March 29, 1888.] 



FOREST AND STREAM. 



187 



lost no time in using our guns, and tired four shots with 

 very good effect, hut did not get a deer just then. "We 

 had" one crippled badly. He left the others and ran off 

 across the hills for a short distance Avhen he came down 

 to a walk. The snow was sprinkled all along his trail 

 with blood, and just as we came up to him he had come 

 on to two more, and they had just got up and were look- 

 ing around to see what the matter was when I spied them 

 just 65yds. away. I lost no time in getting my aim on a 

 fine doe; at the crack of the gun she dropped in her tracks 

 and the others ran on, but their leader being killed tbey 

 did not go far until they stopped. My partner ran out to 

 get a, shot, and I stayed" close to the one I had down. He 

 did not go far until 1 heard his gun belch out destruction 

 to another one. We hung up the two we had already, 

 and went on after the one we had first crippled. It had 

 got better, traveled as fast as we could, so we tried our 

 luck on an old turkey gobbler, but only succeeded in 

 crippling him, and while we were limiting for him I 

 came on to the crippled deer hid in a thick patch of 

 undergrowth. I was about 30yds. away, and he never 

 left his bed. Then came the work of carrying them all 

 to one place, and hanging them up. It was hard, but we 

 did it, and started for camp. When we reached there it 

 was late in the afternoon, but we found a nice warm 

 dinner awaiting, and we were ready to do justice to fried 

 squirrel and food such as campers have. Later we had 

 to take a tramp of five miles to get a wagon and team to 

 haul our game home in . Next day we took the team and 

 went for our game. l\ 



The Greener-Sqtjires Arms Co. — The increasing de- 

 mand in the United States for guns of "W. W. Greener's 

 manufacture made it necessary to arrange for more 

 direct and rapid com munication between the wholesale 

 dealers arid the manufacturer than has hitherto been pos- 

 sible. In order to accomplish this it was deemed wise to 

 organize a new company with headquarters in New York 

 city, having direct cable communication with the manu- 

 facturer, so that orders could be received the day they 

 were given in New York and work begun on them at 

 once. Mr. Henry G. Squires, by his long and close iden- 

 tification with the Greener gun in the United States, 

 seemed to be the proper person to manage such a branch 

 house in New York, and so during his recent visit in 

 England such a house was formed under the style of the 

 Greener-Squires Arms Co. The company will devote 

 itself entirely to the wholesale gun business and will sell 

 only to dealers. It is the present purpose to have Greener 

 guns on sale in every city and town of any size in the 

 United States. The company's place of business will be 

 at 17(5 Broadway. 



A New Sportsman's Club— From Belvidere (N. J.) 

 comes the report of the formation of a new sportsman's and 

 game protective association composed of professional men 

 of New Jersey and Pennsylvania, known as the West- 

 colons Lake and Delaware River Park Association. 

 The club has purchased a tract of land five miles long 

 and two wide, containing 4,500 acres, in the heart of 

 Pike county. A club house will be erected in the spring, 

 and the tract kept as a game preserve and private park. 

 We&tcolong Lake, noted for its fine pickerel fishing, is 

 in the center of the tract, while black bear, wildcats, 

 foxes, ruffed grouse, and other game are found there. 

 The officers of the new association are: President, 

 Henry E. Clugh; Vice-President, Dr. E. A. Maxwell: 

 Treasurer, William Holbert; Clerk and Secretary, W. 

 P. Holly; Counsel, C. W. Cull. 



Portland Gun Club. — At a meeting held Monday, 

 March 19, at the Preble House, Portland, Me,, was organ- 

 ized the Portland Gun Club, and the officers elected were 

 as follows: President, H. F. Farnum; Vice-President, 

 Cbas. F. Gordon; Secretary, Jas. A. Farrell; Treasurer, 

 Frank C. Thornton; Director, T. B. Davis. The member- 

 ship roll contains about twenty-five names, among whom 

 are some of the best shots in the State. The club grounds 

 will be at Woodford's Corners, and are within three 

 minutes' walk of horse cars. A contract will be given at 

 once for the erection of a club house. Traps and targets 

 will be purchased and everything will be got in readiness 

 for a shoot on Fast Day (April 19). Taking all in all the 

 club bids fair to become one of the best clubs of the East, 

 and you may expect to hear from us in the future. 



r Game in the Northwest. — A correspondent writes us 

 from a point on Belly River in the Northwest Territories, 

 Canada, under date March 7, as follows: There have not 

 been any deer or antelope killed this winter. In fact, 

 you may say the game is almost extinct in this country. 

 There are very few prairie chickens [sharp- tailed grouse]. 

 Last winter the Indians and also the whites killed a great 

 number, and last fall the hawks played havoc among 

 them. We have had a fine winter here, but for the last 

 ten days it has again been very cold. To-night it looks as 

 though we were going to have fine weather again. The 

 cattle business has "taken a tumble." All these big cattle 

 companies will go to the wall— and a good job too. — Fred. 



Massachusetts Game Laws. — The bill to provide a 

 bounty for the destruction of seals has been unfavorably 

 reported by the Finance Committee of the House of 

 Representatives. The bill extending the close season for 

 woodcock to Sept. 15 is strongly advocated by President 

 Samuels of the Massachusetts Fish and Game Protective 

 Association, but a number of remonstrances have been 

 received by the Legislature against the bill. It ought to 

 become a law. 



Trumansburg Gun Club. — The annual meeting of the 

 Trumansburg Gun Club of Trumansburg, New York, 

 was held Saturday, March 3, for the purpose of organ- 

 izing and adopting constitutions, by-laws and rules. The 

 following officers were elected: Dr. Claud C. Sears, 

 President; David C. Clark, Vice-President; P. F. Sears, 

 Secretary; Geo. Ogden, Treasurer. 



Athol Rod and Gun Club. — Athol, Mass., March 26. 

 — The Athol Rod and Gun Club has reorganized for the 

 ensuing year with the following officers: Dr. L. F. Tal- 

 man, President; A. L. Pike, Vice-President and Captain: 

 0. M. Peirce, Secretary and Treasurer. 



How Birds have Wintered.— Newburg, Mass., March 

 12.— There is a good prospect of our having the largest 

 quail crop the coming season ever known to the present 

 generation. The bevies were large and numerous last 

 season, and but few were killed, and notwithstanding 

 the past winter has been a very cold one, and that foxes 

 have been uncommonly xilenty, there are many large 

 bevies at present whose numbers are apparently undi- 

 minished since last fall. — A. L. L. 



One of the members of the Meadow Brook Game Pro- 

 tective Association, ex-Sheriff Rushmore of Hempstead, 

 L. I., says that nearly all the quail on their preserve are 

 dead as a result of the recent blizzard. Three thousand 

 of the birds were let loose on March I and sought shelter 

 in the brushwood, where they were smothered by the 

 drifting snow. _ 



Southside (of Newark) Gun Club.— At the annual 

 meeting of the Southside Gun Club of Newark, N. J., 

 held March 20, 1888, the following officers were elected: 

 Charles LeRoy, President; Lemuel Thomas, Vice-Presi- 

 dent; Asa Whitehead, Secretary; E. M. Carrington, 

 Treasurer; R. H. Brientnall, W. R. Hobart, Oswald Von 

 Lengerke, E. L. Phillips, J. R. Burnett, Executive Com- 

 mittee; Isaac H. Terrill, Manager. The rolls showed a 

 membership of forty-seven and the treasurer's report a 

 cash balance of $199.75, with no liabilities. The club 

 holds shooting meetings on its grounds every Saturday 

 and holiday and an open shoot once a month. 



Virginia Field Sports Association — This association 

 has recently issued a neat pamphlet giving the proceed- 

 ings of its second meeting and its constitution, charter, 

 president's report and list of members. It contains also 

 the game laws of Virginia now in force and on the 

 whole is a very creditable and useful publication. 



THE ALBANY GAME LAW M ILL. 



THE game committee of the Assembly has showed unusual 

 activity during the past week. On Thursday it reported 

 several bills as follows: Fort's, extending tbe close season for 

 woodcock from Aug. 1 to Sept. 1; Comstock's, relating to fish in 

 the waters adjoining Jefferson county (the St. Lawrence River 

 angler's bill): Endres's, the homing pigeon bill; Thompson's, pro- 

 viding for the destruction of English sparrows; White's, a sub- 

 stitute for bis former bill, which substitute repeals the act of 1887, 

 legalising fishing with nets and fykes in a part of Cayuga Lake. 

 The latter bill was ordered to a third reading. The Assembly 

 committee on ways and means have reported favorably Mr. 

 Huated's bill providing for the purchase, by tbe State, of the 

 Creedmoor rifle range. The Assembly has passed Mr. Hadley's 

 bill permitting the lease to private parties for pleasure purposes 

 of small plots of land in the forest preserve, tbe limit not to ex- 

 ceed live acres. The Assembly committee on game laws has re- 

 ported Mr. Croaiwell's bill for the protection of waters m Rich- 

 mond county. 



Assemblvman 'Endres's bill provides that hereatter any person 

 or persons -who shall forcibly and wilfully detain any homing 

 or fancy pigeon which may be identified by any device, mark or 

 seamless band shall be deemed guilty of a misdemeanor, and cn 

 conviction thereof shall be punished byafie.e not exceeding $E0 

 or by imprisonment not exceeding one month, or both at the dis- 

 cretion of the court. 



Assemblvman Fuller's bill makes the woodc ock season in Chen- 

 ango county from Sept. 1 to Jan. 1, and also provides that no quail 

 shall be killed in the county for a period of five years. 



m nnd §iver ^fishing. 



"The Sunrise Hymn that Mrs. Jackson speaks of in her 

 charming book may have been simply an 'Ave Maria' 

 which the Indians in the few remaining pueblas still sing 

 when the Angelos bell rings, that is, at 6 o'clock, morn- 

 ing and evening, and sometimes at noon, the year around. 

 This is still sung to a simple Gregorian tone exactly like 

 those we used to sing at St. John's. Two or three years 

 ago I spent some days at San Juan Batista, near Monte- 

 rey. A little agricultural town has grown around the 

 mission, and the mission church has been used ever since 

 the American occupation as tbe parish church of the vil- 

 lage. Consequently, as the church has never been aban- 

 doned, its possessions in the way of records, documents, 

 vestments, and so on, have been better preserved than in 

 most instances. I went to church Sunday morning. The 

 mass was not choral, but all the responses, creed, 'Gloria 

 in Excelsis' and a hymn (Spanish) were stmg. The music, 

 except the hymn which was sung in parts, was all Grego- 

 rian tones sung in unison. After the service I went into 

 the sacristy and had a talk with the padre and took lunch 

 with him. He said the chants used that morning had 

 been in use at that mission from the beginning, and I 

 had noticed that the whole congregation , the oldest In- 

 dians and half-breeds had joined in the singing. But 

 San Juan has in its sacristy a very curious book, and I 

 glanced at it that day, but did not pay much attention 

 to the contents as I did not understand them, though 

 I was interested in it from an antiquarian point 

 of view. The book is large, bound in wood and 

 calfskin, the writing on sheepskin or parchment. 

 As near as I can remember, it contained several 

 masses, Te Deuins, hymns, etc., composed, I believp, by a 

 neophyte at S. Luis Rey or one of the southern missions 

 and sent to S. Juan. This book is especially prized, and 

 has often been an object of pilgrimage to San Juan by 

 the antiquarians and curious. But the music, however, 

 is written in the old-fashioned manner, with triangles, 

 squares, half circles, etc., and as I knew nothing about it, 

 I paid small attention to the music, but carefully exam- 

 ined the binding, curious illuminations, etc. I am going 

 to Monterey some time within a couple of months and 

 will stop at S. Juan and make some inquiries and copies. 

 On the whole, I think that the church music consisted 

 mainly of Gregorian tones in unison, unless at such mis- 

 sions a3 S. Barbara, S. Juan Capistrano and S. Luis Rey, 

 which were large and rich enough to pay more attention 

 to all arts. Perhaps at these places masses in parts, pos- 

 sibly Mozart's and Hay den's, obtained from Europe 

 through Mexico, were used. I have no doubt, however, 

 that many hymns of native origin were used, as some of 

 these Indians are only a little less musical than the 

 Southern negroes. Whether any of them can now be ob- 

 tained I think very doubtful. 



"I hope that you are all well and had pleasant holidays. 

 My Christmas dinner consisted of a raw egg and some 

 beef tea, and I have been keeping the mortal coil un- 

 shufiied on these dainties ever since. Am better though 

 now, and begin to see daylight ahead." 



* * * * * * * 



This letter may have but little relation to flies and fish- 

 ing, but are not all arts interesting to the devotees of the 

 gentle art of angling? Chas. F. Orvis. 



TACKLE. 



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



Every person who is sufficiently interested in the National 

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

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

 blanks. They are sent free. 



FLY-TABLE NOTES AND TALK.— III. 



DO you remember Jack in "Fly-Fishing in the "Yo- 

 semite. " published in "Fishing with the Fly." Not 

 long ago I was laid up with a severe cold, and to amuse 

 me'while confined to my room some one brought to me 

 "Romona," urging me to read it. I had always had a 

 strong prejudice against any of Helen Hunt Jackson's 

 writings, fancying she "preached," and thinking I should 

 find her "draggy" and dictatorial. How I formed the 

 idea I know not; but I began the book upon the recom- 

 mendation, little prepared for the enjoyment which it 

 gave me. Cold and the dreariness of a stormy day were 

 forgotten as, with window shades drawn down to shut 

 out the sight of winter, I was completely held by the per- 

 fect descriptions. Through them I was much interested 

 in the "Old Mission Music" and wondered much if the 

 Sunrise Hymn, the pretty custom of singing which is so 

 charmingly described, was perhaps a familiar melody or 

 something new, or rather old and sweet which I had not 

 yet heard. I thought Jack would know if any one, he 

 having made beautiful drawings of many of the old mis- 

 sion ruins and being well informed in their histories; 

 so when writing I asked him what he could tell me of 

 this Old Mission Music. His reply is one of the interest- 

 ing letters on my fly-table, so I give it to you, think- 

 ing some of you too may have wondered: 



•■My Dear Friend— It makes me heartily ashamed of 

 myself to reckon up the time since your letter came. I 

 am getting to be about the worst correspondent possible, 

 and believe that in several instances have given mortal 

 offense through my apparent neglect of people. But 

 three-fourths of the time since the arrival of your pleas- 

 ant letter I have passed in bed, and have had no oppor- 

 tunity of making inquiries respecting the Old Mission 

 Music you are so much interested in. (Hope you appre- 

 ciate the rhetorical beauty (?) of preceding sentence.) 

 You are right in your idea that I am very much inter- 

 ested in these old remains of the handiwork of a vanished 

 or rapidly vanishing people, only remains now, for most 

 of the mission churches are sadly in ruin, and the accom- 

 panying buildings, of which the church was the nucleus, 

 and which were sometimes sufficient to house 3,000 

 Indians, have generally entirely disappeared. If you had 

 asked me anything concerning the history of the missions, 

 or the manner of conducting them, etc., I might have 

 answered you, but about the mission music I know little, 

 and though I have consulted the libraries and a Spanish 

 priest, as yet know nothing more. I wonder that I never 

 did think of the matter before, and the more elusive it 

 appears the more interested I am, and if there can be 

 learned anything about it, I assure you that I shall find 

 it out. 



COSSAYUNA, N. Y, March 12.— Editor Forest and 

 Stream: Your correspondent "C. O. S." asks for in- 

 formation about the Horton steel fishing rod. By the 

 courtesy of the manufacturers I have had an opportunity 

 quite lately of carefully examining it, and in its then 

 confessedly undeveloped state — for the makers intend to 

 adopt the improvements in detail which have been vari- 

 ously suggested to them by practical anglers — I was 

 greatly impressed by its behavior. The first obvious 

 objection to a steel rod is that it would be too weighty. 

 This, however, did not hold, for the rod I handled barely 

 went ten ounces— an ounce to a foot. For my own use I 

 prefer this weight to that of 3-Joz., or other ridiculously 

 small weights, possibly because I am an "Englishman you 

 know" and value the impetus that weight gives in the 

 action of a rod. The next objection was that the rod 

 would be too stiff. I did not find that it was stiffer than 

 an ordinary split-cane rod until you got it to describe 

 almost half a circle, and then it certainly showed back- 

 bone, as the following will prove. In order to test the 

 perfection of the temper of the steel— I had an idea it 

 would collapse under a heavy strain— the line was 

 attached to an ordinary heavy cane and wood rocking 

 chair, and I purposely tried to lift the chair or break the 

 rod. I succeeded in both lifting the chair and breaking 

 the rod, but the latter smashed in the wood handle, or 

 butt, and the steel rod itself flew back to its perpendicu- 

 lar position as if it had never been strained at all. Then 

 I thought the friction on the tip where the line comes 

 through (for the line passes through the center of the rod) 

 would be too great and hinder the free passage of the line. 

 On one of our number taking the end of the line and imi- 

 tating the actions of a hooked fish, this did not so appear 

 however, for the rod accommodated itself with great pre- 

 cision, and without any exaggeration of pliability or of 

 stiffness. Finally I objected that it would rust, to which 

 reply was made: We can brown it, oxidize or japan it, 

 so that this will not be the case more than it would be 

 with a fine gun. If a hunter carefully wipes and dries 

 his gun why should not the angler, having a good rod, 

 take equal care? . . • 



My opinion, based on this examination, is that the Mor- 

 ton steel rod is liable to make a capital bass rod either for 

 fly or bait, and a very, very good trout fly-rod. 



Your correspondent also requests information re the 

 automatic reel. I obtained one from Messrs. Spalding 

 which I used for all kinds of fishing all last summer, and 

 I would not now use the ordinary kind in preference. At 

 first it bothered me sadly; but just as soon as the hand 

 gets educated to the regulation of the brake by the little 

 finger, all difficulty vanishes. There is no slack line at 

 any time— one hand plays the fish and the other is at lib- 

 erty for the landing net or gaff. I do not think the ad- 

 vantages of this can be overestimated if the procedure 

 with the ordinary reel is for a moment recalled— the 

 shift of hands and the nervous pulling in of line and 

 winding of the miniature windlass. As for the objection 

 that this reel plavs the fish— as it were by machinery— 

 that is all chips and porridge. There is quite as much of 

 the gentle craft required in using the automatic reel a 

 • in the use of any other. J. Harrington Keens, 



