270 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
[Oct. 3, 1897. 
BE READY. 
How often' has the game escaped because the hunter "was 
not ready and failed to connect with his opportunity ! He 
goes down to the spring for a pail of water, and leaves his 
rifle at the camp, when he hears a wheezy whistle, a crash 
in the underbrush, and a big black bear climbs up the 
bank and disappears unscathed. He is drifting down the 
stream in his birchen canoe, the gun is reposing in its case ; 
the canoe sweeps silently around a bend, and the next mo- 
ment the air is vocal with the frantic flight of ducks. He 
has just entered the forest, and is tramping along the trail 
ahead of the team, e% route for the distant hunting ground ; 
It is a task to carry the heavy rifle, and the weapon is lashed 
on top of the load; a big bull caribou appears in the path, 
makes a momentary pause, then breaks for cover and is lost 
forever. 
Among my intimates I have sometimes been called O'd 
Gaspipe "because when in the woods, either hunting or fish- 
ing, a loaded rifle was my inseparable companion. I have 
been carrying tbat rifle for fifteen years for the purpose, 
mainly, of getting one good, honest shot at a bear. The 
bear has never thown up yet, but some day he will show up. 
and when he does I shall be ready. But I will tell you of 
some of the opportunities that have not been lost simply be- 
cause at any moment of day or night I could place my hand 
on the loaded rifle. 
The cook and I were left in camp while the others were 
away calling moose. Now, I think the best thing for the 
human stomach on the earth is the cranberry, especially the 
low bush or bog cranberry. There was an island in the lake 
about a quarter of a mile from the camp where cranberries 
were abundant. I paddled over there in the dugout and 
soon picked half a pailful. As I shifted about from place 
to place I shifted the rifle too, so (hat it was always within 
my reach. Suddenly 1 heard a splash, loolicd up and saw a 
fine bull caribou swimming from an adjacent island toward 
the shore of the lake. Only his neck and head were above 
the water and he was swimming like a ghost, but he was not 
over 80yds. away. My second shot went through his neck, 
and I paddled out in the dugout and towed him ashore. 
I was trout fishing with a-friend in the month of Septem- 
ber on one of the northern rivers of New Brunswick. That 
section of the country was too close to the settlements to give 
any promise of game ; still, as the guides poled us up the 
stream one sunny afternoon toward a famous trout hole, I 
carried old Habeas Ccrpus across my knees and closely 
watched the changing vista of the shores. The Frenchman 
in the bow exclaimed: "Oh, luk at de d-e-e-r-e!" I stood up 
in the canoe and saw two big deer on the further side of a 
cove, about 300yds. away. The canoe was silently and 
swiftly poled ashore, and I crept behind a point of rocks that 
f prmed the outermost curve of the cove and brought me within 
a little over gOOyds. of the game. I aimed at the biggest one, 
missed him, and the other deer leaped up the bank and disap- 
peared. The second time I took the finest possible kind of a 
bead, and at the report of the rifle this deer also leaped up the 
bank and disappeared. There was something so abrupt and 
unceremonious about his departure that I was confident the 
bullet had found its mark. Yet we searched for him long and 
vainly, and then sadly resumed our journey up the stream. 
Two hours afterward, on returning to camp, we came down 
by another channel and found the deer lying in the water, as 
dead as a last year's almanac, about 150yds above the cove. 
With a party of American friends I explored one autumn 
the upper waters of the Tobique. I was present In merely a 
sort of social and advisory way and confined myself to the 
camera while the visitors haunted the lakes and deadwaters 
in search of moose and caribou. I never meant to pull a 
trigger on the trip, still wherever the camera went there 
went Habeas Corpus also. One of the Indians and his little 
boy poled me up the "bogan" one morning to take a picture 
of a peculiar piece of stratified rock. We had reached a 
point about a mile from the camp when the boy in the bow 
stiffened in an attitude of cataleptic rigidity. I glanced tO' 
the right and there beheld, standing in the reeds and rushes, 
a young bull moose about 30 ft. from the canoe. My first 
impulse was to take his picture, but I am not nearly so handy 
with the kodak as the rifle; I made a bungle of it, the moose 
turned like a flash, crashed through the alders, clambered up 
a rocky bluff and there he turned his head and looked us all 
over. I forgot all about the camera then and we gathered in. 
the moose and towed him into camp, It was the only moose 
the party saw upon the entire trip. 
I could enumerate various experiences to show the utility 
of taking along a load or two of buckshot when wing shoot- 
ing in the brush, and show how the same is conducive to> 
happiness and hash. But why multiply proofs of a self evi- 
dent proposition. It is all summed up in an empty shell.. 
Be ready ! Fkakk H. Risteen. 
Fbkderjcton, N. B. 
Communications for this department are requested. Anything' <m 
the bicycle in its relation to the sportsman is particularly desirabV 
' They May Know How to Ride, Though. 
Montreal, Sept. 22. — Editor Forest and Stream: The- 
inclosed are exact copies of letters received by a bicycle firmi 
here (spelling, punctuation and all). Feed EvansoNs 
Dear Sir — ^Will you please send me a oiler one of those 
little oil olders on the top of the patties on the cilinder it gc 
in like a screw and 1 would like to have some robbers for the 
patties and two little rivets for the seat the nunter of my 
wheel is — r- 1 have as the agent about these think and he- 
never send them please sand them as soon as possible 
And Oblige 
Dear Sir— Me have received your Crank Right, 
I am very glad of it that Crank do very well everythings 
I will have you send me it and I send you the money like I 
send you that money. Tour truly — — • 
P. 8, wend you received my letter send me a post card to 
tell me you received the money I send you and will you tell 
me if you have any bicycle to sell cheep let me know I think 
I will do some bargane from you. I send you in that letter 
11.30 
An Important Game Seizure. 
Chicago, 111., Sept. 28.—8pedal to Forest and Stream: 
Game Warden Loveday has seized 1,500 illegal ruffed ffrouse 
found in possession of the Monarch Cold Storage Co , of 
Chicago. E. Hough. 
Proprietors of fishing resorts will find it profitable to advertise 
them in Forrst and Stream. 
The "Game Laws in Brief," 
Thk current edition of the Game Laws in Brief (index page dated 
Aug. 1) contains the flsh and game laws for 1897, with a few excep- 
tions, as they will continue in force during the year. As about forty 
State.s and Provinces have amended their la-ws this year, the Brief 
has been practically done over new. Sent postpaid by the Forest 
and Stream Pub. Go. on receipt of price, 25 cents. All dealers sell it 
ANGLING NOTES. 
Landlocked Salmon in Lake George. 
A PEW weeks ago I announced in Forest ahd Stream 
that a landlocked salmon, the first, had been taken in Lake 
Champlain as the result of stocking the streams flowing into 
the lake on the west side with fingerhng salmon. Lake 
George and Lake Champlain had each a carload of fingerlings 
planted about the same time, in October, 1894, and I ven- 
tured to prophesy that other fish of this species would be 
taken in one or both lakes before the season closed. In the 
latter part of last August a landlocked salmon of 61b3. was 
caught by Col. Mann, of New Tork, while trolling in deep 
water for lake trout near Anthony's Nose in Lake G-eorge. 
This fish came from a lot of fry hatchtd three years ago last 
spring, and planted the following fall as fingerlings, so it was 
little more than three years and six months from the time it 
burst the egg until it was caught, weighing 61bs. This shows 
remarkable growth and proves that Lake George has rich 
food for salmon. For several years I hesitated about recom- 
mending to the late TJ. S. Fish Commissioner McDonald that 
Lake George be planted with salmon, and there were two 
reasons for this— one that the streams entering the lake were 
not large enough for big salmon to run up at spawning time, 
the other that I was not sure that the food in Lake George 
would prove suitable for them. The lack of spawning 
streams for big fish was not an insurmountable obstacle, as 
artificial propagation would have to be resorted to in any 
event to keep up the stock, and the food question was the 
only one to be considered. Lake George abounds in white- 
fish of two species, the big lake whitefish introduced 
by the late Prof. Baird, and the round whitefish 
or Adirondack "frost fish," native to the lake. Believ- 
ing that young whitefish would prove as acceptable food for 
the salmon as the smelt found in Lake Champlain, 1 finally 
made the recommendation that the lake be stocked, and the 
work was begun in 1894 by planting something over 10,000 
fingerling fish. The next plant was made in October, 1895, 
when 5,000 fingerlings were planted. All plants were made in 
streams at the southern and middle portions of the lake, while 
this fish was caught at the northern end of the lake, seven- 
teen miles away from the stream where the nearest plant was 
made. The salmon caught in Lake Champlain earlier in the 
season was caught off the mouth of a stream where the fin- 
gerlings were planted, audits weight, 3ilbs., showed more 
than satisfactory growth; but a growth of 61bs. in the same 
length of time would indicate that the young whitefish are 
as good, if not better food than the smelt, provided the sal- 
mon get smelt at all seasons of the year in Lake Champlain. 
There can be no question about the identity of the Lake 
George fish. When first hooked, it made straight for the 
surface and jumped from the water; and thereafter, until it 
was gaffed and boated, it continued to jump. At the first 
jump, the boatman employed by Col Mann pronounced the 
ish a big black bass, but its color soon disproved this; and 
when it was killed, it was recognized for what it was, a sal- 
mon. Mr. Albert Clifton afterward saw the fish, and con- 
firmed what it had already been declared. While Col. Mann 
must be credited with taking the first salmon from Lake 
George, I am of the opinion that another salmon was taken 
earlier in the season; but as it was not identified beyond a 
peradventurc, and as its captor did not recognize it except as 
a, fish, "not a trout, but somewhat like one, and jumping like 
a black bass," he missed his opportunity of recording his 
name as the pioneer salmon killer in that lake. 
Hooks. 
It is not a difficult matter for me to recall that when I 
was a small boy I thought there was no hook for trout fish- 
ing like the Kinsey or Kinzey — low point and wide between 
the point and shank. It I were to go fishing to-day with 
worms in some mountain stream I believe I could catch 
more trout on a Kinsey hook than any other; but I have not 
seen one in years, nor used one for more y.ars still. For 
lifting trout out of the water as soon as they got the bait there 
was no hook like them, for the low point was easily taken by 
the fish, and that wide sweep asthehook bent from shank to 
barb was a fine field on which to arrange a worm with lots 
of wriggle to it, and no danger of choking the hook with 
the bait. When it came to a different style of fishing from 
lifting trout out cf the water as it flowed between and under 
the alders, a different hook was demanded, for the low point 
and long wide sweep was as much of an objection in playing 
a fish fair as it was desirable in the yanking process. I took 
a course with the old Limerick, branched out with the Car- 
lisle, the Aberdeen (I never did like a blued hook, 
and that is the way I used to get these two with 
their fine wire), the Chestertown (for bullheads — and if 
one wishes a bullhead hook it is the hook of hooks, 
as it cannot easily be swallowed to the fish's tail), until 
I educated myself up to the Sproat; and still 1 was not 
satisfied, nor are the hooks named all I tried and used. 
Finally I was introduced to the Dublin Limerick or 
O'Shaughnessy, and there I stopped for years, feeling as 
Uncle Thad Norris expressed himself, ,"Hold him tight, 
■O'Shaughnessy; you are the greatest hook ever invented." 
In fact, for all-around fishing, I feel so still. When Mr. 
Pennell devised the Pennell Sneck hook he sent me some of 
them with wire thicker than I have ever been able to obtain 
isince. For fly-fishing alone that was a great hook, and I 
sometimes think in heavy wire it is the greatest fly-hook 
made. It is not a good bait hook, as the point inclines so 
toward the shank that it chokes when baited. 
Mr. Pennell improved on the Pennell-Sneck and pro- 
duced the Pennell-Limerick, with or without a "turn-down" 
eye, and, all things considered, this is perhaps the perfect 
hook for fly-fishing, although 1 would not recommend it to 
bait-flsheis, as it will choke when baited with a minnow; at 
least that has been my experience. With no other hook that 
I have used in fly-fishing is there the feeling of certainty 
that the fish lising to it is well hooked when struck. It 
actually Seems to me that I feel the hook go home in the 
mouth of a big fish. Any way, something is communicated 
up the leader and over the line to my hand that seems to tell 
me I can put on all the strain the tackle will bear, secure in 
the feeling that the hook will hold, whatever else may give 
way. 
Fishing very recently for trout, I found that the trout 
in one part of the lake had a fondness, apparently, for the 
Montreal to the exclusion of everything else, and in another 
part of the same lake the Parmachene-Belle was the favor- 
ite to the exclusion of the Montreal. It so happened that I 
had but one Montreal of proper size, and that was tied on a 
Pennell Limerick turn-down eye. All my Parmachene- 
Belles were tied on O'Shaughnessy hooks. I hooked seven 
big trout on the Montreal, and in every instance I was sure 
of my fish from the moment I felt the steel go into them, 
and every one was so securely hooked that there was no 
chance ot escape except bj^ parting the tackle ; for the hook 
was so firmly imbedded in the fish's mouth that in nearly 
every case it had to be cut out with a knife. I caught more 
than seven other big trout on other styles of hooks, and never 
was i sure that my fish were well hooked until they were in 
the net. I mean that the hook had a secure hold, and in the 
majority of cases the fish were very slightly hooked. One 
trout made a break in shallow water Intent upon the break, 
I hastened there with the canoe and soon hooked the fish. 
Not until then did I discover that the fish was in a sort of 
pocket, with weeds and hlypads on every side, and I 
knew I must kill him in the pocket if at all, and I 
put on all the strain I dared, remarking that it 
was a case for heroic treatment, although 1 did not know 
how the fish was hooked. When I got the trout to the top of 
the water my fly seemed to be aV:out lin. outside of the fish's 
mouth, held only by a slight ligament. Exclaiming it was 
"now or never," 1 told the guide to try and net the trout as I 
swung it gently toward his end of the canoe. The net was ex- 
tended as far as the arm would reach and very, very gingerly 
I led the fish to it, knowing that one more struggle would 
free him. As the net touched him he struggled and the fly 
came back to me, but the meshes were wrapped around a 
5ilbs. trout as the net was quickly lifted. This was perhaps 
an exceptional case, but several times the fly was free at the 
moment the fish was netted, and I was more than ever im- 
pressed with the penetration of the Pennell form of hook. 
The sureness of the Pennell-Sneck and the Pennell-Limerick 
hooks are about the same, as the line of draft in each is in- 
tended to be identical, and it conforms more neatly to the 
direction of the force applied in striking than in any other 
hook made. The long, straight taper of the point insures 
greater penetration and the hook swims b.tter. As a matter 
of fact, every one of the trout caught on the Pennell hook 
was hooked on the lower jaw, or tongue. The shape of the 
bend is iuch that once hooked, the fish has liittle chance to 
"wear loose" through play in the bend. 
There is nothing new in what I have written— for a few 
years ago I wrote much in the same strain — but I have lately 
been so impressed with the sureness of these hooks for big 
fish in fiy-fishing that I simply reiterate it for the benefit of 
fellow-anglers who may have any doubts about the advisa- 
bility of employing what may be a new form of hook. In 
large hooks it is a saving to use those with the turn-down 
eye, for when the gut becomes worn it can be quickly 
snipped off and the hook attached again. 
Customs Duties in Canada. 
Early in the summer I made mention in this column of a 
new order of things relating to the collection of customs 
duties on angling and shooting gear of sportsmen visiting 
Canada.- It was that 30 per cent, of the valuation of the 
guns and tackle tak<n to Canada should be collected upon 
entering the Dominion, and upon returning to the United 
States 90 per cent, of the duty would be returned lo the' 
sportsman when he removed the dutiable articles. This 
order from the Customs Department has, I find on a recet t 
visit to Canada, been amended, and while the duty is col- 
lected as before, the entire amount is refunded to the depart- 
ing sportsman who removes the articles entered within three 
months from the time he first crosses the border into 
Canada. 
Guides and Fish. 
A man visiting strange waters for the first time must know 
something of the habits of fl.sh he seeks at the various sea- 
sons, or he dependent upon some one who does (this some 
one being a guide or a friend), or else he must trust to luck, 
and trusting lo luck is not a certain way of succeeding in 
fishing. It was my intention at this juncture to moralize a 
litile on this subject, but instead I will tell the story I have 
in mind, and it will illustrate what I mean, that there are 
guides and guides just as there are waters and waters. In 
August I had occasion to go into the Adirondacks, and had 
but a few days comparatively to cover a good deal of terri- 
tory. I took a photographer with me for the purpose 
of getting some photographs to be reproduced in a 
State report. First I wished a number of views of over- 
flowed lands caused bv a State dam upon which a 
matter of damages rested, and then a lot of views of 
a series of lakes, timber, etc. At first we needed but two 
guides with two boats, but as we began on the chain of lakes 
1 employed a third guide to carry a pack with provisions. 
We reached the camp of the third guide about an hour be- 
fore dark, and while I was going over a map with him the 
photographer and his guide went out to get some trout for 
supper, as our provisions consisted of bacon, bread and tea. 
The two men came in with one little trout. A. few days 
later we had completed the chain of lakes and returned to 
that same camp just before 5 o'clock in the afternoon. I 
had some writing to do, clothes to change, etc., intending 
then to go on several miles to another camp by water, where 
1 would be near a railroad station so I could get a train at 4 
o'clock the next morning. The two visiting guides (I say 
visiting guides lo distinguish them from the guide who kept 
the camp, although they were guides for that very region 
and lived less than a dozen miles away) and the photog- 
rapher went out fishing as soon as we arrived. After they 
had gone I asked the camp keeper if they would get any 
trout for supper. "Perhaps." "You have doubts about itV" 
"Yes." Can you get trout enough for supper, provided I 
will stay here instead of going on to my destination ?" ' 'How 
many do you want?" "Three of ilb each will do for me." 
"How much time will you give me?" "How much do you 
want?" "An hour." "All right. I will call you when 1 
have written out my memoranda and shaved; if you have 
the trout I will stay, if not I will go on, for having had 
nothing but bread and butter to-day, I feel like a square 
meal after making several miles over trails," In an hour 
and ten minutes I called the guide (he had been fishing 
within earshot aU the time and nearly all the time in sigh 
