110 



FOREST AND STREAM. 



[Feb. 28, 1889. 



UNCLE TINE'S BEAR STORY. 



NOT long since the writer had the pleasure of spending 

 an evening with "Uncle Tine" Withers, who is well 

 known through this country as the "old bear fighter," and 

 although white with the frosts of sixty-seven winters 

 and covered with scars, he is ready to do battle with 

 Bruin whenever he finds him. Among his many stories 

 of bear and deer hunts, aud Mexican and Indian war 

 experience, he told the following, which I will try to 

 give to the readers of Forest and Stream as nearly as 

 possible in his own words: 



"There had been a bear killed a hog or two down in 

 the bottom not far from my house, and so one morning 

 Meade and me and a nigger struck out to kill it. We 

 didn't have but nine hounds, but they was good ones as 

 ever nosed a trail, and I knovved if the bear hadn't left 

 the country old Bob would find him. Sure enough we 

 hadn't more than got there before they commenced 

 trailing, and pretty soon they jumped him. He led us a 

 chase over some pretty rough swamp for about a mile 

 and then treed. We got there as quick as we could, and 

 found the dogs doing their best to climb a big cypress. 

 About thirty feet up there was a big hole where a limb 

 had been twisted off by the wind and had broke through 

 to the holler. We knowed Mr. Bear was right there, 

 but how to get him was the question. We had no axe, it 

 was a good long way home, and the tree was a big one 

 anyway. Well, as luck would have it, there was a big 

 bamboo vine run away up the tree and seemed to be 

 pretty strong, and abovk half way up to the hole was a 

 good strong limb that stuck right straight out from the 

 tree. I was pretty active in them days, and I concluded 

 finally that I could climb the vine to that liinb, and stand 

 there and poke fire into the hole; so we got some 

 "choctaw" chunks and set 'em afire, and got a long slim 

 pole to raise 'em with. 



"When we had got everything ready, I clumb up my 

 vine to the limb and had just got sit down on it, when I 

 heard a clawing inside of the tree, and directly I see a 

 paw laid up into the hole, and then the other paw and 

 then his head. He was a big fellow and he didn't look 



? retry a bit from where I sat, but I'll give you my word, 

 was a heap worse scared of Meade than I was of the 

 bear. He was one of these terrible excitable kind of 

 fellows, and he was dancin' around down there with his 

 gun cocked and I didn't know what minute he was going 

 to Bhoot. He was just as apt to hit me as be was the 

 bear, and even if he didn't hit me, I didn't want a 

 wounded bear coming down on me, so I'd quarrel and 

 cuss at Meade awhile and tell him not to shoot, and then 

 I'd talk to the bear. I told him if he had an idea of com- 

 ing down to just let me know and I'd try and get down 

 first. The bear didn't appear to* be a bit bashful. He 

 would look all around, and then at the fellers down 

 below, and then at me — wasn't scared at all, but didn't 

 seem to know what to make of us and the dogs. Now if 

 you don't think I felt sorter shaky, you are mightily mis- 

 taken. There was Meade below with that gun, and a 

 bear above that looked like he had just as leave come 

 down as not. I just tell you, it was a pretty tight place, 

 but Mr. Bear finally figured it out I guess, that down the 

 holler was the safest place for him, so down he went. 

 You bet I was glad he took that notion too, and just as 

 soon as he got pretty well down, the fellers below stuck 

 the end of the pole into one of the big chunks and handed 

 it up, and I raised it on up to the hole and pulled it loose. 

 I got down to the ground in a hurry, and by the time I 

 did the fun commenced. 



"Of all the rearing and snorting rackets you ever heard 

 in your life, they was in that tree— scratching, snapping, 

 growling and pounding all mixed up. He stayed down 

 there with that fire until we could actually smell burnt 

 hair and cooked meat, but he had to give it up after a 

 while, so out he came, smoking like a tar-kiln, and 

 bounced on to a limb just below the hole, and began lick- 

 ing himseif. It was all I could do to keep Meade from 

 shooting untii the bear got still, and then he just had to 

 shoot. He turned loose his shotgun barrel and the bear 

 never quit licking, and then he blazed away with the rifle 

 barrel, and the bear sorter snapped at his hind leg. I was 

 laughing so at the smoking bear and Meade that I never 

 thought to shoot until he had made up his mind to come 

 down, and when he did, it was in a hurry. Of course, 

 them dogs they just covered him, and I was awful glad 

 Meade's gun was empty, or there would have been some 

 dead dogs sure. Well the bear soon made a charge and 

 got through the dogs, but he didn't go far before they 

 stopped him again, and then he was good and mad, and I 

 knew he would kill a dog in a minute. Sure enough he 

 did get one down, and as he did I made a rush at the 

 dogs, and getting a little clear space, I put a load of buck- 

 shot, wads and all, right into the burr of his ear, and 

 that settled him. As soon as we could get the dogs off 

 we commenced looking for Meade's shot, and where do 

 you reckon it was ? Well you can believe it or not, but 

 there didn't a single one of them buckshot hit that bear 

 and the rifle bail had gone through his heel. 



"He was. a nice fat bear, but that skin wasn't worth 

 packing home." Koko-eoho. 



Weather for Ducks.— St. Louis, Mo., Feb. 23.— 

 Editor Forest and Stream: The many sudden changes 

 in the temperature have caused the ducks to keep moving 

 from south to north and vice versa in quite a lively 

 manner. Last Saturday it was pleasant and reports came 

 in thick from all the ducking resorts of good flight, but 

 before the hunters could reach the marshes and lakes 

 they had left, and all because a cold wave struck in here. 

 For a few days we enjoyed a bit of genuine winter and 

 all thought of ducks disappeared from the minds of the 

 sportsmen. Wednesday the wind went to the south and 

 immediately the mercury took an upward shoot. On 

 Thursday it was pleasant enough to lay aside overcoats 

 without feeling in the least uncomfortable. Broad smiles 

 of contentment were plainly visible upon the faces of 

 the sportsmen, as they saw possibilities of returning flocks 

 of ducks to this locality again. They came, and in far 

 greater abundance than at any time this season. Now 

 the duck shooters were happy once again. Bustle would 

 be a mild term to apply to the activity that manifested 

 itself on account of the many telegrams which came 

 pouring from points within 100 miles of this city. Guns 

 were cleaned up, shells loaded, and everything was made 

 ready. But fortunes seems to favor them not; for last 

 evening the wind shifted to the northwest and brought 

 down a regular blizzard accompanied with a light snow. I 



The temperature since yesterday has fallen fully 40 de- 

 grees, and the Signal Service says it will go down to zero 

 before to-night. Many of the gentlemen who left Thurs- 

 day night, no doubt, "now wish they had remained at 

 home, where they could toast their toes at their own fire- 

 sides. Friday evening nearly all of the sportsmen re- 

 turned to the city thoroughly disgusted with their trips, 

 and they have fully resolved not to venture forth again 

 until the weather has settled.— TJnser Fritz. 



Ohio Quail. — The Commissioners recommend changes 

 in the law, to make the open season for woodcock from 

 July 4 to Dec. 15 inclusive; duck shooting to be continued 

 to and including Dec. 31: rabbits and doves to be pro- 

 tected, to prevent so-called sportsmen, under pretense of 

 hunting rabbits, from shooting quail out of season. They 

 urge that the conveying and snipping of quail beyond 

 the boundaries of the State be prohibited; and they say, 

 "We consider this feature very important, as great in- 

 ducements have been offered violators of this law by 

 parties advertising for large quanties of quail, which 

 they ship to Eastern markets, thereby greatly depleting 

 our fields of this bird which we so much wish to protect." 



Isames and Portraits op Birds, by Gurdon Trumbull. A 

 book particularly interesting to gunners, for by its use tnev can 

 identify without question all the American srame birds wnich 

 they may kill. Cloth, 220 paws, price $2.50. For sale by Forest 

 and Stream. 



"Sam Lovel's Cam/ps." By R. E. Robinson, Noio ready. 



TUCKERTON WATERS-I. 



A SOJOURN of five weeks at Beach Haven, New Jer- 

 sey, last summer, with daily excursions upon Tuck- 

 erton Bay and its adjacent waters, gave much familiarity 

 with the resources of the region for sailing and fishing. 

 From Bay Head, which is sixteen miles below Long 

 Branch, all the way to Cape May, the Jersey coast has a 

 continuous line of bays and thoroughfares lying between 

 a narrow line of beach and the mainland. The beach 

 varies in width from one-half to an eighth of a mile, and 

 the bays from six milps to half a mile. From Bay Head 

 to Brigantine Beach the broad waters are nearly continu- 

 ous and frequently have as much depth as ten feet over 

 extensive areas. From Brigantine Beach to Cape May 

 there is a succession of shallow bays or sounds traversed 

 by narrow and much deeper channels and connected by 

 thoroughfares. Great Egg Harbor or bay is the only ex- 

 ception to this. Numerous inlets connect these waters 

 with the ocean. In the region of the large bays there 

 are but two within a reach of nearly fifty miles. Below 

 Brigantine the inlets are much more numerous. 



Beach Haven is situated near the southern limit of the 

 region of the large bays, and at their widest part. It is 

 six miles north of Tuckerton Inlet and about sixteen miles 

 south of the noted Barnegat Inlet and lighthouse. It is 

 essentially a watering place. Good sailing, fair fishing 

 and fine bathing conspire to this result. The regular pro- 

 gramme for the day is: Fishing for gentlemen and en- 

 terprising ladies frym 8 to 12; bathing for all from 11 to 

 1; family sailing parties, with some fishing, from 2 to 6. 

 Long and wide "areas of deep and landlocked water, over 

 which the wind has as free play as over the ocean, offer 

 facilities for safe sailing seldom equaled. The yachts are 

 all cat-rigged and are about 26ft. long. They are grace- 

 ful in shape and motion, and are manned by a thoroughly 

 capable set of captains. They are always managed by 

 one person only. Often as many as thirty or forty may 

 be seen at once, with slack sheets and sails napping in 

 the wind, drifting with the tide, while their occupants 

 are drawing up the weakfish. 



The fish most numerously caught here are weakfish, 

 sea bass, barb or kingfish, bluefish and striped bass, here 

 mostly called rockfish. Besides these there is a smaller 

 run of cunners, porgies and spots. The weakfish are by 

 far the most abundant, and are most generally sought 

 for. Throughout the whole season the professional fish- 

 ermen could get from 150 to 250 per day, averaging in 

 weight nearly half a pound. Parties in yachts would get 

 from 30 to 70 in a morning, though sometimes the num- 

 bers ran much higher. The ordinary procedure was to 

 sail a mile or so out into the channel, point up a little 

 info the wind, slack the sheet, and let the boat drift with 

 the tide. The lines are then thrown out over the wind- 

 ward side of the boat. In this way the party drifts over 

 the fishing ground. When it is past the captain hauls in 

 the sheet and sails back to the starting place and takes 

 another drift. Near the turn of the tide the boats some- 

 times anchor. But with the tide running full there is 

 too much current to reach the bottom through the twenty 

 feet of water. A light wind against the tide gives the 

 best conditions for drifting, for then the boat moves 

 more slowly than the current and stays longer on the 

 good grounds; also there is a fair wind to sail back for 

 another turn. With the wind and tide together every- 

 thing is reversed, and the i-esult is not satisfactory. The 

 ordinary baits are hard crab, shrimp, clam, mussel and 

 pieces of fish. The first two are mostly used, though the 

 others are nearly as good. The yachts are always liber- 

 ally furnished with hand lines and bait, but the true 

 angler uses his own pole and tackle. A light strong line, 

 and double or treble snoods and leaders are the" right 

 tackle. Anything large and heavy catches too much of 

 the strong current. Even with these a limber pole can- 

 not be handled to advantage. 



The right-minded fisherman, however, does not follow 

 this general plan. At certain stages of flood tide the 

 larger weakfish run up the little channels and scatter 

 over the shallow flats, hunting among the grass and sea- 

 weed for shrimp and small fish. Through these flats 

 there are occasional deeper places called sunks, and these 

 are points of rendezvous for the scattering and returning 

 fish. To these places the patient angler proceeds, and 

 taking a light pole and fine tackle, he lets his bait float 

 astern, held midway in the water by a due adjustment 

 of cork and lead. If the fish happen to be running well 

 he will have the pleasure of landing five or six (or twice 

 as many) weakfish of two or three pounds weight. In 

 the main channel not one fish in fifty will turn a pound. 

 After various experiments I settled upon a Virginia 

 hook, Nos. 1 to 4, according to the bait used. Soft crab 



takes the large size, hard crab or clam a medium, and 

 shrimp the smaller. A foot or two of strong leader makes 

 a nice rig to handle, though it may not secure any more 

 bites. One is discouraged from using very fine tackle by 

 the likelihood of hooking a 101b. shark. I have taken 

 three of such fish in pretty close succession. The weak- 

 fish is good when fried fresh, but it quickly loses its 

 flavor. But it is best boiled, and when your three-pounder 

 of the morning's catch is so served for a late dinner, you 

 discover a delicacy of flavor hitherto unsuspected. Taken 

 in the way here described the weakfish may well be 

 classed as a game fish. He is soft of flesh and "therefore 

 soon exhausted, but a large one will make things lively 

 for a few minutes. He has a tender mouth and requires 

 careful handling, for one is never certain of his catch 

 until it is actually in the boat. 



Next to the weakfish in number come the sea bass. If 

 you take a six-mile sail down to the inlet and fish off 

 Point Creek on the ebb tide, you will probably fill your 

 basket with bass, running from a half a pound to a pound. 

 And when these are fried for supper you will find in them 

 a substantial excellence such as belongs more to beef steak 

 and mutton chops than to game. Thev are just what 

 you want to eat when you are right hungry. The bait 

 mostly used for these is cut from the flying fish or smaller 

 specimens of any kind. Crab is not esteemed so much 

 by them, but clams and mussels are readily taken. Pieces 

 of fish, or fish bait, as it is called, has this great advan- 

 tage, that small nibblers cannot soon destroy it as they 

 can your choice morsels of clam or mussel. Small sea 

 bass are found in various parts of the bay, but the larger 

 ones keep near the inlets. In fact the best specimens do 

 not come in from the ocean at all, and can only be caught 

 by going outside. 



The barb, or kingfish, or hake, disputes with the sea 

 bass the first place as a pan fish. Its flesh is hard and 

 close and of fine flavor. Moreover, it is the strongest 

 fish of its size which those waters contain. Even a half 

 pound fish will hug the bottom tenaciously and never 

 fail, when drawn near to the surface, to strike down 

 strongly and compel the giving of line or lowering of the 

 pole. They will average nearly a pound, and if light 

 tackle is used will generally require a little play. They 

 pull more than a weakfish of twice their size. They are 

 found on the points and edges of sandy bars in 10 or 12ft. 

 of water, and their only disadvantage is that they are 

 scarce and rather uncertain. They are fished for with 

 clam or mussel on the bottom. Their mouth is small and 

 under the head like a sucker's, but except in manner of 

 feeding in no other way do they resemble that common 

 fish. 



The bluefish is frequently found in the ocean all along 

 the Jersey coast, though it is not as numerous or as large 

 as it is further north. It sometimes enters the bays, how- 

 ever, and some very fine sport was had in the early fall 

 near the inlet. Single small specimens are not infre- 

 quently caught, but it is rare to catch them in any quan- 

 tity with a squid. 



Striped bass, or rockfish, are the sweetest fish which 

 the bay affords, but they are mostly scarce and very hard 

 to catch. They have a habit of coming close to the edges 

 of the grassy shores, on flood tides at night, and on cloudy 

 days. They do this mainly to hunt for soft crabs. Their 

 method of capture is founded on this practice: The fish- 

 erman selects some grassy point, opposite to which is a 

 smootb, sandy bottom, bare of grass. When the tide is 

 such that it begins to flood by the middle of the after- 

 noon, so that it will be half full or more by dark, he takes 

 his sneakbox to this point an hour or two"before the sun 

 goes down, and draws his boat into the grass, and stakes 

 it there. Then he baits his large hook with a generous 

 piece of soft crab, and casts it out on the sandy bottom. 

 In this work even the natives use a pole. 



In the majority of cases, while the mosquitoes and 

 gnats fall upon the fisherman, the crabs do likewise on 

 his bait. Meanwhile, as his line is across the run of the 

 tide, the drifting grass is continually clogging it. He is, 

 therefore, kept busy fighting mosquitoes, getting crabs 

 off from his bait and freeing his line from grass. But 

 every now and then, if he is diligent and very quiet, he 

 will find his bait suddenly seized and carried out into 

 deep water with a strong rush. He will now strike Care- 

 fully, so as to break nothing, and let the fish run till 

 tired. When the struggle is over he may have a three or 

 four or six-pound rockfish, or it may be a weakfish of the 

 smallest figure. If he have three orfour such experiences 

 in the evening, he will sail or row home in the closing 

 darkness well contented. If the wind blows briskly the 

 mosquito nuisance is abated, but the crabs and seaweed 

 are a constant factor. The rockfish, alas, is very incon- 

 stant, and seven or eight expeditions last summer saw 

 only three fish in all. In most seasons the result would 

 have been better, but it is always uncertain. 



I believe that rather better fishing is found in the 

 numerous inlets between Atlantic City and Cape May 

 than the large bays afford. But to those who want a 

 combination of sailing and fishing, nothing much better 

 than Tuckerton Bay can be found on that coast. Besides 

 the yachts, the charge for which is uniformly $5 per day 

 and $3 per half day, a fair run of skiffs and sneakboxes 

 can be hired, in which the amateur can safelv and cheaply 

 indulge his love of the water. It was in this way that 

 the* writer sought and found both health and pleasure. 

 There is an abundance of shallow water, sheltered by 

 islands, in which the learner can find scope for practice, 

 and some good fishing may be had also without going 

 into the open bay. Yet in ordinary weather these small 

 boats may safely venture upon any of the fishing grounds. 

 The wind was sure to be ahead when we wanted to come 

 home from such expeditions, but no deeper sense of 

 pleasure and consciousness of accession of health were 

 experienced than when beating down from Mash Elder 

 Island in the quiet glow of the summer twilight, the cool 

 night wind tempering the heated brow, and the restful 

 peace of nature soothing the wearied brain. Penn. 



Notes on Fishes.— In the markets of Washington, D. 

 C, male shad averaging over 41bs. each were found Feb. 

 19 in fair supply; this is a remarkably large size for 

 males; they came from North Carolina. Steel head 

 trout, Salmo gairdneri, weighing from 12 to lSlbs., are 

 sufficiently common; among them are females with eggs 

 nearly mature. Crevalle, Caranx hippos, are offered 

 under the name of pompano, Squeteague of large and 

 small size, and of both the common species, are plentiful. 

 Suckers from the Potomac are abundant. 



