22S 



FOREST AND STREAM. 



I Sept. 15, 1893. 



A DAY ON ASTAL LAKE. 



Montreal, Sept, Q— Editor Forest and Stream: I 

 have just returned from a few days' fishing on Astal 

 Lake, soroe five miles back of Little Metis, at which place 

 I have been the guest of Mr. and Mrs. J. B. Letendre, of 

 Montreal , whose cottage adorns this most popular sea-side 

 resort: and the S'port we had has been above the average. 



After a day with the sea trou^, that were landlocked by 

 storm and high tide in the brooks, we started for the lake, 

 our party consisting of my host and hostess, their irre- 

 pressible boy Freddie, myself and, last but not least, Fred 

 Astal, bo whose father the lake belongs, and whose 

 knowledge of the fishing around here, be it sea trout, 

 lake trout or halibut, is of much value to the lover of the 

 rod. 



After a hilly drive ^vhich would in some places make 

 your hair stand, but which added zest to the outing, we 

 arrived at the margin of the swamp where we stabled the 

 horse, and after unloading our lunch started for the 

 boats, some eighth of a mile over a zig-zag corduroy road ; 

 and a slippery one it was. as the one who carried the 

 lunch basket can testify. However, all roads have an end, 

 and after a few spills we got there, and were rewarded 

 by a sight that would gladden the heart of an artist. 

 Mirror Lake it should be called, as the water is clear for 

 10 or 13ft. 



Having arranged our tackle and embarked, we were in 

 a short time rewarded by a score of handsome trout, and 

 when counting time came oiu' total was 108. ,51 falling to 

 Mrs, Letendre's rod alone, which for four hourd' fishing I 

 think is hard to beat. 



The fish were an average lot from 10 to 12 in., but what 

 they lack in size they make up for by the gamy way they 

 rise to the fly. The flies used were Lake-George, red- 

 hackle, ParmEchene-belle and Montreal. 



The lake is only a few miles from the salmon preserve 

 of Lord Mannt Stephen, which I believe be has recently 

 sold to an American gentleman, the account of which I 

 read in Forest and Stre^^m. 



Any ardent lover of "gi-eenheart or bamboo" chancing 

 to visit Metis would do well to secure the services of Fred, 

 who is only too willing to guide the stranger, and is a 

 host in himself. 



I cannot close withovit referring to the way my hostess 

 handled the ribbons going down the 45 incline, and had 

 the world-renowned stage driver been there a jealous 

 feeling would have crept over hia rough frame. 



St. LAitfBERT. 



"PICKEREL" OR "PIKE?" 



Fkankpoet, 3<;y., Sept. d,— Editor Forest and Stream: 

 That piciure and acconipanying remarks of Mr. A. N. 

 Cheney, in your issvie of Aug. 25, has kicked up a deal of 

 trouble in my mind, and is certain to make more trouble 

 for me if lots of others, to whom I have carefully ex- 

 plained the ditterence between a pickerel and a pike, 

 should see Mr. Cheney's screed and representation. In 

 other words, if Mr. Cheney is right, then I'm "clean 

 bunkoed agin." 



You remember some years ago I had a little dispute 

 about calling a pheasant a "patridge,"' and we— as I 

 take it — compromised the issue upon the suggestion of 

 your North Carolina oorrespondpnt — peace and honor to 

 nis memory— by caUing the "patridge" a Bob White, his 



Now, I don't know whether the pickerel, as I know 

 him, has any other alias than "the snake," or any other 

 proper route to immortality than by the agency of a 

 stout club, but I'm going to insist on the precedent of the 

 "patridge" comjjromise, or Mr. Cheney and I will have 

 trouble. I have hated the pickerel so long, and hit hitn 

 on the spinal cord so often that I cannot consent to the 

 thought, so full of remorse, that I have been murdering 

 j)ike, and hence must— in all reason — be let down by 

 degrees under the cooling shadows of a compromise. 

 Ever since 1850, Kentuckiaus, you know, are bent on 

 compromises. But, "I deny the allegation and defy the 

 allegator" until a compromise becomes thei only way of 

 relieving remorseful misery. 



If I am wrong in calling Mr. Cheney's picture a pick- 

 erel, there are lots of others "in the soup." Gooel men, 

 honest men, live men, dead rnen, old men, young men, 

 anglers all — have long called a pickerel a pickerel, and 

 hit him in the head because of his slime and hia bunch 

 bones "all the samce." Mr. ( 'heney may have studied 

 classical lore, and dwelt lovingly on the anatomical 

 structure and the poise of the fins, but, if science don't 

 sustain me, and the education of years is at fault, there's 

 comfort in the thought that some love to riot where 

 "angels fear to tread," or in other words, a lover of the 

 woods can see a trail and follow game where science 

 would go blind. I insist on the rights of nature. 



Less than a week ago I explained to a friend who had 

 been recently fishing at Star Island, the distinguishing 

 features between a pickerel and a pike. And for years, 

 we "Kingfishers" have refused to boat such "pickerel" as 

 Mr. Cheney delineates in his wood cut. And until in 

 Canada this summer, I never heard the nomenclature 

 challenged. Now comes Mr. Cheney and creates more 

 trouble. I don't see what he wants of this camping on 

 others' trail and shooting into camp when everybody is 

 calmly sleeping in i^eace and innocence. And how am I, 

 if he is right, to explain the explanations I have been 

 giving to others ? It won't do. Mr. Cheney must take 

 the back track. There isn't any better way to describe 

 the difference between a pickerel and a pike than to state 

 that the pickerel is covered with a slime, revolting to the 

 touch; that he is filled with bunches of bones tied in a 

 knot; that he is a voracious feeder and would eat a 

 hatchet if big enough to swallow it; and that he haunts 

 grassy and weedy bottoms — whereas the pike is a clean 

 fiah on the body ; has no more bones than a bass: bites 

 daintily and slowly; and seems to prefer gravel and 

 sandy bottoms to weeds and grass. 



The pickerel is "all of a kind" — be is the same always; 

 whereas the pike merges into probably a do:c?n varieties. 

 The "wall-eyed pike" is sold in the market as salm jn. 

 The pike grows into the fierce and valiant muskalong — 

 the "wolf" of the northern waters. I have caught him 

 in the Cumberland River as the "hickory"— the "golden" 

 —the "lead-colored" salmon. He is taken in the Red 

 River, of Kentucky, and other mountain streams as the 

 ••jack fish," or "jack pike." The appearance of the fish 

 changes to suit tne local descriptions, but through all he 

 is the same clean, slow-biting, edible fish, free from 

 bunch bones. 



Several years ago, "Kingfisher" caught in a Tennessee 

 mountain stream what was locally known as a "jack 

 fish" or "jack pike," struck by its resemblance to the 

 northern muskalong, he sent it to the Smithsonian scien- 

 tists, or somebody that kneyv as much. It was pro- 

 nounced a muskalong — true and genuine. 



In eating qualities, in cleanliness, in resjjectability and 

 decent habits, in the goodwill of mankind, the pike, 

 whether you call him wall-eyed, or jack, is allied to the 

 salmon and the muskalong, and no slimy, bone- infested 

 care iss- devouring pickerel is entitled to keep him com- 

 pany. 



Years ago, Forest and Stream identified the mus- 

 kalong, the pike and the pickerel by their jaws, just as 

 some women are known by "their jaws," but the char- 

 acteristics distinguishing each I forget. I trust they will 

 show that a pickerel is a pickerel — "the same now, hence 

 and forever." There is no salvation for a pickerel. He 

 is hereditarily depraved and eternally doomed. 



Mr. Cheney says he has written columns of descrip- 

 tions to separate these fishes. We do not wonder, when 

 he persists in calling a pickerel a joike, and vice versa. 

 No man yet ever attempted to defend a bad cause with- 

 out finding the task full of trouble and the road long. 

 Mr. Cheney is no doubt a good man and means well, but 

 he ought not to try and "bunco"' people who don't eat 

 pifkerel, can't eat pickerel and won't eat pickerel. 



However, as T said at the start, I'm a compromisin' be- 

 iner. and as Mr. C'beney seems to know more "book learn- 

 in' " than I do, and I don't want to tackle him in hiero- 

 glyphics, let's hear what sort of a compromise he is will- 

 ing to offer. Old Sam, 



LET NATURE ALONE. 



AsHFiBLii, Mass. — The pickerel pond here, which is 

 chiefly used by the guests of the Ashfield House, is one 

 of (he best I ever saw in some respects, but it is deficient 

 in natural food supply. A grist mill adjacent keeps the 

 water at a low stage much of the time, so that the mar- 

 gin becomes stiff and dry ; and unless a heavy rain occurs 

 very little food is washed into it from the surrounding 

 fiflds and woods, and frogs and terrapins do not thrive 

 on the borders. At the same time the water is clear as 

 crystal, and a plastron of moss 2ft. deep covers the bot- 

 tom, out of which filaments of pickerel weed stream 

 upward toward the surface. There are scarcely any lily- 

 pads to speak of, and the surface of the pond is as clear 

 and open in -July as it is in April. Some years ago the 

 managers and the hotel men thought to increase the 

 stock of fish by estabhshing a close season; but at the 

 encl of two years no increase was observable, and fish 

 were scarce, though large ones were occasionally caught. 

 Manifestly the big fish had eaten up the little ones in the 

 absence of other food. So the restriction was removed, 

 and fishing was resumed this year. This August, the 

 day after the great storm of the 25th and 38Lh, an ex- 

 pert angler went in with a long cane pole and plunger 

 spoon and took out sixty-five small pickerel, casting 

 from the shore. Not one of the fish was over lOin. long 

 and some were as.short as 6in., so that it seemed a pity 

 and a shame to kill them, for they would be hardly 

 worth the eating. But I suppose if they had been left 

 they would only have afi'orded sustenance for the larger 

 of their kind, and the pond have become barren as before. 

 These Sin. fish were doubtless the crop of last year's 

 spawning, the conditions of the pond meanwhile having 

 been favorable to a natural food supply by reason of 

 copious rains. 



I am much impressed with the killing character of the 

 luminous bait. Its peculiar phosphoresence appears to 

 give it an advantage over other spoons, especially in dull 

 weather, Charles Haixock. 



Chicago Notes. 



CHiCAC:to, HI., Sspt. 3.— Mr. Fred Taylor is back from 

 his second trip this summer to the Little Oconto at Norm. 

 Johnson's camp. He had a good catch of trout. 



The Chicago l^'Jy-Casting Club meets to-day at Garfield 

 Park, on the West Side, a goodly jump from Washington 

 Park, on the South Side. 



Mr, Chas. L, Holmes, representative of large paper 

 mills at Appleton. Wis., was in town this week. In a 

 conversation Mr. Holmes referred to a mention made two 

 years ago of fish being desti'oyed by chemicals from a 

 paj^er mill on the Pox River, and doubted the accuracy of 

 the statement that the mill was made to reform its ways. 

 "That was our mill," said he, "and we never killed any 

 fish or had anything done to us," It transpires that Mr. 

 Holn^es thought the Northern Fox, the outlet of Lake 

 Winnebago, the only Fox River there was. The Fox 

 River best known to Chicago, and the one on which the 

 Fox River Association has operated, is quite a dift'erent 

 stream. • It rises in southern Wisconsin, flows south and 

 empties, not into Lake Michigan, but the Illinois River. 

 The Northern Fox and the Wolf River, practically the 

 same stream, carry Lake Winnebago as a mere broaden- 

 ing of the channel. All these waters were part of the old 

 Indian and Pere Marquette water trail from the Great 

 Lakes to the Mississippi, the divide, as is generally 

 known, being the narrow neck at which is now Portage 

 City. The lower Fox never was part of the water trail, 

 but it had mills, which killed fish. E. H. 



A Sigh for the Crystal Streams. 



OIMA.RRON, Gray County, Kan,, Aug. 28. — This meek 

 little ghost of a postal card has stared me in the face 

 from my office desk for several days. The little fisher- 

 man reminds me of my boy Bill, whom I found trying to 

 catch the postmaster's chickens with a honk and line, 

 baited with a grain of corn the other day. He bad cap- 

 tured one little red rooster, and tell it not in Gath (or 

 Cimarron either), it had joined the great majority. I let 

 him land one more, then stopped the picnic, and went 

 down and paid the postmaster fifty cents. Fish fishing 

 is poor in western Kansas, cats, suckers andbuft'alo in the 

 Arkansas and tributaries and a few carp in the big irri- 

 gating canal that rims for forty-two miles over high 

 prairie are all the fish we have. I go fishing two or three 

 times every summer and get muddy fish, but I long for 

 the crystal brooks and lovely trout of the East, I can get 

 an occasional antelope anel ducks and prairie chickens 

 galore here, but you who can go fishing in clear water 

 and get pai'tridges, quail and gray gquirrels, are much 

 better off for sport than we are here. W. .J. Dixon. 



How They Got A-way. 



The finest lot of fish ever caught in this section wa?, 

 we regret to say, lost in a peculiar manner during one of 

 the recent Ihunder squalls. It consisted of a magnificent 

 muscalonee, weighing exactly 69|lbs., a black bass which 

 weighed 6|lbs. and five others weighing over 4lbs each, 

 seven pickerel, one a 15-pounder, and about forty com- 

 paratively smaller bass, pickerel, pike, etc. They were 

 caught by John Lyman, of Clayton, who has been visiting 

 in this vi.3inity and was then fishing near Cliimney Island , 

 about three miles below the city. The fish were loose in 

 the bottom of the boat, and when the squall came up they 

 were left there not secured in any way, while Mr. Lyman 

 went under the shelter of the big butternut growing on 

 the rampart of old Fort Levis. The rain fell in torrents, 

 filling the atmosphere to such an extent that the fish we- e 

 able to swim right off through the air, though of course 

 with some difficulty. Seeing them swijuming off above 

 his head, Mr. Lyman stripped and swam after thom, but 

 was unable to overtake them and narrowly eecapcd 

 drowning, cmly succeeding in diving under the shelter of 

 the fohaee of the tree, as he became absolutely exhausted . 

 The loss of such a representative lot of fish is deeply re- 

 gretted by lovers of the rod in this vicinity. — Clayton 

 iiepiiblican. 



Lake Superior Set-Ijines. 



Of his trip to the North Shore of Lake Superior Mr. 

 Starbuck w^rites : "My trip to the North Shore was an 

 exceedingly ple.isant one, but the fishing was the poorest 

 I ever experienced. There are two causes for this, one 

 the very warm weather and unruffled lake, it being like 

 a mirror half the time, and the other and most destruc- 

 tive the illegal gill netting and line f etting, in which 

 nearly every Indian anei half-breed, man and boy, from 

 Goulais Bay to the Big Pic indulged in. 



The modus operandi of the line fishing is simply a 

 strong cord witti a stone of a few pounds fastened at one 

 end and a float at the other. Two snooded hooks a foot 

 or two from the bottom are tied to the cord and then 

 baited with live coceduces, the most taking bait for trout 

 extant. Each tawny fisherman will set about twenty or 

 thirty of these in choice waters and then wait near by in 

 his canoe or boat until he sees the float go under and 

 then give it immeeliate attention. It is a very destruc- 

 tive way to decimate the lake of the handsomely "spot- 

 ted leopards" once so abundant there. It seems to be 

 an open matter, as no concealment whatever is made 

 of it. Alex Starbuck," 



Buckshot in Chokebores. 



Orlando, Florida, Sept. 2.— I have a fine G reener trap 

 gun, a close, hard shooter: but, being full chokebore, it 

 scatters buckshot all over the woods. It is a 10-gauge, 

 and weighs upward of 91bs. I want no better gun for fine 

 shot, But, as there are both deer and turkeys in Florida . 

 it is sometimes desirable to shoot large shot. Can any 

 reader of Forest aNp Stream tell me how to load it to 

 cause it to throw large shot all in a bunch? 



Mahlon Gore 



Large Susquehanna Bass. 



Under the caption "Large Susquehanna Bass" in last 

 week's issue I failed to state the weight of the fish, 

 which was eight jjounds. S. H. 



F IXTU R ES. 



noft SHOWS. 



Sept. iy to Third Annual Dog Show of the Kingstou Kennel 

 GluK at Kingston, Canada H. C, Bate?, Spn'y. 



Sept. 20 to 23.— Western Michigan Kennel Chih, at (jraml Rapids 

 Mifli. H. Dale Adams, Galeshnrg;. iVTich., Supe rinteodent. 



Sept. 26 to 30.— Roebe.stei- Kennel (Jhib, at Roctiester, N. Y. Dr. 

 O. S. Ba.niber, Sec'y. 



Sept. 27 to 30.— Dog Show at Otfawa, Can. All'red ixeddes, Sfi"',V. 



Oct. 4 to 8.— Eleventh Annual Doer Show of the Danhury Agri- 

 cultural Society, Daubury. Conn. B. 0. Lynes, Sec'y- 



Oct. "5 to 28.— Omaha Kennel Club, at Omaha, Neb, E. L, 

 Ma.rston. Sen'v". 



Nov. 22 to 25,— Brooklyn. H. W. Huntington, &eo'y, 148 Souin 

 Eighth street., ■ 

 1893. 



.fan. ii. -Glovers ville, N. Y. F. B. Zimmer, Sec'7. 

 Ff h. 31 to 23.— Westminster Kennel Club, New York city. JaK. 

 Mortimer, Supt. 

 June 13 to 17.— World's Fair, Chicago. 

 Sept. 7 to 10.— Hamilton, Ontario. A. D. Stewart, Sec'y. 



FIELD TRIALS. 

 Oct. 25.— Tliird Annual Field Trials of theKational Beaglp Club, 

 at Nanuet, N. Y. Bench show of the club Oct. 24. H. V. Jamit- 



son, Sec'y. 



islov. 7^— International Field Trials Glub, third annual trials, at 

 Chatham, Ont. Amateur Stake, Nov. 7. Open Stakes, Nov, 8. 

 W. B. Wells, Sec'y. 



Nov. 7.— United States Field Trials, at Blizabethtown, Ky. P. 

 T. MadisoD, Indianapolis, Intl., Sec'y. 



Nov. 8.— New England F'eld Trials, at Assonet, Mass. E. 

 Knight Sperry. New Haven, Conn., Sec'y- 



Nov. 14.— Fourth Annml Trials of the Brunswick Fur Olub. at 

 Princeton, Mass. J. H. Balrd. Sec'y. 



Nov. 15.— American Field Trials, at Columbiis, lud. W. J. Beck, 

 Sec'y. 



Nov. 21.— Eastern Field Trial Club Trials, at High Point, N. C. 

 W. A. Coster, Sec'y. 

 Nov. 28. -Philadelphia Kennel Club Trials, at High Point, N. C. 



F. G.Taylor, Sec'y. 



Dec. 5.-Central Field Trials, at Lexington, N,C. Ool. Ode]}, 

 Sec'y. 



Dec. 19.— Irish Setter Field Trials, at Lexington, N. O. Dr. G. 



G. Davis, Philadelphia, Pa., Sec'y, 



BULL-TERRIERS AGAIN. 



Editor .Forest and Stream: 



Having seen in your issue of the 8th inst. the very unjust 

 criticism of bull- terriers by "Didyinus," I consider tt a privi- 

 lege to say a word in defense of my favorite breed. 1 have 

 owned all kinds of hall-terriers, from the cheap, unpedi- 

 greed dog to first prize winner in New York, fioston and 

 several places. '•Didymus" says, -'I have no respect for .a 

 man that will keep a bull-terrier for a watch doi;, a.s Le is a 

 sneaking ra.scal and will take hold ot: a man without a word 

 of warning." 



In that be makes a great; mistake. My experience teaches 

 me that as a companion for a man or a playmate for children 

 he is equalled by few and excelled by none. 



I have in my kennel at the present time four well-bred 

 bull-terriers. I will w,^ger a stranger can come into the 

 kennel and take a bone from either of them without the dog 

 showing the least sign of ill temper. R. FP.ED CHURCH. 



Tatjnton, Mass., Sept. 10. 



