386 



FOREST AND STREAM. 



jJtjne 12, 1884. 



Hints on Snipe and Quail Shooting.— 1 never hunt 

 snipe with a dog. - I use the dog as a retriever. I hunt 

 snipe down wind, because they almost always rise up wind 

 and come to the gun. When they are wild and are hunted 

 up wind to give a dog chance to scent them, they will rise 

 wild, but w hen they see you bearing down on them, knowing 

 they must go toward you when they rise, they will lie, and 

 when they do rise they rise toward -you and vou get your 

 shot. In hunting quail, I never hurry alter flushed birds lor 

 the reason that birds after being flushed hide. If you hurry 

 after them they will rise in twos and threes, and sometimes 

 most of the covey will take wing again. Let, them alone for 

 five or ten minutes, and when you go to where you have 

 marked them they lie so close that sometimes it is a hard 

 matter to make them rise, although you are only a foot or 

 so away. Again, quail seem not to emit an odor immediately 

 on alighting. 1 have frequently marked them down and 

 hurried after them and I could not fiud one. Calling off my 

 dogs, I would wait ten minutes and go back and get up the 

 whole covey one by one. And again, you give your does a 

 fine lesson iu staunchness by making them stand till you are 

 ready to proceed after the birds, then "fetch," and your 

 dogs will not trouble you in their eagerness. I imagine 

 some of your readers saying, "but it is cruel to keep your 

 dog in a constrained position.'*' It is not so. Dogs soon 

 learn to shift position. My dogs will stand for half an hour 

 or more if I do not find them (in cover), and it is not worse to 

 make them stand tor five minues. It may seem to be waste 

 of time (when time is limited), but one can fill his bag sooner 

 this way. — Sportsman. 



A Bear in Madison County, N. T. — Hamilton, N. T., 

 June 1. — On the morning of May 28 people in the vicinity of 

 Lake Pleasant were startled by a report that, during the pre- 

 vious night, a bear had made a descent from the mountains 

 and attacked a flock of sheep belonging to Farmer Sturges, 

 who lives near the lake, killing and wounding three sheep 

 and two lambs. A hunting party was immediately organ- 

 ized, Mr. Sturges offering a reward of $10 for bruin's scalp. 

 The gallant Nimrods, among whom were two Auburn sports- 

 man, Mr. C. E Thome and Dr. C. P, MacDonald, ascer- 

 tained the line of the marauder's retreat by the aid of dogs, 

 and then divided into couples for the purpose of surround- 

 ing and investigating the mountain, where he was supposed 

 to be concealed. After the lapse of about two hours shois 

 were heard in the direction taken by the Auburn sportsmen, 

 and the remainder of the pnrty, hastening to the spot, found 

 the bear's lifeless body stretched upon the ground, the result 

 of a charge, of buckshot and a rifle ball from the respective 

 weapons of Messrs. Thorne and MacDonald. The carcass 

 was borne to the hotel, and being placed on the scales, tipped 

 the beam at 809 pounds. 



G-UN Rust Preventive. — I wish to call the attention of 

 sportsmen to the cheapest and best "anti-rust" for guns (and 

 any other metal bodies) that exists. It is the cheapest article 

 yet brought forward, can be obtained anywhere that au 

 apothecary shop exists, and is not a "patent" or "propri- 

 etary" article, to wit: the common "cacao butter." A few 

 cents' wortk will last any sportsman years, as the slightest 

 amount on a metal surface protects it effectually. It is at 

 ordinary temperature a solid, but melts at a slight elevation 

 of temperature, and has been found by European manufac- 

 turers of fine surgical instruments as far superior to vaseline 

 and other compounds in protecting from rust, even when 

 these instruments are shipped by sea as far as India, proving 

 entirely sufficient. I use nothing else on my own gun. Had 

 formerly tried one thing after another and given them all 

 up for this simple, easily obtained and cheap article. — C. W. 

 E. (Boston). 



Baltimore and Washington,— Your correspondent has 

 lately returned from a trip to Baltimore and Washington and 

 found the sportsmen of the two cities busily putting in the 

 dull period between times on clay-pigeons (which by the by 

 tbey complain of not being able to hit) and thus keep in 

 practice for the opening of the "timber doodle" season, as 

 woodcock are affectionately termed in those sections. I am 

 told there are many birds round about Baltimore and Wash- 

 ington, especially the latter city. In Baltimore I learned 

 there is a prospect of a good crop of celery the coming sea- 

 son, which, of a consequence, will make a good year for 

 ducking. — Homo. 



Arizona Qtjaix Wanted.— Toledo, O., June 6.— Is Mr. 

 Brown, of Tucson, Arizona, to disappoint his friends who 

 hoped to have some Aiizona (California) quail through his 

 kindness?— J. B. Battells. 



Belatfd Geese.— Concoid, N. H, June 3 —Mr. Frank 

 Battles, a well known Boston sportsman now doing business 

 in this city, killed a pair of large Canada geese in the Merri- 

 mack to day. 



ViKGrNiA Quail.— University of Virginia, May SO.— We 

 have had a dry spring, and I hear more partridges whistling 

 than 1 have heard since I came here to live, two years ago. 



Sm and Stiver 



Where to Go.— At this season of the year the angler, 

 whose impatience led him months ago to look over his tackle 

 and get rods, reels and fly-books in order, is in a quandary. 

 He is trying to make up his mind where to go for his vaca- 

 tion, and is balancing in his mind the attractions of different 

 regions. And it is not remarkable that he should find it 

 hard to make up his mind when we see how many spots 

 there are. within comparatively easy reach, where the trout 

 and the bass are still numerous. Going no further than 

 our own advertising columns, we see noliced publications 

 treating of a dozen different sections. One may obtain 

 maps and guide books of the Adirondacks and may follow 

 in the footsteps of glorious old "-NessmuK," may be his own 

 guide through Northern Maine, over Moosehead, or Tim and 

 Seven Ponils, among the Androscoggins— country of mon- 

 ster trout or may paddle his canoe lightly and easily among 

 the Thousand Islands, where the bass abound and the mighty 

 mascallonge has his lurking place. No wonder it is hard to 

 determine where to go; b"t whatever the final decision it 

 will be well for him who is about to make an outing to learn 

 all that he can concerning the country he intends to visit. 

 He should read up the guide books with care, and should, so 

 far as possible, familiarize himself with the maps, He 

 should do this, not merely because he desires to know as 

 much as possible about the country he is going into— though 

 this is reason enough— but also because there is a possibility 

 always that he may have to put his knowledge to a practical 

 use We have known of more than one fisherman in the 

 wilderness who has been "turned" and unable to find camp 

 when he wished to. 



RHYME OF A BASS. 



/~1LAD in the greenness wherewith hath, summer them arrayed, 



^ A clear stream the willows and bending sedges shade, 



And spin down upon it filial threads of golden light 



Which the quiv'riug wavelets knot in meshes bright. 



In this Dangled net of sunshine that ne'er holds him, 



A bass swims where the swirling flood enfolds him. 



As he with lazy fins the yellow meshes breaks, 



Above him flits a gay-winged fly in merry freaks, 



Of hue so bright and strange that he is half affrighted, 



Till in the stream has the silly thrag alighted, 



Staggering o'er the swirling pools and rippling shallows, 



As drunk with sunshine, or giddy, dodging swallows. 



Then the bass bethinks him that this gay new-comer 



Naught but a blossom is of the air of summer, 



A chrysalis the bud, this the gaudy flower, 



Drowning here its briefly blooming sunlit hour. 



Then up he darts to seize it wii h a sudden madness, 



Born part of hunger and part of that wild gladness 



Which moveth all things in this glorious season, 



Proving sometimes better, sometimes worse than reason. 



But how this gay-clad insect his attack resenteth ! 



With sting so sharp that none but fiend inventeth! 



No blundering bumble bee, no wasp nor buzzing hornet 



Hath e'er so pierced his lip, nor e'er so torn it! 



Then he spies an angler on the brink above him, 



Intent upon him: does he hate or love him? 



Ah I The wand he holds nods to him, but restrains him, 



To its slender thread belongs the sting that pains him. 



To the depths he plunges with his dear-bought treasure. 



Wondering in this sport to whom belongs the pleasure. 



The coolest deeps, where he has had his life-long sport, 



Afford him now no help in rhis his sorry sort. 



In vain he grinds his wounded jaw upon the gravel, 



The barbed steel holds, though up or down he travel. 



Then tries the upper world where birds and insects live, 



To see what aid to him this higher realm shall give; 



And as he cleaves the limpid wave he scatters pearls 



For ransom, brighter than shine in coronets of earls. 



Twice his length he leaps above and in bi ief survey 



Sees trees and banks and man turned topsy turvey, 



Their doubles quiv'riug toward him on the troubled stream, 



While he shakes his head to loose the torturing fleam. 



But naught he knows to try does in this s'ress avail, 



And courage, strength and cunning all begin to fail. 



Gasping, he sinks with languid fin beneath the flood, 



And slowly stains the current with his oozing blood. 



As down he floats, aweary and well-nigh spent of strength, 



Across a sunken limb the loose line drags its length. 



Last hope ! He gathers all his weak remaining force, 



And back beneath the branch directs his feeble course. 



It holds, nor yields it to the angler's fervent strain ; 



The swift stream aids his flagging fins— he's free again! 



Thanking, as he drifts away, this last entangler, 



A happy fish leaves there a not so happy angler. 



Awahsoosk. 



RAINBOW TROUT AND STEELHEAD. 



with other matters salmonoid. 



I HO not think that we should condemn the rainbow trout 

 too severely for his supposed relationship to the steel- 

 head. The latter creature, as I have kr.own him, is a large 

 trout of ten to twenty pounds weight, and looking somewhat 

 like an Atlantic salmon. He is found in the Columbia River 

 in the spring at the time of the early salmon run, a spent 

 and worthless fish, apparently working his way back to the 

 sea alter a mid-winter spawning. The animal is structur- 

 ally a trout and not a salmon, but it seems to live in the sea, 

 and to ascend the livers for a short distance to spawn, thence 

 again returning, like a salmon. 



In this steelhead condition, the fish bears little resemblance 

 to the rainbow trout, as we know the latter in the streams of 

 California. It is, to begin with, nearly twice as large as the 

 largest of the latter; it is lank and slab-sided instead of 

 chubby, and its mouth and jaws are very much larger than 

 in the rainbow trout. 



But in the study of Salmonidm, we have learned how de- 

 ceptive are differences in looks and differences in habits. The 

 trout adapt themselves with wonderful readiness to differ- 

 ences in their surrounding, and these surroundings in turn 

 react on them and change their 'looks," 



On careful comparison of the rainbow trout with the steel- 

 head, the only structural differences which appear are these 

 two: The rainbow trout has a mouth which is small for a 

 trout, while the mouth of the steelhead is large, the jaws ex- 

 tending well behind the eye. In this regard, theie is & 

 marked difference between the largest rainbow trout (McCloud 

 River) I have seen and the average steelhead, the caudal fin 

 in the steelhead is truncate while in the trout it is lunate. 



But in all soecies of trout, the mouth grows larger in old 

 fishes and is largest in spent males, and in the same way the 

 caudal fin becomes more truncate with age. 



I do not know the young of the steelhead, nor do I know 

 any character by which it could be distinguished from the 

 rainbow trout. 



On the other hand, if the rainbow trout ran into the sea, 

 and there grew more rapidly, changing its appearance and 

 habits as other fresh-water salmonoids do when they get into 

 the ocean, they ought to make exactly such a fish as the 

 steelhead. . 



My present belief is (always subject to change on the in- 

 troduction of more evidence) that the steelhead (Sal/no garrd- 

 nen Rich.) is a sea-run form of the rainbow trout {Sulmo indeus 

 Gibbous), and that the two are not really distinct species, 

 hut forms of one species. If so, the name of the rainbow 

 trout should be Salmo gairdneri irideus. 



To what degree the two forms may mix, I do not know. 

 It is apparently certain that the great bodv of the rainbow 

 trout of California and Oregon do not descend to the sea, 

 and consequently never become steelheads, and I do not 

 think that the steelhead matter has any great weight as an 

 objection to the introduction of the rainbow trout into East- 

 ern waters. Whether the species in the East will stay where 

 it is put or go off somewhere else, we can only find out by 

 experiment. 



Something similar to the change into steelheads seems to 

 take place in the other Pacific coast trout. In Puget Sound 

 the red-throated trout (Salmo purpuratus) abounds every- 

 where in the sea as in the brooks, and large specimens pjo 

 pounds) are sometimes taken, which seem to be the "steel- 

 heads" of that species. All of these spawn in fresh water; 

 hence, they must be in some degree migratory. 



the "Dolly Varden trout" or charr {Salvelinus 

 malma) is ordinal ily a brook fish, in size, habits and appear- 

 ance altogether similar to our Eastern brook trout. But it is 

 common in the salt waters of Puget Sound, and specimens 

 weighing 11 pounds have been several times brought to me 

 by the Indians at Seattle and Victoria. These large fishes 

 are silver gray in color; they live in the sea, and consequently 

 must run up the rivers in the spawning time, but of their 

 identity with Salvelinus malma there is no sort of doubt. 

 They are, I take it, the "steelheads" of the species. 



Another case of the same sort, if the matter is correctly 

 understood, is that of the Canadian sea trout {So.lrdiin.it fan- 

 lincdis rmmacvlalus)r These seem to be sea-run brook trout, 

 who have grown so large and become so peculiar in their 

 habits, that it may be best to recognize them as a distinct 

 subspecies, as we do the landlocked salmon. They are the 

 steelheads of the brook trout, and their progeny, if" planted 

 in small inland brooks, would, I think, in time adapt them- 

 selves to circumstances and become brook trout again. 



I am not much of an admirer of the rainbow trout, but I 

 do not see in what important respect it is inferior to the 

 European brook trout {Salmo fario). In technical regards 

 the two species are exceedingly similar. They are "as much 

 alike as two peas," nor do I know of any difference in habits. 

 A finer fish than either of these, larger, gamier and hand- 

 somer, is the species which I have called the red-throated 

 trout (Salmo purptiralus Pallas). This is the trout of the 

 Rocky Mountain region and the Great Basin, of the Yellow- 

 stone', of Utah Lake, of Lake Tahoe and of the Upper 

 Columbia. In the Forest amd Stream it has been called 

 Clarke's trout, but 1 submit the above "common name" as 

 one preferable for general usage, Lewis and Clarke had little 

 to do with it. It has been named Salmo clarkei and Salmo 

 lewisi, to be sure, but it was well described and well banted 

 long before the days of Lewis and Clarke. In all specimens 

 I have seen of this trout, there is a deep red blotch at the 

 throat, between the branches of the lower jaw. This was 

 noticed by Pallas, and it may have suggested the name 

 "purpi/rafois" (empurpled) which he gave the species. 



I believe that this trout is better worthy of experiment for 

 fishculturists than either Salmo fario, or its American double, 

 the rainbow trout. 



While my pen is in this matter I would like to say a word 

 as to the relative merits of our American brook trout (Salve- 

 linus fontinalis), and the brook trout of northern Europe 

 {Salmo fario), 



In the English usage of these names, our trout is not a 

 trout but a charr, and I take it the highest praise that can 

 be given to any salmonoid fish is to "say that it is a charr. 

 That is the superlative of trouthood. The genus Sahidimis 

 stands at the head of the series. In beauty, in gracefulness, 

 in wariness and* in gaminess all the true charr seem to sur- 

 pass any of the trout. They are less hardy, as a whole, and 

 inhabit only the coldest and purest waterst. Thus, where 

 both charr and trout are found, the latter occupy a much 

 wider range. 



The red charr of Europe, the salbling or ombre chevalier 

 (Salvelinus alpinus), and its near relative, our Rangeley Lake 

 blueback (Salvelinus oquassa), are delicate and beautiful 

 little fishes, less voracious than the average trout. The least 

 graceful and most voracious of all the true chairs is prob- 

 ably our American brook trout. He is more hardy and less 

 delicate than the ombre chevalier or the blueback, but leav- 

 ing these ideal forms aside, in beauty and grace none of 

 the true trout approach him. David S. Jordan- 



Indiana University, June 9. 



CAMPS OF THE KINGFISHERS. 



Black Lake, Michigan.— V. 



WHEN our neighbor appeared next morning with the 

 lumber he asked about the vai mints, and when told 

 they had failed to come aud see us, said: "Well, boys, guess 

 you're all right now, for they hardly ever conn; after the sec 

 ond day. What's to be done to-day, fish? I'll row a couple 

 of ye to-day, and show ye the good places." (Mem.— He 

 charged $2 at the final settling up for showing the boys the 

 good places 1hat day, rowing thrown in.) 



While getting things in readiness for the day's fishing we 

 had a chance to look Brother M. over and size him up, not 

 having had time in the hurry of rutting the camp in shape 

 to do so before. His age, he said, if 1 remember rightly, was 

 past fifty years. He was nearly 5 feet 8 inches in height, 

 broad-shouldered, solidly built from the ground up, and stood 

 firmly on a pair of large, well-shaped, muscular legs. His 

 arms were models of strength and muscle, and his hands,, 

 large and sun-browned, looked— for lack of a better com- 

 parison— like a pair of "Pride of the West" hams. A full,, 

 deep chrst, with this development of limb, marked him a. 

 man of gr< at strength and a bad customer to deal with if it' 

 came to a matter of blows. A pair of keen gray eyes, under 

 shaggy brows, a full, reddish brown beard, slightly grizzled,, 

 and a shock oi hair that had originally been a crushed sweet- 

 potato color, but now tawny and weather-beaten, com- 

 pleted his make-up. This was neighbor Meriill, in physical) 

 development a cross between a buffalo bull and a cinnamom 

 bear, and with a voice to match. He was companioaabfe; 

 too, and a great talker; in fact, as Ben said, "Blow in' Ms 

 horn was one o' his best holts;" but we had no troubtera our 

 dealings with him, as he filled to the best of his ability all 

 his agreements with us, and we treated him sq/sarely iu re- 

 turn. By his own admission he had been one </o the "bhuys" 

 iu days when he was younger and living back in "York 

 State," having trained in the John Morrissey gang before 

 that sweet-scented citizen aspin d to Senatorial honors. The 

 finish of many a tough scran with the pugilistic fraternity 

 had found him on top, but he had tired of these empty honors 

 and moved up here into the very wilds of Michigan to bring 

 up his boys in a pure atmosphere, away from the wiles and 

 temptations that had encompassed their paternal parent in 

 his younger days; away from evil companionship and 

 whisky. Whatever other shortcomings neighbor M. may 

 have been possessed of, I honored him i'or bis motives in this 1 , 

 and respected him for the example he set them by not touch- 

 ing a drop of the cursed firewater himself, and I trust his 

 boys will honor this teaching and grow up to be useful 

 and respected citizens of the great Wolverine State. 



But we were impatient to be off, aud as the morning had 

 cleared up with promise of a beautiful day, we left the camp 

 in the best of spirits and ready as Ben said, "for a fight with 

 anything from a pound up that wore fius." 



Our camp was located in the bight of a small bay on the 

 southeast shore, from which point we could command a full 

 view of the lake with the exception of perhaps three miles 

 of the lower end, and from here, before we start out for out- 

 first day's fishing, we may as well jot dewn some of its 



