April 10, 1897.] 
FOREST AND STREAM 
287 
Tbe Grassy liake Club. 
Our Arkansas correspondent J. M. Rose writes: I inclose 
• you a picture of the Grassy Lake Club bouse, made after the 
highest style of cane biting photography. The piratical -look- 
ing individual on the steps with the Burgess gun is the Rev. 
' J R Howerton, now to our regret living at Charlotte, N. C. 
I can commend him to the brethren of the gun and lod as a 
Christian gentleman and a thorough sportsman, I cannot 
say much for his preaching, for he had a disagreeable and 
uncalled for way of jumping on my favorite sins. I must 
say that when he was after some other fellow's sins he was 
extremely interesting. 
The Grassy Lake Club owed its origin to Dr. D. A. Gray, 
the secretary. He wove a Mayne Reid romance about a 
large herd of deer led by a monarch of the woods with bi'anch- 
ing horns that went dovyn the mountain every day to water, 
turkeys that needed some one to kill them in self-defense, 
and ducks and geese that darkened the sky. Under these 
beautiful stoi ies the club grew and prospered. 
But the native love of truth that has so hampered me in my 
profession compels me to say that the only antlered animals 
I have seen were sundry sawmill goats, and the only turkeys 
blessing my vision were the exclusive property of Mrs. 
Thompson. But there were ducks and geese, as will be seen 
by a few of the former hanging on the porch, the fruits of a 
trip of the parson and myself to the lake that day. There 
may be that flock of deer up there. I have heard so, but all 
liars are not contined to the pages of Fobest and Stream. 
Above Grassy Lake lies Clear Lake, and we bought that 
also, fenced it, and have kept the pot-huniers with their nets 
out of it. The Government helped us stock the waters, and 
we hope for tine fishing this summer. The bass in the lake 
are quite large, the aforesaid parson holding high hook with 
a bass of something over Gibs. I guess that is true, as he got 
a lady to certify to it. 
Of course the big ones get away, but we strictly enforce 
the rule of ho lying about the fish that got away, or the 
ducks that were lost in the grass. J. M. Rose. 
Michicran Deer Killed for liumber Camps. 
Baginaw, Mich., April 2. — Editor Ibrest and Stream: A 
traveling man employed by us has just returned from a trip 
to the upper peninsula of Michigan and briefly reports the 
following: 
"Most of the lumber firms logging in the upper peninsula 
have hunters out all winter to furnish their camps with ven- 
ison. I found hunters at Atkinson, Florence, Beechwood 
and Iron Mountain, and learned that they averaged over a 
deer per day per man. At certain times, when there is a 
crust on the snow, they get from three to five per day. 
There seems to be a general understanding between the hunt- 
ers and town people, as the latter are fully posted on what 
is going on." 
Now I have reported word for word the report made by 
our salesman, and he further told me that he met one man 
who said that his average was about one and a half per day, 
aud that he was hunting for one of the K. C. Co. camps. 
He seemed to make no bones about it. 
If politics could be taken out of our game warden system 
I wonder if better results in the way of protection would be 
secured. Perhaps not. Probably our State game warden 
and his assistants do as much or more woi'k than the salaries 
paid them warrant; but at the same time it does seem 
strange that a stop cannot be put to violations of the game 
laws similar to this. W. B, Mershon. 
Maine March Hunters Punished. 
If a few more oft'enders were dealt with as summarily as 
were three men of Andover, Me., it would act as a whole- 
some deterrent on other violators of the game laws. 
On March 5 these men were seen entering the woods, and 
shortly after several shots were heard in quick succession. 
That evening the men hired a team, evidently for the pur- 
pose of hauling the deer from the woods. Sherifl! Fred A. 
Porter was informed of these circumstances and commenced 
an investigation, resulting in the discovery of sleigh tracks 
in a logging road, which being followed led to a spot where 
the intestines of one or more deer had been thrown, with 
other unmistakable evidence of the crime. The men were 
arrested, and on being placed on trial, while the evidence 
was strong, it was deemed best to make a search of the 
house of one of them to prove the guilt of the accused be- 
yond a doubt. The search resulted in the finding of eight 
deer's feet, with blood still on them, in a pile of sand in the 
cellar, where they had been buried. 
As this was proof positive, one was fined $80 and costs 
and the others |40 each and costs, which, being unable to 
pay, they were committed to jdl in Paris, Me. — "sadder 
but wiser men." A. L. Burns. 
Sale of Game in Missouri. 
St. Louts, Mo.— Some time ago Forest and Stream 
noted in its columns that a suit against dealers in game was 
begun in this city. I have not seen in your journal any ac- 
count of the result of that suit, which ended in a victory for the 
game dealers. When the case came to trial the defendants 
made a plea that the law was unconstitutional, and even if 
it were not it was repealed by a law enacted some years ago. 
The first game law legislation, the Missouri game law 
of 1877, contained provisions covering the possession 
and selling of game out of season. The law of 1895 
repealed the law of '77, but did not have any such 
clause covering the illegal sale of game. The judge decided 
in favor of the defendants, and of course the use of game at 
hotels and the sale at storehouses is now wide open. It is 
stated that another eiiort will be made by the Game Pro- 
tective Association to bring suit against game dealers on an- 
other issue, and a more favorable decision is looked for. 
Aberdeen. 
Rhode Island Wardens. 
Secretary M. J. Flaherty, of the Rhode Island Associ- 
ation for the Protection of Fish and Game, has sent out to 
town supervisors this notice of the game constable law; 
"Chapter 113, Section 16, of the bird law says 'that every 
city or town council shall annually, in the month of April, 
appoint not less than one ox more than four persons to act as 
game constables.' We respectfully desire to call your atten- 
tion to the importance of electing your game officers in the 
month of April, as any other time would be illegal and would 
cause a great deal of annoyance in the interest of protection 
of game?' It will be remembered that important pro.secu- 
tions have failed because of a careless non observance of thg 
lime of the provision respecting appointment of constables. 
Snipe in West Virginia. 
Central City, W. Va., April 2. — Though the season has 
arrived and the wetness of the ground favorable, few, if any, 
snipe have made their appearance, but some of the spring 
shooters are looking out for them. I understand that quail 
cannot be lawfully shot in this Slate for two years, so then 
sportsmen will have to come down on the long-eared quad- 
ruped to get much fun next fall. N. D. E. 
"That reminds me." 
The Tenderfoot's Bear. 
Moccasin Bill was a famous Indian fighter, hunter and 
guide, living in Silver Cliff, Colo. Sportsmen coming from 
the East or England would hire Bill to take them hunting; 
and if they didn't kill anything themselves he would see that 
they took something home with them. 
One day a young fellow came to Bill and said he^ould 
like to kill a bear. "Well," said Bill afterward, "I didn't 
think there was a bear within fifty miles; but I told the fel- 
low I'd hitch up and we'd go up on the peak (Hahn's Peak) 
in the afternoon and see what we could do. We drove up a 
way and tied the team; he went up a gulch and 1 took up 
the middle of the hill, and I'll be blowed if I'd gone 100yds. 
before I ran plumb on to a brown bear. I let him have it 
where it 'ud do him the most good ; and we skinned him and 
the young feller took the hide home with him. And, don't 
you know, that fellow thinks to this day that all you have 
to do here when you want a bear is to hitch up and go out 
and bag him." Walrod. 
California. 
'm mid ^iv^r ^wJ(ing. 
Proprietors of fishing resorts will find it profitable to advertise 
them in Forest asd Stream. 
WHEN THE ICE GOES OUT. 
H. K. W. 
When April skf are smiling: 
Through the mist of coming showers, 
When the spearlike grass is guarding 
The first young, fragrant flowers. 
Then our hearts are filled with longings 
And our thoughts are all about 
The tempting laices and brooklets 
When the ice 
Goes 
Out. 
What matter if the breezes 
Should wildly rage and blow. 
Or the air be moisture-laden 
With the woodland's melting snow. 
The chill winds have no t-errors, 
And our only anxious doubt 
Is that we may fail to be there 
W hen the ice 
Goes 
Out. 
So we gather up our tackle 
, And we feast our hungry eyes 
On the omnipresent hackle 
And our treasured "fancy" flies, 
Which in our dreams we cast before 
The wily, wary trout; 
For we'll all start off a-flshing 
When the ice 
Goes 
Out. 
POHTLAND, Me. 
MASSACHUSETTS TROUT. 
Boston, April 3 — ^Brant shooting at Monomoy is rather 
uncertain this season. A few have been taken and they are 
mainly young birds. Mr. Warren Hapsrood, now over 
eighty years of age, with Mr. Walter L. Hill as his guest, 
started for Monomoy on Wednesday. With four or five 
other gunners they make up the second brant shooting party 
of the season to Monomoy. Mr. Hapgood, for so many 
years secretary and treasurer of the Monomoy Brant Club, 
gave up the oflice last year, feeling that a younger man 
should do the work. He is determined to make his annual 
visitp, ho wever, as long as he is as hale and hearty as he is 
to day. Last year a skunk, shot in a trap, was the only 
brant either he or Mr. Hill got. This year they expect bet- 
ter sport, though the washing of the sand has destroyed a part 
of the brant feeding ground there. 
The trout season opened in Massachusetts on April 1 with 
rather more than the usual amount of enthusiasm on the 
part of the club sportsmen and owners of private waters on 
the Cape and elsewhere. The weather was fine; it had 
been fine for many days in fact. There has been very little 
snow during the past five or six weeks, and the streams were 
generally free from roil and snow water on the opening 
day. Good reports have been very quick about coming in, 
and many sportsmen will follow these reports ; as a guide 
once remarked to me, with a twinkle in his eye; "They are 
fishing to get the big trout you caught there yesterday." 
The first trout of the season was seen in Appleton & Basset's 
window on the opening day. It was a good one, and no 
April fool. It came up early from the Cape and drew quite 
a crowd of admirers. Messrs, L. K, Howe and E. B. Blod- 
get brought up from their preserve, in Plymouth, a very 
handsome basket of trout Friday, Some of the fish went as 
high as 31 bs., and were all remarkably large for Massachu- 
setts waters. These trout are positively wild trout, and by 
no means liver-fed. The Monument Club members are a 
number of them at their preserve, or had not returned this 
evening. The weather has been fine, and reports say that 
their sport is unusually good. The Tihonet Club members 
are also well represented at their preserve on the Cape, with 
some good fish akeady caught, though the club members 
will generally remain over Sunday. E. H. Wakefield, Jr., 
Edward Brooks and R O, Harding left to day for fishing at 
a preserve controlled by these gentlemen between Bourne 
and Monument, They are to fish two or three days, and 
with the weather as good as it has been for each day since 
the opening, they will take some creels of trout that will ex- 
cite the envy of the less fortunate. Mr. Howard Stockton is 
at Monument fishing. Col. Horlon is also fishing in tbe 
same direction. He is a salmon fisherman also and a mem- 
ber of the celebrated Reatigouche Club. W. K, Churchill 
and C. S. Anthony are fishing a preserve in Sandwich. 
Cranberry bog stream and pond fishing is proving to be very 
popular with Boston sportsmen The owners of the bogs 
are also particularly interested, allowing their men to keep 
guard and prevent poaching. They are interested not only 
for what the sportsmen pay them, but they have a notion 
that the trout destroy the larvas of the insects that are de- 
structive to their berries. 
Waldron Bates and G. Gorham Peters are at their trout 
preserve on the Cape,' or were at the date of this writing. 
The Tihonet Club people have been at their preserve for 
some days, they include Mr. J Russell Read, Mr. Sbattuck 
and several others. Good fishing is reported. The Boston 
& Maine Railroad is already awake to the possibilities of the 
coming sporting season. At the window of the ticket office, 
on Washington street, they have a fine specimen of a brook 
trout, mounted by Crosby, and weighing, before mounting, 
8ilb3 Tno specimen is the property of S. B. Gates, Presque 
Isle House, Aroostook county, Me. Bpeoial. 
In the Connecticut liCgislature. 
Editor Forest and Stream: 
An editorial in your issue of March .27 so thoroughly 
represents what I have advocated to the General Assembly 
of this State for the last three sessions that I feel inclined to 
offer your readers some brief comment. I am not alone here 
in Connecticut in suppo;t of the "uniform code" advocated 
by that grand representative of the American sportsman, 
Mr, Charles HaUock; our present Commissioners of Fisheries 
and Game are ardent supporters of such a code. Three men 
of rare judgment and keen interest in their work are Messrs. 
Williams, Collins and Bill, and our genial Governor showed 
rare judgment in reappointing them for a second term. Nor 
do I and others forget the generous support accorded to our 
bill to remodel the Fish Commission into a Fish and Game 
Commission, by the Hon. O. Vincent Coffin and his friends 
in 1895. 
But when you enter the legislative branch of our State 
government you find a condition vastly different. The State 
Senale has generally been fair in dealing with these questions, 
and seems willing to correct or modify bills not in accord 
with its judgment rather than kill them outright; but in the 
House ail is different. A bill of importance will produce a 
scene that is unparalleled by any class of legislation. Let it 
be known that the bill is advocated by city sportsmen, and it 
will be riddled by amendments and finally indefinitely post- 
poned, A ijroposition to change our trout law by cutting olf 
two weeks of early fishing and adding two weeks in .July, so 
as to encourage more fly and less bait fishing, was met by a 
storm of abuse; one to stop snaring on one's own land w^s 
used in the same manner, notwithstanding the recent decision 
of the Supreme Court that no person had a qualified right in 
game birds, and that they were public property, 
A bill to permit the Commissioners to make special regula- 
tions concerning inland waters stocked by them, and to make 
uniform our special laws and post such laws and regulations 
on the shores of such wat rs so a stranger might know what 
they were, was stamped as the most "audacious piece of 
legislation ever proposed ;" and then, to wind up with, the 
"farmers" have served notice that they do not believe in State 
hatcheries (except for shad), and will cut the appropriation 
for the work of the Commission down where it will probably 
do little good. Such is the situation here, and if any person 
in Connecticut thinks I have misstated it let him reply 
through your columns. We have a representation here in 
Connecticut based upon the number of acres in a township 
and not upon the population therein. Can we look for any- 
thing better in the future? C. W. Hall.' • 
March 29. - ■ 
Moosehead Lake Association. 
Greenville, Me., Moosehead Lake, March 29, — Editor 
Forest and Stream: Yours of the 5th inst, was receivi d just 
as I was starting on a snowshoe trip up the lake and have 
not been able to reply until now. 
The Moosehead Lake Protective Association has been 
formed here for the purpose of mutual protection of the in- 
terests of the guides who ply their vocation in this region, 
and who constitute the largest proportion of the member- 
ship, to foster the summer travel to this locality, and also to 
act in a concerted manner in affording protection to fish and 
game when protected by law, and looking to the enforce- 
ment of all tish and game laws, and the enactment of such 
as are beneficial and practical. 
Under the new law all guides are required to take out a 
license. We shall endeavor to see that no alien is given a 
license, or in fact any one who is not reliable' as a canoeman 
or woodsman. Many guides come to Maine each season 
from the Provinces. They have no respect for our laws and 
allow many so-called "sportsmen" to wantonly kill game 
out of season. They guide for a year or two, and then are 
seen no more. We desire to put a stop to such work. We 
also propose to formulate certain rules under which all 
parties are to be guided, tending to correct abuses on both 
sides which have crept into the relations between us and our 
employers, hoping to make such relations more cordial and 
satisfactory. 
Mutual improvement will not be neglected, and our aim 
shall be to lay hold of all that is elevating and instructive in 
the great domain of nature, to whose heart we are so closely 
drawn as woodsmen. EdgakE. Harlow, 
Sec'y Moosehead Lake Protective Association. 
Black Bass Caught Through the Ice. 
Some time ago I noted in your columns a question as to 
whether black bass would take bait through the ice in win- 
ter. I can answer this with a very positive "They do." 
In Fisher's Lake in southern Michigan, when a boy, 1 caught 
black bass by fishing through the ice; live bait was used, 
and while fishing was best dmlng the spring, black bass 
were caught the whole winter through. They were not dor- 
mant by any means, as was frequently demonstrated when 
biting would begin on one side of the smaller lake, and as 
the fish moved onward there would be biting over the whole 
grounds for an hour or so, or until the schools had moved off. 
This lake, however, was fed by springs, which may account 
for the activity of the fish. Besides black bass there were 
caught pickerel, yellow perch, white bass, and occasionally 
a rock bass or sunfiah. 1 remember catching one sunflsh at 
the depth of about 40ft. Aberdeen. 
