66 



FOREST AND STREAM. 



[Feb. 19, 1885. 



Protective Association and their labors, public opinion is 

 growing:, and the day is not far off when the people of 

 Massachusetts will decide whether they will permit the 

 utter extinction of grouse and quail and moose, deer and 

 caribou in New England and the West, just to please the 

 pockets of a score of the members of tbe Boston Produce 

 Exchange. 



It is stated that the chairman of the committee of ten, 

 after the meeting, said that "the produce dealers of Boston 

 do not object to any wholesome legislation which shall pro- 

 tect our own game, and we will welcome any perfecting of 

 present statutes which will render them efficient, but the 

 attempt to prevent the game dealers of Boston from selling 

 grouse, quail, etc., after Jan. 1 is uncalled for and wrong. 

 It is opposed to the interests of the people, and such legisla- 

 tion ought to be opposed. "We do not need to go into the 

 business of protecting Western game here in Boston. ¥nder 

 the present law we can sell grouse and quail until May 1, 

 and that is well enough. Here in Boston is an association of 

 wealthy gentlemen of leisure who want the game protected 

 until thej- get ready to shoot it. We favor all reasonable 

 protection of our own game, but at great cost these refriger- 

 ators have been constructed for the preservation of foreign 

 game, and we do not feel it to be just that restrictive legis- 

 lation should be continually threatened when no good is to 

 come from it." 



The gentleman showed his hand better than he meant, 

 even if he did make some misstatements. Boston is not 

 obliged to protect Western game, it is true, but "the inter- 

 ests of the people" are broader than the profits of twenty 

 marketmen and the stock in half a dozen refrigerators, 

 which were never built for storing game, but butter, cheese 

 and poultry. The thrust at the Fish and Game Protective 

 Association was as uncalled for as it was untrue. Its mem- 

 bers are not gentlemen of leisure in any sense of the word, 

 but earnest, hardworking merchants and tradesmen. Many 

 of them are members of the Produce Exchange and have 

 their places of business in the Boston markets. They do 

 very little shooting themselves. "We favor all reasonable 

 protection of our game." Alas! our game is about done for in 

 this world. As for "all reasonable protection," if these 

 marketmen are to decide upon reasonableness or unreason- 

 ableness, God pity the little game there is left in other 

 States ! 



One of these very game dealers has frequently boasted that 

 he knew every statute for the protection of either fish or 

 game in any State of the Union to be unconstitutional, and, 

 if he had the time, he could easily raise the money, and 

 could break down any one of these laws, and catch, shoot, 

 buy or sell either fish or game anywhere in the country as he 

 pleased. The remedy for such boasters is a quiet dose of 

 tbe will of the public, which is gravitating very fast toward 

 saving a wholesome seed at least, of our game birds and 

 animals from tbe grip of the avaricious marketman. The 

 reasons why this committee does not object to, and so 

 magnanimously would "help to support our present game 

 laws," is that they actually do permit the produce dealer to 

 buy and sell game just as'he pleases, after a few months of 

 hot weather protection are over. Boston. 



NORTH CAROLINA BATTERIES. 



A MOVEMENT has been inaugurated to repeal that law 

 of North Carolina which forbids non-residents of the 

 State or county to shoot out of batteries. The change 

 originates with and is advocated by Mr. A. J. Forbes, of 

 Jarvisburgh, N. 0. This gentleman's idea is that non- 

 residents of the State should be allowed the same privileges 

 of shooting on the water as are enjoyed by residents. Mr. 

 Forbes is reported to have spoken as follows: 



"The fact is that most of the ducking shores of North 

 Carolina are now owned by shooting organizations composed 

 by Northern gentlemen. These club men visit us every sea- 

 son. They pay taxes to the State on the property they own, 

 whicb, with the money they spend while there, amounts to 

 about $40,000 a year. 1 believe these gentlemen should have 

 the same privileges accorded to them as if they were resi- 

 dents. The residents for the most part are a very poor class 

 of men, few of whom ever paid a dollar tax in their lives. I 

 also would like to see other non-resident sportsmen than the 

 club men have the same privileges accorded to them. At 

 present the law permits the non-residents to shoot only from 

 the shores of the Sound, while the resident can anchor his 

 battery any where or stick his bush-blind in any locality he 

 pleases. This is all wrong and extremely aggravating to the 

 gentleman sportsman, who, after he has set out his decoys 

 and made his blind on the bank, sees some selfish resident 

 market-gunner come along and put out Ins rig right in front 

 the club member and deprive him of all the shooting. I shall 

 try my best to have the old law repealed, my sympathy being 

 with non-resident gunners, whether they are shooting club 

 men or not." 



The rnarket-gunners of the North are, as might be ex- 

 pected, very much interested in the proposal to throw open 

 the waters of Currituck Sound, and do not hesitate to say 

 that they are ready and willing to contribute money to help 

 to pass any such bill. One of them recently said: "The 

 fowl are gunned so much here in Great South Bay, that 

 there is no money in shooting for the market any more. I 

 want to get among them down in Currituck Sound, and we 

 will make it warm for the ducks, the natives and the club 

 men. What do we care for the club men and the natives. 

 What we w r ant is the ducks, and you bet we'll have 'em, too, 

 if tnis law is changed." Another old South Bay gunner, 

 who visits Currituck every winter in his sloop, said: "I hope 

 the bill will pass. No gunner on the shore can compete 

 with the men in the battery. Give me a battery and I'll 

 spoil any shore gunner's shooting. The club men are a lot 

 of stuck up dudes, and 1 am glad to break them up every 

 time. The law, of course, won't let me use a battery, but 

 that is no reason why a resident cannot hire one to shoot for 

 him. In that way we beat the law every year. But this 

 costs money and I want to see the shooting free for every 

 one. There is a lot of money in killing fowl for the market, 

 and if the 'Down Eastcrs' can only get an even chance 

 with the Carolina gunners we can give them points and beat 

 them at their own game. I'll chip in handsomely to see the 

 non-resident law repealed." 



A prominent individual, interested in the sale of game, 

 who requested that his name should not be used, said, when 

 applied to for his views on this subject, "Yes, I have heard 

 of the bill, and for the sake of the business I hope it may 

 pass. As things are now, canvasbacks cost, when purchased 

 from the native gunners, from $1 to $2 a pair; then they 

 have to pass through three or four hands, which adds to the 

 cost, with the freight, a dollar or more. I buy several thou- 

 sand pairs in a season, and by rigging up a boat and sending 



down four or five shooters, 1 can get them much cheaper 

 than by buying them. Perhaps the first year the birds will 

 cost me as much as they do now, because 'the boat and the 

 batteries will have to come out of the profits, but the next 

 year these will have been paid for, and instead of my canvas- 

 backs costing me $3.50 or $3 a pair they will cost less than 

 a dollar. Gunners can be hired pretty cheap, and ammuni- 

 tion and provisions won't come to very much. It will be a 

 good thing for my business. What effect will it have on 

 the supply of fowl ? Oh, well, for a while it will make 

 them plenty in market, but they will soon get scarce again, 

 as they are now. We need something to make the business 

 better than it has heen lately. Game is not as plenty as it 

 used to be, and profits are not as large." 



The effect of the proposed change will of course be to ruin 

 the business of the residents of the seaboard counties of 

 North Carolina, who depend on gunning for a living during 

 the winter. No doubt the movement will be bitterly opposed 

 by the residents of the State, and if it is passed, it will only 

 be by the liberal use of money by the Northern marketmen 

 and gunners. 



DEER IN THE ADIRONDACKS. 



' pHE Curtis bill is the bill to pass. It provides that deer 

 L shall not be hounded at any season. The text of the 

 bill is given in our editorial columns. The petitions must 

 be sent in to us at once, or thej r cannot be used. 



Editor Forest and Stream : 



When in your edition of October 2, 1884, I opened the dis- 

 cussion of game law violations in the Adirondacks, which 

 has since taken so wide and interesting a range in your col- 

 umns, Commissioner R. U. Sherman made haste over his 

 signature to assail my statements as to summer deer shoot- 

 ing, proclaiming my accusation "a gross, and I believe, 

 wanton libel on a class of men [meaning the guides, on 

 whose testimony I largely relied for what I wrote] which, as 

 a class, is as honorable and law-abiding as any engaged in 

 trade or professional life. " All of my statements have been 

 amply confirmed by several of your correspondents who 

 have since discussed the subject. But I cannot refrain from 

 calling attention to the official confirmation which I received 

 in the report made to this same Commissioner Sherman by 

 his subordinate "Peter A. Leonard, Seventh District," quoted 

 m Forest and Stream of Feb. 12, 1885. Mr. Leonard says: 

 "It is certain that the early slaughter of deer — in May, June 

 and July — is carried on beyond the possibility of detection 

 to a large extent in the several forest districts of the Adiron- 

 dacks." 



The "ignorance of 'L.'," on which this State officer dilated 

 with so much vim and satisfaction, may now be con- 

 trasted with the ignorance of General Sherman, who knows 

 (to accept his own statement) less about what is going on 

 in the forest than does one of his subordinates. 



It is hardly necessary for me to point out that this "early 

 slaughter of deer * * * to a large extent in the several forest 

 districts of the Adirondacks" could not be practiced without 

 the assistance and contrivance of a great many guides. 



New York, Feb. 1, 1885. L. 



SOME REMARKABLE SHOTS. 



Editor Forest and Stream: 



I have read with much interest and amusement the re- 

 lations of the many and varied "remarkable shots" in your 

 columns, and I have been overhauling my own career, and 

 ransacking my memory to find something remarkable in my 

 own long record of commonplace hits and misses (the latter 

 largely predominating). I have at last unearthed a remin- 

 iscence from memory's dusty storehouse, in which there 

 occur a whole batch of remarkable shots, all made at one 

 time. 



In 1878 I was engaged in some engineering work on the 

 Mississippi River, not far below Vicksburg, and was stop- 

 ping at the hospitable house of old Mr. Sim Crow, a planter, 

 and, by the way, the Mrs. Partington of that locality. When 

 I showed him some pebbles I had picked up on the river 

 bank, he observed sententiously, "There's a heap o' them 

 putrified rocks about here. You find 'em in stratagems of sand 

 and bJue clay." The old fellow was very fond of a game of 

 euchre, which we indulged in every night. Being at his 

 house on Sunday ho proposed a game. [ demurred some- 

 what to the proposal, on the ground that my education and 

 former associations gave me a prejudice against that kind of 

 indulgence on Sunday. He looked very much hurt, and 

 said, "Well, I like to see moralization going on myself, but 

 1 didn't think there was any harm in playin' a game of 

 euchre." But, I am wandering sadly away from my "re- 

 markable shots." 



Mr. Crow's plantation was at the lower end of Davis's 

 Bend Lake, a former bend of the Mississippi River, seventy- 

 five miles long, which had been converted into a lake by a 

 recent "cut off." Upon the inclosed island are the planta- 

 tions of Mr. Jefferson Davis, ex-President of the defunct 

 Confederacy. This lake was then, and is now, the resort of 

 countless numbers of ducks and geese. They were "conk- 

 ing" and quacking and swarming about, day and night. I 

 determined one night to try my hand on some of them the 

 next morning. The lower end of the lake, for a quarter of 

 a mile of its extent, was partially filled up with mud and 

 sand, with some water in the depressions. This was the 

 roosting place of vast numbers of the wildfowl. 



I got out earlv in the morning, having in one hand a 

 double-barreled shotgun heavily loaded with buckshot, and 

 in the other a repeating rifle. I had only to walk about two 

 hundred yards from the house to reach the bank of the lake. 

 Here I saw in the depression below me, in tbe pools and on 

 the mud, an immense congregation of ducks and geese, 

 which had not yet taken flight for their morning's meal. 

 The nearest ones were about one hundred yards from my 

 position. I leaned the repeater against a stump, and raising 

 the shotgun I lumbered away with both barrels into the 

 thickest of the throng. Then quickly seizing the rifle I 

 poured shot after shot into the retreating mass, until they 

 were out of sight. Between my fusillade and the racket 

 made by the fowl there was a terrible din for a minute or 

 two. When silence was restored I descended to the battle- 

 field, where I expected to find that the "peace of Warsaw" 

 reigned, intending to remove the dead and wounded. My 

 search was rewarded by finding one dead baldpate. 1 could 

 discover no shot or bullet wound on him, and concluded 

 that he was scared to death. Coahoma. 



Memphis, Term. 



Editor Forest and Stream: 



About the year 1855 Van Ess Russell, on the beach of 

 Lake Pleasant, Hamilton county, N. Y., shot a deer running 



directly from him. The deer fell dead, but upon going up 

 to it no wound was discoverable. Upon dressing the deer, 

 however, it was found that the ball had entered the vent 

 and passed lengthwise of the body, lodging in the heart. 



r, C. N. C. 



Palatine Bridge, N. Y. 



Ohio Game Prospects.— Toledo, O., Feb. 10.— Yester- 

 day a storm of rain and sleet left the snow (already nearly 

 two feet deep) with a crust of two inches upon it, and to-day 

 the thermometer is again below zero. This will prove ex- 

 tremely trying if not fatal to a great deal of the wild game 

 of Northern Ohio, especially as the winter has been one of 

 the coldest known here for a generation. In some cases the 

 quail have to come into the barnyard, only to meet the 

 sneaking, murderous house cat, and to be picked up one by 

 one. Feed the birds and strangle the miserable cat.— B, ' 



Princeton, N. J., Feb: 14.— Charles Hubbard, New Jer- 

 sey's famous colored hunter, trapper and guide, died yester- 

 day of hasty consumption, aged forty-five years. Hubbard 

 was a favorite with Princeton College students, and was 

 well known to many old graduates now living in different 

 parts of the country. He was a Union soldier in the late 

 war, and was well known in the West and South. He was 

 a crack shot, a taxidermist and a snake trainer. He had few 

 equals in his line of business. For a long time he was West 

 with Prof. Scott, of the College of New Jersey. 



European Game Birds.— The trade in live European 

 game birds is only in its infancy. Messrs. Chas. Reiche & 

 Bro., of Chatham street, this city, have at different times 

 imported several hundred European partridges and English 

 pheasants. It will be seen elsewhere they now have a 

 consignment on hand, and clubs desiring these birds for 

 stocking purposes will do well to communicate with them. 



North Carolina.— Kittrell, Feb. 14.— The quail shoot- 

 ing has been good this year. Thirty to fifty a day to two 

 guns is not unusual. Woodcocks are going north, a few 

 being brought in every day. — D. 



|u# and Miver 



HINTS ON TOOLS AND TACKLE. 



CLICKS and drags. 



Editw Forest and Stream: 



In a recent number of your journal "Petra" wishes to 

 know why both a click and a drag are used in the same reel. 

 I think I can shed a little light on the matter. 



As they now exist, in some reels, the combination might 

 be termed a "mechanical tautology." But this condition is 

 the perverted outgrowth of what was originally a valid and 

 useful arraugement. The manufacture of the now famous 

 Kentucky reel was first begun some thirty- five years ago. 

 They were, and are still, made with a drag and an "alarm," 

 both being operated by flat, sliding buttons. The use of the 

 drag is obvious in such a free-running reel. The alarm con- 

 sists of a piece of thin watch spring bent back upon itself 

 somewhat in the form of an elongated "U," one end being 

 attached to the sliding block, the other end free, to engage 

 in the small steel pinion on the end of the shaft of the spool. 

 This reel was originally made for bait-fishing only, and the 

 "alarm" was not intended in any sense to represent, or sub- 

 serve tbe functions of a "click" proper, the spring not being 

 stiff enough to retard the action of the reel. It was invented 

 to meet the requirements of still-fishing, where the butt of 

 the cane rod was frequently stuck in the bank (often by a 

 spike provided for that purpose), thus relieving the lazy 

 angler from the necessity of holding the rod or watching his 

 float while waiting for a "bite," until the singing of the 

 "alarm" announced that welcome contingency. 



Now a "click" proper is a very different affair from the 

 "alarm" of the Kentucky reel. The former is a pall engaging, 

 constantly and permanently, with the shaft pinion, and 

 operated by a strong spring, so as to materially retard the 

 action of the reel, and is used only in reels intended for fly- 

 fishing. Originally all such reels were the single-action 

 "clickreels," but now many multiplying reels are made to 

 subserve the same purpose by an "adjustable click," that is, a 

 click which can be readily thrown m or out of gear. This 

 is a very good arrangement, and all expensive multiplying 

 reels should be constructed in this way, so as to admit of 

 their being used for either bait or fly-fishing. In this case 

 the adjustable click answers also all the purposes of a ' 'drag," 

 rendering the latter superfluous. 



And now for the reason why the click and drag exist in 

 combination in some reels. Of late years the popularity and 

 excellence of the "Kentucky" multiplying reel induced 

 Eastern manufacturers to imitate it. This would be all well 

 enough if they produced an exact imitation; but not realiz- 

 ing the proper function of the "alarm," they substituted for 

 it the well-known "click," and also retained the "drag," so as 

 to conform to the outward appearance aud ostensible construc- 

 tion of the Kentucky reel. As Mr. Wells says: "This com- 

 bination reel was made to sell." 



I have always advised those ordering the Kentucky reel 

 either to have the alarm spring made stiff enough to act as a 

 click, and to discard the drag; or to discard the alarm alto- 

 gether, and have the drag spring made light enough to sub- 

 serve the purposes of fly-fishing. I like the latter plan the 

 best. 



SNELLS AND GIMP. 



In the snelling of hooks, any of the plans recommended 

 by your correspondent will answer; I use wax and shellac 

 varnish. The most important features to be observed 

 in the operation are, when seizing the gut or gimp to the 

 shank of the hook, to wind the silk closely and tightly, and 

 to varnish it thoroughly with shellac. For hooks and flies 

 for black bass, salmon or large trout, the best plan is that 

 recommended by "Calif ornian" of seizing a small loop of gut 

 or line to the hook or fly, and providing a loop in each end 

 of the snell. This is far superior to the old method of 

 attaching the snell directly to the shank, for the reasons given ; 

 but for the smallest trout flies, or very small hooks, the latter 

 plan may stiil be followed. 



THE MOST BT/CCESSPTJL FLY. 



Since the day of Charles Cotton "the most successful fly" 

 has been a mooted question, and never has been and never 

 will be answered satisfactorily to the craft generally, for 

 while one particular fly maybe eminently successful in some 



