126 



FOREST AND STREAM. 



[Sept. 3, 1891. 



THE open season on partridge, or ruffed grouse, began 

 on Tuesday, Sept. 1, in Maine, New Hampshire and 

 Vermont. The open season on woodcock also began on 

 the same day in Maine and New Hamshire, but in Ver- 

 mont the open season on that bird began on Aug. 15. 



Mr. J. O. Frost, of the flour trade, and very well known 

 all over New England, lives on a fine farm in southern 

 Vermont. He dearly loves to shoot, and likes better still 

 to have his friends enjoy a good shoot. He lives in a 

 good partridge section, and usually there are some birds 

 to be had; but this year he tells me that he has not seen a 

 single flock. He remarks that thei-e ought to ba some 

 partridges in the woods about his place. By special sta- 

 tute, enacted in 1890, dogs are prohibited for hunting 

 gvonse in the State of Vermont. See BooJt of the Game 

 Laws (Forest and Stream Publishing Co.). 



W. H. Coggin, salesman with Dwinell, Hay ward &Co., 

 well known in the New England coffee trade, has just re- 

 turned from his vacation trip. He has been absent two 

 weeks. With his brother-in-law, W. H. Doan, he hired 

 a cottage at Norihport, Me. just out of Bfelfast Bay. 



sight. This was the closest I remember ever to have been 

 to thi? wild bird in his native state, when seen, I have 

 been closer to one, but then I did not know it until he 

 flew. 



This bird had heard me walking, and his curiosity had 

 prompted him to come to the edge and look down to dis- 

 cover the cause of the noise. Perceiving that my back 

 was toward him he knew I could not see him, and so had 

 remained; perhaps he had not seen enough of me to sat- 

 isfy him, and when I turned round he knew I could not 

 reach him from the lay of the ground. He probably had 

 never been shot at, and knew nothing of the killing power 

 of the gun which I held in my hand or of man's ability 

 to harm at a distance. There is a possibility also that 

 this bird had never even seen a man, although this is 

 hardly probable. Dorp. 



Schenectady, N. Y. 



WILD RICE. 



CHICAGO. — Mr. F, A, Howe, a prominent member of 

 the Tolleston Club, one of Chicago's most esteemed 

 sportsmen, one of the thoughtful and'investigating sort, 



Indiana.— Fremont, Ind., Aug, 18,-1 would like to 

 offer a suggestion, that more of the readers of your paper 

 would keep a memorandum of each day's shooting, giv- 

 ing an account of each shot and description of the ground 

 covered each day, etc., etc., and send a copy of the same 

 to your paper at least once each month. We have prairie 

 chicken in this county and the county west and north of 

 us. Partridges and quail are more more plenty than they 

 have been for many years. A great many of the farmers 

 object to hunting on their premises. I noticed the fre- 

 quent mention in Forest and Stream of Arctic owls 

 being killed during the last winter, I send you by pres- 

 ent mail photos of a pair which I secured last December. 

 Two others were killed in this county in the same 

 month. — Mc. 



Missouri Prairie Chickens. — Alexandria, Mo.— The 

 open season for grouse shooting here in Missouri begins 

 Aug. 1 , and on that date and for a week or so following 

 there is a general slaughter of these splendid game birds. 

 City hunters come out and camp, and invade stubble 

 fields and pastures and shoot most every grouse that they 



Mrs. Coggin and her sisser. Miss Ella F. Doan, were in 

 the party to make it complete. They went fishing every 

 day, when the weather would permit, and it was gener- 

 ally fine. They were there for fishing. It was mackerel 

 this year that they caught, instead of pickerel and bass 

 in the Hampden Pond, as last year. Oae morning they 

 made a catch of 42 mackerel, the ladies greatly enjoying 

 the sport. They had always enough for the table. The 

 fishermen in that section had a good deal to say about 

 "trow bait." They had it. It was clams chopped up, 

 and when kept for several days in warm weather, it was 

 fit to hi called any sort of biit, except sweet-smelling. 

 This "trow bait" would insure the fishermen a plenty of 

 mackerel almost any morning. One morning the Coggin 

 jiarty decided to try it. They hired the owner of the 

 "trow bait" to scatter it jilentiEally over the surface of 

 the sea, as was his wont. Taen they all fell to fishing, 

 but without a blessed mackerel, after a two hours' trial. 

 They sent the owner of "trow bait" home, and did not 

 ask for his services again. 



A peculiar attraction to be shown at the Eastern Maine 

 Fair, in Bangor, in a few days, is a pair of tame moose, 

 found and captured by one Burgoin, near the Hunt farm, 

 in the vicinity of Mattawamkeag. 



Camp Leatherstocking is completed, on the knoll known 

 as Cherrytree Point, just below Camp Stewart, at the 

 upper end of Richardson Lake, Me. This camp is the 

 property of Mr, N. G. Manson, Jr., of the firm of Bellows 

 & Manson, of the Boston iron trade. O. W. Cutting, the 

 well-known guide and camp cook, has been master 

 builder. It is said that the camp is a beauty. Dr. Haven 

 of Boston is to build a fine camp on the green island that 

 divides the West Arm from the uppsr end of Richardson 

 Lake, He will build this winter. Such is the march of 

 improvement. A few years more, and like the Adiron- 

 dacks,the R mgeleys will be lined with beautiful cottages 

 and camps, costing up into the thousands of dollars. 



Special. 



WAYS OF THE RUFFED GROUSE. 



ONE day while out shooting among the Glenville Hills, 

 I was walking in a path a short distance from the 

 top of one of the sides of a deep gorge that ran among 

 them. After going some distance I had stopped at a point 

 where the path wound abruptly round the hill, and I stood 

 looking down into the gulf below. From this j)oint I 

 had a magnificent view of the varied foliage, and caught 

 glimpses of the pebbly stream that flowed through its 

 whole length. Behind me the tall j)ines and hemlocks 

 threw a sombre shade over the scene. Their tops sway- 

 ing and roaring with the wind brought to my mind the 

 words of Bulwer Lytton: 



told me something which will be of interest to a great 

 many owning duck preserves. 



"I can tell you something about wild rice," said Mr. 

 Howe, "something jast the contrary of what you would 

 expect. You would naturally think, wouldn't you, that, 

 as the rice gets ripe and naturally falls off into the water 

 during the fall, the fall would be the natural season for 

 planting wild rice if you wanted it to grow to the best 

 advantage? Well, it isn't. I know it has always been 

 thought to be, but our experience at Tolleston Club this 

 year doesn't show that to be true. 



"We got twenty-five bitshels of wild rice last fall and 

 sowed twenty bushels of it the best we knew how. It 

 did poorly; indeed the experiment was practically a fail- 

 ure. This spring we took oar remaining five bushels and 

 sowed it, and the result is simply amazing. I believe we 

 have 200 acres of wild rice now, and I never saw a heav- 

 ier growth. The stalks are 8 ft. high and as wide as your 

 two fingers in some instances. We blundered into it, 

 but we now have wild rice in abundance on Tolleston 

 marsh, and it was this spring's sowing that did it. When 

 the marsh was dry the cattle killed off the original marsh 

 growth. We now have a dam which holds the water at 

 proper stage, and I think we have solved the question of 

 wild rice feed for om- clucks." E. Hough. 



An Appeal to Colorado Sportsmen. — ^Denver, Aug. 

 21. — To Members of the Rocky Mountain Sportsmen's 

 Association and All True Sportsmen: As ycu are aware, 

 our Association secured through the Eighth General As- 

 sembly the appointment of a game and fish commissioner, 

 three district game wardens and and six deputy wardens. 

 Our State Auditor now informs us that there are no funds 

 for the payment of salaries or expenses of the fish and 

 game wardens, in prosecuting violators of the game laws. 

 It is thought that by the last of October there will be an 

 abundance of money to cover these expenses; but now is 

 the critical period; giant powder is being freely used; hun- 

 dreds upon hundreds of deer and elk are being wantonly 

 slaughtered for their hides, and these violations are only 

 suffered to go unpunished by reason of the temporary 

 scarcity of State funds. In this exigency 1 believe it incum- 

 bent upon us as sportsmen, to fill in the gap. Betwen |200 

 and |300 are necessary at once. The money will be turned 

 over to Commissioner Land, accompanied by the name of 

 each subscriber. The assessment which I now make is 

 fifty cents per capita, for each member of the Asso- 

 ciation; this is a very trifling amount compared with the 

 immense good which I promise you will be done with the 

 money. Respond promptly and generously. Remit to me 

 joost office order, or jjostal note, to 1227 17th street, Den- 

 ver. Yours truly, C. M. Hampson, President R. M. S. A. 



"The dim forests awful \Yitlitlie roar of pines." 



Finally I turned to resume my walk, and as I did so 

 I cast my eyes upward and there upon a plateau cov- 

 ered with moss, that projected nearly over me, stood a 

 ruffed grouse looking intently down upon me. He was 

 12ft. from me, as I afterward measured it. He was partly 

 turned sideways, with his neck arched and head bent 

 down, and made a beautiful picture with a background 

 of evergreen. 



He remained motionless, as I did also for above a half 

 minute, when he slowly tiu-ned and was quickly lost to 



Kentucky. — Shelby ville, Aug. 18.— Although the sea- 

 son has been rather wet, quail appear to be plentiful in 

 the stubble and similar cover, and had 1 the time I could 

 have rare sport. It would be somewhat marred, though, 

 by having to lug around the 9 Jibs, of my 13-gauge. Who 

 will trade me a feather-weight small-bore for it? Quail 

 is about the only game to be found here. Rabbits are 

 plentiful, but no bu-d hunter wiU. shoot rabbits, because 

 too heavy to carry and not of much value to the table: 

 but they are eagerly hunted by the negroes, who often 

 depend on them as their only meat supply. — J, S. M. 



find. Some savage sportsmen even shoot grouse several 

 days before the law is out, thus getting in their cowardly 

 work ahead of sportsmen who observe the law. I think 

 the law is very imperfect a? to date. On Aug. 15 in this 

 latitude these birds are about two-thirds grown, and fall 

 easy victims to wholesale shooters. Let the open season 

 begin with December and end about Feb 15. This will 

 give those birds a chance to regain their numbers and to 

 continue with us. — Jasper Blines. 



The Storm of Last Week brought the shore birds 

 out in force along the Long Island and New Jersey coast 

 shooting grounds . 



mid §irp fishing. 



"ON THE. NORTH SHORE." 



COMMENTING on Mr. Starbuck's series of North Shore 

 fronting experiences, "Podgers" writes: I want to 

 express my thanks to your valuable correspondent ]\Ir. 

 Alex. Starbuck for setting at rest a long-cherished idea 

 that I could some day indulge in an outing on the shores 

 of Lake Superior. I have read very attentively that 

 gentleman's interesting articles on his exj)erience3 in 

 that region, and have come to the conclusion that I shall 

 not undertake any similar expedition in that direction, I 

 confess to a great disappointment in its resources, to say 

 nothing of its climatic features, and especially as regards 

 its fishing inducements. I am no tenderfoot, and can 

 endure much that is disagreeable if there is a reasonable 

 compensation in the way of sport for rod and reel. Prom 

 Mr. Starbuck's relation he appears to have enjoyed a 

 maximum of storms, bad weather and discomforts with a 

 minimum of good fishing, and after the facilities and 

 grand sport the waters of Canada afford, a trip to the 

 shores of the western lakes seems to be going much fur- 

 ther and faring a great deal worse. In fact there is sel- 

 dom any worse at all in Canada fishing. Mr. Starbuck 

 has dispelled the cherished illusions I have had of the 

 field for fishermen in the Far West. I know of fisjiiug 

 grounds to be reached in a palace car within twenty-five 

 hours of New York, where more trout and larger ones 

 can be landed in one, or say two days' fishing than Mr, 

 Starbuck claims in his whole trip, to say nothing of his 

 discomforts and the expense. 



There is ever a great charm in roughing it and encoun- 

 tering a certain amount of hardship in such an expe- 

 dition, and also a charm in wild scenery, all of which I 

 fully appreciate; but I want something else; I want fish, 

 and plenty of them, without which adjunct it is like a 

 dish without seasoning. Beautiful "lakes, waterfalls, 

 rushing rivers, fill the sentimental part, but I want to 

 fill the creel as well. Sentiment and love of nature plays 

 its part, but however beautiful the sparkling waters of a 

 lake, the clear rushing torrent of a river, if there are no 

 fish I want to move on. In Canada the lakes are beauti- 

 ful, the rivers rush and foam, the scenery is fine and so 

 is the fisliing. We get cart loads of sentiment and a 

 basketful of big fish at the same time. Sentiment and 

 fish harmonize when the fish are in it. I am not in it 

 when the fish are omitted. 



