Aug. 1, 1897.] 
.TRE 
109 
A Word to Iowa Farmers. 
Nevada, la. , July 27.— How many people wlio are interest- 
ed in the sport of prairie chicken hunting, have ever given the 
subject of ^ame laws and their enforcement serious thought? 
Do the citizens of Iowa realize tliat the prairie chicken, 
one of the finest and most hardy game birds known, will 
soon become extinct in Iowa, if the game laws, which were 
intended to protect these grand birds, are not respected and 
obeyed? 
The time was not so long ago, when few of us paid any 
attention to the game laws. But the fact tliat ibese birds, 
which once inhabited our State by rhillions, are now to be 
found only in limited numbers In the central and north- 
western parts of Iowa is indisputable evidence that our 
prairie chickens will soon exist in memory only. 
The legislatures of a few States have not only provided 
laws similar to the Iowa game laws, but have provided 
officers and funds for tbe enforcement, of the laws. This 
action has not only proved beneficial to the game, but has 
in at least one State (Maine) been the means of bringing 
many thousands of dollars into the State, as thousands of 
sportsmen from the large eastern cities ani-ually go to Maine 
to hunt. 
While we might not profit so much as Maine by the en- 
forcement of our game laws, certain it is, that should prairie 
chickens ever again .become as numerous in Iowa as they 
were twenty years ago, many sportsmen from the west and 
even from "down east" would come to Iowa to hunt, and as 
a matter of fact, leave a good deal of money in the Stale. 
As Iowa has not provided the necessary funds and officers, 
the only hope for the enforcement of the law, is that the sports- 
men may realize the situation and respect the law, and thit 
every farmer and landowner may apply the trespass law to 
any "sooner" found hunting before the lawful season. The 
lawful hunting season is, for prairie chickens from Sept. 1 to 
Dec. 1; for quail from Oct. 1 to Dec. 1. ll is to be hoped 
that every farmer will take advantage of the trespass law to 
control the "fooner" who persists in hunting out of season. 
It is a fact well known to those who have made the matter 
a subject of careful study, that cur prairie chickens and quail 
are tue greatest known destroyers of grasshoppers, potato 
bugs, etc., and therefore are friends of tne farmer. 
John C. Brtggs. 
Proprietors of jUhing resorts will find it profitable to advertise 
them in Forest and Stream. 
WHERE TO GO. 
One important, useful and considerable part of the Forest and 
Stream's service to ttie sportsmen's commuciry is the informaiion 
Eriven inquirers for shooting and fishing resorts. We mane it our 
business to Irnow where to send the sportsmen for large or small 
game, or ia quest of his favorite flsh, and this knowledge is freelyim- 
parted on request. 
On the other hand, we are constantly seeking information of this 
character for the benefit of our patrons, and we iuTite sportsmen, 
hotel proprietors and others to communicate to us whatever may be 
of advantage to the sportsman tourist. 
The "Briefs" Pictures. 
There are twenty-nine illustrations in the current edition of Game 
Laws in Brief, most of them full page half-tones, and all admirably 
printed. The book is a beau(y, and well worth having for the illus- 
trations which. Mr. Charles Hallock says, so well represent America's 
wilderHess sports. The Brief gives all the laws of the United States 
and Canada for the practical guidance of anglers and shooters. As 
an authority, it has a long record of unassailed and unassailable ac- 
curacy. Forest and Stream Pub. Co. sends it postpaid for g5 cents, 
or your dealer will supply jou. ' 
ANGLING NOTES. 
Length of Gut. 
My "Angling Notes" havfe been omitted from this peri- 
odical of late, simply because I have been so much from 
home, and other duties have demanded my attention that 
I have had no time to write them. This eveninf I have 
for the first time read the article signed by S. Allcock & 
Co. in the issue of Forest and Stream of May 29. Messrs 
Allcock & Co. refer to an article of mine, in which I said 
that at the London Fishery Exhibition gut was shown 
some of the strands being 40in. in length. ' 
That was a statement of fact. Not an opinion which 
anyone is at liberty to differ from. Messrs. Allcock & Co 
declare: "As to the very long gut, there is nothing made 
40in. in length, and such has never been produced to our 
knowledge." ' 
Now, is it not possible that Messrs. Allcock & Co. do not 
know all that is to be known about long gut, and that 
40in. gut might be manufactured without their knowledge 
or consent? ^ 
In the FisMng Qazeite of July 10, published in London 
Messrs. Hardy Bros, advertised girt in strands from 30 to 
42m. in length, and leaders 3yds. long, made from three 
strands only of gut. In a letter to the editor of the Oazeite 
inclosing samples of leaders, or gut casts, as thev call them 
on the other side, the Messrs. Hardv say; "You will notice 
the No. 1 is in three strands only, each strand being about 
1yd. No. 2 is in four strands. The No. 1 is made from gut 
42in.; No. 2 from 30in." 
The editor, INIr. Marston, acknowledges the receipt of 
the leaders, and says the length of the strands is most un- 
usual, but he does not say the gut lengths are any different 
from what is claimed, so I must assume that there is gut 
40m. long, even if Messrs. Allcock & Co. say there is not 
It IS quite possible that Mr. Marston will be willing to 
show Messrs. Allcock & Co. the gut casts if requested to do 
80, and they can thus add to their knowledge concerning 
the length of gut that is produced. 
Wealth of Fish Food In St. Lawrence River. 
About the middle of June I was leaving Montreal one 
evening by the Delaware & Hudson R. R. The sun was 
just sinking, possibly it was half an hour high, and as the 
train approached the Victoria Bridge over the St. Law- 
rence we ran into a swarm of flies. The flies were so 
numerous that we shut the car windows to keep them out 
and for several miles south of the river I noticed the flies 
in the failing sunlight on both sides of the track in hordes 
"Eel flies," a fellow-passenger called them, but they were 
one of the caddis flies, which come from the caddis or case 
worm, a most excellent food for fishes. I was on a train 
on the Union Pacific R. R., in Wyoming Territory, many 
years ago, that was stalled by grasshoppers crawling over 
the rails and becoming crushed to pulp under the wheels, 
so they revolved without advancing the train, until the 
passengers assisted the train crew in sanding the rails. If 
the caddis flies that I saw rising near the St. Lawrence as 
we came out of Montreal had crawled on the railroad iron 
instead of flying in the air, they would have stalled all the 
trains on the Grand Trunk and D. & H. R. R. systems. 
The flies would have furnished food for an army of fishes, 
and doubtless the larval forms of these flies do furnish an 
abundance of food for the fish in the St. Lawrence. About 
two weeks later I was at Clayton, on the St. Lawrence, and 
saw on the surface of the water great numbers of dead and 
dying alewives (locally called "saw-bellies"), and these fish 
swarm in the water. I could account for their dying only 
because of the change in the temperature of the water 
from cold to warm. They are very sensitive to such 
changes when found in some of our interior lakes, and it 
is more than likely that this will explain the mortality of 
the alewife in the St. Lawrence. They must for a good 
portion of the year furnish an abundance of food to the 
adult fishes, and they are found frcm Lake Ontario to 
Ogdensburgh. 
Just two weeks later still I was again on the St. Law- 
rence, and in a steam yacht went from Clayton to Messina, 
a distance of about seventy-five mile.s, and for all that dis- 
tance there were patches on the water consisting of the 
larval casesof the May-flies. The flies were at the same time 
rising every night. The larval skins would in some in- 
stances cover half an acre of the surface, having been 
gathered in a mass by the wind and current. During the 
ride of seventy-five miles we were never out of sight of a 
patch, larger or smaller, of the larval skins, and the piers 
and boat houses, piles, etc., were covered with empty 
cases. Every night the flies would rise in clouds, and this 
continues, 1 was told, for a month. I counted five species 
of drakes, the big green drake or May-fly being most 
abundant. The flies plastered the houses, the lamps, and 
other furruture, and I found them quite abundant in mv 
. bed. If any one cared to transplant the Mav-fly, and I mean 
the green drake, as it is the largest of the "tribe, to furnish 
fish food where they are not found, they could be obtained 
very easily along the St. Lawrence. The Fisheries, Game 
and Forest Commission was examining lands and islands 
oflFered for sale to constitute the St. Lawrence River Park, 
and one day returning to the steamer, after looking over 
an island, the captain called my attention to animal 
life in the water. It was late in the afternoon and 
we approached the boat from the east. Under the 
boat the sun made a bright strip in the water 
between the keel and the bottom of the river. 
In this bright strip could be seen countless num- 
bers of small insects, and by dipping up a tumbler of 
water they were found to be the small crustacean with 
one eye, called cy clops. Here was food for very young 
fish when first taking food through the mouth, and else" 
where food for fishes of a larger growth, all in lavish 
abundance. Why then is the black bass fishing poorer in 
the river than it used to be? Simply because for years the 
bass have been caught during the spawning season. 
Legally caught, to be sure, but. nevertheless thev have 
been caught during the spawning season. I found the 
water in the river at the bottom, in, say, ir)ft. of water, 
where there was a current, (\2V Fahrenheit, and black 
bass do not spawn until the water reaches about 65° for a 
great part of the day. If the black bass are protected 
until J Lily 1 (a great many bass spawn in the river after 
July 1; perhaps the most of these spawn after July 1 in 
such a late year as this), and the limit to the daily catch 
be enforced, the black bass fishing in the river may be re- 
stored to what it used to be. For mv part, I cannot see 
what is done with all the bass exhibited at the hotels by 
the guests every night, even now with the limit in force 
of twelve bass to each rod or twenty-four bass to each boat, 
provided there are two fishermen in the boat. The guests 
at the hotels were not so numerous when I was there, that 
they were bulging the sides of the hotels outward, yet the 
display of bass each night made me wonder what the dis- 
play would be when the season was at its height, and also 
what would become of the bass displayed. At a dinner 
given to the New York Commission by Mr. Boldt at his 
summer home. Heart Island, the after-dinner speeches 
referred to the proposed park and to the game 
laws, fishing, etc. Some of the members of the "resi- 
dent committee contended that June 9 was as late as 
the season should open, although the Canadian authorities 
wished the open season to begin June 15. I advocated a 
close season to extend to July 1, for I found bass with 
spawn in them on Jime 16; and it was finally admitted, 
after dinner and privately, that many bass were taken in 
July containing spawn. Let the guests fish for other fish 
until July 1, and permit the bass fishing to recover, and 
the boatmen will make more to be engaged through July, 
August and early September, with good fishing that will 
attract fishermen as it once did, than to fish with intJif- 
ferent success from June 9, and feel all the time that they 
are doing injury to the fishing by taking the bass from the 
river betbre they have spawned. This matter of a proper 
open season was all fought out in Lake George. The open 
season first began July 10, then July 20, and finally Aug. 1, 
for the water of the lake is very cold, and the bass spawn 
all through July. The law was Aug. 1 to Dec. 31 for 
many years, and the lake was recovering from years of 
taking spawning bass; but this year the law was changed 
to conform to the general law, and changed by people who 
apparently have no interest in the fishing, except it be a 
seifish interest, and the people at the lake who understand 
why the bass should be protected are indignant about it. 
What My Window Screens Catch. 
The windows of my library face the Hudson River 
which is a quarter of a mile away, and they have at cer- 
tain seasons fine wire screens in them. When the wind 
blows from the river in the spring and early summer the 
screens are apt to catch something of the msect life blown 
up from the water, and it is quite the regular thing to ex- 
amine the screens early every morning to see if they have 
caught anything. On the screens I have found four 
species of drakes, but never the big green drake or May- 
fly. I have already described in Fokest and Stream how 
the May flies have performed their final transformation on 
these screens, and shed the thin, gauzy skin, which, until 
witnessed, it would seem impossible to shed, for it is a 
pure film. It is not unusual for the dragon fly to visit the 
screens; but I had a brand new caller one evening lately, 
when one of the family exclaimed, "Here is a dobson on 
the screen; come quick!" Sure enough, it was the fly of 
the dobson or helgramite {Corydalus cormdus), and one of 
a very few uninjured ones that I have found. Prof. Sur- 
face, nf Cornell IJniversity, was to dine with me that even- 
ing, and I assured him that the fly called in his honor; for 
we had been talking about fish food and water insects for 
two evenings previous. It is perhaps curious that, much 
as I have looked for the image of the dobson, I have found 
comparatively few of them. Since my boyhood days I 
have been familiar with the larvje which we call dobson, 
and have used hundreds for black bass bait. In perfect 
form it is a night flyer, and the first one I ever saw, aside 
from preserved specimens, I picked up one morning under 
a street gas lamp which had a broken glass. Within a day 
or two after I found a second one; but that was when I was 
a boy, and I think I have not seen fifty, all told, since, 
and to have one fly on to the screen was most unusual. 
But it adds to the list of fish foods that the screens have 
collected, and I hope that its mate (this is a female) will 
pay me a visit some evening. 
An Irish Pike Fly. 
Not long ago my friend Mr. Marston wrote: "I am 
sending you a pike fly made by Enright & Son, of Castle 
Oonnell, and used on Irish w^aters. It may suit your 
mascalonge." When I looked at the fly I was satisfied 
that a pike, mascalonge or any big fish of the tribe would 
take the fly if they had the opportunity. A gentleman, 
who is not an angler, was visiting me and saw the fly 
hanging on a picture frame and asked me if I kept it to 
frighten children with, and I said no, it was an alligator 
fly, and he assured me it looked it. The fly is tied on 7-0 
double hooks, and has a body of red and green mohair 
wound with round gold tinsel, the tag is gold and the tail 
is just a bunch of whole feathers of various colors, and the 
same mav be said of the hackle. The head is, however, 
its cJiefd'ceuvre. Two glass eyes glaring at vou from a 
mass of green plush, back of which stands up the tip of 
two peacock feathers, with the eyes, for wings, makes the 
whole thing look like a cross between a gigantic dragon 
fly and a steam fire engine at work. I am breaking an 
Irish terrier puppy by the name of Drummond, and until 
the pup is broken that fly will not be offered to any mas- 
calonge, for a sight of it is enough to put the pup on his 
good behavior for twenty-four hours, and it is generally 
understood that an Irish terrier fears nothing that swims, 
walks or flies. 
Mahseer Teeth. 
With the pike fly, Mr. Marston sends me a set of Indian 
mahseer teeth— the big carp, which is called the salmon of 
India— and it was fitting that the fly and the teeth should 
cross the ocean in the same box, for thev are both in the 
same class. The teeth are from a fish of 22*lbs. (really a 
small fish) caught on Washington's Birthday "of this year. 
The largest teeth are tin. long and fin. wide at the base 
and }in. thick. Very recently I read a newspaper item 
which said that the mahseer had no teeth, but its power- 
ful jaws would crush an ordinary spoon bait. The person 
who wrote the original article about the mahseer, from 
which the item was garbled, probably said that the mah- 
seer had no teeth in its jaws, which is true, but like other 
carp, it has teeth in its throat, as the examples before me 
will testify. 
What tne teeth of a 1501b. mahseer would be like I can- 
not say, but if they grow in proportion to the fish, judging 
from these on my desk, they must be several inches long 
and strong enough in other respects to suggest a gun as 
the proper instrument to use instead of a gaff at the end of 
a fight. 
"The Book of the Dry Fly." 
This is the title of a book recently published in London, 
of which George A. B. Dewar, Esq.," is the author, and the 
Marquis of Granby, and J. E. Booth, Esq., contributors. 
On this side of the water we do not practice dry fly fishing 
to any extent as yet, but it is considered in England the 
acme of fishing with the fly, and from inquiries which 
have come to me within a year or two past, 1 am satisfied 
that our anglers are becoming interested in it and desire 
to know about it. Mr. Dewar states the difference between 
wet and dry fly-fishing very concisely when he says: "Wet 
and sunk fly-fishing is fishing the stream; dry fly-fishing 
is fishing the rise." The wet fly fisherman uses three flies 
and fishes down and across the stream, and the dry fly 
fisherman used but a single fly and almost always fishes 
up stream. The dry fly floats on the surface of the water 
and the wet fly sinks beneath it. The wet fly fisherman 
fishes the whole stream— the likely places — hoping to find 
trout feeding that will be tempted to rise to his flies, and 
the dry fly fisherman follows the stream, and when he 
discovers a feeding and rising trout he casts his floating 
fly over the rise. That is as briefly as I can give the 
difference between the two styles. Of course there are 
waters for dry fly-fishing and waters for wet fly-fishing, 
but the author says "the dry fly is never an affectation 
save when resorted to in the case of the brawling impetu- 
ous streams of mountain districts, where it is practically 
impossible of application." 
I'urthermore, there are seasons for dry fly-fishing and 
seasons for the wet fiy, and in referring to those seasons; 
the author uses language which we of this country, no 
matter what kind of fishers, may ponder over: "The dry 
fly anglers of April, however, are tending in many places 
to become as rare as the grouse shooters of midwinter, or 
the slayers of the hare in March. Only in very forward 
seasons are trout fit for the creel before May is with us. 
Sizable trout before then are usually deemed out of condi- 
tion, a 2-pounder being a hideous creature — lean, lanky 
and black in hue. In April, too, the trout are usually in 
only a half educated state; when weak antl dazed after 
their exhausting spawning operations, they will, if on the 
feed, take a wet fly as soon as a dry one, and prefer a 
bunch of gaudy hackles and tinsel to a perfect imitation of 
the natural dun on the water." The seasons in England 
and America may differ, but what the author says is true 
of fishing in this country, where, as I beheve, the fishing 
should not open legally before May 1, except on Long 
Island, and perhaps in a very few other waters, where 
trout get into condition the last of AprU. 
There is another matter which the, author writes aboutj 
