272 



FOREST AND STREAM. 



[April 26, 1888. 



"Well," said Uncle John, ''some of us guessed five 

 hundred, and some more, and some less; and finally I 

 asked him point blank how many there were. 'Well, 

 gents,' Nickerson replied, 'I suppose you would hardly 

 believe it, but the fact is I did not kill a blanked bird.' 



Jack carried a .32-cal. Winchester rifle and I was armed 

 with a 27in. Maynard, using the lOgr. center-fire cartridge. 

 Both rifles were mounted fore and aft with the Lyman 

 sights. The suu was just showing himself above the hill 

 as Uncle. John stopped the old horse and whispered to 

 Jack, ''See that old partridge on the wall." Sure enough, 

 there stood an old fellow, his ruff glistening in the sun 

 not 20ft. away. As quick as a flash of lightning Jack's 

 old Winchester flew to his face, and there was a grand 

 commotion, for the partridge commenced a war dance all 

 over the roadside. Jack was prepared, and, as I think, 

 jumped out of the wagon, but your humble servant, not 

 being prepared for the sudden forward motion which the 

 horse made at the report of the gun, took a header back- 

 wards over the seat and landed in the middle of the road. 

 As soon as I could recover my equilibrium enough to look 

 around, I caught sight of Uncle John just disappearing 

 over the hill, his hat gone, and his bald head shining like 

 a billiard ball in the sunlight, while Jack, with the grouse 

 in one hand and rifle in the other, was holding on to him- 

 self as best he could and laughing himself to death as 

 fast as possible. Whether Uncle J. or myself made the 

 most ludicrous picture Jack would never "say. We soon 

 came up with the team. Uncle J. was all right, and 

 enjoyed the fun as much as we. 



We arrived at the "Oak Lot," and jumping over the 

 wall, we were soon seated and watching for grays. I 

 had been waiting perhaps fiftean minutes, when a move- 

 ment in the top of a tree close by attracted my attention. 

 Soon there was another movement, then a great thick 

 brush whisked around the tree trunk, and the black, 

 shining eyes of a gray squirrel were looking straight at 

 me with a curiosity equal to a black duck's. I kept still, 

 and he commenced to come down the tree. With his 

 quick, jerky motion he would come a little way, then 

 stop; then perhaps he would run back up a little way. 

 and then return. At last he came to the ground and 

 stood within eight feet of me. I took off my hat and 

 shied it at him. "Now go in peace," said I to him; "if 

 you put as much confidence in me as that, I will no' harm 

 you/' And away he went over the rocks, looking as he 

 ran as large as a half -grown kitten. A sharp crack, ac- 

 companied by tho ping of a bullet through the treetops 

 over head, told me that Jack had commenced his work, 

 and that I had better look to my laurels or get beaten, as 

 I usually do when I go shooting with Jack; so in a few 

 minutes, when another gray showed up twenty-five yards 

 away, 1 telephoned him through the little Maynard, and 

 he came down handsomely with his head split. 



We worked out through the woods to the orchard, 

 where Uncle John and the "hired man" were, and then 

 commenced on the red squirrels that were destroying the 

 apples. Jack made a run of twelve without a miss, and 

 then missed a hedgehog slick and clean at forty paces, 

 He felt cheap over it, and so I agreed not to say anything 

 about it. So, for mercy's sake, don't you tell of it, for if 

 he should read this, and he probably will, he might show 

 un some of my shortcomings in the line of marksman- 

 ship. 



At last the team was loaded with apples and we started 

 for home Uncle John told us to shoot if we saw any 

 game and he would look out far the old horse; so when 

 another grouse was sighted on an old moss-covered stone 

 I trained the little Maynard on to him and clipped his 

 head for him. The old horse did not move an inch when 

 I fired, the report being very light, and when I jumped 

 out after firing Uncle J. and Jack both roared with 

 laughter. But the grouse was bagged all the same. 

 When we reached the cider mill we ate our lunch and 

 filled up on the new cider which came streaming out 

 through the clean white straw of the "cheese" as the 

 pressure was brought to bear upon it by the lever and 

 screw. It was a beautiful day as ever was seen, but 

 toward night when the dark clouds began to gather 

 Uncle J. remarked, "Well, boys, I guess you will have 

 to hunt ducks to-morrow or else stay in the house and 

 shoot at crows that I have baited down in the meadow," 



Iron Ramrod. 



soMEuvn/LE, Mass. 



How the Deer have Wintered.— Indian Lake, N. Y., 

 April 5. — Editor Forest and Stream: It has been a good 

 winter for deer, and a bad winter for crusting deer, 

 unless you had a dog, as there has not been crust enough 

 to stop deer. Not over ten or twelve deer have been 

 killed this winter, where over seventy-five were slaugh- 

 tered last year. There are more around here now than 

 for five years. The deer-eating dog has been running in 

 the woods all winter. I saw where dogs had killed a 

 young doe last week, and eaten half of her up. The 

 owners of hounds let them run loose and kill deer in the 

 winter in order to get them used to it. so that they will 

 run deer in September and October. I saw the first b:ar 

 track March 28. Snow three to four feet deep in the 

 woods. — Pete. 



A Catalogue of Photographs.— To those of our 

 readers who have traveled in the West, the catalogue of 

 photographs recently issued by F. Jay Uaynes, of Fargo, 

 Dakota, will be very interesting. They cover a range of 

 territory extending* from the Mississippi to the Pacific 

 Coast, range in size from great I8x22in. prints down to 

 stereoscopic views, and include in their subjects every- 

 thing from the Grand Canon of the Yellowstone down to 

 an Indian pony. While the greater part of the thousands 

 of negatives show the scenery of the Rocky Mountains, 

 the Geysers of the Yellowstone Park and the beauties of 

 the Columbia, there are numerous hunting scenes and 

 portraits from Indian life. The man who has hunted or 

 fished or traveled in the West ought to have some of 

 these views, for after all there is nothing that brings 

 back scenes long past like a picture. 



A Good Bag.— Boston, Mass., April 16.— Editor Forest 

 and Stream: I went in to see the birds, a party of five 

 gentlemen, belonging to the Boston Trade Club, got off 

 Nantucket last week. They consisted of 59 brant and 

 about 25 shelldrake and eiders, etc. Is not this a remark- 

 able score for less than a week's shooting? A gentleman 

 belonging to the Chatham Branting Club said it was more 

 brant than they had killed in their spring shooting 

 up to date.— G. W. S, 



Massachusetts Game Laws,— An amendment to sec- 

 tion three of chapter ninety-one of the Public Statutes of 

 Massachusetts has been proposed in the Legislature, 

 which authorizes the arrest without a warrant of any 

 person actually engaged at the time of such arrest in 

 violating any of the fish or game laws of the Common- 

 wealth. 



The Massachusetts Fish and Game Protective AS- 

 SOCIATION held its monthly meeting at the Tremont 

 House on Thursday evening, April 12. Ten members 

 were elected and proposed. The committee on legisla- 

 tion reported that their several petitions to the Legisla- 

 ture amending the game laws had been reported on 

 adversely. 



A Bad Day eor the Foxes.— Oxford, Me., April 6.— 

 Editor Forest and Stream: On a recent hunting trip, 

 John Rowe, of Poland, Me., D. P. Eaton, Wm. Oliver 

 and L. A. Edwards captured nine foxes in one day. John 

 Rowe shot eight and Edwards shot one. This breaks all 

 fox hunting records in this locality.— Josh Jeems. 



Woodcock Hatching.— Cumberland Valley, Pa., 

 April 19. — The wet season has somewhat delayed the 

 woodcock in then hatching, the first eggs being mostly 

 destroyed, but now the settled weather finds them fully 

 employed in their domestic duties.— Roberts. 



NEW JERSEY GAME LAW. 



THE Governor of New Jersey has signed the bill divid- 

 ing the State into two game districts. This changes 

 the laws governing shooting in that State, as will be seen 

 by the text of the bill, which we print below: 



1. Be it enacted by the Senate and General Assembly of the 

 State of New Jersey, That the several counties of this State be 

 and the same are hereby divided into two sections, to be known 

 as the "northern and southern game sections." 



2. And be it enacted. That the north game section shall com- 

 prise the counties of Bergen, Essex, Hudson, Hunterdon, Middle- 

 sex, Morns, Passaic, Somerset, Sussex, Union and Warren; in the 

 counties comprising the northern game section, as named in this 

 act, no person shall take, kill, or hare in his possession after the 

 same has been killed, any woodcock, quail, gra v squirrret or hare, 

 commonly called rabbit, except only between the fifteenth day of 

 October and the twenty-fifth day of December oi any year; any 

 English snipe, except only between the thirty-first day of August 

 and the first day of December of any year, under a penalty of ten 

 dollars for each and every game bird or animal so unlawfully 

 taken, killed or had in possession. 



3. And be it enacted. That the section to be known as the south- 

 ern game section shall comprise the coutuies of At lant ic, Burling- 

 ton, Camden, Cape May, Cumberland. Gloucester, Mercer, Mon- 

 mouth, Ocean and Salem; iu the counties comprising the south- 

 ern game section, as named in this act, no person shall take, kill 

 or have in his possession after tho same has been killed, any 

 American pheasant or ruffed grouse, woodcock, quail, gray squir- 

 rel or hare, commonly called rabbit, except only between the four- 

 teenth day of November and the twenty-fifth day of December of 

 any year, under a penalty of ten dollars for each' and every game 

 bird or animal so unlawfully taken, killed or had in possession 

 after the same has been killed. 



4. And be it enacted, That all general acts and parts of acts in- 

 consistent wit h this act be and the same are hereby repealed, and 

 that this act shall take effect immediately. 



m nnd §iver ^ffahing. 



REMOVAL. 



The offices of Koujsst and Stream are now at JSo. 31« Broadway. 



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 Fore&t and Stream's petition 

 blanks. They are sent free. 



TACKLE. 



Editor Forest and Stream: 



"H. P. U." asks if the automatic reel can be used for 

 minnow casting. The direct answer would be, No, it 

 cannot. I bought one of these reels some five years ago, 

 used it more or less for three years, and then laid it on 

 the shelf. The reel is better adapted for fly-casting than 

 for minnow casting; but even for fly-casting it is bv no 

 means as handy as the click reel. Its proper place oh the 

 rod is below the hand and on the under side of the rod, 

 and it is so intended. It may be used above the handj 

 but it is unhandy and awkward in that position. 



I will tell "H. P. IT.," however, how he may throw a 

 minnow with this reel, if he feels disposed to use it. In 

 putting on the minnow (or bait of any kind) we usually 

 have enough of free line to reach from the end of the rod 

 to the hand, or perhaps a little more. With this length 

 of line he may throw the minnow. It is just like fishing 

 with the line tied to the end of the rod; but it is not cast- 

 ing the minnow in any proper sense of the term. In fish- 

 ing on a river he can gradually strip the line from the 

 reel, and let the float go down with the current as far as 

 may please him. 



He can adopt another plan. He can strip off and coil at 

 his feet a certain length of line, and make a cast in this 

 way, but with the danger of the line coming up in a kink, 

 catching in a guide, and making a wreck of something. 

 With some experience and much care this method of 

 casting may be accomplished with tolerable success from 

 the shore; but if "H. P. U." attempts this kind of casting 

 from a boat he will probably, unless he is a mild-man- 

 nered Christian and a high-toned angler, add consider- 

 ably to the list of "cuss words," already too long. On a 

 certain Fourth of July I was out on the Delaware River 

 at Taylorsville with some college boys on a vacation. We 

 were after black bass and white perch, but got more 

 white cats than either. The day was intensely hot, and 

 it was not long before the automatic refused to work. 

 An examination showed that the hot sun had melted the 

 rubber band on the crank and "made a mess of it." I 

 had to bear a good deal of chaffing from the boys about 

 automatics. They had my other rods and reels, so I 

 made a double hitch on the end of the rod, and went on 

 fishing. A few extra rubbers should be carried in the 

 tackle box with the automatic reel. 



On another occasion, on the Susquehanna, I got among 

 some large black bass which proved too much for the 

 automatic. The rather swift current and the weight of 

 the fish overtaxed its ability, and I was compelled to take 

 the line in one hand and play the fish while I worked the 

 reel with the other. It would have been otherwise on the 

 still waters of a lake. I have tried winding up the spring 

 to get more power, but this brings a small fish out of the 



water as if shot from a cannon, and endangers the tip; in 

 fact, the greatest care is necessary at all times to prevent 

 an accident to the tip. If the crank is thoughtlessly 

 raised for an instant the float or the sinker is ac the tip 

 before you know it; and this is likely to happen pretty 

 often while you are learning how to use the reel. No 

 heedless man should be trusted with an automatic reel. 

 It is in the best condition for use as it comes from the 

 maker, and should not be tampered with. One should be 

 careful, too, how he passes the reel to the hand of a 

 curious friend for examination while it is detached from 

 the rod, for if the brake be then raised the spring will 

 uncoil with great rapidity and must be wound up before 

 it can be used again. 



The automatic reel may possibly be improved and some 

 of its faults got rid of, but as now made it will very well 

 suit a cool, self-possessed and somewhat indolent man 

 who is willing to fish, as it were, by proxy, and experi- 

 ences no special delight in a hand to hand tussle with a 

 gamy black bass or a slashing salmon; but for myself I 

 prefer something else. I like to be put in telephonic or 

 direct communication with my bass, and feel his frantic 

 rushes and vicious jerks, and give him a chance for life- 

 while I use all my skill and finesse to subdue him, and 

 land him safely in the boat, with gracious thanks for his 

 long and plucky fight. This may be sentiment, but the 

 other way certainly is not. Petra. 



CUMBERLAND VALLEY TROUT. 



C CHARLES HALLOCK, in his "Sportsman's Gazetteer," 

 J under the head of Game and Fish Resorts, says of 

 Newviile: "Excellent trout fishing all around here." 

 And he says truly. There is only one "Big Spring" in 

 this State and that one is at Newviile. Anglers have 

 come miles to fish its waters, and their rewards in well 

 filled creels have been beyond their fondest expectations. 

 Statesmen, noted fly-casters and one President of the 

 United States— General Grant— have stood by its beauti- 

 ful shores, and lured the speckled denizens of the stream 

 from their hiding places 'neath mossy culverts and over- 

 hanging banks. It abounds in trout, and at eventide as 

 the insects hover near the water, the expanse of the first, 

 second and third dams presents to the angler's eye a 

 scene once looked upon never to be forgotten. Here may 

 be seen thousands of trout leaping into the air, making 

 the surface fairly turbulent, in their mad rush after 

 dainty morsels. 



The first day's fishing at Newviile is more of an event 

 than an incident, and as the open day this year happened 

 on Sunday, the fishermen commenced gathering on that 

 day in order to be ready for the morrow. At the Big- 

 Spring Hotel were W. W. Abbott, of Philadelphia ; Mar- 

 burgh Keedy, of Hagerstown, Md.; Dr. Vallerchamp, 

 LerneLemer, Dr. Motfit, Sir. Johnson, Ben. Kyle, Mr. 

 Young and Prof. Heiges, of HarrLburg; Robt. W. Short 

 Chas. Murdock, of Mechanicsburg; Harry Noble, of Car- 

 lisle; Jim Rey, of Newviile; and several anglers from 

 New York and Baltimore. Sim day was a beautiful day 

 and the trout were on the feed, but that night the weather 

 made a violent change and Monday opened with an em- 

 bryo "blizzard," snowing and sleeting far into the fore- 

 noon, while the remainder of the day was but small im- 

 provement on the first part. It was casting under the 

 worst of difficulties; but at the close of the day the catch 

 summed up nearly 500 trout running in size much larger 

 than last season's first day's return. 



Lower down the valley a commendable work is going 

 on. The lovers of the rod and line have been on the alert, 

 and their work is now receiving its reward. Some weeks 

 ago 10,000 brook trout fry were received from the State fish 

 hatchery at Emaus, Lehigh county, by R. H. Thomas, Jr., 

 A. Z. Hade and Robert W. Short, and placed by these 

 gentlemen in adjacent trout streams. Yesterday after- 

 noon Mr. W. A. Dimnington, of United States Fish'Hatch- 

 ery at Wytheville, Va., arrived at Mechanicsburg with 

 eight tanks of California rainbow trout (Sahno iridea) 

 for Robert W. Short, the secretary of the Cumberland 

 Valley Game and Fish Association. They were received 

 at the depot by Mr. Short, R. H. Thomas, Jr., and A. Z. 

 Hade, and placed in Trindle Run, Trout Run, Yellow 

 Breeches or Minne Mingo and Cedar Run. The placing 

 was under the personal supervision of Mr. Dunnington, 

 the messenger in charge, who won tho hearts of our 

 local members of the craft by his genial courtesy and the 

 kindly manner in which he answered the interrogations 

 put to him. When the great distance the fish were car- 

 ried is considered, the fact that there was but one dead 

 trout proves conclusively that Mr. Dimnington is thor- 

 oughly equipped for the great work in which he is en- 

 gaged, and is the right man in the right place. 



At Cedar Run, Trindle Run, Silver Spring and Trout 

 Run fair catches of trout were made on the opening day. 

 The largest fish, weighing 2flbs,, was taken at Cedar 

 Run. The finest creel of fish the wi iter saw was brought 

 in by Mr. J. D. Miller, who took them from Cedar Run, 

 The indications point to an unusually fine bass fishing 

 in the Connoduguinet Creek this season. The largest 

 bass taken last season in this stream weighed TJlbs., and 

 caught by a farmer with a clumsy hickory pole. 



Through the active efforts of the Game and Fish Asso- 

 ciation and the Rod and Gtm Club, we seldom hear of a 

 scarcity of fish, but our fishing is becoming amazingly 

 better, and the fish pirates and the pot-hunters are rapidly 

 being 3'elegated to that pillory of public contempt in 

 which they should have long since been placed. 



Roberta. 



Mechanicsburg, Cumberland County, Pa. 



The Potomac— AVashington. April £3;— After a num- 

 ber of years of dearth and doleful* predictions of a per- 

 manent depletion of the Potomac River, the berr ngs 

 struck in here last week in such immense quantities that 

 it does not pay to send them up the river fro n the seines 

 to market. In one day a quarter of a million of herring 

 were netted, besides 11,208 shad, three sturgeons, and 

 236 bunches of miscellaneous fish. White perch are in 

 great abundance, and black bass more numerous in fresh 

 water up river than for many years before.— Charles 

 Hallock. 



Kennebec Salmon.— Notwithstanding the reports that 

 Kennebec salmon are in market and have sold as high as 

 $1.50 per pound, the Belfast, Me., Republican Journal 

 says that not one salmon has been caught in the Kenne- 

 bec this year, 



