68 



FOREST AND STREAM, 



[Feb. 12, 1891. 



PoTTSviLLE Game and Fish Assooeation.— Editor 

 Forest and Streavi: The atmual election of officers of 

 the Pottsville Game and Fish Protective Association was 

 was held last Wednesday evening, Feb. 4. The follow- 

 ing ofiicers and trustees were elected to serve for the 

 ensuing: year: President, J. M. Wether ill: Vice-Pj'esi- 

 dent, H. J. Hendler; Treasurer. Cyrus Rhectz; Secretary, 

 F. C. Palmer: Solicitor, Clms. C. Matten; Trustees, Chas. 

 Parkin'^, E. G. Hoovei-. Jas. Eussell, H. E, Foste r. Croo. 

 Eose, Al Bindley, Chas. Sohiiupf. This association has 

 been in existence one 3 eai-, and during that time has 

 done much-to protect the yait\G and fish. Ifc is acknowl- 

 edged by ail that there was more game in this vicinity 

 during the last season tlian there Iras been for many 

 years, and the association claims some credit for this. 

 The association is making a determined effort to put out 

 a great many trout fry this spring. The initiation 

 fee is fifty cents, annual dues oue dollar. Any person 

 who believes in the protection of game and game fish 

 and the propagation thereof is eligible to membership. 

 During the year the association paid men to act as 

 wardens, who traveled the mountains in search for viola- 

 tors of the laws, and continually advertised rewards for 

 the arrest and conviction of violators of the game and 

 fish laws. The association has now over a hundred mem- 

 bers in good standing.— P. 



EiFLE Aiming at Game. — Editor Forest and Streavi: 

 Your correspondent J, J, Meyrick (in Nov. fi) speaks of 

 certain positions in making long shots .at game. The lead- 

 ing idea, if I understand correctly, is the using a stick to 

 steady the aim. He thinks that aid must be generally 

 unlinown in America. In this he is mistaken. Ou the 

 plains, when muzzleloaders were in use. it w.as a common 

 occirrrence for the hunter when making a long shot, 

 taking the military position, hre kneeling, to steady the 

 aim with his ramrod. In 1861 I was at a camp of 

 Cheyenne Iiidians in Wyoming. A number of the Indians 

 had good rifles, and we shot at targets with them. They 

 each carried a long stick. (To the best of my recollection, 

 about 4ift.) When firing they squatted, or sat upon their 

 heels, and steadied their arm with the stick. For a num- 

 ber of years past I have occasionally hunted deer in the 

 Nortliern Peninsula of Michigan and would frequently 

 find parties of Chippewa Indians also hunting deer. They 

 all used a like stick to steady their aim, even when firing 

 standing. Those Indians I saw rarely fired at running 

 game.— H. S. [Our experience has been that Indians in 

 old times almost always carried two slender sticks, which 

 were used for wiping sticks and also to form a crotch for 

 a rest when aiming. We have seen this done among the 

 Utes, Snakes, Pawnees, Blackfeet and many other tribes.] 



Michigan Game Laws. — The Muskegon (Mich.) Fish 

 and Game Protective Association have petitioned the Leg- 

 islature to prohibit spring shooting (except jacksnipe to 

 May 1); to repeal the law against deer hounding; to restore 

 the quail season as it was two years ago; to prohibit the 

 sale of game; to continue the ofiice of State game warden. 

 They also ask that beaver, mink, otter, muskrat, raccoon, 

 martin and fisher may have protection from Mav 1 to 

 Dec. 1. 



Michigan Quail.— Holland, Mich., Jan. 27.— Rabbits 

 are plentifrd here this season. A party of six bagged 44 

 yesterday. Quail are numerous and are increasing fast, 

 although from what I can hear, some lawless persons have 

 been shooting them. We had no duck shooting to speak 

 of last fall, but hope for a good flight in the spring. I 

 saw one robin and heard another last Sunday.— A. G, B. 



mid ^iv^t ^mhinq. 



The full texts of the game fish laws of all the States, 

 Territories and British Provinces are given in the iSooTc of 

 the Game Laws. 



ANGLING REtREATS OF MAINE. 



ni, — the elijottsville lakes and ponds. 



ELLIOTTSVILLE PLANTATION is noVth of Monffon. 

 Its south line by the way of the only traveled road 

 there is some five miles from Lake Hebron. An ancient 

 roadway, scraggy, moss-grown and hoary, overhung by 

 the low branches of old trees, skirted \>j xjrimeval 

 forests, ledges of huge rocks and ragged boulders, 

 and crossed by numerous brooks and stTeams, leads 

 from the "Savage road" to Wilson River. From the 

 Wilson River bridge the road divides into three differ- 

 ent branches, one leading north and winding around 

 the brow of Boar Stone Mountain to the two lone habita- 

 tions of Nympbus Bodfish and Trustrum H. Brown. The 

 dwelling of the latter is the last residence tins side of the 

 great untrodden wilderness, which is unbroken from 

 there to the Canadian country. The easterly road from 

 the Wilson bridge leads to Greenwood Pond. The west- 

 erly branch is just in one of the isolated and now unin- 

 habited farms which represent a former civilization. 

 Many years ago when the settlement thrived on the 

 "Savage road" this was a hamlet of thrifty and busy 

 farmers. There were also mills, a post-ofiice, school- 

 house and a store at the bridge. All is changed now. A 

 few old and scattered houses alone remain to tell the tale 

 of bygone days. Until its few settlers wei-e awakened 

 by the sound of the locomotive of the Canadian Pacific 

 Eailway it was not altogether nnlike Goldsmith's deserted 

 village. 



Brown is a recluse and lives in his primitive residence 

 alone in one of the wildest spots in that region. He is 

 withal a good and reliable guiue, and is well acquainted 

 with all of the trout ponds and the haunts of the deer and 

 caribou. It is six miles from his place to Hedge Hog 

 Pond, which can be reached by an old lumberman's "tote 

 road." A. fair fly or bait fislierinan can there readily 

 secure 100 spotted trout in a day, for it is not as easy of 

 access as many others and is yet comparatively secure 

 from the intrusion of the multitude. It is also six miles 

 from Brown's to Long Pond, which is a. lake eight miles 

 long, of an irregular and crooked shape and contains 

 large quantities of spotted and lake trout and landlocked 

 salmon. Its outlet flows into Onaway Lake at the south. 

 The fishing here is most excellent, as this is also inacces- 

 siblej with carriages. The last two miles of its outlet. 



wdiich is called Long Pond Stream, is very picturesque 

 and the scenery is beautiful. On it are a succession of 

 falls known as "Slue Gundy." It winds gracefully along 

 for several miles under charming elm and white birch 

 foliage. In the spring season it is an excellent stream 

 for brook trout fisliing. 



From Wilson Falls, at the bridge before mentioned, 

 wiiich are eight miles from Monsou, it is one and one- 

 half miles to the shore of Greenwood Pond, The shore of 

 Greenwood is reached by wagons. Here the eye gazes 

 xijjoij a beautiful sheet of water, and at fii-st sight one 

 supposes it to be only a small pond. But an exjiloration 

 discovers that what appeared like its head is only the 

 "narrows," so called, or a small channel surrounded on 

 either side by high and abrupt shores. Then your craft 

 is in quite a large expanse of water under the shade of 

 Boarstone and Greenwood Mountains. Caribou Cove is 

 on its easterly side and is about one mile in length, A 

 few rods to the west lie the two smaller ponds, known 

 as the Little Greenwoods, hidden away under the hoary 

 brow of Greenwood Mountains, These ponds have the 

 spotted and the larger one has both, spotted and lake 

 trout, 



A boat or canoe ride of one and one-half miles across 

 Greenwood and a carry or walk of one mile, which is 

 through a wide, open and dry path in the w^oods, bring the 

 angler to the shores of Lake Onaway, or what is often called 

 Ship Pond, about four miles long, Onaway is said to 

 have been its original Indian name, but the lumbermen 

 and jnoneers called it Ship Pond, because its shape is 

 very much like that of a schooner. In the days when the 

 red men were the denizens of this country the principal 

 route of travel from the Penobscot River and bay to Can- 

 ada was by the way of tliis lake, thence by Moosehead 

 Lake and Moose River. The form of this lake is odd and 

 curious, having many (|uaint coves and irregular bays 

 and within it several islands. It is in the midst of a very 

 dense and vast forest. Its waters are fringed- by comely 

 and graceful white birch trees, whose shadowy forms in 

 a moonlight evening give the surroundings a weird ap- 

 pearance. It is surrounded by Boar Stone, Greenwood, 

 Barron, Benson and Chairback mountains, all grand and 

 magnificent, whose venerable tops look down upon its 

 placid watei's, making a picture of rare beauty and a 

 scene of grandeur seldom equalled. That great highway 

 of nations, the Canadian Pacific Railway, now passes 

 along its southern shore, although rto settlements have 

 yet been developed. There are some camps here which 

 are comfortable abiding places for the visiting angler. 

 Besides the same species of trout which invest all these 

 neighboring ponds, this is well filled with landlocked 

 salmon and smelts. 



Dm-ing the season of 1886 the writer, with three friends, 

 spent five days there and during the time took and car- 

 ried to camp 69 salmon. They were all caught witli light 

 rods. None were saved that weighed less than lib. and 

 the largest one captured tipped the scales at Gibs, These 

 fish are fighters worthy the skill of the most expert 

 fishers. They take a fly, though the most universal mode 

 is with bait in about 66ft. of water. At Flood Ccve and 

 other points around the head of the lake many large 

 spotted trout are taken trolling with flies and worms. 

 The smelts are similar to the salt water smelts and are 

 exceedingly sweet tasting and dehcious as a food fish. In 

 the summer of 1883 a gentleman from Providence, E. I., 

 captured there, with an 8oz. rod, a lake trout that 

 weighed IQ^lbs. Since then one other trout has been 

 taken near the same spot that was his snperior in weight 

 by about 2lbs. The shores are rough, uneven and rocky, 

 huge granite boulders being seen in all directions. They 

 remind one of another place described by Thoreau as 

 "the raw materials of a planet dropped from an unseen 

 quarr3^" The only real smooth shore is what is known 

 as Haynes Beach, about midway of the lake on the 

 easterly side in a pleasant and pretty cove. Boar Stone 

 Mountain stands like a grim sentinel, lofty and majes- 

 tic, overshadowing all. An ascent to its peak is often 

 made by tourists. Near its summit are three small ponds 

 of pure, clear and very cold water. In one of these the 

 water is of remarkable depth. The outlets of these ponds 

 rush and tumble over the mass of rocks, over the waste 

 and desolation of ages in their rapid flight to the waters 

 of Onaway. There is one cove called Duck Cove, which 

 is grassy and where are numerous little bays, firths and 

 lagoons extending into the marsh. About this cove and 

 among these lagoons ducks in their season are quite 

 plenty. J, F, S, 



MoNSON, Me. 



SALMON IN WINTER. 



Editor Forest and Stream: 



In your paper of the 8th inst., on "Salmon Fishing in 

 Winter," you write that salmon, especially in the months 

 of March and April, are caught with hook and line in the 

 Baltic along the north coast of Germany at depths vary- 

 ing from 16 to 32 fathoms from 6 to 20 miles oft' shore, and 

 in the open sea near Sweden through the autumn and 

 winter; and quote a statement that Eastern salmon spawn 

 in the fall, yet there is a later run which spawn in Janu- 

 ary and February and return to the sea as kelts in June. 

 "Scarlet-Ibis" writes truthfully that probably more would 

 be heard about the taking of salmon during winter were 

 it not against the law. Living on the River St. John, 

 New Brunswick, I write what I know of the salmon fre- 

 quenting it. In the months of .June, July and August 

 quantities are caught in nets in the Bay of Fundy and all 

 along the river on their way to tbe spawning grounds. 

 Later this net fishing for salmon is prohibited. But years 

 ago, before such laws were very strictly enforced at points 

 on the river within 80 miles of its mouth, bright fish 8, 9 

 and lOlbs. were caught, and a few, though contrary to 

 law, are now caught in the months of October, November, 

 December and later where the current is rapid and the ice 

 does not make in January, February and March. 



At the Belle Isle Bay, thirty miles up river, fishing for 

 bass is permitted during the winter, and nets are set 

 under the ice and salmon are at times caught in those 

 nets as well as bass. Last winter one of 401bs. was 

 caught; whether it was a spent or bright fish I cannot 

 say. But the autumn and winter fish I speak of and 

 have seen were bright round fish and did not show signs of 

 early spawning. In the months of March, April and May 

 an occasional bright salmon is caught in the gaspereaux 

 fishing nets at the north of the river, thus showing that 

 salmon enter the river St. John every month in the 

 year. Whether those that enter it in the autumn and 



winter come to spawn I will not say, but from the state 

 of the fish that I have seen opened am of the opinion that 

 they do not in the winter time. The black or spent fish 

 that I and others have caught on the rivers flowing into 

 the Gulf of St. Lawrence wdth a fly in May and June we 

 have looked upon as fish that had spawned late in the 

 autumn and remained in the deep pools, ice-bound, 

 through the winter and were making for the sea. 

 What the bright fish that are with us in the winter come 

 for if not to spawn is to me an unanswered question; 

 possibly they, like the Baltic fish, having spawned early 

 go to sea and recuperate, that their haunts, not yet known 

 to us, are not very far away, and they are ready to visit 

 their fresh-water homes when nature calls or when an- 

 noyed with the lice that gather on them in the sea and 

 that fresh water relieves them from; or there may be 

 some kinds of food in the rivers even in winter that at- 

 tracts some. The Kennebeccasis, a fresh-water tributary 

 of the St. John, swarms with cod, pollock and hake, 

 strictly salt-water fish — all winter feeding on the smelt 

 that are in it at that time and are caught through the 

 ice. Jas. A. Harding. 



.St. John, January. 



ANGLING NOTES. 



MOST anglers have pet theories of their own about fly- 

 fishing, and the less experience they have the 

 more firmly they believe in these theories. In fact, after 

 one season's fishing the majority of fishermen know more 

 than they ever will know again. The truth is, it will not 

 answer to put forth any decided theories or rules for fish- 

 ing unless one has had experience covering the whole 

 country. For instance, in one water trout or bass will 

 take the fly only early in the morning or late in theeven-^ 

 ing, while on other waters, perhaps only a lev^miles ofl*j' 

 they will rise only in the middle of the day. Or the fish 

 may show a decided preference for a certain fly in one 

 season and refuse it the next. 



On Lake Coldon, in the Adirondacks, the trout prefer 

 a black-gnat at night, while in most waters they can only 

 be taken on very light-colored flies after dark. One ang- 

 ler claims that flies should be dressed very thick and 

 bushy, and others insist they nevery should be made that 

 way. 



Mr, W. C. Prime has a theory that trout always MU 

 natural flies with their tails before taking them, and ti'eat 

 the artificial insects the same way. 



One afternoon I was fishine in a pool noted for big 

 trout that were exceedingly difficult to catch, and though 

 I tried all sorts of flies I could not coax up a single fish. 

 In despair I looped on a sal mon fly that had rested unused 

 for several years in the back of my fly-book. To my 

 astonishment a trout rose for it with a startling splash the 

 moment it touched the water. After leading him to the 

 shallows and landing him, I took a second and a third in 

 quick succession and then lost the fly on a fourth. Now, 

 I thought to myself, I know what these fish want; so the 

 next day I took a four-mile tramp to this pool, well sup- 

 plied with these big flies; to my great disappointment the 

 trout never looked at it. Had I not tried them again, I 

 should have felt certain that those fish could always be 

 taken on a salmon fly. 



There was a piece of water just above the famous sec- 

 ond fall on Eock Eun, Pa. , in which it was said trout 

 would never take a fly. Every one that fished there 

 agreed to that theory, though they could give no reason 

 for it. I certainly' was astonished when I tried it, for 

 though the fish were rising well all along the stream I 

 could not get a trout on this stretch; so I waded back 

 carefully, and to my surprise could not see a single trout. 

 After a thorough examination I made up my mind that 

 the reason no one could take them with the fly was be- 

 cause there were none there to take. This stretch of 

 stream was about one-fourth of a mile long and situated 

 between two falls, and was evidently barren water 

 with a smooth bottom of solid rock, affording no food 

 and no shelter. 



According to Rudyard Kipling's story in one of the daily 

 papers he and his friends must have had grand sport fly- 

 fishing for salmon on the Pacific coast. Every season 

 we hear of some one's success with these fish, and it 

 would greatly aid the solution of this problem if anglers 

 would mention the time of year, kind of fly, etc., so that 

 others could profit by their experience. We have always 

 believed that under proper conditions these western 

 salmon could be killed on the fly. 



The warm weather of the past few weeks has brought 

 the tarpon to the Florida coast, and many have been 

 hooked, though owing to want of proper tackle few have 

 been saved. We advise those interested to read "Angling 

 Notes" in our Jan. 8 issue, ScARiiET-lBis. 



The Bisbt Club.— At the annual meeting, held in 

 Utica last week, the following officers were elected: 

 President, Gen. Richard U. Sherman, New Hartford; 

 Vice-President, Gen. James W. Husted, Peekskili; Second 

 Vice-President, T. R. Proctor. Utica; Secretary, T. R. 

 Proctor, iJtica; Treasurer, W, H. Boardman, New York; 

 Legal Counselor, R. F. Wilkinson, Rough keepsie. Trus- 

 teps — President Sherman (ex-offlcio), T. R. Proctor, H. 

 Lee Babcock, of New- Hartford; W. H. H. Wooster, of 

 Seymour, Conn.: W. H. Boardman, R, F, Wilkinson. 

 The excutive committee consists of the president, first 

 vice-president, secretary, treasurer and legal counsel. 

 President Sherman read an interesting report, in which 

 he described the progress of the club during the past year. 

 It was shown to be very prosperous. Various improve- 

 ments were recommended, especially the enlargement of 

 the ponds at the hatchery, and the clearing of more 

 ground for agricultural purposes. 



Cumberland County Association. — Portland, Me., 

 Feb. 7. — EdUor Forest and Stream: We ha.ve formed an 

 association, to be called the Cumberland County Associa- 

 tion of Game Fishermen, with the object of assisting in 

 stcicking and jirotecting the Sebago waters. Nearly all 

 the businejss and jjroiessional men of the -city and county 

 who shoot or fish (most of them do both) are in it. 'Wlaen 

 more.definite plans are laid out I will keep you informecl 

 if you desire. — D. 



