JAK. 7, 1886.] 



FOREST A^JiJ STREAM. 



463 



ing $5. But within the principal forest region of the Adir- 

 ondacks the fire wardens will be appointed directly by the 

 Comraissioners. 



Finally, the act provides that the Forest Commission shall 

 take necessary measures in concert with the Department of 

 Public Instruction, regents of universities, etc., for awaken- 

 ing an interest in behalf of forests in all State educa,tional 

 establishments and for imparting elementary instruction in 

 forestry. They shall, further, and as soon as practicable, 

 prepare tracts or circulars giving plain and concise advice 

 for the care of woodlands upon private lands, and for start- 

 ing new plantations on areas that have been denuded by 

 fire, erosion, or in any way exhausted or laid waste; and 

 shall distribute such tracts without cost to all applicants 

 and take measures to bring them to the notice of persons 

 who may be benefitted by such advice. 



To enable the Commissioners to give effect to all these im- 

 portant measures the Legislature sanctioned an expenditure 

 of $15,000 for the year, and Messrs. D. Willis James and 

 William Dowd, of New York, and Mr. Basselin, who is an 

 an Adirondack lumberman, were appointed Commissioners. 

 The two former declined to serve; they probably thought 

 that one Commissioner would be equal to the disbursement 

 of $15,000. 



Nothing was, consequently, done during the summer of 

 1885, but in the autumn of the year the Governor appointed 

 Messrs. Townsend Cox and Arthur Knevals, of New York, 

 to the vacant places on the Commission. It is understood 

 that these gentlemen have accepted, but it is simply absurd 

 to suppose that they will throw themselves with any energy 

 into the work unless assured of adequate means and oppor- 

 tunity of carrying out such measures of conservancy and 

 restoration as shall reflect credit on their management of the 

 public reserves. 



The public interest must not be allowed to flag, or it may 

 turn out that the passage of a forest bill and appointment of 

 a Commission are merely temporizing measutes, inoperative 

 to arrest the destruction of the remaining forest area or to 

 effect the restoration of the denuded State lands. 



All the pamphlets that may he written, with all the in- 

 terest that may be awakened on the subject, will be of little 

 avail to arrest the course of forest destruction. Teaching 

 by example is more effective than by precept. We want a 

 competent forest department, administering the State forests 

 with economy. The establishment can be secured at small 

 cost, but it would be worse than useless without means to 

 keep it profitably employed. 



Address all communiccetions to the Forest and Stream Publish- 

 ing Co. 



A PLAINT. 



TT'S an oyster boy I am, 



And work at an oyster bar; 

 I have an austere boss, 

 Also a clamorous ma. 



I bave a fishy dad, 



It's skinnin' eels he does, 

 'Cept in season scalin' shad, 



Or countin' crabs by the doz. 



The old folks drink Uke fish, 



And are barnacles on my pay; 

 It's for better times I wish. 



Or else I'd run away. 



My life is like a ragged net; 



Luck has all run through ; 

 The poles druv wrong, in a bad place set. 



Oh, dearl what shall I do? 

 BOSTOX. Reignolds. 



A NEW ATLANTIS. 



SITTING by an open Arc this afternoon, with the ther- 

 mometer outside close to zero and a blinding storm 

 driving the snow through the very crevices of the window 

 sash, my thoughts have gone to ''Nessmuk" and Dr. Neide 

 in their present balmy quarters, and to the Coot, bound 

 thitherward; and thence to the pleasant spot I have found 

 for my own annual vacations. That your readers may know 

 what is obtainable nearer home I propose to tell them' of my 

 discovery. 



The Happy Island is distant only ten hours from New 

 York and less than five from Boston. [Jnfortunately there 

 is a summer "watering place" at one end thereof, but the 

 presence in it of divers neatly dressed people exerts no dele- 

 terious effect on the more rational wearers of old clothes 

 who inhabit the remainder of the island. Providence has 

 fixed a great gulf between them, first in some miles of sandy 

 road, and secondly in the "Oak Barrens." This scnibby 

 successor to the aboriginal pines forms a most excellent abat- 

 tis against the advance of civilization, and only the wise 

 ones know the number of gray rabbits who dwell therein, or 

 that it is one of the few remaining eastern homes of the 

 ruffed grouse. 



After traversing this miniature forest you come to miles 

 and mUes of high rolling hills, without a tree or bush upon 

 them, being covered chiefly with crisp, slippery moss and 

 occasional patches of real heather. After repeated dressings 

 of seaweed this changes to a fine short grass, the pasturage 

 of many sheep, whose teeth can cut it, though a scythe 

 could not. The glacier ice which made these slopes has left 

 no successor, even in winter, but the sides are steep enough 

 to yield summer coasting for the boys, who, piled in layers 

 on smooth boards, glide down several hundred feet with a 

 velocity not unworthy of St. Petersburg or Montreal. 



The wind blows keenly over this bare ground and is a 

 glorious companion for one of the finest tramping places of 

 the continent. The moss is a soft carpet that takes the im- 

 press of each footstep ; the air is ozonized by the surrounding 

 sea, and every hilltop gives an ocean view where the horizon 

 is broken only by occasional white sails. Add that the 

 easterly storms of August bring the plover in their train and 

 that the spring-fed hollows hold many a woodcock, and 

 then imagine how your setters range over the unbroken 

 ground until brought to a picturesque point before some 

 clump of sweet fern or patch of blue berries. 



The coast line is indented here and there by pretty harbors 

 into which the trading schooners flock for temporaiy anchor- 

 age when wind and tide are contrary, and occasionally ap- 

 pears a ti-immer craft flying the triangular pennant with the 

 starry cross or diagonal bar of our two leading yacht clubs. 

 Here the bonita and the bluefish chase the young herring, 

 and, by the swift collectioa of screaming gulls overhead, call 



the shore boats to the spot. Then a light spoon, a Henshall 

 rod and good multiplying reel can be depended on to give 

 you a four to eight pound fish, whose large flaky muscles 

 will be appreciated no less when boiled for supper than in 

 the recent struggle to draw them from the water. 



The tide flowing each way over the shoals south of the 

 island, breaks into great fields of white, whose curling 

 billows, just before they edge out into foam, are the paradise 

 of the bluefish and of that other anti-type of Eden called the 

 shark. Starting at the proper hour in one of the roomy, 

 staunch and swift catboats used by thelocal fishermen, a sail 

 of some six miles brings you to the place. On each side of 

 the cenierboard stands a great tub and the two are the 

 measure of your expected catch. Before reaching the "Rips" 

 the lines are over-run, fresh eel skins slipped upon the jigs 

 and the outriggers put in place which enable one or two men 

 to tend four hues. At last you strike the fish and for an 

 hour or two it is a question only of how fast you can take in 

 the lines, replace a chance jig canied off by sharks, or keep 

 the hooks clear from the floating grass, that forms the only- 

 drawback in this noble sport. I say the only drawback, but 

 there is one supreme moment in the experience of each new 

 comer, old sailor though he be, when after some twenty 

 rapid courses back and forward in the trough of the breakers, 

 a tribute must be paid to Neptune for his gifts to you. How- 

 ever, the loss is soon replaced, for slack water comes quickly 

 when time is so fully occupied, and no sooner are the sheets 

 loosened and the bow turned homeward than the skipper 

 produces a basket and a stone jug from the little locker 

 underneath the tiller. The one "contains only ship's bread, 

 cheese and home-made doughnuts, and the other nothing but 

 fresh water, yet how good both taste. 



This, however, is only a common seaside experience, and 

 the same may be said of the shooting on the numerous sandy 

 points beloved of snipe and curlew. But beyond ringnecks 

 and yellowlegs in abundance, there are many strangers on 

 the island whose acquaintance is gladly made through the 

 introduction of Forest and Stream. More than one sports- 

 man there always carries your "Shore Birds" in his pocket. 



Far as the land permits from the hotels of the tourists 

 stands a certain club house, to which sundry gentlemen 

 resort who spend many days, with hired assistance, in cast- 

 ing the heav.y Cuttyhunk line for still heavier bass. Great 

 tales have these same bass, but doubtless veritable ones, 

 although little reliance can be placed on photographs, as 

 those showing a fish larger than the fisherman may be pro- 

 duced by apt perspective and fore-shortening. The writer 

 has never been within some miles of the club domain, but 

 knows various members whose business credit is unimpeach- 

 able and general character for veracity good, and therefore 

 feels that the bass themselves may be beUeved in. Also he 

 is glad to avouch his conviction that the rubicimd faces with 

 which those gentlemen return to civil life are not the result 

 of the club dietary, but of hours spent on their casting pier 

 in face directly of both the Atlantic Ocean and the midday 

 sun. 



My own club consists of wife, six children, two servants 

 and myself. The club house I bought four years ago when 

 first permeated by the atmosphere of the Happy Island. It 

 stands right on the shore of one of the little inlets above men- 

 tioned, and has oao neighbor within sight except across the 

 water. The walls are about eight feet high, the double 

 pitched roof three times as much; in fact the house is chiefly 

 roof, with one great predominating chimney made of the 

 smallest bricks imagiuable. The frame is of hewn oak, 

 about ten by fourteen inches section, and must have been 

 put up near the beginning of the last century, and it will 

 stand apparently when aU the modern seaside cottages have 

 gone back to humus. House and roof alike are covered with 

 warped shiijgles of a sheeny gray color that art could not 

 duplicate, any more than it could the green and brown lich- 

 ens thereon. The ceilings and most of the partitions are of 

 paneled oak. There are thirteen rooms and four open fire- 

 places, with the original iron cranes and pot-hooks still in 

 them. 



Now, for this house with six acres of land, a barn, a large 

 shop — once used for building whaleboats — a smoke house and 

 two fish houses, I paid for fee simple less than one thousand 

 dollars. A little pier reaching out to deep water has since 

 been added, and a large double bathing house. The latter 

 serves in winter, by taking out a movable partition, as a 

 storehouse for the Skip Jack (which we consider the neatest 

 eighteen-foot boat in those wateris), her mooring, anchor, the 

 lobster and eel pots, etc. 



For subsistence the club has to depend pretty much on 

 what itself can shoot or catch, though fresh meat can be 

 obtained by going some distance in the boat on Saturdays. 

 There is no danger of starvation, for a good mess of panflsh 

 can always be taken in a few minutes from off the little pier, 

 and there is a box under the same which holds ten bushels 

 of "quahogs" (most toothsome of clams) and which, like 

 the Irish widow's cruise, is always filled when it is empty. 



From these headquarters the club radiates, sometimes on 

 foot, starting betimes, carrying frying-pan and condiments, 

 lines, rods and guns, and keeping a sharp lookout for mush- 

 rooms, which grow there abundantly. Sometimes in the 

 Skip Jack, when a wall tent and blankets form part of the 

 cargo, and if luck is good at the distant spot where the tent 

 may be pitched, there is no saying when the party will re- 

 turn. Sometimes in a hired conveyance, being the only one 

 in those parts of sufficient capacity for our number. In fact 

 at other times the same is used for distributing coal among 

 the fishermen and farmers, but by scrubbing it out the prev- 

 ious day with salt water and using very thin boards for seats 

 it does admirably. 



A charming feature of the island is the so-called "ponds" 

 wandering everywhere for miles up the deep valleys. They 

 furnish vistas hardly less picturesque than the Adirondack 

 lakes, while they support a fauna different both from that 

 of the fresh water territory above them and the sea life just 

 across the narrow beach that separates them from the sm-f . 

 Especially to be mentioned ai-e the great vicious snapping 

 tm-tles, whose capture is a triumph to the small boy, and in- 

 numerable large white perch, wanderers from the sea, but 

 developed if not changed by their new circumstances. These 

 take the fly most greedily, and no better practice could be 

 imagined than to stand on a clean white beach and have a 

 rise from two or three active 24-ounce fish every time the 

 leader reaches forty feet from shore. 



The island lies far enough to eastward to intercept most 

 of the migratory waterfowl who journey along the coast. 

 Many a northern goose stops for his breakfast in one of the 

 clear ponds alluded to, and more than one group of ducks is 

 so much pleased with the place as to remain there all sum- 

 mer. And with a story of the opening of the present season 

 for the latter I shall close, as I would not make my beloved 

 island too attractive lest it become too populous. 



One of the surest places there for ducks is No Bottom 

 Cove, but Jack Green, the best shot and fisherman on Happy 

 Island, lives hard by and there is a poor chance for picking 

 up anything behind his gun. This year two of my boys, 

 chips of the old block, but lapidly surpassing their father in 

 woodcraft if not stature, determined in concert with their 

 cousin to circumvent .Jack Green. The lot was cast by ' 'think 

 ing of a letter," and it fell upon the oldest, Harvey, to go out 

 the night before, take possession of the only good blind upon 

 the point and hold the fort against all comers and espe- 

 cially said Green, until the boy's comrades appeared at day- 

 break of Sept. 1. He knew the route well, but going through 

 oak woods in a dark night is quite different from the same 

 thing by day, and after some hours' wandering he was fairly 

 lost. At last he saw a light and working his way to it, 

 knocked at the door of a little house. Alas, it was opened 

 by Jack Green himself! Harvey is quick, and at once asked 

 the way to Nancy Looks, a widow who sells eggs and lives 

 not far from his objective point. Jack gave the directions, 

 but the lad's roUed-up blanket and Greener did not exactly 

 look like buying eggs. Finally Jack said, "You are going 

 to No Bottom Cove, aint you?" and Harvey answered meek- 

 ly "Yes." According to the latter 's account both stood 

 silent for nearly a minute and then broke into hearty laugh- 

 ter which lasted much longer. In the end Jack asked him 

 into the house, said he had built a new blind in another 

 place this year, and they parted the best of friends. Next 

 day the three boys contributed eight brace of ducks to the 

 mess chest of the club. M. V. 



P. S. In honesty it must be confessed that several attempts 

 have been made to connect the fashionable end of the island 

 by a telegraph cable to the main land, but some good collier 

 always anchors over and breaks the wire. As a business 

 man I am glad to say it takes 36 hours for a message from 

 my office to reach me when at my summer home. V. 



AMONG THE CORAL REEFS. 



IT was a lovely morning in December; flowers were ia 

 bloom, birds were singing, a light breeze was stirring, 

 wafting the odor of the cedars, and the general condition 

 was one of serene comfort. 



December, was it? It was, and that is the way it is in 

 Bermuda. It was the delightful interim between seed time 

 and onions, when the ambient air is not troubled by the tear- 

 ful fragrance of the numerous bulb, when the oleanders still 

 bloom and are glad of it, and the showy hibiscus lifts its 

 trumpet to the morning sun. 



The wee ground doves fluttered abou there and there in the 

 streets in trustful confidence , the pretty little songster called 

 the chick of Lthe village sang sweetly among the orange and 

 lemon trees, and redbirds and bluebirds added their jubilant 

 notes by way of matin greeting. Earth and the fullness 

 thereof, the mellow sky, the beautiful waters, the fragrant 

 air and all that is delightfully novel in these wonderful 

 islands, contributed in making a morning that would have 

 elicited comment in paradise. 



I wended my early way down to the wharf near the Par- 

 Uament House, eager for a sail, and not averse to catching 

 an occasional fish. Though it was seven by the clock there 

 was not much astir; not a store was open, not a wagon or 

 cart to be heard, and never a "Here's yer mornin' paper 1" 

 affrighted the peaceful air. 



"Hello, Johnnie! is the Bride of the Sea all ready?" I said, 

 addressing a 16-year old colored boy, small of frame, scantily 

 dressed, master of the sailing art, limber-tongued on occa- 

 sion and as confident as a Congressman. 



"Ay, ry, sir! she's waitin' for ye, ribbons on and all fixed 

 up and isn't she pretty, though?" he replied, pointing to a 

 little craft with a very high mast, mainsail ;and jib spread, 

 and rolling gracefally at the end of her painter, which was 

 attached to a buoy a short distance away in cozy Hamilton 

 harbor. 



In miniature the boat wotild have looked like the half of 

 an English walnut with a broom-straw mast and "jib ac- 

 cordin'7' rolling about in a tub of water. But it was quite 

 stanch, not altogether ship shape, as will appear, but a boat 

 of local development that weathers great gun gales and 

 comes back perspiring from pennant to waterline and with 

 a real air of defiance. 



Another small native took us out to the sailboat in a 

 dingy, with our tackle and hait, lunch and rubber coats, 

 and soon we were off, headed toward Great Sound, and the 

 reefs beyond. And what a delightful sail it was! Now in 

 a narrow channel between verdant islands, luxuriant with 

 cedars, palmettoes, blooming lantanas and flowery plants 

 that have no regard for the calendar, now gliding over the 

 roof of a coral temple studded with glittering points in set- 

 tings of the exquisite blue and green of the slopmg shingle, 

 now close to the corrugated shore of a submarine hill peer- 

 ing above the waves, now by a shelly reef pointing like a 

 jeweled finger to the distant horizon, and so on to the reefs 

 outside, among which, we had to thread our way with great 

 care to avoid getting fast on some treacherous shelf Sf 

 coral. 



But Johnnie understood his work; with wonderful skill he 

 manipulated the sheets and the tiller, neither being in one 

 position a moment, going before the wind, cutting the wave 

 crests and throwing showers of aqueous diamonds to the 

 right and left, close-hauled, speeding like a prizewinner, 

 and again brought about to examine locations and indica- 

 tions,' while the boat hardly moved more than to roll with 

 an appearance of restrained impatience. 



In the course of two hours we reached the desired place, 

 five miles from the mainland, tossed over the anchor and 

 prepared for a contest with sheepshead porgies, yellowtails, 

 bonitos and other fishes of those waters. There was some 

 danger of striking a red snapper, a long, lithe, powerful fish 

 that could tear the boat from its cable if the tackle didn't 

 give way; and also of hooking a maray, a vicious eel that 

 is snake and wolf in inclination, a very pirate in chasing a 

 crew overboard when he once gets on deck and takes active 

 command. For the latter a club is kept handy, the line is 

 drawn quickly through a scupper-hole and maray is pounded 

 on the head with great energy as soon as he can be reached. 

 Fortunately we didn't bring any in, and red snappers did 

 not engage our attention. 



While Johnnie was fm-ling the sails and opening clams I 

 unwound the lines, and at the same time looked with un- 

 feigned admiration upon the rare scene that lay about us. 

 Straight away to the south was Ireland Island, with its great 

 docks and fotts, its big guns and munitions of war, armed 

 redcoats pacing the outer walls, and the picturesque light- 

 house on Gibb's Hill looming over all. To the left eight or 

 ten miles was BaUey's Bay, with its bright, curving shores 

 and billowy foam piled up along the coralline rocks, and 

 the gleaming water of Harrington Sound beyond, while to 



