May 25, 1895.] 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
411 
behind the peaks of the main ridge. It was about a mile 
and a half to the shelter of my roof in the most direct line. 
I (j&ok that line and made a grim resolve to try them 
another day with reinforcements. 
The second day after that, in company with my two 
'eldest boys, we wended our way back into that "patch." 
IDeer had not stirred much; we struck no tracks that 
looked promisingly fresh. "We separated on the run 
(south of the big brier patch. I took down the run skirt- 
iing the borders of the briers, the boys concluding to hunt 
>th« ridge. They started a small buck out of a thicket; it 
*rsn down, crossing the run a short distance ahead of me, 
t»ut I was not quite in time to see it or get a shot. Arriv- 
ing close to the lower end of the briers I came to where 
two deer had passed up the ridge running, evidently quite 
fresh. Noticing the direction from which they came it 
was also evident their alarm was not caused by me; so 
following, just before they reached the top their gait had 
settled to a walk; passing off of this ridge the trail led 
anto a rather open cove when, suddenly turning square 
about, they came on their back track some twenty-five or 
thirty paces, and again ascended the ridge into the briers. 
On they went, the general course being rather quartering 
down the side of that ridge toward the run down which I 
.had >come. Ever and anon with the most cunning instinct 
would they select some vantage spot, turning square 
about, take an observation on their back track for pur- 
suers; they could get a good squint with little show for 
*he hunter seeing them. 
Although I constantly kept the brightest kind of a look- 
out, I failed to catch any sight of them. They could not 
be far ahead. We had reached a point now about 100yds. 
from the run and nearly half the length of the big brier 
ipatch, when the trail suddenly turned nearly at right 
angles and quartered up the ridge. Still, the gait was a 
'walk; apparently, the change of course was not caused by 
•amy alarm. 
I had made a momentary pause in deciphering this last 
'move, when the sound of a whistle came to my ears from 
toward the bead of the run; another whistle. I replied. 
Soon the boys appeared on the run below. I indicated to 
them the direction the deer had taken, and it was hastily 
arranged that I continue the pursuit, slowly and cau- 
tiously, after giving them a few minutes' start, to take 
stations at the head of the brier patch, at points we knew 
they would be most apt to cross. 
I consult my watch and impatiently wait for the min- 
mtes to elapse. Their youthful legs, on an errand of this 
^ind, have taken them there by this time. I follow the 
trail with a brighter hope. Here both deer dive right 
through a formidable tangle of scrub and green briers; 
looks as though a deer jumping through that would tear 
the hide right off him. Bah! Who ever saw the hide 
taken off a deer in that way? I walk around it of course. 
We are nearly to the end of the big brier ridge; boys are 
close, I know; in fact, this hunt is drawing to a focus. "We 
are there, deer and all. Right here deer have gone through 
an ugly, horny, fallen spruce top with an entwining bunch 
<of scrub laurel and green briers, emerging upon a small 
?mound where some former monarch of the forest had 
Ibeen uprooted. Look at their footprints on this mound; 
turned and took anothersafe squint on the back track for 
pursuers. Talk of the ingenuity of the hunter! Can you 
beat that? Very seldom! Every sense iB now on the 
tingle and alert. A turn almost squarely to the left. I 
have a momentary fear they will cross the main run to the 
opposite ridge and perhaps too far off, or so hidden by the 
thicket the boys will fail to get a shot. I keep my own gun 
at a ready, to fire instanter upon first sight. The sharp 
i crack of George's rifle rings out upon the clear air. A 
momentary pause, and four more shots in rapid succession 
salute my ears. I keep my gaze fixed on the opposite 
ridge and press forward. A mistake! Had I at that mo- 
ment chanced to look squarely to my left, I would have 
been rewarded by a shot at the buck, cavorting around in 
the briers and around woods at about 40 or 50yds. A few 
steps more. I see George climbing up the hill toward me, 
and there lay the doe, dead. His first shot had gone 
through her neck close to the head, severing the jugular 
vein, 
The pause in the shooting was caused by a snap, the 
primer probably not being solidly into its seat in the 
shell. George says, "I would have killed that buck too 
had my gun not snapped. The snap was the only fair 
pull I had at him, standing broadside. The four shots I 
put at him so rapidly was as he jumped this way and 
that way, mostly hidden by the brush and logs." What 
a caper they can cut when thus suddenly surprised by a 
new danger in front. 
We got together, exchanged congratulations, hung our 
doe up conveniently by and started in pursuit of the 
buck. We followed until near the close of the day and 
jumped him out of a bed where he had lain down under 
the crest of a spruce point, but got no shot. Having 
barely time to get home ere nightfall, we skipped to the 
warm shelter of our roof. 
Some two or three weeks ago two men by the name of 
Arbogast, residing in the adjoining county of Pendleton 
went out on a hunt in the spurs of the Aileghanies. They 
were overtaken with a snowstorm, accompanied with a 
rapid lowering of the temperature; night was coming on 
several miles from home and from any place of shelter' 
overcome with fatigue and the severity of the cold one 
dropped dead in his tracks. His comrade, with the 
utmost difficulty, frozen nearly stiff, succeeded in crawl- 
ing to the shelter of an old barn, which stood some dis- 
tance from a house, which the unfortunate man did not 
liud in his perishing condition. When found, shortly 
after, he was still alive, but be had to be carried home in 
a terribly frozen condition, the help also going out and 
bringing in his dead comrade. It was thought at first 
that the life of the one might possibly be saved by ampu- 
tating the extremities. Several days elapsed before com- 
petent surgical aid could be obtained in that out-of-the- 
way locality, and the doctors found upon examination 
mortification had spread so badly in the frozen parts that 
death was inevitable. No operation was performed • next 
day the poor fellow died. Both were quite poor men and 
had families. The intensity of the cold on this occasion 
was phenomenal for this place, for next morning after 
this horror, the thermometer at my house stood at 30° 
below zero. 
• f rom one of my S eniaI sportsmen acquaintances 
in Pendleton county that wild turkeys were quite numer- 
ous there. Quite a number of them were bagged by those 
fortunate enough to enjoy a hunt in that vicinity Grav 
squirrels also plenty. Backwoods 
MICHIGAN'S PROPOSED LICENSE. 
Portland, Ind.— Editor Forest and Stream: We of 
this section who take advantage of the hunting season in 
Michigan and Wisconsin to recreate in that pine-laden 
atmosphere are interested in the proposed revision of the 
game laws of those States. It seems to us that the 
proposition to license non-residents is an ultra, selfish one. 
The writer has in the last eight years made seven trips, 
six of them to the Upper Peninsula of Michigan and one 
to northern Wisconsin. I have been accompanied by some 
of the foremost business and professional men of our city, 
few of them classed as hunters. 
These trips were made almost solely for the benefit of 
our health. A few of us— sons of pioneer hunters— were 
successful with the Winchester, and by still hunting sup- 
plied our camp with venison, while nthers spent their time 
fishing and attending to camp duties. The distance to 
where we usually camp is 525 miles, and by a careful esti- 
mate I find the deer we have taken have cost us about $80 
per deer. 
Rather than add to our expense account, the good citi- 
zens of those States should feel complimented that they 
can furnish us entertainment we prize so highly. The 
clause in the present law providing a penalty for shipping 
or attempting to ship any part of a deer out of the State 
should, we think, be modified. It seems to us to be un- 
constitutional, and is certainly unjust. It could be 
changed so as to limit and yet not prevent a hunter from 
taking a few pounds of venison home to his family, many 
of whom never tasted venison. I am convinced that rea- 
sonable inducements can be held out to non-residents to 
visit the game regions of the various States, without ma- 
terially decreasing the supply of game, if only the settlers 
of those States were prevented from violating the game 
laws. I know to a certainty that local white hunters 
and Indians kill deer the year round in northern Wiscon- 
sin and Michigan. It looks to us unnecessary, and not 
only unnecessary, but un-American, for a State to so dis- 
criminate between her own citizens and those of sister 
States. 
Wild game and fowl are migratory and in reality belong 
to no individual nor State. If a State adopts a law pro- 
hibiting the killing of game within her borders, let that 
law apply to every person, whether a citizen or not, while 
within the State. As far as nay observation goes deer are 
as plentiful in the Lake Superior region to-day as they 
were eight years ago, and if the open season of three or 
four weeks was the only time in which deer were killed, 
hunters might come from far or near in the usual num- 
bers, and not only kill but take home what they did not 
eat, and yet deer will increase in numbers annually in 
that region of birch thicket and cedar and tamarack 
swamp. G. W. Cunningham. 
gm mid giver <gw\in$. 
ANGLING NOTES. 
Lake Trout Fishing. 
When Harry Brown of the New York Herald wrote 
me that, pursuant to previous agreement, he and Ed. 
Mott, the "Old Settler" of the New York Sun, would 
come up from Albany the morning of May 3, ex- 
pecting that I would meet them at the railroad sta- 
tion and go on to Lake George for a couple of days* trout 
fishing, I was for the first time in many years wholly un- 
prepared to go fishing. I had not opened my tackle trunk 
this year, and my rods were as I put them away last fall, 
and furthermore I had no opportunity to make any 
preparations before the morning of the 3d. 
There is a heap of pleasure in getting one's tackle in 
perfect order before the fishing season opens, and it was 
with some misgivings that I put my tackle trunk and a 
couple of rods, just as I brought them from Canada last 
September, into a cab and started for the railroad station. 
My friends were prepared for good or bad luck so far as 
fish were concerned, as the pleasure of being away from 
their desks was sufficient pleasure unto itself. This, by 
the way, is the proper frame of mind in which to start on 
a fishing trip. The fishing had opened legally two days 
before, and owing to a misapprehension as to the language 
of the law there had been considerable fishing for a week 
or more, but all reports said the trout Were not yet at the 
surface. Col. Tippetts, editor of the Lake George Mirror, 
had wired me from New York to take his steam yacht, 
the Mirror, if it was ready, but it was not and would not 
be until evening; therefore upon arrival at Caldwell, the 
head of the lake, we dined and drove ten miles to Bolton 
under a broiling sun and through clouds of dust. Fortu- 
nately the Bolton road is provided at convenient distances 
with clear, cold springs of water, and we did not pass a 
spring without a halt to test its purity and temperature. 
At Bolton, where I had arranged for men and boats by 
telegraph, we found that but two men had been engaged, 
and they, thinking we were not coming, had gone out 
fishing. I attributed every delay and every disappoint- 
ment to my starting unprepared for fishing, although I 
am not superstitious, simply as a proper punishment for 
the offense. 
After all the tackle trunk panned out all right, and as I 
was putting an Archer spinner on my leader the "Old 
Settler got very gay at the thought of impaling a white- 
fish on the spindle and sticking the bait full of hooks 
with, which to catch trout. He said: "I'll name no 
m ^ es ' b . u t I have a friend who does not fish for trout 
with bait, and when a trout is properly cooked and 
served he can te'd from the flavor of it whether it was 
caught with bait or fly." The Lake George air and 
things were getting in their deadly work, and the larval 
sharp Uter WaS devrelo P in S int o the imago or perfect fish 
A man frc m the hotel took us all in one boat and we 
set out in sf >areh 0 f our boatmen, and after chasing half a 
dozen who turned out to be the wrong men, we finally 
touna the right ones, and I found a third man who sent 
his comr anion back in the hotel boat. It was after 4 
o ciocir i) i the afternoon, and the reports of the fishing 
was not encouraging, as the trout were not "up" and few 
were bi cmg— so the men said. 
I adl iered to a declaration made some years ago that I 
wouia catch them at the top or not at all, and so my 
Arch ,er spmner was innocent of l<*od, while every other 
man. was trolling with more or j, esa 0 f a sinker. Harry 
Brown was the first to draw blood, a handsome 61bs. 
trout falling to his rod. He is not particular about the 
size of his fish, but he is filled full of red sportsmen's 
blood and wishes to kill his fish with his own tackle, 
although he is willing that the boatman should use his 
gaff to take the fish in; and "that reminds me — " 
I was one day talking to Harry Brown about a pair of 
shoes which, fortunately or unfortunately, just as one 
looks at it, I possess. They have long slender toes, 
slightly turned up, and I was kicking because any shoe- 
maker should send me at my time of life such a giddy 
pair of shoes, and that I should be weak enough to wear 
them. Harry remarked: "The shoes are all right and the 
shoemaker knew what you wanted better than you do 
yourself, and your native modesty should not be shocked 
at the shape of those fashionable toes, for they are useful 
if not ornamental; and if you will always wear them 
when you go fishing you will have a pair of gaff hooks on 
your feet and be prepared for the largest fish of any 
species." 
Ed Mott caught two trout of 2|lbs. each, and I brought 
up the tail end with a 2-pounder, but it was caught on 
the surface. The next day the lake was still and the sky 
was cloudless, and if the trout had not been at the surface 
before they were that day, as they were breaking all over 
the lake before night. Years ago, in this lake, if I could 
see a trout break ahead of the boat within a reasonable 
distance, I felt as sure of him, four times out of five, as 
though I had him in the boat. It is not so now, Their 
food was scarcer than now, the trout were not in as good 
condition, and if a bait were trolled within their sight 
they were pretty sure to take it. When the lake was re- 
stocked with trout, hundreds of thousands of whitefish 
were also planted, and now the lake is full of whitefish 
that serve only as food for the trout, as they cannot be 
taken with a net, legally, except for bait, and they will 
not bite a hook. The trout are now very fat, and the food 
so abundant that a few whitefish at the end of a troll are 
lost in the great multitude of whitefish that have formed 
no alliance with a gang of hooks or spinner. 
Saturday morning we trolled through and around ris- 
ing trout that rarely noticed our baited gangs. Harry 
Brown was unfortunate with the few trout that did strike 
him, for they ripped his whitefish and entirely missed the 
hooks. Ed Mott nailed a 4-pounder, and I was for- 
tunate enough to hook and kill two of 7 and 13lbs. re- 
spectively. Our fishing practically ended at noon, for 
soon after we had beached on one of the islands a storm 
came out of the northeast which drove us to cover, and 
it was late before we were again on the water. Sunday 
we rowed across the lake and dined at Pearl Point and re- 
turned in the afternoon in quite a blow. In the forenoon 
it seemed to be perfect for fishing, but we learned that 
eleven boats that went out caught but two trout. A drive 
to Caldwell in the evening, the abep of the tired but con- 
tented fishermen, and the railroad train the next morn- 
ing ended our "outing," as a friend calls a fishing trip 
when he gets few or no fish. Late that afternoon Lieut. 
Gov. Saxton told me that lake trout from Lake George, 
fresh out of the water and properly cooked, were good 
enough for him; and in the evening Col. Ashley W. Cole 
said to me in confidence that while he enjoyed Lake 
George trout on the table, there was one thing lacking to 
complete his satisfaction, and that was the pleasure of 
catching the fish before it was cooked. 
Dominion Fishery Commission. 
A review of the Report of the Dominion Fishery Com- 
mission by the veteran Superintendent of Fisheries (now 
retired) Samuel Wilmot, who was chairman of the Com- 
mission, has been received. The report is full of interest- 
ing and valuable data, particularly as one of the chief 
objects of the Commission was to obtain information and 
testimony direct from practical fishermen and others 
interested regarding the spawning periods of the moi'e 
important kinds of fishes. As a result a close season is 
recommended for brook trout from Sept. 15 to March 31; 
for lake trout, from Oct. 15 to Nov. 30; for dore (pike- 
perch), from April 1 to May 31; for beach bass, from May 
10 to June 30; for mascalonge, from April 1 to June 15; 
and for bullheads and catfish, from May 1 to Aug. 31. 
In some instances more than one hundred fishermen 
gave testimony before the Commission regarding the 
spawning season of some of the fishes mentioned. 
Every investigation that has ever been instituted to 
determine the spawning season of black bass has resulted 
in showing conclusively that black bass, whether in Long 
Island waters of New York, or the waters of Canada, 
spawn all during the month of June, and yet New York 
State adheres to an open season for this fish which begins 
on May 30. 
The Canadian Commission gathered information as to 
the nets used by commercial fishermen, and in summing 
up the result of the inquiry Mr. Wilmot says that the 
prime causes for the depletion of the fisheries are: Fish- 
ing in the spawning season and while fish are congre- 
gating for that purpose. The great destruction of imma- 
ture fish in pound and gill nets and seines. Waste of 
great quantities of fish in the use of unlimited lengths of 
gill nets. The use of too small meshes in all nets, etc. 
The waters covered by the inquiry are those which lie 
between Canada and the United States, and the entire re- 
port may be read with profit by fishermen on this side of 
the line. Riding down on the Champlain Division of the 
D. & H. R. R. a few days ago, the conductor complained 
to me of the net fishing in the lake and said that in the 
express car of his train a there were twelve barrels of pike- 
perch taken on at two stations, and probably they 
represented but a small proportion of the catch of the day 
before. I have seen bunches of little pike-perch 6 or 7in. 
long offered for sale in the towns near by Lake Champlain, 
because, as I supposed, they were too small to market 
elsewhere. New York and Vermont have complained of 
the ravages of Canadian net fishermen in boundary 
waters, but if the suggestions of the Canadian Commis- 
sioners are carried out the north wind may blow some 
complaints in from the Dominion. 
Fire-Fishing. 
Fire-hunting is an old practice, and so, too, is a certain 
style of fire- fishing; but 1 believe that fly-fishing by fire- 
light is not common. Five or six years ago I first heard 
of it and it was recalled to me by a friend to-day. Pha- 
raoh Lake, east of Schroon Lake, in the Adirondacks, 
contains what I contend are the most beautiful of all 
brook or speckled trout that I have ever seen. There was 
a legend at one time that these trout would not rise to the 
