346 



FOREST AND STREAM. 



I Not. £2, 1888. 



While visiting one of the large gun stores in this city a 

 day or two ago, your correspondent overheard a conver- 

 sation between a gentleman and one of tbe clerks in the 

 place that fairly made his blood boil with rage. The 

 gentleman was a wholesale business man in the city, and 

 one of his customers had written to his house to get quo- 

 tations on quail nets. The clerk politely informed him 

 that they did not keep them, and therefore could not 

 give him prices on them. That is the way the quail are 

 secured to supplv the rich people of the East who never 

 give the subject of game protection a thought, neither do 

 they care how soon it is exterminated. 



Tbe protection of game here in the West is becoming 

 quite a serious subject, and tiie sooner the sportsmen take 

 it up the better. If they don't make some effort to have 

 them better protected than they are now it won't be long 

 before it will be necessary to offer a reward to obtain a 

 quail out in this part of the country. What is wanted is 

 a staff of game wardens, the same as are to be found in 

 some of the Eastern States. They should be paid by the 

 State and have nothing to look after but the protection of 

 game and fish. They should be metropolitan officers with 

 authority to make arrests in any part of the State, and 

 they should be severely charged to keep a vigilant look- 

 out* for all infractions of the game laws. 



The Missouri Game and Fish Protective Association 

 is going to introduce a bill for the establisnient of such a 

 constabularly during this coming session this winter. A 

 delegation of prominent field sportsmen are going up to 

 Jefferson City when the Legislature meets for the pur- 

 pose of placing the much-needed measure before that 

 body in a proper manner. 



From information obtained from the largest game 

 dealers in this State, men who are supplying the markets 

 in the East, and from the officers of the various sports- 

 men's associations in many counties, it is asserted that 

 Missouri has a greater supply of game and fish than any 

 State in the Mississippi Valley. That a reasonable pro- 

 tection will greatly increase the resources of free food for 

 our people there is no denying. 



The bill in question is drafted after a similar one 

 adopted by the State of New York and provides for the 

 appointment by the Governor of a Commissioner whose 

 duties shall be the enforcement of the fish and game 

 laws. He is to have as assistants two game wardens in 

 each county, who are to report to him all violations of 

 the laws against fish and game. 



The Legislature is requested to appropriate $10,000 to 

 defray the expenses of the Commissioner and necessary 

 wardens. 



If this bill be passed it will be one of the best measures 

 yet adopted in this State for the protection of our fish 

 and game. With the present means of taking care of 

 fish and game nothing can ever be accomplished, because 

 there is no one who will interest himself in it enough 

 to give any time to it. 



Legislatures can go on passing laws for the protection 

 of game until doomsday, and no good will ever result 

 from them if there are no officers to see that they are 

 properly enforced. What is wanted in this State is game 

 wardens, and all sportsmen should interest themselves in 

 the bill to be presented to the Legislature this coming 

 session, and make every effort to have it passed and be- 

 come a law. Capt. H. C. West, who is one of the com- 

 mittee which drafted the bill, is working hard to bring 

 it to the notice of the people of this State, and should it 

 be fortunate enough to pass, much credit will be due him 

 for his untiring efforts in behalf of it. Unser Fritz. 



WESTERN MASSACHUSETTS FOX CLUB. 



AND this is Chester, well known politically, where dis- 

 trict conventions are held and politicians of both 

 parties set up or knocked down, as results may prove, and 

 famous for its emery mines, granite paving blocks, white 

 quartz rock from (the ground product of) which sandpaper 

 is made. And still Chester is not happy. Her ambition 

 craves further renown— and gets it. How? you ask. By 

 the pluck and enterprise of a few men who met and 

 organized the Western Massachusetts Fox Club, appointed 

 Nov. 15 for their inaugural (annual) meet, sent out invi- 

 tations to then- friends liberally, and prepared themselves 

 to receive, provide for and entertain all who might come. 

 Quite an undertaking, one would say, knowing size of 

 the village; but with two good hotels, and citizens gen- 

 erally putting their "spare" rooms at disposal of the club, 

 all had excellent sleeping accommodations and plenty to 

 eat. 



Chester lies like a lump of sugar in a coffee-cup— sur- 

 rounded on all sides by high hills, across which it seems 

 as though Brooklyn Bridge would almost span, leaving 

 the little hamlet 500 or 600ft. below it. Stepping from 

 the train to the platform of the station on the evening of 

 the 13th (Tuesday) my attention was at once attracted to 

 what seemed a bank of clouds very black about 20 degrees 

 above the horizon and reaching entirely around. A 

 strange effect it gave with the bright moon and starry 

 sky above; but I was quickly set right. "Them's hills, 

 not clouds." 



A delegate from the reception committee met and con- 

 ducted us at once to the rink, a spacious old wooden 

 building, like many others of its kind all over the coun- 

 try, standing monuments of the roller skating fever of 

 a few years ago— a capital place for the purpose, and 

 here the club made headquarters. We were received cor- 

 dially by the officers and members and at once assigned 

 sleeping and eating quarters. Everything seemed to be 

 done in a systematic manner, no friction, all working 

 harmoniously. "Any dogs come on your train?" "Yes. 

 four." "Good, that makes sixteen here and more com- 

 ing." It had been decided to divide the party into 

 squads, each squad to go to a different locality under 

 command of some one familiar with the sport and coun- 

 try, Mr. Perkins of Springfield taking our party to his 

 old and favorite grounds toward Becket, Mr. Otis another 

 to a large hill called "Old Gobble," and so on. 



Mi-. D wight Smith, a conductor on the B. & A. R. R., 

 born and raised here, knowing the ground well, an en- 

 thusiastic and successful follower of reynard, and 

 under whom your correspondent enlisted, chose for 

 his ground Mount Abby, only a step from the hotel, be- 

 ginning its ascent at the platform of railroad depot. 

 Pointing his finger at a point on the hill he says: "There's 

 a burrow right there that five foxes were raised in and 

 they are all around there yet." 



Good-nights had been pretty generally spoken, but not 



feeling quite ready for bed I joined the members of the 

 committee, who were to meet the midnight train and 

 receive any late ones who might come. Standing on the 

 platform at the station I heard a hound's voice on the hill- 

 side only a short distance away. Soon a gun was heard 

 and some of our party directly put in an appearance with 

 a plump coon. The* train comes booming in and four 

 men with two dogs are added to the quota and quickly 

 disposed of, and all seek their beds, to be awakem d at 5 

 o'clock in the morning by the hunter's horn ringing out 

 its mellow music on the stillness. The sky is clear, air 

 cold and crisp, heavy white frost covering everything; 

 the weather clerk up to this time has been kind to the 

 boys, and a perfect day for the sport is assured. Break- 

 last is soon eaten, lunches stowed away in pockets, all is 

 ready and away we go. One party only by team, as they 

 wish to go four or five miles before putting the dogs out. 

 The other squads shouldered guos and followed their 

 leader each to his chosen locality. For our own party, 

 within twenty minutes al ter leaving the hotel we had a 

 fox running and could hear the hounds of the party 

 on "Gobble," just across the river from us, driving 

 furiously. 



Who can tell the rest of this story? Who would if they, 

 could? not I. your humble correspondent. Should we tell 

 how one killed his fox, we ought to tell how his next 

 neighbor missed one; how perhaps a novice, seeing rey- 

 nard for the first time, felt his breath getting shorter, and 

 heart thumping louder as he watched him coming on, 

 growing in size at every jump until he looked as large as 

 a yearling calf, and a halo around him big as a circus 

 ring, and a good deal more going on inside, and how 

 finally with n.uzzle of gun descrioing a circle, he shut 

 both eyes and pulled trigger; and how another when the 

 fox came suddenly on him in the brush shot both barrels 

 into the air, and then saw the old fellow within easy gun 

 shot; or the other fi How who stepped out from his am- 

 bush just in time to turn the fi x, or left his stand to visit 

 or borrow a chew of to acco from a neighbor, while rey- 

 nard took this time to cross his stand. Tuen there is the 

 ■veteran, the old stager, who has hunted and killed too 

 many of them to lo.-e his head, and can look over his gun 

 at a fox as calmly as he could sight at a knot in a pine 

 board. When these old fellows "set the iron on," and 

 pull trigger their hand goes instinctively down into their 

 breeches pocket for the jack-knife before smoke has 

 cleared away, and then start to take the pelt off. 



It is enough to know that there were Beven foxes 

 honestly killed this day and seven handsome pelts to 

 show for it, among them (and the first fox killed) was a 

 beautiful gray, I think the largest and handsomest skin 

 I ever saw taken about here. Two of the red ones killed 

 I called good-sized, but this one was very much larger 

 at all points, fur coarser than the rest, color a solid gray 

 with tinge of red on the brush, no mark of the coss fox 

 whatever. He was killed ahead of President Roraback's 

 young hound— and a promising one he is (only fourteen 

 months old). 



I said I wouldn't tell who killed a fox, but excuse me 

 if I reconsider in this instance. Uncle Sam Otis, a vet- 

 eran of seventy-six years (and I would pick him out as 

 one of the "old stngers" previously mentioned), was the 

 happy one to get first bl >od, and that the beautiful gray 

 one. And very happy it made the old man, too. 

 Addressing him familiarly as I had heard others do — 

 "Well. Uncle Sam, you killed the gray one." "Yes, sir, 

 I did, and I feel ten years younger than I did this morn- 

 ing. This morning I was all bent over, look at me now." 

 And straightening himself up, with shoulders thrown 

 back, and calling my attention to a button-hole bouquet 

 put on by the ladies, he told me just how he did it. 

 "First time he came around, gun missed fire, ci'ps wa'nt 

 well on; but the fox heard the gun snap, so thought I 

 would change my place, as he wouldn't probably run 

 there again; so moved further down into the swamp, and 

 next time he came around I gave it to him." It would 

 do you good to have seen the old man's eyes shine as he 

 told his stoiy, and if the club had accomplished nothing 

 more, they have made him very happy; if his ld'e is not 

 prolonged from this day's sport, he has certainly had a 

 cup of joy poured into it that will not cease to bubble 

 while life la>ts. 



At 6:30 P. M. all started for the rink, where a bounti- 

 ful supper was spread. About 150 members and guests 

 sat down; all were hungry; the supper was good; plenty 

 of it,followed by cigars, speech making, music, whist,etc. 



Thursday the weather clerk gave us tears instead of 

 smiles. The morning opened drizzly and nasty, and soon 

 settled into a drenching rain, though a few ventured out 

 and one fox was killed. All soon got under cover and 

 kept the house for the rest of the day. So closed the 

 inaugural meet of the W. M. F. C, said* to be the largest 

 of tbe kind in the United States. The club has a right to 

 congratulate itself. The meet has proved in every sense 

 a success, and we hope and believe the club has come to 

 stay. It was voted to make it a permanent organization 

 and the following officers were elected: 



Geo. W. Roraback, President; F. S. Gross, Vice-Presi- 

 dent; Dr. O. J. Shepardson, Secretary; C. D. Smith, 

 Treasurer. Executive Committee— S. C. Burten of Pitts- 

 field, F. N. Pease of Lee, E. T. Slocum of Pittsfield, F. S. 

 Ha^ar of Westfield, R. B. Crane of Westfield , J. H. Casey 

 of Lee, R. M. Fairfield of Hoi yoke, E. A. Perkins, Wm. 

 M. Williams and Gurdon Bill of Springfield. 



The following were registered on the club's books: 

 Springfield— Gurdon Bill, Charles Bill, Nathan D. Bill, 

 D. J. Marsh, H. L. Niles, E. A. Perkins, J. D wight 

 (Smith, Henry S. Dickinson, Charles L. Chapin, W. P. 

 Leshure, F. H. Williams, Wm. W. Williams, E. H. Wil- 

 liams, Geo. B. Clark, W. H. Clark, E. C. Thomas, A. H 

 Hardy, Howard P. Merrill. Westfield— B. R. Holcomb, 

 C. O. Kinsley, M. Quance, Chauncev Allen, B. N. Crane, 

 R. D. Gillett, F. S. Hagar, Frank Pomeroy, Frank Tay- 

 lor. Lee— A. C. Brace, Fred Birnie, J. H. Casey, John 

 Daly, Theman Foote, H. N. H.-rton, Chas. H. Morgan 

 Thos. Norton, F. N. Pease. J. B. Shultis, John Stallman, 

 J. A. Tamer. Pittsfield— C. E. Hibbard, John H. Man- 

 ning, Henry Manning, Dr. S. C. Burton. Great Barring- 

 ton— J. E. Benton. Hinsdale — F. W. Strong. Housa- 

 tonic— Charles Pease. West Stockbridge— A. "E. Harris. 

 Blandford— A. F. Knox, Fred Willis. Willi tmsburg— 

 John Kelso. Chesterfield— James Kelso. Leeds— Albert 

 L. Church. Middle field— John Tracv. Dilton— J. H 

 Adams. Suffield, Waldo S. Knox, Wallace Knox. Wor- 

 cester—Charles L. Allen. New York city— Chauncev 

 Bowen St. Paul, Minn. — F. P. Wright. W. M. W. ' 



Spring field, Mass., Nov. 19, 



Gunning at Cohasset. — Cohasset, Mass., Nov. 17.— 

 The cooting season this year has been a decided failure. 

 The best record made has been of a trifle over 200 birds, 

 while men who ordinarily kill from 200 to 300 birds have 

 only got from 50 to 100. A couple of red-throated loons 

 have been killed, which are quite rare here, and two 

 brant have been shot, both being single ones. The pre- 

 vailing idea seems to be that the cold spring prevented 

 the eggs from hatching, as there have been no young 

 birds. The best record for one day is 28, on a rough 

 easterly. Old squaws are quite plenty and there is a 

 small flight almost every day, though most gunners have 

 left in disgust.— E. C. H. 



TO CONNECTICUT SPORTSMEN. 



HARTFORD, Conn., Nov. 16, 1888.-The object of this letter is 

 to call your earnest and caretul attention to our association. 

 This association, as its name implies, was formed to protect game 

 and fish from illegal capture, sale or shipment and for no other 

 purpose. The Connecticut Association of Farmers and Sports- 

 men for the Protection of Game and Fish was organized for the 

 strict and equitable enforcement of our game and fish laws— not 

 for any learned monographs on our game and fishes, the nomen- 

 clature of which is left to those versed in our fauna. 



Every one who goes afield for legitimate recreation with rod 

 and gun should act spiritedly and promptly with us. We want a 

 large membership of farmers, shooters and anglers— our interests 

 are. mutual. It certainly behooves all who wish to have our game 

 and fish laws enforced to join our association at once. Sympathy 

 is a good thing (at times), but it does not enforce the law— neither 

 does breezv talk. 



We want financial support, and very much depends ou your 

 hearty co-operation. The game laws will not enforce themselves 

 and every one who wishes to protect our game and fish ought to 

 act promptly with us. 



It costs money to hire skilled detectives— sympathy does not 

 work to any advantage here— it's dollars that keeps the ball roll- 

 ing. We want enthusiastic workers, will you become one? We 

 want the name and address of every sportsman in the State— send 

 us the names of your friends that may be interested in game pro- 

 tection. 



The Connecticut Association of Farmers and Sportsmen for the 

 Protection of Game and Fish should be welcomed by every farmer, 

 shooter and angler in the State. A spirited campaign "must be 

 inaugurated against the violators of our game and fash laws. We 

 desire help, can we have it? 



The expenses are mainly for employing detectives "who get 

 there," the officers and directors of the association work gratui- 

 tously. 



The Connecticut Association of Farmers and Sportsmen for the 

 Protection of Game and Fish means to stop all illegal capture of 

 game and fish in Connecticut— a large undertaking, but we must 

 and can do it. If every farmer, shooter and angler will put his 

 shoulders to the wheel we can do the work. 



The game and fish laws are practically of no earthly use unless 

 the law-abiding citizens combine and enforce them. The benefits 

 of our association are tenfold over what individuals can attain. 

 The membership fee is SI (farmers are admitted free). There is 

 work for all who love legitimate sport with rod and gun, will you 

 help us? 



Trusting for your prompt and hearty approval and early remit- 

 ance to Mr. Allen Willey, secretary 'editor of the Globe), Hartford, 

 Conn., or to any officer or director, which will be promptly ac- 

 knowledged, we are respectfully yours, 



Connecticut Association of Farmers and Sportsmen for the 

 Protection of Game and Fish, by A. C. Collins, Pres. 



The officers are: Abbott C. Collins, President, Hartford, Conn.; 

 Charles J. Parker, Vice-President, New Britain, Conn.; Allen 

 Willey, Secretary, Hartford, Conn.: Dr. N. W. Ilolconibe, Treas- 

 urer, Simsbury, Conn. Directors: Hon. Geo. P. McLean, Hart- 

 ford. Conn.; Hon. Joseph W. Alsop, Middletown, Conn.; Hon. J. 

 C. Chamberlin, Bridgeport, Conn.; Hon. H. U.Dimock, Hockville, 

 Conn.; Mr. Geo. A. Reed, Chaplin, Conn.; Mr. Horace O. Stanard, 

 Norfolk, Conn.; Mr. Z. R. Robbins, Norwich, Conn.; Mr. F. W. 

 Whitlock, Waterbury, Conn. 



jf i?# and ^titt Jjfisfting, 



HIS HIGHNESS SALVELINUS NAMAY- 

 CUSH. 



{Concluded from Page 327.) 



ONE writer says of fishing: "The quality of sport is in 

 the ratio of the delicacy of the tackle to the strength 

 and play of the fish." My first fishing for lake trout was 

 done with a hook made by a blacksmith from a rat-tail 

 file, as mentioned by Brown, and the •'rural cod line and 

 heavy sinker," as mentioned by other writers. A block 

 of wood was anchored in the deeper part of a lake by a 

 rope, or more generally the bark of a tree cut in strips 

 and tied together to mark the place of your future fish- 

 ing. This was the buoy, and for several days the "buoy" 

 was baited by throwing into the water about it bits of 

 perch, sunfish and rock bass the size of an English wal- 

 nut. The baiting was omitted for one day, and the next 

 the place was ripe to fish. The blacksmith-forged hook, 

 baited with a piece of fish, was let down to the bottom, a 

 hundred or more feet, and kept in motion by a movement 

 of the hand until a bite was felt, when a yank was given 

 and, if hooked, the fish was drawn in, in the manner 

 that the Irishman played the violin, by main strength. 

 I use the past tense in writing of this style of fishing, 

 though it is still in vogue in some parts of some waters. 

 There was great fun in it for me at tbe time, and I pre- 

 sume I dignified it by the name of sport; but as I think 

 of it now. and compare it to the mode of fishing for lake 

 trout adopted in late years, I have my doubts about its 

 having been scientific angling, and it is not to be won- 

 dered at perhaps if the writers of that period damned it 

 with faint praise or damned it out and out. It was, how- 

 ever, a style of fishing upon which the fish kettle could 

 rely for returns throughout the season with considerable 

 certainty, the tackle was not expensive and the labor was 

 slight; consequently it was resorted to by those people 

 who lived near the trout lakes, and visitors from a dis- 

 tance depended upon the baited buoys of a resident for 

 lake trout or satisfied themselves with other kinds of fish. 

 It will be noticed that while the "buoys" were baited 

 with fish, that must of necessity have rested without 

 motion upon the bottom, to insure success in catching 

 trout the baited hook had to be kept in constant motion. 

 Few if any species of game fish will take a stationary 

 dead bait, and I wondered at this apparent contradiction 

 at tbe time and since; but when afterward, while watch- 

 ing fish in an aquarium, I saw them blow dead food from 

 the bottom and seize it while in motion, I considered the 

 problem solved. 



The lake trout inhabit the deepest parts of the lesser 

 lakes, and in all waters are a deep-water fish, and, like 

 others of the salmon family native to the Atlantic slope,, 

 they spawn in the fall, beginning in the month of Octo- 

 ber. The spawning beds are made on shoals in midlake, 

 if such exist, rather than on the shores of the mainland. 

 The lake trout are the first of all the salmon family to be 

 affected by a high temperature, and they come up out of 

 the cool depths of the lake into the warmer surface water 

 only in the fall and in the spring as soon as the ice disap- 

 pears. This is the rule; the exception is when driven by 

 a scarcity of food in deep water they come on to the shal 



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