282 



FOREST AND STREAM. 



[Nov. 1, 1888. 



The sentiment of local governments and residents is in 

 accord on one point, that "no obstacle must be placed in 

 the way of securing a necessary timber supply." There 

 is a popular impression that if a proper set of regula- 

 tions were drawn up, the forests might be levied on to 

 any required extent without impairment of their re- 

 sources, and there is a general disposition to submit to 

 such regulations provided they are neither arbitrary nor 

 inconvenient. The popular maxim is that it is the privi- 

 lege of the people to utilize the forests as long as they 

 last, and the duty of the Government to restore them 

 when exhausted. 



The detailed returns from the several counties in the 

 region are very interesting and valuable, and embody 

 perhaps the most reliable information on the subject 

 available. At the same time Colonel Ensign finds occa- 

 sion to observe that "estimates of forest areas differ 

 widely from the same region. This results from the dif- 

 ference in the competency and carefulness of the observ- 

 ers, and from the fact that there is no accepted standard 

 of estimate. Some include in forest lands not only those 

 tracts which are densely or mainly covered with trees, 

 but also grazing lands on which may be found only a few 

 scattering pinons or cedars." 



CO-OPERATION IN FISHCULTURE. 

 A PAPER on this subject was read before the Ameri- 

 can Fisheries Society by Mr. John H. Bissell, of the 

 Michigan Fish Commission, at its last annual meeting, 

 but so far but little lias been done toward co-operation. 

 States which have interests in the same waters should 

 agree on the laws governing such waters, and many in- 

 stances might be cited where independent legislation over 

 waters lying between two States would be the better for 

 consultation between the Commissioners. One, how- 

 ever, will serve as an illustration. Greenwood Lake, ly- 

 ing partly in New York and partly in New Jersey, has 

 different dates for the opening of the black bass season at 

 each end of it, and a fish legally hooked in one State 

 might be illegally landed in another, a state of things 

 which is most absurd. If the Fish Commissioners of 

 these States would meet and agree upon a date to open 

 the season, and get their Legislatures to fix that date by 

 law, it would be a step in advance. The capture of sal- 

 mon in the Hudson could be considered and perhaps con- 

 current legislation obtained, for at present the fishermen 

 of New York are forbidden to take them in nets, while 

 those of New Jersey are not restricted. We have been 

 moved to these remarks by the report, in another column, 

 that the Commissioners of Delaware, Pennsylvania and 

 New Jersey will soon have a conference in regard to the 

 fisheries of the Delaware River, and it is to be hoped that 

 they will not only agree upon what should be done, but 

 will be able to induce their law makers to do it. 



QUAIL NETTING IN CAPRI. 



(A W(iman''s Letter.) 



ANACAPRI, Island of Capri, Italy.— -Oh! sleep, sleep I 

 nature's sweet restorer; how you have been despised, 

 neglected and disdained for the last three weeks; and how 

 we poor forlorn stay-at-home creatures have had to suffer 

 from the shooting mania, which has possessed all mortals 

 of the genus homo since the quail shooting commenced. 

 Yes, how we have been quailed! 



Un the 5th of last month the first straggling quail put 

 in their appearance, serving only, however, as avant- 

 couriers, for the sport did not commence in earnest until 

 toward the end of the month ; the best days being from 

 the 3d to the 8th of September, The birds came, so to 

 say, all together this year, whereas in other years the sea- 

 son lias been not exactly of longer duration, but the sup- 

 ply was more divided. But, notwithstanding that the 

 rush has come and gone, three days rain; there have 

 been, and are now every day, enough quail to amuse any 

 hunter, particularly if he happens to have one or two 

 good dogs— which are comparatively rare in this part of 

 the world— though some of those used, mostly mongrels 

 of all imaginable kinds, are exceedingly good for this 

 sport, being from their very youngest days accustomed 

 to it. 



In spite of the cold, rain and snow in the north, which, 

 it is easily understood, must have destroyed many of the 

 young, and in many instances entire brools; and, con- 

 trary to all predictions and expectations, the numbers of 

 migratory birds so far this year are about the same as 

 usual, according to all accounts from the people here, 

 who have trapped birds for years and years, or more or 

 less for their whole life long. This occupation is carried 

 on to a great extent, entirely beyond the notion of any 

 one who has never been privileged in one way or another 

 to witness the modus operandi. 



This mountainous island, as I have previously men- 

 tioned, is three and a half miles long and one and a half 

 broad, with about 4,500 inhabitants in all, and two im- 

 portant villages. Capri, the capital of the island, lies on 

 the saddle which connects the eastern heights with the 

 western, and Anacapri, with 1,800 inhabitants, lies 880ft. 

 above the sea. It is here that the trapping and shooting- 

 is carried on. One sees down in Capri here and there in 

 the gardens nets extended, and some of the places are 

 fairly good for game; but they are all nothing in compari- 

 son to these here in Anacapri on the side of Monte Solaro 

 and everywhere in the vineyards, where they are placed 

 in the fall. In the spring they are, as I wrote in my 

 previous letter, stretched out on the high rocky cliffs on 

 the water s edge, and on the Piccola Marina, on the south 

 side of the island, one of the two beaches and landing 

 places which this "isle of the sea" can boast of. The 



other one is where the principal traffic is earned on, the 

 landing place for the post steamer, which comes ouce a 

 day, and a pleasure steamer which pomes in summer and 

 good weather daily, also for boats with merchandise: 

 there lie all the fishing boats, and it is faced wi<h houses, 

 therefore no chance is there for placing nets. 



There are perhaps some twenty-five men on the island 

 who have a "permission" for setting these stationary nets, 

 for which they pay 27 lire a year. Then again there are 

 others who carry nets around shaped like a fan, opening 

 and closing just the same. They are about four metres 

 high and are supported by the butt end in a girdle which 

 the man wears around his waist, leaving his hands com- 

 paratively free. 



They hunt with dogs. When a dog shows that there 

 are signs of a quail, the trapper, who follows it step by step, 

 goes with his net from below, in the fall, toward it; from 

 above in the spring; for in autumn when the birds are mo- 

 lested they fly toward the sea, al contrario in the spring. 

 If the bird flies directly toward him, well and good; 

 if to the right, he throws or leans his net with a 

 quick movement in the direction from which it comes. 

 If he has good luck it becomes caught in the meshes, 

 he claps the net together, slips it out of his girdle to the 

 ground and releases his captive. These trappers catch 

 many birds in a day, being indefatigable. Has a quail 

 fallen in and been noticed— and those are rare which 

 are not remarked— they follow and follow until they have 

 succeeded in capturing the poor thing. For being allowed 

 to use one of these nets or rete a charge is made, but 

 on account of being easily and rapidly closed and hidden 

 away many are carried without permission. Last week 

 a man was caught using one under these circumstances. 

 His punishment consists in having to pay seventy lire 

 and of having his ventaglio or fan confiscated. 



It is something entirely new and interesting to all the 

 unsophisticated to see how the other nets are stationed, 

 arranged and made, and this advantage all visitors to 

 Capri have in the fall. But in the spring to form an idea 

 of the extent to which snaring is carried on takes a long, 

 tedious clamber over steep stony ways, which is certainly 

 not advisable for ladies nor for either sex with light- 

 made shoes. 



Most of the stationary nets are now fixed on the moun- 

 tain side, in sickle form, from east to west. According 

 to the number of nets in a line are posted at intervals of 

 from thirty to forty feet decoy or call birds, in little 

 wooden houses, each covered in front with a cloth, about 

 three metres from the ground; in autumn above the nets, 

 in the spring below them. Being blinded these quail call 

 day and night, curiously enough nights almost uninter- 

 ruptedly, making real music in all directions, seeming to 

 me weird and uncanny on these bright, moonshiny south 

 ern nights. The best decoy birds are kept the entire 

 year, and cost five lires apiece. 



One of these nets is from ten to twelve metres in 

 length, about six high, and placed between poles of about 

 seven or eight metres in height, is worked like a cur- 

 tain, and is always — that is, when the bird flies in high— 

 let down to take them out, then drawn up again. 

 Through the top, and at intervals of every metre down- 

 ward, stout cords are run through from side to side. To 

 these are attached rings, through which tightly drawn 

 cords, which are secured to the tops and bottoms of the 

 poles, axe passed, pulling the net up somewhat at every 

 cord, and forming a half sack or bag, into which the un- 

 wary quail falls, becomes entangled, is unable to free 

 himself, and is liberated only to become a certain pris- 

 oner later, with hundreds or thousands of his fellows, 

 packed in layers in baskets, with only a netting between, 

 to be sent back by rail perhaps to that very land from 

 which his weary wings day after day have fanned, at a 

 far height, the cold thin atmosphere, until exhausted he 

 stops with his comrades at the Close of the day, when the 

 hamlet is still, for a few hours' repose before his last long 

 flight toward his Mecca. Then, alas! a prey to these reti, 

 his voluntary journey, born of instinct, has come to a 

 cruel end and bis days are numbered. Yet, from 5 to 6 

 per cent, of the birds do release t hemselves, sometimes 

 get caught again, other times go scot free, others get 

 shot. Live birds are sent to all parts of Europe, and are 

 sold for from three to six soldi; dead ones for two to five 

 soldi apiece. One soldo is equal to one American cent. 

 Up to to-day there have been caught and shot somewhere 

 about 20,000 quail. 



If it is not too windy the nets are left up day and 

 night, in order to be in readiness for any stray or belated 

 individual which might chance to come that way. It 

 would be a pity, too, if the greedy hunters should miss a 

 single one. If winds prevail they are let down to within 

 a couple of feet from the ground" and reefed in the man- 

 ner of sails. 



The greatest number of birds fall in toward midnight, 

 but the trappers have more or less to do until about eight 

 in the morning. When a quail has chanced to pass over 

 a net and the spot has been marked where it has fallen 

 in, men, boys and dogs go below or above, according to 

 the season, and drive it into the nets; in this manner 

 many single ones are entrapped. One man who occu- 

 pies his spare time with trapping quail and whose nets are 

 placed light near the street in the vineyards in the prox- 

 imity of houses, using ten or twelve decoy birds, caught 

 in one night one hundred and fifty; another on the moun- 

 tain side back of this village six hundred, and yet au- 

 other whose nets cover a distance of two hundred metres 

 or more in length, with perhaps fifty call birds some 

 distance away from here, in the rocky rough mountain 

 sides, trapped in the same length of time eight hundred. 



Between here and Naples some three or four times a 

 week runs a baroa, doing or carrying out commissions 

 for the people in both places, taking merchandise, such 

 as wine, oil, grapes and figs from here and bringing back 

 vegetables, of which few are produced on the island, on 

 account of lack of water, and other articles of food. 

 Since the quail season commenced the barca has had to 

 be unloaded as quickly as possible on arriving here, 

 thousands of quail packed in — I know of one trip when 

 there were five thousand— and immediately sail set again 

 for Naples, seventeen miles distant. 



In the fall the quail come in large flocks, high in the 

 air, on the southeast wind; when in the neighborhood of 

 the decoy birds, hearing their call, they fall down with 

 such a force that one can hear them strike the ground, 

 even from the houses, while in the spring they come 

 singly, or at least very few together, low over the water. 



The birds this year, notwithstanding being literally 

 loaded with fat, are very quick on their wings. I have I 



never seen such clumps of fat as they are. I have pre- 

 pared them in every conceivable way, aside from resort- 

 ing to any Italian method, with their eternal mixture of 

 oil and pomi d'oro or tomatoes, in order, if possible, not 

 to open them, and yet to cook out the superfluous fat, 

 lhat we shotdd not'get cloyed from eating them ; never- 

 theless it was simply impossible. I could barely see. 

 much more touch another, and had to resort to opening 

 and removing the fat from rump, breast and neck. 

 Butter, of course, was not to be thought of to use with 

 them. Among other quail I had one, lighter in color, an 

 old bird not as fat as the others, with a beak exactly like 

 that of a hawk, with claws longer and sharper than any 

 other, the only one of the kind which we have ever seen. 

 Was that only a freak of old Dame Nature? Another 

 had a good-sized snail, house and all in its crop, which 

 was otherwise entirely empty, and it had become, prob- 

 ably for this reason, decidedly meagre. 



From daybreak until the twilight^ in spite of the heat 

 — and the best days the heat was intense for September — 

 there was such a bombardment and cannonading that it 

 was utterly impossible to sleep, and almost every one 

 caught the shooting contagion, at least I'm sure I did, 

 for I spent most of the time from 4 until 7, up on the 

 roof watching the hunters through my glasses, having 

 many a good solid laugh over the awkward doings of 

 hunter or dog, or praising another's good shooting. 



The really experienced and capable hunters are mostly 

 to be seen in old clothes, and old hats, with hunting ap- 

 parel looking the worse for wear and tear, wind and 

 weather, and the report of their guns show sound judg- 

 ment in loading, whereas the Sonntags Jdger — Sunday 

 hunters, as the Germans justly call them— come finely 

 dressed in corduroy velvet of all conceivable colors, 

 newest style sporting hat, adorned with a feather cock- 

 ade, stuck on one side or back of the head, newest sys- 

 tem shotgun and highly polished equipments. The 

 charges are something terrific, sounding more like mor- 

 tar reports or blasting of rocks. Of these sportsmen 

 there were many here, coming from Salerno, Sorrento, 

 Castellamare and Naples. 



The Italian powder is cheap and miserable; if the gun 

 is not immediately cleaned on returning home, above all 

 if it happens to remain over night, it is then, as a result 

 of bad powder and the hot climate, almost an impossi- 

 bility to get it clean, for the residue adheres as firm and 

 becomes as hard as stone. The barrels of a good clean 

 gun become soon ruined, alter using this powder, be- 

 cause sharp stuff detrimental to the steel must be used in 

 order to restore them to their former and necessary 

 brightness. 



An expert hunter with a couple of well-trained dogs, 

 in the best days brings down from thirty-seven to fifty 

 brace. On these days the quail are to be found every- 

 where, the more the season advances the nearer they go 

 to the sea. In ordinary days one can easily bag f'r,.m 

 twenty to thirty birds. 



It is easily understood that where so many birds come, 

 through much practice the peasants become adept in the 

 art of shooting, therefore among the contadini there 

 are some very alert hunters. 



Quail shooting will last until about the first of October, 

 then will commence the season for fieldfare and wild 

 pigeons, for which some of the trappers will move their 

 nets down nearer the sea. 



In November will follow the woodcock, but more of 

 this shooting in my next letter. I. C. 



ST. AUGUSTINE AS A WINTER RESORT. 



WHEN those who dwell in this Northern latitude 

 remember the blizzard of last March, with its 

 mountains of snow and hillocks of ice, many who recall 

 the freezing experiences of those bitter cold days will 

 now, that the leaves have been falling, think of where 

 they may fly, "where the leaves never fall, and the skies 

 never weep," to avoid most certainly the possible reccur- 

 rence of such fearful storms. For the benefit of those 

 interested I recommend Florida, where snow is never 

 seen, and ice seldom forms, where the leaves do not 

 change, and sunshine is the general rule. A practical 

 experience of many winters enables me to say there is no 

 place better adapted to health or pleasure than St. 

 Augustine. It is easily reached by steamers or by elegant 

 vestibule cars in little over one day from New York, and 

 last winter the trains were generally promptly on time. 



The city is situated on a peninsula, almost surrounded 

 by salt water; indeed it is, at very high tides, almost an 

 island. The fact that the place is washed on all sides by 

 the ocean tides guarantees the sanitary condition to be as 

 perfect as any natural locality can be; and it absolutely 

 precludes the possibility of malaria — a case of which dis- 

 ease I have never met, originating in the city. In addi- 

 tion to its possessing these natural advantages, those in 

 authority spare no efforts nor expense in adopting all 

 artificial means known to sanitarians to add to the health 

 of the favorable locality. The elements so essential to 

 perfect health are abundant, in bright sunshine, pure 

 bracing sea air and abundance of water, while the most 

 cheerful and choicest society makes the ancient city the 

 most desirable winter resort in this country. 



I have known many men, women and children who 

 have renewed their seriously damaged constitutions in 

 Florida: and for those suffering from overwork, insomnia, 

 nervous prostration and all its sad train of symptoms, I 

 know of no more desirable place than St. Augustine. 

 Children recovering from pneumonia, diphtheria, scarlet 

 fever and whooping cough find a perfect climate for out- 

 door life and rapid convalescence, without the danger of 

 relapse, so common in a variable Northern climate. For 

 nearly forty years I have recommended the climate of 

 Florida to my patierts, and I am happy to say many of 

 these still thank me for sending them away from this 

 Northern climate, which is as trying as any known to the 

 profession. Scarlet fever and measles are not dreaded 

 by the parents and physicians of St. Augustine; and diph- 

 theria is almost unknown. A few years ago I was asked 

 to see a child recently arrived, supposed to be suffering 

 from that dread disease.^ iThe physician long resident 

 had never seen a case. The child was removed a few 

 miles out of town, and but one other took the disease, a 

 playmate of the first. An honored and lamented ^ hysi- 

 cian of St. Augustine, the late Dr. Peck, told me some 

 years ago, when I was expressing anxiety about some 

 cases of scarlet fever, not to be alarmed; that the djsease 

 never assumed a dangerous type in that climate, and that 

 it was very seldom followed by death; it responded 



