March 26, 189^.] 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
247 
on the river near Eddyville. Iowa, now a prosperous 
agricultural State, dotted over with busy communities, 
and practically speaking having no wild land left, was 
then to the eye a boundless stretch of wild prairie, with 
here and there a narrow strip of timber along some 
stream. 
I have often heard my father speak of the countless 
thousands of prairie chickens which were here when he 
first came, in 1855. I have heard father speak of seeing 
flocks of prairie chickens so numerous as entirely to 
cover acres and acres of ground. Now there are but 
few left. 
The story which impressed me most was told me by 
Mr. Long. It was about the first event of which he has 
any recollection. In the year 1821, then a child three 
years old, he lived with his parents in a little village 
of log houses, where the City of Columbus, O., now 
stands. One autiimn day the father took his rifle and 
went into the woods on a quest for game. The day passed 
and darkness came, but he had not yet returned. Alarmed 
at the prolonged absence of her husband, the mother 
wept, fearing that some harm had come to him. At 
last the welcome sound of footsteps was heard approach- 
ing, and Mrs. Long opened the cabin door to welcome 
the returning husband. As the hunter entered the door 
the little child gazed with wonder at his father and the 
burden he bore, and although the event occurred seventy- 
seven years ago, the scene so impressed itself upon the 
mind of the little child that it still remains indelibly 
stamped on memory's faded page. On his father's 
shoulder rested the rifle, and from its barrel several wild 
turkeys were suspended by their necks, while the strong 
right hand of the hunter grasped by the scruff of the 
neck a dead panther, Avhich he dragged into the cabin. 
This even occurred within the memory of living man 
where Ohio's busy capital now stands. Mr. Long, 
though eighty years old, is, like his father before him, a 
great lover of the rifle, and is still in spite of his four- 
score years an excellent marksman, John C. Briggs. 
WiJVADA, Ta. 
The Youthful Spirit Survives. 
YoiTR editorial in issue of March 12, "Weapons Old 
and New," suggests: I was a mere stripling in 1835, 
but had the afflatus of hunting and fishing- at the early 
age of seven j'ears. Born on the banks of the Susque- 
hanna River, where the fishes from the Chesapeake Bay 
tame up to spawn, I was, at the age of seven years, an 
expert in handling a canoe, and to get the best results 
from a day's fishing. I was even then a sportsman hav- 
ing no need to fish excepting for the excitement attend- 
ant. Striped bass (rockfish), white perch and yellow 
perch, which took the live bait (minnows), were the only 
game for which I would fish. There was not any anx- 
iety expressed on the part of my mother when I did 
not show up at supper time. She would say: "Well, 
he is having bad luck, and is awaiting a change." Never 
would my mother admit I could do other than right, ac- 
cording to my lights, and as my young judgment dic- 
.tgted. 
So also in the matter of hunting. My father had an 
'old smooth-bore rifle, a relic of the Connecticut contin- 
:gent of 1776, stocked to the muzzle, flint lock, and of 
such length that I was compelled to put it at an angle 
of 45 degrees or more in putting the charge of powder 
and shot into it. I had often to pick the flint and scrape 
the "leaf" in order to get a spark from the flint to make 
a flash in the pan. Sometimes it would "go off," and 
fometimes it would be only a "flash in the pan." You 
will remember this was in the year 1835. I was of such 
age I could not hold the long gun at arm's length, and 
would take a "rest" against a tree or such other help 
as at the time presented, in order to have a sure aim 
and successful shot. I did fairly well, and was the envied 
of all the boys who did not possess firearms. 
My first pheasant (ruffed grouse) was the first grand 
accomplishment, and while it was killed sitting I was not 
the less elated, for at that early day there was little 
known of shooting "on the wing." I was the envy of 
all the boys, and escaped a whipping at home simply 
because I acknowledged I did not kill the bird "on the 
wing." Now, with our improved arms, and after a 
period of sixty-three years, I am as eager to join in 
the sports of the field and stream as when the young 
blood went coursing through my veins, and so long as 
life lasts and my pulses keep time to the rhythm of 
forest and stream I will not surrender— not surely until 
the Great Creator says to me: "Come thou to fields 
. other than of this earth." 
_ Your good journal gives me great pleasure for the 
-.time I am bound to business. E. S. Young. 
Pennsylvania State Sportsman's Association. 
L,iGONiER, March ig. — Editor Forest and Stream: The 
attention of every sportsman in Pennsylvania is called 
ito the annual meeting of the State Association Tuesday 
evening, March 29, at Reading. It is hoped that all such 
will attend, if possible, whether members of the Asso- 
ciation or not. To show that the Association has ac- 
complished something, I will call attention (i) to the 
Game Commission; (2) to the present almost uniform 
game law, which limits the bag, prohibits the sale and 
shipment of game killed in the State; and (3) to the 
passage of the game warden bill, which the Governor 
unfortunately vetoed. All this in practically three years. 
The united, systematic efforts of all the sportsmen in 
the State could accomplish almost anything in the way 
of game protection. J. O'H. Denny. 
Fitchburg: Rifle and Gun Club. 
TiTCHBURG, Mass., March 15. — The annual meeting 
'Of the Fitchburg Rifle and Gun Club was held March 14 
SinA officers were elected for the following year as follows: 
Pregident, H. A. Estabrook; Vice-President, E. N, 
■Choate; Secretary-Treasurer, I. O. Converse; Directors: 
G. W. Field, Dr. J. W. Stimson, P. G. Stewart, E. R. 
Wilbur, Jr., C L. Tenny, M. A. Cutler. 
Forty new members were voted into the club, which 
•now has a total membership of 124, the names of Fitch- 
fcurg's most influential citizens being on the list. This 
.£lub has one of the finest trao and rifle ranges in the 
State, and while its members are not known at tourna- 
ments, there arc many good shots in the club. 
_ First and foremost this club stands for game propaga- 
tion and game protection, and its untiring efforts are 
always devoted to distribute and protect the birds and 
fish within its jurisdiction. One of this dub's greatest 
successes has been in the line of pheasant raising — and 
in this respect stands alone and foremost in the State. 
Their aA'iaries contain sixteen pens of the beautiful mon- 
golian pheasant, and while a large number of these birds 
were liberated in the neighboring covers last fall, the 
manager hopes this year to raise and liberate upward 
of 1,000 birds during this coming summer. The process 
of hatching and raising the birds has now become an 
assured success by this club, and if future generations 
can count the pheasant as one of Massachusetts' game 
birds they will owe their pleasure to the untiring efforts 
of the men in the club who have this matter in charge. 
The club extends an invitation to all visiting sportsmen 
to enjoy their grounds, and would be pleased to show 
their aviaries. Nox Alt.. 
ANGLING NOTES. 
Caddis "Worms. 
A FRIEND who has a trout lake in the Adirondacks told 
me that his keeper had noticed when a hole was cut 
in the ice that a bug or worm came to the opening in 
great cpiantities, and he desired to know what it was, 
as he had planted fresh-water shrimp in the pond, ancl 
he hoped the bug or worm of his keeper would prove 
to be shrimps. I asked him to send me specimens, and 
soon afterward I met him in Albany one evening, and 
he handed me a bottle, tightly corked, containing what 
I recognized at a glance as the larvfe of the caddis fly, 
with movable case, for some caddis flies have movable 
cases and some fixed cases — the latter often observed on 
Caddis Fly. Caddis Worm and Cases. 
rocks in the water, it one takes the trouble to look for 
them. The bottle was passed around for the contents 
to be examined by several gentlemen in the club where 
we had met, and I then put it in my bag and the same 
night went to New York. 
The bottle was given to me in the evening, and I did 
not make a close examination of all that it contained, 
but I was quite sure that there were several specimens 
in the bottle. It was several days before I again looked 
at the contents of the bottle, which had been all the 
time in my bag. When I did I was surprised to find 
but a single larva with an enormous case. The bottle 
had not been out of my bag, and the cork had not 
been removed after it came into my possession. 
My surprise was so great that I wrote to my friend ask- 
ing if he knew positively hoAV many caddis worms he 
had placed in the bottle. He said three or four, certainly 
three, and he thought there were four. This agreed 
with my recollection of what I saw at a hasty glance, 
and if true one caddis worm had eaten two or three 
others and had thus added the materials of their cases 
to its own — this in spite of the fact that the caddis worm 
is generally supposed to be a vegetable feeder. There 
were bits of case material in the bottom of the bottle, 
but no sign of more than one larvje. 
I took the worm from the bottle and pulled its case 
into bits and put worm and the materials of which the 
case was made back in the bottle, and in two hours' time 
by the watch it had constructed a new case for itself, 
which practically covered' its body; but the case was 
thin in places, and not as long as before. At the end 
of two hours darkness came on, and my eyes were tired 
with watching the construction of the case (with naked 
eye and with a magnifying glass), and I put the bottle 
away until the next day. Early in the morning the thin 
places in the case had been built upon and strength- 
ened and the case lengthened, and I again sat down to 
observe the building of the case, for the worm was at 
work actively. 
The materials of which the case was made consisted 
of bits of decaying bark and twigs, and green grasses, 
etc., all approximately of the same length. Some of 
the materials floated on the surface of the water and 
some settled at the bottom. The worm seized a bit of 
bark or other material in its mouth, assisting the opera- 
tion with its feet, of which it has six on the anterior 
portion of its body, and apparently covered it with a se- 
cretion from one end to the other, and thus placed it 
in the case, where it remained. The secretion is really 
silk, and with this silk the material of the case is held 
firmly together. If the bit of twig, bark or grass was 
smooth and straight it was quickly fitted in place, but if 
irregular in shape it required a long time to fit the 
material to the satisfaction of the builder. One piece 
of bark was in shape like a letter Y, and to fit that par- 
ticular addition took longer than half a dozen of straight 
pieces. It was tried in one place and then in another 
at the end of the sheath, tube or case; it was turned over 
and over and turned end for end until my eyes ached 
from watching the operation; but finally it was fitted 
and made fast. The Y-shaped piece of bark was for a 
brief moment of time taken by the worm in its mouth and 
manipulated with its feet as in the first instance, whefl 
it was coated with silk, but whether for the purpose of 
spinning more silk to add to it I Could not determine, 
One piece of^reen grass was taken by the Worm ap'- 
parently covered with .spun silk, and then rejected with- 
out an attempt being made to add it to the tube. This 
was just before dark, and the next morning this same 
piece of grass was fixed to the sheath. 
In adding material to the case the worm would at 
times extend itself more than half its length from the 
tube, and it seemed to be able to turn completely around 
on a longitudinal axis as it worked around the edges 
of the sheath, adding or fitting materials. This seemed 
the more strange as at the posterior end of the worm 
are two hooks which hold it firmly in the sheath or tube, 
and it would appear that they must prevent the worm 
from turning completely around. All during the opera- 
tion of silk spinning and fastening the bits of material 
on the tube and extending its length the posterior part 
of the case where the material was thin was worked in 
convolutions, or perhaps oscillations \i the better 
word, as though the worm's silk factory was 
in full blast. When the heavy materials at the 
bottom of the water were added to the case 
the worm rose to the surface and added most of the 
floating materials, and then settled to the bottom, and 
for hours remained inactive except that occasionally it 
protruded its head. While at Avork and when more than 
half out of its sheath I noticed that the worm appeared 
to have light-colored filaments around the body back of 
the head and legs, and I assumed these to be a part of 
the silky lining of the tube; but in this respect I must 
have been m error. 
I cut the case open and examined the interior, finding 
it smooth and even as possible, the parts cemented with 
silk, but the light-colored filaments on the worm had, 
after death, lost their distinguishing color, and my glass 
was not strong enough for me to detect what they were, 
except that they were part of the worm and not "part of 
the case lining. So I assumed that they must have been 
what scientists would have described as "external or- 
gans of respiration or membranous filaments covering 
the abdominal segments." So we will let them go at 
that. I hope to get more caddis worms for observation 
(for I made all the use I could of my one poor speci- 
men), and find out for .sure if they do prey upon one 
another, although the corked bottle would have 
seemed to settle the matter, and it would if I were ab- 
solutely sure how many woi-ms were put into the bottle. 
Now as to the value of the caddis worm for fish food. 
In all stages of its development it is one of the very 
best fish foods. The illustrations herewith show various 
forms of caddis cases, composed of various materials — 
bark, sand, shells, sticks, .straws, roots, seeds, etc., the 
caddis worm and a caddis fly. I say a caddis fly, for 
there are a number of species of caddis flies. In the il- 
lustration the fly is shown with wings extended, but at 
rest the wings fold lengthwise with the body. 
Prof. Barfuth, of the University of Bonn, examined 
the contents of the stomach of six trout, and found in 
the first four caddis cases; in the second 136 cases; in 
the third 585 cases; in the fourth 116 cases; in the 
fifth r86 cases; and in the sixth 115 cases. This will 
show _ what an important item of food the caddis fly 
is in its larval stage, and every fisherman who has seen 
the fly bursting its pupa case at the surface of the water, 
and rising in clouds, will understand how it furnishes 
vast quantities of food in its fly stages. The larva can 
easily be transplanted to waters where it is not found, 
and as it is as rich in quality as it is abundant in quan- 
tity it will pay for transplanting to less Favored waters. 
While it may be true that the larva furnishes a greater 
amount of fish food than the perfect fly, from the very 
nature of its accessibility in the water, it should not be 
forgotten that in the fly stage the caddis fly. May fly, 
etc., bring trout up .from the depths to feed at the sur- 
face, and thus are educated to become fly-taking fishes, 
to the joy of the fly-fishermen. 
May Flies. 
A gentleman in Quebec writes me as follows: "I am 
the owner of two lakes sixteen miles north of our city, 
in which I have hatched many thousands of trout ova. 
One of the lakes I stocked with rainbow trout and the 
other with spawn of large trout from some of our south 
shore lakes. I noticed in the summer of 1895 that the 
May fly was not as plentiful as in 1894, and 1896 pro- 
duced still less. Last summer was so bad that only a 
few flies were noticed in August. Now that my trout are 
well matured I fear that something must be done to give 
them surface food this year, and that I must help them 
all I can during the coming summer, as they are under 
the ice for six months in this country. Will you aid me 
"by giving addresses where I can procure May fly 
spawn?" 
It is very refreshing to receive a letter in regard to 
furnishing food for fish, and I would go a long way to 
aid a man who desires to feed his trout, for too many 
correspondents ask only for fish, with no word about 
feeding them, as though trout never ate anything but 
artificial flies apd worm-baited hooks — at the end of a 
fishing line. It is not possible for me to advise where 
and how to procure the eggs of the May fly, unless the 
collector has had experience, but the larvie may be ob- 
tained, and without question the flies themselves can be 
obtained, and there is no better place to obtain them 
than on the St. Lawrence River, where there is a rise 
of May flies lasting more than a month. Probably the 
greater proportion of the larvas burst their skins at the 
surface of the water, and the fly takes wing, so the larvae 
cannot be collected; but many crawl up the shore pil- 
ing, boat houses, wharves, etc., and one watching for 
them could secure a good number for transplanting; but 
collected at that stage the fly would soon emerge, and 
it would be more satisfactory to collect a quantity of the 
flies, transplant and release them, and allow them to mate 
and breed on the ponds. Eggs deposited this year would 
not produce flies under two years, but by this process 
the ponds would become well stocked. I presume if 
