616 



FORES!" ANt) STREAM. 



[Dec. 14, 1895. 



IN AN INDIANA QUAIL COUNTRY. 



Editor Forest and Stream: 



With the opening of the quail season came an urgent 

 invitation from my friend Mr. Thorpe, of the Pennsylva- 

 nia Company's offices at Fort Wayne, Ind., to come and 

 have a couple of days shooting with him over one of the 

 best dogs in the State; and not having had an opportunity 

 to enjoy this rare sport for many a day, I sent word that 

 I would be on hand at the appointed time. 



Leaving Pittsburg Saturday night, Nov. 9, I reached 

 Fort Wayne early Sunday morning, where I spent the 

 day very pleasantly, talking over the proposed trip which 

 we had planned for Monday morning, and partaking of 

 the hospitality of my friend and his good wife. 



Leaving Fort Wayne next morning at 3:30 we reached 

 Columbia City, twenty miles further west, about 4; 15 

 A. M., where a conveyance awaited us, and where we 

 also expected to get our dog, hut much to our discom- 

 fiture, that very necessary part of the outfit was not in 

 condition to play his part, having taken sick the previous 

 day, and the owner did not consider him in fit shape to 

 travel, so we had to rely upon our own ingenuity to find 

 game. 



We accordingly drove ten miles north to the home of 

 Mr. Irwin, a farmer and an ardent sportsman, where an 

 elegant breakfast awaited us. Our long drive through 

 the frosty air of the early morning gave us keen appe- 

 tites, and to say that we enjoyed the meal does not half 

 express it. 



Breakfast over, we donned our shooting clothes, and 

 upon learning that fox squirrels were fairly plentiful 

 in that locality, decided to try for some of them, and 

 leave the quail shooting for another time, when we might 

 have a dog to find them for us. 



We spent Monday and Tuesday with the squirrels, and 

 upon counting the string preparatory to our return found 

 thafr*we had eighteen red, one gray and eleven very large 

 fox squirrels; the latter being the finest I have ever seen. 

 Some of them were as large as a half-grown woodchuck, 

 and as I had the honor of killing them, I had abundant 

 opportunity to judge of their siza while carrying them 

 nearly two miles to the house after the "slaughter" was 

 over. 



To any one fond of this sport that portion of Indiana 

 offers a good opportunity. The country is tolerably level 

 and the woods are comparatively free from underbrush, 

 making it an ideal place for the fox squirrels. 



Our short outing was very much enjoyed, and we were 

 royally treated by our friend Mr. Irwin and his charming 

 wife and daughter, who did everything possible for our 

 comfort. We have been invited to come again next 

 spring and have some sport with the bass, which are very 

 plentiful in the numerous lakes within easy distance of 

 Mr. Irwin's home. 



I have long bi3en a devoted friend of Forest and 

 Stream, and find so much pleasure in reading the 

 weekly contributions of my brother sportsmen that I 

 take the liberty of sending the above, trusting that it be 

 of interest to the readers of your splendid paper. 



L. H. Hull. 



Pittsburg, Pa. 



Shooting Pictures. 



"English Snipe" and "Prairie Chickens" are the titles 

 of two more of the series of "Shooting Pictures," by Mr. 

 A. B Frost, which are now ready for subscribers. "Eng- 

 lish Snipe" portrays a scene so familiar to lovers of that 

 kind of shooting — a broad marshy flit, with its patchy 

 growths of swamp vegetation, wet ground and chains of 

 water, and hills and woods in the distance. Two hand- 

 pome orange and white setters in the foreground are 

 painting and backit g. a snip • tins just flushed t rum the 

 point aid the sp.-rrsuiati is in the aet of sht-oting. 

 ' Pfaine Cruck< n«'' contains o.ueti that 18 pretty 

 and much to admir ; but in a shooting sense it 

 has some faults which it may not be hypercriti- 

 cal to mention. The scene is in a cornfield, and 

 shooter, dogs, birds and shocks of corn are massed to- 

 gether in a most artificial manner. Shooting chickens in 

 corn in the chicken country is mostly in uncut corn. In 

 the picture the shooter and dogs are too close to the birds, 

 and the dogs are still pointing with the birds directly over 

 their heads, and which they entirely ignore. The shooter 

 has killed one bird closer to him than any shooter would 

 deem permissible; indeed so close is it that instead of 

 being neatly killed it would be blown into atoms. The 

 dogs are excellently portrayed, and their position on 

 point is spirited and correct. The shooter also is cor- 

 rectly portrayed. The chickens are good chickens, but 

 faultily placed with reference to man and dogs, and their 

 wings are all spread in unison in a manner rarely ob- 

 served in the flight of a bevy. 



Havre de ©race Ducks. 



Havre de Grace, Md., Dec. 8. — I am truly sorry to be 

 compelled to say that up to this time our sports and pot- 

 hunters have done the poorest business that I ever knew, 

 with no prospects of any improvement. The waterfowl 

 that have been coming every fall for hundreds of years to 

 see us, and to spend their winters in the waters of our 

 Southern States, have either found other countries where 

 they can spend their winters, or else they have nearly all. 

 been exterminated— more than likely the latter. There- 

 fore I can't give a favorable report. I have been some- 

 what interested in gunning and fishing in Maryland for 

 sixty years, but up to the present time I have never seen 

 game and fish of all kinds so scarce. 



Capt, E. B. Gallup. 



How Many Deer are there in the Adirondacks 1 



City Engineer s Office, Troy, N, Y., Dec. 5 — Editor 

 Forest and Stream: I send you herewith statement re- 

 ceived by the Forest and Game Commission relative to' 

 the number of deer killed this season in the Adirondacks 

 and an estimate of the number remaining in the woods? 



"A short time since the Fisheries, Game and Forest 

 Commission sent out circulars to reliable persons in the 

 Adirondacks asking for information regarding the num- 

 ber i f deer killed during the past open season. Replies- 

 have been received from four-fifths of the persons asked 

 and the result is that 8,551 d^er are reported to have been 

 killed. President Davis, of the Commission, believes the 

 total number of deer killed will exceed 4,000. The terri- 

 tory embraced is 3,000,000 acres. The largest deer killed 



weighed 2931bs. There are about 35,000 deer in the Adi- 

 rondacks, it is estimated." 



The estimate of deer in the woods at this time, nearly 

 eight to the square mile, I believe to be excessive. Since 

 the early sixties I have averaged, summer and fall, at 

 least one trip per year to the Adirondacks, and from a 

 knowledge thus obtained am satisfied that in limited dis- 

 tricts only would anything like eight to the square mile 

 be found. M. Schejsck. 



Capercailzie and Black Game. 



Canton, S. D., Dec. 3 —Editor Forest and Stream: 

 Having read the articles respecting the importation of 

 game birds from Sweden I would like to say a few words 

 regarding this, as I was born and raised in the middle 

 part of Sweden and have seen and hunted these glorious 

 birds from childhood till I was 20 years old. 



I know their habits well. The capercailzie is a very 

 hardy bird and will stand almost any kind of climate. 

 They are always found in heavy timber where there are 

 blueberries and juniper; they grow to be very old and 

 cunning; I have had several in captivity and they always 

 did well. I fed them on oats and barley, giving them 

 plenty of blueberry vines and juniper berries, and never 

 had any trouble to keep them as long as I wanted to. 



The black game are somewhat different in their habits, 

 being found more in open glades and around peat bogs, 

 where they congregate in large numbers in the spring- 

 time, a good deal like our prairie chickens. They prefer 

 places where there is birch, as they feed on the buds. If 

 the Maine woods are like that I don't think there would 

 be much difficulty in raising the birds there; and I hope 

 to see the experiment carried on. Wm, Blomsirand. 



'mm mid ^rateiiUatu 



New York Fish Commission. 



The New York Fish Commission, because of want of funds, 

 has dropped from service Mark C. Finlay, of Wayne county, 

 the special agent for the detection of fraud; John Ferguson, 

 ah oybter protector of Suffolk county, and John Liberty, 

 clerk in the office of the Chief Protector, together with fif- 

 teen of the thirty-three game and fish protectors, who get 

 $500 a year and $450 for expenses. These are J. L. Ackerly , 

 of Yates; Thomas Donnelly, of Warsaw; Ira Elmendorf, of 

 Ulster; A. B Klock, of Herkimer; J. H. Lamphere, of Cayu- 

 ga; James D. Lawrence, of Delaware; B. S. Morrill, of Clin- 

 ton; C. M. Prouty, of Washington; Riley M. Rush, of Oneida; 

 William A. Ten Eyck, of Saratoga; George B. Smith, of Che- 

 mung; T. J. Brooks, of Monroe; D G. Heimes, of Hamilton, 

 and O. S. Potter, of Oswego. Several special game protec- 

 tors, whose services are paid for by clubs, were appointed. 



Oregon Trout Law. 



In our comment on the Oregon trout law last week we re- 

 ferred to the red-spotted fish losing its color iu the salt 

 water, having in mind the Dollie VarHen trout, and forget- 

 ting for the moment that Judge Greene's letter concerned 

 the black-spotted fish, rainbow or Gardiner's trout or steel- 

 head salmon. We may add that while the probability of 

 taking any of these fish in salt water for a market supply 

 does not appeal to one's credence, there is nevertheless just 

 enough possibility of it to make the law a pernicious one. 



NEP1GON AND SAGUENAY RIVERS. 



A Five Minutes' Comparison. 

 The Nepigon River has for its source a great spring 

 which presses against more than ninety miles of encircling 

 rocks in seeking for a chance to escape, and then pours 

 its bounty of bright waters pell mell thiough a forty mile 

 chute straight into diaphanic Lake Superior. If the river 

 stops a bit wherever there is need to touch up the land- 

 scape with a lake, or if it runs slowly past engaging 

 scenery, no one cares very much, because it makes up for 

 lost time in a headlong chase over the rocks all of the rest 

 of the way. 



The Saguenay River with its forty miles of peat stained 

 water debouching into a dark sullen estuary is the result 

 of a conference of long rivers which meet at Lake St. 

 John and require ninety miles of sandy circumference for 

 the assembly. If you would know which St. John the 

 lake is namt d after, try to cross it in a birch bark canoe 

 when a question of north wind is before the conference. 

 The Nepigon River as a strong individual character retains 

 its original motives and carries into Lake Superior the 

 same volume of clearest cold water with which it started, 

 — water that makes such white foam and spray in the 

 rapids that the Indians could not help calling the river the 

 Nepi-gon or river-tbat-is-like-snow. Such a river is not 

 very susceptible to passing influences and during the 

 whole year it may not rise or fall more than twenty -five 

 inches, while the Saguenay responding to many influen- 

 tial constituents rises and falls as many feet in the course 

 of two months, and not only that, but it is warm or cold 

 at the dictation of the season. 



The Nepigon is not afraid to show its true nature at the 

 outset of its career, and it gives honest warning that it is 

 powerful. The Saguenay, on the other hand, leaves the 

 St. John conference with murder in its heart. Stealthily 

 as a leopard it noiselessly glides past the Isle d'Alma, then 

 it mutters and growls for awhile, and suddenly bursts out 

 with demoniacal ferocity upon the rocks in its path. If 

 you are a master of rivers and. fear none of them, go to 

 the Nepigon and to the Saguenay and see how grandly 

 nature is displayed along these two great tributaries of 

 the St. Lawrence which are so much alike upon the map 

 and so different in their characters. Leave behind the 

 pleasures of the city that are dependent upon arts which 

 stimulate the mind without nourishing the soul; where 

 the gardener makes the rose more and more beautiful as 

 he gradually forces its stems to become petals, until, as 

 the queen of flowers, it has lost the power to continue its 

 varieties; where the arts of civilization stimulate the 

 mind until it flames up in genius and a degenerate body 

 falls back. Go to the Nepigon and to the Saguenay and 

 see what substantial things can be found there in nature. 



On the Nepigon, igneous cliffs of trap rock tower in stern 

 grandeur over the river-that-is-like-snow. The dark for- 

 est growth of fir and tamarack, toned by poplar, birch 

 and roundwood, becomes thinned a?nd sparse on the moun- 

 tains, just as though the Oreads had planned their forest 

 before violent upheavals of the earth made ten miles 

 out of one mile and thereby upset their calculations. On 

 the Saguenay — the corrupted name for the Shagahneu-hi 

 or ice-hole river — so named because the seals used to keep 

 many air holes open in the ice of the estuary, the Lau- 

 rentian rocks in somber piles lift up their covering of 

 coniferous and deciduous trees, which are much like those 

 of the Nepigon, but here and there a fine yellow pine 

 holds monarchial possession of a jagged island, and the 

 trunks of the northern white birch light up the forest 

 aisles. An area of fossiliferous limestone on Lake St. 

 John has come to the surface, bearing evidence of the 

 abundance of life in Silurian days. A devout clergyman 

 remarked that these fossils were never alive, but were 

 placed there in their present form to test our faith, and 

 they have done it. Moose and caribou sometimes leave 

 tracks in the moss along the banks of both the Nepigon 

 and Saguenay rivers, and one need not go very far away 

 to find an abundance of such game. Black bears swim 

 the rivers at safe crossing places, and the voice of a gray 

 wolf may be heard above the sound of rushing waters 

 when all else under the stars is still. Along both rivers 

 the northern hares furnish the principal food supply for 

 predacious animals and birds, just as the* ciscoes furnish 

 the principal food supply for the predatory fishes of the 

 region, Spruce grouse and ruffed grouse fly into the 

 bushes near the fisherman and look at him in wonderment, 

 and the cinereous owl catches ptarmigans on the hills in 

 winter. In the Nepigon River brook trout find such an abun- 

 dance of food and such agreeably cold water that they grow 

 to an enormous size and are ready to spring after the fly at 

 almost any time of day after 10 o'clock in the morning. 

 Like fish in the other very cold streams they do not rise 

 readily in the early morning, and the best sport may be 

 had with them in the middle of the sunshiniest day. The 

 big 6 -pounders jump at the fly almost as eagprly as the 

 youngsters do, and the very largest trout are so sleek and 

 fat that they are delicious for the camp table — quite dif- 

 ferent from the mill-pond trout of warmer waters, which 

 lose flavor and activity as sopn as they have passed the 

 ounces period in their lives. Side by side with the trout 

 are swarms of monstrous pike (Esox lucius), and some- 

 times one of these will take a silver-doctor fly. So will 

 the salmon trout which lurk in the tail water of deep 

 rapids, and so will the pike-perch if one is casting the fly 

 at night. The Nepigon looks like good bass water from 

 the fisherman's point of view, but the bass themselves 

 say that it is too cold, and I know of only two that have 

 been caught there. 



If we leave the best trout water to itself for awhile and 

 toss the fly over still deep reaches where the water is ever 

 so many fathoms deep, a surprise may come to the sur- 

 face in the form of a pale trout with translucent nose 

 and fins, who shows by his colors that he lives away 

 down in the profound bottom caverns. We must not 

 expsct to catch one of these trout, but once in a while 

 there comes an hour when they are all at the surface. 



Whitefish take the fly readily if one is knowing enough 

 to tempt them in a politic way, and they certainly belong 

 to the game fishes of America. They cannot chase and 

 capture an ordinary artificial fly, but if we put half a 

 dozen flies, tied on No. 14 hooks on a single leader, and 

 drop this affair lightly among the fins that are circling 

 about at the surface in the evening, and keep it perfectly 

 still, pretty soon the whitefish will move up to it and tiy 

 to pick off the small flies as daintily as a red deer nips a 

 lily bud. 



Although there are half a, dozen species of fish that will 

 rise to the fly in the. Nepigon, the chief game fish of the 

 river is first and last the red-spotted square-tailed brook 

 trout. In the Saguenay the chief game fish ia the ouanan- 

 iche, or salmon-that-is-little. This is the landlocked sal- 

 mon that is found in many lake streams from Maine to 

 Labrador, if the streams contain smelts. Ichthyologists 

 find the landlocked salmon anatomically the same as the 

 salmon that goes to the sea, but the ouananiche are con- 

 tent to remain with the food supply that is in sight in 

 fresh water; just as certain people who might be most 

 important in the town prefer to remain small in the vil- 

 lage, because they are satisfied with the opportunity in 

 sight, though anatomically they are the same folks. It 

 is principally a question of size of opportunity. 



In the Saguenay we find the same monstrous pike and 

 the same pike-perch and whitefish as in the Nepigon, but 

 the trout are absent. There are plenty of trout in the 

 tributary streams which ,are not inhabited by the ouanan- 

 iche, but the two fish cannot bear to live together because 

 they are such close rivals. Both are magnificent, but they 

 cannot see it in each other. 



The guides of the Nepigon are for the most part Chip- 

 pewa Indians or half -breeds,who are willing enough to have 

 visitors enter their domain, but who are not very amiable. 

 Such is their nature. They do not even make friends of 

 their dogs, who would gladly love them and forgive all of 

 their failings. A stray Indian dog of the most pathetic 

 yellow color came to our camp one day, and when we 

 tried to pat his head the poor little fellow spread his legs 

 apart and braced himself, thinking that we were trying 

 to push him over. He did not know that there was any 

 such thing as affection in the whole wide world; but we 

 developed that latent trait for him, and glad indeed was he 

 to find at the end of a week that his tail had a use and 

 that it could wag. 



On the Saguenay the guides are hardy, polite French- 

 Canadians, simple in their ways, and delighted to have a 

 chance to show their hospitality if we visit their humble 

 homes. In their relations with each other every man 

 stands on his real merits and accepts the position that is 

 given him in the estimation of his confreres. Monsieur 

 E. R, Duton cannot block up a shaky reputation by sign- 

 ing himself Eelvo Reanne Duton. He cannot elevate the 

 neighborhood by forcing his name under society in the 

 form of a wedge as E. Reanne Duton; nor can he send 

 the chaiu shot name of Eelvo Raanne-Duton hurtling 

 through a startled public if he is personally deficient in 

 powder. 



The Nepigon has completed its duty when the tribute 

 of waters is freely paid to Lake Superior, but the Sague- 

 nay holds back and ruakeB its current pass through a 

 long estuary before delivering its property to the sea. 

 The, estuary is full of weird interest. The Bomber cur- 

 rent, the beetling mountains and the cold northern air 



