488 
[June 15, 1895. 
trap or dogs, it would be a bad customer in a hand-to-hand 
fight. 
I have wondered why there is not more published on 
forest hunting, while so much space is given to fishing 
and bird shooting. The forests trom Maine to the Pacific 
could tell tales that would be interesting to every son of 
the pioneers who followed the red men from the East to 
the West — not only interesting but instructive, for the 
best informed may learn something. Not long since I 
Baw the question asked by a man who claimed he had 
tramped the forests for twenty years, what becomes of 
deers' horns after they are shed? He had never seen one 
in all his experience. I could have told him. The porcu- 
pines eat every one of them. 
I have caught 3Lb. brook trout with a common tackle 
and venison for bait. A woodsman told me he was in the 
forest with his axe. He saw in a stream some fine trout. 
He had a fish hook with him, but no bait. He looked 
about and espied a porcupine on a tree, cut the tree down, 
killed and skinned the animal, baited his hook with some 
of the flesh and caught a fine string of trout. This was 
in northern Wisconsin. Did you know there are brown 
bear in Wisconsin? I did not until last October. C. 
CHICAGO AND THE WEST. 
[From our Staff Correspondent.] 
Faithfulness of a Goose. 
Another Manitoba paper, the Pilot Mound Sentinel, this 
week prints the following story of an affectionate goose 
whose mate was snatched away to the land o' the leal a 
little in advance: 
"The history of Mr. P. Cram's wild geese forms a little 
romance, where adventure, danger, attachment, tragedy 
and bereavement appear strongly developed. About four 
years ago Mr. Cram captured in the woods a forlorn and 
forsaken little wild gosling, that had probably escaped the 
jaws of a wolf when the others were destroyed. The 
little waif grew to be the finest goose in Manitoba, 
and last spring proved to be so attractive that a wild 
gander gave up a contemplated journey to the polar sea, 
abandoned the flock to which he was attached, ran the 
risk of being shot, and became the mate of the tame wild 
goose. A very fine flock of goslings W ere raised, wild- 
looking, but quite domestic. In the fall a wolf captured 
the mother goose, and the gander, guided by a natural in- 
stinct, migrated, and would have taken his family with 
him had his , designs not been anticipated. This spring 
the gander returned and alighted in Mr. Cram's stable 
yard, claiming kindred with his descendants; he pro- 
ceeded to look for his mate; not finding her, he continued 
the search for a number of days, visiting the pond and 
places frequented in other days, and at last in despair 
gave up the search, and bidding his family farewell, he 
started for the distant north, Mr. Cram refusing to add to 
the sorrows and misfortunes of his strange visitor by fir- 
ing at him." 
Big Year for Texas Game. 
Mr. Guessaz writes me personally from San Antonio, 
Texas, regarding the game prospects in that region this 
year: 
"Speaking of seasons, we have struck a 'corker.' It 
has rained water and fishes for three months, and every 
water hole is full. Mitchell's Lake is three miles long 
and one and one-half miles wide, nine miles south of 
city, and full of ducks now. That's astonishing, isn't it? 
The quail are coming back (can't imagine where they 
have been). In a twenty-mile run on the Gulf Shore 
Railway a friend of mine counted twenty-one coveys. I 
hear the same from the West. The tarpon fishing is at 
its height, and anybody catches from one to a dozen. 
This is a fact. You wouldn't know Texas now. It is a 
garden, and this winter will be one of our greatest sea- 
sons. There is something strange about the migration of 
game in this section. When it (the section) suffers from 
drought the game vanishes, and when it rains the whole 
magnificent panorama reappears. This is the season of 
all seasons. There is no spot on earth that contains more 
game to the square inch than southwest Texas does this 
year. It will astonish, even you when you see it. So 
don't head yourself in any other direction." 
E. Hough. 
909 Secuhity Building, Chicago. 
New York Game Law. 
The game bill was signed June 8 and is now a law. Ib repeals all 
supervisors' ordinances. The close seasons throughout the State 
are as follows: 
Deer.— Except August 16 to October 31 inclusive. One person may 
take only two deer in a season. Protected at all seasons in Ulster, 
Greene, Sullivan and Delaware counties. Hounding forbidden except 
September 10 to Octooer 10 inclusive. Forbidden always in St. Law- 
rence county. Transportation of venison forbidden, except that one 
carcass may be carried accompanied by owner. 
Black and Gray Squirrels, Hares, Rabbits, except in months of 
September, October, November. But in St. Lawrence, Franklin, 
Essex, Clinton, Lewis, Warren, Herkimer, Hamilton, Saratoga, Wash- 
ington, Onondaga, Oswego, Dutchess, Steuben, Orange, Richmond, 
Delaware, rabbit season, except October 1 to March 1. Ferrets for- 
bidden. 
Wildfowl.— Web-footed wildfowl, except geese and brant, April 30 
to Sept. l. 
Quail, except months of November and December. Protected at all 
times in Genesee, Wyoming, Orleans, Livingston, Monroe, Cayuga, 
Seneca, Wayne, Tompkins, Tioga, Onondaga, Ontario, Steuben,. Cort- 
land, Otsego. Transportation forbidden unless accompanied by 
owner. 
Woodcock, Ruffed Grouse, Partridge, except Aug. 16 to Jan. 31 
inclusive. Transportation forbidden unless accompanied by owner. 
Wilson's Snipe, English Snipe, Plover, Rail, Mud-hen, Gallinule, 
Grebe, Bittern, Surf Bird, Curlew, Water Chicken, Bay snipe, 
Shore Bird, May, June, July, August. 
Meadow Lark, Robin, all other birds not named in this act (except 
lLngli8h sparrow, crow, hawk, crane, raven, crow blackbird, common 
blackbird, kmgnsher) protected always. 
Mongolian, Ring-necked Pheasant protected to 1897. 
Fish.— "Trout of any kind," except April 16 to August 31. Lawful 
length, six inches. Transportation forbidden unless accompanied by 
owner. Salmon trout, landlocked salmon, except May 1 to September 
30. Transportation forbidden unless accompanied by owner. Black 
bass, Oswego bass, except May 30 to December 31 inclusive rin Lake 
George except August 1 to December 31 inclusive). Lawful length, 
eight inches Pickerel, pike, wall-eyed pike, except May 1 to January 
31. Muskallonge, except May 30 to February 28 inclusive. Salmon, 
August 15 to March 1. Lawful length, eighteen inches. Salt-water 
striped bass; lawful length, eight inches. 
LONG ISLAND CLOSE SEASON. 
Wildfowl, May 1 to September 30. Plover, snipe, etc., except July 
1 to December 31. Ruffed grouse, meadow lark, January 1 to October 
1. Woodcock, January 1 to July 31. 
Trout, except March 39 to August 3, inclusive. Landlocked salmon 
salmon trout, except April 1 to September 30. Black bass, except Mav 
30 to December 31. * * 
Hare, Rabbit, except November 1 to December 31. Deer protected 
for two years. Black and gray squirrels, except November 1 to De 
cember 31 inclusive. 
Meadow-hen, Mud-hen, Gallinule, Water Chicken, Grebe August 
to .December 31, 
\m %t[d §mr ^tilling. 
MORE ABOUT LEAPING BASS. 
Editor Forest and Stream: 
I have been on a recent visit to my old Virginia home, 
where I had three successful days casting the fly for small- 
mouth bass. Looking over the papers which came while 
I was away, I find that several of your correspondents 
have "jumped on me" concerning what I had to say about 
bass. As Pat said when he got kicked out, "Faith, but a 
man can't help what's done behind his back." I have paid 
due and respectful attention to all my friends have to say, 
but as my opinions are founded on very long experience 
and many careful observations, I find no reason to modify 
them. 
Each of these gentlemen seems to think that I differ 
from his way of thinking because I have had very little 
experience with game fish. They are mistaken. If I 
have failed to understand the habits of bass and trout, it 
has been for want of capacity to form correct opinions, 
and not from lack of opportunity. My experience of bass 
and trout, on an extensive scale, dates back to the '50s. 
In '56, I think it was, I spent an entire season in the 
mountains about Clifton Forge for the benefit of my health . 
The numerous magnificent trout streams I bad access to 
had then been but little fished, and as I devoted nearly my 
whole time to them, I caught great numbers; and learned 
much of their habits. Since then I have spent many sum- 
mers on the very banks of some of the finest trout streams 
in Virginia and West Virginia, and until within the past 
two years I owned a fine trout stream which was wholly 
within the limits of my own property; another, to which 
I had free access, was within less than half a mile of my 
house, and there were two others within three miles. I 
had previously lived nearly eight years in southwest Vir- 
ginia, with easy access to both trout and bass waters; 
and I was resident physician for seven years at Eawley 
Springs, immediately on the banks of Dry River, which is, 
all things considered, as fine a trout stream as there is 
south of the Potomac. 
With black bass I have had fully thirty-five years' ex- 
perience, extending over many waters, from Pennsyl- 
vania to Louisiana. Gentlemen will not be able to con- 
vict me of beginning to talk about game fish without 
having had any opportunity to know what I am talking 
about. My good friend out in "de ole Kaintuck" thinks 
his knowledge of bass is "a condition, not a theory." 
What in the name of wonder he means by that I am sure 
I don't know; but if it has led him to think that he has 
seen bass when hooked, after trying without success to 
go to the bottom, come to the top, and standing on the 
tip of their tails poke up their heads out of the water and 
shake them like a terrier shaking a rat, trying to shake 
the hook out of their mouths, it must be a strange "con- 
dition" in which his knowledge has placed him. 
I offer gentlemen no offense in suggesting that their 
eyes deceive them. ;The eye is the most defective of 
our organs, and eyesight the most deceptive of our senses. 
A leaping bass is not often above the water during one- 
quarter of a second; generally he is not in the air above 
one-tenth of a second, and I take it to be a physical im- 
possibility for anybody to see whether his mouth is wide 
open or not, or whether he shakes his head or not. I re- 
peat what I formerly said: I do not pretend to doubt that 
gentlemen believe they have so seen, but I am quite cer- 
tain they are mistaken. 
A hooked bass in leaping generally describes a rather 
low curve, extending horizontally from 18in. to about 
3ft. , and its summit from 9 to 15in. above the water. 
Many will insist on multiplying these figures by 3 or 4. 
I have heard men say they believe they have seen bass 
leap out of the water 6 or 7 and even 8ft. high. I am 
sure I have never seen one leap 3ft. high. I once saw a 
very large bass make what seemed an astonishing leap; I 
supposed it to be 4ft. high. I saw that it was exactly as 
high as an overhanging birch bough very close to the 
spot; actual measurement proved it to be 28in. above the 
water. I do not believe any man ever saw a black bass 
leap 4ft. high. I have seen a great many of them jump 
into boats; I never saw one jump over a boat. In some 
places boats are regularly used to catch them. 
On one occasion, when I was one of the Fish Commis- 
sioners of Virginia, I sent Mr. William F. Page, then my 
pupil, now the distinguished fishculturist in charge of 
the U. S. Hatchery at Neosho, to Holston River to get 
some bass for stocking New River. The local fishermen 
he employed to catch them used a canoe about 30ft. long 
by 30in. wide, and about 9in. deep. Placing one end of 
this canoe against the shore, the outer end was pushed 
rapidly in, so as to include the bass in the angle between 
the boat and the shore, and as the bottom of the boat was 
within an inch or two of the bottom of the water, the fish 
rushing in headlong fright toward deep water and meeting 
the boat coming in, which they could not pass under, 
would attempt to jump over it, and almost or quite in- 
variably jumped into it instead of over it, and in no great 
while Mr. Page had as many as he wanted. If these fish 
are easily able to leap from 5 to 7ft. high, which would 
imply a horizontal leap of from 9 to 12ft., how comes 
it to pass that they failed so constantly to jump over a 
canoe the side of which was 9in. high and the width of it 
30in.? 
Obviously in this case it is fright which causes the fish 
to leap. I believe the same is true of the hooked fish. I 
have found that whether the hooked fish leaps depends 
much on the way he is handled. If he is allowed his 
own way with a slack line he will seek bottom and stay 
below the surface until he gives up the fight. If held 
well in hand and kept peremptorily near the surface, and 
especially if the water is not deep, he is very apt to leap 
out of the water, which he will often do two or three 
times before he quits. It is not a deep strategic plan and 
purpose to go up in the air that he may have ample room 
and scope enough to open his mouth "wide open" and 
' 'shake his head savagely," and so shake out the hook. In 
my opinion it is a mere headlong rush inspired by fright. 
I have certainly had several hundred bass on my own 
hook leap clear of the water, in playing them, and have 
not lost half a dozen which parted with the hook in the 
air. Very few ever get away from me at all by leaping; and 
such as do escape do so far more frequently by leaving 
the hook behind them under the water or getting off after 
they fall back into the water. 
My word for it, gentlemen, where one bass gets rid of 
the hook by leaping in the air, one hundred escape by 
fouling the leader with rooks or snags under water. Play 
your fish on the surface and you will see them leap very 
often, but very few will get away. The fish is not out 
of the water during more than second, and whatever 
you might want to do you can't do it for lack of time. 
If you hold just as you were holding, you can do nothing 
more, and the fish will rarely gain anything by his leap. 
Nevertheless if you want him to stay under water play 
him with a low tip and a light hand and he will be nearly 
certain to accommodate you. 
Good friends, we have no quarrel. Right or wrong, such 
are my opinions and some of the reasons for the faith that 
in me. Let it be that your knowledge is a "condition;" 
mine not a "condition, but a theory." Farewell, then, 
with my blessing; for I purpose to trouble you no more. 
CtTMBERSTONE; Md. . M. G. Ellzet, M. D. 
ANGLING NOTES. 
Black Bass Spawning. 
For more than ten years Forest and Stream has been 
hammering away at the fishermen of this State to have 
them understand that it is entirely wrong to catch black 
bass during the month of June, as that is the month in 
which most of the black bass spawn, no matter in what 
part of the State they may be found; that black bass are 
the one species of so-called game fishes that require pro- 
tection after the young are hatched because the parent fish 
bi - ood and guard the young, and that June fishing would 
result in the certain depletion of our black bass waters, 
requiring them to be restocked to afford decent fishing. 
During all these ten or more years Forest and Stream 
has made the fight for a close season for black bass in 
June practically alone, and to-day the season opens, as it 
has, on May 30, and the bill now in the Governor's hands 
awaiting his signature provides the same open season as 
that in force. During these years, too, not an attempt has 
been made to justify the present early opening of the bass 
season, nor has any one denied the fact that June was a 
spawning month. To the best of my knowledge, not a 
single protest has been printed in the daily newspapers 
against the June slaughter until now. 
The New York Sun appears to be the first of the great 
daily ^newspapers to realize that the fishermen of the 
State are burning the candle at both ends by fishing for 
black bass in June. It says: "It is a matter of universal 
regret among all true sportsmen that our New York 
State laws afford such poor protection to this gamest of 
all fresh-water fishes. Time and again female black bass 
are captured all through the month of J une laden with 
eggs. The male bass, too, are easier victims during the 
spawning season, and so each season damage is done that 
is fast undoing the good work of the Fish Commission. 
Restocking can never be accomplished under these cir- 
cumstances. In our sister State — Connecticut — under the 
act of 1893, the killing of black bass between May 1 and 
July 1 is forbidden under penalty of a heavy fine. This 
affords protection to the fish during the most critical time 
of the whole year." 
If those who favor June fishing, when |the bass are on 
their spawning beds and caring for their young, could 
get no bass for restocking the waters after they are 
caught out by such murderous fishing, then there would 
be hope of a close season to cover the spawning period. 
A Novel Idea. 
A gentleman in Canada sends me the following letter: 
"What would you think of a plan like the following for 
favoring the breeding of trout? I will premise by saying 
that I have all the needed facilities for artificially hatch- 
ing, cage for breeding fish, etc., etc., but the hatchery is 
some eight or ten minutes' walk from my camp, and it is 
also inconvenient to get to the cage with the live trout 
when we come in from an evening's fishing with them 
after dark. 
"Moreover, the only lake I much care for is already 
very well stocked, and the necessity for further supplying 
it is not urgent enough to demand the expense of either 
buying eggs or having my guardian spend his time looking 
after them. I merely wish to be certain that the stock is 
well kept up. 
"My plan is to make what I may call a box or cage, say 
12, 15 or 20ft. long, 5ft. wide and 5ft. deep. The top to 
be (substantially) a raft of squared cedars say Sin. square, 
so as to have considerable floating capacity. The sides 
and ends of wire netting of suitable mesh and the bottom 
of any suitable wood, and on it I would place 4 or 5in. of 
sand. 
"Then anchor the cage in sufficient water quite close to 
the camp and put in trout whenever we have any to spare, 
keeping alive for the purpose all that we do not need im- 
mediately to eat. Then I would let them alone, only 
having them sufficiently fed. They would thus be pro- 
tected from the heat of the sun in summer, and I presume 
that the winds and waves would cause suffioient change 
of water. I of course do not know whether the fish 
would make spawning beds and spawn naturally in the 
sand provided. I would like your opinion. 
"In winter, of course, the raft would be completely 
fixed in the ice and covered with snow 2 or 3ft. deep; but 
then so are all the spawning beds, and this would not be 
worse. 
"1 suppose that by watching we could know whether 
the fish spawned or not, and if they did I would let out 
the old fish when the spawning season was over, to avoid 
the necessity of feeding them in winter. 
"In this lake the fish spawn very late, seldom before the 
ice tubes, and probably the fry would be out before the ice 
was gone. Probably bo great success could not be ex- 
pected as from a lot of eggs in a hatchery, but as the 
expense would be to me only for the wire net, I thought 
I would ask your views as to whether even that would be 
of any advantage." 
This idea is so novel that it fascinated me as I read it; 
and in spite of fatal objections to the scheme as laid down 
I am not at all sure but it might not be worked out and 
made a success by changing the lines a little. Some of 
the objections to the proposed plan are, that while the 
trout would spawn in the cage, other trout would eat the 
eggs — that is, while some spawned others would eat. 
The fish, if crowded into a cage, would fight and 
injure themselves at spawning time, and the injured 
parts would grow fungus, which might do more or less 
injury to all; but without reciting all the objections, I 
will give what I believe to be suggestions that may insure 
success. . 
