Terms, Five Dollars a Year, i 
Ten Cents a Copy. i 
NEW YORK, THURSDAY, APRIL 30, 1874. 
Volume 2, Number 12 
17 Chatham St. (Cityllall Sqr.) 
For Forest and Stream. 
THE SECRET OF SUCCESS IN THE FAS¬ 
CINATING ART OF FISHING. 
BY A FISHER. 
T HERE is a wondrous secret in the gentle art of fishing 
My precious fellow lady fishers, 
That though your implements exactly meted to your wishing 
Should be approved by your best wishers, 
As common hook and line would be, and flj with wing unspangled, 
Around which and about which all the worthless fish have wrangled, 
Despite your tact and all the favor of electric'force, 
Without this mystic acquisition, 
You’d greatly multiply the chances of your own divorce 
From piscatory erudition. 
Albeit your fish were silver scaled, your fly a’real professor, 
You’d find yourself of true success at last a non-possessor. 
Do you remember that the antique art or trade of fishing 
Has honor won in Christian story ? 
Do you remember, precious lady fishers (without wishing 
To derogate from sacred glory), 
How chosen fishers were instructed by their Lord and Master? 
^o, likewise, fish for men yourselves; than fish you’d catch them 
faster. 
I know quite well the savants of the geologic science 
Call fish first lords of the creation; 
But why should you with fossils care and seek to make alliance? 
Why pet the fable’s conservation? 
Just fish for men with net and hook, and make quite sure you catch 
them, 
For there is not a fish on earth that can begin to match them. 
And he who of the strata prates, and of the reign of fishes, 
Ere earth arose to greet the vision 
That overhangs it with its thousand sparkling evening wishes 
That it might be a real elysian, 
Most surely prates of what he knows far less than what he guesses, 
Which is, in sooth, a knowledge here that rarely ever blesses. 
Take my advice, aad if in future time you go a trolling, 
With Grizzly King or a Professor; 
Or when along adown the stream of time you are patroling, 
Why troll around to your confessor— 
That Is, if you have caught a real Omega of creation, 
That meets and merits well your love as well as approbation. 
But don’t forget there is a secret in the art of fishing, 
And your success depends upon it; 
So do not trust too much to waiting, praying, and to wishing, 
Which mean success, but ne’er have won it. 
To perseverance in the art the fact there’s no denying, 
Though genius, fate andFortunatus are the facts defying. 
For Forest and Stream. 
hohijo off the Northwestern 
Mtntes and territories. 
THE URSID^. 
P ERHAPS no portion of the temperate zone is so well 
fitted for the sustenance of animal life as that which 
lies between the Rocky Mountains and the Pacific ocean, 
and which is known in our local parlance as the Pacific 
slope. This is readily accounted for when we consider the 
topographical conformation of the region, which embraces 
broad, rolling, treeless plateaus, deserts clad only with ar- 
temisia and greasewood (Pnrshia tridentata), extensive areas 
covered with dense forests of coniferse and a shrubbery 
growing in tropical luxuriance. For birds and quadrupeds 
which love the rarer atmosphere and high altitudes we have 
ranges of mountains clad in perennial snow; and for the 
natatores a web of rivers which traverse the country in 
every direction, and are stocked with many varieties of 
fish; and added to these are the varieties of climate pecu¬ 
liar to t%e region, and their generally mild character, and 
we have sufficient reasons to account for the abundance of 
animal life here, and the number of its species, many of 
which are new to science, and unknown east of the Rocky 
Mountains. 
Mountain ranges have far more effect on animal and veg¬ 
etable life on the Pacific slope than on the Atlantic, hence 
the species found on one side of a range are generally 
strangers to the opposite. The Cascade Range, the most 
exalted chain traversing the Pacific coast, is far more arbi¬ 
trary in its division of animals than the Rocky Mountains, 
for species found on the western side of the latter have 
also their habitat on the eastern, a fact which is seldom the 
case with the former; thus the zoological fields of the Pa¬ 
cific States are more distinct, geographically, than those of 
the Atlantic. Our animals of the same species as those of 
the eastern States are also much larger than their conge¬ 
ners, and we certainly possess the finest sporting birds, 
fishes, and quadrupeds known to this continent, so that 
this is the best field for the keen hunter who cares not for 
toil or danger, or the followers of Cotton and Walton. 
With this much for a preface, I shall now give your read¬ 
ers a description of the ursid® peculiar to this region, they 
being our highest order of carnivora. Of this family the 
most common is the black bear ( Ursus Americanus), which 
is very abundant in all the wooded portions—more abund¬ 
ant, undoubtedly, than in any other part of the world. In 
berry season its presence can be detected almost every¬ 
where in the forests by the number of berries it has 
stripped off the bushes, and the torn condition of the soil 
in many places where it has been digging for roots. In 
the summer it is also a frequenter of thickets where a spe¬ 
cies of buckthorn ( Frangula purshianct) grows, as it de¬ 
vours the fruit of this tree with great avidity, though to 
the genus homo the fruit proves a most violent cathartic. 
The animal is but little hunted, notwithstanding its numer¬ 
ical strength, owing undoubtedly to the cheapness of its 
fur, or else to the difficulty of finding its domicile during 
the season of hibernation, when its wardrobe is in the best 
condition for mercantile purposes. The Indians of the 
northwestern coast who live by the chase—and they are 
now few in number—devote some attention to the capture 
of bruin during the latter months of autumn; but while 
deer remain as abundant as they are at present they will 
not forsake the latter to go in search of the former, for our 
Smashes care more for ventral pabulum than the excite¬ 
ment of a run and a combat with the plantigrade. The 
abundance of the animal may be one cause why it is so 
little cared for, even excluding the small value of its fur. 
It is a pet in many houses in Oregon and Washington Ter¬ 
ritories, provided it has been captured while a cub, and as 
a general rule it is docile and easily tamed. Even while 
writing this letter I can see from my hotel window two 
agile bears playfully wrestling with a Newfoundland dog, 
and a third taking biscuit out of a sailor’s pocket. But 
bruin is not always gentle, for should he get wounded while 
roaming abroad in his natural state, he will not hesitate a 
moment to attack his human adversary, should the latter 
be in anything like close proximity. 
I have a very distinct recollection of my first encounter 
with a large black bear, and with wliat celerity I made one 
of the best retreats on record here, having not only jumped 
over fallen trees, and broken through shrubbery so thick 
that in ordinary times I could scarcely get my head through, 
but clambered up a vine maple so fragile that ere I was 
half way up it began to bend under my weight, and there 
remained perched for half an hour while bruin rested be¬ 
neath, eyeing me with anything but loving glances. The 
cause of this mishap was my own foolhardiness and want 
of experience; but the lesson impressed upon my memory 
that day has been very valuable to me on many occasions 
since. 
Having expressed a desire to a friend who works on his 
farm in summer and hunts in winter, to enjoy the pleasure 
of killing a bear, he was pleased to assent to my proposal of 
slaughtering several hundred, so we prepared for the chase 
on a Thursday, intending to be absent two days. Our ar¬ 
mament consisted of a muzzle loading rifle, which I car¬ 
ried, and a shot gun borne by my comrade; our food was 
confined to some boiled mutton and home made bread, 
and our companions to two small, active, and noisy curs, 
which thought it necessary to bark at every bird and ani¬ 
mal encountered on our route. Having started at six A.M., 
we found ourselves twelve miles from home by ten o’clock, 
and deeply immerged in a dense forest of those gigantic 
firs indigenous to Washington Territory. After resting a 
few minutes to load our guns, w T e went searching for bear 
signs, and soon found them plentiful enough. The curs 
were then set to working up bruin, and in a few seconds 
they were yelping in their loudest tone. I ran in one di¬ 
rection and my companion in the opposite, to head off our 
game should it break from a straight course. In about five 
minutes after starting I saw a dark object hopping among 
the shrubbery, and judging from its size that it was the 
animal whose life I sought with such pleasure, I raised my 
rifle, pointed it as steadily as my palpitating heart would 
permit, and banged away. When the echo of the report 
ceased I heard a thud as of some object falling, and this 
was followed by a painful, vicious growl. I moved for¬ 
ward cautiously, and peering into the bushes saw the lov¬ 
er of berries stretched on his side and gasping violently. 
I laid down my rifle, seized a fallen limb, of a tree, which 
was both crooked and unwieldy, and gave bruin a tremen¬ 
dous whack with it on the occiputal region. If* I had left 
that undone I might have been all right. No sooner did 
the fallen one receive that unceremonious clout than he 
sprang up and made at me.- I raised my club again, but 
as that blow broke my weapon, and as it did not seem to 
affect my adversary, there was nothing for me but to re¬ 
treat and I did it in admirable style. I clambered over 
fallen trees of large dimensions, leaped the smaller ones, 
tore through shrubbery which lashed my face with incisive 
sharpness, and finally, reaching a clump of that many 
trunked tree known here as vine maple ( acer cirannaturus ), 
I scrambled up one of the trunks with a speed of which I 
justly felt proud afterwards. Bruin followed close on my 
track during the race, and from his growls I expected every 
moment to be in his embrace, but his wound affected his 
coursing powers, so that I was fairly settled in my perch 
ere he arrived at its foot. I knew that he could not reach 
me, for his deep gasps and protruding tongue proved that 
my leaden pill had sapped the vigor of his frame. Had I 
been a hero of the chivalric school I would have left my 
retreat and attacked him with my bare arms, but I was too 
careful of my velvet coat to risk its getting torn, so I was 
content to study my guardian, which rested on vigorous 
haunches, to eye me well, in order to know me again, I 
suppose, and to keep shouting “lioo-pee,” which the for¬ 
est, in melodious, liquid cadence, repeated in many direc 
tions, and many times over. After waiting for what seemed 
to me half an hour, the resounding woods brought me 
back an answering shout, and in a few moments more the 
yelping of the curs a few rods off told me that the siege 
would soon be raised. The noise of the curs made bruin 
turn his head, but ere he had made up his mind to leave 
they were upon him, and such crying was never before dis¬ 
gorged from the larynx of two curs as that which emana¬ 
ted from those which dodged around my besieger, trying 
to get a snip at him as he began to beat a retreat. Wh6n 
he had gone a few yards off I descended from my tower 
and renewed my shouting, and in a few moments I heard 
“Where are you?” “Here; quick,” said I, “I’ve got a 
bear; lend me your gun.” When I received the latter I 
followed the curs, and in about ten minutes overtook them. 
Calling them off with some difficulty, I got a splendid shot 
at the side of my late guardian, or besieger, whichever he 
was, and let him have both barrels in rapid succession. I 
believe I killed him then, but his skin was so full of buck¬ 
shot that it was useless to me. In examining where I first 
struck him I found that the ball had penetrated the neck, 
striking the anterior portion of the windpipe; hence, the 
cause of my escape from his embraces, as his wind was 
too limited to enable him to run well. 
We killed five bears while out on that trip, two of which 
I claimed. In speaking of the courage of the black bear, 
my companion recited the cases of two men with whom he 
was acquainted who had suffered severely from the claws 
of this species of ursus after being wounded. One of them 
died a few days after the attack on him, and the other was 
torn so badly about the chest, ai ms, and face that he never 
recovered from his rough treatment. This bear will al¬ 
ways flee from man unless attacked, but when wounded 
will make a gallant fight for existence. Another species 
of the ursid® found here is ursus var. cinnamonea } if we 
