88 



FOREST AND STREAM. 



[Atjg. 26, 1886. 



"The Bicycle in a Deer Httnt" is the caption of an 

 account of a doer hunt ia Mexico, by Mr. James Piu'vis 

 Brace, printed in tVie L. A. W. BuU'etin. Mr. Brace and 

 Ms Mexican guide killed two does and a buck. Mr. Bruce 

 explains: " 'Blassej'^s' quaiTy is badly shot — the 550gr. 

 bullet having plowed a raggety hole from the deer's breast 

 to her hij). My two are not perceptibly marked, as they 

 are both shot in the foreshoulder. 'Blassey' and I then 

 'tiu:ned in,' and took the foreshoulders of the doe that fell 

 to my rifle and left the rest to the wolf or the panther." 

 Of course it's all right for Mr. Brace to trumpet his 

 achievements, but by and by there will come a time when 

 a, man w]\o goes out and kills three deer and leaves 

 two of them and a part of the third to rot will not brag 

 about it. 



MASSAOHxrsETm — ^Boston, Aug. 23.— Last Saturday I 

 ima2,iued I was sick, so I took the gun and a Ijag of shells 

 ami started for Dighton at 8:30 via O. C. & N. E. R. I 

 found more shore bu-ds there than have beeji seen for the 

 past ten years in this vicinity. I got all I wanted and a 

 good wettmg besides f i-om a thunder shower. I don't think 

 any were shot there in tlie spring. There were none to 

 shoot. I rested Sunday, and came into to%vn Monday 

 feeling that I had taken the right medicine. A friend 

 hunted the east side of Tauuton River from Taunton to 

 Somerset without starting a single woodcock. No signs 

 of them in the usual places. Quail must be plenty this 

 fall. They liave been whistliag from every rock and 

 fence all summer. — A. A. D. (Boston, Mass.).' 



Were They Brant ?—^7d?;tor Forest and Stream: 

 Wliile on the Hackensack River on Sunday, Aug. 22, 

 about 10:30 A. M., a short distance above Hackensack, I 

 saw a large flock of what, at a later date, I would have 

 called brant, flying due north and apparently wanting to 

 light in tlie river. There ^^ cre too many boats for them 

 to do this. They ^vere too far oil for me to be certain 

 what they were, but they looked too black for geese. 

 They flew V-shaped and seemed to change then- leader 

 often. The sight was so unusual at this time of year that 

 I wovdd like to know if they were seen elsewhere and if 

 their character was determined. — Z. 



Weight of Repeating Rifles. — Editor Forest and 

 Stream: The way these repeaters balance is anything but 

 what it should be, as the stock is light and the'barrel un- 

 necessarily heavy. I speak of the .40 and .45-caI. rifles, 

 which, even with the half length magazine, weigh lOlbs. 

 and upward, which is more than an ordinary man can 

 comfortably carry all day. The action of these rifles seem 

 about ]ierf ect, and I believe that an 81b. or B^lb. rifle (.40 

 or .45-cal.) would soon be the popular repeater. I gave 

 up carrying useless weight years ago, and probably manj^ 

 of your readers think the same way. — T. E. Y. 



Pinnated Grouse. — am. informed that the Cliicago, 

 Milwaukee & St. Paul E. R. Co. are about extending a 

 branch of their road from Bismarck soutlieasterly, passing 

 through Faulk ajid Hand counties. If this is done it will 

 open up some of the finest hunting grounds in the Terri- 

 tory, as well as the richest agricultural lands. I have 

 never had better grouse and chicken shooting than that 

 found in Hand comity, Dakota, and letters from there tell 

 me that "the crop is Yery abundant this season." Hope 

 to send vou mv own report from the prairies next month. 

 — S. C. G. (Michigaii)^ 



Delaware.— The general State law for the protection 

 of pheasants permits shooting from Aug. 15. The follow- 

 ing counties have local laws: Washington, whose limit 

 expires Aug. 12; Allegany, Hartford, Baltimore and 

 Montgomery, whose limit expires Sei^t. 1, and Frederick 

 and Anne Arundel, whose hmit expires Oct. 15. The 

 loca l laws take precedence over the State law in the coun- 

 ties ^\']ierc they are in force. The law for the protection 

 of woodcock allows shooting now in aU the counties of 

 Maryland with the exception of Wicomico, which begins 

 Sept. 1. 



The Printer is Blamed for his occasional typograph- 

 ical eri-ors. He does not begin to get credit for his eagle- 

 eyed detection and correction of inaccuracies m the copy. 

 For instance, last week the copy of Messrs. Schoverling, 

 Daly & Gales's advertisement of the rapid loader gravely 

 stated in capitals, that "after using one no one wiU ever 

 use another." Tliat was not what the agents meant, by a 

 long- sliot; and tliat the types were made to say something 

 veiy different was due to the vigilance of the piinting 

 office. 



Grass Plover in New Jersey.— A well-known New 

 Jersev sportsman on Wednesday, last week, killed twenty- 

 t]irc(- "grass | tlover back of Absecom. The birds were wild 

 and were killed at long distances, one bird falhng dead 

 eight-five yards— measm-ed by tape line— from the muzzle 

 of the g-un. 



Charles V, Ramsdell, aged 64, a well-known Bangor 

 (Me.) gunsmith and dealer in sporting goods, died last 

 week. 



Address all communications to the Forest and St/rmm Pub. Co. 



A Plant to Suppress Malaria.— Dr. Brandes, a physician 

 at Hitzackes, Hanover, has written an article in a German 

 medical j japer in which he demonstrates the valuable proper- 

 ties of the Anachnris alsinastrv in , a water plant which has 

 hitherto 1)een cousidered as an unnvitia;ated plague, chokini 

 up rivei-s and lUtogether useless. Dr. Brandes hasremarkei 

 that in the district where he lives, and whcre_ malaria and 

 diarrhea, yeai'ly appear in a spuradic or epidemic form, these 

 diseases "have' gradually derri;ased since the Anacharis 

 alsiiifi'Strimi iK'gan to infest the ueiKhboring rivers and 

 inai-shes, and si uce four years have totally disappeared. The 

 above Tia,nied water plant nourishes itself on decayed vege- 

 table matter, and grows with increchble rapidity. It thus 

 destro}'s the germs which produce malaria and diarrhea, and 

 besides, its presence oblige the frequent cleansing of standing 

 waters—a measure beneficial to health. Dr. Brandes there- 

 fore proposes that the experiment should he tried of planting 

 the Anacha r is alsinastrum in marshy districts. It is also 

 useful in protecting the young of fish, and affords an ex- 

 cellent dung. The plant came originally from Canada, 

 whence it was brought to England, and thence to Germany 

 about 1840. In North Germany it rapidly spread far and 

 wide, and this year appears in all parts in unusual luxuri- 

 ance.' — London Neivs. 



it TffR Partridge.? and paper shot shells used by Hon. W. F. Cody 

 and Miss Amiie Oakley for the last three years and ni the Wild 

 West Exhibition now at Staten Island, are made by the United 

 States nn.rtri(l£;e Co., of Lowell, Mass.. m.auufacturers of the cele- 

 bi'ated Lowell waterproof paper shot shells and metallic ammuni- 

 tion of all kinds. Wallace & Sons, Agents, 89 Chambers street, 

 New York City. Ask your nearest dealer to keep them.— ^ar. 



TROUT FISHING IN ALASKA. 



SOME weeks ago I thought I had scored a point on the 

 golden iridescence of the Alaskan trout, but a little 

 more experience convinced me that I was mistaken and 

 the mark was wiped out. 



Tlie bulk of my fishing this year has been in lakes 

 whose water's are more or less deeply tinted with dissolved 

 vegetable matter. These waters are what are technically 

 known as sphagnum waters, Whcre^'er the land is level 

 and not too liigli the ground is covered with a gi'owth of 

 moss to what seems to be a considerable depth. There is 

 a good illustration of this oi)i)osite our j)resent anchorage, 

 off the southern extremity of Etolin Island, just abo ve 

 where Point Onslow juts out into salt water at the junc- 

 tion of Duke of Clarence Strait and Prince Ernest Sound. 

 I am particular in the descrij)tion of the locality because, 

 like many other places in Alaska, it caimot as yet be 

 located to the pubUc by name; and fm-thermore, because 

 all the excursionists who come up here go away with the 

 impression that there is no level land in Alaska. A prom- 

 inent newspaper man of San Francisco lately said in his 

 paper that it is all jilaced on edge. Here the high land is 

 several miles from the coast, a,nd the intervening country 

 is low and level. I walked over this flat ground one day 

 not long ago himting for a lake to fish in, and the tramp 

 could not have beeiVmore fatiguing had I waded all the 

 afternoon through a snow drift two or three feet deej). 

 The day was intensely Ijot, too. There is only one coun- 

 try, in my experience, wliich can sm-pass this in the depth 

 of its mossy deposits, and that is the west side of Patago- 

 nia, or Chili, as it now is. There the mosses and low 

 forms of vegetable life cover the gi'ound as high as tlie 

 limbs of the trees, so that walking in the woods there 

 means climbing over the tops ajid through the branches 

 of the trees. 



Wliat I started out to tell is this: I noticed that the 

 trout in the lake on Wrangell Island, and in another on 

 Etolin Island, north of us here, which I shall mention 

 later, were deeply tinted with the golden, as were also the 

 waters. I coimected these two conditions together — the 

 fish were dyed by the waters — Post hoc ergo joroj^ter hoe; 

 and it looked reasonable. This idea grew stronger after I 

 had fished a stream on Etolin Island, where the water was 

 as clear as a crystal, coming down directly from the 

 snows upon the high peaks overhead. There the little 

 water ouzel w-as my constant companion, and so limiiid 

 was the A\'ater that I could follow its every movement at 

 the bottom of the still pools. The trout I captured there 

 had not a trace of the yellow, Imt were silvery below and 

 on the sides, steel-gray above, with small spots, and with 

 the purple streak plainly marked. That the trout took 

 the dye from the water I firmly believed until we moved 

 down here. Here there is a lake lower lying than any of 

 the others I have mentioned, and surrounded by a 

 greater extent of sphagnum country; consequently its 

 Avaters are deeper dyed brown, but the trout are lighter 

 colored. In fact they scarcely have the golden iridescence 

 at all. I have in my mind one in particular taken in this 

 lake which was silvery-gray all over. But no lake trout 

 I have yet taken has had the purple streak. There is as 

 great variation in the coloring of the trout up here as 

 elsewhere, and they are as f uU of the tricks that beguile 

 the angler as those of the more civilized countries. 



Since my last commimication to this journal describing 

 how I found Wrangell Lake, we have visited it twice. 

 On both occasions the fish behaved just as they did on the 

 trial trip. They rose eagerly to the flies for an hom- or 

 so and then sulked in their holes, from which one coidd 

 only be lured spasmotically. The fii'st day my score was 

 18, weighing 61bs, 4oz; my companion's 12, weighing 41bs. 

 12oz, Sly string held the largest trout so far captured 

 this season. It weighed lib. 2oz. and measured itin. in 

 length. Last year I took two somewhat larger than this 

 from a stream on Prince of Wales Island, emptying into 

 Karta Bay. They weighed respectively lib. lOoz. and 

 lib. 8^oz. The largest of that year, I am sorry to say, 

 was ignominiously captured by another person using a 

 piece of salmon meat for bait. It weighed 21bs. 2oz., and 

 was caught in a stream emptying into Ward's Cove on 

 Revillagigedo Island. These two places, the fu-st named 

 in preference, are the best for stream fishing we have 

 fotmd in southeastern Alaska. Our stiings were larger, 

 but they did not average as many ounces to the fish as 

 those taken this year from the lakes. 



The last visit to Wrangell Lake was made June 12, Two 

 of us went there this time with the determination to stay 

 and try the fish at a later hour. We aa-rived early in the 

 afternoon, and began fishing in the outlet about 2:30 

 o'clock. To our surprise the fish began rising to the fly a;t 

 once, showing a marked preference for the gray -palmer. 

 The day was bright and warm, too. We had one hoiu- of 

 fine sport, as usual, when they ceased rising, but I did 

 not stop fishing. I whipped that Avater at intervals unto 

 after 6 o'clock, till my arms ached with the exercise, and 

 tried every fly in my book, but I don't believe that I added 

 more than three fish to my string. My total score that 

 day was 18. To go to the opposite extreme I wdll again 

 allude to that catch of 80 from one pool on Revfilagigedo 

 Island. These fish rose so greedily that I was astonished 

 to find them literally gorged with salmon spavm, which 

 seemed only to whet then- appetites. When I held some 

 of them up by the tail the roe actually ran out of their 

 mouths. 



Prom Wrangell our vessel's anchorage was moved to 

 Steamer Bay, which opens out into Stildne Sti-ait at the 

 northwest angle of Etolin Island. The bay lies between 

 two parallel ridges, which have one foot in the water of 

 Stikine Strait and the other into that of the Duke of 

 Clarence. The depression between the ridges at the head 

 of the bay is occupied by the Ioav foothills of the moun- 

 tains. My first business was to find a lake or a stream to 

 fish in. I attempted to follow up the little stream at the 

 head of the bay, but its bed was so choked up with 

 tangled undergrowth and fallen timber that I had to give 

 it up. Then, iike the great lawgiver, Moses, I ascended 

 a high mountain to see what the land promised. I saw 

 a lake, a large body of water Avith two arms, but flowmg 

 in an opposite direction from Steamer Bay. Retimnng to I 

 the vessel I found the dainty and beautiful maiden hair 

 fern groAving luxuriantly about half way doAvn the steep J 



mountain side. I jumped two deer during the cUmb, bl»t 



got a shot at neither. 



The next thing was to get to the lake. This was first 

 accomplished by some of the crew AA'ho were hunting in 

 that direction. They reported the difficulties Avhich beset 

 the Avay not too arduous to be overcome even by those 

 who love their ease. A few days thereafter I made the 

 journey, accompanied by three of the men, to construct a 

 raft on the lake. I will teU about tliis trip. I found 

 pretty steep climbing in places, thick underbrush to push 

 our Avay through in others, and a mossy bog to wade 

 across on the IcA-el land after Av^e get out the bottoms. 

 Altogether it Avas a tvs'O hours' Avalk to make about two 

 miles of distance. Just before the float was finished, at 2 

 o'clock in the afternoon, it began to rain, I don't thurk 

 any tropical rain came doAvn harder than that did for tiie 

 rest of the day. There Avas nothing for us to do but wade 

 homeward through it. To say that aa^c were Avet does not 

 express oux condition; Ave Avere water-logged. The rain 

 ran doAvn my trouser's legs and filled my boots, so that T 

 had to stop every now and then and pour it out. Finally 

 my legs got cramps in them, the same as they did Avhen 

 I was a boy and stayed, in swimming too long. We 

 counted a dozen or more rushing, leaxaing Avaterfalls upon 

 the mountain sides, Avhere before Ave had seen none, and 

 the roar of the leaping waters could be heard above all 

 other sounds. It is gratifying to add that the exposure 

 did not produce an acdie or a sneeze. 



It was a kind of damper, however, on the two who 

 were to go back Avith me some day to make use of the 

 raft. But they mustered up courage enough to go, and it 

 makes me smile yet to think hoAv they were fooled over 

 the chfiicrdties in the Avay. Just before reaching the lake 

 Ave came upon the warm bed of a broAvn Ijear, Av^hich Ava.s 

 shedding its hak very freely. We weren't anghng for 

 bears and so did not attempt to follow it. The carpenter 

 and I had a falling apart about here; he thought we 

 should go more to the left, Avhile I, avIio Avas following 

 compass bearings, thought om- coiu-se lay more to the 

 right. One of the party followed the carpenter, and the 

 other me. We had the satisfaction of stTiking the arm 

 Avliere the raft lay in about a half an hoirr, or at 11 o'clock, 

 the other party joined us about two hours later. Tlie 

 float Avas constracted of three logs, a green one in the 

 middle, and two others of dead wood which we had picked 

 up on the beach. The latter were water soaked, and the 

 combined weight of the party sunk the raft about six 

 inches imder water. Our design Avas to paddle and pole 

 doAvn the two miles of water to the lake outlet; our pro- 

 gress was so slow that Avhen the end of the arm we were 

 m Avas reached — about half the distance — we had to de- 

 cide Avhether to go on and be beset by darkness on our 

 AA'ay back, or to retur n at once. The latter was cairied 

 tmanimously. We had fishedi coming doAvn and had 

 captured thirty trout along the edge of the lily ]iads. My 

 score Avas 19, Aveigliing 41b8. 6oz. But taken all in all A\^e 

 voted that the fishing from Steamer Bay Avas not a success, 

 I predict some good fishing in this lake iox any ()ne who 

 approaches it from the opposite direction, that of its outlet, 



A feAA^ words m regard to the healthfulness of this 

 climate. We are a party of tiftA' people, and this is our 

 second season in Alaska, embracing a period of about six 

 months each. There has been absolutely no sickness in 

 the party except such as is the residt of mjuries. Those 

 who come from the south witli troubles of the air passages 

 get rid of them after they liave been here but a .short 

 time. Yet the Indians are dying off rapidly Avith con- 

 sumption and scrofula, I could give some statistics of 

 births and deaths at Wrangell that might astonish the 

 reader, and lead liim to believe that this was an un- 

 healthy country. 



Last year the season Avas exceptionally good. We had 

 fair Ave'ather and sunshine more or less continuously from 

 June 1 till the last of August. This year the sun did not 

 show^ itself much until after the middle of July, We had 

 but six days of sunshine in June. Since July 15, how- 

 ever, the weather has been good. T. H. S. 



Alaska, August 1, 1886. 



SHEEPSHEAD IN A NOR'EASTER. 



A TLANTIC CITY, N, J., Aug. 10.— I never Avondered 

 J\. that Keats and SAvinburne and Shelley loved the 

 sea. or that the pertiune of immortality halloAvs some 

 of Shelley's SAveetest lines. It tiie graceful and elegant 

 author of "Zastrozzi ' \\as not a follower of the gentle 

 and Avell-beloved Izaak AValton, he ought to have been. 

 He Avas an eminent instance of botli an impulsive charac- 

 ter while at the same time possessing an abstract intellect; 

 and DeQuincey descrihes him as "looking like an elegant 

 and slender flower, whose head drooped from being sm-- 

 charged with summer rain," That Percy Bysshe Shelley 

 was "an infinite good fellow is shown by his early love 

 affair Avith Miss Gore, Ms cousin, with whom ho Avrote 

 "Zastrozzi," and Avith the impulse of a youthful and vic- 

 torious author he at once gave a magnificent banquet to 

 his friends. Daniel Webster or Matt Quay, both pre- 

 eminent fishermen, could not have done better. The deep 

 blue sea seemed to be Shelley's native home, and here he 

 drew inspu-ation, like "the Avine divine of Zanzo vine, "for 

 some of the most subtle and precious of his immortal 

 poems. , - . . , 



There was a deep touch of romantic mterest m the hour 

 and manner of his deatli. He dwelt in his yacht for 

 months on the beautiful Mediterranean, and loved the 

 breath of the sea. as his intimate. Lord Byron, did, and 

 lived much in the "society where none intrudes," loving 

 all "Avaste and solitary places." On a beautiful summer 

 day, on the Mediterranean, Shelley, in a lioat of peculiar 

 build, with his devoted friend W^illiams, endeavored to 

 sail from Leghorn to Levici, as he had fearlessly sailed 

 before a hrmdi'ed days over the ocean bhie. In a sudden 

 squaU the little boat disappeared, and the sad sea waves 

 on the next day cast ashore all that Avas mortal of the 

 poet Shelley, and a volume of Keats's poetry was found 

 open in one" of his coat pockets. In accord Avith a strange 

 custom prevailing in Tuscany, that all the flotsam aiid 

 jetsam found floating in from the ocean should be biu-ned 

 on the shore of the sea, the remains of the "poet of poets" 

 were reduced to ashes after the manner of the ancients, 

 amid the tender tears of Lord Byron, Leigh Hunt and 

 Melawney. 



When a boy (and I came from the West and then liad 

 never seen the sea,) I was fascinated Avith one of Goo, Wm, 

 Curtis's early stories, before his poetic salt had lost its 

 savor and G, W. C. became an Eatonian civil serAdce re- 

 former. I reveled in the description of a callow youth, 



