serves to some extent as food for car- 

 nivorous fishes. 



CONCERNING THE NORTH DAKOTA HERD. 



I see from the December number of 

 Recreation that an attorney of New York 

 has been found so hard up for a job as to 

 take up the case of those game hogs re- 

 ferred to on page 360 of November Recre- 

 ation. I think he should be glad to settle 

 it out of court, for any decent attorney 

 would be ashamed to take it into court ; 

 but if he does have a trial, your 32,000 

 loyal subscribers, of whom I am one, will 

 contribute enough to fight a dozen such 

 cases. 



What gentleman would want or should 

 catch more than a dozen such bass in a 

 day! What could he do with them? 

 Nothing but make a holy show of him- 

 self. He should have left the greater 

 number of those fish in the lake, to prop- 

 agate for future use. It is like such men 

 to try to hide behind the position they 

 hold in that county by the suffrages of de- 

 cent people. 



Hundreds of beautiful lakes all over the 

 Northern part of our grand old State of 

 Ohio have been depleted by just such 

 swine, so we -are compelled to go hundreds 

 of miles North or East to get any good 

 fishing. Keep right after the fish and 

 game hogs, Brother Shields, and every 

 true, loyal gentleman sportsman in Amer- 

 ica will applaud your action and give you 

 financial aid. 



A. G. W., Toledo, Ohio. 



You have sized up correctly the fish 

 hogs whose pictures appear in November 

 Recreation, on page 360. They are of the 

 kind we soldiers used to hunt in Arkansas, 

 the razor back, long snoot kind. It was a 

 case of necessity; we had to have meat, 

 such as it was. The devils in this North 

 Dakota herd ought to run them into the 

 deep blue sea. I see one of them is of my 

 profession. I am sorry for that, and un- 

 til he so lustily squealed I had hoped he 

 was an unlucky dog Tray in bad company. 

 His picture certainly makes him look as 

 though he ought to "go 'way back and set 

 down." 



T. M. Pierce, Bozeman, Mont. 



I take it that the readers of Recreation 

 will return a verici at once and "without 

 leaving their seats," that the herd of swine 

 found on page 360 of November Recrea- 

 tion have not been, and could not be, li- 

 belled. The English language does not 

 embrace libellous words when applied to 

 such wretches. Thanks to the photograph, 

 we need not speculate, and Attorney Guth- 

 rie need not speculate, as to whether it is a 

 lie or not. We believe our own eyes, and 

 he ought not to deceive himself. I like to 

 hear them squeal. 



Henry A. Morgan, Albert Lea, Minn. 



N. B. — This is not confidential. 



I am glad you handle the game and fish 

 hogs, market hunters and game butchers 

 with gloves off. I do not think you need 

 give yourself any uneasiness about the cli- 

 ents of Mr. Ledru Guthrie ever bringing 

 suit against you for the scalding you have 

 given them. Such men have not the nerve 

 to meet you in court. You have my sup- 

 port in this matter as well as that of every 

 other true sportsman. I hope you and 

 Recreation may live years yet, if for no 

 other reason than to show up such would- 

 be sportsmen to the world in their true 

 light. 



C. F. Dill, Greenville, S. C. 



My judgment on the picture in Novem- 

 ber Recreation, page 360, is that the 6 

 swine were let off too easily. There 

 should be a law to prohibit any one of 

 them from having in possession any fire- 

 arm, rod, reel, line or any other contri- 

 vance that can be used to kill or take any 

 animal, bird, or fish ; or to have in pos- 

 session any animal, bird, fish or part there- 

 of, under a penalty of $1,000 and 10 years 

 in State's prison, with the penalty to be 

 doubled at every offence. 



L. A. S. 25 1 1, Fishkill Plains, N. Y. 



When the November number of Rec- 

 reation came my wife looked at the 

 picture on page 360, and said, "They ought 

 to be roasted for being fish hogs." That 

 expressed her opinion of the 6 alleged men. 

 For 6 men to take 500 fish in half a day is 

 cold blooded slaughter. If all other men 

 would do as those 6 did there would not be 

 one little shiner left in one year, to say 

 nothing about pike. A coat of tar and 

 feathers applied to those 6 men in the pub- 

 lic square at midday would be a good ex- 

 ample. C. N. Truman, Ouray, Colo. 



In my opinion you have not libelled the 

 North Dakota herd. The English lan- 

 guage does not contain words sufficiently 

 strong to express the contempt in which 

 such porcine bipeds should be held. You 

 have the constitutional right to demand a 

 trial by a jury of your peers. As you are 

 a true sportsman, demand a jury of sports- 



