562 



FOREST AND ' STREAM, 



PDeo. 28, 1895. 



"I guess you are right," said he, "the temptationjis cer- 

 tainly very great." -nSfiBa 



He proudly showed the top notcher at night — a six and 

 one-half pounder. "And the one that got away with my 

 bottom fly was a yard long — wasn't he,Tomas? And would 

 weigh over 81bs. — wouldn't he, Tomae?" and Tomas said, 

 "Yassir." 



The fun of Mowry's catch was that his improvised land- 

 ing net consisted of an old piece of burlap— originally an 

 envelope for pork— stretched in a shallow bag to a looped 

 pole. 



The following morning was devoted to photography 

 and the skinning of four of the finest fish, which were 

 rubbed with salt and alum for preservation. (Here I 

 may say that they came through all right and have been 

 beautifully mounted by Mr. Henry Squires, of New York 

 city.) In the afternoon we explored the whole lake, 

 picking out a better camping ground, on a point about 

 midway. Mowry went out next day after accomplishing 

 a feat for which he had longed, viz. , the catching of a 

 5lb. trout and putting it back. "That," said he, "is what 

 I have always wanted to be able to say— that I had found 

 them so beautiful that I had put them back. That will 

 please any man who comes back at me with a bigger 

 story." 



That same morning we shifted our camp to the new 

 location. It began to get hot and sultry. The fish were 

 not in general evidence as hitherto; in fact, as it became 

 necessary to fish for the pot (the ravening maws of our 

 tubular guides having worked destruction upon all our 

 flour, biscuit and over 1201bs. of trout), we were driven 

 back to our first pool for any luck at all. Here we picked 

 up eight one afternoon and eleven the next morning, run- 

 ning about as before. This finished our big fishing, as we 

 went out the day following. Here is the demnition total 

 —fifty-two fish weighing 1681bs. lloz.— a grand average 

 of 31bs. 4oz. Leaving out ten which weighed under 2 lbs., 

 the average for forty-two was 3lbs. lloz. Seventeen of 

 the catch went over 4lbs. 



Bach of us had something to be especially proud of. 

 Mowry had the largest, 6£lbs. ; Pierce the largest number, 

 twenty-one, with the highest average, 31bs. 7oz., and I 

 held the championship in doubles. 



These fish were all taken scientifically with the fly. There 

 was no bait-fishing. They were without exception the most 

 brilliant fish I have ever seen. The colors were so vivid as 

 to be incapable of reproduction by brush or description by 

 the pen. They were a deep-bodied, heavy fish, full and 

 strong. When struck it was a matter of fifteen to thirty 

 minutes to bring them to net, and for the whole of that 

 time perhaps after the first rush it would be a steady sulk 

 about 6ft. below the surface, from which no e ffort could 

 raise them. Time and again, after long spells of this, in 

 which the rod butt was held perpendicular at the edge of 

 the canoe, the pliant cane describing a perfect arc with 

 its tip close to the water, I tried to raise my fish by lifting 

 the butt straight up to full arm's length ; but the tip stayed 

 right at the surface, notwithstanding the tremendous and 

 long-continued strain. Often a lost fly or part of leader 

 showed that two had been on at once, but one had broken 

 away. 



Again, the smaller fry, under 21bs., had a disagreeable 

 habit of snatching the top fly after a big fellow was fast 

 below, making difficult work of bringing him to net. It 

 took sharp work to save the rod when a rush was made 

 under the canoe; but we proudly remark that not a tip 

 was broken, not a fish lost except such as broke the leader 

 or carried off a fly in case of a double strike. 



I have never heard of equal luck for both number and 

 size. It is something to brag of for a lifetime. 



The trip out was severe because of the excessive heat, 

 and uneventful but for one clean miss of a caribou, the 

 only shot we had, although I saw a big bull swim the lake 

 a half mile away, going out before we came within shot. 



H. N. Cuktis. 



New York. 



THE SPELL OF AN OTTER'S EYES. 



Editor Forest and Stream: 



By the Adirondack woodsmen along the banks of the 

 West Canada Creek the otter is regarded as quite as sly 

 as the fox, inasmuch that it is very difficult to trap in 

 any kind of contrivance. There are fewer stories about 

 the creature's intelligence, as the animals are scarce and 

 have not been so much observed as have the foxes. 



There has been, and probably is, an otter that for six 

 years anyhow, and perhaps longer, has traveled down the 

 creek winter and summer about every two weeks. In the 

 winter it left a running, sliding trail in the snow on the 

 ice, seldom leaving the creek bed to go into a cove or 

 overland for a dozen or fifteen rods. In summer weather 

 it fished and caught frogs in the coves of the flats. A 

 good many shots have been fired at it and a lot of traps 

 set for it, but none were ever successful. It is believed 

 by woodsmen that the otters, like the hell- divers, loons, 

 mink and others, dodge shot or ball. 



I saw this otter, once some years ago in the summer 

 time, and while only one feature of the animal is distinct 

 in my mind, I do not recollect any other wild animal so 

 well. The body is a mere glimmer of black in waving 

 swale grass. Even the head is a burly, rusty gray shadow, 

 a sort of background for the two eyeB. 



I have seen deer when they were standing still looking 

 at me, have looked at squirrels, rabbits, partridges, foxes 

 and other wild animals alarmed by my presence, but their 

 forms, rather than their eyes, are more or less distinct. 

 In fact, the eyes seem secondary in the mind pictures, 

 except in the case of the otter. It seems to me that the 

 otter did not merely look at me; it was more as if it looked 

 into me, the same as the sensation one has when some 

 one — a man or woman — "reads your innermost thoughts." 

 TheBe eyes were large and full rounded, dark brown with 

 a shimmer of light gray skating across and around the 

 center, and with a lively beauty as different from the 

 dead beauty of a deer's full eyo. It sent precisely such 

 chills up and down my back as dark human eyes have 

 done. It was a tense particular look, and not the general 

 gaze of a bird or other animal. The otter, I think, hyp- 

 notized me, for I did not shoot, although my impression 

 is that we looked at one another for a minute or two. 



Raymond S. Speaks. 



Brooklyn, N. Y. 



The Forest and Stream is put to press each week on Tuesday. 

 Correspondence intended for publication should reach us at fhe 

 fotgsf by Monday, and as t^uch eqrlisr m practicable, 



THE VERDICT. 



It was a shooting club. They were men of thought and 

 they met in solemn conclave. They discussed momentous 

 matters pertaining to their beloved pastime. And this is 

 what they said about the question of 



Nuisances. 



No. 1. "The greatest nuisance is the dog that breaks and 

 runs when a man fires." 



No. 2. "But a greater is a dog that, with that awful 

 fault, also gulps down the fallen bird." 



No. 3. "I can bear with a poor dog, but the_ worst nui- 

 sance I meet are these posters all over and around, 'No 

 hunting.'" 



No. 4. "But a greater, added to the posters, is a man's 

 head and the muzzle of a gun just above the fence, cry- 

 ing, 'Git out o' there.'" 



No. 5. "As for me, I despise more than these a mad bull 

 rushing down upon a fellow and driving him to the 

 fence." 



No. 6. "And worse still, a bulldog on the other side of 

 the fence." [Cheers.] 



No. 7. "Gentlemen, you have all spoken— spoken as 

 becomes members of this noble club. But there is one 

 thing above all that I abominate, abhor, and despise. Ib 

 is a nuisance par excellence. The man who conceived it 

 ought never to have been born. The dog that breaks and 

 eats his bird has not bitten me; the selfish curmudgeon 

 behind the fence has not shot me; the mad bull has not 

 gored me, nor the bulldog torn my pants. But my poor 

 flesh has been lacerated and my corduroys torn to shreds 

 by this most terrible of all nuisances — a cussed barbed 

 wire fence." [Amens and deafening cheers.] 



N. D. Elting. 



FOREIGN BIRDS IN MAINE. 



Boston, Dec. 12.— Editor Forest and Stream: The 

 three letters which my observations and questions on the 

 Auburn, Me., bird-hatching experiment have brought 

 into your columns have, naturally, been interesting read- 

 ing to me. Two of the writers seem to look upon the 

 matter as I did, viz.: that it is absurd to try to stock 

 Maine with foreign game birds by an attempt to breed in 

 captivity, as an intermediary phase in the process. 



I confess I cannot see how anyone ever thought of such 

 a thing. 



If the original promoters of the Auburn scheme thought 

 the matter out at all, must it not sooner or later have 

 dawned on them that, even if they did succeed in rearing 

 a few birds in their cages, the number they could raise 

 there must always be infinitesimal as compared with the 

 number needed to appreciably stock the State, and that 

 for this larger number they would always have to depend 

 on the natural increase of the birds in the wild state? 



Perhaps they were under the impression that during 

 the transportation of the birds from their native haunts to 

 Maine they would forget their natural instincts and never 

 know how to breed again until they were put through 

 the persuasive treatment of confinement in a wire cage 

 and a restricted diet, and of such a character as they had 

 never before experienced. Whatever was the theory, I 

 still think a statement of it would be psychologically, if 

 not otherwise, valuable. Your last correspondent, Mr. 

 Blomstrand, of Canton, S. D., hopes to "see the experi- 

 ment carried on." I am not quite certain whether he 

 means the Auburn experimant or merely an effort to in- 

 troduce capercailzie and black game into Maine. I think 

 it likely that he means the latter, in which case I heartily 

 agree with him. I envy Mr. Blomstrand his personal 

 knowledge of these fine game birds and wish he and 

 others who know about them (and there must be many in 

 America) would give through the columns of Forbst and 

 Stream all the information they can which may tend to 

 increase interest in this subject and give the data needful 

 to secure success in any future experiments. 



From what I have heard of the capercailzie, I feel 

 great assurance that it is well fitted to flourish in the for- 

 ests of Maine, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia and much of 

 Canada, and I hope to live to see this noble bird — cer- 

 tainly one of the very finest of all the grouse family — 

 thoroughly installed in our northern woods. 



If a few dozen pairs can be brought to Maine in fair 

 condition and liberated at the right season in the wilder- 

 ness, far enough from the settled country to insure com- 

 parative freedom from molestation by man, and if they 

 can, in addition, receive complete protection by law for 

 a few years, I feel hopeful of a great and valuable addi- 

 tion to the interest which now draws the hunter to these 

 northern wilds. 



But we should know many things before money is 

 again spent in this matter. We should know more of the 

 habits of the bird in regard to breeding, food, and as far 

 as possible disposition toward other game birds, ability to 

 protect itself from enemies such as it would encounter 

 here, etc. , etc. We should also know the best time of 

 year for liberation. We should also know how it com- 

 pares with our native game birds for the table. I, for 

 one, would much like to know how it is hunted and shot, 

 and hope some capercailzie hunters will give us full 

 accounts of the sport they have had, that we may know 

 something of what we may expect when we get this bird 

 fairly established in the Maine woods. Mr. Blomstrand 

 certainly has my cordial invitation to give us from his 

 rich store of experience. I am capercailzie hungry. 



C. H. Ames. 



Bluebirds near Washington, D. C. 



At the last congress of the American Ornithologists' 

 Union I heard Mrs. Stephenson's paper about bluebirds 

 read — I refer to the one that subsequently appeared in 

 Forest and Stream, on page 510 of the issue of Dec. 14, 

 1895. It interested me both at the time and since, while 

 in some respects I was surprised at the information it 

 conveyed. There can be no question now, of course, that 

 since last winter bluebirds have been extremely rare in 

 many localities; yet during the autumn migration just 

 passed (1895) I did. not find them extraordinarily so about 

 Washington, D. C. During my daily rambles in and - 

 about that city, from the middle of October to the middle 

 of November, I frequently heard them overhead, and in 

 one week during that period I counted eighteen, indi- 



viduals along the roadsides. There was something sur- 

 prised me the other day, however, for upon walking in 

 from a point sixteen miles north from the city on a cold, 

 windy afternoon (Dec. 10, 1895), I saw a number of single 

 individuals of this species, heard others far overhead, and 

 in one flock counted six males and two females. These 

 last were associated with juncos and a mixed company 

 of other small winter birds. 



I am inclined to believe that if we are blessed with one 

 or two, more or less, mild winters now, and a certain 

 class of insane collectors, who may come to think that the 

 bluebirds are upon the high road toward utter extinction, 

 why, in a season or two, this, one of the very loveliest of 

 all our lovely spring migrants, will become abundant once 

 more. Dr. Shufeldt. 



Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D. C, Deo 15, 



«ffa# and %titu 



FIXTURES. 



March 16 to 21, 1896.— Second annual Sportsmen's Exposition, under 

 the auspices of the Sportsmen's Association, at Madison Square 

 Garden, New York city. Frank W. Sanger, Manager. 



SENATOR PROCTOR'S MOOSE. 



Ludlow, Vermont, Dec. 16.— Editor Forest and 

 Stream: On my return from Indianapolis I put in my 

 spare momeiits in reading Forest and Stream, and I was 

 surprised to see in the issue of Nov. 23d last an unfavor- 

 able comment on Senator Redfield Proctor's moose hunt. 

 You do that gentleman great injustice. I did not see the 

 Maine papers and of course do not know what they con- 

 tained. I take it for granted they claimed the moose were 

 killed in that State; the Vermont papers said Canada, 

 which was correct. In the latter part of September 

 Senator Proctor invited my brother and myself to accom- 

 pany him on a trip to Canada and join him in a hunt 

 while there. I could not go, but the Senator and my brother 

 did go, and had a grand time and a most successful hunt. 

 Their moose were all killed in a legitimate manner and 

 in season. You will find they killed no more than the 

 law allowed. I quote from a letter written me by my 

 brother: "I won't write you the details of our hunt, but 

 will tell you and the boys our thrilling experiences and 

 hair-breadth escapes when I see you. The Governor 

 [Senator Proctor] is the luckiest man I ever saw. He 

 stayed two days in the woods and got two fine bull mooBe. 

 He killed one when only a few hours out from the rail- 

 road station and sent it in by a flat boat he found. 

 He reached camp that night and the next morning was 

 out bright and early and had another one in less than an 

 hour. After resting he returned to the station, leaving 

 me in camp. I stayed eleven days and shot two bull 

 moose and a caribou — all of them fine specimens. 

 Altogether the most successful hunt ever having taken 

 place here, so they say. 



"This is the finest fishing and shooting place one ever 

 saw; I think if you saw it you would bring your family 

 here for the summer. As I sit here I can look out of the 

 window down the lake eight miles south, and it runs 

 twenty the other way. I send you to-morrow a haunch 

 of the last moose I killed." 



Now when you consider that Senator Proctor left the 

 railroad, killed two moose and was back again on the train 

 in less than forty-eight hours you can see that no explan- 

 ation from him is necessary. Another year I propose to 

 be one of the party if I can possibly go. I have just re- 

 turned from central Indiana; there are no quail there this 

 year to speak of. 



Ruffed grouse are extremely plentiful here. Hares are 

 thick, in fact I never saw so many. Foxes everywhere; 

 there is one old silver gray that everybody sees occasion- 

 ally, but no one can get a shot at. Above Ludlow about 

 six miles there is quite a herd of deer and they are 

 increasing all the time and are extremely tame. No one 

 ever bothers them. 



Last fall Chas. Sumner got two black bears, an old one 

 and a cub, just a few miles above Ludlow near Patch 

 Pond. Chas. B. Fletcher. 



HALIFAX LAW QUESTIONS. 



Editor Forest and Stream: 



As it is in contemplation to consolidate the game laws 

 at the ensuing session of the House, the Game Society has 

 sent out the following circular with a view of gathering 

 the opinions of those interested in the subject on some 

 disputed questions. 



The question as to whether all shooting for birds should 

 open at one day is a difficult one, the project having been 

 tried the past two years as an experiment. Such a law 

 is much easier to enforce, because shooting of birds out 

 of season cannot go on under the pretense that the party 

 is shooting those in season; while on the other hand it is 

 contended that, so far as woodcock are concerned, the 

 best shooting is over by Sspt. 1, and that any date at all 

 suitable for all birds must be too late for some. 



As to the protection of cow moose, some persons con- 

 tend that there are now many more cows than bulls, and 

 that this, together with the difficulty of knowing, in the 

 woods, whether the animal seen is a bull or cow, over- 

 balances the undoubted evil of killing cows when with 

 calf. Those who receive the circulars are asked to write 

 answers to all or some of the following questions, and 

 return with as little delay as possible to the secretary. 



Questions. 



1. Are you in favor of having one day to begin open 

 season for all birds alike? And if so, what day? At 

 present it is Sept. 15. If you think different days should 

 be fixed, will you say what days you approve of for 

 each? 



2. Do you approve of a law which would make illegal 

 the sale of any game, birds or animals, either permanently 

 or for a time? 



3. Do you consider a close season for some years, for 

 either birds or large game, either necessary or desirable? 

 And if so, for which birds or animals? 



4. In your opinion is it desirable to continue the law 

 making it illegal to kill cow moose? 



5. Do you approve of the continuance of the law mak- 

 ing it illegal to kill otters? 



George Piers, §ec'y Game Society. 

 Dutch Viliagk, Halifax, N. 8," 



