S12 
FOREST 'AND « STREAM. 
[Oct. 17, 1896. 
CHICAGO AND THE WEST. 
Comoarative Anatomy of Fish. 
Chicago, 111., Oct. 3.— This fall one day two Chicago 
gentlemen, Messrs. Jim Donnell and Charlie Jurnagin, 
were fishing for muscallonge up near State Line, Wis., 
and they had an awful strike and fought a tremendous 
muscallonge all over the country for an hour or two, the 
struggle being one worthy of an Iliad with two Homers 
and a full set of Siberian bloodhounds. At last they got 
the monster up to the boat and Mr. Jurnagin struck the 
gaff into its heaving sides, from which the rainbow spray 
was flying like suds in a laundry on Monday morning. 
The fish broke away with a mighty effort and escaped, 
with the gaff hook hanging in his side. The two fisher- 
men looked at each other with pale faces and gasping 
breath, and then slowly wended their way back to camp. 
Conservative estimates placed the weight of the fish at not 
less than 401bs. , and it was thought to be one of the moss- 
backs which are so rarely seen nowadays. The next day 
two guides out on the lake found the fish, which had 
come ashore dead, with the gaff hook still fast to it. It 
weighed just 6ilbs. , gaff hook and all. 
AmoriK the Anglers. 
Gov, Wm. Pitt Kellogg, of Louisiana, passed through 
this city for his home in the South this fall, after a long 
trip to the grand fishing waters of Canada. The Gov- 
ernor is a hale and hearty-looking gentleman, with white 
hair and a clear eye, who appears good for many more 
trips to the woods. • 
Mr. Graham Harris has been having some late fly-fish- 
ing for bass, taking ten nice ones one day last week in 
the Kankakee river, near Davis, Ind. He used the 
scarlet-ibis. 
Fishing Notes. 
Muscallonge are biting the hard, glittering, unreal spoon 
hook up in Wisconsin this month, but no big fish have 
been taken and no number of small ones worth special 
mention. The Fox River west of town has been yielding 
some nice catches of small-mouth bass. Paul Bielenberg, 
of Elgin, last week got two small-mouths on the same day 
which are said to have crowded 51b8. each very closely, 
and had four whose total was IGlbs. ; certainly a very fine 
day's take. 
Mr. C. W. StanseU has returned from a pleasant fish- 
ing trip with a yachting party of Detroit gentlemen 
who went out to the St. Clair Fiats. They met not the 
best of wind and weather, but Mr. StanseU had thirty- 
seven small-mouths to his own rod in one day, which is 
good enough for anybody. 
Richmond Rod and Gun Club. 
Richmond Rod and Gun Club, of Richmond, Ind., are 
doing a notable work in stocking waters with the small- 
mouth black bass. Their fine club preserve is gradually 
coming to be well supplied with this admirable fish, 
owing to an intelligent selection and breeding of the fish. 
The water this club preserves is, as I understand it, trib- 
utary to the White River of Indiana, a famous bass 
water. It is the wish of the club that the U. S. Fish 
Commission should help them in their efforts to stock 
thoroughly the waters in question with the small-mouth 
bass. Surely the Commission might do worse than aid 
so worthy an enterprise, keeping meantime quite within 
its prescribed duties. The cars of the Commission pass 
not far from this region, and the club would probably not 
ask a contribution for private purposes alone. Mr, C. P. 
Holton is president of this active body of sportsmen, Mr. 
M. B. Craighead treasurer, and Mr. W. S. Iliff secretary. 
The membership holds strong at about thirty, and the 
club is something more than a trap-shooting body. The 
shooting clubs of the country can do a lot of good when 
they try. E. Hough. 
1306 BoYCK BuiLDiKG, Ciuoago. 
Salt-Water Fishing' Near New York. 
New Yokk, Oct. 12. — The fishermen who frequent 
Sheepshead Bay and that vicinity are having their first 
good fishing since the fluke fishing early in the summer. 
The snappers, whose arrival everybody awaited with im- 
patience, didn't arrive at all. The porgies, too, were very 
scarce. Nobody seems able to account for this state of 
affairs. Last season the snappers and porgies were very 
thick, and catches of fifty to 100 were not uncommon. 
On Labor Day of last year Will Fox and George Gatje 
caught 180 odd snappers and porgies, while on the same 
day this year Will Fox and myself got seven porgies. 
But while the snappers and porgies proved disappoint- 
ments, the blackfish and sea bass, especially the former, 
are doing nobly, from a fisherman's standpoint, and 
striped bass are being caught as they never were before 
in that vicinity. There are not many fish in the bay, but 
one can catch a good mess in a short time at the "stone 
pile," which I described in Forest and Stream of Sept. 
19 as being off the Oriental Hotel on Manhattan Beach, 
but which is really off the Manhattan Hotel. 
John O'Neill, who keeps the boat house at Sheepshead, 
caught eighteen striped bass off Manhattan Beach last 
week. Most of these weighed from 3 to 61bs., and one 
weighed ISlbs. This is the season's record striped bass 
for that vicinity, I believe. He uses blood worms for 
bait and trolls for the fish. Most of the fishing boats are 
put up for the winter. The owners report a profitable 
season despite the poor bluefishing. 
The route to Sheepshead Bay is by trolley car from 
Brooklyn Bridge or ferries, or steam cars from Atlantic 
avenue depot. G. F. Diehl, 
As They Esteem It. 
Milwaukee, Wis. — Inclosed And check for renewal. This has been 
my first year with Forest and Stkeam, and I never expect to try to 
do without it. I admire its sportsmanlike tone. C. P. S. 
Thompsontown, Pa.— I desire to tender my thanks for the spotless 
purity of Forest and Stebau, free from anything coarse or bitter. 
Also for nice discrimination in selections for publication. T. 8. T. 
FIXTURES. 
BENCH SHOWS. 
Dec. 1 to 4.— City of the Straits Kennel Club's local show, Detriot, 
Mich. R. H. Roberta, Sec'y. 
Dec. 8 to 11.— Augusta, Ga.— Georgia Poultry and Pet Stock Associ- 
ation. J. W. Killingsworth, Sec^y. 
Dec. 15 to 18.— Central Michigan Poultry and Pet Stock Associa- 
tion's show, Lansing, Mich. C. H. Crane, Seo'y. 
PIEIiD TRIALS. 
Oct. 19.— Brunswick Fur Club's annual hound trials, Barre, Mass. 
Bradford S. Turpin, Sec'y, Boxbury, Mass. 
Oct. 26.— Hempstead, L. I.— National Beagle Club's trials. Geo. 
W. Rogers, Sec'y, 250 W. Twenty-second street, New York. 
Oct. 28.— Greene county. Pa.— The Monongahela Valley Game and 
Fish Protective Association's second annual trials. S. B. CummiHES 
Sec'y, Pittsburg. 
Nov. 3.— Oxford, Mass.— New England Beagle Club's trials. W. S. 
Clark, Sec'y, Linden, Mass. 
Nov. 8.— Carlisle, Ind.— Union Field Trial Club's inaugural trials. 
P. T. Madison, Sec'y, Indianapolis, Ind. 
Nov, 10 — Columbus, Wis.— Northwestern Beagle Club's trials. Louis 
Steffen, Sec'y, Milwaukee. 
Nov. 10.— Leamington, Ont.— Peninsular Field Trial Club, Leaming- 
ton, Ont. 
Nov. 10.— Waynesburg, Greene County, Pa.— Central Beagle Club's 
trials. L. O. Seidle, Seo'y. 
Nov. 16.— National Fox Hunting Association's third annual trials, 
Bardstown, Ky. F. J. Hagan, Sec'y. 
Nov. 16.— Newton, N. C— E. F. T. Club's trials. 8. C. Bradley, Sec'y, 
Greenfield HiU, Conn. 
Nov. ir.— Chatham, Ont.— International Field Trial Club's trials. 
W. B. Wells, Sec'y, Chatham, Ont. 
Nov. 28.— Newton, N. 0.— U. 8. F. T. Club's fall trials. W. B. Staf- 
ford, Sec'y. 
Deo. 14.— Athens, Ala.— Dixie Red Fox Club's second annual trials 
J. H. Wallace, Sec'y, Huntsville, Ala. 
COURSING. 
Oct. 21.— Altcar Coursing Club's meeting, Great Bend, Kan. T, W. 
Bartels, Sec'y, 
Oct. 28.— Kenmore Coursing Club's annual meeting, Herrington, 
Kan. O. A. Robinson, Sec'y. si »^ 
Oct. 13.— American Coursing Club's annual meeting, Huron, S. D 
F. B. Coyne, Sec'y. 
1897. 
Jan. — .— Tupels, Miss.— Continental Field Trial Club's quail trials. 
P. T. Madison, Sec'y. 
Jan. 18.— West Point, Miss.— U. S. F. T. C. winter trials. W. B. 
Stafford, Seo'y, Trenton, Tenn. 
Game Laws in Brief. 
The Gfame Laws in Brief, current edition, sold everywhere, baa 
new game and fish laws f 6r more than thirty of the States. It covers 
the entire country, is carefully prepared, and gives all that shooters 
aiicl anglers reauire. See advertisemeat. 
FIELD TRIALS AND FIELD DOGS. 
Considering the time, attention and money expended 
on the field trial dog, he has not won his way into the 
permanent good opinion of sportsmen, nor improved in 
his manner of doing the work required in field shootihg. 
He has not come up to the sportsman's standard as he 
should have done, and as the sportsmen, whose interest 
and support make field trials possible, had a right to ex- 
pect that he would do. 
Aside from any consideration of hard times, the field 
trial dog as such has steadily lost ground in the opinion 
of most sportsmen who once supported him, and he has 
not added to the list of his admirers to any noteworthy 
degree. There is no sound reason why the field trial dog 
of the correct stamp should not be the accepted field dog 
of all sportsmen, one to delight them in actual shooting as 
well as being successful in competition. 
There have been, however, some constant features of 
field trials which are repugnant to the sportsman's stand- 
ard of a field dog. Bad breaking has been one of the 
most constant, for there is never an important trial held 
which has not dogs in it which are remarkably disobedi- 
ent, or which require laborious effort, offensively loud 
continuous whistling and orders loudly shouted, all to 
keep them within reasonable bounds and all very much 
of an exhibition of how a dog should not be handled. 
Indeed, dogs which are practicably uncontrollable from 
the standpoint of what is required of a dog to give pleas- 
ure to a sportsman in every-day shooting are not so rare 
as one might think they are. There has been a kind of 
understanding that bad breaking was in some way useful 
in trials. Some trainers permit their dogs to be disobedi- 
ent on the score that the opposing handler's whistle or 
the work of the opposing dog may not deter the partly 
broken dogs from getting all they can, though there have 
been suspicions that this plea has been advanced to cover 
up an imperfect and neglected training, and to make all 
training easier from the lower standard thus set. 
However much such imperfect training may have been 
of use in field trials, and it was of use as a means to win 
money so long as field trial clubs and judges accepted it, 
the sportsman could only derive ill success and disap- 
pointment from it in actual shooting. Too often the im- 
perfectly broken dog for field trials was not finished as he 
should be for field shooting. The fact that the dog had 
the stamp of field trial approval was set forth to the 
owner as proof of the dog's good training, so that the 
rule worked both ways and the both ways worked any- 
how — the dog needed to be partly trained for field trial 
competition from a field trial view, and having run in a 
field trial he was all right to return to the owner as a dog 
for field shootmg. Not only did the field trial dog fall 
into disfavor, but the field trial style of breaking likewise 
fell into disfavor, and very properly so. 
The bad breaking, fostered so long by field trials, was 
not all. The wide-ranging dog, the dog of transcendent 
merit when he is really seeking birds and working to the 
gun, had many imitators and shams. Some dogs will 
r^ge wide and appear to be seeking birds when in real- 
ity they are not, as a greyhound or a cur might be rang- 
ing wide and still have no thought of birds. The distinc- 
tion between the wide ranger which was really seeking 
birds, and the wide ranger seeking amusement and exer- 
cise, was not 'properly observed. They were classed too 
much as being alike. In actual work afield the field trial 
estimate was worthless. 
Again, an impossible style of speed was encouraged. 
Instead of the steady, trained, swinging gallop which de- 
notes the dog of real working ability for all day or part 
of a day, a nervous slam-bang sort of speed, the overflow 
of restrained energies, the dog whose speed has been 
timed for an hour's sprinting and which not infrequently 
falls short of it, was fostered and established, Thus came 
about the hit-or-miss sort of dog work over which was 
thrown the glamour of style and dash, both of which 
seemed to transcend in merit the really useful instead of 
being subordinate to it. 
As if all these things were not enough in themselves, 
some of the trainers made an invidious distinction between 
the field trial dog and the dog for field shooting, desig. 
nating the latter as a "plug shooting dog," as if there wa' 
some stigma on the dog over which a gentleman could 
really shoot birds for no other reason than that such dog 
was useful to the gun. If field trials are to have a new 
support now that the commercial incentive is waning, it 
must be by returning to the principles of real usefulness 
for field work instead of a quick means of winning prizes. 
That dogs can be well broken for field trial use, and 
handled quietly and skillfully when so broken, was de- 
monstrated by Mr. Thos. Johnson, of Winnipeg, in the 
last Continental Club's field trials in Minnesota, and in 
several of the members' stakes in recent years, where the 
absence of shouting and the incessant tooting of the 
whistle was a pleasure to note. If owners would insist 
that their dogs be broken properly to obey orders and 
work to the gun, discarding all field trial excuses, they 
would have better trained dogs and field trials would be 
relieved of much that a field trial dog should not be, 
ALABAMA AND FOX HUNTING. 
Htojtsvillk, Ala,.— Editor Forest and Stream: Court 
adjourned here two weeks ago, and finding a few days' 
leisure I hied myself to the dear old County of Limestone 
to mingle with those congenial spirits and peerless gentle- 
men. Dr. Ike De Loney, J.W.Tillman, Clarence W. Spiers, 
Capt. W. N. Richardson, and a host of other magnificent 
men. Arriving at Athens at 13 o'clock P. M., after seven 
hours' rest I betook myself to the residence of Mr. Till- 
man, who greeted me with that incomparable cordiality 
peculiar to those who love the chase, and after the com- 
pliments of the day were exchanged we prepared to dine 
at Dr. De Loney's. Behind his smart roadsters, the drive 
of six miles through a hunting country that even pessi- 
mists must allow m splendid, the distance was lessened by 
his interesting conversation, and the thrilling manner of 
relating the incidents of a fox chase. 
Arriving at the Doctor's residence, our coming was 
made known by the salute of some thirty hounds. Among 
the number I recognized the peculiar type of the strain 
worshiped by that prince of modern chevaliers, Wilford 
Ivanhoe Spiers, Esq. , of Willis fame, and when that gen- 
tleman came out and extended his noble and honest hand 
my happiness was complete. Mr. Spiers had come up to 
visit Dr. De Loney and his nephew Clarence, and expected 
to jolt the foxes up and down the beautiful serpentine 
stream of Sevan Greek, but, the drought still being on, 
could do aught but hunt, jump and lose the fox. 
"Say, boys," I said, "are there any foxes around here?" 
"What are you talking about, John, Jr.? Don't you 
know foxes are thick in Limestone county?" 
"I know, Wilford Ivanhoe! I never have been hunting 
in this section in my life, when favorable conditions of 
weather prevailed, and failed to start game." 
"John, Jr., I'll tell you candidly, Clarence and I went 
hunting yesterday morning after that little shower, and 
started two foxes. That evening we ran another, and 
last night we had a chase that lasted until 12 o'clock." 
Dr. De Loney then spoke up; "Gentlemen, I am of the 
sincere opinion that in a radius of five miles from where 
we sit there can be started fifty foxes. Just across Round 
Island Creek there are three dens, which at least would 
represent twelve foxes, and all of them are reds too." 
The conversation then turned to the next meet of the 
Dixie Red Fox Club. I told the gentlemen of the large 
increase of members and of the interest manifested by the 
sporting fraternity in the welfare of the club, and called 
the names of many well-known hunters who had ex- 
pressed their intention of attending our next meet. All 
present were extremely hopeful and confident that from 
the point of attendance our meet in December would 
eclipse our last, and any one familiar with the climate of 
north Alabama knows that the middle of December is 
always the most propitious season we have for hunting. 
After partaking of a sumptuous and elegant spread 
Mr. Tillman and I bade our friends a fond adieu until the 
ides of December shall be thrilled and mellowed by the 
hunting horn. 
At Athens the young men insisted on taking their old 
bachelor friend to see the ladies. And the women of old 
Athens, with the first bloom of youth tinting their 
dimpled cheeks, their magnificent Di Vernon beauty, 
flashing black eyes and flowing tresses, which can only 
be rivaled by their patrician lineage and the high culture 
bestowed on their minds, were glad to see me, and prom- 
ised that on Friday night, Dec. 18, a leap year ball would 
be given at the City Hall, complimentary to the gallant 
knights of the horses and hounds who attend the meet in 
Dixie. May their immaculate lives be lengthened and 
may their ability to charm and entertain never be dimin- 
ished! John, Jr. 
C. f. If, C. Trials. 
Indianapolis, Ind., Oct. 10.— Editor Forest and Stream: 
I have just returned home from the South and have 
located the quail trials of the Continental F. T. Club at 
Tupelo, Miss., where I have secured 15,000 acres of the 
finest field trials grounds that I have ever seen. Mr. N. 
B. Nesbitt drew the grounds for me with champion Jingo, 
and although the conditions were not favorable, the dog 
found and pointed plenty of birds. There are as many 
birds at Tupelo as at any place in the South, while the 
grounds are of easy access, and the hotel and livery ac- 
commodations are ample and first-class, at reasonable 
prices. The hotel rates are $1.50 per day; double teams 
with driver, $3.50 per day; saddle horses, $1 per day. I 
found the citizens of Tupelo hospitable to a fault and 
anxious to have the trials at their town, they promising 
to do all in their power to make our stay pleasant and the 
trials a success. I am satisfied that they will keep their 
promise. 
Mr. N. B. Nesbitt, of Chesterville, Miss. , will take pleas- 
ure in locating in desirable places all handlers who write 
to him. 
I desire to publicly return thanks to the citizens of 
Tupelo for the attention paid to me while there, and also 
to especially thank Mr, Nesbitt and Mr. J. N. Seale, 
superintendent of the Mobile & Ohio R. R., for courtesies 
extended. 
I ordered posters printed while at Tupelo and the 
grounds will be posted at once. The time for holding the 
trials will be determined in a few days. 
I see that I failed to mention Fishback & Baughan's 
black, white and tan English setter dog Vim Gladstone, 
by Gladstone's Boy out of Gath's Belle, in the list of Derby 
entries in the Continental Field Trials Club's quail trials. 
Please make correction, P. T. Madison, Sec'y-Treaa, 
