384 



FOREST AND STREAM. 



[June 15, 1882. 



ing to the cheerful songs of the colored men who were 

 tujging at th3 oars to bring its half mile of knotted twine 

 to shore, the party went ashore to Thompson's hotel and 

 feasted on shad served on a plank of New Jersey oak, a 

 feast not to be had in the vicinity of New York, more's the 

 pity. The party consisted of the Commissioners, Fish 

 Wardon Ore, Joseph Becker, and John Y. Foster, of Frank 

 Leslie's Illustrated Newspaper, Mr. W. I. Hunt, of the 

 Newark Advertiser, and others. 



Spring Mountain Lamb. — To kill mountain sheep is a 

 laudable ambition that has fired the heart of many a "tender- 

 foot," who desires not only the glory of capturing the wary 

 rock-climbers, but also looks forward to feasting on their 

 tender flesh when the capture has been made. There is the 

 best reason in the world why those who love the delicate 

 flesh of this gain:; should spare it in spring and early sum- 

 mer, in fact until the lambs are well grown and able to 

 travel. In the mountains where the sheep live, one of the 

 finest green things to appear in the spring is the wild onion 

 or leek, and this is eagerly eaten and enjoyed by them, so 

 that for a while the flesh tastes so strongly of this plant as 

 to be quite uneatable. The flesh of the bighorn is, perhaps, 

 the most delicious meat of the mountain.?, but those who 

 wish to enjoy it at its best should not eat it before the 

 autumn months. 



Major B. H. Schlev.— We learn with regret of the death 

 of Major B. H. Schley, at Frederick City, Md., June 6. 

 Major Schley was an intrepid soldier, a true sportsman, and 

 a gallant gentleman. He was one of the best shots in 

 Maryland. The sound of his gun from boyhood has echoed 

 death in all the mountain sides, hilltops, ravines, rivers, 

 streams, rivulets, swamps and gulches in the fields of West- 

 ern Maryland. Major Schley was a Union soldier, partici- 

 pated with honor and distinction in almost all the engage- 

 ments of the war, from the firing on Sumter until the surren- 

 der of Lee. He was a brother of Prof. Frank Schley, author 

 of "American Partridge and Pheasant Shooting," and his 

 death has caused great sorrow. 



The Gaston Club. — We regret to learn from our corre- 

 spondent, Col. Thos. Goode Tucker, of Gaston, N. C, that 

 the plan of the proposed Gaston hunting club has not proved 

 feasible. It was the intention of the promoters of the club 

 to form a society of twenty members, ten from the South 

 and ten from the North. The ten from the former section 

 were secured, but the requisite number from the North did 

 not come forward. The plan of the club was such as seemed 

 to promise much enjoyment to those who should join in it, 

 and we hope that the project has not yet been wholly aban- 

 doned. 



The Adirondack Survey. — Mr. Verplanck Colvin, 

 Superintendent of the Adirondack Survey, has appointed 

 Mr. Fred Mather, of the Forest and Stream, naturalist of 

 the Survey, with instructions to collect and report upon the 

 fishes of that region, their species, food, habits, life, etc. The 

 party will enter the woods at the Blue Mountain lake to- 

 morrow. Some letters from Mr. Mather may be looked for 

 in our columns. 



Ye Ancient Anglers. — Philadelphia boasts an angling 

 club which is over seventy years old. The Tammany Pea- 

 shore Fishing Club of that city was organized January 18, 

 1809. Of the original sixty members but two are now living. 

 The club has a well-appointed club house on the Delaware 

 River, at a point which is noted for its excellent white perch 

 fishing. 



"Paddle and Portage. "—Mr. Steele's new Maine book 

 is just from the press. It is a handsome work, and will be 

 noticed at length in our next issue. 



FOREST AND STREAM FABLES. 



V.— THE FOOLISH FISH. 



IN a certain river there once lived a great Bass, who, after a 

 time, found the little fish upon which he mostly fed be- 

 coming scarce and wild, so that he had to search far and wide, 

 n.nrl use all his speed and skill to catch enough to satisfy the 

 cravings of his stomach. Being one day upon such quest, and 

 so far with no great luck, he noticed, as he swam past a tall 

 growth of rushes, a slight current issuing therefrom; and 

 pushing against ib through the water weeds, he presently 

 found himself in the broad pool of a little brook which was 

 swarming with minnows. He had no trouble to fill himself 

 with them in a few minutes, and went home happy, rejoicing 

 that he. had at his command such a bountiful supply of .food. 

 Being in no way selfish he told his brethren, of whom there 

 were half a dozen, of his discovery; and every day he and 

 they got as many minnows from the pool as they could eat, 

 without any apparent thinning of the numbers. But one day 

 as our Bass lay comfortably in the shade of the lily-pads be- 

 fore the door of his house, his neighbor Pike came along, and 

 to him he told his lucky finding of the minnow brook, and 

 even led him to it. The Pike went home full of joy and news, 

 andimparted the latter to all his family, of which there were 

 at least a hundred, all greedy fellows with capacious maws. 

 In a month the brook was as barren of minnows as a cistern; 

 and the foolish Bass went hungrier than ever. 



MORAL. 



If thou knowest a well-stocked game cover, it is no kindness 

 to thyself, thy friends nor the game to make it known to all 

 the world. 



RAMBLES THROUGH NEWFOUNDLAND. 



IN the gray dawn of an autumn morning I set out with two 

 companions for a week's hunting in the wild region 

 stretching inland from the placentise, in the Peninsula of 

 Avalon. It is customary in Newfoundland when you set out 

 for a few days' hunting, or "going into the country," as the 

 people say, to provide yourself with provisions for a week. 

 Once you leave the coast you are in a savage wilderness, for 

 in Newfoundland the chief employment is catching cod,' and 

 the larger proportion of the population live in their white- 

 washed cottages, among the rocks overlooking the ocean 

 waters, like seabirds. On the journey in question our parly 

 was provided with a row boat, in which we put three guns, 

 a hatchet and our provisions. AVe sailed several miles up 

 through an arm of the sea, known as the South East Arm, a 

 strip of water averaging not more than half a mile in width, 

 and at rising water rushing with the fury of an avalanche 

 up the reaches and between wild hills, clad in evergreens 

 From where we left our boat we had to travel about twelve 

 miles to the point at which we were to make our first halt. 



In the late autumn in Newfoundland the interior of many 

 portions of the island, particularly that of the Peninsula of 

 Avalon, is literally crawling with game. The cariboo, a 

 variety of the reindeer (Genus lurakdus), breeds in actual 

 swarms in various localities, and may be found in the au- 

 tumn at favored points— the valleys of streams winding 

 down to the bays— in large herds. Then the willow grouse 

 (Lagopm albus), erroneously called "partridge" all over the 

 island, is found in abundance near about and in the woods, 

 while the rock ptarmigan (Lcrjopus rapeslris), or mountain 

 partridge, as it is called in the island, in the autumn, espe- 

 cially on foggy _ days, is found sentinelling the very highest 

 and bleakest ridges on the island. The slaughter among 

 these birds by the fishermen, living down in the coves at d 

 crevices, of a foggy day, is inconceivable. The birds will 

 stand upon the bare ridge in flocks, looking in the fog as 

 large in turkeys, and when they her the huntsmen they 

 close together in bunches, thus exposed to the raking fire 

 from the long-barreled shot-guns. 



No one, unless he be too lazy, need be without game for 

 the greater part of the year, in Newfoundland, and, as a 

 matter of fact, go into the houses of the. people living in 

 the coves and crevices, and nine months out of the year you 

 will find their tables supplied with game — with the cariboo, 

 the red duck, the curlew, or plover, or snipe, or "beech 

 bird," the "mur," the wild goose, and last, but not least, 

 with the "partridge." After the cod-fishing season is over, 

 during which there is no time for gunning, and little, game 

 to be had, the mother will say to the husband or to one of 

 her sons, "The duck or the partridge are all gone; I wish 

 you would go out in the morning and get me some more." 

 And straightway with the next "morning's light he climbs 

 over the gray hills, where he finds abundance of game, kills 

 a dozen birds or so, and then returns. I have "sat in the 

 gray dawn of a foggy morning upon one of these high, bleak 

 hills, a mile in from the sea, awaiting sunrise to get a 

 shot at the birds, and heard the crowing of many hundred 

 ptarmigan in the air all around me at once; and "the sound 

 of innumerable wings in the early light whu-ring around me 

 on every hand. After two hours' shooting I have frequently 

 returned with twenty or thirty birds slung on my gun and 

 across my shoulder. 



Go into any one of the fishermen's cottages and that which 

 you first notice is the porch, bristling with rows of spikes, 

 upou which to hang the game. Never, "or hardly ever," 

 are these spikes all empty. From the 1st of September till 

 the last of October you find them ranged with fresh water 

 ducks, wild geese, and willow grouse, rock ptarmigan, 

 plover, curlew, snipe and small game; from November till 

 the 1st of April you find the rock ptarmigan, willow grouse 

 and the various kinds of sea ducks there. Then from the 

 1st of April till the heat of summer they are lined with sea 

 pigeons (black guillemot), the common guillemot, and thick- 

 billed guillemot, the two latter known among the inhabi- 

 tants as "murs" and "turrs, " from the cry they make ex- 

 actly resembling these words. And often happening in you 

 find a haunch of venison hanging upon the "venison pin," 

 or two or three pahs of Arctic hares or, in later years, the 

 American hare, a few pairs of which/ were imported from 

 Nova Scotia some years ago, and have now swarmed over a 

 largo portion of the island. 



1 have made this digression from my subject that the 

 reader may be the more fully able to understand what I have 

 to tell ol my further "Rambles" through the country. 



As I have said, after leaving the boat a tramp of twelve 

 miles through soft marshes and scrubby woods, up hills and 

 down valleys, lay before us. But a bracing wind blew over 

 the hills and refreshed us when we began to weary of our 

 tramping and our loads. The interior of Newfoundland 

 differs widely from the sceuery of the inland portions of the 

 continent. Forest for the greater part is only found lining 

 the banks of the streams; if you find it elsewhere it exists 

 in clumps or "drokes,"as the people say, about swampy 

 regions. The clear spaces between these clumps are gener- 

 ally sott marsh, through which in crossing the traveler will 

 sometimes sink to the middle. Frequently large ponds, the 

 waters looking black as ebony, are found in such districts, 

 and it is here the Newfoundland beaver (Castor fiber) plies the 

 trade of tree cutting, damming streams and building houses 

 all his life, without interruption. 



As I have said, you may wander for weeks through the 

 interior of the island and not meet a human being; uuless 

 now and again you happen upon a hunting party ._ The 

 hunting parties," therefore, frequently build shanties or 

 "tilts/' as they are called by the people, in the densest patch 

 of forest that can be found. The tilt is built of logs laid 

 horizontally upon each other, and a hole is left in the top of 

 the building for the escape of the smoke. After the hut is 

 up the hunters proceed to strip the bark off a number of 

 the trees growing round about it. In a year these trees 

 become what are known as "whitings"; that is they arc 

 dry, and ring again when you strike them with an axe. 

 Thus the party coming to the tilt subsequently finds a num- 

 ber of wh. tings growing about the camp, and, cutting some 

 of them, he has material for a delightful camp fire. Nearly 

 every such tilt is provided with tm-cups, a kettle, an axe, 

 plates, spoons, etc., and always a bag of salt and a tin of 

 pepper. There is no fear of robbers. No one visits these 

 wild, secluded haunts but sportsmen. 



• We struck out for the Sawyer's Hills, and decided to put 

 up in a camp located in the heart of "Black Droke." On 

 the way out to the hills we found numbers of " partridge" 



upoB the ridges aud hill-tops, and whirring up out of \\xa 

 marshes and brushwood at every few steps. We had no • 

 dogs with us, for, except on clear, windy days in districts 

 much shot over, where the game lies close, a dog is not 

 necessary. We shot about a score of "partridge" each, 

 hiding our game in the brushwood as we went along. 



We might have killed many more, but we would be un- 

 able to carry them home; and more than this, we expected 

 a load of venison or of beaver. We brought a dozen of the 

 willow grouse on with us to the camp to roast, should we \ 

 fail to obtain venison or black duck. Towards sunset we 

 reached the "Sawyer's Hill," a region whose wild beauty 

 was indescribable. The hilltops were bathed in the glory 

 of sunset, presenting a grand contrast to the black turns 

 here and there, and the gloomy forests stretching down to 

 the dells below. As far as the eye could see the scene , 

 alternated with hill and dale, marsh and forest patch, lake 

 and stream. 



On some of the many streams in view grew strips of 

 forest, fringing out upon the plains; along the banks of 

 others stretched wide ranges of wild meadows covered with 

 long grass, which earlier in the season had been bespangled 

 with wild flowers, filling the air with perfume. Several 

 detached portions of forest, too, standing like gloomy 

 islands, were within the view. One of these stood upon 

 the banks of a stream, winding like a «ilver riband out 

 among the many hills, and through long, wild meadow 

 regions toward the sea. Into this last-mentioned forest 

 patch, just in the deepening twilight we went, for in it was 

 the ' 'tilt" in which we were to pass the night. A few J 

 minutes' walk brought us to a small space, in the centre of 

 which, in the deep shadow, we saw the carnp. The door 

 was securely fastened, and on entering we found the inside 

 dry and the air wholesome. On making a light we found it 

 stocked with cooking utensils, knives, forks, spoons, etc., and 

 the ubiquitous bag of salt and tin of pepper. One of the 

 party taking an axe sallied out to cut a "whiting," and was 

 followed by the writer with a Lmtern. After wehad roasted 

 upon a spit, before a roaring camp fire four of our willow 

 grouse, which were as plump and fat as if fed on corn, we 

 held a council to decide the hunting programme for the 

 week. It was known that on the outer edge of the woods 

 in which we were camped there was a large, deep, black 

 lake, and that there was in one corner of it a beaver town, 

 Indeed some hunters who had visited this place related the , 

 most extraordinary stories about the cunning of the beaver 

 in this lake. It was said tbey resembled old men, and more 

 in reality approached that mystic link which the late 

 deceased scientist said connected the genus biped with the 

 quadrumana than did the monkey himself. They told that 

 the beaver had carried off their kettle and then- axes, and in 

 one night so dammed up a stream leading from the lake as 

 to overflow a large tract of marsh land, and make it impos- 

 sible for the hunters to get out to Deer Valley, without 

 either fording the angry stream, or taking a circuit of many 

 miles. 



We decided the next morning to commence operations, 

 with a view to capturing at least one family of these notori- 

 ous beavers, and leave the deer shooting project till later m 

 the week. Then we began to repeat the stories which for a 

 hundred years had been told, and believed by many, of won- 

 drous things seen and hean. in the still night in this remote 

 wilderness. We sat till our camp fire burned low, then re- 

 plenishing it we lay down upon a couch of fresh evergreens 

 folded in our blankets, lulled to sleep by the gentle complain- 

 ing of the night wind in the thick branched trees around our 



camp. 



* # *** * * 



With the early dawn we were astir. Having partaken of 

 the morning repast we sallied out to the "Enchanted Lake," 

 as the superstitious hunters had named it. An hour's 

 tramp through the dense dark wood revealed to us the spot 

 we sought. It was a large pond, almost surroimded by tor- 

 est. Its waters were deep, black and glossy-, and the trees 

 which grew down to its edge, were reflected in it as in a mir- 

 ror. At its further end from where we stood was a ninrsh, 

 through which a small brook, evidently the outlet of the lake, 

 found its way. Around the edge of the lake were a number 

 of mounds, which to the careless glance would appear a mere 

 inequality of the bank. In some parts these mounds were in 

 groups, and beside some of them lay a number of dead trees, 

 or branches, which on being examined showed that they had 

 been gnawed off at the root. These, then, were the beaver 

 houses, and that group of mounds, among which one of our 

 party stood with his axe, was a beaver town. And looking 

 across the lake we espied several black heads appearing here 

 and there on the smooth pond surface, making only the 

 slightest milk-like ripple, then disappearing; aud we saw 

 two of these black heads, each bearing a small tree along, 

 leaving the same upon the bank, then disappearing some- 

 where in the subterranean abodes so numeious around the 

 lake. Now we knew it had been the fitter experience of 

 many a hunter, who had visited even this very pond, to be- 

 gin with his axe at the top of the beaver house, ami on reach- 

 ing the interior of the same to find the apartments warm but 

 «mpty. We had known, too, of hunters who had sat from 

 dawn till evening on the bank watching for the beaver to 

 go out of his house in the morning, or to return to it in the 

 evening, or to engage in building during the evening, ami to 

 have been disappointed. We adopted a plan that was new 

 and original with ourselves. Indeed, I must claim the credit 

 of originating the modus operandi. 



It is well known that the beaver generally has two en- 

 trances to his residence, both below the water-line of the 

 pond. One of these entrances is frequently immediately in 

 front of his house; the other is generally some paces distant. 

 Thus when the animal is surprised it retreats out into the 

 passage-ways, or escapes unseen out into the pond, while the 

 dcspoiler wrecks its home. We had to provide tor all ihib. 

 Seeking three new houses, therefore, in a cluster we resolved 

 to begin our just-devised operations upon them. We cut 

 down about sixty small stakes, which we pointed. 



Proceeding quietly out to the pond edge, we drove these 

 stakes down about four inches apart, along in front of the 

 houses, for a distance of about ten yards. We were toler- 

 ably certain, when we had performed this much, that the 

 beaver in these three houses had not gone out that morning, 

 and that they were our prisoners, unless their means of suo- 

 terranean outlet were very extensive. Then we set to work 

 with our axes, beginning "first at one house, We soon camo 

 to the frame work, which consisted of small sized birch trees 

 laid horizontally and crossed at the ends. Where the width 

 exceeded an inch between the sticks, branches were placed 

 there, and upon the outside of this a considerable coating of 

 mud was closely packed. 



When the firet axe broke through the rafters we knew our 



