166 



FOREST AND STREAM. 



[March 22, 1888. 



BUSH RIVER BIG-GUNS AND BOX-BOATS 



Editor Forest and Stream: 



The bill presented by the Hon. Walter Preston, of 

 Abingdon, Harford county, Maryland, to allow the use of 

 box-boats on Bush River one day in the week (Wednes- 

 day) has caused great excitement among the club men 

 and property owners on Bush and Gunpowder rivers. 

 A few words to the honorable member for his earnest 

 consideration. There are a few facts that he has entirely 

 lost sight of. The first and most important one being 

 that the bill as presented, allows all of the box-boat 

 owners, lessees, big-gunners from Havre de Grace, the 

 uninterrupted use of Bush River for the one day (Wednes- 

 day). Ducks being driven from the head of the bay (the 

 flats) will resort to the lower rivers, Bush, Gunpowder, 

 Back, and Romney Creek. 



Such men as Wash. Barnes, Jake Poplan, Wm. Moore 

 and two or three more of these big-gunners will box in 

 the river during the day allowed and at night use their 

 big-guns in any and all such coves as the ducks will bed 

 in. After driving the ducks out of the coves they will 

 quietly sail up bay the following morning and be all 

 ready to drive the ducks from the flats on Friday, the 

 box-boat day on the flats. 



The intention of the bill is to allow residents to kill a 

 few ducks. While the bill, if passed, is productive of a 

 little good, it will be the means of destroying the fowling 

 in Bush River. If the bill was for residents of the west- 

 ern and southern part of Harford county, and those not 

 making a business of the thing, it would be practicable; 

 but when it allows the whole of Harford county, the bill 

 should not be allowed to pass. 



Just imagine, honorable sir, thirty box-boat craft sail- 

 ing down the bay on Tuesday morning, their destination 

 being Bush River. Then look upon the scene on Wed- 

 nesday, the whole river being monopolized by box-boats 

 from Harford county and Cecil, too; for they will creep 

 in. 



Woe be to the duck that enters Bush River, for, with 

 the box-boats by day and big-guns by night, the poor fowl 

 would surely have a rough time of it. True, there are 

 big-guns being used in Bush, but don't let us encourage 

 any more. 



Let us have one river between the head of the bay and 

 Virginia where the fowl can rest comparatively. 



Ten-Bore. 



Lima, O., March 12. — Dec. 5 my brother and I took a 

 trip to Van Wert county, this State. We made our home 

 at Mr. Henry Rumble's. His son James, or Jim, as we 

 nicknamed him, is quite a bunter and knows where the 

 best shooting may be found. Tuesday we started for 

 Scott, a small country town about three miles distant, to 

 get some ammunition for Jim: we took a short cut across 

 the country expecting; to find some game, in which we 

 were disappointed. On our way back home we came 

 across a bunch of quail, and Jim scoring two the bevy 

 flew for the timber and the dogs failed to find them. 

 After an early breakfast we started out again. Although 

 we saw plenty of game, we did not make a big bag, only 

 securing four rabbits, one quail and one pheasant among 

 us. The birds seemed to be very wild and would not lie 

 for the dogs. Once a pheasant was flushed and shot at, 

 but missed; it was marked down, and we circled hi in and 

 let the dogs find him. Jim's pointer Fanny straightened 

 out first, so we were all anxious to get first shot, but in 

 this we were doomed to disappointment; when she was 

 given the word to flush it she ran forward two or three 

 yards, and just as the bird was ready to fly nabbed it and 

 killed it. Is this not a strange freak for a dog to do? The 

 next day was worse than the preceding, only yielding one 

 squirrel. We hope to try the birds next fall with better 

 success. In a letter before me, Jim says he has been out 

 twice; the first time he got eleven quail and one pheasant, 

 and the last time eight quail, f our pheasants and one rab- 

 bit. Van Wert county is a No. 1 place for pheasants and 

 quail, and the law is strictly adhered to. From reports 

 quail have wintered well around here so far, and if noth- 

 ing happens we will have good shooting next fall. — 

 F. M. L. 



Stocking Game Grounds.— Editor Forest and Stream: 

 Will not some of your correspondents give the results 

 of their experience in stocking depleted grounds with 

 quail and grouse? There are many grounds in eastern 

 Massachusetts, especially in what are known as the Fells 

 of Winchester, Stoneham and Saugus, that seern to afford 

 admirable cover and food for quail. Some bevies are still 

 found, but much shooting has led to the natural result. 

 Can such grounds be successfully stocked? If so, how? 

 What precautions should be taken? When should the 

 birds be let loose, and will birds transported from Vir- 

 ginia live if exposed to our climate in March? Would it 

 be a good plan to provide some food for them? If so, 

 what food? Are any precautions necessary in reference 

 to mating and the number of birds in a place? There are 

 many localities where the expense of stocking could 

 readily be met. I have written this communication, 

 hoping some of the readers of Forest and Stream may 

 give practical information and thus encourage what 

 would prove a blessing to many who cannot get to 

 favored grounds far from home.— Ortyx. 



Game and Sport in Mississippi. — The following extract 

 from a private letter, written under date of March 11 by 

 the well-known artist, Mr. J. M. Tracy, from his home at 

 Ocean Springs, Miss., will interest many of our readers. 

 He says: "The big ducks have all gone north, but the 

 teal flight has hardly commenced. Snipe shooting is 

 very good. Quail are abundant, though I think this has 

 been an unfavorable year for them. We shoot them right 

 along until April 1, and there is no reason why we should 

 refrain, as they do not pair until after the middle of May. 

 High water has driven the game out of the swamps into 

 the highlands, so a good many deer and turkeys are being 

 killed by the farmers. One man killed five deer in a 

 day's hunt. So you see there is plenty of sport about if I 

 only had time to enjoy it. — J. M. Tracy." 



Camping Site for "O. P." — Belmont, N. H.— I see by 

 the Forest and Stream of March 8 that "O. P." and his 

 friends wish to know where there is a good camping 

 ground within 800 or 400 miles of New York. If "O. P." 

 and his friends will go to Rocky Pond in Belmont, N. H. , 

 or Shell Camp Pond in Gilmanton, N. H., they will find 

 all they ask for. For any other information address C. 

 O. Judkins. 



The Indian. — I don't know whether in a previous note 

 I mentioned the Indian as he has appeared in Forest and 

 Stream, but I have intended doing so. I have seen a 

 good deal of the Indian, here in Washington, on the 

 plains, and in the mountains; and I indorse fully, with- 

 out reserve or qualification, all that has appeared in 

 Forest and Stream in reference to the injustice that has 

 been done the Indian by the Government and the people; 

 and sincerely hope the time has come when he will have 

 a better knowledge of good faith and decency on our 

 part when business is transacted with him. — B. 



Mr. Henry J. Thayer, of Boston, who was for a long 

 time the secretary of the Massachusetts Fish and Game 

 Protective Association, having retired last January, has 

 just been reminded in a very pleasant manner of the way 

 his fellow members appreciated his efficiency while in 

 office. At the suggestion of Mr. Fred. R. Shattuck, the 

 members of the association subscribed for a handsome 

 .32- caliber Winchester rifle, which was presented to Mr. 

 Thayer last week as a testimonial of esteem for his three 

 years of official duties in advancing the interests of the 

 society. 



That Prize Gun.— Bridgeport, Conn.— Noticing an in- 

 quiry in the Forest and Stream several weeks ago, per- 

 il aps I can give a little light on the subject. It was from 

 a reader in Texas in regard to a gun with an inscription 

 that he had come in possession of. The gun undoubtedly 

 had been owned by Lieut. Frank Silsby, of the firm of 

 Silsby & Co., steam "fire engine manufacturers, of Seneca 

 Falls, N. Y. If he is the same genial fellow that he was 

 during the war, he will, if addressed, give any further 

 desired information. — S. H. W. 



Delaware Game. — The late storm was not at all de- 

 structive to the partridges in the opens. In some sections 

 a large percentage of the birds that were here when the 

 shooting season opened, remain. Many coveys are as 

 tame and as easily approached as if they never before 

 had been disturbed by man. Along the Delaware Bay 

 ducks are numerous. Regret to say that some parties are 

 pursuing the unmanly practice of capturing them in 

 nets.— Del A. Ware (Dover, Del., March 17). 



COLORADO SEASON. 



Editor Forest and Stream: 



In your issue of July 21, 1887, in the list of close seasons for game 

 in several of the States, so far as Colorado is concerned there -was 

 a mistake. In view of the fact that you might desire to make 

 another announcement this summer, permit me to give you a cor. 

 rected synopsis of the law for this State: 



Bison or buffalo xJrotected for ten years, mountain sheep for 

 eight years, ibex or Rocky Mountain goat for ten vears, from 

 March 2:i, 1887. 



Deer, elk, antelope and fawn may not be killed at any time, for 

 any purpose, except for immediate use for food, confined in quan- 

 tity to the necessities of the person killing. In other words, mar- 

 ket hunting is prohibited; also the killing for hides or horns of 

 deer, antelope or elk. Under the aforesaid restrictions the open 

 season for deer and antelope hegins Sept. 1 and ends Dec. 1. For 

 elk from Oct. 1 to Jan. 1; and the killing during the season must 

 be confined to animals withhoi'ns. 



Close season for ducks and geese hegins March 22 and ends 

 Sent. 1. 



Taking trout or other food fish for other purpose than food, and 

 then only for immediate use, prohibited. Method confined to hook 

 and line. Close season from Nov. 1 to June 1 of the succeeding 

 year. The henefieial effect of cutting off fishing for market was 

 plainly manifest last summer. L. B. F. 



Denver, March 12. 



THE ALBANY GAME LAW MILL. 



[Correspondence of Forest and Stream.] 



ALBANY, March 10.— Senator Dean has introduced a hill which 

 prohibits pound-net or purse-net fishing in the HudsonRiver 

 from March 15 until June 15. There is a fine of §400. 



Assemblyman Brundage has introduced a bill to make the time 

 in which it is lawful to catch, etc., salmon trout include;the months 

 of September and October. 



Assemblyman Aldrich has introduced a hill which provides 

 that no person shall kill salmon trout, landlocked salmon or lake 

 trout caught in the waters of Lake George in the months of Sep- 

 tember, October, November, December and January of each year. 



A hill introduced by Assemblyman Savery prohibits fishing, 

 except with hook and line, in the Bays of Lake Ontario or the 

 northern border of Cayuga county and one mile from the shore 

 on a parallel with the east and west boundaries of the county. 

 This is to prevent net, fyke, spear, etc., fishing. 



Assemblyman Tallmadge, of Kings, has introduced a bill from 

 New Utrecht to make the season for quail, hare and rabbit, Nov. 

 15 to Jan. 15. It also amends Section 12 of the same act so that 

 eagles, songbirds, etc., may be killed on premises owned or occu- 

 pied with the consent of the owner; also so that the possession of 

 any such bird may be excused by any person proving the same to 

 have been caught or killed as herein permitted. 



The bill introduced in the Senate by Mr. Sloan, and in the As- 

 sembly by Mr. Ainsworth, providing that the appropriation for the 

 Forest Commission may be used as it desires, instead of being 

 cut up into amounts for specified (objects, is likely to become a 

 law. This will he a very great relief to the Commission, for it 

 will thereby he enabled to carry out its work to its own satisfac- 

 tion. 



The Assembly has passed Mr. Cromwell's hill prohibiting the 

 disturbance of oyster beds. 



The Assembly committee on game laws has reported favorably 

 the Ainsworth bill. 



Senator Coggeshall and the Assembly committee on game laws 

 have introduced a bill from the Hon. Richard U. Shorman, which 

 is expected to take the place of all other bills introduced thus far 

 relating to fish and game protectors. The bill provides that: 

 There shall he appointed by the Board of Commissioners of 

 Fisheries, fifteen game and fish protectors, whose jurisdiction 

 shall embrace the whole territory of the State. They shall hold 

 their office respectively during the pleasure of the Board of Fish 

 Commissioners, who may summarily remove any one of their 

 number. One of such protectors shall be designated by the said 

 Board of Commissioners as chief game and fish protector^arid the 

 other protectors shall be under his direction and supervision. The 

 chief game and fish protector- shall issue to his subordinates such 

 general and special orders and instructions in the execution of 

 their duties under the law as he shall deem necessary; and he 

 may in his discretion assign any or all of them to duty in districts 

 to be prescribed by him, subject to the approval of the Board of 

 Commissioners of Fisheries; but such assignment shall not relieve 

 any protector from the performance of duty in any other part of 

 the State where his services may be needed. No protector shall 

 he engaged in any business or employment which will hinder him 

 at any time from attending to his official duties. The compensa- 

 tion of the chief game and fish protector shall he $2,000 per year 

 salary, and he shall he allowed his actual expenses of travel in 

 the performance of his duty, not exceeding $1,000 per year. Each 

 other protector shall receive an annual salary of $500, and shall 

 he allowed for his actual expenses of travel in the performance 

 of his duty, not exceeding P00 per year. 



Neither of the game committees were ahle to have a meeting 

 during the past week on account of the storm keeping so many 

 members away. Practically the session of the Legislature was 

 crowded into Thursday and Friday. No game hills were intro- 

 duced in the Senate. In the Assembly Mr. Hornidge introduced 

 a bill prohibiting grants of land under water near Richmond 

 county by the commissioners of the land office to any other than 

 the riparian owner for less than $50 per square. Mr. Knapp intro- 

 duced a bill extending the laws relating to the forest preserve so 

 far as to include Delaware county witnin its limits. Mr. Brun- 

 dage's hill amending the general laws so as to give more liberal 

 provisions (as he asserts it), which had been already advanced to 

 the order of third reading, has been recommitted to the commit- 



tee on game laws for a hearing, which will probably be given' 

 some time during present week. A bill by Assemblyman Corn-i' 

 well requires all dogs to have a collar with the owner's name ori 

 they will be killed. Mr. Maynard, of Madison county, introduced' 

 a bill providing for a fish way in Chittenango Creek, in the town 

 of Bridgeport. It is said that there are a great many fish in the 

 lower waters of the creek who would like to rise to the upper' 

 waters if they had a chance. 



Ai/bany, March 20.— Special to Forest and Stream: Assembly- 

 man Savery's bill regulating fishing in the Seneca River in the 

 counties of Cayuga and Seneca. Endre's bill makes homingi 

 pigeons private property if identified. Cromwell's bill from the 

 Oystermau's Association forbids oyster taking by non-owners on 

 a penalty of $500 or 81,000, or imprisonment from six months to 

 twelve months. The oyster protector shall enforce this and have 

 $2,000 salary. The expense of boats and assistants not to exceed 

 $7,000. Fort's bill prohibits bullhead fishing in Lake George 

 between April and July. 



m mi ^iver fishing. 



Address all communications to the Forest and Stream Pub. Co. 



Every person who is sufficiently interested in the National 

 Park to do his share toward securing protection for it, is in- 

 vited to send for one of the Forest and Stream's petition 

 blanks. They are sent free. 



FLY-TABLE NOTES AND TALK.-II. 



Y\/ HAT a hard thing it is to destroy letters and how 

 H they accumulate. Here are three. It was only a 

 few days after the last was written that the hand which 



Senned them was cold and still; and since then I cannot 

 estroy them. Reading them, their eager, earnest 

 enthusiasm, it is almost impossible to realize that it is all, 

 ended now; they speak so clearly of the frank, cordial 

 writer that they seem almost living themselves. They 

 were written to me after seeing the little account I had 

 given in the columns of the Forest and Stream of my 

 experiments, trying to produce gut from the American 

 silkworms. . Some of you may remember that I succeeded 

 perfectly in raising great numbers of the worms from 

 the cecropia and polephemus moths, and in drawing from! 

 them strands of unusual length, but the silk was not, 

 strong. The cause was difficult to decide upon, and my, 

 time was too limited to continue the experiments. Since 1 

 then others have written to me in regard to the matter, 

 having the same faith that I had that it can yet be made! 

 a success. 



A German scientist is much interested and proposes to 

 try and raise the worms. For this purpose cocoons of 

 several varieties of the American moths have been sent 

 to him. I await with much interest the result of his 

 trials, and wish most heartily that on this side some of 

 us could continue investigations and make completely 

 successful what seems to me very near it. Perhaps these; 

 letters which I had thought to again lay away will 

 arouse some one. If not, I know the many friends of Mr.i 

 Backus will surely be thankful to see something more 

 from the pen which has so often given them pleasure : 



"New York, Dec. 17, 1886. — My Dear Mr. Orvis: I 

 wish to thank you personally for your very interesting J 

 and intelligent article in the Forest and Stream of tSM , 

 week on the subject of the "American Silkworm," andi 

 to add that in my judgment you are on the right track to 

 initiate and establish an important branch of industry. 

 The very difficulties you have met and so successfully 

 overcome should encourage you to persevere. The essen- 

 tial fault of brevity in the Spanish silkworm gut (if all 

 the other faults were removed) is sufficient to call for a 

 change. That any gut can be called fine, when at every 

 foot you have to make an angler's knot that at least is I 

 four times the size of the gut, seems to be absurd. Rea- 

 son about it as we will, it remains a hard, unsightly knot 

 and should be removed. 



"You have undoubtedly hit on the cause of the weakness 

 of the gut as obtained by you: it is due to the kind of leaf on i 

 which it fed. It is so with the B, rnori; and the first effort 

 seems to me should be to follow nature with the cecropia 

 and feed the worm on the kind of leaf it prefers in nature 

 and under conditions in which it so thrives. Thus far that 

 leaf is invariably said to be the button bush ( Ceph ala n th us 

 oeeidentalis), a shrub found in swampy places. In your 

 article there seems to be some confusion as to this shrub, 

 as you speak of the button-woodf, a tree and an entirely 

 different species. 



"You might correct the impression that would other- 

 wise mislead some new experimentalist. If you have no 

 button bush around Manchester, your State of Vermont 

 owns half of Lake Champlain, and there must be many a 

 swampy place along its shores to furnish them, and if you 

 still ask for one you can follow down the Otter Creek, 

 which rises near your place, and at its mouth you will 

 find the coveted bush, and I hope you will be able to 

 gather it to your entire satisfaction. There are some 

 mosquitoes in that swamp but not very savage on the 

 cecropia. 'Awahsoose,' a correspondent of the Forest 

 and Stream, knows the swamp. You could probably 

 procure his address and could write to him. Yours very 

 truly, M. M. Backus." 



"Dec. 29. — I am still of the opinion, after reading your 

 kind reply, that you ought not to abandon the experi- 

 ment at its present state, and hoping to have you continue 

 it, I add a few suggestions. If you discover 'Awahsoose,' 

 and find him an intelligent naturalist, try to get him to 

 discover under the button bush at the mouths and swamps 

 of the Otter some of the cocoons. If f ound there, I would 

 urge you to prosecute your experiments with renewed 

 zeal. It would settle the point that the silk formed from 

 the button bush leaf was strong enough to enable the 

 larva to spin a cocoon ; if it had been too fragile the 

 cocoon would not have been spun and the chrysalis have 

 been formed for its future life. It seems to be not a sur- 

 vival of the fittest, but a survival in the fittest way. One 

 leaf, as you recount, may be as palatable to the larva? as 

 another^ while one may give a very strong, tenacious 

 viscous fluid and another may fail entirely. As all ac- 

 counts refer to the button bush as the place of its orignal 

 find, it shows that the American silkworm survives its 

 various changes through that food. If none were found 

 by 'Awahsoose' in the locality indicated, you may con- 

 jecture the climate is too severe in your latitude. 



"If you have never been in "Vergennes, and have only 



*This will recall Dr. Stirling's counsels, part of which I gave in 

 the article mentioned. 



+This mention of button-wood was entirely unintentional on 

 our part, a pen slip. 



