4 
Aue, 21, 1884] 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
67 
the sight of those tracks warmed the old man’s blood, and 
he started right on after them, forgetting all about his traps. 
After going about five miles he saw smoke ahead; this he 
‘cautiously approached, and there, sitting around the fire 
cooking, were the five Indians, By good management he 
succeeded in killing four of them, the fifth escaped. Four 
reeking scalps were dangling to the old man’s belt, and he 
was homeward bound. 
_ ‘Not until then did my grandfather realize how Cold it was; 
oh, so fearfully cold. Would he live to get home was his 
‘thought, when out on the trail hopped a bob cat; he shot it, 
loaded his rifle and went on. Not far, however, when a half 
famished wolf sprang out in front with a savage growl, and 
was served the same sauce as the cat. Now it had got to be 
so frightfully cold that my grandfather did not dare to stop to 
load, but hurried on as fastas his legs would carry him. He 
was not destined to go far before he was brought to a sudden 
halt by a most terrific scream close in his rear, and that 
scream once heard was never mistaken, for there was but 
one anima! in the forest that could utter it—the panther. 
When my grandfather heard that yell he turned instantly, 
caught his powder flask and quickly poured the powder in 
his rifle, then felt for the bullet pouch. It was gone, For 
amoment the old man was paralyzed, the next scared, yes, 
seared, for the first time in his life, and great drops of sweat 
came out on his face and fell thick and fast. What should 
he do, what could he do! Oh, for something—lead, iron, 
anything—to put in his rifle. At that moment the terrible 
creature appeared not twenty paces distant, creeping toward 
him, getting ready forthe fatal spring. A glance at the 
sround—there at his feet was a little pile of ice pellets (the 
sreut drops of sweat as they rolled from my grandfather's 
face bad frozen like hailstones before they touched the earth). 
Why could he not catch a handful of them and put in his 
rifle? Surely they would be better than nothing. Nosooner 
thought than done, the rifle was full, chuck; none too svon, 
for as he drew the bead on its head the panther was about 
to spring, not eight paces distant, He fired; the panther 
rolled over and over; and boys, if you will believe it, those 
ice pellets went into that critter’s head so far they melted, 
and he died at once ‘*with water on the brain.” . Ww. 
ADIRONDACK PRESERVATION. 
ye various plans of preserving the forest of the Adiron- 
dacks differ in the question of how and how much, 
The true solution, leaving out all personal and copartnership 
interests, is simple and can be but one. As to the-how, it 
can only be by the State acquirmg absolute proprietorship; 
as to the how much, the line is not so easily drawn, but for 
the simplification of the former question, it may be placed 
as closely to the true source of the Hudson waters as may be, 
but without permitting any complication of the State prop- 
erty’s boundaries by the exclusion of valleys which enter into 
the district necessary to be preserved. This it seems to me 
moreover needful, to avoid the danger of climatic changes 
such as would occur even to the forest region if the adjoin- 
ing valleys were cleared or burned off. The true headwaters 
of the Hudson are to a serious extent already damaged by 
the clearings in the Schroon and Lake George sections. The 
State should appropriate every acre of woodland in that sec- 
tion and as far north and cast in Essex county as the sources 
of the tributaries which run through the Indian Pass, and 
all the forest remaining in the north of Herkimer and its 
adjoining counties of the same range where are the northern 
tributaries of the Mohawk, which river shows within the 
past twenty-five years grave indications of the action of 
freshet in the setting up of its channel. To this ought to be 
added the wild section about Mount Seward as far north as 
the Lower Saranac Lake, and, for the double reason of pre- 
serving the yalleys of the southern tributaries of the St. 
Lawrence and controlling the climate of the whole region as 
far as may be, the Upper Saranac Lake and all south of a 
more or Jess straight line across from ridges north of the 
Saranac Lakes to those north of the headwaters of the Black 
River, and thence following the western water shed of that 
yalley down to, the line of settled country north of the Mo- 
hawk, 
All within this boundary ought to be in the unquestion- 
able control of the State at the earliest possible date. This 
would include much cultivated land and various hotel sites, 
but there is no necessity of reforesting all the district—those 
sections which have been thoroughly reclaimed may be 
leased on Jong leases, and on conditions which will keep the 
tenant from infringing the interests of the State; the hotels 
equally may be leased to their present owners under such 
restrictions us to clearing more land as may be desirable, and 
the whole forest, when under the State proprietorship, may 
be, as European—forests are, leased to the lumberers under 
rigorous conditions as to the size of the trees to be cut and 
the complete disposal of the litter and prevention of fires. 
The wood must be cut at maturity if the forest is to be pre- 
served from conflagration, and the removal of the full-sized 
trees permits the growth of the smaller ones which, without 
some fhinning, will never come forwerd. At present under- 
sized trees are being cut to a very large extent. 
I have spoken of a dam on the Raquette. This construc- 
tion, authorized by one of those nefarious bills which are 
rushed through our Legislature without the knowledge of 
adversely interested parties, was built across a rapid at the 
lower part of a long, level reach of the river, and its effect 
was to flood the bottom land for many miles regardless of all 
proprietary rights on the river. The lumber in the flooded 
district was killed, and when the water fell and fire got in 
great sections were swept by the flames. The aspect of the 
valley is changed very much by if, and the inhabitants, in- 
dignant, but without legal remedy, took steps to blow up 
the dam, with eminent success, so that the level is now 
much reduced, but the valley is ruined. 
Hitherto the State authorities have regarded the whole 
Adirondack country with contempt. Whole townships haye 
been bought, the best timber cut off without payment, and 
the land allowed to lapse back to the State. Nobody at 
Albany cared or looked twice at the affair, and I think that 
if the State were to look rigorously into the titles of all the 
Tands there would many a flaw be found where sheer usurp- 
ation has taken the place of purchase. 
The damming of the rivers should be rigorously prevented, 
except where required in the interest of ihe fisheries, and so 
vigorous and destructive has the lumbering been of late that 
there is little harm to be done by such a restriction, for the 
lumber easily accessible to the rivers is now very little. The 
State in reclaiming the lands could easily afford to open good 
roads to the region, enabling such lumber as may be got 
out with advantage to be moved more easily than it is now 
by water, and to a certain extent facilitate the utilization of 
WETS now do not come to the market, and at the 
ee 4 Pt f H 
7 
same time facilitate the moying of tourists and supplies for 
those inhabitants whom the proposed regulations would re- 
strict in their home production. 
Once the proprietorship of the district is vested in the 
State, all these conditions may be so co-ordinated that no 
important interest shall be infringed and the State itself may 
be relieved from a great portion of the expense of the tenure. 
The forest can be made to pay foritself and still remain a 
forest, which is the desideratum in the matter. At present 
the only interests served are those of speculators, indifferent 
to any good to the State or the community, and to a great 
extent not citizens of it. —Correspondence Hueming Post. 
— Sea and River Sishing. 
SHEEPSHEAD AND BLUEFISH. 
BY BARNWELL ROOSEVELT, 
6 ‘Ty GOT eleven *bunkers from Charlie Green this morn- 
ing,” said the Superintendent to the Commissioner, 
as the latter stepped aboard the Heartsease and ordered the 
men to get under way for a day’s sail and fish. 
“Well, that will be enough to catch all the porgees we 
want,” was the contemptuous reply, as the Commissioner 
busied himself to see that the peak was ‘‘topped up” and the 
mainsheet trimmed just so as to get everything ‘‘out of her’ 
that was possible. 
‘“‘Porgees!” was the grumbling response. ‘I want biue- 
fish. You might as well catch sunfish out of a mill pond as 
porgees; I did not come fiye hundred miles from my home 
in a country village, as you call it, to catch porgees.”’ 
‘‘But suppose that bluefish are not biting,” suggested his 
associate. — 
“Then we must make them bite,” was the confident re- 
tort. 
“That is enough,” the Commissioner responded gaily, as 
he gave the helm up to his sailing master and lighted his 
after-breakfast cigar, ‘‘bluefish you want and bluefish you must 
have. As for myself I had settled my mind on sheepshead, 
but as my rule is always to let my visitors have their own 
way, I shall concede the point and content myself with the 
lively bluefish.”’ 
The Superintendent ruminated. He knew his companion 
well enough to understand that he did not talk idly; he had 
never caught a sheepshead, but he had heard of them, 
had seen their broad sides and positive heads in the market 
and was well aware that they were regarded by many fisher- 
men as the lords of the finny tribe, to whom bluefish were 
as sprats fo whales. So after a while he said meekly: 
“Are you sure you can catch sheephead?” 
“Sure I can catch sheepshead!” was the exclamation of 
response. ‘‘No; an old fisherman like you to ask such a 
question! Is any one ever sure he can catch anything when 
out fishing except a cold in the head? Why. lam not sure 
you will catch a single porgee with all those eleven "bunkers, 
although I believe porgees to be as thick as the historical 
leaves in Vallambrosa.” 
“Then what are you talking about sheephead for?” de- 
manded the Superintendent, one of whose peculiarities it 
was to call sheepshead ‘‘sheephead” for a little variety, just 
as he would address the sailing master as ‘‘Augur,” although 
his name was ‘‘August,” which is as easy to pronounce if 
not easier. 
“Simply because I am told that they are biting, and it is 
a way | have to go fishing when the fish will bite, and for 
the kinds that are biting, in preference to going when they 
are not in the humor, or for those which are at the moment 
making a visit to distant relatives.” 
‘‘Humph,” snorted the Superintendent, for if there was one 
thing he hated more than another it was to be instructed in 
the art of catching fish, in which he supposed he was fueile 
princeps, as we used to say when we were young, and were 
persuaded to it by the use of the rattan of the schoolmaster. 
So they talked ahout the weather till they arrived at the 
“cinderbeds,” which was their favorite spot for inveigling 
bluefish and porgees. They cast anchor, and the Commis- 
sioner, who evidently had no great idea of the prospects for 
sport, said: 
“JT will take August with me and go to the flats off Hast 
Island and dig soft clams for bait for the sheepshead if we 
should conclude to try them after you have caught all the 
bluefish you want. in the meantime you can he fishing for 
porgees.” ; ; 
**Porgees,” grunted the Superintendent, as the other pushed 
off in the smallboat for the island some quarter of a mile 
away, and proceeded to put on a bluefish bait. His com- 
panion was absent about half an hour, and when he returned 
his first greeting was an announcement ‘‘that they were 
biting.” It appeared that the Superintendent had taken the 
cook from his accustomed duties and set him to ‘‘chum- 
ming” and helping fish, to which, being young, he was 
nothing loth, and between them they had several bluefish 
already, with good prospects for more. So the host got out 
his rod as quickly as he could, without even waiting to put 
on his shoes or roll down his pantaloons, which he had con- 
verted into temporary kneebreeches when he was in the pur- 
suit of the secretive softshell clam, and the two were at once 
hard at it and hauling in the finny prey hand over fist, that 
is, by many revolutions of the reel, =. 
‘Do you observe,” cried the Commissioner, as he was 
twirling his reel-handle merrily with a fish of five pounds at 
the end of his line, ‘‘the superiority of the use of a large 
single-barreled reel over the mulliplier? I altered my old 
salmon reel by taking out the click. You haye so much 
more power. No man should ever use a multiplier except 
for bass fishing or casting, and then one like what you have 
on that rod, Imbrie’s new patent, hung on adjustable pivots, 
is the thing.” 
‘‘This will suit me well enough,” retorted his companion, 
contentedly. ‘‘I like my line to come in fast, and want to 
land my fish in something less than an hour apiece,” 
“And work away as though you were grinding coffee,” 
retorted the other. ‘‘I can reel in as fast as the fish will 
come, and that is fast enough, and I don’t have the handle all 
the while slipping away from me and rapping my fingers.” 
At this moment a large catboat, filled with a sailing party, 
many of whom were ladies, passed close to the Heartsease 
ting ejaculation, appar- 
ently uttered in deference 1o the superfluous husband, but ir | 
reality spoken of a recalcitrant fish that had been biting 
without being hooked. ‘‘Thatis the advantage of tying on 
the bait as I adyised you to do; we always do it for striped 
bass, and when the bluefish are shy as they are now, I do the 
same for them, Then, if they miss the hook the first time, 
they do not tear the bait off, so that they get it the second 
bite, but it is in good order to catch them,” 
In their excitement the sportsmen had not followed the 
motions of the catboat, they did not see her keep away in 
front of them, jibe over, and swing up alongside, and the 
first notice they had of an impending visit was the rounding 
to of the boat close aboard. The Commissioner was taken 
aback, his feet were bare, his pantaloons rolled up to his 
knees, his hands were more or less daubed with menhaden, 
and he was in a general state of neglect and disarrangement 
not at all suitable to the reception of that ‘‘beautiful woman” 
of whom he had been speaking so enthusiastically. He did 
his best, however, receiving her, her husband and her 
father with enthusiasm and without apology, but he promptly 
set the Superintendent to getting out some champagne, while 
he slipped into the nearest stateroom, and put on his shoes 
and tidied himself up a bit. Rods were of course laid aside, 
the inferior game neglected for the superior. Jokes, laugh- 
ter and bright smiles pervaded the cabin, and the poor de 
luded fish had a respite. Time flew by till the visitors had 
to bid good-bye. When they were gone and the fishermen 
had resumed their rods and found that the other game had 
taken advantage of the occasion to retire to parts unknown, 
the Superintendent asked sulkiiy, ‘‘How much time haye 
we lost?” 
It is unnecessary to give the Commissioner’s protest against 
this commonplace interpretation of so delightful a change 
from the mere act of catching fish, but he offered to get 
under way and run down to the sheepshead ground which 
was a couple of miles off and near the hotel on Fire Island. 
The offer was promptly approved. There had been wonder- 
ful sheepsheading in the Great South Bay allsummer. These 
valuable and delicious fish had been taken in numbers never 
equaled before, and both the sportsmen were anxious to try 
them. So the yacht was quickly bowling along through the 
intricate channel between the beach and the islands, past 
Olam Pond cove, round Tobey’s flat, close to the net ‘reels 
beyond Sammis’s hotel, nearly to the black buoy off the 
lower shoal. There, anchored entirely across the channel, 
were fifty small boats, and in each of these one or two 
patient, silent, industrious sheepshead fishers. The theory 
has been received from time immemorial, that to catch such 
shy and cunning creatures it was necessary to use the ut- 
most caution, Jo fish from a small boat, to go alone, to 
anathematize every sailing vessel which came within a 
quarter of a mile of you, to whirl your heavy sinker and 
bait over your head at the risk of driving the hooks into 
some sensitive part of your body and to send the line spin- 
ning off a hundred feet from the boat. 
‘‘Why cannot we fish off the deck of the yacht?” de- 
manded the Superintendent with irreverent disregard for all 
these well-established traditions, ‘‘anchor her as near as you 
can and let us try. How deep is the water here, anyway?” 
‘Hour to five fathoms.” 
“You may just as well say it in English.” 
‘Twenty-five to thirty feet,’”’ said the Commissioner, mak- 
ing the correction as gracefully as he could, “I agree with 
you there, there is no sense in taking such precautions when 
the water is so deep and the current as strong as that of a 
mill race.” 
So they came to, not exactly where they would have pre- 
ferred to be but as near the line of fishermen as they dared 
in view of the prejudice which they knew they were con- 
troyening, Then they rigged up their lines. Of course, 
the Superintendent would accept no advice; he had caught. 
salmon trout, the shyest of all fish, when no other man could 
get a bite, and had versed himself in the ways of all the 
denizens of the fresh waters, so he was not to be instructed. 
He hitched ten hooks, one above another, to the line and put 
a whole clam on each hook, When be had baited his trap 
it stretched the entire length of the yacht. The Commis- 
sioner was more modest and merciful, he only put on four 
hooks, but the upper one was fully five feet from his sinker, 
which hung in a loop six inches long from the line. The 
sailing master, who had seen sheepshead caught before, 
looked on in dismay while the distant fishermen wondered 
whether these were new species of nets baited lo make them 
more fatal. Hach sportsman had a stiff rod and a fifteen- 
thread bass line that would lift nearly thirty pounds, while 
a large, long-handled scoop net Jay conveniently on the deck. 
Sheepshead are a peculiar fish, as the Superintendent soon 
found out, They bite and run, to live and biteagain, They 
are not like their fierce brother, the bluefish, but they pick 
up your clam as gingerly as though they loved it, which 
they do, and having gently squeezed it in their powerful 
jaws they drop it with scarcely a twitch on the line to warn 
the deluded sportsman of the fate of his bait. If he dis- 
covers what is going on at all and ‘‘yanks” in approved 
fashion, the hook slips from the trapblock pavement in 
the mouth of the adversary and he takes nothing 
by his motion, lt is all yery well to say, “Wait fill 
the sheepshead has pulled twice and then has picked 
up your bait and gone off with it.” That is excellent. 
But suppose he never goes off with it, but is contented with 
sucking out the softer and more delicate portion and waiting 
till you give him a fresh morsel of tenderness, what are you 
to do then? ‘Have patience,” said the Superintendent. 
“Have luck,” murmured the Commissioner, as he made a 
vicious yank at nothing visible, while his companion fast- 
ened toa big fellow that gave him all he could manage. 
The tide was strong, and the sheepshead, turning their sides 
to it, tear and tear and jerk and pull in a way that makes 
landing them by hand difficult, and with a rod a work of 
uncommon skill and patience. The use of a hand line is a 
coarse business at best, and the loss of temper over the 
tangles it gets into makes it doubly undesirable. To be 
sure, by substituting the rod the fisherman loses the exhil- 
aration of whirling his line over his head and perhaps sink- 
ing the hook into the ears of his attendant or friend, but if 
the bait is quietly dropped over the side of the vessel the 
current will carry it far enough away without ‘‘ze dam 
fioureesh.” So they fished and they fished, and they 
“vanked” and they “yanked,” and the fish sneaked off in- 
stead of behaying like gentlemanly fish and allowing them- 
selves to be caught, and when hooked, which happened to 
about one in ten bites, they broke the lines and smashed the 
hooks till even the patience of the Superintendent, to say 
nothing of Job’s, would have given out. Nevertheless there 
was a reward—some got hooked. Of these a proportion 
eame into the net, and before fishing was over the roomy 
cockpit was full of them, their shape giving them the right 
tq be classed with the blue blood of the dining table, tha 
i 
£ 
