292 



FOREST AND STREAM. 



[Oct. 2*, 1881, 



NOTES OF THE GAME. 



OTTAWA, Kan., Oct. 33.— Last Sunday I witnessed 

 the first large flight of geese and cranes in this part 

 of the country. Finer weather than this could not be 

 wished for and the woods are full of squirrels. Quail 

 there are, also, but the law protects them for about ten 

 days yet and I think it has been pretty well observed this 

 year. Although there are not so many birds as there 

 were last year, there ought to be enough to go round. 

 Ducks will probably be very scarce this year because the 

 streams and ponds are so low that they could not find 

 feed.— F. B. 



Daring the past two weeks the coots, ducks, etc., have 

 been quite plentiful and the gunners have had good 

 sport. One man killed 67 in a day in Ipswich Ba.y. Dur- 

 ing the last storm there was quite a flight of yellow-legs, 

 beetle-heads and grass birds. I know three men who 

 shot a bushel of grass birds in one day and 60 yellow-legs 

 and beetle-heads on another trip. E. F. Locke, 



Gloucester, Mass,, Oct. 16. 



Guns and Loads. — Editor Forest and Stream: I 

 notice in your edition of Oct. 8 an article by "S. F. A,," 

 regarding feather-weight guns, etc., wherein he claims 

 that it is necessary to use 8Jdrs. of powder in a 13-bore 

 gun, and that the recoil is so great in an arm weighing 

 even 7i^lbs., that a bruised shoulder is the result, which 

 is more than carrying a cannon. I formerly had the 

 same notions as to the necessity of a heavy charge of 

 powder to do good work, and carried an 8+lbs., No. 18 

 gun, loaded with 3Jdrs. of powder, and it certainly 

 weighed a half hundred at night. My attention being 

 called to the feather-weight I purchased one on trial and 

 loaded with 3drs. of Schultze powder. The result was a 

 heavy recoil and a bruised shoulder, 1 at once reduced 

 the load to 2^drs., and the result was marvelous. No re- 

 coil, great velocity and long range. I easily killed par- 

 tridge at oOyds,, and can do good execution at any ordin- 

 ary shooting distance. Let "S. F. A." load a gun for 

 what it is built to carry, and he will not have bruised 

 shoulders nor complain of inability to bring down his 

 game. I would not carry an S^lbs, gun if it were made a 

 present to me.— W. F, B. 



Beavee Dam DgcK Club.— Memphis, Tenn.~The great 

 influx of northern wild fowl, now swarming at Beaver 

 Dam, Duck Lake, gave earnest zest to the eighth annual 

 meeting of that clever organization last week, and a letter 

 from the faithful keeper, Andrew Jackson Bounds, says 

 the fall flight is now fully on, with mallards, teal, sprig- 

 tails and gray ducks. The beautiful and dainty wood 

 ducks are still abundant. The old ofiicers were re-elected 

 as from the genesis of the club: Dr. R. W. Mitchell, 

 president; Col. A. C. Treadwell, vice-president; W. A. 

 Wheatley, secretary and treasurer; M. L, Seldon, George 

 Gilham and J. A. Austin are the executive committee; 

 housekeeper, Mrs. Victoria Bounds. New cooking and 

 heating stoves were bought, with fall culinary outfit, and 

 from the gorge of moss, jonkapins, coltsfoot and peri- 

 winkles abounding in Beaver Dam, excellent sport is in 

 sight. Much of this di.ick food was planted by the club, 

 and much more has grown from deposits of feeds and 

 bulds by the two last overflows, filling the lake with 

 vegetation. 



Worcester Fur Club.— The annual grand hunt and 

 dinner of the Worcester Fur Company will he held to- 

 morrow, Oct. 30. Headquarters will be at the Bay State 

 House, The hunter's horn will sound at 5 o'clock on the 

 morning of the hunt. The start from the hotel will be at 

 6. Carriages will be in readiness to convey hunters to 

 the grounds. The meet will be at Hey wood farm at 7 

 o'clock. The annual dinner will be served at the Bay 

 State House at 7:30 o'clock on the evening following the 

 hunt. — E. Sprague Knowles, Sec'y. 



Buffalo for England.— Ten of Buffalo Jones's buf- 

 falo passed through this city last Monday on their way 

 to England. They have been purchased for the private 

 park of Mr. Leland, of Liverpool. 



An Island on the Coast of Maine, stocked Avith deer 

 and other game, is advertised for sale in another column. 



Angling Talks. By George Dawson. Price 50 cents, Fly- 

 Rods and Fly-TacUe. By II. P. Wells. Price $2.50. Fly- 

 Fishing and Fly-Malcing for Trout. By J. H, Keene. 

 Price $1.60. American Angler's Booh, By Thad. Nori'is. 

 Price $5,60. 



THE ANGLER'S PROTECTIVE CLUB. 



RANGELEY, Maine.— iJdttor Forest and Stream: This 

 Association has been in active operation for the past 

 two seasons undpr the title of the "Franklin County Fish 

 and Game Association." The name has been changed as 

 indicated above, as the old name implied that the interests 

 of the Association were confined to but a portion of the 

 lakes and streams embraced in the Rangeley or Andros- 

 coggin Lakes region, while its object is to preserve and 

 propagate game and fish in all the waters of this system 

 Tne season of 1889-90 was too far advanced when our 

 hatching house was finished to enable us to obtain any 

 spawn from this region. We obtained, however, from 

 Messrs, Stanley and Stil well, the Fish Commissioners of 

 the State of Maine, some 40,000 spawn of the landlocked 

 salmon, hatched in our troughs a large percentage of the 

 spawn, and fry were turned into streams tributary to 

 Rangeley Lake in June, 1890. 



During the season of 1890-91 we were again indebted to 

 the Fish Commissioners of this State for a supply of sal- 

 mon eggs and hatched some 13,000 fry. We took also 

 from this neighborhood about 850.000 trout eggs, of which 

 not less than 235,000 were successfully hatched. Of the sal- 

 mon 4,500 were placed in Toothaker Brook, emptjanginto 

 Cupsuptic Lake, 3,500 into Whetstone Brook, a tributary 

 of Kennebago Stream, 3,000 went to Kennebago Lake,8,000 

 to Parmachenee Lake, 500 to Dodge Pond and 500 into the 

 !-:( ream emptying into Smith Cove, Rangeley Lake. Of the 

 ; rp.it 40,000 were plar;«fl in lYbptstone Brpok, 90,000 in 



Witham Brook, a stream emptying into Mooselookmegun- 

 tic Lake near Camp Bemis, and the balance, 165,000, were 

 placed in Smith's Cove Brook, Haley Pond Brook and 

 Niles Brook, tributaries of Rangeley Lake. It has been 

 the aim of the managers to distribute the young fish in 

 different localities, suitable for their development, and in 

 proportion bearing some relation to the interests of those 

 contributing to the funds of the cltib. 



It is our desire to conduct during the coming year one 

 or more ponds on lands to be owned by the club in which 

 we may ke<^p yoang trout and salmon until they are a 

 year old and thus more able to care for themselves. For 

 this purpose we need about |o00, and special subscriptions 

 are solicited from the friends of the Association. For the 

 coming season we expect to be able to make temporary 

 arrangements for keeping our fish in a private pond, under 

 our own control, but it is eminently desirable that we 

 should own our own ponds as soon as possible. 



It is proper that we should acknowledge here the uni- 

 form courtesy and generous support which we have re- 

 ceived at times from the Commissioners of the State of 

 Maine, Messrs. Stanley and StiJwell. We also desire to 

 extend our thanks to the Phillips and Rangeley, Sandy 

 River and Maine Central Railroads for generous financial 

 aid in the past. 



We urge the members of the club to call the attention 

 of the friends to this meritorious work, to solicit aid from 

 those interested in this region, either as residents or 

 visitors during the summer season, to subscribe liberally 

 toward the construction of the ponds, and to see that 

 those in arrears for their annual dues make prompt pay- 

 ment of the same to the treasurer, Mr. Arthur L, Oakes, 

 Rangeley, Franklin county, Maine, to whom all remit- 

 tances should be addressed, 



Frederick S, Dickson, President, 



Akthuh L. Oakes, Secretary and Treasurer. 



SANDUSKY BAY WHITE BASS FISHING. 



THERE is no portion of the great Lake Shore route 

 which so interests the traveling public as the ride 

 from Marblehead Junction to Venice— a distance of five 

 miles— across the Sandusky Bay, I think the ma jority 

 of the readers of the Forest and Stream are familiar 

 with the name, at least, as it has been the favorite route 

 for years to the islands of Lake Erie, Aside from the 

 varied and pretty scenery and the enjoyment of the 

 ever-refreshing lake breezes the average traveler seldom 

 thinks of the life at the bottom of the bay, or cares about 

 the depth, the width, the length or the changing cur- 

 rents; but an angler is anxious to learn more about this 

 broad sheet of rippling water. He wonders whether the 

 channel is deep and winding, if the water is always clear 

 and fresh, or if the bay is shallow and covered with 

 marsh gi'ass, subject to change according to wind and 

 tide, and whether any one has ever tried to steal from its 

 inviting eddies, deep holes and shallows the cunning 

 black bass, the savage pike, the timid sauger or the often 

 welcome, but greedy, "pan fish." Some time ago my 

 business called me in the immediate neighborhood of 

 this bay and I questioned the shore farmers as to the 

 fishing with hook and line, and kind and quantity of 

 fish caught in the many pound nets leading from the 

 shore. Their experience as anglers were not very flatter- 

 ing, but I was respectfully referred to Mr. John Robinson, 

 a fellow townsman, whom I learned was a native of this 

 vicinity and had the reputation of being the most suc- 

 cessful fisherman "in all the country round about." 

 "Why," said one of the pound fishermen, "he can make 

 more tempting varieties bf bait out of a red and white 

 piece of cloth than all the spoon manufacturers in the 

 land.'" I promised to see him when 1 returned home. 

 John Robinson is a detective, quiet, unassuming, of very 

 striking appearance, and his manner is characterized by 

 the nameless charm which shows itself when you ask, 

 "Do you enjoy fishing with the spoon?'' He was the last 

 man I would select as being an admirer of the rod and 

 line. An engagement was very quickly made. "Meet 

 me at the depot at half past three Wednesday morning 

 and I will show you something not found in books." I 

 was there on time. 



Many stories have been told about the great quantities 

 of white bass caught in the tributary rivers of the bays 

 of Lake Erie; even the venerable Judge Potter informed 

 me that a long time ago he stood upon a Maumee River 

 dock, and with the barb removed from the hook filled 

 barrel after barrel with silverj' white bass and never 

 touched a fish with bis hands, "Simply dipped them 

 out." 



The anglers along the Maumee have been listening 

 to these exciting stories for years, and until but recently 

 has the Judge's experience been verified in Sandusky 

 Bay. 



A short distance from Marblehead Junction the Lake 

 Shore crosses a drawbridge, and all trains stop a moment 

 giing east and west before going over. It was at this 

 draw we were to do our fishing. "Now, we use no min- 

 nows," said Mr. Robinson. A small spoon was tied at 

 the bottom, a foot above a hook with a narrow piece of 

 white cloth, and another above this, with a fourth hook 

 tied to the sinker. In the channel around this draw, and 

 in fact between the trestle work where the water runs 

 freely in and out, since the 30fch day of June to the pres- 

 ent—the 80th day of September— the water has been at 

 times literally alive with white bass. Thousands can be 

 seen sporting at morning, noon and evening, a continual 

 stream going in and out for hours at a time, now chasing 

 a frightened perch, following a crippled fly, darting here 

 and there with lightning rapidity. "And has all this 

 been going on for months," I said, admu-ing the picture, 

 "and, too, in sight of some of the best anglers in 

 America?" 



At the first cast hundreds of these handsome fish darted 

 right and left after the moving, deceiving bait. Often 

 two, sometimes three, and occasionally four bass were 

 caught at a oast. The fish would swim in schools, and, 

 as if tii-ed of moving in the same direction, would sud- 

 denly disappear but to make the water foam at another 

 point, 



Mr. Robinson, by actual count, landed 805 white bass, 

 weighing from a half to a pound each. As for myself, 

 there are a few readers of the Forest and Stream who 

 would " wink the other eye" if I named the number caught; 

 but suffice it to say when the noon train stopped at the 

 draw, homeward bound, I should not have refused assist- 1 

 ance, had it been offered me, to get on the coach. From j 

 pacing and jaaullTig iii fish my arpfjs were lapje for a. 



week after. It was the richest treat I ever had the pleas- 

 ure of enjoying, and even greater catches have been 

 made by expert fishermen during the closing summer 

 months. 



The bass are not always in sight during their sporting 

 movements, but they are there and ready to take the 

 spoon. They readily took a minnow, and the deeper 

 fished the larger the bass. Many lake pickerel were 

 caught during the past month. 



Capt. Jerry Dewey, of Cleveland, who received his 

 graduating lessons in capturing large fish from Col. 

 Edwards, landed a pickerel that supplied one of the 

 largest hotels in Sandusky, and half an hour after he 

 caught the fish there was not enotigh money in Sandusky 

 county to purchase it. There has not been a day since 

 the middle of June, so the bridge tender informed me, but 

 that great schools of white bass were sporting around the 

 stone-filled piers and trestle works: and, contrary to some 

 ^fishermen's signs, the stronger the wind blew from the 

 east the greater number of bass appeared in the openings, 

 and any person familiar at all with the rod and line could 

 catch more fish than they could carry in a short time. 

 This fishing has not been equalled in years, and has only 

 been enjoyed by a few who were familiar with the facts. 



By accident I had the pleasure of meeting the Izaak 

 Walton of Port Clinton, a Lake Shore, Ohio, town, the 

 genial angler W, M. Montgomery, and after listening to 

 my wonderful white bass story, he raised his bands and 

 moved them toward me and blandly said, "That ain't 

 anything. You fellows don't know what fishing is. I can 

 take you to a place where black bass are so plentiful that 

 if you are an expert at handling a landing net you can 

 just dip them out, so to speak. The territory extends for 

 many miles, never been fished with hook and line, and is 

 to-day the finest black bass fishing grounds in the United 

 States." 



I readily accepted the invitation to accompany him. 

 He named the day. I was there; and if the reader can 

 stand another exciting fish story I will tell you something 

 about the "greatest large-mouthed black bass fishing 

 grounds in the world," in a later issue of the Forest and 

 Stream. J. E. Gunckel. 



ToT.EtiO, Ohio. 



THE LAMPREY EEL. 



Editor Forest and Stream: 



Can you tell me whether the common lamprey eel of 

 our American rivers is fit for food, as is his European 

 congener. If so, whether at all seasons or only a certain 

 period of the year. And also, whether any' particular 

 method of preparation is necessary, 



E. W. Green ouGH. 



SUNBtTRY, Pa. 



[The great sea lamprey {Pettomyzon marinus), whidh 

 runs up our rivers from the ocean during the shad season 

 from March to June is edible and may be obtained in the 

 markets of many large cities. Those who like lampreys 

 prize them very highly, but the demand for them is 

 very limited in most localities. Along the Connecticut 

 they are held in high favor. Many New England famil- 

 ies formerly salted the fish for use in winter. The mode 

 of taking Ibis eel is singular and is based upon the cixri- 

 ous habits of the species. The apparatus used is a pole 

 about 6ft, long, with a hook in its end, or a shorter piece 

 of iron terminating in a hook. The lampreys ascend the 

 streams in schools and build nests of stones heaped to- 

 gether by fastening their suctorial mouths and drawing 

 the stones into heaps. As the fish are found in shallow 

 water their capture is easily accomplished; they may 

 even be taken readily by the hands, the fishermen wear- 

 ing mittens to prevent the fish from slipping from their 

 grasp. In Germany and France lampreys are cooked in 

 eartlienware jars with vinegar and spices. In early days 

 in Eui'ope they were drowned in wine and afterward 

 stewed. In New England, after being salted for a few 

 weeks, the eels are fried, and are said to be very palat- 

 able. The lamprey has a cartilaginous skeleton aiid there 

 are no libs, so that after the removal of the "backbone" 

 in dressing the whole of the flesh can be eaten, [ 



INTERNATIONAL FISH PROTECTION, 



A MEETING of rei^resentatives of different sections of 

 the United States and Canada, who came together 

 in response to an invitation sent out by Hr, A, D. Stewart, 

 secretary of the Ontario Game and Fish Commission, met 

 at the Fifth Avenue Hotel, in this city, last Thursday. 

 Those present were: Messrs. H. M. Smithers, of Wash- 

 ington; R. U. Sherman, E. G. Whittaker and Robt. B. 

 Roosevelt, of the New York Codification Commission; 

 Henry C. Ford, of the Pennsylvania Fish Commission: 

 G. H. Welshour, of Pittsburgh; E. G Blackford and L. 



D. Huntington, of the New York Fish Commission, and 



E, P. Doyle, Clerk of the Commission; Frank .J, Amsden, 

 of the Cheaper Food Fish Association: J. M. Skinner and 

 G. H, Strough, of the Anglers' Association of the St. 

 Lawrence River; A, D. Stewart and G. A, McCallum, of 

 Ontario; J. U. Gregory, of Quebec. 



R. B. Roosevelt was appointed chairman and A. D, 

 Stewart, secretary. After some discussion as to the pre- 

 cise line of effort, it was voted to confine the effort to 

 securing proper uniform fi-sh legislation for the Great 

 Lakes. A sub committee of nine was appointed to meet 

 and draw up a report to be submitted to an adjourned 

 meeting to be held at c »ll of the chair. The sub-commit- 

 tee will meet on Nov. 10, at Rochester. It is made up 

 of the following: Messrs. H, W. Smith, A. C. Ford, 

 Henry Burden, J. A. Henshall, G. A. McCallum, F. J, 

 Amsden, R. U. Sherman, Dr. Parker and J, U, Gregory. 



Black Bass East of the Allegany Divide.— Ports- 

 mouth, 0.,Oct. 19. — Editor Forest and Stream: In your 

 issue of the 15th I noticed Mr. Poindexter would like to 

 know who introduced black bass in the waters east of the 

 Allegany Divide, Mr, Thomas Schreiver, of Wheeling, 

 W. Va,, placed 14 bass and 9 catfish in the tank of a 

 locomotive and sent them to Cumberland, Md,, where 

 the bass were thrown into the river and the catfish into 

 the canal, in the summer of 1853, From them has sprung 

 our fine bass fishing, — G. B. Leary, 



A FULi. Roe Shad was caught last Tuesday at the 

 mouth of the Great Wicomico River, Mr. Noel, who is 

 in the oyster business, says it is the first time he ever 

 knew of such a catch ia those waters in this season.—' 

 Baltimore Sun, Oct. 



