lO 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
LJAK. 3, 189T. 
dropped at the first shot, and which I now saw for the 
first time. 
The fog thickened after we had gone back and fished 
nr\nl tinae came to eat, for our very light breakfast 
needed reinforcement early; few men not accustomed to 
leing before daylight can eat much at that unseemly 
h ur. As we finishpd eating the fog was so thick that a 
man couldn't see over 50ft.; but we could bear the ducks 
near the mouth of Normanskill, some distance below, and 
even the whistle of their wings and splashings in the 
■w ater, as well as the loud greetings to the newcomers. 
' Cast her off again," said Ken; ' this is too much to 
stand. I never could waste my time fishing when such a 
lot of ducks as that are calling out for some un to come 
and shoot 'em. You won't get such a day for ducks in a 
month o' Sundays. Steady now; don't make more noise 
than you can help. Stop here on the point and make fast 
lo that bush." 
Ducks on the wing could not see us until within good 
distance, and we banged away for an hour with our muz- 
zle-loaders; and then a south wind rolled up the fog, and 
we started to pick up the game. A bed of eel grass pre- 
vented the dead from being carried down the river, and also 
hid some cripples, a few of which we got. We had about 
twenty ducks, mainly mallards and black ducks, with an 
r dd whistler, bluebill or teal, and a half buahet of perch 
Hnd a few pickerel. It was one of those days that a fel- 
low runs into by accident when all the conditions are • 
favorable for a big day's sport, and which he couldn't re- 
npat in a whole season. Every sportsman knows how 
this is, and also knows that if he wishes to give a fripnd 
a good day's sport and promises it to him it is sure to be 
A blank day on his favorite ground, which never before 
failed him. And then how mean you feel! I can im- 
agine a veteran sportsman reading this, and with a 
■that's so" go off into a remembrance of the chagrin he 
I'' when he invited a friend to join him on "the best bit 
' f ' rodcock ground in the State, and but few know of it." 
A blank day for himself would be nothing; he is troubled 
l.y what his friend may think of the disappointment, and 
Ms friend realizes this state of his host's mitid and grieves 
for him. The suffering is mutual, that is if the persons 
are men of tine sensibilities; other people have no such 
sorrows, nor have they the keen pleasure of seeing a 
friend have a grand day — but this is not what I was 
going to say, and I've gone off moralizing instead of tell- 
ing you about the fish and the ducks. 
At the inn we received a grand welcome from the 
whole kennel, some of which had felt hurt at not being 
invited to go when they saw us take guns; but we were 
forgiven for that, and they tried to divine where we had 
traveled by the odor of our boots and trousprs, and the 
pil« of ducks was sniffpd at in order to determine the 
species, just as a scientifio fellow would count primaries 
and measure tarsi. Then their heads were rested on our 
knees, and great, intelligent eyes would look reproach- 
fully at us because they had been left behind; and at the 
same time a number of waving tails assured us of a wel- 
come home, and a forgiveness for all neglect. A man 
who does not love some dog must be incapable of appre- 
ciating the truest friendship that exists on this earth. In 
sickness or in health, in the depths of poverty and misery 
the most faithful friend of man sticks to him when all 
others have left him. I said "some dog," for there are 
dogs that are not lovable: mongrels, snappish curs, and 
ladies' lap-dogs. But the dogs of the sportsman, setters, 
pointers and terriers, are intelligent companions who 
know more than some entire families. I except bounds 
from this category, for they have been bred to be of ser- 
vice in the hunt, but not companions of man. 
Shakespeare, who knew more of all things than any 
other man who ever lived, always excepting Ignatius Don- 
nelly, realized that dogs were no more to be classed alike 
than men are, for Macbeth says to the professional mur- 
derers: 
"Ay, in the catalogue ye go for men, 
As hounds, and greyhounds, mongrels, spaniels, curs, 
Shoughs, water-rugs, and demi- wolves are 'cleped 
All by the name of dogs; the valued file 
Distinguishes the swift, the slow, the subtile; 
The housekeeper, the hunter, ev'ry one, 
According to the gift which bounteous nature 
Hath iu him clos'd, whereby he doth receive 
Particular addition from the quill 
That writes them all alike; and so of men." 
Life was assuming a new aspect; hitherto it had been 
"one grand, sweet song." True, there had been a few 
minor discomforts and discords which were forgotten in 
a week and only remembered to be laughed at, but to be 
a semi-invalid for over six months caused some serious 
thoughts. Before the trip West "ague" was merely a 
word without meaning, like many medical terms, but on 
acquaintance with people who had it, or said they had it, 
it seemed only a synony m for laziness. The shake and the 
fever were indulged in behind closed doors, and a poor, 
spiritless creature devoid of ambition was all that was 
visible, and these had mostly been a lot of long-legged, sal- 
low specimens that fed on bacon and hot saleratus bread. 
"No, sirl" said one from the swamps, "I never was poor 
enough to eat cold bread; we allers have it hot and yaller 
as a gold ring." A man from Posey county, Ind., saw 
me eating a muskmelon in Kansas and remarked: "I kin 
fat one o' them things and set in the sun an' git up a 
shake any time." But I thought there was better sand in 
my gizzard; yet here I was. 
King sent up for me to come and shoot snipe over some 
of bis dogs; somehow the invitation did not awaken any 
of the old-time enthusiasm, but there was an awakening 
when we met in the evening. The chill and the fever 
had given my liver a song and dance that morning, and 
to-morrow would be a "well day" as far as they were 
concerned, but there would be that lethargy which had 
seemed to be merely laziness in the saleratus-eating men. 
On entering the inn in the evening every dog wagged 
recognition as to an old friend, although they had met 
me but once. Ken had his opinion of doctors, and after 
retiring he brought up a little pitcher of some decoction 
that was hot, sweet and strong, and not only prescribed 
it, but in order to prove its good qualities actually drank 
a whole tumbler himself. 
The morning was young when we left the inn with 
Click and Sally, two handsome, well-broken liver an i 
white pointers, whose eagerness required frequent words 
of caution, A bit of springy ground between the river 
and the road, nea? the Abbey, was to be looked after 
first. Km warned th^ dogs to go slow, for they were 
birds which were lying close after hearing our voices. 
The dogs quartered the ground beautifully, and after 
ranging to the left turned at the signal ; and then Sally 
suddenly became a statue, and Click backed her point. 
Being on the left of King, I flushed the bird. The 
first barrel sent its messengers behind the bird, but 
the second brought it to grass; the dogs dropped to shot, 
for they were not retrievers, and they were sent on 
toward King, while I sought the bird and wet both feet 
before it was picked up. By this time King bagged a 
bird off to the right, and we took four out of that bit of 
bog. The working of the dogs, the rapid beating of the 
heart as a snipe rose and cried acaipe! scaipe! but didn't 
'scape, was of more benefit to an ague-burdened man 
than a feast of quinine. It was sundown when we 
reached the inn with a goodly bag of snipe, and as we 
parted Ken said: "It's done thee good, lad, ther's a 
color in yer face that shows it. When ye want another 
day with the snipe or with bii'ds let me know." 
In the fall came a desire for a day with woodcock, and 
King said: "Wait until the first good frost and there'll 
be a flight from the North." So after a few light frosts, 
when the moon was near the full, the evening was clear 
and cold, and gave promise of a hard frost before morn- 
ing and a good day for "birds." "Just in time," said 
King, as I dropped in on him, "there'll be a hard frost 
to-night and a good prospect of finding birds plenty in 
the morning." He introduced me to a gentleman from 
Virginia who would accompany us on the morrow. The 
name is hopelessly lost, but he was a slender man of 
about forty-five years, rather reserved and dignified, and 
with one stiff knee, which, from something he said after- 
ward, might have been a relic of the Mexican war. He 
had a fine fowling piece, a Joe Manton, which had been 
altered from flint to percussion locks. His family was 
at Saratoga, and hp was on a visit to Albany to see the 
famous kennel of pointers owned by Ken King. 
We were afoot early and on nearing the first bit of bog 
heard a shot. "No use," said King, "some fellow is 
ahead of us," and we went on. A .single wild pigeon 
crossed the road and the Virginian dropped it at a sur- 
prising distance. "A good shot that," said Ken, "an' a 
good gun. I shouldn't wonder if I traded you some good 
doga for it before you leave; I have several good guns, 
an' two of 'em are Manton's, but there's room in the racks 
for more." 
Our friend looked up and said: "If you get it I should 
wonder, sirl That gun was a present to my father, sir, 
and he gave it to me. My father was a good wing shot 
when but few men in Virginia thought of shooting at a 
flying bird, and the old gun may rust out, but it will not 
be sold or traded. There must be birds back there in that 
marsh, that man has shot several times, sir." 
We entered a bit of marsh well filled with brush, 
swamp alders and the like, but not very wet now. The 
dogs were eager and at first disposed to range widely, but 
continued caution from their master corrected this. The 
Virginian was in the middle, and as King managed the 
dogs we were necessarily close together. I had wondered 
why thpold dogs. Click and Sally, had not been taken on 
this trip instead of the puppies Spank and Trot. King 
let bis friend fiush and kill every bird that the doga found 
on his side, while I took a share of the others. And so it 
went until the sun was long past meridian and we turned 
homeward. King had not killed a bird. He had made 
those puppies bacli each other's points, drop to shot and 
come to heel when there seemed no necessity for the 
latter order. And it was a mystery. 
At the inn it was all plain. I had been interested only 
in the sport, while King was displaying the perfect work- 
ing of his young stock for commercial purposes. We 
counted out of our game bags twelve brace of woodccck 
and an odd snipe or two. I said "game bags." The 
sportsman of to-day has probably never seen one. They 
were elegant and expensive but — must I confess it? a 
nuisance. A big leather bag for lunch, wads or other 
necessaries slung over the shoulder, and outside of the 
bag was a net for carrying the game so that it might be 
seen of men. Perhaps this last part of its construction 
was what put it out of fashion; suppose there was no 
game? Certain it is that theold-fashitjned sportsman was 
more picturesque with his powder flask, shot pouch and 
game bag than the modern one with his cartridge belt 
and shooting coat with its capacious pockets; just as the 
old 74-gun frigate under full sail was more beautiful than 
the iron-clad fighting machines which to-day make the 
great navies of the world. 
But — and please emphasize this "but" — the iron-clad 
has taken all the poetry out of a sea-fight. Call up Perry, 
Paul Jones, Farragut or Nelson and ask them their 
opinions of the iron pots worked by steam; but those old 
sea-dogs are not at hand to give opinions on warships, 
and but few of the older sportsmen are living who shot 
in the days of Wade Hampton, Herbert, Col. Skinner 
and the older American sportsmen; that class who by 
precept and example elevated field sports above market 
fhooting. They came at the right time and had their in- 
fluence on reading men. Their work will not be com- 
plete until all men who shoot or fish are reading men and 
learn that the destruction of life in great numbers is not 
the highest form of sport. 
Quite a number of pointers went to Virginia that fall, 
and for years I had the beautiful embossed game bag 
which the stranger presented to me and wish it was 
hanging on the wall with other relics, but it disappeared 
and is among the unaccountables. 
In 1865, on returning to Albany after another absence 
of several years, I naturally drifted down to the old inn; 
but the faces there were all new and to a question a man 
replied: "O, yes! Ken King; I kn owed 'im well; 'e used 
to shqot a great deal an' 'ad a lot o' dogs. 'E's been dead 
a couple o' year and the widow went back to England." 
Among his sayings that are remembered is the remark 
he made after our last trip. Said he: "That man who 
was shooting in that first bog as soon as it was light 
enough to see was an old fellow from across the river 
who shoots snipe and birds without a dog, an' 'e knowed 
ther' 'd be a flight o' birds that night as well as the birds 
knew it. His name is Port Tyler, an' 'e traps mink and 
muskrats along the river in winter, but when it comes to 
the shootin' season I wish 'e'd stop on bis own side of the 
river; confound 'im, 'e's always out afore anyone else. 
Did you ever meet him?" 
"Yes, " said I, "often; I know him quite well." 
"Then you tell 'im that I'll give 'im the choice of that 
• ■>nirdB'in Ws voeabulan' m^mt' only of 0\ (?a?§e 
new litter if 'e'll stop on 'is own side of the river w'en 
the birds are in season." Feed Mather, 
NEW JEfiSEY POUND NETS. 
[From the forthcoming report of the Commissioners of Fishery and 
(xame.] 
Pound Nets,— It would be d ffloulfc indeed, in the opin- 
ion of your Commission, to suggest any measure which 
would prove more conducive to the fishing interests of 
the State, and to the general welfare of all persons resid- 
ing near the coast, than an act regulating the taking of 
fish by means of pound nets. N w Jersey is one of the 
few States which permits individual and corporate greed 
to slaughter thousands of fish annually with but a slight 
return therefor to the general public. The highest court 
of the United States has decided that the fish within three 
miles of the coast line are the "property of the State, and 
that the State has a right to regulate their taking. En- 
actments have been on our statute books for nearly a cen- 
tury regulating the taking of shad and of other fish 
coming to our shores and into our rivers; for a similar 
period have Legislatures recognized the necessity of tak- 
ing care of our game to prevent its extermination; but 
nevertheless, in these days when fisboulture and game 
protection have been brought to a state approaching per- 
fection, the most destructive and most pernicious system 
of slaughtering fish is permitted to go on without let ot 
hindrance. All the devicps which modern ingenuity can 
contrive are adapted to the taking of fish from the sea, not 
solely for the purpnse of supplying food, but in order to 
accumulate wealth from the man\ifacture of compost. 
Every interest in the State has bent to the will of the 
people, and has adnnitted the propriety of government 
by the Lpgislature, with the single exception of the 
monopoly which has strung unsightly pound nets 
along our coast by the scores. Tbe paid agents of this 
trust have appeared year after year in the halls of legisla- 
tion for tbe purpose of frustrating any plans tending to 
restrictive legislation. No one denies the propriety of 
levying tribute upon tbe sea for the purpose of supplying 
food to the human family, and with proper restrictions 
there will be food there for centuries lo come, But the 
pound net trust is not satisfied with a fair return, but in- 
sists on taking everything possible in as short a time as 
possible. Their nets have been erected in close proximity 
to inlets from the ocean, which are ascended every 
spawning season by thousands of fish for the purpose of - 
propagating their kind; the female, distended with spawn, 
and the fingerling, wending its way seaward for the first 
time in its existence, all fall an easy prey to the rapacity 
of the pound net. It requires no skill in fishculture to 
foretell what the result wnl be, for be the larder of nature 
ever so great it cannot stand any such drain. Your Com- 
mission does not advocate prohibitory measures, but we 
do most strenuously m-ge the passage of some law by 
which the heritage left us by our forefathers will be pre- 
served for our descendants. It is not a question of New 
Jersey alone; it is a question vitally affecting the food 
fish supply of the entire country. 
But New Jersey has other interests at stake besides 
those of a food supply for its inhabitants. The sands 
along our coast have become favorite abiding places dur- 
ing the heated months for thousands of strangers and the 
seaside resorts are increasing in population every year. 
The revenue to residents of New Jersey from this source 
is inestimable and none would be so foolhardy as to deny 
that it is worth preserving. But the cool winds and 
the foaming breakers do not alone constitute the attrac- 
tions which bring to our shores annually thousands from 
other States. A large proportion of these are attracted 
by the fresh fish and by the spnrt of angling. The pound 
net trust has destroyed both after having first deprived 
hundreds of our residents of a means of obtaining a live- 
lihood. In former years our hardy fishermen depended 
upon the sea for a never-failing means of subsistence, and 
the hotels and residents along the coast depended upon 
these fishermen for a supply of fresh fish for daily meals. 
Now the fishermen have been deprived of their means of 
gaining a livelihood, for the large nets prevent the fish 
from coming within their reAch; a monopoly has taken 
the bread from the mouths of hundreds of honest toilers. 
The large steamers of the trust remove the contents of 
the pockets of the nets and these contents are taken to 
the large marts of New York and Philadelphia, there 
placed on ice, and in a stale and much deteriorated con- 
dition they are returned to the very shores from which 
the monopoly snatched them, to be sold at prices a 
hundred per cent, higher than they commanded when in 
former years they were taken by our own residents fresh 
from their briny habitat. Two of the greatest charms of 
summer life by the sea have been removed and the public 
has not reaped a commensurate advantage therefrom. 
The advocates of pound net fishing tell us that the 
ocean is so large that its stores are inexhaustible. We 
were told the same some years ago when some of our 
birds were sought for millinery decorations; the white 
egret and other birds of beautiful plumage came from 
southern climes, where they bred by the hundred thou- 
sand; according to the claims of those who reaped ill- 
gotten gains from the slaughter of these birds there 
could be no danger of extermination, for the source of 
supply was so great. In those days the birds whose plu- 
mage was in demand for decorations were plentiful along 
our shores, but despite this fact and the alleged inexhaus- 
tible source of supply many of the species have been 
practically exterminated. The egrets are no longer seen 
where formerly they were present in large fiocks, and the 
history of the e?ret has been repeated many times in 
other species. Your Commission hopes that the Legisla- 
ture will provide measures by whicti the fish in the sea 
will not share the same fate as the birds of the air. 
In addition to tbe claim that the fish supply is inex- 
haustible came last year the claim that the men who had 
engaged in pound-net fishing should not be subjected to 
restrictive legislation or requu-ed to pay a tax for the con- 
tinuance of their privilege because they had invested 
their money without any idea of such regulations or 
tribute. This claim has been utterly nullified by the 
action of the angry sea, which twice during the past sea- 
son destroyed the nets and strewed its sands with the iron 
pillars and chains which held the nets. A more fitting 
answer to the alleged poverty of the trust could not be 
found than ibe fact that after the first ravages of the sea 
the nets were quickly replaced by new ones; now, when 
our coast is clear of these pernicious contrivances, their 
tQUlU^T pwneF? pwkisg plans for tlj© erection nexti 
