388 



FOREST AND STREAM. 



PTcwb 15, 1881 



they would do well here; but this spring not one has been 

 seen or heard. A few evenings since I observed several 

 flocks of small ducks in a small lake near here. I presume 

 they will remain all summer. Geo. W. Baines, Jr. 



El Paso, Texas. 



THE SAGINAW MARSH. 



AT a meeting of the Saginaw Marsh Company held last 

 night the following officers were elected : President, 

 Jas. Jerome; Vice-President, Wm. B. Mershon; Secretary 

 and Treasurer, Gid. Estabrook. The Board of Directors con- 

 sists of the President, Vice-President, Secretary, C. W. 

 Wells and Arthur Barnard. 



The company has a lease of the marsh on the east side of 

 the Saginaw River, between Crow Island and the Bay county 

 hue, which is about two and a half miles long by one and a 

 half wide, comprising the best duck grounds on the river. 

 The membership is limited to twenty members, and by pro- 

 hibiting spring shooting and keeping off poachers, we look 

 for good shooting in the autumn. We have a jovial French- 

 man, Prank Al lor, in charge; and right here I must tell you a 

 little, story the boys tell onAllor, 



It seems that one night last fall a party of five or six had 

 been out on the "mash" for the night's shooting, and as was 

 customary before taking the five mile drive home in the 

 dark, had gathered around the festive board presided over by 

 Mons. Allor. We were hungry, as one always is on such 

 an occasion, and I had been helped the second time to a dish 

 that I had not stopped to analyze further than that it was 

 good, when I discovered a bone that I had never noticed in 

 a beefsteak, duck or fish before; and by the smiles on the 

 faces of the "old 'uns," it suddenly dawned on me that I was 

 eating "muskrat," but I kept on; and Frank related 

 his experience with animal diet like this, though I can't get 

 in the French. 



"Ah! zentleman, I 'ave heat great many kind hanimals in 

 my life, fox, 'coon, snaik, muskrat and skank. Ma f oi ! I 

 honly heat skank once. He was zis way. I come hin from 

 ze marsh one day and I see me skank go* hunder whood pile. 

 Biemby I kill him and skin him and py gar! he look so nice, 

 fat like gold. So I build me fire and stick Mr. Skank on ze 

 stick; and pretty soon he was cook. Solbreak hoff a leg. 

 Turn, yum, yum, it was good, trk bon, tendar, sweet. So I 

 heat me skank. Mais Mon Dku! Messieurs hevarytime I go 

 hiccup, yup, for tree months, I taste that skank " I had 

 enough of the muskrat, Dufarge. 



East Saginaw, Mich. I 



The Nesting-Pigeon Shooters' Logic— Brookland, 

 Pa. — Editor Forest and Stream : If the shooting of pigeons 

 here in the spring prevents their return in the autumn, why 

 do they ever return to us in such countless numbers in spring 

 time thereafter? To me the answer seems very simple and 

 plain. It is that we have no food for them in the autumn; 

 but in our large forests we have a great amount of beech tim- 

 ber, and when the trees, as they occasionally do, bear abun- 

 dantly of beech nuts, then the following spring, food being 

 plenty, we have a correspondingly large number of pigeons. 

 Ours being a grass-growing section, the pigeons in the 

 autumn prefer the vast grain fields of the West to our three 

 or five-acre lots of buckwheat, which some belated farmer 

 has sown because he could not get the ground prepared in 

 time for earlier crops. I do not think anyone would look for 

 game to return to where there was little or no food for it; 

 and consequently we will have to wait for fall pigeon shoot- 

 ing here, until we can compete with the great West in raising 

 grain. To stop our spring shooting would simply turn our 

 section into a rearing ground of pigeons for the netters and 

 pot hunters of Michigan and Wisconsin, and would also as 

 certainly bankrupt all pigeon shooting here as it would stock 

 growers (the whole kit of them), were they, after protecting 

 and rearing a line herd, to turn it loose and allow their cattle 

 to stray away, to be picked up and slaughtered by loafer and 

 tramp and converted to their own use and profit. There is 

 no one more in favor of protecting our fish and game than 

 myself, but I see no justice in a whole section of country 

 being sacrificed for the advancement of another. — Back- 

 woodsman. 



A Rather "Shocking" Slaughter of Ducks. — A 

 gentleman in Philadelphia, Capt. Heath, who saw in one of 

 the papers a statement that a citizen of "Pulaski county, 

 Va.," had "used up" a battalion of ducks (and a single-bar- 

 reled gun) at one shot, wrote to the gentleman asking for 

 particulars. This inquiry was handed to the county paper, 

 the New River Bulletin, and prined, with these additional 

 particulars: "We printed the matter in our paper as it oc- 

 curred, stating that at one shot Mr. H. M. Albert killed and 

 captured and feasted upon twenty wild ducks. The Rich- 

 mond Whig, in copying the piece, made it twenty-five instead 

 of twenty. (Typographical error). This wholesale slaughter 

 of ducks occurred during a snow. They were, doubtless, 

 ravenous, and came from New River, a stream hard by, to 

 the cornfields of Mr. Albert, who had shucked some corn, 

 which they were eagerly devouring. Mr. A. had an old 

 single barrel gun loaded to its capacity, and was concealed 

 in a fodder shock, where everything was ready; his artillery 

 was discharged with shocking results, limbering Albert, 

 blew his gun to the infernal regions, bagged twenty dead 

 ducks, and as many more were wounded. These are the 

 facts, if we must be ductile in the matter, and they will be 

 properly mailed to Mr. Heath." 



An Adirondack Bear Kills a Man — Tuesday's Herald 

 contained a report from Saratoga, N. Y., June 12, as follows: 

 "William Milliken, of Boston, Mass., was literally torn to 

 pieces by a black bear that he recklessly attacked* at Lake 

 Piseco, in the Adirondacks, last Saturday. Mr. Milliken 

 was hunting and fishing with a party which included W. 

 Wilkinson, of Wilkinson Brothers, Birmingham, Conn. ; 

 John Dixon and Messrs. Fountain and Watson, of Philadel- 

 phia. A guide name James Shires was also present. They 

 had four dogs with them, and they struck the trail of a bear, 

 which they followed up. The guide warned them that bears 

 were ugly this time of the year and it was very hazardous to 

 attack one singly, Milliken announced he wasn't afraid and 

 could get out of the way of any bear. He followed the dogs 

 closely, and they found two big bears and three cubs in a 

 few minutes. The bears attacked the dogs and soon tore 

 them in pieces, while Milliken fired at them in vain. The 

 shaggy monsters then gave their attention to their human 

 assailant and in a very few minutes literally tore him in 

 pieces. The guide rushed to his rescue and was badly lacer- 

 ated, but not fataly injured. Watson brought his trusty 

 rifle to bear and shot the male bear dead, while almost simul- 

 taneously Fountain and Wilkinson despatched the female. 



The cubs were captured alive. The male bear weighed 

 400 pounds and the female 300. The remains of the unfor- 

 tunate Mr. Milliken were brought out of the woods bv his 

 companions and forwarded to Boston. He leaves a wile and 

 three children. This is the worst tiagedy which has oc- 

 curred in the Adirondacks for many years." 



Those Adirondack Partridges.— Lyon Mountain, N. 

 Y., May 31, 1882.— Editor Forest and Stream : In justice to 

 myself I will explain the facts of the case of "broiled par- 

 tridge in May," which appeared in your last issue. There 

 have been but two partridges killed here, without my consent 

 or knowledge, and when brought to my notice I "protested 

 against it. The protest of "Grouse" is right and quite in 

 order, but in his great anxiety to make a "case" of it he says 

 it was reported in the Morning Telegram, as being "on the 

 bill of fare." H you have the slip cut from that paper you 

 can tell if he quotes correctly. If he does, the Telegram 

 printed it differently from the way it. was sent to them. In 

 sending a subscription to the Telegram. I mentioned, more as 



a joke than anything else, that "thanks to the skill of 



(who is a particular friend of the editor) I had that morning 

 breakfasted on broiled partridge." [The Telegram omitted 

 the name.] If "Grouse" will investigate matters pertainiug 

 to the game laws, and who tries to protect them in this sec 

 tion, he will change his mind as to "Ralph's," and find 

 plenty to look after in other directions. — M. D. Ralph. 

 [Mr. John R. Wiltsie also sends us a note corroborating 

 the above.] 



Fike-Shooting Woodcock.— New York, June 2.— In your 

 issue of May 25 an inquiry is made as to whether woodcock 

 are "fire-lighted" nowadays in Mississippi, Some ten years 

 ago, while taking a morning walk in the woods near "New 

 Haven, Conn., early in the month of May, I met a gentle- 

 man of that city by the name of Clark who was hunting 

 woodcock. He remarked that woodcock were becoming 

 scarce in the North for some strange reason (?), but said 

 that during the preceding winter he had killed as many as 

 sixty in one night, on several occasions, in the State of Ala- 

 bama (near enough to Mississippi), by fire-lighting them. 

 The birds were killed while sitting when hunted in this 

 way, although he said that he killed them flying when hunt- 

 ing by daylight,— Mark West. [We should be pleased to 

 hear frofir; others who know anything about this practice. ] 



The Nebraska Association.— The list of officers elected 

 at the last meeting of this association was inadvertently 

 omitted from a former issue, They are: President, J. N. Harley, 

 of Lincoln; Vice-presidents, B. H. Polk, Lincoln Club; Wm. 

 Carnaby, Workingmen's Club of Omaha; J. Rogers, Silsby; 

 8. Shasberger, Lancaster; W. F. Den, Nemaha; W. H. S. 

 Hughes, Omaha; J. Wood, Osceola; Dr. R. R. Livingstone, 

 Plattsmouth; Col. Mathewson, Norfolk; E. S. Hawley. Ne- 

 braska City; Recording Secretary, A. H. Sawyer, Lincoln: 

 Corresponding Secretary, Dr. S. F. Rouse, Lincoln ; Treas- 

 urer, A. R. Daveson, Brownville; third member of executive 

 committee, B. E. B. Kennedy, Omaha, Messrs. Livingstone, 

 Polk and Kennedy were invited to deliver addresses before, 

 the next meeting upon subjects which will be of interest to 

 sportsmen. 



New York Game Seasons.— The open seasons for game 

 in New York State begin as follows: Quail Nov. 1, wood- 

 cock Aug. 1, wild fowl Sept. 1 (in Long island Sound Oct 1), 

 ruffed grouse, partridge Sept. 1, robin and meadow lark, 

 starling Oct, 1, rabbit, hare Nov. 1, deer Aug. 1 (hounding 

 Aug. 15). The old law holds good, inasmuch as the new 

 law failed to be put on the statute books. 



Ontario. — Peterborough, June 3. — The season is very 

 backward, but grouse seem to be nesting in considerable 

 numbers (according to the drumming.) Deer are plentiful, 

 the wolves having had no chance on account of open winter. 

 More again. — G. B. S. 



\m nnd ^ivtr fishing. 



We want less of Wall street and more of seaside and mountain. 

 * * Many a man thinks he has no love for fishing, but he has. 

 It is latent in all men. The whiz of a reel and the bend of a rod will 

 wake it. It will wake the dead. What is the loss of a day compared 

 with the landing of a bass, or even a pickerel y—Rev. Phillips Brooks. 



CAMP FLOTSAM. 



V.— MYTH MAKERS AND MISCHIEF MAKERS. 



\\f HENCE come the reputed Ananias-like propensities of 

 T T the angler ? The student, fresh from orthodox dog- 

 mas—those stumbling blocks of forty generations — finds his 

 answer in the doctrine of depravity— in that metaphysical 

 achievement which cast the lie upon manhood and apolo- 

 gized for its nobility. The Scottish divine who, in reading 

 those words of the Psalmist, "I said in my haste all men are 

 liars," paused to comment, "An' Dawvid, ye maun wee] hae 

 said the like after due reflection," serves as an illustration of 

 a once prevalent dogmatical faith, or practically shows the 

 harvest which the laborer in the moral vineyard is wont to 

 reap from his sowing. The world, careless of philosophy, 

 joins in the still echoing laugh of Democritus, and formu- 

 lates the creed that the story of the angler is to be taken cum 

 grano scdis. 



In the beginning it was not so. One who sang his brief 

 song and died, but left his monument in "Poke O' Moon- 

 shine" and "Castle Windows" — the friend of our boyhood — 

 sang in his college days : 



Christ chose the fisherman brave and true, 

 Before the Prince, for his friend, you know. 

 The rock upon which a mighty hierarchy was founded — 

 against which, it was promised, the gates of hell should not 

 prevail, as well as the faith upon which it rests, whose ancient 

 symbol, the Ix'Jvi, is so significant at once of the calling of 

 the one and the mysteries of the other — will stand symbol- 

 ized forever in the form of the Galilean fisherman. 



Is it altogether impossible to answer our query? We think 

 not. Time evolves strange productions in organisms and in 

 beliefs. From the men of the river drift to the cave- 

 dwellers, from these to those who sat mending their nets by 

 blue Galilee when the great summons canie— a summons 

 which for all time was to make them as though time itself 

 were nothing— human history, were it written, would be a 

 record of the struggle of the human for existence. It would 



record how life warred against life, how the highest type 

 found salvation in the forms which thronged woods and 

 waters, how the fisher and hunter were evolved. Develop- 

 ment and culture made that which before was a necessity 

 but apastime, aud it needed but a ' 'sweeping into the younger 

 day," with its utilitarianism and its higher thought," to have 

 the seal of scorn set upon all which pertained to these ancient 

 devices for subsistence. So it has come to pass, as the 

 world's opinion goes, that the angler must needs be a lazy, 

 shiftless ne'er do well, an opinion which nothing but marked 

 achievements in another field can remove. Nothing succeeds 

 like success, but woe to the unlucky wight who, with the 

 Waltonian love in his heart, is fated to be unsuccessful both 

 in his ventures in flood and among men. He must needs lay 

 hold of something to hide his shame or become the butt of 

 his fellows. And do we not here find an answer to our 

 query ? If it be true, as Victor Hugo insists, that society 

 makes its criminals, are we not indebted to the same potent 

 generator for whatever of untruthfulness we find in the 

 angler? To save himself from merciless thrusts he must 

 ever have a fair tale to tell, though his exploits exist but in 

 the imagination. If this be not at his tongue's end, straight- 

 way he is covered with shame, 



Who has not witnessed the departure of an angling party 

 for a day's sport at some favorite spot, laden with rods, 

 bait, lunch baskets and enthusiasm; how they were the 

 observed of all observers and the envy of those whom busi- 

 ness kept at home; and who has not witnessed the return of 

 such a party laden with trophies of the day, every member 

 at the front, proudly bearing his rod and eager to relate the 

 struggle had with the biggest one of the season? But let such a 

 party return luckless, and lo, the contrast. Tell us, ye who 

 bear the mystic sign of the craft, did you ever see them? 

 Yet, do you not know how the gallant band separated at the 

 depot, how rods and baskets were entrusted to the small boy 

 to be carried home, how the members of the party carelessly 

 sauntered along as if from a business trip out of town, while 

 those liable to be betrayed by their toggery sought their way 

 homeward through convenient back streets in order to escape 

 the queries and cross-questions of acquaintances as to "what 

 luck?" etc. Thenceforth, the history of that day is to the 

 uninitiated surrounded with a mystery as* impenetrable as 

 that which hangs around the Eleusinian rites. True, a quiz- 

 zing by one knowing of the expedition is apt to develop a 

 tale of wondrous success, but left to themselves the truth 

 remains inviolate. It requires no little courage to confess 

 defeat in any venture, and the angler is not lass human than 

 his kind. In the majority of instances failure brings sym- 

 pathy, be the failure but heroic; to the angler it brings seldom 

 else than ridicule, and against this all men are forearmed. 

 So may we not safely say that the lying angler is created by 

 society, born of its jests and banter? 



There is a class of romancers who tell "fish-stories," lie, 

 though perchance they never handled a rod, and another 

 class who, though they never touched trigger, recount won- 

 drous tales of game brought down. The same class, if the 

 occasion but prompts, can lie with equal facility upon any 

 suggested topic from snakes to "spooks." Possibly, some 

 of these may be anglers, the probability is they are not, but 

 instead, members of that great fraternity who delight in end- 

 less exaggeration of their personality, whether it consists of 

 exploits in fishing or hunting, in being descended from an earl 

 who won his spurs at Agincourt or Crecy, or in laying stone 

 fence. If one of this brotherhood of liars occasionally 

 angles, he must needs make himself a hero in this as in every- 

 thing else with which he has to do. 



It is a very human weakness, this qrwrumxn.rs magna fwi, 

 but of it we venture to say the angler partakes but little. Ex- 

 cept so far us society has touched him with its withering 

 hand, he is as truthful as nature itself. Perchance, beyond 

 the song of birds, the chorus of dashing waters, the watch- 

 ing of the shadows which all day long chased each other 

 over distant mountain crests, careless of success, little else 

 has filled his soul, until the dream is broken with "what 

 luck?" and he awakens, summoned to answer that practi- 

 cal conundrum of the century, "docs it pay?" The same 

 overpowering weakness wiiich sugges s the query, prompis 

 him to assert that it does, and he asserts it but to prove to 

 his fellows that he is of the same dross as they, It is to be 

 this or nothing; in his heart of hearts he despises the decep- 

 tion, and in spite of all is as pure, as guileless, as was he 

 whose memory we reverence, on that mellow afternoon more 

 than two hundred years ago, as he listened to the song of the 

 milkmaid and drank in "the pensive glory which fills the 

 Kentish hills." 



On the other hand the world is quite as ready to listen to 

 its romancers, to preserve their literature, whether embodied 

 in Odysseys, travels of a Mandeville, or Lands of the .Mid- 

 night Sun. The places which arc honored by their presence, 

 be they lyceums, wayside wells, the shadow of the palms or 

 the far sacred river, are thronged with eager listeners, ready 

 to respond to their ws plaudite. With these inducements 

 the wonder is that the angler has not swayed farther from 

 the golden mean. Could there be added to his experience 

 that attendant imprisonment by Calypsos or drives with 

 Elsa Karolinas, the tale might be different. 



Every angler-camper has been cursed, at least once, with 

 the presence of a being who, could his traits be exchanged 

 for those of the idealist above nientioned, would be less in- 

 tolerable. This character may, with propriety, be called the 

 selfish angler, and he has his ambitions and his methods of 

 attainment. The former is to be considered the "best fisher- 

 man," that is, in his judgment, the one who makes the 

 largest score, while the means adopted are those which soon 

 secure uiih the contempt of the camp. He insists upon fish- 

 ing alone aud the places of his success are kept, secret; if in- 

 quired into be sure the inquirer is directed to some other 

 place. If his luck has been with crawfish, depend upon it, 

 the question* r is assured that it was with worms. Finger- 

 lings help to make up his count; occasionally he transcends 

 himself in meanness. 



In one of our outings in camp we were having fine sport 

 with black bass, using crawfish for bait. Unfortunately 

 our stock became exhausted and we were obliged to send some 

 ten miles for a new supply. After canvassing the matter, 

 letters were sent out by members of the party, our selfish 

 man among the rest, to different friends to forward a fresh 

 lot. In due time they arrived, the party meanwhile com- 

 forting itself with "wums." By whom sunt, or in response 

 to whose message, was at that time unknown. The mes- 

 senger who brought them knew of the selfish man by name, 

 and to him they were delivered. There were two large pails 

 nicely packed with crawfish, in good order — the response of 

 two friends of the. party. The selfish man took them, 

 marched without a word to his tent and stowed them away. 

 Would you believe it? There was not a word spoken by him 

 of the arrival of the much desired bait, not a suggestien" that 



