400 



FOREST AND STREAM. 



[June 6, 1889. 



In Alberta. — Hamilton, Ont.— Editor Forest and 

 Stream: I have just read in your very interesting jour- 

 nal a letter signed "W.," winch amuses me. It is headed 

 "A Hunt in British Columbia." and yet it all took place 

 place in the Northwest Territories; in Alberta, in fact, 

 and not within two or three hundred miles of the prov- 

 ince named. "W." says he had an officer of the North- 

 west Mounted Police in his party. If so, it seems to me 

 extraordinary that they neglecLed to take some firewood 

 with them; no one who knows anything of that treeless 

 country ever goes out on the plains so unprovided; a small 

 sheet iron cooking stove and a few armfuls of chips or 

 small dry branches are always taken. Over hundreds of 

 square miles here there is not as much wood as would 

 make a match, and no water fit to drink except in a few 

 little springs, which "W. ,: was not likely to find. Yet 

 they started without wood and without even a keg of 

 water! I do not know anything much nastier than tea 

 made with alkaline water; but when Providence, over- 

 looking their improvidence, sent them plenty of good 

 water for tea making in the form of snow, why did they 

 not use»it? The fact is, if people without experience go 

 into the wilderness and through their own simplicity suf- 

 fer hardships, I think they deserve it; and I hope "W." 

 will pardon me when I say that, for their own sakes, it 

 would be better to say nothing about it. I know the 

 scene of his adventure; in fact, 1 surveyed a great part of 

 that country for the Dominion Government. "W." is 

 quite right about the ducks, but I do not think that he 

 can tell us much about prairie chickens there. A discon- 

 solate-looking jack rabbit was the only thing in the way 

 of game on land I ever saw, excepting herds of antelope 

 in the sandhills; they are the real game of the country 

 now; but I was not there for sport and so cannot say 

 much about it, though I have seen them in great num- 

 bers. I never heard of canvasback ducks there, but as 

 "W." says they shot them, I suppose we must have par- 

 taken of that delicacy unawares.— L. S. 



Marauding Indians and the Park.— The evidence 

 regarding the Yellowstone National Park which has been 

 collected by the Forest and Stream proves that the 

 forests of the Park are most seriously endangered by the 

 fires kindled by Indians. The magnitude of the evil will 

 be apparent upon a little consideration. The vast region 

 known as the Yellowstone Park contains the headwaters 

 or important tributaries of rivers which irrigate vast 

 tracts of country. It is the obvious remedy that these 

 marauding Indians should be kept away from the Park, 

 and this remedy might be applied if the miserable reserva- 

 tion life offered any inducements superior to those of 

 vagabondage. As a matter of fact, the danger of the 

 situation has been explained to the Indian Department 

 and the Indian Bureau, and it is just to say that a desire 

 has been shown to keep the Indians under control. But 

 that this is not done is plain even from the cautious re- 

 port of Captain Harris, Superintendent of the Park, and 

 from the reports of the Indian agents at Forts Lemhi and 

 Hall. The latter attempt to deny the depredations of the 

 Indians, but any denial is made impossible by the sworn 

 affidavits which Forest and Stream has carefully col- 

 lected from reliable persons living near enough to the 

 Park to have personal knowledge of the unrestrained 

 wanderings of the Indians. Now that the attention of 

 the Indian Department has been directed to this danger, 

 we trust that agents may be promptly found who can 

 control the Indians, and that an adequate police or mili- 

 tary force may be furnished for the Park and for reser- 

 vation duty— Christian Union, May 28. 



The Beautiful Ozarks.— Kansas Citv, Mo., May 31.— 

 Editor Forest and Stream: In issue of May 30, page 375, 

 "The Beautiful Ozarks," is a very bad blunder either on 

 my part or the types. A correction is necessary, as you 

 will quickly see. Unless there is one made it would 

 never be safe for any one having a copy of Forest and 

 Stream to sojourn there. "The natives," say the types, 

 "as a rule are somewhat rude, but very hospitable." I 

 think crude must be meant in copy. Do me the favor of 

 keeping those excellent friends in good nature by mak- 

 ing correction; they are far from being rude. — Tile. 



Fish Creek Valley.— Glacier House, B. C, May 14.— 

 In a former letter I mentioned the beauties and magnifi- 

 cent scenery of the Fish Creek Valley, which lies five or 

 six miles south of this house. A new and easy trail will 

 within a few weeks be opened into this valley, and a good 

 camp built for the accommodation of tourists. Plenty of 

 big game in that valley. In my last week's letter I should 

 have mentioned the fact that it is, during the open sea- 

 son, unlawful to kill the does or fawn of the blacktail 

 deer.— Sta nstead. 



North Dakota Prairie Chickens.— Galesburg, Dak.— 

 This is going to be a great year for prairie chickens in 

 Dakota. We had a mild winter and very little snow. 

 Then the birds had plenty of feed, there being a great 

 deal of frosted wheat which was never cut. The prairie 

 is alive with them now. Reports say that they are even 

 more plentiful in South Dakota. I expect great sport 

 about Sept. 1. — J. P. W. 



A gun and a wagon. Here is food for thought. Jim Long 

 sold a big road wagon and a single-barrel gun at auctiou 

 Monday. The gun was about six feet long and brought 

 three times as much as the wagon, the latter selling for 

 $1.— Concord (N. V.) Times. 



The cats, dogs and poll parrots of England having been 

 properly provided for. a hospital for fish has now been estab- 

 lished. Fish are much exposed to dampness, and pulmonary 

 diseases would naturally be most common.— Detro it free 

 Press. 



The revised and abridged edition of the A. O. U. Check List of 

 North American Birds, includiug the additions and changes made 

 in the supplement, will be sent post free on receipt of 50cts.— Adv. 



Names and Portraits of Birds, hy Gurdon Trnmbull. A 

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

 identify without question all the American game birds which 

 they may kill. Cloth, 220 pages, price $3.50. For sale by Forest 

 and Stream. 



Forest and Stream, Box 2,83a, N. Y. city, has descriptive illus- 

 trated circulars of W. B. Leffkuwell's book, "Wild Fowl Shoot- 

 ing," which will be mailed free on request. The book is pro- 

 nounced by "Nanit," "Gloan," "Dick Swiveller," "Sybillene" and 

 other competent authorities to be the best treatise on the subject 

 extant. 



m m\A ^iver fishing. 



THE SUNSET CLUB.— IV. 



TWO quick raps with a bethabara mallet upon a solid 

 slab of live oak called the club to order, and after 

 the president was satisfied that those present were en- 

 titled to seats, the opening exercises were hastened, the 

 regular business followed in rapid succession. The usual 

 discussions touching scientific problems and outing ex- 

 periences were, with the reports of committees, post- 

 poned. The members understood the object, for upon the 

 rostrum, with the president, sat a gentleman whose face 

 was familiar, particularly among the yachtsmen. 



"The Keeper of the Keys will see if the three candi- 

 dates — the passenger agents — are in waiting," said the 

 president in a rapid semi-tone. The officer retired to the 

 ante-room, and after a few moments' absence returned. 



'•The candidates— Sherman, Brown and Smith— are in 

 evening dress, and have been waiting since sunset." 



"The attendants will assist the Grand Conductor in 

 properly preparing them for initiation. See that they are 

 supplied with copies of the Inter-State Commerce Law, 

 and a Burlington Route Directory, that they may be able 

 to decipher the law in accordance with public "opinion, 

 and to inform us whether there is a clause that could be 

 construed, technically, to debar them from landing fish 

 by way of the long haul, if it is accomplished according 

 to the art, as quickly as by the short haul. Am I under- 

 stood?" 



"Your orders are 'fully understood,' " replied the con- 

 ductor, bowing low and bringing his hands together over 

 his head. In this position he backed out of the room. 



"Brethren," said the president, facing the members, 

 "We will omit the regular order of business. I take 

 great pleasure in stating that we have with us to-night a 

 true yachtsman, a friend to all lovers of outdoor sport 

 and recreation and whose name is familiar to the fra- 

 ternity all around the great chain of lakes. [Continued 

 applause, during which the gentleman rose and grace- 

 fully bowed]. Way back in 1834 the good people of 

 the then beautiful town of Cleveland, Ohio, were 

 awakened by a 'squall' which continued to increase to a 



COMMODORE GEORGE W. GARDNER. 



moderate breeze as the years rolled round, until to-day 

 we are in the center of the storm, and the great Forest 

 City, teeming with original life and activity, honors her 

 distinguished son by placing him upon the highest seat 

 within the gift of a generous public." Hear! Hear! came 

 from every quarter of the well-smoked room. The clap- 

 ping of hands and the stamping of feet became loud and 

 deafening. It was the greatest speech the president 

 ever attempted; his face became red. then pale, and he 

 nervously took a drink from the water pitcher instead of 

 the glass, and when the noise died down to a whispering 

 breeze he again resumed. "As I said, in a metaphorical 

 sense, he was born in 1834. His early education was not 

 neglected, he was a boy like the rest of us, but he loved 

 to hear 



'The rush of wind, the romp and roar. 

 Of great waves climbing a rocky shore.' 



"And every pleasant afternoon he ran away from 

 school to play upon the beach or climb to the masthead 

 of some vessel anchored in the harbor. He graduated 

 with honors and mastered the classics as taught in those 

 days, but the love of the sea continued, and when he ar- 

 rived at that age when he was an unhappy land rover, he 

 made application among the vessels for a position. For- 

 tune favored him; he was employed by a healthy-looking 

 skipper of a small schooner in the honored position of 

 cook. Little cared he how the wind blew, for faithfully 

 below he did his duty, and so well did he meet the wants 

 of his fellow sailors and his employer that he was pro- 

 moted to the office of assistant clerk, and then to clerk, 

 which position he filled with honor to himself and credit 

 to the vessel until he had saved enough money to start a 

 bank in the town of Cleveland. In the interest of yacht- 

 ing and canoeing we find him entering the field as chartf r 

 member of the Ivanhoe Boat Club, and with their 

 36ft. ten-oar barge he considered it a pleasant pastime 

 to row to Rocky River, some eight miles away, and 

 return, for an evening's exercise. Among the first move- 

 ments to introduce yachting on the lakes was his pur- 

 chase of the sloop yacht Ravenna, from New Haven, 

 Conn., which won every race she entered in the 

 Canadian waters, then quickly followed numerous clubs 

 with winning yachts, and the interest began in earnest. 

 Ballast Island, Lake Erie, one of the jewels of the Put- 

 in-Bay group, he purchased, and exciting regattas fol- 

 lowed, bringing together yachtsmen from Buffalo, Erie, 

 Cleveland, Detroit and Toledo, and the best yachts that 



ever sailed on fresh water; in time from this sprung the 

 great Inter-Lake Yachting Association, comprising the 

 Michigan Yacht Club, Toledo Yacht Club, Put-in-Bay 

 Yacht Club and the Ohio Yacht Club of Toledo. The 

 gentleman I now take pleasure in introducing is the 

 commodore of this gigantic association, and the respected 

 mayor of Cleveland. Ohio." 



Mid uproarous applause the gallant commodore arose 

 and stood expectant until the complimentary clamor had 

 sufficiently subsided for him to speak. 



"Fellow yachtsmen and anglers, from the earliest ages 

 we have records of men, and women too, enjoying out- 

 door recreation, whether in the untrampled forest or in 

 the busy streets of our chief cities. I am pleased to be 

 associated with men who are connected with an institu- 

 tion so widely renowned as the Sunset Club, the object of 

 which is to promote the interest of outdoor amusements. 

 No one can doubt for an instant the utility and import- 

 ance of yachting and angling in promoting health, and 

 this alone ought to be sufficient to cause their encourage- 

 ment. In an age like the present, when in a struggle for 

 precedence in the halls of Congress, the bar, or the haunts 

 of commerce, time is considered as of equal value with 

 money, it can scarcely be wondered at that many of the 

 competitors in the race lose health, both of body and 

 mind. Nothing more enfeebles and lowers the bodily and 

 mental tone than an entire giving up of all the energies 

 to one single pursuit. The over-worked lawyer, or mer- 

 chant, however, has only to bestow an occasional day 

 upon any one of the various sports within reach, and he 

 speedily recovers himself, and instead of losing way in 

 the course which he is pursuing, he is enabled to do more 

 than make up the lost time which his absence has oc- 

 casioned by the increased vigor that his change of scene 

 and occupation have given him. Many of the happiest 

 hours of my life I have spent upon the water, either 

 riding upon the surging billows or drifting with the 

 placid stream in a light canoe: memorable events come 

 thick and fast before me as I recall hundreds of incidents 

 connected therewith. In my younger days I sailed and 

 paddled a canoe, a boat 22ft. m length and 20in. in width, 

 embarking at Cincinnati, O. , and sailing, drifting, pad- 

 dling down the OMo and the Mississippi rivers, camping 

 upon the verdant shore during the nights, and arriving 

 in good time at New Orleans. In this same canoe I 

 paddled from my native city, following the steamboat 

 course, in mid-lake, to the islands of Lake Erie, arriving 

 just in time to cut a watermelon on board the sloop 

 yacht Marietta, which the boys had stowed away under 

 the cockpit seat. It is well understood in our American 

 cities that many of our first merchants make a regular 

 practice of devoting a day or two to some kind of out- 

 door amusement. Some take to hunting, others to fish- 

 ing, while many of us love 



" 'To hear the sea and the splash of rain 

 And the roar of the northeast huricane.' 

 "All these act upon the principle of unbending the bow 

 to enable it to regain its spring, and are attended with the 

 same happy result in various degrees. As to angling, I 

 often recall what Walton says of a Dr. Nowell, Dean 

 of the Cathedral of St. Paul, and author of the present 

 church catechism, who lived in the reign of Henry VIII. 

 He is represented as a good man, a constant practicer of 

 angling, and as employing the tenth part of his time in 

 that sport. In an ancient picture he is represented as 

 leaning with one hand on a desk holding a Bible, while at 

 his side lie his lines, hooks and other tackle. Underneath 

 is written, 'Died in 1601 at the age of 95 years; that age 

 had neither dimmed his eye nor weakened his memory, 

 and that angling and temperance were the causes of these 

 blessings.' Sir Henry Wotton, who lived about the same 

 time, says, ' 'Twas an employment for his idle time, 

 which was not thus idly spent, for angling was, after 

 tedious study, a rest to his mind, a cheerer to his spirits, 

 a calmer of unquiet thoughts and a moderator of pas- 

 sions.' 



"The occasional absence from the scene of toil and care,, 

 the breathing of the fresh and healthful air of the coun- 

 try, the lake. I can truthfully state that I have been in- 

 spired with the most devout and grateful emotions of the 

 heart in contemplating the beauties of creation, my medi- 

 tations of Divine goodness and grace have been exalted.. 

 In conclusion, let all those who belong to the fraternity 

 having the great, the learned, and the good for example,, 

 follow in the footsteps of your illustrious predecessors,, 

 may you enjoy many a day of delightful pleasure and 

 happiness. If you love the healthful art of angling may 

 your lines always fall in lucky places, and if yachting, 

 " 'When the dangerous rocks are passed, 

 And the thundering tempests cease, 

 May you rest in a silent port of peace.' " 



Long and continued applause followed, after wbi'eh the- 

 commodore was elected an honorary life member of the 

 club. The usual business was then resumed. 



"Mr. President," said a member from Put-in-Bay, "I 

 move you that Ernest Radder, the genial secretary of the 

 Cleveland Yachting Association, and, in honor of his 

 being a truthful angler, be elected by acclamation an 

 honorary member of this club." The motion was unan- 

 imously carried. 



"Are the passenger agent candidates still in the closet?"' 

 asked the president, "and if so, have they separated into 

 component parts the Inter-Sta te Law, that in their exami- 

 nation they may be able to satisfactorily explain the 

 bearing upon worm fishing, the long and short haul?" 



"Mr. President," said the grand conductor, with a pecu- 

 liar wave of the hands, "I regret to state that the candi- 

 dates cajinot agree among themselves upon the law, and 

 the last time I was at the door Mr. Shearman was enter- 

 taining the other candidates with a song entitled 'The 

 Bulgarian Pin.'" 



"As the hour is late, and it is as difficult to catch a 

 passenger agent as a muskalonge in an interior Kentucky 

 stream, you will keep the candidates in the closet until our 

 next regular meeting, when I hope to see as many of you 

 present as can possibly attend." 



The club adjourned. J. E. Gunckel. 



Georgia.— Newton, May 31.— We are having some 

 sport now catching rockfish; eighteen have been captured 

 weighing from 71 to 301bs. I would like to see one killed 

 with a lOoz. rod.— B. F. H. 



Maine Jigging is not so popular as it used to be. 



