y6 



RECREATION 



However, all was made right by my pock- 

 eting the rejected coin, and giving her two 

 ten-cent bits in its place. 



That night we slept in a comfortable farm 

 house near Tracadie Village, and the next 

 day drove sixty miles to Chatham. We 

 toted the trout, but had to abandon the 

 canoe. 



The Tracadie is now under lease, but I 

 understand it may be fished by arrangement 

 with the lessee. Report says it is as good 

 as ever. ' 



GIVE THE BULLFROG A CHANCE. 



At last the propagation of bullfrogs is be- 

 ing seriously considered and Mr. W. E. Mee- 

 han, commissioner of fisheries of the com- 

 monwealth of Pennsylvania, tells me that this 

 year they will probably put out one hundred 

 thousand frogs, and this is only the result of 

 gathering some wild frogs' spawn and hatch- 

 ing it. The experiment was started at the 

 Corry hatchery. 



TUNA AT CAPE BRETON. 



The presence of the famous tuna in the 

 waters adjacent to Cape Breton is not suffi- 

 ciently well known to our deep sea fishers. 



If they realized that on a fine July day 

 hundreds of these big fish may be seen in 

 Mira Bay, Cape Breton, sporting and racing 

 through the sunlit waters, they would surely 

 get out their rods and traces, and depart for 

 Cape Breton without loss of time. 



The sport is yet in its infancy, so far as 

 Nova Scotia is concerned, as only one man 

 seems to have had the temerity to fish for 

 these monsters of the deep, and he was 

 broken after he had the fish on for seven 

 hours. Yet they take a small mackerel or 

 other suitable bait readily, and boats and 

 guides may be had ; so how comes it that our 

 sea fishermen are neglecting Cape Breton? 



Those who are thinking of making a pil- 

 grimage to the Lower Provinces had better, 

 by the bye, procure a copy of the Inter- 

 colonial railway pamphlet, entitled "Tours to 

 Summer Haunts'' (Fourth edition), as they 

 will find it full of information that should 

 be useful. 



The horse mackerel, as the down-easters 

 call the tuna, is also to be found along the 

 Maine coast, and their tails are not an un- 

 common sight as a decoration for barn and 

 stable, where they do duty as weather vanes. 



THE FOOLISH SHORT-SIGHTED POLICY OF 

 FLORIDA. 



Editor Recreation : 



I have just returned from my second trip 

 to Florida, that land which is widely quoted 

 in the railroad folders as a mecca for sports- 

 men : "Where fish and game abound in un- 

 limited quantities." Perhaps a few words 



from an old-time sportsman who has hunt- 

 ed and fished this country over, may be in- 

 teresting. I base anything I may say on 

 actual experience. 



This spring I met a host of sportsmen and 

 anglers who told me they would never go 

 to Florida again. The State authorities are 

 allowing a lot of fish pirates to kill the 

 goose that lays the golden (tourist) egg. 



If the laws are enforced, Florida will 

 long be a sportsman's paradise. But the law 

 is a dead letter. Even the Secretary of 

 State has no printed matter concerning the 

 game and fish laws, and I doubt if he knows 

 them. 



When I first visited Indian River I heard 

 the boom of swivel guns on beds of sleep- 

 ing ducks, night after night. I sent word 

 to the Merritt Island warden to know why 

 he did not arrest these violators of the law, 

 and the word I got back was that he "hadn't 

 heard the guns." This seemed very strange 

 to me, as he lived two miles closer to where 

 the dirty work was done, than I did. Still 

 he may be a more sound sleeper than I. 

 Let us hope, for his sake, that he is. 



Indian River, with its great marshes 

 near it, is the winter home of untold thou- 

 sands of ducks. The blue-bill is there in 

 swarms, and they seem to prefer the river, 

 while back in the marshes are black duck, 

 teal, widgeons, canvasbacks, and some mal- 

 lards. Just as I prophesied, many years ago, 

 the extinction of the buffalo and the wild 

 pigeon, and was derided for it. so I now 

 prophesy the extinction of both the mallard 

 and the canvasback, as far as Florida is 

 concerned, and the time will not be far off. 



Much of the destruction is wanton. The 

 ducks are killed and left to rot. This is 

 most true of the trim little blue-bill. What 

 do sportsmen think of a "drummer" who 

 got off at Rockledge, hired a launch, and 

 killed over thirty ducks, never stopping to 

 pick them up, but letting them float off. 

 This information was common property, 

 yet I never heard of his paying even a li- 

 cense to shoot, something which I believe 

 the Florida laws — if there are any — provide 

 for. The fishing here was once superb. 



I caught bass that gave me from fifty min- 

 utes to an hour and a quarter of fair fight. 

 These were salt water bass, but the lakes 

 back of the river are literally alive with 

 lusty big-mouth, fresh water . bass. They 

 will bite at almost anything attached to a 

 line. Any old spoon will do 



These lakes have such great margins of 

 rushes and grass that I don't see hownesters 

 can get many, so the chances are that they 

 will last quite a time. They run from three 

 to eight and ten pounds and are as game as 

 one could wish for. Still fishing is almost 

 unknown. The river trout and bass will not 

 take a spoon. Nothing but a phantom min- 

 now appeals to their taste. All fish there are 



