90 



FOREST AND STREAM. 



[Aug. 31, 1890. 



CHINESE PHEASANTS. 



VANCOUVER, B. C, Aug. 6. — Editor Forest and 

 Stream: I was much interested on receiving mv 

 Foeest and Stream of July 31 to read your account of 

 Chinese pheasants in America. 



Some of your readers may remember a note I sent you 

 last spring, wherein I stated that a game protective asso- 

 ciation had been formed here, and that we were import- 

 ing Chinese pheasants and other game birds. 



Our first attempt to import Chinese pheasants was a 

 failure. A committee from our association interviewed 

 the captain of one of the China steamers sailing from 

 this port and asked him to get what we wanted. The 

 captain (one of the sort who promise everything and do 

 nothing) was most agreeable and promised to get us all 

 the birds we wanted, and bring them on the next inward 

 trip, which was April 7. Had the birds arrived by this 

 boat we would have had them in good time for breeding, 

 but on arrival of the boat we found no birds, but lots of 

 excuses from the captain. We determined to take the 

 matter out of his hand^, and as we were then too late for 

 this, season, it was determined to wait till the hatching 

 was over and send for a lot of youngbirds, and turn them 

 down this fall. This has been done and we are expecting 

 them shortly, and as soon as they arrive your readers 

 shall have full particulars of our experiences. 



I am advised that pheasants round Victoria are won- 

 derfully plentiful and strong. They evidently intend to 

 enforce the law there too, for I see by the papers that 

 two ranchers were fined $50 apiece for shooting them out 

 of season. A few convictions like this and there will be 

 very little shooting done out of season. 



Despite our hard winter and wet summer grouse round 

 here are p'entiful. This is partially accounted for, as we 

 had a spell of very fine weather while birds were young; 



C. E. T. 



CHICAGO DISCOUNTED. 



Editor Forest and Sfrearw: 



Never until his letter of Aug. 4 appeared in Foeest 

 AND Steeam of the 14th did I notice anything in the 

 breezy letters of E. Hough about "Chicago and the West" 

 to which the slightest exception could be taken. And it 

 is perhaps rather hypercritical, after deriving: much 

 pleasure from his contributions, to light on one little 

 paragraph in a long letter to find fault with and contra- 

 dict in the most express terms. 



Although the provocation to become red in the face 

 and get angry at his assertion, is great, I shall endeavor 

 to restrain the tendency to fume, and will in the mildest 

 language try to show that on one important point Mr. 

 Hough is clear off his reckoning and owes the world an 

 immediate sad unconditional retraction. In the third 

 paragraph of his letter, speaking of the cheap sporting 

 trips that can be made from Chicago, he says: (, I would 

 rather repeat here than anywhere that there is no city 

 from which so varied and so cheap an amount of good 

 sport can be had as the city of Chicago." 



That claim contains the gravamen against which I beg 

 to protect. Is it not enough that Chicago should possess 

 the Auditorium and a call on the World's Fair, without 

 making an effort to filch from an elder sister city the 

 proud honor of being the center from which the most 

 diversified sport to be had in the United States, or per 

 haps in the world, can be enjoyed at less expense, and 

 with least lapse of time — I do not say Joss of time — for I 

 regard time passed in the field with rod or gun as placed 

 where it will give the best return. 



Mr. Hough details with excusable glee the fact that 

 from Chicago he can take " 'Ah Look on either a bass 

 trip, a woodcock trip, a snipe trip, a plover trip or a duck 

 trip, each in season and get game, too." Chicago is for- 

 tunate in having such delights at her command, and I 

 hope she will be wise enough to conserve them as far as 

 possible that posterity may derive some pleasure from the 

 bounty of nature. But there is a city that was famous 

 when Fort Dearborn was a trading post, that can lay 

 valid claim to furnishing its inhabitants with all those 

 sporting trips and many more. It is herein western New 

 York, on the banks of the Genesee River, and its name is 

 Rochester. 



I am not yet classed with the greybeards, but I have 

 shot snipe, ducks, woodcock, grouse, plover, rabbits and 

 pigeons within tne present boundary line of this city, and 

 liave had days that it is delightful to remember with the 

 black bass and pike, to say nothing of lower fish within 

 half an hour's walk of the City Hall. It would scarcely 

 be fair to claim that such a variety of game is to be 

 found within the city now. The pigeons especially do not 

 come around in such numbers as they did when we were 

 boys. Neither would it be an easy matter to make a sat- 

 isfactory bag of ruffed grouse or woodcock in town. But 

 I would undertake, if it was necessary, to get a specimen 

 of either kind of bird within three miles of the center of 

 the city, and would not regard it as at all difficult to find 

 half a dozen snipe or plover of a day between this date 

 and O^t. 15, on grounds almost touched by the street cars. 



When -'$5 trips" are under consideration we can easily 

 discount Chicago. For about half that sum one can get 

 a railroad ticket that will take him out to and bring him 

 back from grounds where in one day he may get half a 

 dozen ruffed grouse or double the number of woodcock, 

 with an occasional quail or rabbit. A 25 cent trip ticket 

 over the Rochester & Lake Ontario, or the Glen Haven 

 R. R., will put one on the shore of Irondequoit Bay, for- 

 merly one of the best duck grounds in America, and where 

 even still, although the points are nearly all covered 

 with hotels and cottages, the widgeon, redheads and 

 bluebills, with all their kindred, love to linger on their 

 semi-annual migrations. Northwest of the city, within 

 two hours' drive, there are five ponds on the shore of Lake 

 Ontario, which to the sportsman of the last generation 

 were as prolific in wildfowl shooting as ever could have 

 been the Calumet River or Kankakee marshes. Even 

 now, although they are popular summer resorts, a dozen 

 families of teal are breeding there, and from October 

 until January there is a fighting chance of meeting with 

 a big day at winter ducks. 



If comparisons are tolerable we may well challenge 

 Chicago in respect to facilities for angling. The black 

 bass, pike and pickerel that inhabit the river above the 

 city ha ve no superiors in gamen'-ss and all the other good 

 qualities. The city sewage has unfortunately ruined the I 

 best of the lower river fishing, which in former years 

 was unsurpassed. The bays I spoke of afford good bass | 

 and pickerel fishing. I saw a boy take a olbs. big-mouth 



bass m Irondequoit Bay a week ago, and he had four 

 other good ones. Four lines of railroad— the Central-Hud- 

 son; Rome, Watertown & Ogdensburg; Buffalo, Rochester 

 & Pittsburgh, and an electric road compete for the 

 summer travel to the mouth of the river, where perch 

 and rock bag3, with now and then a black bass or pick- 

 erel, can be caught in great numbers through all a sum- 

 mer's day. The fare is only 25 cents fcr the round trip. 

 We have one of the best trout stream sin the world within 

 sixteen miles of town. The Rochester and Pittsburgh 

 and Erie railroads will take you to its banks for half a 

 dollar, but unless you have an invitation from a member 

 of the club that has leased it you can cast no fly on its 

 crystal waters. But you may visit the State fish hatch- 

 ery there situated and see the process of hatching fish 

 artificially for distribution over the State. There am 

 besides in the county a few small wild streams where 

 fiuger lings and a few trout above the 6in. limit can be 

 taken with "patient angle" if one likes to creep through 

 mo-quito-infested and tangled underbrush. 



But it is not alone on the home waters that we rely for 

 sport with rod and line. At our doors lies Lake Ontario, 

 and on it ply steamboats which for a consideration wiii 

 transport the town-weary citizen to the north shore, 

 where, in the Dominion wilderness, he can soon cast his 

 lines in waters alive with bass, pickerel, mascalonge or 

 trout. We command, as it were, the piscatorial resources 

 of all British America, and can draw draughts on streams 

 and lakes that have never failed to respond satisfactorily 

 when approached by the right man at the right time. 

 Down the Lake we have the Thousand Islands fishing to 

 try if we tire of the home or Canadian waters. Then the 

 Adirondacks are next door to us, where trout or deer can 

 be had for asking. 



Oh, yes, Chicago is a great city, and her children are 

 full of chic, elan, "sand," enterprise, or whatever you 

 want to call it. But when she claims to be a better base 

 of operations from which to carry on field sports than 

 Rochester is, she illustrates that vaulting ambition which 

 o'erleaps itself. E. Redmond. 



Rochester, N. Y., Aug. 17. 



BOSTON NOTES. 



JUST the best way to spend a vacation is something of 

 a question. Some are fond of the seashore, where 

 bathing in the morning and sitting on the piazza in the 

 afternoon make up a large part of the programme. But 

 this will never do for the lover of the rod and gun. A 

 vacation means more to him. Mr. A. W. Tompkins, 

 salesman for Foster & Weeks of this city, has a pretty 

 good idea of what a vacation should be to a live young 

 man, and he usually manages to get a good deal out of his 

 annual two weeks. In the first place he objects to going 

 Mich a distance as will take up some four or five days of 

 his precious time on the road. So he selects some spot 

 nearer home. This year Wayland, Mass.. was his choice, 

 and that of his friend Mr. J. A. Tolman. Both are lovers 

 of a good horse, as well as the rod and line. They both 

 drove to a pond in Wayland, not more than 18 miles 

 from Boston. They cam] ed at the pond, where boats 

 and everything was in readiness. Pickerel fishing was ex- 

 cellent. Right here it might be remarked that fishing of 

 this sort has been particularly good in many of the ponds 

 in this State this summer. They caught all they wanted 

 and some of the large ones were sent home. Black bass 

 fishing was good, but the boys preferred pickerel. 

 The pickerel were worth something after they were taken, 

 but the bass they did not try to eat. Nearly every day 

 their mothers, sisters and lady friends came up to see the 

 boys, and one of the features of the vacation was to drive 

 the ladies home at nightfall behind the fast steppers 

 They then would drive back to camp and finish out a* day 

 of rare pleasure in hunting bullfrogs with a jacklight. 

 The glare of the lantern turned upon the frog at a distance 

 of 20ft. would cause froggy to close his eyes, when he fell 

 an easy prey to the club of the frog hunters. The next 

 morning his hind legs furnished a dainty fry for break- 

 fast, or the tidbits were reserved for dinner, when the 

 ladies again came up for pickerel fishing. The boys did 

 their own cooking; and again they did not, for each time 

 the ladies came up they did not come empty handed in 

 the way of the best their culinary skill could produce. 

 The boys are blacker than redmen; that is to say, of 

 the insurance order type, but such a time comes only to 

 those who rough it. 



But if reports from Maine are to be credited, the deer 

 are remarkably plenty. Then, if further reports are to 

 be believed, they are being killed out of season. One 

 guide writes me that the deer are plenty at — I am not 

 going to aid other breakers of the law by publishing in 

 the Foeest and Steebm just where— and that they are 

 shooting them. It is a shame. It is totally unfair, and 

 enough to discourage those who are disposed to obey the 

 game laws. The other day some fishermen were bass 

 fishing in one of the ponds which lie between Bridgton 

 and Norway, Maine, when they saw what they at first 

 took for a duck, swimming rapidly past them and for the 

 other shore of the pond. Soon they saw that it could not 

 be a duck, and they "up killick" and give chase. It 

 proved to be a deer, and they gained upon it by rowing 

 with all their might. The man at the oars, a stout fel- 

 low with tremendous muscle, was determined to overtake 

 the deer, and he came very near succeeding. But the 

 deer soon got to where he could touch bottom, and with 

 a few bounds and splashes he struck the shore and was 

 away into the woods. The oarsman was so exhausted 

 that he could not move for some moments. His idea was 

 to catch the pretty creature alive. This deer was seen at 

 a pond among the farms, and at a point where a few 

 years ago such a creature was never heard of. 



At Eustis, I am told, a deer was shot as it crossed the 

 road one day last week. It was a doe, and very thin in 

 flesdi. It had come out into the fields to feed. Respect 

 for the law is not sufficient up there to prevent shooting 

 at deer or partridge^ whenever they are to be seen. On 

 the stage one morning a while ago, in the same town, 

 was a sportsman returning to the city, after having 

 caught about 1,000 trout by count. The number of fish 

 he had caught, which he could not possibly use, brands 

 him a — call him what you please, good reader of the 

 Foeest and Steeam— T say a man not fit to be in the 

 woods. An old p artridge ran out from the underbrush 

 by the roadside and made passes at the wheels of the 

 coach. Her young were doubtless in the brush, and she 

 was using the strategy that such birds will, to attract 

 the attention of wild animals from their young. The 



poor bird doubtless mistook the coach wheel for some 

 monster that was to harm her young. Our great sports- 

 man, mounted on the front seat, drew his revolver and 

 began firing at the bird. About the fourth shot she fell 

 dead. The cruel fellow jumped off the coach, examined 

 his booty, and finding it "poor as a crow," left it by the 

 roadside. Ah! when will men learn to go into the woods 

 with some sort of knowledge of the habits of the game 

 they seek, and with such a love of nature that they will 

 not kill for the mere sake of killing? The name of the 

 cruel, badly informed booby should be given right here, 

 only that my informant hides his name from me, because 

 he is a friend. . Special. 



An Old Fashioned Panthee Fight.— Quilcene, Wash. 

 — Editor Forest and Stream: Deer, wildcats, cougars, 

 and some bears are found in this vicinity. I have not 

 seen any bears, but I see their signs every few day?. I 

 have often wondered what hindered the cougars from 

 being very plentiful. They are monarchs of the woods, 

 and are very sly, with plenty of game and cattle to live 

 on. This spring I was talking with an old cruiser (a man 

 who hunts for timber and good land claims), who had 

 followed the business for the last twenty years in Oreg< to. 

 and this State. He never takes a gun, but carries only' 

 a blanket and a small axe. He related that one night 

 when ho was camping in the head of a ravine about dark 

 he heard a cougar scream on one of the ridges; and this 

 one was answered by another on the opposite ridge. They 

 kf-pt working toward the head, until finally they came 

 together some 300yds. above him in some quaking aspen; 

 and such a row and racket as they made he had never 

 heard before. They rolled down within 100yds. of him: 

 and he says that he was pretty well scared; but he kept 

 up a big tire and stayed behind that. They quieted down 

 in a couple of hours, and the next morning, when it was 

 light enough, he went on to the battle ground. He found 

 one of them lying there dead, all cut and torn to pieces. 

 It was a very large one. Four days afterward, as he was 

 coming back the same way, some" 500yds. from where he 

 had found the first one he had stumbled ugon the other 

 one, dead. This, too, was all cut and torn as the first had 

 been. At another time, in Oregon, he heard a big fight 

 going on, but did not go to see the results. He was stop- 

 ping one night with an old Indian, who had hunted and 

 trapped all his life, and was telling him about the fight, 

 when the Indian said that that was the way when two 

 old males met; one or the other was killed, and very often 

 both; and that whenever the male would find the young 

 ones and the mother absent he would kill the last one of 

 them, but if the mother were with them she would keep 

 him off. That must be the reason that the mother goes 

 with the young until they are nearly two years old. They 

 pay that all the cat kind will kill their young. We know- 

 that this is so with the domestic cat.— C. B. P. 



Codification of the New Yoek Laws.— There was 

 a meeting of the Commission for the Codification of the 

 Game Law?, which is composed of the Hon. R. U. Sher- 

 man, E. G. Whittaker and Robert B. Roosevelt, formerly 

 president of the Fishery Commission, and afterward 

 Minister to the Netherlands. The meeting was held at 

 Say ville, where Mr. Roosevelt has a country residence, 

 and entertained the Commission during their stay. Notice 

 had been extensively given out not only by advertise- 

 ment in the local papers, but by the printing and distri- 

 bution of hand bills, but although there were some 30 or 40 

 persons present at the meeting the netting interest was not 

 largely represented. Special efforts had been made to 

 get thetn to be present, as the Commission was anxious 

 to get their views. Those who did come differed as usual, 

 the pound-net men laying the diminution of fish, which 

 all admitted, to the fiy-netters, the latter putting the 

 blame on the set-net owners, and all uniting in saying 

 that the hook and line fishermen were most to blame for 

 catching more fish than they could use and allowing 

 these to spoil and rot till their smell was offensive to the 

 neighborhood. To show his associates how great was the 

 loss from this cmse Mr. Roosevelt took them in his yacht 

 to the famous Cinderbeds, where they found some thirty 

 other boats hard at work at this nefarious destruction. 

 However, as the entire Com mission did not catch a single 

 fish in two days' fishing, and could not ascertain that any 

 of the thirty boats caught more than twenty, the unlucky- 

 members from the rural districts came away with de- 

 cided doubts whether hand-line fishing was so ruinous as 

 alleged, especially when they remembered that these 

 thirty boats were the means of having spent on the bay 

 men not less than §500 and on the hotel keepers a great 

 deal more. The next meeting of the Commission is ap- 

 pointed for Staten Island and Peconic Bay. 



Hunts and Fishes and Runs the "Heeald," — 

 Indeed, the younger Bennett possesses many of the best 

 traits of his great father, the founder of the Herald. It 

 is a common error that he leaves to others the manage- 

 ment of his newspaper. Very few j ournalists are so ever- 

 present and pains-taking; for though hunting for tigers 

 in the jungles of the Soudan; or fishing for haddock in 

 the Arctic Ocean, this wizard of the tripod carries a wire 

 with him, and keeps his hand ever upon a galvanic bat- 

 tery. It is to this watchful and exacting, this original 

 and restless spirit, that the Herald owes not only its pecu- 

 liar influence and vitality at home, but its supremacy 

 among American journals abroad, where it stands alone 

 -and without a rival. — Louisville Courier- Journal. 



Minnesota Peairie Chickens.— Detroit, Minn , Aug. 

 13.— Editor Forest and Stream: In my note to you last 

 Monday, I believe I stated that the deer season was from 

 Nov. 15 to Dec. 1. I am mistaken in thus writing, as the 

 season is from Nov. 1 to Dec. 1; and from Dec. 1 to Dec. 

 15 to get the game out of the country. I regret making 

 such a blunder, but feel consoled when I read in the St. 

 Paul Press and the Minneapolis Tribune this morning 

 that the chicken season opened the 15th in3t., a blunder 

 inexcusable from two of the great dailies of the State. I 

 learn this afternoon that a party of four are out after- 

 chickens to-day. The grouse season will open Aug. 21. — 

 Myeon Cooley. 



Forest and Stbwam, Box 2,833, N. Y. city, has dessriptive illus- 

 trated circulars of W. B. Lefflagwell's book, "Wild Fowl Shoot- 

 ing," which will be mailed tz&e on request. The book is pro- 

 nounced by "Nanit," "Grloan," "Dick Swiveller," "Sybulene" and 

 other oompetent authorities to be the beat treatise on the subject 

 estant. 



