Sept. 19, 1889,1 



FOREST AND STREAM. 



167 



NOTES FROM THE FIELD. 



Editor Forest and Stream: 



I am particularly interested in bird shooting, ruffed 

 grouse and woodcock being our game birds. I have a 

 cross-bred setter dog, black and white, English and Irish. 

 He is entirely natural, all that he is is what nature has 

 done for him. There is one redeeming quality in him, he 

 is staunch as a rock, and is a very lucky dog to find game. 

 He has quite a mind of his own. Sometimes he and I 

 have an argument on the proper places to hunt, always 

 ending in his being right. He is a little wild at times, 

 and if I let him get out of sight will have to call myself 

 hoarse to get him back, but a more willing dog I never 

 saw. The days are not long enough. 



"We never make very big bags of game, two or three 



?artrid'_>e or woodcock in a day's hunt is all sufficient, 

 he market-hunter gets the best part of the game. Bird 

 hunting has been a hobby with me for four years, with 

 the fo'lo wing score: First year. 12; second, 36; third, 5.2; 

 fourth , 47. This year 1 have been out three times, killing, 

 all told , one partridge and one woodcock. All of hunting 

 is not the killing of the game. A grouse never looks as 

 handsome to mo as when it is getting away over the tops 

 of alders, and the picture stays longest in my memory. 



Last fall a friend and myself went across the Mohawk 

 River on to the mountain's for a few days' hunt. We 

 Barne to a piece of woods belted with alders. He took 

 the inside or woods belt, and I the outside. We have to 

 have bolls on our dogs to keep them located, and when 

 we cease hearing them we know the dog is setting the 

 bird. In this case all at once the bell stopped. All 

 alert, I saw a, great grouse break the cover coming 

 directly toward me, T waited until he got by me, when 

 my Parker spoke and I had the satisfaction of seeing and 

 hearing the bird strike, the ground. I went to where I 

 bad seen the bird strike, and all I could find was a lot of 

 feathers. Looking beyond 10 or 15ft., there he lay dead. 

 He was going with such force that he struck the ground 

 and bounded. The dog commenced roading, soon show- 

 ing game; again the bell stopped right on the. edge of the 

 alders. All at once out goes a woodcock. Crack, bang, 

 a clean miss both barrels. We keep hunting along the 

 alders and reach the opposite side, when my friend and 

 I come together in a lot of poplar. Both dogs were trail- 

 ing, when whir — bang — bang — bang — whir — bang — whir 

 whir — whir; only one partridge brought to bag. We 

 followed them but failed to get any more. Tbe next 

 day, after considerable shooting, managed to bag three 

 partridges apiece: and the following day we hunted until 

 noon and got a single woodcock, makiug in all just nine 

 birds for two men in a three days' hunt. We came home 

 perfectly satisfied. 



I for one would like to hear more bird news, and I 

 suppose it is tbe fault of bird hunters of your subscribers 

 that you don't have more. I mean for one in future to 

 contribute occasionally, and if every subscriber would do 

 the same we would have a more interesting paper. 

 GnovEiusviTjjE, N. Y. J. H. D. 



Michiuan DUCKS.— The East Saginaw (Mich.) Evening 

 Neicn of Aug. 81 said: "Duck hunters are putting their 

 guns in good shooting condition, and loading their shells 

 ready for the opening of the season to-morrow, Sept. 1. 

 Parties of two and more members each will be 'pulling' 

 for the big marshes early on that morning, and as usual 

 will make it lively thereabouts for a few hours. 'For 

 eight years Michigan sportsmen were working hard to 

 secure the game warden system to protect fish and game,' 

 remarked a sportsman yesterday. -The first season it 

 was enforced it worked well, and it would have borne 

 much fruit in a few years, but the whole game system is 

 now looked upon as a farce, so much so that fish and 

 game are now more poorly protected than they ever have 

 been, and nearly everybody knows of a law-breaker or 

 could easily learn of one.' A trip up the river last Sun- 

 day showed the marshes to be literally covered with wild 

 rice — an enormous crop, so the fishermen said — and this 

 is the main food for the wild ducks, but nowhere were 

 there any sign of them; no, not even a single one was 

 seen. An inquiry as to whether they were plentiful only 

 brought forth a grin, with a remark, 'Go ask some of the 

 city fellows how they taste.' On further questioning it 

 was learned that for more than six weeks past parties 

 would go up the river and kill everything that looked 

 like a duck, and these unwanton slaughterers have had 

 their forces increased, so that over fifty boats on Sunday 

 could be counted on their trips to the rice ponds around 

 Shiawassee Lake and above to kill the ducks while they 

 were protected by law. Boasts were made by some of 

 how many they had bagged, and one man, whose duty it 

 was to protect game and cause violators to be prosecuted, 

 was found 'looking after a duck for his sick wife.' This 

 i3 wrong." 



Massachusetts Deer. — The Elizabeth islands, better 

 known by the ancient Indian name Naushon, are separ- 

 ated from Plymouth Woods by a narrow inlet, which at 

 low water is less than a mile in width. Deer are still 

 numerous there, having been preserved for a century or 

 two by its various owners, Lord Temple, Governor Bow- 

 doin, Governor Swain and Governor Forbes. No doubt 

 a good many swim across to the mainland or pass over 

 on the ice every year. It is not uncommon to see a deer 

 in the great forest that extends from Plymouth to Marsh- 

 pee. I met one there last summer, and it was a very 

 pleasant meeting. Our party had just gxthered a 

 quantity of wild grapes for jelly, and I had but just 

 remarked that now all we needed was the veuison, when 

 a beautiful doe ran up the road and played about us for 

 half an hour. We shall not soon forget her friendly 

 greetiug. I remember very well when a boy starting 

 three tine deer at Billington Sea. and I can see them now, 

 bounding gracefully over the young oaks. Branch Peirce 

 told me that when he first cleared his little farm at Half- 

 way Pond young fawns con Id be seen in his field almost 

 any summer morning, nibbling the young rye. To show 

 how abundant deer were in these woods fifty years ago, 

 I may add that ihh mighty hunter shot with his own 

 rifle 26i) deer in the course of a not long life. I possess 

 the skm of number 3(53, which he gave me soon after his 

 last shot. Mr. Webster often came over from Marshfield 

 to hunt with him. the last of our great hunters. But if 

 the day proved stormy the great orator stayed in the 

 house, and pacing the little parlor, read Watts's hymns 

 to Mrs. Peirce.— Marston Watson, in the New England. 

 Magazine, 



Plymouth Woods.— In the New England Magazine 

 Mai ston Watson writes of Plymouth Woods, on Oape Ood: 

 These woods constantly remind me of the Indians, the 

 ancient inhabitants who once roamed over this pleasant 

 land. I believe the Indians were just as fond of it as we 

 are. The Pilgrims found it a land "very fit for situation." 

 The Indians too must have been well content. With the 

 woods full of game and the water teeming with fish, no 

 end of perch and trout, and mackerel and cod, and bass 

 and clams, and lobsters and oysters, an abundance of 

 ducks and geese and deer, "pigeons fattened on straw- 

 berries" (I follow an ancient chronicler), with prairie 

 chickens (they are still found at Martha's Vineyard), and 

 partridges and quail and the wild turkey (not yet quite 

 extinct in Massachusetts), it must have been to them 

 indeed a land of plenty. Josselyn relates that in his 

 time twelve score of peeps were brought down at two 

 shots; a record which beats, to be sure, the ninety-nine 

 peeps of Samuel Burgess, but lacks the exquisite 'moral 

 that attaches to that immortal shot. Samuel Burgess 

 lived at Saquish, and was a noted gunner. He was a 

 strictly honest man, and would not tell a lie for the whole 

 world. One day he went peep shooting on the beach, and 

 he saw a great flock of these dainty birds; and when they 

 had alighted in a bunch he blazed away. He counted aud 

 found he had shot ninety and nine. Then he took them 

 up to market, and on the wharf he met his frknd Mr. 

 George Churchill (who told me the story), and he offered 

 to sell him his great bunch of little peeps. "How many 

 are there ?" said Mr. C. "Ninety -nine," replied Mr. B. 

 "Why don't you call them a h ndred and be done with 

 it?" said Mr. C. "What ! said Mr. Burgess, "do you sup- 

 pose I would tell a lie for one little darned peep?" 



Adirondack Deer. — Syracuse, N. Y., Sept. 14. — 

 Editor Forest and Stream; Here is a characteristic 

 piece of logic, in an extract from the New York Times of 

 recent date, which reads: "Deer have increased rapidly 

 during the past three years, owing to the strict enforce- 

 ment of the law which prevents killing them for market, 

 and also forbids the killing of more than three deer in a 

 single season by one person. Another feature of the 

 present game laws contributes largely to the preservation 

 of deer, and that is, allowing the use of dogs in hunting 

 from Sept. 1 until the end of the season. All experienced 

 hunters agree that with dogs in the woods the destruction 

 of deer is greatly diminished. The animals are made 

 wild, and are therefore hard to capture by still-hunting, 

 while no more than one out of four run by dogs falls 

 before the hunter's sun. The best place to go for deer 

 shooting at this season is to the small lakes in the Oswe- 

 gatchie region. Cranberry Lake and several other 

 smaller lakes and ponds in St. Lawrence county are 

 in the midst of the best hunting grounds. On the middle 

 branch of the Oswegatchie, a few miles from this place, 

 deer were never more plenty." Now, remember that St. 

 Lawrence county is the one county where the law for- 

 bids hounding. The Times writer says that hounding 

 helps protect the deer, and that the deer are most abund- 

 ant in St. La wrence county, where the hounds are not 

 allowed. What do you make of it but the same old self- 

 contradictory bluster of the hounders ? — Occasional 

 Shot. 



The Murder of Waln and Strong.— Denver, Col., 

 Sept. 13, — The murderer of S. Morris Wain, of Haver- 

 ford, Pa., and C. H. Strong, of New York, two young 

 hunters, who were killed in Carbon county, Wyoming, 

 on June 25, 1888, has at last been discovered in Thomas 

 O'Brien, now serving a term of fifteen years in Canon 

 City (Iowa) Penitentiary, for stealing horses near Cold 

 Springs. Since then Jacob F. Wain, a brother of one of 

 the murdered men, has made every endeavor to secure 

 the arrest of the guilty party. In their trip through 

 Wyoming the two men, with their guides, stopped at the 

 house of a ranchman not far from Eawlins. They left 

 there early the next morning, and three days afterward 

 the dead bodies of Wain and Strong were found on 

 the prairie, while teams and driver were gone and have 

 not been heard of since. Some months ago the Sheriff of 

 Colorado Springs advertised for the arrest of O'Brien for 

 horse stealing. One of the circulars with O'Brien's pho- 

 tograph fell into the hands of the ranchman, who imme- 

 diately identified it as the man who stopped at his bouse 

 with Wain and Strong. O'Brien was finally arrested and 

 sentenced to fifteen years. These facts came to the 

 knowledge of Mr. Wain, who went West, took the ranch- 

 man to the prison where he picked out the alleged mur- 

 derer. He left here last night for Wyoming to try to 

 have O'Brien taken there and tried for murder. 



Massachusetts Wild Turkeys. — Springfield, Mass., 

 Sept. 9. — Editor Forest and Strearn: I noticed in your 

 paper of Sept. 5 Mr. Hallock's remarks on the limits of 

 the range of the wild turkey. There are men now living 

 in the town of Hatfield, Hampshire county, Mass., who 

 when they were young men (not boys), have seen wild 

 turkeys in the woods of this town. This seems almost 

 incredible, but they are solid, reliable men in every way, 

 and not yet in their dota<re, and I can give their address 

 at any time if wanted. Unless it has been destroyed by 

 fire, there is in one of the Amherst College museums a 

 mounted specimen of a wild turkey killed on Mount Tom, 

 said to have been the last one killed in that locality. — A. 

 C. SiKES. 



New Jersey.— Perth Amboy, Sept. 16.— On Sept. 9 and 

 10 there was pretty good rail shooting on the South River, 

 N. J , marshes, from 10 to 50 birds to a boat being killed. 

 On Saturday last not one c mid be found, but the reed 

 birds were abundant and very fat. A good many yellow 

 legs and robin snipe were shot the same day on the Red 

 Root Creek meadows. The writer observed a duck, a 

 loon, a cormorant, a heron, and an eagle, the latter being 

 in the act of robbing a fish hawdr of his intended break- 

 fast, a "moss bunker," which he caught in the air when 

 relinquished by the hawk.— J. L. K. 



English Sparrow Reed Birds.— Baltimore, Md., 

 Sept. 12.— Three of us fired into a tree where there was a 

 lot of English sparrows roosting, and picked up eighty- 

 four. Repeated the performance two evenings after- 

 ward, bagging forty -three. The guests boarding at the 

 farm where this occurred feasted on reed birds next 

 day.— Edwin Schenck. 



Seintss, Nets of every description. American Net & Twine Co., 

 Mfrs., 34 Commercial st., Boston, or 199 Fulton St., N. Y —A.dv, 



REFORM IN PENNSYLVANIA. 



C CLEARFIELD, Pa.— Editor Forest and Stream: Tak- 

 / ing the west branch of the Susquehanna, and Clear- 

 field Creek where they break through the Alleghaniss, 

 within the limits of Clearfield county, we have fifty miles 

 of the very best natural bass streams, and no better natural 

 trout streams lie outdoors than those that find their way 

 through those grand old mountains and empty into our 

 river. While nature and the fish commissioners of 

 Pennsylvania have done everything for us, the sportsmen 

 of our county have sadly neglected their duty. We are 

 sorry to say it, but it is true that true sportsmen in these 

 parts are few and far between. There are but few of 

 them who would not to-day destroy the last deer in the 

 woods or kill the last trout or bass in our streams without 

 a thought for the future. It is not because of the pro- 

 tection afforded our game and fish by our so-called sports- 

 men that they are not to-day extinct. The pot-hunter 

 and the fish-hog are at work clay and night. Deer are 

 slaughtered out of season and sold openly on our streets, 

 while the dynamiter has rendered barren some of our best 

 trout streams and bass territory. Our laws are all right, 

 and the laws of 1889, not yet generally in circulation, are 

 especially severe upon such characters. We have had 

 the finest huntiug and fishing territory in the world here 

 in these mountains, and if taken care of it will still be 

 fine, but the game and fish must have a chance. 



I propose, for one, that they shall have a square deal, 

 and if I keep my health another year it will get too hot 

 around here for the vandals to ply their trade success- 

 fully, at least in Clearfield county. What we want is a 

 class of sportsmen who are big enough to look out for 

 the future — whose, hearts are bigger than their stomachs, 

 and who have honor enough to stand up for what is 

 right. I have during the last year arrested several 

 parties and convicted them for sellins: trout under five 

 inches in length, but the Act of May .22, 1889, gives our 

 wardens a better opportunity to hnnt down the mis- 

 creants. In a notice published in our county papers, and 

 posted over the county, I have stated that under the 

 act of 1889 the catching of fish in Pennsylvania in any 

 other way than with rod, hook and line is made a mis- 

 demeanor, and the penalty is $100 fine or imprisonment. 

 Killing fish with dynamite or any other explosive is 

 also a misdemeanor. I will pay $10 for any information 

 that will lead to a conviction under the Act of 1889, or I 

 will pay $20 for such information as will lead to the 

 arrest and conviction of any person killing fish with 

 dynamite within the limits of Clearfield county. 



Frank G. Harris, Fish Warden. 



THE NEW TROUT OF TWIN LAKES. 



WE are indebted to Dr. D. S. Jordan, President of the 

 Indiana University, Bloomington, Ind., for the 

 following interesting note concerning the finding of a 

 new species of trout in the Twin Lakes: "While we were 

 at work on the exploration of Colorado, Mr. George R. 

 Fisher, of Leadville, an enthusiastic and very well- 

 posted angler, called my attention to the existence of 

 two native species of trout in the Twin Lakes, a body of 

 water tributary to the Arkansas River near Leadville. 

 Through Mr. Fisher's help we were enabled to secure 

 numerous specimens of these species. One of them, tbe 

 "yellow- fin trout," seems to be a new species, and it is 

 certainly very different from the common mountain trout. 

 The black spots on the body and fins are very small, mere 

 specks. The lower fins are all bright yellow, and there is 

 a distinct yellow lateral band. The fish is abundant on 

 sandy bottoms in the Twin Lakes, and readily takes the 

 fly. Its flesh is paler and more watery than that of the 

 ordinary trout, and on the whole inferior. We have not 

 yet decided upon what its Latin name shall be." 



Large-Mo th Black Bass in Texas.— Wm. E. Hid- 

 den writes from Burnet, Texas, under date of Sept. 3: 

 "The fish I send to-day by express is quite common in 

 the headwaters of the Colorado River in this State 

 (Texas), where it is called trout. Like the Salmonidce, it 

 frequents only the clearer and colder waters. It is a 

 gamy fish, as mnch so as our northern black bass, and 

 rises to the fly like a trout. In the water it exhibits a 

 peculiar mottled appearance, much like the markings of 

 some snakes; these markings disappear soon after the 

 death of the fish. In weight they vary from J to 1£ 

 pounds, although G, 8, 9 and 11-pounders have been 

 caught," The fish was received at Washington in fine 

 condition, preserved in alcohol, and proved io be a large- 

 mouth black bass (Micropterus salmoides). In tbe South- 

 ern States this fish is generally known as "trout," in 

 Kentucky "jumper," in Indiana "moss bass," and in 

 North Carolina it is known under the name of "chub." 

 The markets of Baltimore, Washington and Norfolk are 

 supplied with black bass from North Carolina during the 

 winter months, and it has often grieved the writer to 

 hear this noble fish referred to as "chub" while passing 

 through the Washington market. It is a case where the 

 dealer makes a mistake, as many people will be attracted 

 by tbe name "black bass, madam," .but hardly ever by 

 the "chub, madam." 



Daniel Webster as a Fisherman.— At home politics 

 was never allowed to be a subject for conversation. If 

 the subject was brought up the brow of the illustrious 

 man darkened. Fishing, hunting, farming, horses, pigs, 

 and hens were his staple subjects for home conversation. 

 He knew his cattle by name as well as he did bis brother 

 senators. Of his garden he was very proud, and in the 

 season would spend a portion of each day in it, pulling 

 weeds and hoeing vegetables. A pastime that Webster 

 loved above all others was fishing. As a rule, however, 

 he had true fisherman's luck, and rarely ever caught a 

 fish unless it Rot entangled in his line and couldn't pos- 

 sibly escape. When a little way ahead or behind his 

 fishing companion he was always muttering to himself, 

 and many of his speeches were composed while Webster 

 was trolling along the streams of Marshfield. On his 

 return from a fishing trip he would throw himself under 

 the old elm tree in the dooryard and enjoy a short nap 

 while resting from his fatigue.— Correspondence Phila- 

 delphia Times. 



