4 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
[Jan. 5, 1895. 
numerous annoying**and one of the most unpleasant 
of the fishes in these waters. No sooner has one cast 
one's bait than the catfish assemble round it in 
myriads. Frequently I have lost almost a whole bait 
in ten minutes. If 'it were not a fact that in most 
places one can catch hundreds of catfish in an hour it 
might be some sport to play with them on a light rod. 
I did so on one or two occasions, but was speedily 
tired of it. The trouble of removing the fish from 
one's hook is considerable. They are not only strong, 
but possessed of sharp spines, which inflict poisoned 
wounds ; indeed, so sharp and hard are these spines 
that I have seen them sticking into a deal board. 
Maguire had a theory that by catching a couple and 
attaching them by short lines to a bottle they would 
scare all the others away, but it did not appear to be 
effectual. Their number is legion. As one reels in 
the remains of one's bait in order to replace it by a 
fresh mullet, such as is left on the hook is followed 
up by a small army of these nuisances. 
Nor is the catfish the only thorn in the side of the 
tarpon fisher. There is a heavy and dull creature 
known as the Jew fish. The Jew fish possesses a 
particularly ugly head. I do not know exactly what 
it weighs, but I was assured they have been caught 
up to 400 pounds. I hooked more than one, but rather 
than go through the labor and waste of time of killing 
it I reeled in as much of my line as I could and cut 
him adrift. The Jew fish is not a good fighter ; it 
relies on its weight and its power of hiding itself 
among the roots of the mangrove, trees. In addition 
to the Jew fish there is the shark, but as I was not 
troubled with sharks at Punta Gorda, and as shark- 
fishing with rod and reel is, in my opinion, excellent 
sport, I will defer them until another chapter 
Toward the evening the mosquitoes get trouble- 
some, and later on in the season comes the minute 
insect called, for some reason I do not understand, a 
sand fly. The Florida mosquito does not seem so bad. 
is the others of its kind, but it is occasionally ex- 
tremely numerous. * 
If heat and sun be drawback, I fear tarpon fishing 
must be considered uncomfortable. Personally I did 
aot suffer. [ I do not object to either heat or sunburn, 
so long as I am not obliged to wear a collar three 
inches high. 
All that day Maguire and I sat steadily on without 
the least sign of a run. The only thing I captured 
was one of the biggest appetites I ever remember, and 
here let me say that, despite the heat, this part of 
Florida (I do not refer to the internal swamps of the 
country) is distinctly bracing. Our party did not 
suffer a moment's illness the whole time we were 
there, and though we were told by New York doctors 
to take quinine and be most careful of malaria fever, 
we not only did not suffer from anything of the kind 
but did not even hear of any illness. 
As a country Florida is poor, and in many parts 
extremely unhealthy. Thousands of young English- 
men and young Americans from the Northern States 
have been entrapped there by stories of the alleged profits 
derived from orange growing. The people who get 
them there are land speculators ; some of them, I 
regret to say, Englishmen. At the present time thou- 
sands of fine young fellows are eating their hearts out 
in Florida without the least chance of bettering their 
position. The place contains a number of Englishmen 
of the retired officer type, many of whom have sunk 
their little all in an orange grove. Not even local 
patriotism could induce ' ' crackers, ' ' as the inhabitants 
of Florida are called, to pretend that Florida has the 
least chance as a center for emigrants. 
Englishmen have lately opened up phosphate mines 
there, and have undoubtedly made fortunes, but from 
the agricultural standpoint the soil of Florida is so 
poor that it will never become a prosperous country 
for agriculture. Its ranges are good, though they are 
in many wavs not equal to those of Spain or the East. 
One day, when they have proper railway facilities, 
this vast country may derive profit from its wonderful 
fisheries, and in course of time it is destined to become 
the great winter health resort of the United States. 
But to resume. Towards 6 o'clock the naphtha 
launch came along and took us up. It was chilly as 
we went down the river towards Punta Gorda, but I 
had the plesaure of seeing one of the famous Florida 
sunsets. They have not their equal anywhere in the 
United States, and I doubt whether the famous desert 
sunsets present more remarkable effects. 
It was quite dark when we reached the hotel, and 
it was pleasant to come into the bright hall with its 
crowd of sportsmen in careless attire lingering round 
the fire or rocking themselves in the national chair. 
There had been no tarpon caught that [flay or for 
many days previously. 
In all these tarpon hotels a list is kept in the hall of 
the fish killed in the local water, and the record is 
kept in a unique way. The scales of the tarpon are 
often as large as a five shilling piece and occasionally 
considerably larger. Upon these scales the weight of 
the fish, the name of the captor, the minutes or hours 
of the killing and the date are written. The scale is 
then pinned to a. board. It is the ambition of every 
angler who visits Florida to figure^on^one^of these 
hotel records. 
(To be contmued.) 
In the San Joaquin Valley. 
Away up at the south end of the great valley of 
the San Joaquin river in California, the land spreads 
out like a plain that reaches away off to the hills of 
the snow-crested Sierras Nevada, whose wintry peaks 
tower high above the clouds, far in the blue Italian 
sky, and the rarefied air blows every night, cool, dry 
and stimulating. Happy is he who on horseback gal- 
lops with comrades in this fragrant mountain air, 
over the green sod spangled with poppy violets and 
filer i a., riding away off to the pine clad knolls that 
fade afar in the smoky distance. Aside from the 
scenery and invigorating air, the gunner will find 
plenty of game, ducks and geese in abundance, rabbits 
and quail, and larger game further back in the 
mountains. The jack rabbit is in his element here. 
a T. 
AN INCIDENT OF TURKEY CALLING. 
Some weeks ago a friend from your city, M. C. E. 
Gudebrod, of the firm of Gudebrod Brothers, silk manu- 
facturers, spent a few days with us here in the county 
of Goochland, Virginia, and tried his hand at wild 
turkey shooting, that sport so wearisome to the unprac- 
ticed, so fascinating to the adept. He was a true sports- 
man, and derived enjoyment from the charming exercise, 
of tramping from morning to night during the delight- 
ful autumn days of the "Old Dominion," through the 
sweet-scented woods and old field pines, even though he 
did not slaughter much game in pot-hunter fashion. He 
succeeded, however, on his first hunt, in bagging a fine 
gobbler, and saw a great many turkeys, and became 
personally cognizant of their extreme timidity and 
wariness, which alone have prevented the extermination 
of this noblest of all game birds of America, Especially 
was he struck with the vigilance of the old gobblers. 
These are generally found in pairs or small flocks by 
themselves, and when found have to be "scattered," and 
it then ordinarily requires hours to decoy one by the 
skillful use of the "yelp," within gunshot of the spot 
where the huntsman is concealed. 
[, J Upon his return home Mr. G. stopped in Ashland 
and informed his friend, Mr. J. M. Leake, himself a 
great lover of the sport, of the large number of turkeys 
in Goochland, and as an instance of their wariness said 
that the old gobblers in approaching a call took and car- 
ried before them in their bills an evergreen brush, 
cuningly concealed behind which they would reconnoitre 
to discover whether the call proceeded from a tm-key or 
a man. Fired with ambition to out-general and bring 
to bag one of J:hese, Mr. L. immediately paid a long 
promised visit to Goochland to try his hick. ^ 
On his first day's hunt he found and scattered a large 
flock and killed two fine turkeys, and could have killed 
more out of the flock, but they were young and did not 
satisfy his ambition. Soon after he flushed a flock of 
old gobblers and selected and arranged his "blind "with 
every precaution known to the art, exerting every 
device .that experience and skill could suggest, yet hoirrs 
went by and still he heard no sound of. the game At 
length, as the sun was jetting low in the west, in 
response to one of his most persuasive calls, there came 
a far off answer. He waited some time and then called 
again. Again he was answered. -Presently he heard 
distinctly the tread of the turkey in the dry leaves as it 
approached. A stick cracked and then all was still. 
Again he uttered a low call, and again he was answered, 
and again heard the same distinct sound of footsteps as 
. the turkey cautiously advanced. It drew nearer. With 
gun ready and every nerve strained with expectation, 
he peered through the evergreen boughs which hid him 
behind an old log from sight, but could see nothing, ex- 
cept a small cedar rustled by the wind ; but still he heard 
the tread of footsteps in the leaves. " Is it possible, " 
thought he, ' ' that some man has mistaken my call for 
thafof a turkey and is creeping up to get a shot at 
me?" The idea was startling. He recalled an instance 
where a man had been shot in that very way near Ash- 
land. He grew nervous. The slow measured tread grew 
louder. Drops of perspiration stood on his brow. He 
could stand it no longer. Springing up in his blind he 
shouted: "Who is that? Don't shoot!" Instantly 
there darted away from behind the cedar a magnificent 
turkey clothed in all the gloss and beauty of perfect 
plumage, and before Mr. L. could recover from his 
fright he was gone. 
I s Inasmuch as some uncharitable persons might ques- 
tion some of the facts stated above, for most of which I 
will vouch, I have given the names of the gentlemen 
concerned. / 
I have just ordered a renewal of my subscription to 
Forest and Stream. As the years go by it becomes, like 
an old and trusted friend, nearer and dearer to my 
heart. It is associated in my mind with the names of 
honored and departed friends, and among them that 
charming writer and excellent gentleman whose noni de 
plume was "By a Mule, ' ' and the genial, witty and 
whole souled "Wells. " M., of Noethside. 
CALLING MOOSE. 
There is no department of the noble science of wood- 
craft that needs more skill and nerve and patience than 
that of moose calling. 
The game is as wary as a fox— his powers of scent 
and hearing are nothing short of marvelous— and he is 
almost certain to detect the first false step or the first 
false note in the music. ' 
There is room for question whether the moose is ever 
wholly deceived by the call even when it is given by a 
past master in the art. He thinks it is the voice of his 
lady love, but he is not without suspicion. The con- 
jugal impulse is wearing out his very soul ; his appetite 
for food is gone ; he has been living the life of a vaga- 
bond, his days without rest, his nights without sleep ; 
he has been pawing up the black muck on the ban-en 
these moonlight evenings and strewing the mountain 
trail with saplings torn up by the roots in his sullen 
fury, and now— Great Scott !— what is that sweet and 
soulful sound he hears stealing up from the shores of 
the lake? Is it the voice of his only ownest Mary Ann, 
who ran off from him in a huff a year ago, or is it Sarah 
Jane, the giddy jade, who eloped with that worthless 
wretch, William Henry, last Sunday night? Or is it the 
cry of that phantom maid, of whom he has been warned, 
whose glances pierce the heart like fiery hail, and from, 
whose mystic bower no bull moose e'er returns? If it 
is our own Mary Ann it is all right. If it is Sarah Jane 
we'll have to fight lively with William Henry, that's 
certain. But by the Big White Moon, what if it be 
the phantom maid? It didn't sound at all like Mary 
Ann, that's a fact, but mebbe she has a bad cold, or 
mebbe she's got an old whopper of a lilvpad root stuck 
slashways in her gullet. She always was a holy terror 
on roots. Well, whose 's afraid, anyhow? We'll just 
sneak down to the shore of the lake/ and if that miser- 
able, low-lived William Henry is there we'll proceed, to 
knock spots out of his mangy carcase and shovel him 
into the lake if it takes all night to do it. But, hark ! 
there it is again. That was never Mary Ann nor Sarah 
Jane either ! If that is the music of the phantom maid 
she needs a new set of reeds in her throat right away. 
Well, there's no great rush about it; here's a nice old 
blowdown ; we'll just lean up against this and smell 
and listen for all we're worth. We feel very much like 
giving a grunt to show we're here, but we won't; we'll 
keep our beautiful mouth shut for fear of accidents. 
Come to think of it, things have been going on kind 
of queer about the lake these last two days, anyhow. 
The ducks have been quacking and flying about to beat 
four of a kind. We saw the smoke this morning over 
on the point ; we heard the sound of blows and falling 
trees and Ave smelt a track on the shore unlike anything 
we ever struck before. What if it should be a Man, the 
animal that walks on two legs, the foe of everything 
that breathes and everything that grows? He slew our 
forefather before us and our hind father behind us. 
Hush ! there it is again. Jumping Jupiter ! there never 
was a maiden moose on earth with such a harsh and 
hollow croak as that. It must be a Man. It is a Man. 
Good day, Mr. Man, we'll see you later ! 
n I There is no material to be found in the woods that is 
put to so many uses by the hunter as birch bark. It 
supplies him with a roof for his camp ; with a kindling 
for his fire; with a torch to light him through the 
wilderness by night ; with a canoe by which he speeds 
in silence and security over the lakes and rivers and 
under which he may seek shelter from the storm ; with, 
pot, pan, kettle and dipper if need be, and with writing 
paper by which to send as chance occurs a message to 
the outer world. Last but not least it supplies him with 
his moose call. 
This implement is made from 16 to 20 inches in 
length. It should not be shorter or it will not give 
sufficient volume, and its tone will be harsh. It should 
not be longer or the human lungs will not suffice -to fill 
it. The tree from which it is taken should be well 
nourished with. sap so that the bark shall be soft. With 
four strokes of his knife the caller cuts the bark and 
strips it from the tree. Then peeling the bark as thin 
as he can with safety, he trims it in the general form 
of a triangle and rolls it in the shape of a horn. The 
small opening should be about three-quarters of an inch 
across ; the large opening about five inches. If there are 
spruce trees growing near, the hunter simply shoves his 
horny hand down in the soft, black mould and speedily 
yanks out a long, tough and pliable root. Stripping off 
the bark, he splits the fiber from end to end, and 
with the string thus made secures the horn at either 
end. Then he raises the horn to his lips and (if he 
really knows how to give the call) gives forth the most 
plaintive, melodious, voluminous, soul-moving sound 
that e'er was heard on sea or shore. There is a drop of 
two full octaves from the first flute-like whimper to the 
deep, resonant chest note at the close. Yet the caller is 
not quite satisfied with it. He trims the horn off at the 
big end, or he rolls it more compactly together, or he 
opens it and trims off a wart or two on the bark, inside. 
He raises the horn to his lips and again that weird, 
wailing cry echoes and eddies down the valley and over 
the hills. When he takes it down he says: "Well, I 
guess she'll do. " I should think so ! 
i. There is seldom any heaven-appointed spot at which 
to call for moose. It should be where the signs are 
fresh. It should be away from the sounds and scents of 
the camp. A good place to call is on the shore of a lake, 
or pond, or dead water, or on the edge of a barren, 
where the king of the valley can be seen as he draws 
nigh. There is not much need of concealment at first ; 
a moose is not at all keen of vision ; when he comes 
you are going to see him swaggering, or lounging 
leisurely up the shore, or hear him pushing his way 
through, the bush in plenty of time for you to break for 
cover. The main thing now is not to let him catch your 
wind, for if you do the jig is up. You are at liberty to 
take the buck fever, of course, but I don't see why 'you 
should. If you can hit anything you ought to hit the 
broadside of a moose. If you know what a good rifle 
will do, you ought to reflect that you are going to punch 
an awful hole in that moose if only only keep cool. You 
need not be afraid of the moose for, after all, the num- 
ber of full grown men that have been devoured by bull 
moose is comparatively small. It is a thrilling experi- 
ence, no doubt, to ride through the forest on the chair 
car of the bull moose express ; still the chances are that 
the train will not stop at your station. If you positively 
cannot pull yourself together in any other way, lean 
your gun bush fashion against a tree or over a log or 
stump, or lie down if you can and shoot from the 
elbow. Take lots of tinie, aim straight, aim a little 
lower that you expect to hit and keep aiming till you 
hear the gun go. Then, unless your moose is down, 
man the pump as soon as you can and shoot— and shoot 
— and shoot — and shoot. 
Now and then it happens that the guide, while 
tramping along the trail, thinking how he can pull your 
leg for the greatest number of dollars in the shortest 
space of time, will find himself minus his horn, right 
on top of the awf ulest big moose on record. There is 
only one thing to be done and that is for the guide to 
use his hand for a horn. It can be done, but it takes 
Lin artist to do it. 
IE- Bull moose are dead ripe early in September and 
unless the law says otherwise that is the time to 
look for them. The mating season is just then begin- 
ning ; by the last of the month nearly all have mated, and 
the chance for calling then is not as good as it will be a 
month later when the cow has tired of married life and 
the old man is keeping bachelor's hall. Last year my 
friend Braithwaite called up three moose at once on the 
loth of November, but this is very unusual. 
As a rule, the best time of day to call for moose is 
about sundown. The wind will have calmed down 
then, if it is going to calm at all, and the horn can be 
heard a long way off. It is almost useless to try it on a 
windy day as the call can only penetrate in one direc- 
tion, and the roaring of the trees drowns out all other 
sounds. The moose cannot hear you and if he could 
you cannot hear his answering grunt. Moreover, like 
most wild animals, he is restless when the wind blows 
and very much on the alert. Indian callers generally 
begin about sundown and keep on calling by moonlight 
until a late horn- of the night. Moose will then respond 
more readily than in the davtime, and from a far 
greater distance, but it is going to be difficult to plant 
your bullet in the right spot. The noble red man is not 
