10 



FOREST AND STREAM. 



[Jan. 81, 1884. 



New Orleans, Jan. 22. — Last night a meeting of the 

 hunters who are to participate in the annual hunt for a game 

 dinner was held at the store of Cardona & Hunt, for the pur- 

 pose of selecting teams for the shoot. Messrs. E. T. Man- 

 ning and A. M. Aucoin were elected captains, and the teams 

 selected are as follows: No. 1 —Captain A. M. Aucoin, F. A. 

 Cousin, Paul Chaudet, J. V. Guillotte, Martin Huber, Louis 

 Cook, Emile Dupre, John Stumpf, J. V. Leveque, George 

 Lessasier, Rene Sarrazin, E. Wash. Vinet, Albert P. Noll, 

 Dr. W. H. Watkins, Walter Saxon, William A. Davis, Wm. 

 Dupre. No. 2 — Captain E. T. Manning, John K. Eenaud, 

 N. D. Wallace, Richard Frotscher, A. E. Livaudais, A. S. 

 Ranlett, C. H. Wood, C. J. Lewis, A. Cardona, Jr., J. H. 

 Maury, W. T. Coleman, Captain Octave F. Vallette, Thos. 

 McGinty, J. C. Lyons, Jr., Wallace Wood, John R. Kent, 

 Chris. Collins. The list of names of those to participate in 

 the hunt will be kept open until Thursday next, and those 

 who present themselves will be chosen by the captains of 

 the teams. The hunt, will take place on Saturday and Sun- 

 day, the 26th and 27th, and the annual dinner on Tuesday, 

 tne 29th. The points to govern the hunt are as follows: 

 Robins, 1; doves, 2: snipe, 8; quail, 10; mallard duck, 15: 

 other ducks, 10; squirrels, 10; rabbits, 10; hawks or owls, 

 25; woodcock, 25; prairie chickens, 30; geese, 50; turkeys, 

 250; deer, 500; bear, 1,000. 



Brooklyn, Jan. 21.— Editor Forest and Stream: I have 

 been a reader of your paper for the past eight years, and 

 have always read with great interest any communications 

 on the subject of hunting rifles. I never had the time to go 

 where I could hunt large game, but have had some very fine 

 sport with squirrels, using a .22-caliber Ballard, but it is a 

 little too small for foxes or woodchucks. I think it is very 

 good sport to wait for a fox that the dogs have started and 

 shoot at him with a rifle as he goes by, so when I read in 

 your issue of Jan. 3 that a rifle of .25-caliber was going to 

 be put on the market I made up my mind to have one. I 

 also spoke to a friend and he told me to let him know when 

 it was ready and he would go and get one with me. Now I 

 would like to suggest one thing to the makers, and that is 

 that they put a ramrod under the barrel. I do not think it 

 would cost much more, and I for one would be willing to 

 pay for it. Then we could put a primed shell in the gun 

 and load from the muzzle if we wanted to, and it would be 

 so handy for a cleaning rod. Let us hear from others. — 

 Moro. 



Pennsylvania Market.— Williamsport, Pa,, Jan. 21. — 

 Editor Forest and Stream: There exists in this county, Ly- 

 coming, a noted organization called the Lycoming. County 

 Sportsmen's Association, which was established for the pro- 

 tection of game. Last Saturday I noticed hanging on poles 

 in the market, large bunches of quail, grouse and rabbits, 

 which were evidently killed after the first of January. This 

 is certainly a flagrant violation of the law of this State, so 

 far as it relates to the capture and sale of wild game. Do 

 you know whether this town has any game wardens? If 

 such officers are to be found here they should certainly be 

 stirred to a performance of their duty" since the society re- 

 ferred to above seems to be dead to the interests of those 

 matters w-hich most pertain to it. 1 saw r a jack rabbit the 

 other day, sent to a gentleman here in town, from Akron, 

 Ohio. Does this species of rabbits abound so far east as Ohio? 

 — W. K. M. [We do not knew whether Williamsport has a 

 game warden or not, but possibly by inquiry our corres- 

 pondent could find out. The jack rabbit is not found in 

 Ohio.] 



That Iowa Side-Hunt. — Decorab, la., Jan. 21.— Editor 

 Forest and Stream: I see an account in your columns of a 

 side-hunt, held at Rippey, la., Dec. 20. ""Wild Doc" com- 

 plains of game being scarce around there. No wonder, with 

 such law-abiding citizens, or sportsmen, as they may call 

 themselves. If they were to look at the game laws of the 

 State they would find that it is unlawful to shoot prairie 

 chickens after Dec. 1, and yet on Dec. 28 "Wild Doc" and 

 his party of twenty -one men on each side go out to shoot 

 them; and, worse still, he proposes to have the shoot over 

 again in the spring, at which time all the birds will have 

 mated. It seems strange, when we have game laws in the 

 State, that. "Wild Doc" and his parly cannot be restrained 

 from breaking them. He not only breaks them, but openly 

 publishes the account afterward. Where Rippey is 1 do not 

 know, but only wish it were near this part of the State, as 

 then I guarantee we would make it hot for "Wild Doc" and 

 his party. — Fair Play. 



Black Brant on the Atlantic Coast. — I have learned 

 of what I suppose to have been two black brant (Brenta nig- 

 ricans) that were killed in Tuckerton Bay this winter. It 

 was here that Cassin secured two of the specimens 

 he writes about when he describes the variety. I 

 did not learn the name of the gunner who shot them, but 

 imagine he was a Parkertown baynian. I hear also that a 

 more than usual number of white-fronted geese (Anser edbi- 

 frons) have been seen passing over these waters, but none 

 "stopped in them. Will not "Mr. Van Dyke who wrote of 

 what he thought, and possibly might have been, black brant 

 on the Pacific side, let us hear from him in reference to 

 what he has further learned of this bird, and if possible for- 

 ward the promised specimen. Brant have been very plenti- 

 ful on our Atlantic coast this year, but each year they seem 

 to be getting wilder and wilder and more difficult to stool. 

 — Homo. 



Rabbit Shooting wtTH Pistols.— My experience in re- 

 volver shooting will cover a space of fifteen years and I never 

 could find one in all that time that wouldn't overshoot at short 

 range, and to remedy that have had to take out the front sight 

 amfreplace it with a higher one. Why wouldn't it be better 

 for both the manufacturer and the buyer if the pistols were 

 sighted so that if a man wanted to hit anything from ten to 

 fifteen yards off he would not have to aim from six to twelve 

 inches under. In order to do good shooting with a pistol it 

 has to be sighted so that the object to be hit can be directly 

 aimed at.— W. F. C. (Saco, Me.) 



Feus Domesticus Once More.— P. S.—l neglected to 

 write the P. S. to my Philadelphia cat story last week, just 

 as my friend neglected to tell it to me until I had expressed 

 my surprise. Upon careful investigation he found that the 

 Tom which he had killed (cutting off his tail in the process) 

 and buried was not his own. but that of his : neighbor. His 

 own cat had been aw T ay on a visit for two weeks and so had 

 escaped a tragic end. * Now let "Reign olds" stand up and 

 tell the "postscript." to his story; we all know there is one. 

 — M, 



He Can Call Woodcock — Dyersburg, Tenn., Jan. 

 22. — Robins have made their appearance, in considerable 

 numbers at this place; very few snipe yet. Nat Tarrant, 

 the sheriff of this county, and Rome Ferrell killed 130 quail 

 in one day recently. They had only one dog to shot over, 

 and one man to carry game. Mr. Tarrant is the best shot 

 and best hunter in the" State, and can imitate the notes of 

 any bird, or the barking of squirrels, etc., etc. He tells me 

 that he has caught young woodcock on the snow in March, 

 and he can imitate the occasional note of a woodcock, or 

 the guttural sound that is produced by them in spring. He 

 has watched them by the hour in the plowed ground in the 

 early morning or late evening, and is standard authority in 

 this section on hunting and fishing. He has caught 'pos- 

 sums lately that dressed fifteen pounds.— T, L. W. 



Coweens in the Niagara.— Buffalo, Jan. 20.— Large 

 numbers of coweens and whistlers are wintering with us oa 

 Niagara River, and they afford considerable sport to those 

 hardy enough to endure the cold. The fall duck shooting 

 has been very good, being the best we have had for several 

 years. We are waiting patiently for the reappearance of the 

 ducks in the spring. Several days ago I noticed a bevy of a 

 dozen or more quail across the river, the first I have ever 

 seen in this vicinity. The State Sportsmen's Association 

 will hold its next annual meeting in this city. The Audu- 

 bon Club have the arrangements in charge, and it is expected 

 that some of the best shots in the State will be present. 

 The club will hold a meeting Feb. 1. — W. A. A. 



Rapid Maneuvering. — Lieut.-Col. Mabeeand I were beat- 

 ing through very thick woods, being about 200 yards apart, but 

 out of sight of each other, and working the Colonel's setter 

 between us, when suddenly, with a whirl and a buzz like a 

 St. Catharine's wheel, I received a smart blow T on the fore- 

 head, knocking my hat off and causing me to stagger back 

 a pace or so, more with astonishment than concussion. I 

 did not wait long to take in the situation and circumstance, 

 knowing full well that a partridge or "ruffed grouse" iiad 

 flown in my face and was again "winging his way." I 

 turned, fired and killed the bird before it had time to disap- 

 pear even in those thick woods. Rather peculiar, but — 

 Verax (Port Rowan), 



White-Breasted Bears.— Fort Dodge, Jan. 18, 1884. — 

 Editor Forest and Stream: In your issue of Jan. 10 you 

 ask for further hints as regards the belief among hunters 

 that a black bear with a white spot on the breast is more 

 dangerous than those not having this mark. I once had an 

 old hunter in Florida tell me that a bear wdth a white spot 

 on the breast was the most dangerous of all the wild ani- 

 mals on the peninsula, the panther not excepted. I have 

 also heard this belief spoken of among old hunters in parts 

 of New Jersey.— H. E. 



A Florida West Coast Resort.— Manchester, N. H., 

 Jan. 23. — Editor Forest and Stream: If "G. G. F.," Cincin- 

 nati, desires good hunting and fishing, plain living, no 

 "fuss and feathers," he can get it at Crystal River, Her- 

 nando county, reached by small vessels from Cedar Keys, 

 which make trips two or three times a week. He could 

 probably get boarded at E. R. Kings, a farmer, with whom 

 I boarded some years ago. — A, B, D. 



Kansas — Independence. — We have very little of my fav- 

 orite sport here (that is fishing), though we have some bass 

 of the green or striped kind, here called black bass. 1 have 

 caught some nice strings of them in the past season, running 

 in weight from i to 4 pounds. We catch a good many cat- 

 fish, some eels, and the market fishermen with their nets catch 

 an abun. lance of buffalo, and others of the sucker family. — 

 Judge. 



Rebounding Looks.— Long Island City, N. Y., Jau. 24. 

 — Editor Forest and Stream: After reading the communica- 

 tion in last week's issue, I tried the locks of my gun, a 12- 

 gauge, bought a year ago, and found that if I raised the 

 hammers almost to full cock and let them go they would 

 sometimes strike and explode the caps. The hammers would 

 not strike the plunger unless at as near half-cock as it would 

 go.— Tip. 



\e» and Oliver 



BIG LAND-LOCKED SALMON. 



ONE morning early in December as Messrs. J. L. May- 

 berry and W. P. Farr were hunting partridges in the 

 woods bordering upon Rodgers's Brook, in Bridgton, Me., 

 they met with the material for a fish story of unusual inter- 

 est. Just above the first rapids in the stream, and but a 

 few rods from where it flows into Long Lake, they found a 

 "black spot" trout, or land-locked salmon. The fish, left 

 there by a sudden fall in the water, had evidently been dead 

 for several hours, and was only partly covered by the water, 

 which was here hut a few inches deep. The gentlemen 

 took the specimen and carried it to the residence of Fish 

 Guardian J. Mead. It was found that this fish measured 

 thirty-eight inches in length, nine in depth, and weighed 

 twenty-five pounds — proportions that considerably exceed 

 those of any specimen of which there is an authentic ac- 

 count, at le'ast in these waters. The hook on the under 

 jaw of this fish was fully an inch and a half in length, and 

 strong and hooked enough so that the fish was hung upon 

 a stake by it and carried to Mr. Mead's, a distance of nearly 

 a mile. This hook, which terminates the lower jaw, and, 

 in this specimen, passed into and through an opening in the 

 upper jaw, it is said, is fully developed only at breeding 

 time. It then acts as an effectual muzzle, and. prevents the 

 wholesale slaughter which would be sure 1o result from the 

 fierce battles between the males of this and every member 

 of the trout family. The celebrated eleven-pound "red- 

 spotted" trout in the possession of Prof. Baiid, of the Smith- 

 sonian Institution, has this hooked jaw in a very marked 

 degree. It was taken off the spawning beds at Nupper 

 Dam, Androscoggin Lake, the last day of September, 1880, 

 and is the largest specimen on record of that species of trout, 

 the Salnw fontinalis. 



Mr. Mead has in his possession an ancient sign which is a 

 representation of a land-locked salmon, and is stated to be 

 an exact model of a specimen taken from these waters half 

 a century ago. This sign fish is forty inches long and nearly 

 ten inches deep, and it is said that the fish from which it 

 was modeled weighed thirty -five pounds. Hardly any one 



has believed the sign fish story until the finding of the fish 

 mentioned above, owing to the formidable proportions, 

 hooked jaws and other features which appeared to bo 

 monstrosities in the sign model. But placing the fish lately 

 found and the sign side by side, it Is seen at once that the 

 sign is a faithful model of a fish, only a little larger. 



The fish in Mr. Mead's possession has attracted a large 

 number of visitors, and has awakened a renewed interest for 

 the protection of these noble inhabitants of the mountain 

 lakes from the havoc which is made among them by sneak- 

 ing poachers, at breeding time. So plenty were these fish 

 formerly in the waters of Sebago and Long Lakes that some 

 of the older residents tell of canoe loads being taken in a, 

 very short time. An old gentleman of eighty years says 

 that, when a boy, he and a companion captured two barrels 

 of land-locked salmon during the time that a third member 

 of their party was collecting Vood and making a fire to cook 

 their suppers. The untimely war waged upon them at 

 breeding time had nearly depleted these waters a few years 

 ago; but the protection afforded by the statute laws has al- 

 ready worked a marked change, and there is no question but 

 that the fish are rapidly multiplying. In proof may be men- 

 tioned the noble specimen mentioned in the Herald the other 

 day and the one above. Besides, a gentleman writing from 

 Portland last week gives another account of a land-locked 

 salmon, found stranded on the banks of the same Rodgers's 

 Brook on Tuesday, which measured 27 inches in length and 

 weighed 221 pounds. The gentleman thinks that when first 

 out of the water it must have weighed at least 80 pounds. 

 It is evident that the fish, weak from terrible exertions in 

 ascending the little stream to breed, were stranded by the 

 sudden fall of the water after the rain of Monday. — Boston 

 ILcroM. 



TROUT1NG ON THE B1GOSH. 



A TALK WITH JACK. 



A FTER the party went out to initiate the Colonel into the 

 J\. mystery of hike ranges, and the Doctor into the cap- 

 ture of lake trout, Jack and I went along the shore to find an 

 inlet which Uncle Ben said did not exist. I had, on several 

 occasions, seen a line of fog above the swamp on the west 

 shore of the lake, in the mornina;, and felt sure that it indi- 

 cated a stream of water, so, with our wading boots, hatchet, 

 landing-net lined with mosquito bar, and a preserve qar filled 

 with alcohol and slung in a net, we started. Coming to a 

 small spring stream, flowing into the lake from the hills 

 which rose high on this side, we put the net below some 

 stones in it and then lifted them. 



"Lobsters," said Jack. 



"They are not lobsters," I answered, "but crawfish, or 

 crayfish, as the older name was." 



"If that isn't a little lobster, then I don't know one when 

 I see it. You may call it a crawfish, because it lives in fresh 

 water and never gets large. There are the big claws and the 

 other eight pairs of legs, head, tail, and all. I'd like to 

 know why it is not a genuine fresh-water lobster?" 



"Jack, " things are not always what they seem. This 

 animal differs from the lobsters in several important points, 

 and, although closely related to the lobster, it is as distinct 

 as a panther is from' a lion, or as a trout is from a salmon. 

 One of its differences is that in the crawfish their young 

 when hatched are perfectly formed and cling to the tail of 

 the old. one. See here! this one has young now hanging on 

 to the appendages under the abdomen or tail. The egg of 

 a lobster hatches out a larval form that does not appear a 

 bit like its parents. Save these alive, we may want them 

 for bait if w t c conclude to try other kinds of fishing to see 

 what is in the lake." 



"What are these other things?" 



"These long stick-like things, and the tubes made of small 

 snail shells are the cases of what are called caddis worms. 

 They are larva of a large fly which is about the water and 

 on whiah trout feed : put them back in the water. This dirty- 

 looking grub is the larva of a very destructive water-beetle; 

 put it in the alcohol, it is not often that we find the larva of 

 this beetle on the hillside; it is usually in ponds, where we 

 ah o find the young of the dragon fly. Let us go on and 

 keep as near the edge of the lake as the boulders and fallen 

 timber will allow T . If we had a boat we could explore to 

 better advantage, yet Uncle Ben has been over the lake, both 

 in boats and on the ice, and declares that there is no inlet in 

 the swamp, but that the lake is entirely fed by springs. If 

 this is so then my fog-line theory amounts to nothing." 



"Look there,"" said Jack, pointing at a crow on a dead 

 limb a short distance ahead, how I wish I had a gun." 



"And I am glad that you haven't. Why do you wish to 

 kill that poor crow? He has never harmed you and is of no 

 use if you had it. Never kill anything that you do not want 

 unless it is liable to injure you in some way. If you want 

 to shoot you can learn to have as much pleasure in bitting 

 inanimate objeets as in taking life. I tell you what it is, 

 Jack, in this free country of ours there is too much freedom 

 for men and boys to roam about with guns shooting robins, 

 song birds, and harmless things. There is hardly a spot 

 within ten miles of any city or village, where one can sit and 

 observe wood life, because all that has not been killed has 

 learned wisdom and keeps out of sight. Not one idle fellow 

 in a hundred, who had a gun in his hand, would pass a rab- 

 bit, squirrel, woodpecker, or even a little chipmunk in 

 summer, when they have young dependent upon them, with- 

 out shooting it. Now I beg that you will pass the poor crow 

 when out gunning, and will confine yourself to legitimate 

 game." 



"But," said Jack, "the crow pulls the farmer's corn and 

 carries off his young chickens, and is a nuisance, anyhow." 



"Theu let the farmer shoot him, if he will, but as you 

 have neither chickens nor corn, I don't see why you should 

 trouble yourself about the matter. There are plenty of 

 worms boring into the farmer's apple trees, but you do not 

 go around probing their holes with a wire to kill them. 

 Your excuse is a poor one, and as to the question of the 

 crow being a nuisance, there are two sides to that. The 

 crow could show yon a list of grubs, cut worms, etc., that he 

 destroys, which might balance his account. 1 think, Jack, 

 that you only try to excuse your natural desire to kill, and 

 this desire seems an instinct born with man and only elimin- 

 ated with age or education, which in this sense may be 

 synonymous. Now watch that crow! See, it has something 

 in its month, and there it goes across the lake into that tall 

 pine where perhaps may be a nest with young ones that will 

 greet the coming of their mother with open mouths. Had 

 you killed the old one there might have been starvation in 

 the now happy family in yonder pine, There runs a little 

 'teeter-snipe' "along the beach, there is no reason to kill it, 

 certainly it is a beautiful object, and its life lends a charm 

 to nature. I can conceive of nothing more desolate than 



