402 



FOREST AND STREAM. 



IDec. 16, 1886. 



THE SEAL ISLANDS.-I. 



rrhe following extracts are from the manuscript of a forthcom- 

 ing book bv J. M. Le Moine, of Quebec, author of the well-known 

 series "Maple Leaves," of which the new volume is, we under- 

 stand, to be a continuation. This chapter is from the cruise of the 

 vacht Hirondelle in the lower St. Lawrence, in.lS86. The characters 

 are: The Commodore of the Quebec Yacht Club, J. U. O.: Mac of 

 the Isles, Sagaman, old sportsman, navigator; Jonathan Oldbuck, 

 antiquary, naturalist, discoverer; Carleton, sailing master, old 

 marmer; Jean Lavoie, steward, chef de cuisine, weather prophet; 

 Napoleon Mathurin, able-bodied seaman; and lastly, Fox, a SiUery 

 coUie and water dog, on board the Hirondelle. St. Thomas, Sept. 9, 

 1886.] 



" TUST ease her off a point or two, Commodore, don't 

 t) hug these muddy flats too close; they run out 

 nearly three miles from the mouth of the Baain; I have 

 known them well from my youth. Now, I think we can 

 sail clear of this land-locked harbor. Do you see that 

 group of white dwellings? These, in 1837-8, used to be 

 one of the strongholds of the Patriots of 1837, and in 1759 

 the rutUesb invader of the soil left his indelible mark on 

 these Canadian homes." Such the words of Jonathan 

 Oldbuck, the respected guest of the Commodore of the 

 Quebec Yacht Club, more generally known as the 

 Antiquary. 



"Tris him, Monsieur rAntiquaire," replied the burly 

 Commodore, "I always thought St. Thomas, or Mont- 

 magny, as it is now styled, was rich in historic lore. Dame 

 Natvire seems also to have played some strange pranks in 

 scooi^ing out these channels amid the shoals, and in form- 

 ing this sheltered basin at the foot of the roaring water- 

 fall of La Riviere du Sud. Might not the removal of 

 these boulders in the basin and a little judicious dredging 

 of the mud make this into a snug harbor for the coasting- 

 craft and even foreign vessels; that is, provided the neap 

 tides of summer did not choke the harbor with mud?" 



"Do you see," said the Ajitiquary, "those eel fishery 

 stakes, nearly covered by the tide, a mile from the shore? 

 There or close by stood, at the end of the last century 

 and even later, the Eoman Catholic parish church. The 

 river has eaten away the clay soil which clothed the 

 whole area occupied by the old church and its cemetery, 

 and even beyond. A new chm-ch site became necessary. 

 In 1823 the present one was built two miles inland. The 

 harbor has also undergone a great change wdthtn a hun- 

 dred years; tradition teUs how its en&ance was once 

 spanned by a single plank; the shores are now more than a 

 mile apart." 



"Carleton," said the Commodore, "let us shake out two 

 reefs of the matasail; we have yet plenty of flood and 

 with such a spanking breeze oii our beam, we can yet 

 make Cape Brule before the turn of the tide. I shall 

 show our friend as we saU past the place of the memor- 

 able shipwreck of the French man-of-war L'Elephant, 

 stranded there in September, 1729. We will, once there, 

 drop dowTi with the ebb under the dizzy heights of Cape 

 Tom'mente, so named by Champlain, and where I have 

 shot in December more than one woodland caribou. They 

 come every fall from the interior, pick their way through 

 some of the pine-clad ravines of the sombre cape, to this 

 abrupt shore below, lap up tlie salt lick and return, 

 recollect shooting one close to the cross on the summit." 



Tins landmark, erected in 1869 and since enlarged, 

 looks from the river like a white speck amid the bloom- 

 ing shrubbery. The party looked out, as the yacht sailed 

 past, for some of the ravines in the neighborhood of the 

 three diminutive lighthouses perched On the rock Mgh 

 above the St. Lawrence; some fine old pine trees grow 

 there, which, with the lofty Cape Tourmente, form part 

 of the vast seigniory, ten leagues in front, of the Quebec 

 Seminary. More than two centuries back the great 

 Bishop Laval selected the Petit Cape of St. Joachim 

 — wliich our excursionists could see to the west — and the 

 reedy meadows and fertile cornfields at the base for a 

 settlement, where he, in verity, established in Canada the 

 first model farm. Through a gap in the waving treetops 

 they also saw the Chateau Beuevue, where, under the 

 shade of green groves, the Laval University and Quebec 

 Seminary professors each year spent their weU-merited 

 August vacation. This is assuredly one of the most beau- 

 tifm spots in all Canada, During the occupation of the 

 country by the French, inward-bound ships used to hug 

 the north shore of the St. Lawrence as far up as Cape 

 Tourmente, and then cross over past Pointe Argentenay 

 on the eastern end of the island of Orleans, in the dtrec 

 tion of the Point of St. Michel, on the south shore, there 

 by avoiding Beaujeu's Bank and the dangerous St, 

 Thomas Shoals; this channel is now used chiefly by the 

 Richelieu line of steamers, conveying tomists to Murray 

 Bay and the Saguenay. 



" 'Bout ship, let go andhaul," sung out the Commodore, 

 and the Hirondelle, flapping her white wings in the 

 breeze, turned from the frowning cape, shot ahead like 

 a bird, and pointed for a low ledge of rocky islands, after 

 passing the Battures Plates, a famous resort for Canada 

 geese and w^hite wild geese, leased by the Quebec Semin- 

 ary to a Quebec sportsman. The rocky isles, on which 

 the surf rippled, were barely visible in the distance, 



"There, gentlemen," exclaimed Mr. Oldbuck, "there are 

 the famous Seal Rocks." 



Forty -five mUes below Quebec, about mid-channel in 

 our noble river, which even here expands in breadth to 

 twenty-one miles, there rises a bleak, uninhabited island, 

 at low tide five miles long by one mile broad. From 

 time immemorial it has been known to the English as 

 Seal Rocks or Seal Islands; to the French as Battures aux 

 Loups-Marins. Doubtless the seals, for ages as plentiful 

 here as the walrus on the Magdalen Islands, up to the 

 middle of the last century, have found a safer and more 

 sechided habitat in the far North, though each winter 

 they stUl venture to the ice-bound coast. Long after the 

 seals had bidden adieu to these solitary Canadian downs 

 the native sportsmen put in an appearance. For many 

 years past, with each autumn and often in advance, the 

 gunners found their way to this favorite sporting ground. 

 A few years ago a cliib of sportsmen of St. Jean, Port 

 Joly, pm-chased this game resort from the Provincial 

 Government.* The August high tide, exceptionally high, 

 reduces the seals' old haunts to about one mile in length 

 and seven acres in width. At the northwest point there 

 exists a diminutive mound or knoll, on which are per- 



*Seal Islands aud Shoals, in River St. Lawrence, opposite River 

 Trois Saumons, were rented on April 18, 18.54. to O. B. Fournier, of 

 Islet, at an annual rent of $50.40, rent redeemable by payment of 

 capital at tae rate of 6 per cent, to Goveranient of ProviBOe of 

 Quebec., 



ceptible, among the few other signs of vegetation, a grove 

 of 8j)ruc'e, fir and wild cherry trees. Conspicuous to this 

 day is the ancient apple tree, of wliich Mr. De Gaspe, in 

 his "Memoirs." records that "one half bears sweet and 

 the other half sour apples, though there exists no trace 

 or record of the tree having ever been grafted." This 

 weird relic of the past still endures and yielded fruit this 

 very summer. Thereto hangs a tale of woe, with which 

 doubtless the Antiquary will favor us. 



Tlte other portion of Seal Rocks, bare at high w^ater 

 (though there is an instance on record of a party of sports- 

 men having once to seek asylum in their boat to escape 

 the rising flood), trending southward, is very properly 

 styled the Sportsmen's Refuge. A channel rmming north- 

 east and southwest separates the shore, where stands the 

 refuge or shooting box, from the moimd or knoll, known 

 asChatigny's Knoll, the chaimel fordable at low tide only. 



It is well called the Sportsmen's Refuge, and here only, 

 in a rude hut erected by them, they find shelter against 

 the easterly gales, which sweep over this forlorn shore 

 with great violence. 



Animal and vegetable life is indeed scanty on this soli- 

 tary down. Few if any singing birds there; the minstrels 

 of the grove seek the companionship of man. What 

 use, indeed, would be to them the sweet gift of song, 

 without an appreciative audience. Each summer, how- 

 ever, a colony of noisy crows, detached from and not 

 missed hj the black hordes frequenting the adjacent 

 group of islands and whose headquarters are He aux Cor- 

 neilles, Crow Island, a few miles to the west— claim pos- 

 session, doubtless by prescription, of the Hr and spruce 

 ^ove overshadowing Chatigny's KnoU. Here they nest. 

 Occasionally may be heard overhead and seen, some 

 hoarse old raven, wnngrng his heavy, laborious flight 

 toward the bleak ledges of Cape Tom-mente, to the north- 

 west, or, mayhap, further north, to his callow brood in 

 their nest among the cloud-capped peaks of Passe des 

 Monts, in the Saguenay district. His funereal, unearthly 

 kra-ac, kra-ac, seems in keeping with the dismal aspect 

 of the land. In September a silvery g-uU occasionally 

 lights in the mellow sunshine amid the eddies round the 

 shoals, in quest of smelts. Save the report of a gTin or 

 the whistle of a passing steamer, no sound invades tliis 

 lone, arid beach, quite extensive at low tide. 



"But," asked the Commodore, "why did not the sports- 

 men buUd on Chatigny's KiiolL, so well protected by ti-ees?" 



"For divers cogent and powerful reasons," retorted Mac 

 of the Isles, "which we wOl allow the Antiquary to ex- 

 pound to us, for who here can compare to him for histor- 

 ical, antiquarian and legendary lore? But before we hear 

 liim let me speak of the game. At Seal Rocks, as else- 

 where in the Province of Quebec, the law tolerates no 

 spring or summer shooting. The island is especially 

 famous for ducks, and the 1st of September is the time 

 fixed by the Legislattire for the opening of the season. 

 These downs seem to particularly attract the old and 

 young birds, returning at the beginning of September 

 from their breeding grounds at Hudson's Bay, in several 

 islands on the Labrador coast and some of the solitary 

 isles of Lakes St. John and Mistassini. Tired out by 

 storms they congregate in vast flocks on the reedy, muddy 

 and sandy "beaches of Seal Rocks at low tide. At present 

 the locality supplies the Quebec markets with quantities of 

 game, such as Canada geese, a few white geese, black and 

 gray ducks, brant, blue and green-winged teal, snipe, 

 jodwits, golden plover, ring plover and smaller beach 

 3irds. The smaller beach birds are ushered in with the 

 high tide of August, about the 21st of that month, and 

 precede duck shooting. The game season lasts about three 

 months, August, September and October. The Messrs. 

 Toussaint and others, of Quebec, proprietors of the island 

 for the last eleven years, intrust the care of their preserve 

 to a game keeper who lands at Seal Rocks about Aug. 1 

 and leaves about beginning of November." 



arrangements for our pleasure. Birds were plentiful. 

 Indeed, coveys were to right of us, to left of us and in 

 front of us, continually. It was, so to speak, a bountiful 

 repast of fat quail, with woodcock for dessert. When 

 smrf eited with these, we had br'er rabbit, and squirrels ad 

 nauseavu with ducks, wild geese, doves, hawks and owls 

 for experimental side dishes. We dined sumptuously 

 every day, and shall never forget the culinary skill of our 

 hostess, especiallv not her preserves and jams, wliich 

 ranged through all the fruits and berries of that region. 



It might be believed if I should say my friend retm-ned 

 laden with birds, but 1 fear no one would credit me if I 

 should tell how many I missed; so it shall remain a secret 



until I cease to be a 

 Washxnqton, D, C, Dec. 4. 



Novice. 



ROD AND GUN NEAR THE CAPITAL. 



Editor Forest and Stream: 



Three miles below Arlington Cemetry and the Long 

 Bridge is a quiet and picturesque spot known as Four- 

 Mile Run, the name being taken from the stream that 

 there broadens into a wide basin, forming _part of the 

 noble Potomac, as our vainglorious local scribblers are 

 foimd of calling that muddy, malarial river. No other lo- 

 cality near this city and easily accessible offers equiva- 

 lent attractions for the discipres of "dear old Ike." Sev- 

 eral kinds of game fish may be foimd there, while mullet, 

 chub, carp and winter shad are occasionally caught. 

 Eels, sunfish and catfish are of course abmidantly present 

 as nearly everywhere else, save in mid ocean and the 

 Polar seas. On the arches that there span the Rim, or in 

 boats furnished by mine host Taylor (by the way a fine 

 fellow and dead shot), one may often see a notable com- 



Sany — politicians and 'statesmen (like Gen. Hampton), 

 istinguished military men (like Adj.-Gen. Drum, who 

 affects the fly alone), many actors and actresses from 

 companies sojourning in Washington, local celebrities of 

 various kinds, and the "unwashed," in the form of Sanibo 

 with his everlasting handline and pound sinker, which 

 makes him "dead shuali ob dat catfish, boss," and the 

 urchins who have escaped parental eye, bringing with 

 them the inevitable tow-string, eyed hook and "the best 

 worms you ebber seed." 



There is, however, one distinguished and never-absent 

 angler who has fairly earned the title of "Fishing Crank" 

 (as he often calls himself). Save in December and Jaaiu- 

 ary, daily, at any hour from 3 A. M. to 12 P. M. (omitting 

 the mid-day time when professionally employed in the 

 city), Jessie may be found, in fair weather or in foul, 

 somewhere about the placed diligently, enthusiastically 

 and successfully throwing the fly or trolUng the minnow, 

 with "malice prepense" toward om- finny bretliren. His 

 annual catches have run into thousands and he has grown 

 to be a Mascotte of no small reputation. He is in fact 

 authority on all subjects relating to piscatorial amuse- 

 ments in that locality, and if his advice were every time 

 sold for a penny he would soon become the Astor of the 

 Potomac. But it is not so well known that he is an all- 

 round sportsman and excellent shot, from long prac- 

 tice in many places at home and abroad. When the 

 bird season comes he even forgets that fish swim 

 or bite and hies him down the river to well- 

 known "stamping grounds." He took along the writer 

 on his last trip, as a kindness, and perchance as a foil 

 to his superior skill with the gun. We went, Thanks- 

 giving week, to Shamrock, forty-seven miles from Wash- 

 ington, to mine host Wolfe's, who had kindly made all 



SONG BIRD LEGISLATION. 



Editor Forest and Stream: 



In your issue of Nov. 11 a report of some "committee' 

 on song bird protection is noticed, in which birds of l)rey, 

 such as herons, bitterns, ibis, hawks, owls, blackbirds, 

 butcher birds, etc., are stated as intended to be protected, 

 as not injurious to husbandry. This claim for them 

 seems to grow out of some vague "ornithological" research, 

 or perhajis some (city bred?) refinement or tenderness, that 

 will take a long wliile and a good deal of educational 

 effort to make it "wash" among practical farmers or 

 sportsmen. Take for example hawks, other than night 

 hawks. Every farmer knows they "steal chickens," and 

 after the first taste will quickly acquire an increased habit 

 if protected in the theft, and the habit will multiply in 

 proportion with the bu-ds. Sportsmen know they attack 

 out of season his broods of partiidges, woodcock and the 

 like. The farmer's poultiy is his money. Shall this kind 

 of theft be protected and legalized, and he be punished 

 for defense of property upon the refined theory that the 

 hawk may also now and then catch mice, birds or frogs? 



So of the crow. The farmer knows, without "theory," 

 that crows puU up his corn and grain after he has with 

 bard labor, plowed, tilled, and planted; that they will 

 destroy crops by the acre as often as replanted till the 

 season is too far advanced for any crop. The faitner 

 knows too well the labor of planting crops. His time and 

 crops are his money. And when some ornithologist (city 

 refined collector of bird skins and eggs, as he would term 

 them) should undertake to teach him that the crow is his 

 friend and must be protected and multiplied by law at the 

 expense of his crops ( liecause tlie crow likes caiTion, robs 

 small ground buds' nests, catclies toads, frogs and a few 

 bugs and grasshoppers), he would most likely be told "to 

 talk to the marines." What is said of the crow is true of 

 the blackbirds. And what is said of haAvks is tiaie of owls, 

 that rob the hen roost at night and are most destructive. 

 Of butcherbirds (shrike) that kill small birds and impale 

 them upon thorn apple spikes, nothing good can be said. 

 Of herons, bitterns, and the like, the food is principally 

 toads and frogs, that are uiiollv insectivorous. 



In respect to these liirds of prey, it is notorious that 

 they have been treated as enemies of husbandry for time 

 out of memory, and as such war for their destiniction has 

 been constantly waged. Yet like rats they have held 

 their own in spite of civilization and all the destructive 

 arts and appliances. So they will continue, and if the 

 "theories' and aims of bird skin collectors or fanciers pre- 

 vail, wiU overrun the country. It Avas only recently that 

 the sparrow was proclaimed a benefit out of such refine- 

 ment, and we know the result. Similar theoretic refine- 

 ment protected briefly the skunk, another pest and robber 

 of birds' nests aud poultry yards. Wlio knows but we 

 next may be asked for the protection of rats and mice, 

 species that have multiplied in opportune seasons in spite 

 of crows, hawks and owls, and the destructive appbances 

 of mankind, rat poison not excepted ? Farmers know, 

 moreover, that 95 cents worth of rat poison about the 

 fields and nm-series will destroy more mice in a week than 

 hawks, owls and crows can dispose of in years. 



The further assertion is ventured that if these wise and 

 learned ornithologists were personally engaged in 

 husbandry, by the end of the second planting of the first 

 crop, of the thu'd year of crow protection, there would be 

 an end of their wise notions on the subject. 



To be serious, protection of song and insectivorous birds 

 will receive public favor and sentiment because it has 

 merit, but when it is overdone by protecting doubtful or 

 injurious species, against which public sentiment has for 

 ages been at -war, merit and favor cease and the opposi- 

 tion of public sentiment is at once encountered in its_ en- 

 forcement, notwithstanding the opinions of a committee 

 of a dozen that public jirejudice "is unfounded." 



Without going into the defects of Chap. 427, L. N. Y. 

 1886. it occurs that the "way to protect" song birds "is to 

 protect." Why protect with a non-protective qualifica- 

 tion (§ 4) by which permits are given without limit by any 

 "incorporated society" of natural history at |1 per per- 

 mit, to kill song or wild birds without limit ? Now every 

 lawyer knows that any ten or a dozen persons may form 

 an "incorporated society" without much ti-ouble and go 

 into the "permit" and "'natural history" business all over 



the State." Then where is song bird protection, and what 

 is it? A like loophole is in the game laws (g 14) by which 

 any person may kill birds (professing?) to study habits, 

 history or stuff,' etc., by which the law is nuUified. The 

 question arises: Wlio are these ornithologists? What the 

 "museums of natural history?" How many are there? 

 What then- necessities? Why they be given unlimited 

 power? and like questions show how crude the law 

 is. It may be assumed the intent was good enough in 

 the draft of the law, but when it comes down to con- 

 sideration of objects, purposes or necessities, it is open to 

 suspicion, for it may be asked, why this permit and 

 monopoly business in indiscriminate hands? Know- 

 ledge of birds is all well, but have not the fuU "habits 

 and history" been written and pubhshed over and over? 

 The birds are protected against everybody except 

 those who wish to deal in them (imder corporate fran- 

 chise) for profit or pleasm-e, or except those who wish to 

 go into the "permit" granting business at ^1 each per 

 year. Is it to be supposed that corporate franchises 

 may not be obtained bv the worst as well as best of men, 

 or that the fee of $1 will ever be refused ? Further com- 

 ment is unnecessary. Johk D. Oolliks, Secretary, 

 UiioA Fish and Gams Pbotbotive Assooiawok. 



i 



