268 



FOREST AND STREAM. 



[Oct. 24, 1889. 



in the corn. We both missed a big cock on stubble, and 

 I missed a second which rose wild on another stubble 

 field. At the report of this shot a great covey rose and 

 went off wild. Wisner scratched down one with No. 4 

 shot. We now began to see a great many birds flying 

 down from the hills into the bottoms to roost. We got 

 two more, the last falling to my gun just at dusk. Our 

 bag for the day was eleven chickens, alL well earned, 

 and a magnificent lot of game birds, plump, strong and 

 well matured. We had had genuine sport in getting 

 there, and sport very different from August shooting at 

 squabs. During the day we covered five or six miles of 

 territory, and saw probably 150 chickens, mostly in large 

 bands near evening. The birds seemed scattered pretty 

 much all over the country. 



HUDSON RIVER WILD RICE. 



Editor Forest and Stream: 



I send you herewith samples of wild rice such as is 

 quite common in the Hudson Eiver in this vicinity, and 

 it certainly is the same plant as that known as wild rice 

 in Canada and the West. If not wild rice, it is so good 

 a substitute for it that I would advise our Saugerties 

 friend not to expend much money or trouble to get the 

 real article. It is next to impossible so late in the season 

 to get specimens showing the staminate flowers, although 

 you will find some in this lot. If you will take the 

 trouble to hull a few of the matured seeds you will find 

 them to be wild rice without a question. This plant 

 appears to have been first noticed here about fifteen years 

 ago, and has been known as rice weed, wild oats, duck 

 grass, etc. Hoping the specimens sent will help to solve 

 the rice question, I am, M. Schenck. 



Albany, N. Y. 



Editor Forest and Stream : 



I really think that it is largely a question of locality 

 which makes an apparent difference in the seeds. Our 

 plant has seeds which are many times smaller than 

 those which you sent me as coming from Rice Lake, On- 

 tario. I have seen larger seeds on the Delaware and 

 Schuylkill, and at Elkton and North East at the head of 

 Chesapeake Bay, than we have, but I do not remember 

 to have seen anywhere such large seeds as those you sent 

 me. I am convinced that our wild oats are the same as 

 the wild rice of Ontario, or very closely resembling 

 it, but think it would be of enough interest to gunners to 

 forward to you specimens from widely separated locali- 

 ties of what they they take to be wild oats, wild rice or 

 teal grass, in different stages of their growth. If they 

 are practically the same, it might be of interest to note 

 the slight difference of size of seed, stalk, leaves, etc., 

 due to climate, soil and water. The authority you 

 cite speaks of it as Indian rice, wild rice or water oats. 

 As a matter of curiosity I would like to know which it 

 most closely resembles, oats or rice. Frank Pidgeon. 



Saugerties, N. Y. 



The specimens sent by our Albany correspondent leave 

 no room for doubt that the plant in question is the wild 

 rice. Mr. Pidgeons suggestion that a comparison of the 

 rice seeds grown in different localities would no doubt 

 lead to an interesting comparison. Much activity is 

 manifested in the line of renewing the wild rice supply 

 in various quarters and in introducing the seductive wild- 

 fowl bait where it has not been planted by nature. Under 

 date of Oct. 7 Mr. Charles Gilchrist, of Port Hope, Ont., 

 wrote us, "I have sold all my rice, so you will please stop 

 my advertisement. I have had a good many letters from 

 Canada and from twenty-two States, saying, 'I saw your 

 advt. in Forest and Stream of wild rice.'" We would 

 be glad to have reports from those who have planted the 

 rice with or without success in past years. 



TAXING THE GUN. 



Editor Forest and Stream: 



I have carefully read your editorial in the last issue of 

 your paper, Oct. 10, on taxing the gun, and would like 

 to express my views on the subject. There is much in- 

 terest here on this subject. Your plan to restrict the 

 number of birds killed by each individual will no doubt 

 work to advantage in any locality where game is abund- 

 ant enough to tempt the market-hunter. But here in 

 southern New England, where the game has been de- 

 pleted to such an extent that it does not pay to buy 

 powder to kill them with, such a plan is useless. I do 

 not agree with you that this question "can safely be put 

 to sleep, etc." The birds are not all gone here yet, and 

 we want to keep them, not for ourselves alone, but for 

 our children after us. Here with us the birds are mostly 

 in the thick covers, and are beyond the market or pot- 

 shot. 



It is the snare that we want protection from. In every 

 market in the city can be found the evidence of its use on 

 the birds exposed for sale. The authorities in power take 

 up very slowly the protection of game. The first reason 

 given for this hesitancy is, there is no money revenue 

 from this quarter that can be expended in its protection. 

 I believe the game to be the property of the people as a 

 whole. As we stand to-day a few men get all the benefit. 

 Why not take out a license on the gun? Say $2. Put a 

 part of this money toward the payment of salaries for 

 smart, active game wardens, part to pay the farmer 

 for damage done him, and part to help restock our nearly 

 depleted covers. The revenue from dog licenses is used 

 after this plan. In nearly every other country a man 

 must have a license to carry a gun, why not here? The 

 principle is right. "In payment for value received." A 

 few well paid men as game wardens would do wonders 

 here, and every sportsman would do all in his power to 

 aid them. Then the license would do away with the two 

 worst of nuisances that we have to contend with, first, 

 the foreign element nuisance. These loafers and tres- 



Sassers who make then gun an excuse for all manner of 

 eviltry, who plague the unprotected countryman nearly 

 out of his senses, shooting around his house Sundays, 

 killing pet squirrels and pigeons, robbing his orchards 

 and making a man jeopardzie his life if he desires a day 

 in the fields or woods. If you remonstrate with him he 

 smiles and pretends that the use of the English language 

 is beyond bun. I think he would go less if he paid for it, 

 and it would be much easier to catch him when he made 

 trouble. 



Then there is the "small boy and his rifle" nuisance. 

 Would it not do away with him? I think it would. How 

 many fathers (to-day) would be willing to pay a t;ax, 



and be responsible for the damage done? Very few. The 

 small boy can be seen every day out in the fields and on 

 the edge of the woods, shooting at every robin or bluebird 

 that he can find, regardless of the fact that a barn or hen- 

 house, perhaps a human being, may be on the other side 

 of the bush he is shooting into. I have barely escaped 

 the small boy myself several times. How many of the 

 startling headings in the newspapers dike "Mysterious 

 Disappearance," "A Skeleton Found," "Shot Dead," etc.) 

 can be laid at his door? Why should a minor be allowed 

 to use or buy a rifle, any sooner than rum or tobacco? Is 

 it less dangerous? No! It is much more so. If the gun 

 is taxed, then this nuisance will be stopped. With rum 

 and tobacco a boy has examples of their careless tise, held 

 up before him, and if he disregards the same he hurts 

 only himself. With the rifle it is different. He does 

 damage he knows not of. A rifle carries too far to be 

 handled by a careless boy. And who ever saw a careful 

 one? Life is too precious to be risked through the care- 

 lessness of others. My own father never allowed me to 

 have a rifle. He often said, "It may kill a man 200yds. 

 off although you are shooting at a bird not fifteen." 

 There is no game large enough to use a rifle on in this 

 section of the country to-day, and no excuse for carrying 

 the same into the woods. 



I am in favor of taxing the gun. It will rob no one, 

 but will equalize the sport more. I do not forget that I 

 was a boy once myself, or that if I have a boy he will 

 have a gun. But it won't be a rifle, nor will he be al- 

 lowed out in the woods before he is ten years old, with 

 the handling of a death-dealing weapon which full- 

 grown men handle none too carefully. I may stand on 

 untenable ground, but 1 give my convictions for what 

 they are worth, and stand ready and open to conviction 

 to contrary if wrong. I fail to see any reason why Mass- 

 achusetts," Ehode Island and Connecticut should not levy 

 a tax of $2 on every gun, forbid the use of the same by 

 boys under fifteen years of age, demand the carrying of 

 a license into the field, have a warden (with full power 

 to search, arrest, etc.) in each county at least, and put 

 out a small sum each year to restock, after the same plan 

 that they are using with the fish. Our laws here (although 

 not by any means beyond improvement) would answer 

 well enough, only as they now stand with no one to en- 

 force them they are useless. What good does the law on 

 trespass do a man in the country? He is perhaps five 

 miles from a sheriff, and when a half dozen young row- 

 dies with dogs and guns come out and tramp through 

 his garden, shoot his pigeons, and insult his wife and 

 daughters, is it any wonder that he hates the sportsman? 

 The only real sportsman he sees he does not recognize as 

 such. To him the sportsman and rowdy are one. I do 

 not believe we will ever see game protection until we 

 have a revenue from taxation of guns to protect them 

 with. However, as I said once before, I am open to rea- 

 son, and if such can be said to the contrary, let us have 

 it by all means. Cohannet. 



Editor Forest and Stream: 



Tom- position on the game preservation question is 

 weak, as no ijrovision is made for enforcing the laws. 



A hunting license of $5 or $10 is best, as it will furnish 

 the means to pay game wardens. A limit might also be 

 placed on the amount to be bagged in one day, in addition 

 to this, but it is doubtful whether it could be enforced. 



I advocated the license system years ago, and such a 

 system would not injure the gunmaker's business or bur- 

 den the trap-shooter. 



I have often been amazed that your great influence 

 was not used to stop the spring slaughter of migratory 

 birds; a question that is vitally important to nearly all 

 of your readers, and yet be so interested in game preser- 

 vation in the National Park, considering that not one in 

 a thousand of your subscribers can ever visit it in quest 

 of game. Impress on the minds of the sportsmen that 

 "the end of the ducks means the end of all free shoot- 

 ing." Remo. 



Chicago. 



Illinois Quail and Prairie Chickens.— On the Ohio 

 and Mississippi Railway I noticed several coveys of quail 

 in cornfields in southern Illinois as we flew along; but 

 conductor Charles Bishop assured me that he counted 37 

 coveys from the baggage car, during the run between 

 Vinc'ennes, Ind., and Mian. This was after a rain and 

 the birds were near the track. He says the flocks were 

 large and that quail are more plentiful than he has ever 

 seen them before; they are located in the com and stub- 

 ble and, indeed, in almost any kind of cover. The mild 

 weather of last winter, Mr. Bishop thinks, will account 

 for their abundance. It is a very common occurrence to 

 find quail on the track after heavy rains. Many of the 

 St. Louis sportsmen go to Carlisle, 111, for prairie chickens 

 and quail; this point and the country east for a distance 

 of 10 miles furnish ample returns. Prairie chickens are 

 greatly diminished in numbers at the present time, but 

 quail are sufficiently numerous to satisfy the most exact- 

 ing.— T. H. B. 



Aggravating. — A North Woods correspondent, com- 

 menting on a big deer slaughter by a hounding party in 

 his district, feelingly remarks: " You can readily imagine 

 that it must be at least aggravating to me to do with- 

 out venison all summer and try to protect the deer, 

 only to see those deer massacred in the fall. There are 

 doubtless some sportsmen that like to hunt in this way; 

 and if there were only such it might do. But most that 

 hunt here with hounds are a low set who have no idea of 

 game protection and who will kill all the deer they can 

 and in any way they can." 



California Quail.— In San Francisco the gunners were 

 preparing for mountain quail shooting. During the dry 

 season it is difficult to find this bird because it ceases to 

 be gregarious; but now that the first rain has fallen ex- 

 cursions out the narrow gauge road to San Rafael for a 

 distance of 40 or 50 miles will begin at once. The birds 

 are to be seen in coveys anywhere after that distance 

 from the city. — T. H. B. 



Tionesta, Pa., Oct. 5. — Since the season opened it has 

 been discovered that pheasants are unusually scarce. 

 The continuous wet weather of May and June last is 

 supposed to have been too much for the young broods 

 just hatched; at least this seems to be. tjie only cause, 

 assignable for the scarcity. 



"Silently Cocking the Gun." — How many scores of 

 times you read this in these pages. How silently cock- 

 ing the gun he did so and so. Now it struck me that a 

 word to the uninitiated might be appropriate, knowing 

 how many shots have been lost through the click, click, 

 or cling of a good pah" of locks. It can be done and many 

 a head of game bagged by knowing how. It is in this 

 way: Simply hold back the trigger with the forefinger 

 while you raise the hammer with your thumb. Now a 

 word of caution is necessary. First, let go the trigger 

 and then the hammer, and be sure and practice well with 

 an unloaded gun, and be very careful with an old one 

 with worn locks, or a premature discharge will be the 

 resu It. —Collector, 



The Accident Record.— Sed alia, Mo., Oct. Id,— Editor 

 Forest and Stream: A grand idea you have in publishing 

 cases of accident caused by carelessness in handling of 

 firearms; your readers should be benefited by it. An 

 editor in Fayette, Mo., was out gunning for quail about 

 three weeks* ago with a friend. The birds were found 

 by the friend and flushed. Instead of bagging his unlaw- 

 ful game the editor stopped the charges from both bar- 

 rels with his face, neck and breast. He is not expected 

 to live. This was two weeks before the open season 

 begins. — L. S. E. 



"That reminds ine." 

 283. 



ONE morning in the month o? March I arose about 4 

 o'clock and started for the lake, distant about four 

 miles as the crow flies. I had been suffering with the 

 buck fever for several days, and I was bound to get relief. 

 When I arrived at the lower end 'of the lake, it was just 

 light enough to see pretty distinctly two or three hundred 

 yards up the shore. Looking over the tops of the flags 

 which border the lake at the south end I discovered some 

 black objects moving up and down along the east shore 

 about 150yds. away. My first thought wa« that they 

 were mudhens, but just then I saw a flash or two of 

 white, and I made up my mind that they must be blue- 

 bills. I did not stop to look long, but began to devise 

 plans for their immediate destruction. The only feasible 

 plan seemed to be to get down and crawl on hands and 

 knees, keeping low behind the rushes which fringed the 

 east shore. 1 had done some crawling for duck^i in my 

 time; but I observed that I had seen a great deal better 

 ground to crawl over than this was, as every few rods 

 I would strike a small patch of half -frozen overflow 

 about an inch or two deep. But this was nothing, 

 considering the fun I would have when I showed the 

 boys my bag of ducks at night. So i smiled app ovingly 

 to myself and mentally calculated how I would get such 

 a thundering string of ducks home. After a tedious me- 

 andering and groveling over wet sand and other equally 

 agreeable substances, I brought up behind a iarge clump 

 of rushes just opposite the place where I had located my 

 bluebills. I could catch occasional glimpses of them 

 through the weeds, as they bobbed serenely over the light 

 waves; and knew they had not taken any notice of my 

 presence. Drawing in a full breath I slowly poked the 

 muzzle of the gun around the clump of rushes, and fol- 

 lowing with my eye, drew bead on the thickest of a 

 bunch of about 25 — wooden dec ys, painted black and 

 white, which some lazy vagabond had left ont over night 

 to fool the guileless and unsuspecting " town feller." 

 My sportsman friend, were you °ver there? If not, my 

 word for it, you haA T e missed something. My firstthought 

 was to look around to see if any one had observed the 

 occurrence, inwardly resolved to give the fellow a dollar 

 to keep his mouth shut until I got away, but finding I 

 was alone in my glory I sadly dropped down on a wet 

 log, to meditate upon the extreme probability of an early 

 visit of the fool killer to our neighborhood. C. 



gen m\A §kfr S^ tin ih 



THE PLEASURES OF FLY-FISHING. 



OFTEN the mind turns longingly to the wooded 

 streams, creeks and runs of dear old Michigan, the 

 lower peninsula leaves an impress on the angler's mind 

 that age does not dim nor time efface. 



A few miles back from Traverse City, beside a rapid 

 winding stream, stood one log cabin and a frame shanty 

 bearing this inscription, "Hotel." The stream at this 

 time was famous for its trout, and the trout for their 

 gaminess and coloration. These two shanties composed 

 a city of the future, its streets as yet the woody laby- 

 rinths of grand old forest trees, as yet unshorn by the 

 pioneer of civilization. We pulled a rowboat twelve miles 

 to get to this stream. Once in the mouth the oars were 

 dropped and the pushing pole taken up. The stream is 

 narrow, swift and tortuous, along its bottom could be seen 

 stumps, old trees and roots, and at intervals could be seen 

 fishlike forms. The surroundings were trouty, the only • 

 question came up, are they big ones? 



Let us push on up stream as far as the rapids, we can 

 try for these fellows as we drift down. A sharp push 

 and tug for an hour and we cover the mile, then rest at 

 the foot of the rapids with the boat tied to the arm of a 

 fallen tree, but we are warm and feel the mosquito buz- 

 zing at us. The sharp poling up stream has started the 

 perspiration from every pore, and as we rest, trout can be 

 seen rising to any object coming from the rapids. Quietly 

 putting together a handsome Orvis split-bamboo rod that 

 had to be baptized and dedicated to the elegant art of fly- 

 fishing, opening a book filled with Orvis gems, we turn 

 the overflowing pages. What shall I use? Grays, whites, 

 red browns, yellows, black and gold, silver and tinsel in 

 almost every shade and hue, and names known in fish- 

 lore. Hackles! these trout are barbarians anyhow, they 

 know nothing of flies, a brown maple leaf brings them to 

 the surf ace by the half dozen ; vicious little fingerlings; 

 but the big fellows! Ah! there's one of them rising to a 

 big brown chafer or buzz-bug that frequents oaks and 

 maples. 



My nine feet looped leader has been soaking in a tin 

 can for an hour. I bend it on my line, put on a big 

 brown-hackle for a tail-fly and a gray-professor for a 



