&%* 



FOREST AND STREAM. 



tJmns 1, 1882, 



Fish Laws. — Those of our readers who are interested in 

 the legislation an fish nets and kindred subjects, are referred 

 to the letter of Mr. D. Y. Howell, Superintendent of Fisher- 

 lea of Ohio, in our Fishcultural department. What Mr. 

 Howell suggests is evidently most desirable if it can be ac- 

 complished. At the last meeting of the American Fishcul- 

 tural Association it, was decided to hold the nest meeting in 

 Boston in the first week in September. Professor Baird was 

 to be asked to try to arrange for a general meeting of all fish 

 commissioners about the same time. Whether the Professor 

 will do this, or if done whether the commissioners would be 

 unanimous in their views on this subject or not, we do not 

 know. Again, if they were, it is another thing to procure 

 legislation without amendments being made by interested 

 parties in each State, which would leave the matter about as 

 it stands. We are in accord with Mr. Howell's views, and 

 only mention these difficulties as they seem to us to be the 

 usual obstacles to such attempts to set the fisheries right. 



Good Work in the interests of legitimate field sports is done 

 in their respective States by the Sacramento, Ca].,2?as;the St. 

 Paul, Minn., Pioneer-Press; the Germantovm,?*., Telegraph; 

 and the Augusta, Me. , Home Farm. Mr. Wihis D. Maier, one 

 of the Blue Gill Club of Fort Wayne, Ind. , is in the field with 

 his Fin a?id Mather. Our valued correspondent, Col. Bob H. 

 Crockett, has become an editor, the Arkansas Gleaner, of De 

 Witt, Ark., having been recently started by him. He is, by 

 the way, he tells us, the third of the grandsons of the cele- 

 brated Davy Crockett who are editing country newspapers. 

 A monthly devoted to the interests of fashionable summer 

 sports has lately been started at Albany under the curious 

 name of Outing. The latest io appear is The Sporting Gen, 

 tleman, published i q this city, as a sort of aftermath of the 

 Gentleman's .Magazine defunct. Mr. Edmund Eedmoud has 

 a column devoted to sport in his ROehesten N- Y., Journa}, 



Destruction of Food Fran.— Tons ol good fishes are 

 monthly deatroyed by the menhaden fishermen, who make 

 them up into oil. The bluefish is the only one they ef>are, 

 because it tears their nets with their sharp teeth. Captain 

 Gibbs of th; schooner Falcon, who last week landed 700,000 

 menhsdeu at the factories at Promised Land, in Gardiner's 

 Bay, east end of Long Island, took at one haul of his net 

 00,000 mackerel and a lot of fine river shad. Not being 

 near a market where they could be utilized for food he 

 turned them into this factory for their oil. This is a most 

 outrageous destruction of ths fishes which our fishculturists 

 are trying to increase for food, and it loudly oils for a rem- 

 edy. The wholesale capture of menhaden is bad enough, 

 but when it comes, to such waste as is recorded above it 

 should bo made a criminal offence. 



New Jeksey Fisircci/ruRE. — The Legislature of New 

 Jersey has practiced economy in its fishcultural appropria- 

 tions to the verge of meanness. Five thousand dollars is 

 the most that it has ever given in a year for this purpose, 

 and this year it gives nothing. Its commissioners are public- 

 spirited, large-hearted men, and give their time gratuitously. 

 New Jersey has many valuable fisheries, from which many 

 persons derive a livelihood for the whole or portions of the 

 year, and the good effects of the work of the commission is 

 acknowledged by the fishermen. The Legislature needs 

 missionaries to teach them that a plenty of fish means 

 cheaper food. The Newark Advertiser has given them a 

 few hints on this subject, which we hope will be heeded. 



Another Yeah Book. — Following the good example of 

 the Michigan Sportsmen's Association, which has for several 

 years past published in pamphlet form for gratuitous distri- 

 bution the papers read at its annual meetings, the California 

 State Sportsmen's Association will this year print a collection 

 of the papers read at its last meeting. The New Hampshire 

 Fish and Game League addresses are published in the regular 

 annual reports of the Fish and Game Commissioners of that 

 State. All these publications have their effect in moulding 

 public sentiment. We hope that other associations may 



adopt a similar course. 



'..•.up ; 



Mr. Bergh Does Not Bide.— The recent publication of a 

 letter written by Mr. Henry Bergh to the Park Commission- 

 ers, in which he violently denounces as cruel the caging of 

 wild boasts in the Central Park menagerie, has been seized 

 by a certain portion of the press as a suitable occasion for 

 ridiculing the president of the polynomial society as a hobby 

 rider. Our esteemed contemporaries are much mistaken. 

 Mr. Bergh's humane instincts will not permit him to ride his 

 hobby. On the contrary, he bears it tenderly in his arms. 



Decoration Day is the anniversary that most emphati- 

 cally marks the flight of time. Twenty-one years have 

 passed since that momentous April of 1861. Babes then are 

 voting men to-day. The flowers of seventeen springs have 

 bloomed and faded since that other memorable April of 1865. 

 And yet it Becms but as yesterday that the turf was laid upon 

 those graves now decorated with memorial garlands. 



FOREST AND STREAM FABLES. 



TV. — THE SHRIKE AND THE HAWK. 



A SHRIKE in a coppice was making himself very busy and 

 ■£*- very disagreeable in catching every little bird and big 

 bug that he could see, and then spitting them upon thorns 

 till he had a hawthorn heavier laden with them than with its 

 own haws. - YvTiile he sat upon a branch, waiting for another 

 victim to come within reach, a sudden shadow startled him, 

 and looking upward, he saw a Hawk swoop down upon a 

 Figeon sitting in a tree hard by. Then the Shrike was exceed- 

 ing wroth, and began to berate the Hawk, who was quickly 

 plucking his quarry for a late breakfast. 



"Thou art a vile fellow," shrieked the Shrike— "a pot-hunter 

 and trespasser! What business hast thou to kill a bird in this 

 coppice, and just for the tilling of thy hungry maw? And it 

 is not to-day only, but yesterday, and the day before, that 

 theu hast at least once in the day done the same outrageous 

 thing 1" 



"Well," said the Hawk, "it seems to me that, for a fellow 

 of thy habits, thou art making a great ado about the killing of 

 one bird in a day. Prithee, whose work is that I see displayed 

 upon the hawthorn? Didst not thou kill the Sparrows, Tit- 

 mice and Bugs which are gibbeted there?" 



"Thou art a hook-nosed blockhead as well as a vile poacher 

 if thou canst not see the difference between us !" .yelled the 

 Shrike. "I am working for science, as any one but a fool 

 might see, if he would but note how I have arranged my speci- 

 mens!" 



"Ah, indeed! Then science is thy object in making such 

 slaughter. It may be very praiseworthy in that case; but I 

 think it would be better for the little Birds and none the worse 

 for me if thy scientific pursuits were brought to a speedy 

 end," said the Hawk, and added, after musing a little, "thou 

 art a tough morsel, I fancy, but better dead than alive." 



The next day there was no sign of the Shrike in the coppice 

 save a handful of ashen feathers and a few larger black ones, 

 and the little Birds were none the worse off for having only 

 the Hawk for their neighbor. Moral— I 



A Good Suggestion. — The Nebraska State Sportsmen's 

 Association propose a memorial to Congress" regarding the 

 much needed protection of the big game of the Territories, 

 and they suggest that other State societies do the same thing. 

 The plan is an excellent one, and we hope that it may meet 

 with a fitting response. 



* 



THE "PIS-KAN" OF THE BLACKFEET. 



r |YHE Blackfeet Indians, and perhaps many others, have a 

 A peculiar habit of going up on high hills and bluffs 

 conveniently close to camp and sitting there motionless and 

 rigid as statues for hours. IN ear the close of the day seems 

 to be the particular time for indulging in this practice. Why 

 they do so is a mystery. I have often asked them the reason, 

 and have invariably received the reply, " Kis-tohts" meaning 

 "for nothing." Sometimes I have hidden myself in the 

 coarse rye grass which grows so tall and luxuriantly in the 

 river bottoms, and with the aid of a powerful field glass have 

 closely scrutinized their countenances, but to no purpose. 

 The expression of their faces never changed. Their eyes 

 had a far-off dreamy look which could not be interpreted. 

 Perhaps, as they looked over the broad, almost limitless 

 prairies, nowadays so seldom dotted with the dark forms of 

 the buffalo and the graceful bands of antelope, pleasant 

 memories of boyhood days come crowding up in their minds. 

 .More likely, however, as they gaze over the great rolling 

 prairie, at the blue mountains looming up so grandly in the 

 distance, and at the broad timbered valley of the river so 

 long the homes of their ancestors, their hearts are sad to 

 think how everything is changing; how in a short time the 

 buffalo shall have passed away ; and how where the rich 

 bunch grass is used to grow the white man will plant strange 

 weeds and roots. No wonder that their hearts are sad and 

 that their prayers against the whites are bitter. 



Unperceived I once heard an old man thus address his 

 medicine or " secret helper." He said: 

 T-yu, Esis-tuk-ki, Kt-nuk-o-qui-tup-pi. Kim-al-o- 



Listen, Beaver, so I can get something. Take pity on 

 !■■'•< . i^.i-at-o-ldt! un-is-tuh-kuh so-ohts-uh pe/c-se 



me '. Take pity on me ! That little under the water auimal, 

 at-se-mo-i/f-kah-quo-to-rno-kit An-is-tis nat-os o-nus-ti 

 pray for me. Tell him the sun, wonderful 



nat-os ne-tap-i pnh-Twk-svn-e-ktth-pah nap-i-quot. 

 sun, regularly [Curse.*] white men. 



The earnestness of the old man as he delivered this prayer, 

 and the intensity of the curse, the most forcible in the Black- 

 foot language, firmly impressed it upon my memory. Let 

 me here add, for the benefit of those who may be interested 

 in such subjects, that the Blackfeet pray to the Sun, the 

 supreme power, through the medium of then- medicine, or, 

 in their own language, "secret helpers," which are generally 

 animals. 



But when I began tins article I intended to tell you how 

 the Blackfeet caught buffalo in ancient days; and I now turn 

 to that subject. 



ISot so very long ago I happened to be camped with a 

 gens of the Pe-gan-ny, at a place called Willows Round, 

 situated some fifteen miles above here, on the Marias River. 

 Early in the evenmg I saw old Po-kah-yah-yi, in whose 

 lodge I was stopping-, ascend a sleep bluff not far off, and, 

 giving him time to reach the top, 1 followed, and was soon 

 seated by his side. Directly opposite us across the river were 

 the remains of a pis-kan, or, as the white men out here call 

 it, a "larJfaio pond." Why so called 1 cannot say, the literal 

 translation of the word "pis-kan" being "falling-oil place." 

 " Now, my friend," said I, after I had" regained my breath, 

 "tell me all about that pis-hm. How did you make it; 

 how many buffalo did you catch in one day; and how many 

 winters ago did you use it?" 



The old man's Story was as follows: 



"In those days we had no guns, but used to kill many 

 buffalo with hows and arrows; and sometimes we used the 

 pin-l:an. "When wo made a pts-Tcdn, we first found a little 

 open glade by the river where the prairie came down and 

 ended in a cut bank as high as a man. From this cut bank 

 we built a strong fence clear around the edge of the glade. 

 We used big- trees to make the fence— logs anfl sticks, and 

 anything that would help to keep the buffalo from breaking 

 out. Then we built two lines of stone piles far out on the 

 prairie, two lines that ever diverged from each other. Then 

 the pis-kan was built. 



"The night before we intended to make a drive we always 



*CaniLOt be translated. 



had a buffalo dance. All the people danced. The medicine 

 men all wore buffalo robes, and sung the buffalo songs. 

 Every one prayed to their secret helpers for good luck. Early 

 the next morning the people went out, and hid behind the 

 stone piles on the prairie. The medicine man who was going 

 to call the buffalo put on a buffalo robe, hair side out, anil 

 sitting down smoked one pipe to the Sun. Then he spoke to 

 his wives and all the women of his lodge, saying, 'Yon most 

 not go outside until I return. You must not look out of the 

 doorway or any hole. Take this sweet grass,' giving it to 

 his head wife, 'and every little while burn a small part of il 

 so that the Sun will be glad. Pray that we will have good 

 luck.' Then he mounted a dark colored horse and rode out 

 on the prairie. When he came near a band of buffalo he 

 began to ride quickly in circles and cried out to the buffalo, 

 saying, 'E-m-uh! E-ne-uh." [meaning "Buffalo!"] The 

 buffalo were first a little scared; then they began to follow 

 him slowly; and soon ran after him as fast as they could, 

 Then the medicine man rode into the shoot, and after the buf- 

 falo had also run in he jumped out to one side of the stone piles, 

 and the herd passed by. The people behind kept rising up 

 and shouting, which made them run all the faster. The 

 buffalo in the head of the band were afraid of the stone piles, 

 and kept right on in the middle of the shoot; those in the 

 rear were scared by the people continually rising behind them, 

 and so pushed the leaders ahead. When the'band had got 

 close to the edge of the pis-kan, all the people closed in on 

 them and with a great shout drove them over the cut bank 

 into the enclosure. Then with their bows and arrows, the 

 men killed all the buffalo; even the old bulls were killed. 

 The fattest cows were then marked foi the chiefs and medi- 

 cine men by placing sticks on the tails, and the rest were 

 divided up among the people. " 



The above narrative is true in every respect. As late as 

 1865 the Pe-gun-ny used these pis-kam on the Upper Marias. 

 Mr. Jos. Kipp, the well-known Indian trader, tells me that in 

 1864 he saw the Pe-gun-ny capture over sevenU -live head 

 of buffalo in this manner. Sometimes three or four drives 

 were made in one day. About seventy-five buffalo were the 

 average drive, though sometimes more than a hundred v. ere 

 tak( 5n- Ap-'rE-ciiN-NY. 



Uppkr Makias River, M. T., April 15, 1882. 



A PREFACE AND A TRUE STORY. 



I AM much obliged to you for having called attention to 

 a typographical error in a former communication of 

 mine, by which, instead of "idem sonam, " I was made to use 

 a phrase which has no place in any language with which I 

 am acquainted. It ia true that my lingual knowledge is far 

 more limited than I wish it were; still it is not pleasant to 

 see what little learning one has utterly destroyed by the sub- 

 stitution of a word which makes very little sense in what 

 would otherwise be classed at least as not foolish. It is due 

 to the printer to say, however, that, considering the hiero- 

 glyphics with which he has to deal, he makes a remarkable 

 approach to accuracy when he sets up one of my communi- 

 cations, for my chirography ia said by my friends to be ex- 

 ceedingly illegible. 



But in the published account of some things which I saw, 

 and of -Ythiuk pars magna fui, in the State of Florida, the 

 type makes me use the words "chain in my memory." 

 These words are in inverted commas, showing "that I meant 

 to acknowledge the authorship of another for the language 

 indicated. Now, that language is probably not inapt to ex- 

 press the idea intended to be conveyed; but the writer from 

 whom I attempted to quote— not literally— saw proper to 

 adopt a very different word from "chain," and that word 1 

 intended to write. A reference to "Hamlet," Act 1, Seene 

 3, will show that Polonius said to Laertes, as the latter was 

 about to sail for France : 



"And these few precepts In l hy memory 

 Look thou character." 



This explains what I meant to write, and I can hardly 

 think it possible I could have used the word "chain." Per- 

 haps the printer was not accustomed to see the word "char- 

 acter" used as a verb, or he may have mistaken the scrawl. 

 Be that as it may, the blunder was committed. 



The quotation from Shakespeare reminds me of a scene 

 which I witnessed a few years ago in the city of Washington, 

 during a session of Congress. I happened to be there on a visit 

 of business, which detained me for a considerable length of 

 time; and when not engaged in its transaction I was in the 

 habit of calling on our members, all of whom were known to 

 mc, and enjoying the pleasures which their conversation af- 

 forded. On the occasion to which I refer I had called to see 



Mr. and Mr. , who had rooms at a pleasant house on 



C street, and occupied the same parlor for the purpose of re- 

 ceiving their friends and attending to the duties which their 

 constituents had committed to their charge, We had talked 

 of various matters connected with constitutions, laws, 

 mechanics, agriculture, the fine arts, etc., and were just 

 entering upon the subject of guns and fishing-tackle, when a 



servant entered and handed Mr. a beautiful visiting 



card, upon which was printed — 



JOHN WHITE SMITH, 



Of the Royal Academy. : 



He handed it over to his colleague, Mr. D., remarking: 

 "This is what a man gets by being distinguished. Yon have 

 no such honor as I have." 



"What do you mean?" said D. 



"Why this": Recognizing my peculiar fitness for the place 

 —and no Speaker ever makes an appointment for any other 

 reason than to serve the interests of the country— when a 

 vacancy occurred in the Committee on Railways and Canals 

 by the death of Mr. Schleicher, of Texas, I was selected for 

 the important position. The propriety of the selection 

 was so apparent to every one, that it was "forthwith sent by 

 cable to the Royal Academy of Great Britain, and this So- 

 ciety has sent a special messentrer, in the person of Jolm 

 White Smith, F. R. S., P. Q. G., to interview me upon mat- 

 ters relating to the topography, climate, rainfalls, water- 

 sheds and other matters of importance to the world, which 

 our committee is obbged to consider, and which said Society 

 has been duly informed I fully comprehend." 



Of course, the colleague referred to and myself knew this 

 to be jocular; but we did not know what could be the busi- 

 ness which induced Mr. John White Smith to send his card 



to Mr. . Just then a gentle tap was heard, and Mr. 



rose, went to the door, opened it, and with that Chesler- 

 fieldian bow for which he is distinguished, invited the 

 distinguished stranger to enter, announcing his name, and 



