June 30, 1896.] 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
498 
Connecticut Game Birds. 
Ha3iII>en County, Conn. — If signs are to be relied upon 
then in this section there will be a greater abundance of 
game next fall than there has been for a number of 
years. 
Woodcock are with us at present in greater numbers 
than usual, while drumming partridges can be heard on 
every hand. The mellow call of Bab White comes as of 
old from wood's edge and bar rail. They certainly are 
thicker than they have been in the past ten years. 
We have a stranger with us this year — the Mongolian 
pheasant. During the past two years a number of these 
birds have been released in this neighborhood. Within 
sight of where I am writing this note a very interesting 
family, consisting of father, mother and a brood of a 
dozen young birds, are to be seen almost daily. They fre- 
quently mingle with the barnyard fowl. Besides this 
brood there are a number of old birds about. It is greatly 
to be regretted that the three-year law prohibiting the 
killing of this new addition to our list of game birds ex- 
pires with the opening of the shooting season. It seems 
a pity that they should no sooner start to increase than 
the work of extermination should begin. 
The increase in partridges is undoubtedly directly at- 
tributable to the aggressive activity inaugurated against 
the snarers last fail. From all accounts it was rather an 
unprofitable season for them. Tflis activity will not be 
allowed to lag, for these lawbreakers will be watched 
closer than ever this year. Wm. H. Avis. 
Camp Comfort. 
Augusta, Me., May 21. — Mr. W. H. Gannett, one of our 
leading citizens, has built recently a log cabin on Capitol 
Hill. It is within a mile or so of the city, and is a model 
retreat when a business man yearns for a little rest and 
recreation. It is made of logs from & to 2ft. thick, and 
the roof is protected by two layers of cedar splits. 
The panes of bullseye glass in the gable window are 
over 100 years old and attract; much attention. 
Mounted deer and caribou heads adorn the walls, while 
bows and arrows, powder horns and shot pouches, historic 
guns and saddle bags are arranged artistically over the 
old-fashioned fireplace and inviting couches. Bear, 
moose, deer, caribou, coon and fox rugs are spread out on 
the floor. Deer feet and antlers are used as gun and hat 
racks. 
It is something that would make a sportsman's eyes 
sparkle if he could see this rustic camp, seemingly in the 
heart of the Maine woods. Mainespring. 
AN ARKANSAS CENTER. 
Dallas, Polk County, Ark., May 27. — Failing health 
having forced a vacation, I came nere by an overland 
trip of ninety miles from Mansfield, the nearest railway 
point, ascending and descending mountains and crossing 
valleys at heads of river systems, over roads that would 
have discouraged a well man; but as I had received let- 
ters from friends, full of the glories and game qualities of 
the golden trout, white trout and black trout of the moun- 
tain streams here, I came on to my journey's end, lured 
on by the hope that I might surprise you by the covering 
and skeleton of a golden trout of 10 or 121bs. weight, as 
they had been described to me in letters. 
Bridges were unknown on the road traveled, and as we 
would ford the streams of clear, cold water I would point 
to deep pools and say to my driver, "That pond ougnt to 
be filled with bass and croppies." But his reply always 
was, "It's full of trout, but there ain't no bass in this 
country — only white, black and golden trout." 
Yesterday I went "trout" fishing with two residents of 
this county to an old beaver dam on Board Camp Creek, 
near its outlet into the Ouachita River, ten miles below 
this place, and while my companions were hitching the 
team I put my split bamboo in shape, and fastening a 
small-sized tin "sunfish" minnow on my line I made a 
cast on the surface of the water, and the cast was met 
by a strike, and I fastened to a perfect bass of from 2 to 
3lbs. weight. As I landed the fish one of my companions 
recovered fiom his astonishment sufficiently to say: "He's 
got a 4lb. white trout the first throw wittt that painted 
thing." The fish was of the exact shape of a large- 
mouthed black bass, but it was almost white, with a black 
stripe running from its gill along each side to the tail, and 
it was a new fish to me; but as it was broiled over the 
coals for our dinner at noon, in flavor it was a genuine 
black bass. 
As I could not get a rise for an artificial bait of any 
description, I put a large-sized minnow upon a No. 6-0 
Carliae hook and let it run down with the creek current 
at the head of the pool, and was rewarded by a strike and 
a catch before 15yds. of line had run off my reel, and 
when I had landed my fish, which was a genuine large- 
mouth black bass of about 21bs. in weight, one of my com- 
panions said, in answer to my query of the name of the 
fish, ' 'That's a genuine black mountain trout, and a mighty 
good one too." 
We had each caught two or three "genuine black moun- 
tain trout" when I had the good fortune and surprise to 
catch the first "golden trout," which was of about l^lbs. 
in weight, and but for its golden color would have been a 
large-mouthed black bass. When first landed the fish 
was of a bright orange or golden color, and while a por- 
tion of its s&in which I inclose herewith has greatly 
faded, yet it will give you an idea of the fish and enable 
you to classify it, which I wish you would, and also the 
one above described and locally known as the "white 
trout." After a pleasant afternoon catching "white," 
"black" and "golden trout," about equally in number, in 
abundance, we came home by moonlight. 
This town of Dallas, with 850 population, is the county 
seat of Polk county and is situated on a plateau elevated 
1,125ft. above the sea level, guarded by the Roaring Fork 
Mountain and the Rich Mountains on the north, and dis- 
tant ten miles, while the Cossetot Mountains bound it on 
the south, distant fifteen miles, with the Lind Mountains 
fifteen miles west in the Indian Territory. It should be 
the center of a sportsman's paradise, as not one-third of 
the level lands ot the plateau are in cultivation, and the 
rest of the surface of the country, including the sides and 
tops of the mountains, is covered with a heavy forest, 
abounding in gray and fox squirrels, possum, coon, deer 
and wild turkeys, with many black bears on the moun- 
tains. Since I have been here three bears have been 
killed and brought in by the huckleberry pickers. 
Springs of pure cold water abound everywhere, and 
from this plateau send spring brooks through the moun- 
tain gaps on the north of the Poteau, Petit Jean and 
FouTcbe La Fave rivers, tributaries of the Arkansas, while 
on the south and southeast they flow into the Ouachita, 
the Cossetot, Rolling Fork and Little River, tributaries of 
the Red River. 
All brooks are swift streams of pure, clear, cold water, 
abounding in rocky riffles and deep, rocky pools filled 
with the kinds of bass or "trout" above described— bream, 
perch, the catfish, etc.— and Bob White possesses the land 
everywhere. 
A kindlier, more friendly people I never saw in my life, 
and Col. Robert Allen and Marion B. Allen, ranchmen 
near Cove, twelve miles southwest of Dallas, neax Indian 
Territory line, have several times tried to persuade me to 
go down home with them for a hunt on their ranch lands 
leased of the Choctaw Indians. They say their cowboys 
report many flocks of old wild turkey gobblers, from 40 
to 100 in a flock, and deer, bears and gray wolves in large 
numbers, in the forests of the Lind and Choctaw moun- 
tains. 
The game laws of Arkansas making a close season of 
deer to Aug. 1 and wild turkey and quail to Sept. 1, all 
local hunters go over into the Choctaw Nation for deer 
and turkeys. Four citizens of this place returned to-day 
from a four days' hunt with twenty wild gobblers, seven 
deer and three black bears, which they divided among 
friends. 
While this country is a great game preserve at the pres- 
ent time, it may not last long, and the Kansas City, Pitts- 
burg & Gulf Railway will have its line completed from 
Kansas City, Mo. , to this place by Sept. 1, and I most sin- 
cerely wish that some of your force could be here and 
take a hunt in the Choctaw Nation with Col. Bob or 
Marion Allen, of Cove. Both are greatly looked up to by 
those Indians, both speaking the Choctaw tongue. 
I hope in the near future to give you an account of a 
bear hunt with them, as soon as my health will permit 
me and I feel myself strong enough; for, as Col. Bob says, 
"Bears are getting in good order on huckleberries and 
blackberries, and make mighty good eating, with golden 
trout on the side." I remain to you and your readers 
A Lover of the Rod and Gun. 
[There is no reasonable doubt that all the so-called trout 
of the Ouachita River Basin are black bass and the local 
names may refer to the two well-known kinds, large- 
mouthed and small-mouthed, both of which are found in 
the Ouachita and its tributaries. The "white trout" is 
unquestionably the large-mouthed bass, the black stripe 
being characteristic of that fish. The "golden trout," as 
nearly as we can decide from the piece of skin above 
mentioned, is the small-mouthed bass. According to the 
most recent publication of the U. S. Fish Commission 
upon the fishes of Arkansas both kinds of black bass are 
found in all the principal river basins of that State, with 
the exception of the Red River Basin, in which only the 
large-mouthed bass is recorded. The only trout in 
Arkansas waters are introduced by fishcultural operations 
and the rainbow is the kind chiefly furnished by the 
hatcheries.] 
ANGLING NOTES. 
State Fish in Private Waters. 
It has been frequently charged in years past that fish and 
fish fry have been obtained from the State, hatcheries — fish 
reared by and at the expense of the State — and planted in 
private waters from wnich the general public has been 
excluded. There is no question whatever that the charges 
were true, and I found upon investigation that in one 
year, not so very long ago, of 98,000 trout fry distributed 
m one county, 60,000, or nearly two-thirds, were planted 
in waters wholly private. The records fairly bristle with 
plants of State fish in private waters. How is the practice 
to be stopped? 
The State Fishcuiturist has issued a circular, in which 
it is stated that no fish will be furnished by the State for 
waters that are private. The application blanks which 
must be filled out in order to obtain fish of any kind de- 
clare that the fish asked for are for public Waters, and yet 
it is not possible, I presume, to detect every attempt to 
obtain State fish for private fishing waters. The Commis- 
sion examines all applications carefully and obtains all 
possible information about doubtful waters before grant- 
ing one, and under no circumstances will fish be fur- 
nished to applicants for waters closed to the public if the 
circumstances are known or can bo discovered by 
inquiry. If in spite of all the precautions taken fish 
are obtained from the State and planted where they 
cannot be caught, or rather fished for, by the people of 
the State, there is a remedy which if applied will stop the 
practice most effectually. The reports of the Commission 
give information as to where the fish sent out are planted, 
the name of the stream or pond and the name of the per- 
son to whom the fish are granted. It is within the province 
of every one to report to the Commission if fish are ob- 
tained for public waters and then planted beyond the 
reach of the public. A law has been enacted during the 
session of the Legislature of last winter which reads in 
part, being Section 212 of the game law, as follows: 
"Provided, however, that all waters heretofore stocked 
by the State or which may hereafter be stocked by the 
State from any of the hatcheries, hatching stations, or 
by fish furnished at the expense of the State, shall be and 
remain open to the public to fish therein the same as 
though the private park law had never existed, But 
nothing herein contained shall be construed as affecting 
any rights now existing of persons owning lands or hold- 
ing leases of private grounds, waters or parks prior to the 
passage of this act." Hereafter when any person applies 
to the State for fish of any kind a copy of this law will 
be sent with the application blank, and it will doubtless 
serve as a discourager of forming private parks and post- 
ing them after they have been stocked with fish at the 
expense of the taxpayers of the iitate. 
Planting Fish Fry on Spawning Beds. 
A circular issued by the Fisheries, Game and Forest 
Commission, giving instructions for transporting and 
planting young fiah, says among other things: "Lake 
trout should be planted among boulders or rocks in mid- 
i ake, very near to deep water, into which the young trout 
soon find their way. In the absence of such shoals with 
locks to afford hiding places for the young trout, they 
may be planted on natural spawning beds, when they 
are known." I have been asked so many times to explain 
why not select the spawning grounds first as the beet pos- 
sible place to plant the fry that I will explain here before 
I have to make other individual explanations to any who 
may be in the dark on this subject. Various species of 
fishes, other than trout, know where the spawning 
grounds of lake trout are, and they resort there to eat 
spawn and fry as if they all had a formal invitation to the 
feast. Anyone who has looked on a lake trout spawning 
bed at night and witnessed the eels congregated in num- 
bers greater than the trout will not nepd to be told that 
they are great destroyers of spawn. Perch are also de- 
structive of fry, and rock bass aid the perch in no small 
degree, and it is to avoid as much as possible the congre- 
gation of predaceous fishes on and around a spawning bed 
that it is advised to plant the artificially reared fry else- 
where. 
The 1 3^1bs. Brook Trout. 
I use the definite article, as I imagine there is but one 
13^-lbs. brook trout; but in case there should be, I will say 
that I refer to a fish which, in a mounted or stuffed con- 
dition, was exhibited at the Sportsmen's Exposition in 
Madison Square Garden last year, with the legend on a 
card that it was a brook trout, and that in life it weighed 
13ilbs. I said something about this fish at the time in 
this column, but I do not recall exactly what I said and 
I do not like to search the file of Forest and Stream at 
1 o'clock in the morning to find out. If I expressed what 
I thought I probably intimated that I had my doubts 
about the species of the fish. Record fish have a fascina- 
tion for me, and I can remember the weight of one 
when I cannot remember my own age. The 13^1bs. fel- 
low haunted me for some time after I saw it in its 
glass-covered case perched high up out of reach of too 
inquisitive eyes and hands. This year I heard of the fish 
again, that it was in a Twenty-third street store in New 
York, and one day I went there to pay my respects to it. 
It was still in its glass-fronted case in the show window 
of the store, and there was no better opportunity for a 
close inspection of his serene majesty than there was at 
Madison Square Garden. The legend informed the curi- 
ous that the fish weighed the same as it did a year ago, 
and. that it was the largest brook trout on record and was 
caught by a lady in Iowa. The attendant gave me all 
the information about the fish which he possessed, which 
was the same as the legend on the printed card. My 
thoughts must have found expression in my tongue, for 
the young man asked me if I thought it was not a brook 
trout, and I could only return an "evasive answer" by 
asking if he happened to know positively that it was not 
a lake trout. If I had had the job of painting that fiah 
to make it the largest brook trout on record, and caught 
in Iowa and by a lady, I would have put the paint on so 
thickly that the scales would not show even in the 
strongest light, to make it appear so very like a lake 
trout and unlike a brook trout. 
The scales may have been grafted on by a dermatolo- 
gist as an experiment, and in this way the fish got out of 
its class, and the painter gave it the spots and coloring of 
a. brook trout to please his fancy. "I'm not sayin' " that 
it is not a brook trout, for it would be impolite, as the 
fish was caught by a lady (in Iowa); but I have waited 
several weeks to hear from a man in th e Twenty -third street 
store who was to send me the particulars of the capture 
of the fish, but his letter is one of those which never 
came. 
Texas Tarpon. 
A friend and old fishing companion residing in Houston, 
Texas, closes a letter to me by saying: "I have been 
tarpon fishing several days, and will go again this week 
and report results. I hung one big fellow, but as usual 
failed to land him. There are pleuty of tarpon within 
twenty-five miles of our city, and you can sit from early 
morning until late at night and see them jumping all 
around you." 
I do not know how to interpret that expression, "but as 
usual I failed to land him." I have seen this gentleman 
land all sorts of fish but tarpon in various waters of 
various States, and certainly a tarpon ought not to out- 
general such an angler as he has proved himself to be. 
Any man who has threshed a Scotch salmon river from 
dawn until dark with an 18ft. salmon rod cannot lack 
strength, and a man who has successfully cast his flies for 
ouananiche in the Saguenay and brook trout in Maine 
should not be lacking in skill, so T am obliged to think 
that my friend does not hook his fiah securely, and per- 
haps this failure causes him to lose his "aliborus," which 
is Norwegian for sand. I would be sorry to think so, but 
I can think of no other reason for his failure. I am not 
so much surprised that he should lose a large tarpon or 
several of them, but I am struck dumb when he admits it. 
Lake Trout Fishing. 
The lake trout fishing in Lake George this year was 
peculiar. May is the month that the trout are at the sur- 
face, and are caught by trolling with light tackle; but the 
fishing the past month was almost a flat failure as a 
whole, although some good catches were made on occa- 
sions. The trout were never more in evidence than on 
some particular days during the month, but they would 
rarely take a lure that was presented with hooks attached. 
On some still days they could be seen rolling at the sur- 
face in every direction, but it was almost useless to troll 
over or around them, for the troll passed unnoticed by 
them. If trout were seen by hundreds the whitefish were 
seen by thousands, and it is upon whitefish that the trout 
feed. This food is provided so lavishly that toe trout are 
simply gorged with it. One fisherman tells me that after 
trolling with whitefish for two days without a strike, he 
obtained some gold shiners (bream), and thereafter he had 
good success, as the trout took them readily enough, after 
ignoring the whitefish. The planting of the big lake 
whitefish in the lake has provided too much food, as they 
have nothing to do but thrive and multiply and furnish 
food for trout. A. N. Cheney. 
Game Laws in Brief. 
Thk Game Laws in Brief, current edition, Bold everywhere, haa 
new game and fish laws for more than thirty of the States. It covers 
the entire country, is carefully prepared, and gives all that shooter* 
and anglers reauire. See advertisement. 
