[Jan. 39, 1885, 



FOREST AND STREAM. 



9 



Relieve that more deer have been killed and sent to market, 

 since snow came, than were killed during the open months. 

 What Gen. Sherman s8ys iu his hatchery report of the 

 poaching tendencies of most of the inhabitants of southern 

 Hamilton county is certainly true, but they are not so 

 bad now as they used to be, and such a law as I advo- 

 cate would stop another bad failing of theirs. The game 

 constable of this section promised us to watch them this 

 past month. If he accomplished anything, we have not 

 heard of it, but we hope to get a report from him soon 

 that may tell another story. M. S. Nokthkup. 

 Johnstown, N. Y. 



Hunting deer with dogs has been absolutely forbidden iu 

 all the towns of Washington county by the Board of Super- 

 visors, who also legalized the shooting or otherwise killing of 

 doss while chasing or tracking deer. The residents of Dres- 

 den. Fort Ann and Putnam will see to it that the latter part 

 of the enactment is fully obeyed, both by their neighbors and 

 outsiders. ' 



We have for distribution a printed petitiou to abolish deer- 

 hounding in the Adirondacks. It will be sent to any one 

 ■who will secure signatures. The petition reads as follows: 

 To the Honorable, the Legislature of the Stale of New York: 



We, the undersigned, residents of the county of , 



N". Y., respectfully petition chat Chapter 543 of Laws of 1874, 

 entitled "An act for the preservation of moose, wild deer, 

 birds, fish and other game," be so amended as to absolutely 

 prohibit the chasing, running and hunting of moose and wild 

 deer with dogs, at any season of the year, on the ground that 

 such chasing, running and hunting with dogs is very destruc- 

 tive to such game and is rapidly destroying the same. 



OPEN RIFLE SIGHTS. 



Editor Forest and Stream: 



The greatest obstacle in the way of rifle shooters, who 

 have reached that age when spectacles are necessary, is their 

 inability to see their sights and draw a bead, as in younger 

 years. 



While a man at fifty can do nearly or quite as well 

 with globe sights as ever, he finds himself all at sea with 

 open sights of the usual kind. The Lyman sight, wmich 

 supplies^ long-felt want, while it is practically an open 

 sight, would be ruled out of most country matches with all 

 oilier aperture sights. 



I have used an open sight, with which a shooter of 

 fifty can do better work than he could with the old kiud at 

 thirty. Such, at least, is my own experience. 



The back sight should be as near the eye as possible— close 

 up like a peep" sight, straight across the top, the notch simply 

 a perpendicular slot of uniform width, one-fiftieth wide and 

 three-fiftieths deep. The front sight must be black, of 

 usual height (one-eighth to three-sixteenths) and the thick- 

 ness of a dime, wdiich may vary according to the distance 

 they are apart. 



In looking through them the notch will assume the shape 

 of a half circle, and bave a dim twilight look, through which 

 the front sight can be clearly defined on a white object. 

 The effect is very similar to that of globe sights. A square 

 white target, in size about 5 to 6 inches for 50 yards, 10 

 inches for 100 yards, will be found to give the best results, 

 the advantage being iu fivror ol large target.?, »<s tfco center 

 can lie as caiily located as on a small one, and will enable 

 the marksman to hold for wind, etc., a great help in the 

 absence of wind gauges. Skeptic. 



Michigan. 



January Dogging.— A correspondent writes from Alder 

 Bend, Clinton county, this State, under date of Jan. 16: 

 "The woods about Chazy and Chateaugay lakes are full of 

 deer-hounders to-day." 



County Laws. — Will our correspondents favor us with 

 copies of county or other local laws relating to game or fishV 



Texas.— El Paso, Jan. 13.— Wildfowl shooting is good 

 here. The large game is growing scarce. — G. W. B. 



\m and Miter 



LARGE CATFISH AND PIKE. 



DURING the days of the Pennsylvania Canal, Leesburg, 

 Pa., was a famous fishing place for Pittsburgh gen- 

 tlemen, and being easy of access, some splendid sport was 

 had. 



Col. Ulam kept a hotel, at which all the sportsmen stopped. 

 The largest fish caught by any was a catfish of 100 pounds, 

 and shortly after, by another party, one of 50 pounds. The 

 big pike mentioned some time ago by "Little Sandy," was 

 caught by a party from Pittsburgh, who came annually about 

 the time the leaves began to fall to trail for pike, and loudly 

 was their coming hailed by the boys, as it meant many a dol- 

 lar for getting bait. 



Among them was Col. , and Messrs. Douglas and 



Mr. Gray. They had agreed to fish till a certain hour, when 

 the side getting the least weight of fish was to pay for the 



trip. On the last day the side headed by Col. was 



badly left, a fact that made the Colonel very blue. So he 

 got a fine lot of chubs and went up to Kepple's Point 

 for a last trial. Floating down the slackwater in his cop- 

 per boat, he hooked a monster pike just opposite where 

 D. B. Ashbaugh now lives, and after about three hours' &ard 

 fighting safely landed him. 



This was triumph enough for one day, so putting a stick 

 through the fish's gills he shouldered him up and marched 

 proudly into town with the tail of the fish dragging on the 

 ground. A scale was procured, and the pike on being 

 weighed put the Colonel's side far ahead of the others, who 

 had, by reason of the lucky catch, to pay for the trip. 



At that time this slack water was the home of a fish locally 

 known as the "whitefish," which for table qualities was 

 sought for far and near. It was somewhat like a bass, but 

 smaller-mouthed aud deeper through from the back. It was 

 a magnificent biter on small minnow r s, but not game. I have 

 gone out when a boy with my uncles or grandfather and 

 had royal sport with this fish. One morning in particular I 

 caught five while uncle was fixins: his rod and line. 



Here, by the way, is a good pike, too. One morning 

 grandfather had come down to the river to wait for a packet- 

 boat due, to apprise the captain that his wife was sick. See- 

 ing the wake of a large fish coming toward him, he sat 

 perfectly still, but the fish turned and went back. In a few 



minutes he saw it again, when it came to shore and got 

 among some locust brush and became entangled, when the 

 old man sprang on it, and getting one hand in its gills and 

 the other under its body he carried it to the towing path and 

 laid down across his fish, thus holding it until it exhausted 

 itself. This fish when swung from his shoulder touched 

 the ground. 



These are not "fish" stories but facts that can be vouched 

 for, and many more from this fisherman's paradise now 

 passed away forever, by reason of the breaking of the dam. 



Witt Montgomery. 

 Leechbuhq, Pa, 



SNELLING HOOKS. 



Editor Forest and Stream: 



Under the caption of "bnell, Snood and Gimp," "J. W. 

 T." brings up a question well worthy of a thorough discus- 

 sion by auglers. The best method I have tried is as follows: 

 Grasp the hook by the beud in a pair of pliers, and heat the 

 tapered end of the hook in the flame of a spirit lamp till it 

 will melt wax readily. Then give it a coating by rubbing it 

 on a lump of shoemaker's wax. The hook should be hot 

 enough to burn it on, so as to form a smooth" even coat of 

 wax. Then tie on snell in the usual way with waxed silk 

 thread and finish with shellac. An occasional coat of shel- 

 lac will preserve them till worn out. They will never slip. 



The object of using the pliers is not only to prevent burn- 

 ing the fingers, but to prevent the heat drawing the temper of 

 the hook above where it is grasped by the pliers. N. 



Editor Forest and Stream: 



Will you allow mc, through your columns, to return 

 thanks to the many kind friends who have answered my 

 queries as regards snelling, etc. Lack of time forbid my 

 answering them personally, or rather, individually, and I 

 trust tbey will accept this public acknowledgment of their 

 kindness shown to an entire stranger. Incidentally, the 

 locality of their replies shows the wide circulation of Forest 

 and Stream. Look at this list: 



"H. C," Ft. Spokane, W. T.; "A. K. H.," Bergen, 

 N. J.: "P. 11.," Ft. Garry, Manitoba; "M. A. R.," Yuma, 

 Arizona; "F. K.," San Felipe, Col.; "B. A. N.," Mahlon, 

 Iowa; "F. S. P.," Denver, Gal.; A. N. Cheney, Glens 

 Falls, N. Y. ; 'Amateur," Somerset, Pa.; "W. T.,"Ripon, 

 Wis.; "R. Br.," St, Johns, Newfoundland; "S. H. J.," 

 Mankato, Minn.-, "H. EL," Dalton, Ga.; "R. S. O.," 

 Machias, Me.; "Pete," Sing Sing, N. Y. ; 'A. T. S.," Berne, 

 N. C. ; E. A. Leopold, Norristown, Pa. 



Which pioves two things. First, a s I said before, that 

 Forest and Stream "spreads itself" over a great deal of 

 ground, and secondly, that anglers, as a fraternity, are not 

 the selfish beings that some persons take them to be. 



"Shake," brothers; and I hope a kind Providence may 

 some time allow us to "wet a line" together. 



H. P. Ufford. 

 Casselton, D. T, 



SEA TROUT FISHING. 



THE observant angler, as he casts his flies over the rivers 

 of Canada which flow into the ocean, will notice a 

 marked difference in the habits, form, and color of the trout 

 of those waters, and the native fishermen will tell him that 

 these are sea trout and those are river trout. The sea trout 

 run larger in size, are more slender in form, and more 

 silvery in color, than the river trout. In some streams, the 

 sea trout are most numerous, in others the river, while in 

 other waters the two may be taken side by side, rising to the fly 

 with equal eagerness. At certain periods of the summer, 

 the sea trout come into the mouths cf the larger rivers with 

 the tide in great schools, like mackerel, and feed as greedily, 

 all in a school being of the same size, say from one to three 

 pounds in weight. At these times nothing can surpass the 

 sport afforded to the fly-fisher by the sea trout. One of the 

 most vigorous and active of fishes, and with a pair of three- 

 pounders On a light rod, the skill of the angler will be taxed 

 to the utmost. English writers on angling, Davy, Francis, 

 and Fennel, assert that the white trout or salmon trout of 

 the tidal rivers of Scotland and Ireland, Scdrno truita, is one 

 of the ganiest fishes that swims, audi think that his Canadian 

 cousin is not at all behind him. 



The habits of the sea trout of Canada {Salmo canadensis 

 Smith) appear to vary in different rivers. For instance, the 

 Nouvelle, which flows into the Bay of Chalheurs, is a most 

 beautiful stream, clear, cold, and swift, aud an ideal salmon 

 river, formerly abounding with that fish, which are now 

 excluded by a large raft of logs near the mouth ; there the 

 sea trout alone occupy the water. They run very large, 

 from two to five pounds; a string of fifteen which 1 took 

 there in 1871, averaged two and a half pounds. In this river 

 they lie like salmon in certain pools, and are not found 

 elsewhere, and they take the fly under water, as a salmon 

 does, and 1 found the flies with which I had taken salmon 

 the week before in the Restigouche.. to suit these trout well. 

 Their play is peculiar, and unlike that of the river trout, 

 and the quality of the fish is superior to that of any river or 

 brook trout that I ever tasted, and I have eaten them from 

 Lake Superior to Maine, and from Minnesota to Cape Cod. 



In the Tabusintae, a famous river of New Brunswick, the 

 sea trout and river trout are taken from the same pools, in 

 about equal numbers. This is a more sluggish stream than 

 the Nouvelle, with darker water, and the fish are smaller 

 and more numerous. My basket, in a day's fishing, averaged 

 balf a pound. In the lower portion of the Restigouche, 

 where it flows through open meadows among islands, the 

 sea trout abound, though not of large size. In the upper 

 waters, about the salmon pools, I found the river trout to 

 prevail; in fact so numerous were they, that in casting for 

 salmon, the big fly would often be taken by a pound trout, 

 so that they became as much of a nusiance as I have found 

 the chub in the Adirondacks, when casting for trout. At 

 the mouth of a brook opposite our camp I used to cast some- 

 times with three flies, and was sure to hook three trout at 

 every cast. They were small, about five to the pound, but 

 in New Hampshire would be thought good-sized fish of good 

 value: here they were a drag, no one would eat trout, 

 preferring salmon; so after the first day I turned them all 

 loose. 



In the short tidal streams of Prince Edward's Island, I 

 found sea trout in abundance in July, from four ounces to a 

 pound in weight, and rising well to a fly. In June they are 

 found at the river mouths in abundance and of large size. 



Naturalists tell us that, there is no organic difference 

 between the Canadian sea trout and the river trout. Their 

 teeth, bones, scales and fins are alike, and while I accept 

 this statement, as an angler I agree with Mr. Halloek and 

 others, that though they may be of the same "species," yet 



that the Canadian sea trout is a good "variety." Many 

 writers, otherwise well informed, use tbe words species and 

 variety indiscriminately, as if their meaning was the same, 

 which is not the case. The definition by Cuvier of the term 

 "species" is a "succession of individuals which reproduces 

 and perpetuates itself." A "variety" is described as a 

 "lesser distinction, which seldom endures beyond the 

 temporary causes which occasion it." 



Thus the horse and the ass are of the same genus, but of 

 different species, and if they interbreed, their offspring, the 

 mule, is unfertile. The race horse and the dray horse are 

 different varieties, caused by man's devices, and their 

 offspring is fertile. So angling writers when they mention 

 the taking of bass, sheepshead, and other "varieties," should 

 call them "species." 



Some writers have confounded the sea trout of the British 

 Islands, Salmo trutta, with the Canadian fish, but although 

 similar in habits, they are evidently of different species. 

 Professor Storer describes a sea trout of which he procured 

 a single specimen in Labrador, under the name of Salmo 

 immaeu/atiis or the "unspotted trout," but this clearly differs 

 from S. canadensis which has red spots like S. fontinalis. 

 In "Salmonia" the European sea trout is represented as a 

 spotted fish, growing to the weight of ten pounds, and Sir 

 Humphrey Davy ventures the suggestion that this sea trout, 

 8, truita, is the true typical trout, from which the two or 

 three other species of British trout have been evolved, by 

 natural causes, difference in food, water, and other accidents. 

 As the publication of "Salmonia" antedates by some twenty- 

 five years that of Charles Darwin's famous book on evolu- 

 tion, "it would seem that there are two claimants at least for 

 the merit of the invention of the hypothesis of evolution, 

 Lamark and Davy, prior to that of Darwin. S. C. C. 



THE BEST PANFISH OF THE WEST, 



Edit>r Forest and Stream: 



In your issue of Jan. 15, your correspondent, "Jay," has 

 struck a note that will certainly interest anglers of the West, 

 as well as those of the Middle States, especially those 

 who must content themselves with the sport the "newlight" 

 (croppie) affords. For be it understood the black bass in the 

 waters of our immediate neighborhood are few and far 

 between. 



The "newlight," Pe/moxys annularis, seems to stand the 

 draft made upon it better than any fish we have, some having 

 been caught here weighing three and a half pounds. Our 

 streams in the spring, as well as during seasons of drought, 

 are subject continually to the ravages of seines, drag-nets, 

 traps, and dynamite, by whites and blacks, the latter pre- 

 ferring the cover of the night so as to extend their nefarious 

 work on lands that are posted. Fish laws are entirely out of 

 the question, as it is impossible to get a grand jury in Bour- 

 bon county to indict any one for seining. People believing 

 that when one pays one hundred dollars per acre for farm 

 lands, aud the creek runs through it, the fish belong: to them, 

 and they have a right to catch them in any manner and 

 when they please. The only question is to catch them, the 

 more the better, the quickest way preferred. Last fall our 

 creeks dried up to such an extent that for hundreds of yards 

 the creek beds were perfectly dry, and as one of our local 

 anglers remarked at the time, "There was not enough water 

 in the mill dam to swim a tadpole." 



Yesterday, after two days of heavy rain caused a big rise 

 in the creeks, a number of residents turned out to fish with 

 drag nets. I examined a basket of one of the returning par- 

 ties who had caught a large lot, and found a number of them 

 weighing over a pound each. 



Is it not astonishing that this delicious fish, so harassed 

 and persecuted, should return to us every spring with swelled 

 ranks, and go through the same ' 'fiery ordeal" without any 

 perceptible difference in numbers? 



I do not claim that the "newlight" (croppie) is a game 

 fish. I have used lighter tackle (of my own manufacture) 

 than I have seen used in this community for his capture, and 

 I believe with suitable implements he would afford more 

 sport to those that are willing to catch him in a legitimate 

 way than he now does. I am satisfied that Dr. Henshallhas 

 often met him near his home in Kentucky, and probably 

 caught him on a light fly-rod with a cast of flies. 



I have "held up my hands" for what he has written on 

 the black bass, and will hold them up time and again if he 

 will favor us with a description of the proper rod and flies 

 for the capture of one of "the best panfish of the West." 



Little Sandy, 



North Mjddijetown, Ky., Jan, 15. 



DRAG AND CLICK REELS. 



Editor Forest and Stream: 



In your last issue "Petra" requests me by name to tell him 

 "what is the use of a drag and a click in the same reel." It 

 is apparent that he is well aware that both subserve precisely 

 the same purpose. 



As it frequently has to others, so the use of this combina 

 tion evidently appears to him pretty much like a man going 

 quail shooting with two double-barreled shotguns, one over 

 each shoulder. Still there is a practical difference between 

 the drag and the click, for the former is silent, while the lat- 

 ter is not. 



There may be some who at times, when angling, wish no 

 tell-tale click to herald their success; while without reason 

 for the sacrifice, they are unwilling to forego the music of its 

 voice. I understand that this form of reel was designed to 

 meet the w r ants of this class, as well as those of localities 

 where the click and drag divide public favor. 



In brief, this combination reel was made to sell. 



"Petra" makes some very timely remarks in reference to 

 correspondence among anglers in your columns. I have ex- 

 pressed myself before on this subject, and I now repeat that 

 they show a deplorable lack of public spirit among the 

 angling fraternity. 



Compared with what there is to bo kuown about the art 

 we love so much and its appliances, how scanty is the knowl- 

 edge of even the best informed. No single man can by pos 

 sibility do much for its advancement, but by the united 

 efforts of all, each contributing something, even though but 

 little, great progress is assured. The experience of every 

 man is not only of necessity limited, but the experience of 

 no two men is precisely the same. Good cannot fail to fol- 

 low a public interchange and comparison of these. 



While as a class we are perhaps somewhat prone to theo- 

 rize with too little regard for the wholesome check of prac- 

 tical experiment, still pure theory is better than absolute 

 silence; since if the theorizer will not, some other may apply 

 the test and make known the result. Anything is better than 

 absolute stagnation. 



