88 



FOREST AND STREAM. 



[Feb. 24, 1887* 



Buffalo Domestication.— Editor Forest and Stream: 

 In 1872-73, in northwestern Kansas, I secured between 

 forty and fifty buffalo calves. Of these I managed to 

 raise seventeen, which ran with the cattle on my father's 

 ranch. About three-fifths of the calves caught would die, 

 although I have had no trouble in raising nine out of ten 

 antelope in the same way. "We gave them nothing but 

 milk. When I left the ranch the buffalo were three and 

 four years old. We had several half-breed calves from 

 our native cows, but none from the buffalo cows. One of 

 the buffalo would never leavo the ranch house to go 

 further than two hundred yards, unless it were to follow 

 my mother when she would take her evening walk. He 

 was much attached to her, but was quite belligerent 

 toward the rest of us. This buffalo had been picketed 

 when a calf, and the strain of the rope had gradually 

 turned his horns until they grew down his cheeks with 

 the points turned in.— F. T. Webber (Fillmore, Utah). 



A Pennsylvania Case, in which a big fine is involved, 

 is reported by the Troy, Pa., Gazette. Four boxes re- 

 cently delivered at the Adams express office at Towando, 

 and consigned to New York parties, were found to con- 

 tain quail, which were out of season. The shippers, G. 

 C. Barnes, of Asylum, Pa., and his son, were arrested, 

 convicted and a "fine of $2,212 has been imposed. The 

 case has been appealed. 



A Successful Hunt,— Toronto, Canada.— Last fall I 

 went with a party of hunters and trappers on a moose 

 hunt and we had "good sport capturing two moose, one 

 very large black bear and a number of red deer. — C.E.R. 



Havre de Grace Ducking.— Philadelphia, Feb. 18.— 

 Advices from Havre de Grace state that the ice is going 

 out and that they expect shooting in a few days.— Bed 

 Ieisii. 



New Yoke Life Insurance Company.— The report of 

 the New York Life Insurance Company, which we print 

 this week; gives some interesting facts and figures on the 

 gi-owth of a well managed company. After forty-two 

 years of existence it has reached a point where it has a 

 total income of over nineteen million two hundred thou- 

 sand dollars, and makes payments to policy holders of 

 nearly eight million dollars. Its interest income is over 

 three million seven hundred thousand dollar's, being over 

 5| per cent, on average net assets, and over nine hundred 

 thousand dollars in excess of losses by death. It shows 

 an increase of over three million dollars in income, over 

 two millions in surplus, over eight millions in assets, over 

 sixteen millions in insurance written, and of over forty- 

 four millions of insurance in force, over the figures of 

 the precediug year, and has over three hundred million 

 dollai'3 of insurance in force, Jan. 1, 1887. This is certainly 

 a remarkable showing and should prove deeply interest- 

 ing to all who have life insurance under consideration. 



mid Jjf/w Jtftehmg. 



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



FISH AND FISH PROTECTION. 



IT MAY seem odd that at this late day it is necessary 

 to say a word in favor of the protection of fish in our 

 waters, but notwithstanding the fact that rigorous laws 

 have still preserved salmon in the rivers of Europe amid 

 densely populated districts, and have preserved brook 

 trout in streams near large cities like New York, where, 

 but for these laws, they would have been netted out a 

 generation ago, there are still those who impose all legis- 

 lation on the subject. In the State of New York there 

 are persistent bands of poachers who resist the officers of 

 the law at times, and not only receive the approval of 

 their neighbors, but also the support of the legislators 

 elected from their districts. It was at the instance of the 

 members of the Legislature from Yates and Ontario 

 comities that the bill was passed permitting the spearing, 

 netling and catching through the ice of fish in Keuka and 

 Canandaigua lakes, and the presumption is that this 

 measure is in accord with the wishes of their con- 

 stituents. 



It is a well known fact that there are no worse enemies 

 to the laws for the protection of fish than the people who 

 live on the boarders of the large interior lakes of New 

 York. They consider that the fish in these lakes are then- 

 exclusive property, and resent all interference by the 

 people of the State, who are the real custodians of the 

 fish in all public waters. The farmers near the lakes of 

 Yates and Ontario counties have, since the early settle- 

 ment of the country, been in the habit of taking lake- 

 trout from the spawning beds and salting them down for 

 winter use, and they still look upon this as their inalien- 

 able right, a view that is so radically wrong that their 

 minds should be speedily disabused of it by the people at 

 large through their representatives at Albany. 



The Commissioners of Fisheries have the power to aid 

 in this matter by instructing the superintendents of the 

 State hatcheries not to stock nor supply fishes of any 

 kind to lakes where spearing, netting or fishing through 

 the ice is permitted by law, and we hope to see some 

 action taken by the Board at its next meeting, to instruct 

 the superintendents to refuse all applications for fish 

 which are made for waters where such fishing is per- 

 mitted. If public sentiment in any locality is against 

 protecting fish, then that community should be cut off 

 from all benefits in the way of having their waters 

 stocked by the State. 



Surface Schools of Fish.— In regard to this subject 

 "under fire," I agree with "Jay Bebo" in his article in 

 the Forest and Stream of last week. During very many 

 years trout fishing, especially trolling in Round Lake and 

 the Saranac lakes, I have every spring witnessed schools 

 of fish floating leisurely along on the surface of the water, 

 and have had them within 10ft. of my boat. The subject 

 has been many times fully discussed by sportsmen and 

 guides, and the conclusion arrived at is that the fish are 

 suckers, schooling before seeking deeper water, and I am 

 convinced of it. The writer has never seen them except 

 when the water was getting quite warm, and he has seen 

 them every season for the past thirty years. They were 

 not trout. I have tried in vain to catch them.— Delta 

 Adirondack Suburbs). 



ANGLING IN THE HEBRIDES. 



THUMP! thump! all night long, beat the pulse of the 

 steamer Dunara Castle, and two loquacious Scotch- 

 men spent nearly as much time, just outside of my berth, 

 in trying to find a "night-cap" that would fit. This they 

 accomplished at last, or perhaps the night-caps gave 

 out, and I was left to twist my eight feet (only two re- 

 quiring shoe leather, the others preferring tro'wsers and 

 coat) in a five-foot berth. 



Balmy sleep (we had a load of cattle aboard) came at 

 last, and then the next thing I heard was a rough voice 

 say: "We're off Colonsay." We were to disembark here, 

 so in a few moments I was on deck. We were anchored 

 in a little bay a few rods from shore. The dozen houses 

 had emptied themselves of the natives, who were now 

 busy in shouting Gaelic (garlic as pronounced by them) 

 and launching a huge long boat to come for us. When 

 they had rowed then- ark alongside, very little was to be 

 seen of the boat, for every available inch was occupied by 

 a man or boy. Barrels and boxes, baskets and bundles 

 of all kinds and sizes tumbled into the boat as she rose 

 and fell in the surge. Finally our turn came, and what a 

 time we had! Waiting till the boat rose nearly to the 

 bottom of the ladder we would step off and then down, 

 down would sink the boat seemingly from beneath our 

 feet, and then recovering itself would go rushing up the 

 iron sides of the steamer in a frightful way, though fasci- 

 nating. Seen from the steamer, the long boat appeared 

 clumsy and logy, but now after resting for a moment in 

 a pocket of the waves, then mounting to the top, she 

 would swim down the other side like some huge sea-bird 

 full of grace and life. 



Upon lauding we were stared at by that small portion 

 of the inhabitants who had not gone off in the boat to 

 meet us. After collecting our twenty-two bundles (the 

 twenty belonging to the ladies), wo inquired for Donald, 

 our cousin's Poo-Bah, for he was the coachman, skipper, 

 gardner, weather prognosticator and adviser on all sub- 

 jects of Oronsay. Withal he was a modest man, and so 

 he was the last one to be asked "Are you Donald?" 

 Acknowledging himself to be that all-important person- 

 age, he produces for carrying five people, who attained 

 their growth several years since, but whose bundles 

 appeared to have grown and multiplied indefinitely ever 

 since leaving Greenwich, a dog-cart. Donald looks at 

 us, then at the bundles, finally at the cart, and murmurs 

 m his soft voice, "It is a bit wee.*' We get in, however, 

 three on the front seat and two on the back (told to sit 

 hard and heavy), and taking such bundles as we can hold, 

 give the horse his head. This not being sufficient, the 

 whip is added with the desired effect. 



How wild and desolate everything is. Masses of 

 heather-covered rocks; ragged hills, unsoftened by trees; 

 meadows of rank grass, on which feed some tawny High- 

 land cattle. It is like a forgotten sketch of an artist, 

 rough though strongly drawn, but with the coloring— 

 the warmth of life-r-unpainted. 



The two islands, Colonsay and Oronsay, are connected 

 for an horn' at low tide by a narrow stretch of sand show- 

 ing above the water and covered with the pyramid mark- 

 ings of the sand worms. The flowing tide covered, these 

 and nearly a foot of our wheels before we reached the 

 other side, but the horso splashed on as though he were 

 on a turnpike. Donald amused himself by telling how, a 

 few weeks previous, the west wind blowing in the water 

 quicker than usual, the wheel of the cart struck a sunken 

 rock and pitched him headlong into the water. Each of 

 us instinctively sought the middle of the cart when he 

 finished, and we had looked at the icy water. We reached 

 Oronsay in safety though, and a few moments more 

 brought us within sight of the monastery. Generations 

 ago a small band of monks persecuted and at last driven 

 from the north of Ireland, first landed here, and the 

 lonely island afforded them a safe haven for their prayers 

 and meditations. Of the original chapel and cloisters 

 only the thick stone walls and a small portion of the roof 

 remain, but enough to show the rough beauty of the 

 carved pillars and windows. In one coi ner of the chapel 

 lay three or four stone coffins, the last resting place of 

 the holy men, with their images carved on the slabs. 

 Time and exposure had scattered even the dust from 

 within. A few yards from the building stood a stone 

 cross, exquisite in shape and proportion. The dead gray 

 of the sky, the beating of the ageless sea upon the rocks, 

 the crumbled mass of the sacred buildings, all were of 

 the past. The cross alone remained. The more modern 

 building our cousin had made habitable for a month or so 

 in the summer, and life was not wanting there, nor com- 

 fort and plentv. 



We spent four days on Oronsay and did nothing twice. 

 The first evening about 8 o" clock Donald produced two 

 poles 10ft. long, to which were attached by strong linen 

 lines two huge yellow flies, and asked if I wanted to go 

 fishing. I always say "yes" to such invitations, but was 

 somewhat staggered by the looks of the tackle. A few 

 moments found us rowing outside the breakers, Donald 

 working the oars, while I sat facing the stern, and hav- 

 ing inverted the poles with then- 'tother ends in the water 

 sawed them up and down, apparently seeing how many 

 times I could "touch bottom" a minute. What antics 

 those flies cut up a few feet astern! Swish, went the lice, 

 circling toward the bow with a tremendous rush. My 

 tackle, thanks to its size, held, and in a triee a fish of 

 about 21bs. lay straggling in the boat. The Gaelic name 

 for it I have forgotten and its looks — well, it was a little 

 like a herring and more like a trout. It was all so novel. 

 The small boat tossing near the breakers as they rolled 

 from black to foamy white; the soft fight of the sunless 

 sky; the gulls shrieking in our wake for a fish: an old 

 gray seal drying his whiskers as he looked around out of 

 the water for the same purpose. 



The next morning Ave started out to examine the lob- 

 ster creels we had jJaced the night before. We only 

 found four, but one creel was alive with delicious crabs. 

 What a bloodthirsty set they were! Crawling around 

 on the bottom of the boat, the" moment two of them came 

 together, there was trouble, and the weaker generally 

 scrambled away, wiser to the time of a "lost cord," or 

 rather claw. Before we had landed the boat looked like 

 a pension office on pay day, so many veterans were limp- 

 ing around on wood. After a dinner made of lobster 

 principally, while Donald was testmg some "Lone Jack," 

 puffing out great clouds of smoke after each deep breath, 

 and wondering where it all came frorn (being used to 

 molasses-soaked "plug" which required an exhaust pump 

 to keep the fire in it from going out), I asked him what 



we should do the morrow. His lips scarcely opened, but 

 the delicate trail of smoke formed "trout" in feathery 

 letters. 



Early in the morning the dog cart, with lunch and bor- 

 rowed rod and tackle, was ready, and then an hour's roll 

 over the sandy reach to Colonsay, and back over the bar- 

 ren hills and half way down the other side a turn to the 

 left and— "Are there trout in that place, Lonald?" I 

 asked, wondering how a high-toned color fish like a trout 

 could soil his spots in such dirty water. It was like that 

 in South street, New York, when the East Paver gets its 

 back up. We soon found the one boat, and after getting 

 the tackle in shape tumbled in and almost tumbled out 

 again, for that boat, in spite of its ample bottom, had a 

 habit of spinning around that was decidedly skittish and 

 unbalancing in its tendency. My first cast proved con- 

 clusively that the bow seat was the place for me, for 

 every motion of my wrist and rod was followed, and in- 

 stantly, too, by a counter motion of my feet and the boat, 

 and in my efforts to keep erect snap went the tip, short 

 off. An "extra tip was found, and taking a seat this time, 

 the flies ilew to the desired place and spat! spat! went 

 half a dozen fingerlings, as they somersaulted out and in 

 the water again. Tlie trout seemed to be of but two 

 si;ces, scores of little shavers and now and then a hand- 

 some one of a pound. Three boms later I had thirteen of 

 the latter in my basket and had sent five times that num- 

 ber home with the toothache. The next day we took a 

 long walk along the recks and coarse grass by the shore, 

 flushing every now and then, though the season was late, 

 an eider duck ("duke," as Donald called them). Going 

 to the place where they got up, we would find from tw o 

 to five huge eggs, protected in a rather unsavory way by 

 the old "duke" the last moment before rising. 



Scores of seals, big and little, were to be seen sleeping or 

 sunning themselves out on the rocks left bare by the 

 fallen tide. Clicking two stones together would start 

 them for the water in an ungainly waddle and a moment 

 later they avouM pop then heads "out of the water, their 

 protruding eyes curious to see what it all meant. On our 

 way back we ascended a liigh hill and, driving hundreds 

 of "bunnies" before us into their burrows, examined the 

 summit where there was once one of the forts of the 

 islanders, to which they retreated on discovering the 

 approach of the dreaded ships of the Norsemen. Little 

 remained besides the mound of earth and heaps of shells 

 to tell of the unequal struggles against murder and 

 starvation. 



A month later I stood in the National Museum at 

 Christiania, Norway, examining the much written 

 about Viking ship, the very one, perhaps, that carried 

 terror to the hearts of the peaceful dwellers of Oronsay. 



F'LIN. 



THE ROD AND REEL ASSOCIATION. 



/ E learn that many prizes have been secured for the 

 coming tournament in May, and that there is every 

 prospect of a successful meeting. A proposal has been 

 made to establish something like a social club, and a cir- 

 cular has been issued from which we quote as follows: 

 "Four tournaments have been held with much success, 

 and the one for the coming May promises to be still more 

 successful. But heretofore nothing has been done toward 

 the cultivation of the fraternal feeling of the constitution. 

 This the officers of the Association now desire to do by 

 renting one or more rooms in some locality of easy access 

 in this city, furnishing the same and providing a suitable 

 angling library for the use of its members. By this means 

 members would become acquainted with each other, and 

 those living out of town would have some convenient 

 headquarters where they could pass then leisure hours. 

 Whether this plan is feasible depends on the activity of 

 those at present in the Association in securing member- 

 ship, and in the liberality of all concerned. We would 

 be happy to hear from you on this subject, particularly 

 as to what you personally are willing to do to further the 

 same." 9 



Social angling clubs are common in England, and the 

 members meet and have dinners and sometimes listen to 

 papers on various subjects connected with angling. One 

 of the most valuable of these is the Fly-Fisher's Club, of 

 London, which has just issued its second annual report 

 and balance sheet, which Avas presented at the annual 

 meeting on Jan. 27. From this avc learn that the club is 

 progressing and has at present 271 members, made up as 

 follows: ToAvn members, 120; country members, 143; 

 honorary members, 8; and the balance in the treasury 

 amount ed to nearly §600. The annual dinner takes place 

 at the Hslborn Restaurant, Feb. 24, and by the rides of 

 the club each member is allowed to bring tAvo friends, 

 dinner tickets cost about $2 in our money. 



It has been said that the anglers of America are not as 

 sentimental nor as gregarious as those of England, and 

 we will watch this proposition to form a social club with 

 interest. We think it a most excellent idea and hope that 

 it Avill meet Avith favor from the members and that a 

 strong and healthy organization may result from circula- 

 tion of this circular'. Those who are interested may 

 address the Secretary, Mr. Gonzalo Poey, 24 State street, 

 NeAv York. 



Portrait of Francis Francis. — We have been re- 

 quested by Mr. Hallock to publish the letter given below 

 and to request a response from any reader who may know 

 anvthing of the missing picture. Mr. Francis writes as 

 follows: "The Firs, Tavickenham, Jan. 17, 1887.— Dear 

 Mr. Hallock: A good many years ago— over twenty — a 

 portrait Avas painted of niy father by Rolfe and a man 

 named Forster — Rolf e painted the fish. The accompanying 

 engraving was taken from it, but the engraver has bar- 

 bered and valeted my father a little on his own responsi- 

 bility. The picture Avas eventually sold to some one (an 

 American ?) who took it to America. Rolfe is dead, and 

 Forster (who was a sort of assistant of his) can give no 

 further information than this. As the picture Avas the 

 only one ever painted of hay father, I should like, if pos- 

 sible, to trace it: if it Avere to be bought reasonably 

 to buy it; and if not, at any rate get a copy of it. It 

 seems a hopeless task I admit, but if the owner knows 

 Avhose portrait it is, it is just possible that the whereabouts 

 of the picture may be known to some of your sporting 

 friends. Can you suggest any means of tracing it, or any 

 scheme of advertising for it, that would not be absolutely 

 ruinous? Yours faithfully, Francis Francis, Jr." The 

 picture represents Mr. Francis and his gillie seated by a 

 mountain stream, and before them two salmon. Francis 

 holds a rod and the g i ll ie a gaff.. 



