July 17, 1800.] 



FOREST AND STREAM 



513 



to barter. It now had to begin to send out and solicit of 

 the Indians. Norman Kittson laid the foundation of his 

 great fortune here at Winnipeg. Many fortunes have 

 been made on furs. 



I lay at Fort Garry some time, waiting an assignment, 

 and was finally sent to Behren's River post, near the 

 north end of Lake Winnipeg, which body of water is 

 about 300 miles long. Prior to my arrival at my post I 

 passed all through the Nelson River country. 



The post at Behren's River consisted of two log houses, 

 one dog stockade, one fish house and a trading post. 

 The windows of the house were made of deer-skin parch- 

 ment, scraped thin and oiled. They let in some light, 

 but you could not see through them. 



My duties, at least so far as I remember to have prac- 

 ticed them, consisted in running a bark canoe, hunting, 

 fishing and trapping in the summer, and driving a four- 

 dog team of Esquimaux dogs in the winter. The dog 

 was the draught animal of that country. I was the only 

 white man at the post. There were five other men there, 

 all Scotch or French half-breeds. The pure whites, no 

 matter what their station, always made the aristocracy 

 of that land. 



We were allowed by the company lOOlbs. of flour per 

 annum, and some tea and rum. For the rest, we de- 

 pended upon the reindeer — which is the same animal as 

 the caribou — upon the fish we caught, upon the abundant 

 small game, or the wild rice gathered by the Indians. 

 Wild rice is good to eat, and I sometimes gather and cook 

 it at our marshes even yet. 



The first yea.r at our post we traded for four tons, actual 

 weight, of furs. We had 3.600 beaver, also bear, otter, 

 muskrat, fisher, mink, fox and sable. 



All the trading of that country was done under what 

 was called the "Made-beaver tariff." There was no 

 money. The Indians didn't know what money was. I 

 saw no money during my life there, except a few silver 

 quarters I carried in my pocket. A full-grown beaver 

 skin, which would weigh about lib., was the standard 

 or unit of the fur currency. It took ten muskrafcs to 

 make one beaver, or four minks to make one beaver, or 

 two eable to make one beaver. Two beaver made one 

 otter, and ten beaver made one silver gray or black fox, 

 between which no difference was made, although the 

 latter was twice as valuable. The company gave one 

 flint-lock musket; — which cost about $40 a dozen— for ten 

 made-beaver. A blanket was worth from two to five 

 made-beaver. Everything else was in proportion, and 

 the profits may be imagined. 



The Indians knew this tariff perfectly, and you could 

 not fool them. When an Indian opened his pack of furs 

 we gave him a goose quill for every made-beaver value. 

 He held his bunch of quills in his hand, on the counter, 

 and signified what goods he wanted. As we delivered 

 him every made-beaver's worth of goods we pulled a 

 quill out of his hand. This was a good sort of C.O.D. 

 arrangement, which pleased both parties. All the trad- 

 ing was done in this way. The Indians were great beg- 

 gars, however, and we always figured on giving about 

 ten per cent, of the face value of a good big lot of fur by 

 way of gratuities, in axes, flour, nets, needles, powder, 

 etc. 



About the middle of September we began our fall fish- 

 ing, to get in the supply of whitefish, on which we fed 

 the Indians and the dogs all winter. These fine white- 

 fish would hardly be fed to the dogs in that way in this 

 country. At first we fished about nine miles out, using 

 a sort of wooden dory fish boat, such as the half-breed 

 carpenters made. When the ice came we set the gill 

 nets under the ice and kept on fishing till about the first 

 of January. We used the dog sleds then to carry in the 

 fish. 



We hunted the reindeer in the winter, using snow- 

 shoes. We could kill any number, and when we had a lot 

 we cached the meat and got it later with the dog sleds. 

 Black bear were very plentiful in that country, with 

 some brown and cinnamon. We got numbers of them. 

 I have killed one with a tomahawk in the water. Once 

 I shot a bear with BBs as he was going up the bank of 

 a river, where I had surprised him at his fishing. When 

 the shot hit him he turned to snap at his hindquarters, 

 and turned a most amusing somersault clear down the 

 bank. Ruffed grouse and hares we always used to snare, 

 The company furnished us no shot smaller than BBs. 

 In January, when the ptarmigan came down from the 

 north, we would drive these birds up out of the snow, 

 where they roosted, into the willow trees, and if we 

 didn't bag a dozen at a shot then we felt grieved, I have 

 spent hours splitting BBs to shoot ptarmigan with. The 

 Arctic foxes used to follow the ptarmigan down on their 

 winter migration in great numbers. These foxes were 

 very stupid and easily caught. 



vV~e used to eat a great deal of beaver meat, and also 

 the hindquarters of rnuskrats. The muskrat is one of 

 the cleanest animals that lives, it never eats a morsel 

 without first washing it thoroughly, as you may see it do 

 with a bit of root it has dug up. We got our beaver by 

 chiseling them out of their winter lodges, sometimes, or 

 by shooting them as they swam. If a beaver once sees 

 you he will slap his tail on the water with a report like a 

 pistol, then down he goes and you will see him no more. 

 In trapping beaver the trap was always set from a canoe. 

 A runway was picked out, where the beaver went out to 

 his cuttings, and in this the trap was set, 2 or 3in. below 

 the water, to prevent any scent being given off by it. 

 The chain was put under the water and the stake that 

 held it was always driven clear down below the water. 

 The nose of the beaver is very keen, and at the least hint 

 of intrusion it leaves a spot for days at a time. 



There is a popular notion that the beaver can fell a tree 

 exactly where they wish. This is a mistake. All they 

 do is just to gnaw round and round it. They are shrewd 

 enough to select usually only such trees as hang out over 

 the water, or lean in the direction they wish. The great- 

 est weight of branches on a bank tree is usually on the 

 open, or water side. The beaver like poplar best, then 

 willow, alder and birch. When the tree is in the water 

 they cut off the limbs and cut it into lengths. These 

 sticks lie flat on the bottom, in the mud, and in the win- 

 ter the beaver eat the bark off of them. Beaver don't 

 cut dead trees. 



When the beaver can find a high bank it burrows, just 

 like a muskrat, and will not build a lodge. They call 

 these "bank beaver," but they are just the same aa the 

 "marsh beaver," which build lodges. You don't see 

 rnuskrats build houses when they can get to burrow in a 

 bank. 



We usually caught otter at a "slide." The trap was 

 nearly always slung on a spring-pole, so that the otter 

 would be thrown out into the water, and could not get 

 to the bank, where he would be likely to gna.w off his 

 foot. The trap was set a few inches under the water, 

 and was always a strong double spring trap. 



Foxes we got with strychnine, using fish bait cut into 

 pieces about an inch square. We always left some 

 minced bait lying around to keep the foxes picking till 

 the poison took effect. The holes where we fished through 

 the ice were always much haunted by foxes. We could 

 catch the Arctic fox even in deadfalls. The bulk of our 

 catch was red and cross fox. The blue fox is a cross of 

 the red and white fox. It is not generally known, but it 

 is true that the black and the silver gray fox are not dis- 

 tinct animals. They are the same as the red fox, and 

 there may be blacks or silver grays in the same litter. 

 These rare colors, however, are confined to the far North. 

 A black fox may have red pups. They shift around that 

 way, but the skin depends on the individual, 



In the summer and fail the wildfowl were numerous. 

 The mallards breed in the Winnipeg country, and do not 

 or did not then go much further north. The Canada 

 goose also breeds there, and some widgeons and green- 

 wing teal. The bluewing do not breed so far north very 

 often. The laughing goose (called "speckled brant" by 

 some of our shooters), the Norway goose (called some- 

 times the "white-necked brant"), the wavy goose (the 

 white goose with black-tipped wings), the pintail, red- 

 head, bluebill, scaup and canvasback duck, all breed 

 mostly in the country lying between Alaska and the 

 Hudson's Bay, including the Great Slave and Great Bear 

 lakes, Lake Athabasca and the McKenzie's River. The 

 canvasbacks breed on the Yukon, and it is likely that the 

 Pacific Coast flight comes down from the Yukon country, 

 while our flight perhaps comes from McKenzie's River 

 and the Bay. 



The Indians could not shoot very much, and usually 

 snared the waterfowl. They used to gather in the duck 

 eggs to eat, and also many gull and tern eggs, of which 

 there are thousands on the islands of Lake Winnipeg. 

 The pelican eggs we could not eat; they were too fishy. 

 There were a good many cormorants and crested grebes, 

 and of loons there were thousands. We used to detest 

 the loons and ducks, because they got tangled up in the 

 whitefish nets so often. They make a pretty mess of a 

 gill-net, and nearly always have to be cut out. Although 

 Lake Winnipeg was not the main breeding ground of the 

 fowl, it was a great flyway, and seemed to be the last 

 stopping point of the northern fowl in the spring. The 

 Indians said the wildfowl did not stop again till they got 

 away north. Along the McKenzie River they breed in 

 the willows, on the sandbars. They start south as soon 

 as the young can fly. George T. Farmer. 



[TO BE CONCLUDED.] 



Dayton, Ohio, July 7.— Under the Ohio game laws the 

 squirrel season opened July 1 , and the hunters have found 

 fair sport, but no big bags are reported. Both gray and 

 fox squirrel are plenty, but leaves on the trees are so 

 large that the game hides securely. Young woodcock 

 are of good size and the marshes are full of birds. The 

 open season begins next Tuesday, July 15, at which time 

 dove shooting will also break out all along the line. 

 Prospectors report more, doves even than last year, but 

 young birds are scarcely large enough yet, though all 

 are very fat. By reason of almost universal respect for 

 the law, and the favorable winter, all southern Ohio is 

 occupied by quail. There has been no shooting, and the 

 birds are astonishingly tame and have not been near as 

 careful as is their habit in hiding and guarding their 

 nests, nor have they mated off so sharply. The whistle 

 of the birds is heard along the roads and even in the 

 towns and villages, and nests are found everywhere. 

 Chris Rohrer, a farmer four miles from this city, dis- 

 covered a nest in a field with seventy-four quail eggs in 

 it, and his neighbor ran upon a ' nest with thirty-four 

 eggs. John Cosier, a few miles further out, near Byron, 

 Greene county, in mowing, preparatory to starting in his 

 reaper, uncovered a nest from which" three quau hens 

 flew, leaving ninety eggs exposed to the astonished 

 farmer. — B. 



Canadian Wildfowl.— 53 Victoria, Chapter XX.— An 

 Act to amend the Quebec Game Laws. (Assented to 2d 

 April, 1890). Whereas the law, in limiting to the 15th of 

 April, instead of the 1st of May, as was formerly the case, 

 the time during which the shooting of wild ducks is per- 

 mitted, is very prejudicial to hunters and the public in 

 eneral; Whereas, during that time large numbers of 

 ucks called "golden-eyed ducks" (canards cailUs) fre- 

 quent our waters, but do not remain or lay eggs here, but 

 on the contrary they migrate to other countries where 

 they are hunted, and the survivors return here the fol- 

 lowing year at the same time, as birds of passage, to dis- 

 appear again immediately , so that the Province is depri ved 

 of all benefit, without profit to any one therein, and 

 whereas the same applies to widgeon and teal: Therefore, 

 Her Majesty, by and with the advice and consent of the 

 Legislature of Quebec, enacts as follows: 1. Clause 6 of 

 the first paragraph of article 1400 of the Revised Statutes 

 of the Province of Quebec is replaced by the following: 

 "6, Any widgeon, teal or wild duck of any kind, except 

 sheldrake, loons and gulls, between the 1st day of May 

 and the 1st day of September in each year." 2. This act 

 shall come into force on the day of its sanction. 



Our Western Number. — Portland, Oregon. — Your 

 issue of June 12 was very interesting, indeed. Henry 

 Kleinman's article on duck shooting is intensely interest- 

 ing and instructive. The Kleinmau boys, withoubt doubt, 

 rank among the very best duck shooters in the country. 

 It is to be hoped that you will call upon Abe and John 

 before you get through. Few men have had the oppor- 

 tunity and inclination to hunt and study the habits of 

 ducks as they have had, and, at the same time, improve 

 it, for they have almost lived among them all their lives, 

 their home being on the great Calumet Marsh, which is 

 miles and miles in extent and which in years past was 

 annually visited by millions of water fowl. Mr. Loyd's 

 article on prairie chicken shooting is al60 very good, and 

 is refreshing to all who have enjoyed this rare sport. In 

 the same number there is a very good article by Mr. 

 Mussey on trap-shooting, which the managers of our 

 tournaments, it is to be hoped, will ponder over and 

 govern themselves accordingly, if they wish to make 

 trap-shooting popular. Taken as a whole, tbie is a banner 

 number,— Northwest, 



Wm. Malcolm, known to rifle shots as the manufacturer 

 of rifle telescopes, died at his residence, 101 James street, 

 Syracuse, N. Y., at 2:30 A. M., July 12. 



Gloversvtlle, N. Y.— Woodcock seem to be abundant. 

 There are lots of birds.— McK. 



m m\& $wqr fishing. 



FISHING NEAR NEW YORK. 



TTHDR. practical and specific directions to reach several hundred 

 ^ fishing resorts within easy distance of New York city, see 

 issues of 1889 as follows: April 18, April 25, May 2, May 9, May 30, 

 June 6, June 13, June 20, June 27. 



ANGLING NOTES. 



WHILE fly-fishing in Lake Laura (Pike county, Pa.) 

 last week, Mr. Alfred Roe, a. member of the Bloom- 

 ing Grove Park Association, hooked a black bass weigh- 

 ing about half a pound. As he reeled it in toward the 

 boat, a large pickerel made a savage dash at the bass and 

 fastened his teeth in him. As they passed the boat, the 

 guide, by a lucky and skillful sweep of the landing net, 

 captured them both. The pickerel weighed a trifle over 

 31bs. The bass was so badly injured that it could not be 

 returned to the water. One of the club members took a 

 black bass in the same lake that had just swallowed a 

 small bird. The tail and legs were still sticking out of 

 the fishes mouth when it rose to the fly. The bird had 

 evidently fallen out of its nest from some overhanging tree 

 or bush, and, being too young to fly, had fallen a victim 

 to the bass. 



Mr. John Cod ville, a famous Canadian angler and an ex- 

 perienced fly-fisherman, had the good fortune to kill a 4£lb. 

 trout recently. He says that of all stubborn fights he has 

 ever had with bass, trout or salmon, this fish took the lead . 

 He hooked him in the river about half a mile above their 

 club house and fought him for one hour, when it became 

 too dark to see what he was doing. So he allowed the 

 canoe to drift slowly down to the club, towing the fish 

 along. Here some members brought out lanterns and by 

 their light he was enabled to get his fish near enough to 

 the canoe to allow the landing net to be used. Time If 

 hours. 



If reports speak truly, the salmon are having a hard 

 time of it in the upper waters of the Hudson. Jigging 

 and spearing at Mechanicsville, and netting down in the 

 lower part of the river will interfere greatly with the 

 efforts of the fish commissioners. 



The trout hog seems to thrive about the Maine waters, 

 judging from the catches published in the local papers in 

 that State. Catches of from 100 to 200 trout per day 

 seem to be in order, and the average weight about 2oz. 

 each. Shades of Izaak Walton ! To think of people call- 

 ing themselves anglers that do such things. The writer 

 once had the misfortune to "go out" with such a party. 

 Slinging out trout with bait poles by the hundred and 

 drinking whisky by the quart seemed to be their chief 

 ambition. 



Weakfish are now quite plenty, particularly in Barne- 

 gat Bay. In fishing for these fish now, it is necessary to 

 use hooks snelled on piano wire, owing to the great num- 

 ber of bluefish in the bays. These rascals cut off the gut- 

 snelled hooks as fast as the angler can put them on. The 

 weakfish prefer the pearl hook to the plain hook; but in 

 using the pear-lmounted hooks a5 little bait, either crab 

 or shrimp, should be used, and a good-sized swivel is 

 sinker enough. Many anglers use too much lead, and 

 the result is that their bait is taken by the crabs, toadfish, 

 sea robins, etc., that haunt the bottom. 



Mr. J. M. Clark, of Chicago, 111., has just published an 

 interesting little book called the "Anglers and Sports- 

 man's Guide. " It is profusely illustrated and has several 

 maps of Western fishing grounds. It also contains a 

 number of articles on fishing, camping, cooking, fly-cast- 

 ing, bait-casting, etc., etc., by well-known writers. It is 

 particularly interesting to Eastern sportsmen in that it 

 shows the difference in the tackle used by Western and 

 Eastern anglers. For instance: Eastern anglers favor the 

 double multiplying reel, while West the quadruple is all 

 the rage. And in rods as well as in many things there is a 

 marked difference in the articles used. 



Angling Hints.— Editor Forest and Stream: In the 

 last issue of Forest and Stream I notice that "Big Reel" 

 sighs for an oil can that won't leak. Has he tried the 

 "perfect pocket oiler," advertised in "our" paper by Cush- 

 man & Denison, 172 Ninth avenue, New York? My ex- 

 perience with this oiler has been entirely satisfactory, 

 having used one for about a year I found it perfectly 

 free from leakage. I have persuaded a number of brother 

 sportsmen to use them and have not heard a word of 

 complaint. It is a neat and handy little contrivance, 

 and is exactly what the sportsman needs. They are 

 made in two sizes, either of which are convenient for the 

 pocket. Try one, "Big Reel." Just why the manufac- 

 turers of the "American spinner" do not put their address 

 on each box or bait has long been a mystery to me. I 

 had one given to me by a friend a couple of years ago, 

 and when it began to show signs of wear I was in a quan- 

 dary how and where to duplicate it. Our wholesale houses 

 did not keep them. Finally I got on the trail and now 

 keep them in stock. McHarg & Co. need not be ashamed 

 of them, for No. 6 B is one of the very best artificial baits 

 I ever used for bass. Another killing bait is the new 

 one manufactured by the Syracuse Bamboo Furniture 

 Co., called the "glittering gang bait." I've made some 

 fine catches of black bass on it this spring. It is some- 

 thing quite new and has a very attractive appearance. 

 The above hints are in return for many that I have 

 profited by from "our family," through Forest and 

 Stream.— Koshee (Gravenhurst, Ont.). 



Mr. George Price, whose advertisement appears in another 

 column, will remove his business to larger and more commodious 

 quarters at 171 East Eighty-fourth street in a few days. Mr, Price 

 has been, compelled to make this change on account of largely in- 

 creased business. He is making a specialty of fine fishing lines, 

 and has some excellent Cuttyhunfc bess lines now on hanOi—jLdv, 



