THE 



AMERICAN 



SPORTSMAN'S JOURNAL. 



Terms, Four Dollars a Year. I 

 Ten Cents a Copy. I 



NEW YORxC, THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 1, 1877. 



/ Volume 9.— STo. 13. 

 tNo. HI Fnlion St, N. Y. 



For Forest ami Stream and Hod and Gun. 

 AUTUMN. 



BY T. S. VAN DYKE. 



SIXG not to me of blushing Spring, 

 With birds, ami lambs, and bees, and aowers ; 

 Nor of the charms that pleasures ilitig 

 O'er rosy Summer's dragging hours. 



Give me those calm and Halcyon days. 



That mourn around dead Nature's bier, 

 When Recollection softly plays 



O'er sports of many a banished year. 



Those sweet and peaceful smoky clays, 



That seem as if life's toils were done ; 

 When struggles down with softened rays, 



Through dreamy haze, the bloody sun. 



Or e'en when dark the sky doth scowl, 



And Winter's scouts o'ervun the laid, 

 And Boreas, with blustering howl, 



Springs to the elements' command. 



Give me the wood-bound stubble field, 



Where oft I've fi and the little quail, 

 Where oft the double shot hath pealed 



Across his airy, buzzing trail. 

 Give me the saddened, tattered wood, 



With crimson vine and tangled briar, 

 Where oft, with throbbing heart, I've stood 



While grouse or woodcock shunned my Are. 



Give me the brown and brushy dingle, 



The marsh, the prairie, or the plain. 

 Where oft I've felt my being tingle 



With mighty expectation's strain. 



Give me the little rush-fringed lake, 

 Where thick the stately wild rice springs, 



Where oft the very air doth shake 

 Beneath ten thousand rushing wings. 



Give me the mountain's shaggy side, 



In rich and varied colors bright, 

 Where antlered beauty loves to hide, 



And disappear with crashing night. 



With gems like these is Autumn graced ; 



With gold is fringed its darkest cloud ; 

 Oases cheer its desert waste ; 



And diamonds sparkle on its shroud. 



Far Forest and Stream. 



J? Rummer an the %oww L jf£ 



AFTER a pleasant but commonplace journey from Boston 

 to St. Johns, and thence by the new inter-colonial rail- 

 road toward the Bay ot Des Chaleurs, we find ourselves lo- 

 cated for a few days at Dan Frazer's noted resort for salmon 

 fishers, on the beautiful dark-green Metapedia. The hotel, 

 which hardly deserves the name of such in view of its indif- 

 ferent board and accommodations, is, at the time of my arriv- 

 al, well filled with angling tourists from all parts of the Do- 

 minion and the United States, including even the outlying 

 islands of the Bermudas, which had sent a creditable deputa- 

 tion from its resident garrisoned officers. I am free to confess 

 to a tinge of shame and mortification at my ignorance when 

 hearing here discussed all around me by everybody the mi- 

 nute details andmerits pertaining to the craft of an angler who, 

 disdaining the sportive sea trout, reserves the salmon for his 

 special gratification. The Silver Doctor, the Fairy, Jock 

 Scott and other appellations are bandied about here in the 

 same positive manner as different species of game birds, only 

 with this difference, that in the latter we deal with a mass of 

 animated feathers of typical indivisibility, while in the former 

 we merely allude to bits and tinsels of gaudy colored feathers 

 and silk, which change about as often in pattern as the fancy 

 of these makers dictates. 



Salmon fishing is a privileged pastime, requiring a round 

 outlay of means, an exceptional outfit and ready access to the 

 rather circumscribed geographical area in which this fish oc- 

 curs. But few of the many devotees to field and aquatic 

 sports can really afford to indulge in this specialty/since the 

 gear needed for it is expensive and not serviceable in the cap- 

 ture of any other fish. Exclusively constructive rods, reels, 

 lines and flies, if complete, could hardly be purchased for less 

 ilirn a hundred and fifty dollars, which would be but the ' 



smaller half of the bill, since the lease of good streams ranges 

 as high as a thousand dollars for a short summer season. Gov- 

 ernment permits at established rates of one dollar per clay can, 

 however, be readily obtained at any one stream owned by the 

 crown ; but success in these is apt to be poor, as their privi- 

 leges are open to all comers. Such is the case at the mouth of 

 the Restigouche and the Metapedia, two of the most notable 

 salmon bearing rivers emptying their floods into the wide em- 

 bouchure of the majestic St. Lawrence River. The fishing on 

 them is rather fair ■ at the beginning of the season when sal- 

 mon commence their ascent, and continues so until about be- 

 ginning of July, when the lessened amount of rainfalls causes 

 the gradual shrinking and consequent heating of their -waters, 

 which, to suit the fish, must have a certain degree of coolness. 

 He then forsakes all shallow rapids and resorts to deep pools, 

 where, when calms and weather favor, he may be seen lying 

 motionless in solid banks, resembling rather a dark vein 

 of the rocky river bed, than the even, living phalanx, which 

 betrays its nature by an occasional splash or a slight move- 

 ment of the tails or part of the ever restless members. At 

 this time they grow, generally speaking, indifferent to the 

 tempting, trailing, gaudy titbits of feathers, so cunningly hid- 

 ing the barbed dangers lurking in their midst, from the angler's 

 well tempered hook. A few may take a notion from time to 

 time to rise up from the luxurious coolness of their deep en- 

 vironment to take, as it were, a cursory glance at affairs 

 above, or of satisfying merely their curiosity, after which they 

 lazily descend, to the great mortification of the angler, who 

 has spent many weary hours in the painstaking, patient pas- 

 time of casting his fly to the utmost limits of the dark pool, 

 which bears his birch canoe with its usual complement of two 

 expert boatmen. It is evident that the desire to replenish his 

 empty stomach is not the ruling motive of this sportive habit 

 of the fish, since he does thrive literally upon nothing at all 

 from the time that it ascends the streams for spawning pur- 

 poses until his return back to the sea, which happens between 

 the months of May and September. 



At the end of his summer journey, he resumes once more 

 his predatory habits, and prefers even the worm of the rustic 

 pothunter to the sportsman's fly, which offers no promising 

 nourishment in his emaciated condition. He is at that time 

 too poor to serve as an object of legitimate sport. There are 

 several excellent pools close to the Metapedia tavern. These are 

 formed by the excavating tendency of rushing waters, when 

 checked in their onward flow and turned into a rotating move- 

 ment. The angler often finds himself in luck at these chosen 

 spots, and may take, within a few hours, a half a dozen or 

 more of his silvery prey, averaging on these streams the 

 notable weight of fourteen pounds. His expenses, however, 

 are commensurate with his gratification, and exceed vastly 

 those of the man of gun, since board and the hiring of help 

 cannot be had for less than seven dollars per day, all extra 

 luxuries excluded. Neither is salmon fishing, royal as the 

 fish may be, the par excellence royal sport, the exclusive 

 privilege and reward of ripe experience, and the well earned 

 knowledge of the habits of the fish. The pastime, in fact, is 

 becoming fast a favorite recreation of the merest tyros, ladies 

 included, who never even aspired to a fair share of profes 

 sional honors enjoyed by the sterner sex. I am assured that 

 Lady Dufferin manages to capture in the most approved 

 style as many salmon as most of the successful and experienc- 

 ed anglers, and that these honors are fully shared by some of 

 her lady friends. 



The sport is now reduced, by means of suitable canoes and 

 the help of efficient boatmen, to an ordinary enjoyment. It is 

 these, not the angler himself, who select the best localities 

 where a successful cast may be made. Neither is there any 

 necessity of enduring fatigue and toil, wading of the streams, 

 or leapiBg dexterously from rock to rock, as in the case of 

 brook trout fishing, where foaming, seething waters, yawning 

 between huge slippery boulders impart the additional spicy 

 flavor of possible mishaps or even danger to fife. Nothing of 

 the sort is apt to happen here ; the roomy, dry and clean 

 canoe, manned by two trustworthy, experienced men, and 

 moored within hail of the tavern, awaits your pleasure. The 

 boatman, who is mostly of more or less alloyed Indian extrac- 

 tion, does take care of everything, sees to all of the gear and 

 even to the safe landing of the fish itself after his exhausting 

 struggle against the wiry strength of the plaited line, which 

 holds an inexorable strain upon him from the time that he 

 took a fatal notion to the feather at its end: Thus it happens 



often that any beginner chancing to be on the right spot may 

 have better success than the most expert angler, no matter 

 how much the latter may boast- of his experience and technical 

 skill. 



Nearly all of the streams falling into the broad basin of the 

 lower St. Lawrence abound in salmon. Their number has of 

 late somewhat increased, as the laws regulating their capture 

 are rigidly enforced. Their size, however, varies in different 

 waters. The Restigouche and the Cascapedia boast of the 

 largest fish, while the Nepissiguit, Metapedia and Natashcman 

 rank below in average. The government controls the lease, and 

 appoints wardens to all. streams which are not rented to pri- 

 vate parties. Their duties consist in warning off or arresting 

 all intruders. A uniform tax of one dollar per day entitles all 

 comers to the privilege of fishing for salmon. Accurately col- 

 lected statistics show an annual amount of fish taken in each 

 stream, along with their average, and would afford the most 

 condensed and truthful information concerning the points, in- 

 dispensable to all whose time and means permit to indulge in 

 the sport. Along with these valuable hints we find here and 

 there cropping out, curious relics of ill-founded prejudices, as 

 evidenced in printed suggestions toward a more efficient pro- 

 tection of salmon and trout against their enemies. The king- 

 fisher is singled out as one of the most conspicuous, and a pre- 

 mium upon each head is recommended as an efficient check of 

 the supposed havoc which the young fry of salmon suffers by 

 that bird. 



It is true that the kingfisher is a common sight along all of 

 the streams, and also that he follows strictly the avocation de- 

 noted by his name. But the daily amount of fish consumed 

 by each bird cannot be of any weight, when considering the 

 problem of effective protection. It would be well, also, to 

 incmire into the particular species which serve the kingfisher as 

 his usual food, and the inquiry could only be satisfactorily an- 

 swered by accurate examination of the remains found in the 

 stomachs of a dozen or more of these birds. It is more than 

 probable that he preys less upon the young fry of salmon and 

 trout than upon suckers and other sluggish, stationary fish 

 which he could capture more easily than the other, which 

 would be more likely to offer difficulties by reason of their 

 natural restlessness, great swiftness and their habit of conceal- 

 ing themselves under rocks «r the whirling eddies of deep 

 pools near cascades. The conspicuousness and the name of 

 of the bird are probably responsible for assigning to him the 

 greatest share in the annual destruction of fish, and the mis- 

 take in overlookingfar more efficient and dangerous enemies. A 

 kingfisher probably weighs from four to five ounces, and raises 

 a family of from five to seven young, for which he provides. 

 Although conspicuous, they are far from being numerous, since 

 each bird controls a separate fishing grouud of Irs own, from 

 which he keeps all other intruders. The great noise and' chat- 

 ting resulting from frequent encounters with them have prob- 

 ably led many superficial observers to the error of making ex- 

 aggerated estimates of their numbers, whereas five pairs a mile 

 would probably be an unusual surplus on any stream. 



It would seem that if birds are chiefly injurious to the trout 

 and salmon, that the kingfisher cannot be held alone responsi- - 

 ble for the great annual destruction inflicted upon them. They 

 encounter far more dangerous enemies in the sheldrake and 

 cormorant. • We meet the former frequently in the summer 

 along the streams and inland lakes, upon which they raise 

 their numerous, voracious brood of young. It would be diffi- 

 cult to think outside of the Colynibiffi of a bird more admira- 

 bly adapted for the capture of the finny tribe, with their slimy, 

 slippery bodies, than the family of the Mergansers, of which 

 the so-called sheldrake forms a common species. They are 

 expert swimmers, being slim in body and of broadly webbed 

 toes, with plenty of power and little resistance to overcome. The 

 wonderful plasticity of their throat enables them to swallow 

 any fish, even crosswise, though the same should be provided 

 with unyielding dorsal fins, as in the case of the rock bass. It 

 is questionable if outside of the above named groups and the 

 old wife (llarelda glaeialis) there is any other bird capable of 

 remaining so long under water in their diving excursions. 

 Their digestive powers are enormous, aud it would not be 

 hazarding an exaggeration, but what they are capable of cap- 

 turing and absorbing daily half of their own weight, which 

 cannot be less than two pounds or above, in ftdl grown birds. 

 Counting in of their brood of from seven to eleven, which re- 

 quire the same amount of food in proportion to their size, we 

 can form an estimate of the damage inflicted by these birds 



