March 9, 1898.1 



FOREST AND STREAM 



209 



".New Jersey Game Law. 



A NEW game and fiah law which is a codification and 

 revision of the old law has been jjassed by the New Jersey 

 Legislature and signed by the Governor. Some of the 

 open seasons are as follows: Deer, Oct. 14 to Dec. 16; 

 squirrels. Sept. 14 to Dec. 16; quail and rabbits from Oct. 

 31 to Dec. 16; ruffed grouse, from Sept. 30 to Dec. 16; 

 woodcock, the month of July and from Sept. 30 to 

 Dec. 16; English snipe, March and April, and from 

 Aug. 25 to Dec. 16; reed birds, rail and marsh hen, 

 from Aug. 25 to Dec. 16; upland plover, from July 21 

 to Dec. 16; pinnated grouse and wild tm-key, from 

 Oct. 31 to Dec. 16; hen birds of the European partridge, 

 European grouse or European pheasant, protected 

 for five years from the passage of this act; male 

 birds of the above species can be killed from Oct. 31 to 

 Dec. 16. SmaU birds generally are protected at all times, 

 but game commissioners may issue Hcenses to coUect for 

 scientific purposes. It is forbidden to capture deer or 

 game .birds by means of traps, snares "or nets, except 

 that incorporated associations may trap such animals or 

 birds ahve for the purpose of preserving them aUve_ dur- 

 ing the winter, providing that they be released agaiu in 

 New Jersey not later than April 15 the following spring. 

 Black bass or Oswego bass may be taken between May 

 30 and Dec. 1; trout between March 1 and July 15. Black 

 bass measuring less than 9ui. and trout less than 6in. 

 may not be taken, except for stocking pui-poses. 



The act will be pubHshed in full at a later day. 



The Spring Slaughter, 



Canton, Mo,, March 3. — Ducks are now abundant on 

 the IMississippi waters from St. Louis north for 200 miles, 

 and the boom of the 10-gauge is heard everywhere 

 throughout this whole region. Iv is a mystery how the 

 ducks manage to get anything to eat, for gunners He in 

 wait for them at every pond and along every stream. It 

 seems strange that men can't realize that for every half 

 dozen lean, tough, old ducks they bag in the spring, they 

 could have half a hundred plump, fat yoimg ones next 

 fall if they would stop spring shooting. If men showed as 

 little forethought in their financial matters as they do in 

 spring shooting, then- friends would have guardians ap- 

 pointed for thein. 



Quite a damaging explosion of nitro powder happened 

 in Rawling's gun store in St. Louis a few days ago. The 

 accident occurred in the shell-loading department and 

 the cause is not kno^ra, the only theory being that in 

 some way a primer on one of the shells was exploded. 

 About lOOlbs. of the powder went off, wrecking the store 

 and firing everything of an ignitable nature in it. Ad- 

 joining buildings were shaken tiU much of their furniture 

 was wrecked. A number of people were injured, but 

 none killed outright. It is another sharp warning to be 

 very careful with explosives. O. H. H, 



How it is Going. 



CKATHAjyr, Ontario. — Editor Forest and Stream: I have 

 kUled about all kinds of game in western Canada. I have 

 killed a great many wild turkeys in my time. This used 

 to be the best place in Canada for birds of that kind. But 

 the country is getting cleared up so much now, the bush 

 is pretty nearly all gone, and the deer and wild turkeys 

 are pretty near all gone, too, and this winter has been 

 very hard on the small game, such as partridges and 

 quail. The best shooting we have now is duck shooting 

 in the fall down at the St. Clair flats, and out at the Rond 

 Eau, along Lake Erie. W. W. 



Who Sent It? 



Here i3 an order — all of it, every bit of it— received last week. 

 There was in the envelope twenty-five cents in stamps — the receipt of 

 which is here acknowledged. 'No addi-ess. No name. Postmark 

 blurred and undeciphei'able. 



If the man who sent the money will sujiply name and address he 

 shall have a copy of the Qame Laws in Brief, which is the twenty-five 

 cent book. 



A Snake's IHot Meal. 



A YODNG professional gentleman of this city recently traveled over- 

 land to Tappahannock. On the route he discovered a large black 

 snake slowly crawling among the branches of a tree that stood by the 

 roadside. Following the. suake with his eye, the observei- saw an un- 

 usually large hornets' nest attached to one of the bi-auchesof the tree, 

 and toward which the snake was advancing. When close to the nest 

 the snake coiled itself about a limb, released its tail, and with it gave 

 several hard raps upon the exterior of the neat, as if knocldng for ad- 

 mission. The noise of the blows and the swaying of tbe nest caused 

 the hornets to leave their home and prepare for an attack ipon the 

 intruder. The snake ceased tapping w-ith its tail as soon as the nornets 

 left the nest, uncoiled itself and quickly disappearad, taking the place 

 of the hornets within their nest. 



Presently the snake's head was seen to peer out, and his bright, 

 black eyes glistened as he anticipated a feast fi-om which the bravest 

 man would shrink with fear. The snake di-ew his head within the en- 

 trance hole to the nest until nothing was seen of it except an occas- 

 ional forked tongue that darted in and out with lightning rapidity. 

 Thinking the coast clear, the hornets began to return to their nest, 

 when the snake took them in as rapidly as they could enter. Watching 

 the proceeding for some time, our informant concluded that all the 

 hornets had been safely hived, and he stood up in his buggy, tapxied 

 the nest mth his whip, and awaited the result. 



No hornets appearing, the nest was then knocked to the ground, 

 opened, and his suakeship discovered in a toi'pid condition, with his 

 s£e greatly increased. The snake was killed and a post-mortem held, 

 with" the. following i-esult: Stomach stuffed with dead hornets. W. 

 S. White, attorney tor the commonwealth for Stafford county, vouches 

 for the truth of the stoiy .—Pi ederickshu;rg (Vu.') Lance. 



A New-Subscriber OfFer. 



A boiia fide new subscriber sending us §5 will receive for that sum 

 the Forest and Stseai£ one year (price S4) and a set of Zimmerman's 

 famous "Ducking Scenes" (advertised on another page, ijrice $5) — a 

 $9 value for S5. 



This offer is to new subscribers only. It does not apply to renewals 

 For §3 a bona fide new suhscriber for six mouths will receive the 

 FoaKST AHD Stream during that time and a copy of Dr. Van Fleet's 

 handsome' work, "Bird Portraits for the Young" (the rice of which 

 i8»8). 



en utid ^iv^r Sashing. 



The Fish Latvs of the United States and Camada, in the 

 "Game Laws in Brief, SS cents. In the "Boofc of the 

 " Game Lawos " {fxdl text), 50 cents. 



ICHICAGO AND THE WEST. 



[From a Staff Co^-respondeni.] 



Chicago, IU., March 4. — If Director-General Davis, of 

 tlie World's Fair, will apply to Mr. Harry Lacy, kennel 

 editor of the Foeest and Stream, he can hear of sonie- 

 thing to his advantage. A short time ago I accompanied 

 that debonnaire yoimg man on a short trip to the World's 

 Fau" grounds. Like all New York men who have actually 

 been there upon the grounds, he became impressed with 

 tbe feeling that there may be, might be, something in it 

 after aU, and on one point he rose to a point of enthusiasm. 

 We were peering througJi one of the doors of the vast 

 Manufactures building, whose vast aisles stretched away 

 tUl the men at the other end looked about as long as lead 

 pencils. A gleam of thought fit the dog man's eye. 

 "What a place this would be to hold a dog show!" he 

 said, with a sigh, as I led him away. If Gen. Davis will 

 look in the snow on the outer edge of the covered walk of 

 the Manufactures building he may perhaps see at inter- 

 vals of every lOOyds. or so of its quarter of a mile length, 

 the marks of IVIr. Lacy's cane, where he was classifying 

 buUdogs, dachshunds, pugs, toy terriers, etc., etc. These 

 marks may be of service to Gen. Davis yet in allotting 

 space, because I am confident from what IVIr. Lacy said 

 tliat he is satisfied in his own mind that the coming dog 

 show ought to occupy the entire floor of the biggest build- 

 ing on the grounds. 



The Fair goes on, and it is now a wonderful, wonderful 

 place, so vast, so stunning in its mental shock at first sight 

 that the usual first impression is one of bewilderment. 

 After that the feeling is as when distant music comes 

 nearer and nearer. The pulses quicken, the nerves begin 

 to thrill, until finally the soul is carried along impetuously 

 with the surge of the commanding motive. You will hear 

 many men say, in a complaining, resentful way, that they 

 can't go to the Fair and see the buildings and the buildings 

 without coming away feeling subdued, more quiet and 

 "better." Much of this may be due to the grave and seri- 

 ous beauty of the vast statues of the decorations which are 

 now so abundant, either aloft in place, or uponthe gxound, 

 either finished or in formation. Every day new things are 

 brought into the grounds or are created there, which it 

 makes a man wiser and better to see. Every day the Fau- 

 now grows more cosmopolitan, vrith its growing wonders 

 from Ceylon, South America, all Asia, all Greece, aU 

 Egypt, aU the world, new, old, ancient. The Eskimos 

 have long been in evidence, and many tribes of Indians 

 will soon be represented. Incidentally there stepped into 

 town the other day the cornier of the Indians of British 

 Guiana, and just in time for the cheerful bHzzard of yester- 

 day, a delegation of fifty thin-skinned Singhalese arrived 

 to begin work on a few sample pagodas and temples, for 

 which they think they can work up a good demand. 



The sportsmen who have visited the grounds have no 

 doubt noted the colossal figm-es of wild animals which 

 surmount the bridges over the lagoons, a Honess, a pan- 

 ther, a grizzly bear. Others of the wild animals of 

 America will be thus represented, and this will be a pleas- 

 ing feature of the artistic decorations. Mr. Edward 

 Kemys, the celebrated wdd-ltfe sculptor, is now hard at 

 work in his studio at the grounds. Mr. Kemys I must see 

 again some day, because he is a man of whom many 

 sportsmen would gladly know more. He has spent years 

 among the wild animals of the great West, and is an 

 adopted member of one or more Indian tribes — the Black- 

 feet for one, if my memory serves. Mr. Kemys measures 

 his ffwri grizzly, sits down on him and measures him, 

 right there in the chaparral. Moreover, he first kills his 

 own grizzly himself. I have confidence in Mr. Kemys's 

 grizzhes, his mountain lions, his buffaloes, because he is 

 first sportsman and then artist. The work of his hand 

 win delight many a ^dsiting sportsman at the Fair. 



Dr. James A. HenshaU, special agent of the U. S. Fish 

 Commission, and in charge of the angling exhibit, now 

 has his oflice located at the north entrance of the main 

 Fisheries building. AD. of the officers in charge of these 

 special dejjartments are very busy, and are supposed to 

 five behind barred doore which have red sealing wax rtm 

 into the keyholes, but I imagine Dr. HenshaU's door occa- 

 sionally gets broken in. More dehghts here for the ang- 

 ling men next summer. 



The out-of-doors idea wiU not be lacking in the Fair, it 

 seems, whether the view point be that of the enthusiast or 

 of the utilitarian. The South Shore Tenting Company has 

 been incorporated, with grounds near the lake and near 

 the Fair. The company intends to supply tents, cooking- 

 conveniences, etc., for those who prefer a low-priced tent 

 to a high-priced hotel. A chance for an outing can here 

 be combined with a go at the Fair. The perch fishing is 

 excellent just a httle way out in the lake. 



News Item. 



The Fishing Gazette prints the following in its issue of 

 last week. 



"Frederick Barbarossa, Emperor of Germany, was 

 drowned while crossing a small river in Asia Jlinor when 

 on his way to fight the Turks." 



I beg pardon, but is this offered as an item of news? 



Chicago Fly-Casting: Club. 



The Chicago Fly-Casting Club held its regular meeting 

 last Friday evening at the Grand Pacific Hotel, and trans- 

 acted interesting business. It is the purpose of Dr. Hen- 

 shall, in charge of the anglmg exhibit of the Fisheries 

 Department at the World's Fair, to hold several contests 

 in both fly and bait casting on the lagoons of the grounds.^ 

 Plans for this are not all formulated, but the assistance of 

 the Fly -Casting Club will probably be enhsted. 

 175 Monroe street, Chicago. E. HOUOH. 



Chicago, Feb. 28. — Editor Forest and Stream: It is 

 rmnored that Gov. Altgeld -sviU. aboHsh the Illinois State 

 Fish Commission as an expensive and worthless board. I 

 should indeed be sorry to see the Governor do anything 

 so rash, and yet at the same time, if the Governor was as 

 well posted as many Chicago anglei-s are as to how worth- 

 less the said board is when it comes down to actual busi- 



ness, I have no doubt he would feel justified in his action. 

 Were it not for the retaining- uifluence of the true sports- 

 men of Chicago and the large cities, and the fear of ex- 

 posure in the •cohmms ot Forest and Steeajvi I have no 

 doubt the "pot" fishermen would ere this have seined dry 

 every river and lake of Illinois. 



It is a serious mistake to appoint any man living on a 

 lake or river the fish warden of that particular lake or 

 river, all theories to the contrary notwithstanding. I 

 have watched carefully the workings of this theory, and 

 will now say candidly that it is a failm-e. Take for an 

 example Channel Lake, IU. As an illustration we will 

 assume that J. S. is fish warden, J. S. has a nice little 

 snug home on the east shore, and knows every man, 

 woman and child for miles aroimd. Mrs. J. S. is ac- 

 quainted intimately with all the "women folks." Joe 

 Bassett and Ike Bruce rig up a jacklight and start spear- 

 ing bass and pickerel early in May. J. S. sees the fight 

 and takes his boat and goes on a tour of investigation. 

 He finds that the law-breakers are sons of his two nearest 

 neighbors whom he has known intimately for years. He 

 threatens the boys with arrest and they put out their fight 

 and pull for home. J. S. scratches his head, he is in a 

 quandary. When he gets home he and his better half, 

 talk it over. Mrs. Bruce and Mi-s. J. S. are particularly 

 "chummy," and it will never do for J..S. to put Ike in 

 limbo. On the other hand J. S. has sworn to do his duty. 

 Old man Bassett and J. S. are very friendly, in fact old 

 Bassett worked three days on J. S.'s new barn last fall, 

 and received in payment two meals a day for three days. 

 The end of it is that J. S. visits the stern parents of Joe 

 and Ike and informs them of the crime committed by 

 their offspring, and there the matter rests. Joe and Ike 

 take advantage of the first dark night to continue the 

 sport, and so the matter ends. 



As a matter of fact, it is not to be expected that a man 

 who has for years resided in any community in peace and 

 quietness and on the best of terms with all his neighbors, 

 will wantonly rend asunder aU these ties of friendship by 

 arresting and prosecuting the son and heir of his neigh- 

 bor. The natural consequence is that spearing, ice-fishing 

 and netting goes on as of yore, and the fish market of 

 Chicago is steadily supplied with the choicest of bass, 

 pickerel and pike the year around. 



Oh, how I love my feUow man, particularly the variety 

 who wears theiong hair, the crownless straw hat and the 

 blue overalls, and who meets you with that winning smile 

 at the country station. The variety who patiently baits 

 and hauls in some thousand and odd hooks all winter and 

 ships regularly his two to three hundred pounds of fish 

 weekly to the commission man in Chicago, and then won- 

 ders all summer why the bass do not bite as they did 

 twenty years ago when he first came to five on the lake. 

 The fellow who patiently "does you up" all winter and 

 then takes yom- cool silver doUars for keeping you in the 

 summer. Gentle reader, his name is legion. You point 

 me out the exception to the above if you can. 



There is only one class that is worse than the above, and 

 that con-sists of the wretches who are not content with 

 fishing through the ice aU winter, but who on the (]uiet 

 seine all summer. Now, Mr. Fish Warden, who has 

 charge of the Illinois River district trom Peoria Lake 

 north for 25 miles, wfll you kindly teU us who ships those 

 5 to 10 barrels of game fish every Wednesday evening? 

 You didn't know any one did, did you? Well, you just 

 take a run up to Bureau Junction on the C. R. I. & P., 

 and watch the baggage men on the two express cars roll 

 in barrels. Just do as I have done; hand the express 

 agent a good cigar and draw him into conversation. He 

 will teU you something that might be of value to you as 

 a fish warden. Ask him what is in those barrels. 



"Fish. Oh, all kinds — bass, pickerel, pike, sucker.s, red 

 horse and buffalo." 



"Where do they come from? Oh, out of the Illinois. 

 Caught with pole and fine? No, hardly; they're seined." 



"Who seines them? (shrug of the shoulders). Don't 

 know; that ain't my business, I never asked." 



' 'But say, is it not against the law to seine fish in lUi- 

 nois?" 



"Yes, I guess it is, but that is the business of the fish 

 warden." "Yes, he captures a seine now and then, and 

 advertises for the owner to eome and get it — ^but I guess 

 they don't care for them — leastways I never heard of one 

 being claimed." 



"Where do all these fish go? To St. Louis; get there 

 for Friday." 



Try it, Mr. Fish Warden, and perhaps you can get some 

 pointers that wiU prevent Goy. Altgeld abolishing the 

 State Fish Commission. 



Yes, the fish wardens of Illinois have been a grand suc- 

 cess, the fishing has improved so much since they have 

 been appointed. A man can purchase in any fish market 

 in Chicago for a silver dollar, a string of bass that would 

 cost him $42.16 to catch in any lake in Lake county. 

 True, the sportsman does not go fishing for the brain food 

 he may bring home, he goes for the sport that he has in 

 acquiring said brain developer, and that is the only re- 

 deeming feature in the whole case. 



And these miserable vnretches who are rapidly exterm- 

 ating the game fish in Illinois. What do they receive as 

 a compensation — a paltry two cents per pound. Gentle 

 reader of Forest and Stream, just imagine a noble bass of 

 61bs. avoirdupois, selling for twelve cents, a fish that any 

 true sportsman would give ten silver dollars to hook any 

 day in June, and you wiU feel your choler rising as mine 

 does often when I hear and see such things and know 

 that the State pays some lusty game warden for prevent- 

 ing this kind of slaughter. Candidly, I do not beheve 

 that there is a barn in Lake cormty, Ilfinois, in which you 

 could not find a fish spear if you tried very hard. They 

 "don't use them now'^ they will tell you, but they are not 

 for sale. Henry G. Abbott. 



Legalized Destruction of Fisb. 



Union Springs, N. Y., JIarch l.— Editor Forest and 

 Stream: There is great destruction of bass and pickerel 

 upon the Seneca River in the -vicinity of the fyke nets, 

 -vvhere they are aUowed to catch bullheads and return the 

 game fish that are taken in these nets. 



In operating the nets in the -winter they have a large 

 hole cut through the ice. When they take up the nets 

 they loosen the tail rope and lift the net out ujjon the ice 

 in the frost and snow; then they dump the fish out of the 

 nets and pick up the bullheads first. Of com-se they must 

 have then- meat first. Then they proceed to put back the 

 black and Oswego bass and pickerel that they chance to 

 have, and no way is so easy as to kick them into the hole 



