470 
A Costiy Brrp —Mr. Kramer, a shoe dealer in Iowa 
City, obtained a ruffed grouse recently, which cost him some 
$45. He was standing in the front of his store, when the 
frightened bird came dashing against one of the plate glass 
windows, shivering it to atoms, and fell dead on the side- 
walk. The glass was five-sixteenths of an inch thick, some 
forty Inches broad, aud nine feet long. The bird struck it 
about twenty inches from the top and near the center of the 
width. Mr. K.’s store is in the central business portion of 
the city.—YioLEetT 8. WinurtAms (Coralville, lowa). 
Lovrwoop, N. Y., Dec. 12.—Rabbits are killed in large 
numbers. One party killed eighteen the other day in a few 
hours. While out by a cornfield a few days ago ten grouse 
were flushed; they were the largest sized birds of any covey 
seen in years, Fire and the Jumberman have taken all of 
the large timber; and the thick growth of bushes is the 
natural abode of the grouse and a hindrance to the sports- 
man, therefore the birds increase every year.—J. H. A, 
PENNSYLVANIA Win~pcat —Athens, Pa,, Dec. 26. 1884. 
-——Frank Hoose, while hunting foxes on Christmas Day, 
about three miles from here, found the tracks of a wildcat, 
which he proceeded to follow up and kill. It measured 38 
inches in length. I have it mounted, and it attracts con- 
siderable attention, as it is the first one killed here in a great 
many years. There is still another in the yicinity.—PArx. 
HOoRNELLSVILLE, N. Y., Dec. 27.—Deer have been quite 
plentiful here this season; 1 Have a record of sixteen killed 
within five miles of here. When after grouse Dec. 2, I saw 
two fine ones, a large buck and doe. I believe there is a 
strain of large foxes here, one was killed last season that 
weighed twenty and a half pounds, one the 18th that weighed 
nineteen pounds.—J. Orrs FELLOWS. 
Micuiesn Assocration.—Grand Rapids, Mich., Jan, 1, 
1855,—Please notice that the next annual session of the 
Michigan Sportsmen's Association will be held at Lansing, 
commencing on Tuesday, Feb. 3, 1885, and accept the com- 
pliments of the season from yours truly, E. §. Houmegs. 
Sea and River Sishing. 
THE MOST KILLING FLIES. 
Eiditer Forest and Stream: 
As any fisherman’s experience may be of some value, I 
give mine regarding trout flies. 
I have fished the John Brown’s Tract—that is, the south- 
western partof the New York Wilderness—for many years, 
and a large majority of my trout have been taken with four 
flies, im about this order: Red ibis, B. A. G., grizzly king 
and golden spinner. 
J have fixhed largely in the small mud-bottom lakes or 
ponds of this region, where the water is very dark, and have 
almost inyariably found the ibis the most takingfly. Though 
Thave kept no accurate account, I have no doubt that at 
least three fifths of the trout I have taken in these ponds 
were taken on this fly. 
& Regarding the B. A. G.; It was partly to introduce this 
fly to your readers that [ commenced this letter. It was in- 
vented in this part of the country, and as it had no name, 
one of our tackle dealers, who first kept it in stock, gave it 
one. 
It has white wings, dark red hackle legs and a red body; 
in fact, a coachman with a red body, if such a thing is 
possible. 
I haye found it very taking when used as a stretcher in 
the West Canada Creek and similar streams, and strongly 
recommend your fishing readers to try it, especially if they 
have a large, clear, rapid stream to fish, » BA. G. 
Urioa, N, Y. 
ECHOES FROM THE TOURNAMENT. 
y HILE the tournament was in progress Mr. W. Goold 
Levison, director of the Cooper Union Chemical 
Laboratory, took a series of instantaneous photographs of 
the contestants by means of the new Brainerd hand cameras 
of which two sizes were used. Some of the pictures wire 
taken from the shore and some from a boat anchored off the 
stage. Owing to the poor quality of the lights, partly be- 
cause of hazy weather and partly because of the lateness 
of the season, the pictures are not evenly good and the 
small ones average the best. They illustrate in a very inter- 
esting way the characteristic styles of thecontestants. Two 
sizes of pictures were made, 2x3 inches and 5x7 inches, only 
three of the latter, however. The negatives were given to 
Mr. W. T. Gregg, optician, 77 Fulton street, New York, 
who has printed from them. The pictures include the 
following: 
1, Building the platform, President Endicott giving 
directions; 2, measuring the line, Mr. James Benkard in the 
foreground. 
Class A.—Amateur single handed fly-casting, small pic- 
tures taken from a boat, looking toward the shore: 3, Samuel 
Polhamus at the score; 4, Wallace Blackford casting with 
his left hand; 5, ©, A. Rauch, forward throw; 6, C. G. 
Levison, delivering his fies; 7, taking a photo from shore. 
Cluss B.—Amateur single handed fly-casting, small pic- 
tures taken from the shore: 8, O. G. Levison recovering the 
line; 9, the same on the forward stroke; 10, the same delivering 
the flies; Dr. A. D. Leonard recovering, with rud curved back 
at an angle of 45 degrees; 12, E. G. Blackford sitting on 
box watching his son cast; 18, F. Mather and E. G. Black- 
ford in foreground of audience looking at the casting; 14, 
Prof, A. M, Mayer, Rev. H. L. Ziegenfuss and M, Bissett, 
discussing the situation. 
Class D.—Expert single-handed fly-casting, small pictures 
from shore; 15, R. C. Leonard at beginning of forward 
cast, with rod straight at angle of 45 behind; 16, Tom 
Prichard in the rolling or “Wye” cast, with rod well behind 
and hand above the head; 17, the same delivering the flies 
with tip of rod on water; 18, Thos. J. Conroy, heginning of 
cast with rod curved far behind and hand in front and above 
the hat; 19, the same reeling off more line before recover- 
ing; 20, the same starting the line from the water, James 
Ramsbottom kneeling behind him; 21 (large picture), W. 
W, Abbott reeling off line before retrieving; 22, Thomas 
Prichard with hand above head and tip of rod on the water 
behind; 23, the same leaning forward with tip of rod in 
water in front. 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
ering the minnow; 25, Prof. A. M, Mayer practicing from 
: be ; 35 (large picture), Prof. yMayer practicing from 
ridge, : 
Salmon a 26, Thos. B. Mills raising the flies from 
the water, with Ira Wood crouched behind him. 27, H. W. 
Hawes making the cast; 28, a stranger in the foreground on 
bench, next him F. Mather and Mr, J, ©, McAndrew mak- 
ing up the score, EF. G. Blackford and F. A. Walters‘stand- 
ing near; 29, President Endicott talking to a group; 30, Mr. 
Endicott putting the gold medal on Mr. Hawes; 31, ‘‘Two 
of the Finest.” 
Heavy bass casting: 82, Thos, B, Mills checking the run; 
33, Mr, J. A. Roosevelt, ‘away she goes;” 34 (large picture), 
the same with group among whom is the yeteran, William 
Mitchell, watching the flight. 
The pictures are instructive, and they show one of two 
thiugs, either the rule laid down to stop the rod when it is 
about perpendicular on the recovery is not a good one, or 
that our crack casters do not belieye in it, That they do not 
follow it the photograph shows. It also shows some very 
ungraceful positions, which naturally follow attempts at 
long casting, This latter is not at all important, but some 
of the casters threw the rod further back than either the 
spectators or themselves were aware of. In fact, several of 
the photographs show a total disregard of all the rules Jaid 
down for handling the rod. It is to be remembered, how- 
ever, that all the pictures were taken when the men were ex- 
erting themselves to cast to the greatest distance, They are 
curious und instructive in a certain way, but we do not care 
to reproduce them to show the youthful caster how to handle 
his rod, There are some exceptions to the general back 
slashing, but as the photographing process was instantaneous, 
itis impossible to say but what a second later would have 
seen the tip of the rod in the water behind. To the youth- 
ful angler some of the views might serve as ‘‘awful exam- 
ples” of back slashing, 
Wii1ram Buarrk Lorp,—Many of our readers will be 
pained to learn of the death of Mr. William Blair Lord in 
this city on Sunday, Dec. 21. Mr. Lord was a well-known 
angler, and a member of the National Rod and Reel Associa- 
tion. He was about sixty years of age, @nd thirty years ago 
went to Washington as a stenographic reporter. Until the 
Congressional Globe was started, in 1858, he reported the 
House proceedings for the Union, a newspaper of that day 
which published verbatim reports. With the determination 
of Congress to give official weight to the reports, for which 
purpose the Globe was started, Mr. Lord was attached to the 
House corps of stenographers, retaining that connection 
until his death. The work of these men, in comparison 
with which the demands on ordinary court or speech-taking 
stenographers are trifling, brings them into frequent and in- 
timate contact with members of the House, und makes 
friendships that are not often paraded, but which stand on a 
basis of sincere respect. Such relations existed between Mr. 
Lord and bluff Ben Wade. He was on cordial terms also 
with Stephen A. Douglas, Garfield, Blaine, Fernando Wood, 
Samuel J, Randall, and hosts of others, uring his yaca- 
tion seasons he met friends whom he had made at Washing- 
ton, wherever he went, and his trayels, official and unofficial, 
took him to wll parts of the country. Possessing in a high 
degree the faculty of anecdote and reminiscenec, Mr. Lord 
had intended to put in book form many of the incidents that 
had come to his notice in connection with public men, but 
he never found time to do it. 
Hooxs on Givp.—Sing Sing, N. Y., Dec. 22.—Hdtior 
Forest and Stream: Ina late issue Mr. H. P. Ufford asked 
if some of your clientele could give him some points on tying 
the snell to the hook, and what were the best materials, I 
have had some experience, and will tell him what I use. In 
buying gut get moderate size, and judge it more by the 
quality than by the size. [use shoemaker’s wax in prefer- 
ence to beeswax, as 1f holds much better. In winding heavy 
hooks J use button-bole twist, and light hooks common sew- 
ing silk; and in buying hooks [ buy Limerick Sproat hooks 
(I think that’s the name). Commence winding about a quar- 
ter of an inch from the bend and wind toward the top; 
fasten with three simaple knots and varnish with shellac. 
The color of the silk makes very little difference, but I think 
alight buff is the best. Barbless hooks are not worth a 
cent, for you lose your fish every time if the line should get 
slack. I cannot inform him of any good hunting place in 
Minnesota, as 1 always go to Canada for mine; but if he 
will go to Montreal, and go up the river on the northern side 
till he comes to a small town by the name of Yamacleiche, 
and yo directly north, he will find good bear, grouse, cari- 
bou and moose shooting in season.—PrrE, 
Proressor DAvip STARR JORDAN, well-known through 
the country for his extensive works on ichthyology, has been 
unanimously chosen president of the Indiana State Univer- 
sity, at Bloomington, of which he has occupied the chair of 
professor of zoology for some three years. The honor came 
entirely unsonght, as at the time he was desirous that Dr. 
Coulter, of Wabash College, should be selected to the posi- 
tion, and there were forty other distinguished names pre- 
sented for the position. For some time past there have been 
rumors that Prof. Jordan was about to spend a year in Lon- 
don to rearrange and classify the collection of American 
fishes in the British Museum at the request of Dr. Guenther, 
the ichthyologist of the museum. rof. Jordan is now 
thirty-five years old, and a graduate of Cornell University in 
the class of 1871. While his reputation as an ichthyologist 
is world-wide, he is distinguished in many other brauches of 
learning. We congratulate Prof. Jordan on his promotion, 
and also congratulate the Indiana State University on its 
selection of so thorough a scholar for its president. 
STE. MARGUERITE SALMON RiyER.—The season for leas- 
ing salmon rivers has come round, and the Canadian streams 
now offered are numerous, The Ste. Marguerite is said to 
be one of the best of these in the number and size of its sh. 
Of this stream Mr. J. M. LeMoine says in his ‘Chronicles 
of the Lower St. Lawrence;” ‘This river has all the tugged 
beauty of the Saguenay ona smaller scale. Hidden amidst 
the silence of the forest primeval, far away from the haunts 
of civilized man, it rejoices in some of the most magnifi- 
cent scenery on the continent—its eddies and roaring rapids, 
wheeling occasionally around perpendicular capes as lofty 
as those of capes Eternity and Trinity, are varied by a suc- 
cession of deep, quiet pools, in which the lordly salmon, 
fresh from the briny billows of St, Lawrence, disports him- 
self at leisure, carefully guarded from poachers by vigilant: 
Minnow casting for black bass: 24, H. W. Hawes deliv- } overseers,” 
a er 
[Jaw. 8, 1885. 
THE Late Lawrence §, Kann, the financial editor of 
The Times, who died at No. 172 Garfield place, Brooklyn, 
on the 24th ultimo, was a keen and fair sportsman, one of 
a class that is unfortunately rare. In moments of leisure 
and in the strict line of journalistic duty he wrote many sen- 
sible and faithful articles on sporting matters, and he had a 
general and correct knowledge of sporting dogs, He wrote 
several exhaustive and agreeable reports of the bench shows 
of the Westminster Kennel Club. He was an enthusiastic 
fly-fisher, and the waters of New York State and North- 
eastern Pennsylvania can bear testimony to his skill and suc- 
cess as a fly-caster. He was aw fait in Florida fishing and 
did his angling for black bass at Henderson Harbor on Lake 
Ontario, Mr. Kane was a charming, unaffected and whole- 
souled companion in the field and by the water, and those 
who this year will visit the haunts he loved so well will miss 
him,—AMATEUR. 
LHishenlture, 
LOCH LEVEN TROUT EGGS IN AMERICA. 
es steamer Furnessia, of the Anchor line, arrived on Jan, 
1, with six cases containing 100,000 eggs of the famous 
Loch Leven trout for Prof. 8. F. Baird, Commissioner of Fish- 
eries for the United States, The eggs were taken to the Cold 
Sprins Harbor hatchery, on Long Island, and were there re- 
acked, 10,000 being Bp pes to the Bisby Club, inthe Adiron- 
Raabe, of which Gen. RK, U. Sherman, of the N. Y, F. C., is 
president, and the remainder to the U. 8. hatchery at North- 
ville, Mich., care Mr. ¥. N. Clark. The packages were made 
with great care, and the moss packing was fitted by 
machinery and arranged with a tray forice ontop. The eggs 
arrived in excellent condition. few dead or indented. 
The Loch Leven trout are famous throughout Scotland and 
England, and are deseribed by Dr. Guenther, Catalogue of 
Fishes mm the British Museum, as Salmo levenensis, and their 
dental formation is figured to show the differences between 
them and the Kuropean brook trout (8S. fario). We are not 
familiar enough with the fish to express an opinion on this 
matter, and have never heard that there had been any doubts 
cast on the validity of S. levenensis as a species. Therefore, 
we read the following from the London Fishing Gazette with 
aupHee: 
“The Loch Leven trout is a pure Salmo fario, and one of the 
yery best strains that can be obtained for stocking purposes. 
We have had ample proof that it has done well when trans- 
planted to our slow South of England trout streams, though, 
of course, it loses somewhat of the superb flavor of the fish 
which are bred in Loch Leven.” 
Tf this is the case, then the fish will be a valuable addition 
to our streams as well as lakes, for we believe that the fario is 
not second to any trout, either for sport or table. : 
THE MENHADEN QUESTION. 
Editor Forest and Stream: 
I wish to present a few more facts in regard to our coast 
fishery. 
Fires —It is well known that menhaden migrate to our coast 
for food and proper places for reproduction, and many other 
kinds of fish follow, feeding on them, 
Second.—Menhaden as mackerel bait and feed. I will cite 
what I have seen while fishing for mackerel on George’s Banks 
in the year 1852, When approaching the tishing sround we 
inet a school of menhaden going a westerly course and it took 
the vessel five hours to sail through it, estimated by the 
skipper to be twenty-five miles in length, Feeding on these 
fish at the surface were whales, sharks, and swordfish; hover- 
ing oyer the school were thousands of sea birds gathering the 
bits that floated on the surface. After passing through this 
body of fish, to the east the vessel was luffed to for mackerel 
by lowering the jib and foresail, and guying off the mainsail, 
and if the wind was west the drift was due east. Salted 
menhaden was ground fine and thrown into the water, as 
this bait sinks. If there are any mackerel near they soon come 
to the surface and side of the yessel. At this tial they were 
soon alongside, sixteen men were in position with two lines 
each. The catch was from five to ten fish of the largest size 
to each man, ‘hen the fish left, and this was the average 
of many trials that day, in the rear of that large school of 
menhaden. ‘The splitting knife proved that they were feeding 
on the pieces that sunk from the massacre at the surface, and 
they preferred fresh menhaden to the salt. Follow this great 
boa@y of tish for a few days and you would find it divided into 
many schools and they would be found along the shores and 
in the bays and rivers, from Cape Cod to Hastport, Maine, 
other large schools being off shore at the same time, and a 
large portion of these filling the water with their spawn that 
will soon fll these waters with live feed that ail of the haok 
fish eagerly scek, from the fry to the full grown fish. There 
could be seen more large mackerel then in one week’s cruise 
than can now be found in a whole season. The hook fish and 
lobsters haye disappeared seventy-five per cent, from these 
shores since the menhaden has been gra iually used up and 
annihilated fromthese waters. The bluetish have disappeared 
from Vineyard Sound to Rhode Island fifty per cent, since 
the menhaden have been crowded off shore. 
With a gradual decrease of hook fish, and a growing demand 
for the same, the shore fishermen have adopted trap-tishine 
till nearly every favorable locality along our coast is occupied 
with the most improved traps. For weeks together these 
traps will hardly catch fish enough to pay for their care, then 
there may be a rush of fish to the shores and all get good 
hauls and all ship them to market at once, when there may 
be a glut in the market. The consumer gets no benefit from 
this rush of fish, for the next week the dealer pays double its 
value it he gets any at all. rar 
Third,—In 1875 Mr. E, M. Stilwell, Fish Commissioner of 
Maine, wrote to Prof. Baird, asking his opinion as to the 
robable cause of the rapid diminution of the supply of feod_ 
Hatiss on the coast of New England, and especially of Maine. 
Extract from Prof. Baird’s reply; ‘‘In the early spring the 
alewives formerly made their appearance on the coast, 
crowding along our shores and ascending the rivers in order 
to deposit their spawn, being followed later in the season b: 
the shad and salmon, returning when their eggs were laid. 
These tish spend the summer aiong the coast, and in the 
course of a few months were joined by their young which 
formed immense schools in every direction, extending outward 
in some instances for many miles. It was in pursuit of these 
and other summer tish that the cod and other species referred 
to, come to the shores, but with the decrease of the former in 
numbers the attraction became less and less and the deep sea 
fishing has now, we may say, almost dissapeared along the 
coast. It is therefore perfectly safe to assume that the 
improvement of the line fishing along the coast of Maine is 
closely connected with the increase in alewives, shad and 
salmon, All of these fish were but ‘a drop in the bucket’ 
compared with the mighty host of menhaden that existed im 
these waters thirty years ago It is my opinion that if this 
fish had not been used up for its oil, it would have become so 
numerous long before (his that it would have crowded itself 
along the North Atlantic till it reached the Gulf of St, 
Lawrence, and migrating southward in the fall of each year 
it would have fiooded most of the New England shores with 
line fish from these waters, _ Te te ee 
Fourth.—How large bodies of fish are cared for on the 
European coast. ‘The herring fishery has been protected by 
