FORE SI' AND STREAM. 
[May 7, 1898. 
fishing I prefer the darker colored flies. I have had 
more success in the waters of the States named in the 
months of September and October than in any other part 
of the season. 
As for learning to cast the fly, the only thing I can 
advise is to read any of the authorities on the subject, 
master the theory, then go to work to educate the mus- 
cles and senses to perform it. Of course one wotild learn 
much more readily if he had some one to coach him, 
but with patience he will learn anyway, and when he 
takes his first bass on the fly he will think himself fully 
repaid for his laboi". 
Waders are a nuisance anywhere, and in our climate 
are unnecessary. An old bicycle stiit with a pair of hob- 
nailed shoes I find is the thing for nie where I can Avade. 
I carry a short-handled landing net with a piece of 
leather worked with a button hole tacked on the handle. 
This is buttoned on one of the suspender buttons on 
the left side. 
As for casting the bait from a free running reel, the 
novice will have to learn this, as he does fly-fishing, by 
practice after mastering the details as laid doAvn by some 
■of the authorities. In my case this was more difficult 
to learn than fly-casting. In fact I have never become 
an expert, even after some years of practice. I think 
every angler should know something of bait fishing, 
for there are times when fi,sh will not rise to the fly, and 
I am not such a crank that I tliink cainp should go 
without fish just because they do Hot happen to like an 
insect on that day. There is much more sport in tak- 
ing the fish with the fly, but suppose he will not bite; 
why, try him with something else. I have found the 
little casting spoons, the Skinner spoons, of great help 
to me under such circumstances. I use the No. 1 with 
a 2ft. gut leader. There is 110 such great difference in 
this from casting with the fly. The spoon is taken 
under the water, and of course you miss the savage 
rush to the surface, but a bass will fail to show himself 
after he is hooked, and give you plenty of sport. The 
small spoon can be used with the fly rod. In bait fislnng 
I have found nothing to equal the live minnow m our 
waters. Helgramites and frogs dre scarce articles at best 
with us. , ■ 
I hope Dr. Neely will not think that I am trymg to 
advise him in this without having been asked; for the 
truth of the matter is that reading the article suggested 
to me that there might be many in the South who would 
like to know more of flv-fishing in the waters of this 
State and Tennessee, and this is written to give them 
all the information in my possession. At;.abama. 
Winnepesatikee Lake. 
Editor Forest and Stream: 
There may be more beautiful lakes than this New 
Hampshire gem somewhere in the world, but a lovelier 
body of inland water is not necessary to satisfy any one. 
The combination of numerous islands, broad bays and 
irregular shores, with the grand view of the distant 
mountains, make it one of the most enjoyable places to 
visit. The natural beauty of Winnepesaukee is not the 
only attraction, especially to the sportsman. The lake 
is well supplied with fish; trout, bass pickerel and yellow 
perch are to be found in great numbers. 
I have never failed to secure a reasonable nimiber of 
bass at this lake, and I have spent several weeks there 
each season for the past three years. Early m the .sea- 
son, sav Jime 15 to July 15, thp fly is the proper lure, but 
from then on bait fishing must be resorted to. Deep- 
water trolling for trout and still-fishing with minnows 
or helgramite for bass. 
There are sev.eral particularly good places where bass 
may be found, but a stranger would not always be able 
to strike good fishing grounds Unless he had the points 
given him. 
A branch of the Maine Railroad System which runs 
from Boston to the White Mountains passes close to 
the western shore of this lake, at The Weirs, and it is at 
this point that the tourist or sportsman can best make 
his headquarters, as it is the most convenient for visit- 
ing the various points by steamer or rowboat. 
A narrow channel connecting this lake with a smaller,. 
Lake Pangus, is within five minutes' row frorn The 
Weirs. This channel or river is not over a half rnile 
in length, yet hundreds of pounds of bass are^ taken 
from it each year. Last summer I saw a string of 
twenty-three, caught by one man in an afternoon, which 
weighed Silbs. There are other places equally as good 
which can easily be reached from The Weirs. 
It is not at all surprising that there are numerous 
resorts on the shores of this beautiful lake, or that the 
picturesque islands and shaded hillsides are dotted with 
cottages and sportsmen's camps. , , , , j 
If any Forest and Stream reader should conclude 
to spend a few days or weeks beside this marvelous sheet 
of wat^r this summer, and I am there, as T hope to be, 1 
shall take pleasure in pointing out to him the spot where 
I hooked and lost the biggest bass of the season, and 
where I landed many. Doctor. 
Philadelphia, Pa. 
*'Mofe About the Black Bass.'^ 
Ale\ny N Y April ^o.-^EMtor Forest and Stream: 
I see that 'you printed my note of Aptil 23. I will add : 
The regiment of volunteers now being raised by Lol. 
T Meredith Read in this city cannot be accepted m this 
first call because the National Guard will fill the bill; 
but we have on our rolls over 600 men ready for the 
next call. I started a company ni Rensselaer and one 
in St Lawrence county, and have been appointed lieu- 
tenant-colonel of the regiment. I leave for Brooklyn 
to-night to continue recruiting there and incidentally 
to resume my fislnng articles, hoping that the Governor, 
or the President, will call us soon. Will give you 
"more about the black bass" iiext week. 
Fred Mather. 
The Castalia Club. 
T01.EDO, O— The Ca.stalia people (upper club) had 
an unusually sttccessful opening on the 15th ult., with 
laro-e catches. EK-President Cleveland will be the guest 
of one of the members on the tipper stream May 5- 
J. Beebe. 
Hunting the Big Cats of the 
Rockies with Hounds* 
There exists among sportsmen a general misappre- 
hension as to the habits and characteristics of the big. cats 
of North America. 
The blood-curdling screech and ferocious attack of 
the panther, lynx, or wildcat has been harped on so often 
by writers knowing comparatively nothing of their sub- 
ject that the average man feels, that he takes his life in 
his hands when hunting them. 
As a matter of fact, the panther, cougar or mountain 
lion (Felis concolor) is the only one of the three that is 
apt to become the attacking party, and this only when 
hard pressed. 
As they are nocturnal animals, it is a difficult matter to 
hunt any of these cats successfully, and the only way that 
it can be done is by the use of trained dogs. Fox- 
liounds are by far the best dogs for this kind of sport, 
and while they require special training and much time to 
fit them for the work, a well trained pack of six or eight 
dogs can chase and capture lion, hmx or wildcat with 
reasonable certaintJ^ It is commonly supposed that dogs 
have an instinctive fear of the cougar, but as far as my 
experience goes this is a mistake. As the wildcats 
travel and hunt mostly b}' night, lying in cover, gener- 
ally in rough and rocky country, where scent does not 
lie well during the day, much of the work done by the 
dogs is cold trailing of the most difficult character. Here 
in the West, owing to the dry climate, scent does not lie 
well unless the ground is either frozen or covered with 
snoAV, and for these reasons nearly all such hunting must 
be done during the fall and winter. 
The coiigar has a preference for rocky or broken bad 
land country, where his prey, either domestic animals 
or game, is to be found. Parts of Colorado, Wyoming 
and Utah fairly swarm with cougars and they are very 
destructive to horses, cattle and game. 
In hunting cougars with dogs, it is the practice to 
start in the morning, keeping the dogs coupled, and find 
the trail or other signs of a cougar before turning loose. 
This is rendered necessary by the fact that there are 
always more or less of other animals, such as wildcats, 
coyotes, badgers and wolves, in a country that cougars 
inhabit, and if the dogs should jump one of these be- 
fore a cougar track was found, good-by to cougar hunt- 
ing for that day. 
When it is intended to shoot the cougar when treed 
or at bay, no other dogs than foxhounds are needed, 
but when the dogs are left to kill the cougar unaided, 
tAvo or four foxhounds and three or four powerful fight- 
ing clogs are required, as foxhounds, while hard fighters 
when things are going their way, have neither the weight 
nor courage necessary to pull down and kill a full-grown 
cougar, except in large flocks. I have found that cross- 
bred dogs, such as collie and staghound or foxhound 
and mastiff, are very good for this purpose, though Ave 
have other cross-breeds that are excellent at this work. 
I have just got a Great Dane as an experiment, and shall 
likely try bloodhounds as cold trailers before long. 
The length of time that elapses betAveen putting the 
dogs on a cold trail and getting the cougar up is very 
uncertain. When his game is plentiful a cougar does not 
travel much, as he is fat and lazy, but sometimes from 
lack of food or other causes a cougar Avill travel tAveiity- 
five miles in a night, and then a long, Aveary day's work 
is ahead of the hunter. A cougar catches his game by 
stalking it as closely as he can, and then rushing, and 
after he has pulled it down aauH drag the carcass to some 
secluded place. Here, after making a meal, he covers the 
remainder of the meat with leaves. tAvigs and dirt, and 
will stay within a fcAV hundred yards of the spot as long 
as his food lasts. ' This habit makes him easy to get, 
as it is possible to turn the dogs on a trail a couple of 
days old, the chances being that they Avill jump the 
cougar Avithin a few miles. 
On the approach of dogs a cougar nearly always takes 
to a tree, though it will at times come to bay on the 
ground, and will at long intervals attempt to run before 
the hounds. 
As a cougar is very short-Avinded, he must, unless the 
ground is bad and the scent poor, succumb after a. short 
run. 
Well trained hounds will, on the cougar being treed or 
brought to bay, remain barking at him for hours, until 
the hunter, Avho may have been miles behind, comes up. 
Sometimes the engagement AAdiich follows is, while it 
lasts, a lively fight, and for the time required to get the 
cougar down there is an animated whirlwind of dogs, 
with a very nmch bewildered cougar in the vortex. 
The gray lynx {Lynx canadensis) furnishes finer sport 
in some respects than the cougar. Possessed of the 
cunning of the fox, and leaving very little scent, the soles 
of his feet being covered with fur, a lynx will escape 
from any but old experienced hounds. Inhabiting the 
higher ranges of mountains, the lynx stays in the spruce 
timber, Avhere snowshoe rabbits, his . favorite food, are 
plentiful. 
As it is almost impossible to hunt lynx successfully be- 
fore snow falls, very few sportsmen have ever killed one. 
Lynx are hunted in much the same way as cougars: 
that is, by finding a track before turning loose the dogs. 
As a lynx will often jump from one tree to another, and 
has a great habit of walking logs, it is sIoav Avork for the 
dogs to jump one, thus making it possible for the sports- 
men to keep right up Avith the dogs. Llalf tlie fun of 
hunting Avith hounds being in Avatching them puzzle 
out a tangle in the trail, lynx hunting, in this respect, 
is ahead of cougar hunting. 
On being jumped, a lynx makes quite a run, otten stay- 
ing ahead of the hounds for hours, and sometimes escap- 
in°- altogether, being enabled to do this by the poor 
scent it leaves. If unable to keep ahead of the dogs, 
a lynx always trees, as it does not seem to have the 
courage to face its pursuers on the ground. 
Lynx must almost ahvays be shot from the tree; it 
is nearly impossible to get one to jump out while the 
dogs are below. They make a very poor fight against 
dogs, and some powerful fighting dogs will kill a lynx 
almost instantly. A single dog to be able to kill a lynx 
must be able to stand punishment without flinching, as 
the lynx on closing with a dog Avill make all four sets 
of claws fast in the dog's head, at the same time making 
his teeth meet through an ear or cheek. A dog used 
to this style of fighting will disregard such slight hin- 
drances, and getting a good grip on the lynx's chest kill 
it dead at one crunch. The lynx being a slim bodied 
animal, a dog can always get a fatal hold at the first 
dash, if he understands his business. 
But for all-round fighting qualities the wildcat or bob- 
cat, as it is called in the West {Lynx rufus), is far and 
away ahead of either cougar or lynx. 
If the cougar had the courage and ferocity of the 
wildcat, hunting him would be more dangerous than any 
other sport that we have. The wildcat knows not fear, 
will fight to the last gasp and only his small size prevents 
him from killing dogs as fast as they come, or from being 
the hunter more often than the hunted. 
A full-grown wildcat will give a dog plenty of exercise 
in mastering him, and the dog ahvays comes out of the 
encounter more or less marked up. 
I have seen a wildcat back up under a rock and stand 
ofl; half a dozen foxhounds, and then, when one of the 
fighting dogs rushed in, the cat would fasten on with 
teeth and claws, never giving up his hold until his life 
was crushed out. 
As the wildcat is often found in a country where no 
other game but rabbits and birds live, it is possible in 
hunting them to turn the hounds loose to find their own 
trail. The scent of a wildcat under the most favorable 
conditions does not lie more than four or five hours, and 
is poor at the best. 
The best sport I ever had Avith cats was Avhen engaged, 
in company Avith Mr. A. G. Wallihan, in photographing 
them. 
Near the ranch Avas a tract of stunted cedars some ten 
or tAvelve miles in diameter, furrowed with shallow rocky 
gulches, and an ideal place for cats. As there was no 
other game to bother, we used to turn the hounds loose 
as ^oon as we started, and it would not be long before 
a short, impatient yelp from one of the older dogs 
would betoken that the last night's trail of a cat had been 
found. Gradually, as the other hounds gathered in, the 
eager snuffing and low barks would gather force, until 
the entire pack burst into full cry, and the cat was away. 
If the tracking was extra good a short run would bring 
the chase to an end. But if the trail was at all bad, or 
the ground rocky, the cat Avould run ahead of the dogs 
for hours, making all the turns and doubles possible. 
When hard pushed, it was even up whether the cat 
Avould take to a tree or come to bay on the ground, 
though sometimes one Avould take refuge in a rabbit 
or badger hole, or crevice in the rocks. When Ave got 
one up a tree Ave AA'Ould, if possible, photograph it, but 
if the position or light was unfaA^orable, would poke the 
cat out. The cat Avould nearly always jump clear of the 
dogs and get quite a start. On several occasions we had 
a long chase before we could tree the cat again. Once 
by setting the camera to command the ground where the 
cat was likely to run Ave got an instantaneous photo- 
graph of the cat in full run, Avith a couple of dogs in hot 
pursuit. 
Photographing wild game in rapid movement is, how- 
ever, disappointing Avork, as very often the photograph 
gives to the observer no impression of speed, but has an 
unreal appearance. Wm. Well.s. 
AVyowing. 
Open-Aif Show, 
The New England Kennel Club will hold the first 
open-air sho^w of the season of 1898 on Saturday, June 
4 at Brookdale Farm, the home of the NeAV England 
Kennel Club, at Braintree, Mass. It will be a one-day 
show, under the rules of the A. K. C, and recognized 
by that body, so that wins will count. The entries will 
be $2, with first money $4 and second money $2, in all 
open classes, and $3 and $2 in novice and limited classes. 
The premium list, which aahU be out about May i, will 
include all the popular breeds, and the following Avill be 
provided in most cases, Avith classes for dogs and bitches: 
Puppies, novice, junior, open; and in some terriers an 
American-bred class Avill be opened. 
Specials are coming in very well indeed, and specialty 
clubs are requested to send in their special premiums 
as soon as possible, so that the premium list may be 
very complete. 
The folloAving gentlemen have promised to judge for 
us- Mr. James Mortimer. Mr. Arthur Mulvey, Mr. 
George W. Lovell, Mr. Harry W. Lacy. Mr Ruther- 
ford has been requested to judge fox terriers. 
Last year's open-air shoAV, although only a local shoAV, 
Avas a great success, and this year, as the show will be 
under A. K. C. rules, the committee expects that every 
one interested in the improvement of the different breeds 
Avill co-operate with the N. E. K. C. in making this 
someAvhat unique departure a fixture by filling the classes 
thoroughly. . . -r. ■ 
There Avill be a special tram from Boston to Brain- 
tree on the morning of the show, on which exhibitors 
will find full accommodations for themselves at usual 
fare. Their dogs will be transported on the same train 
free" of charge. The train aahII remain on the club's 
siding adjacent to the grounds, and return in the after- 
noon in time for every one to get an evening train out 
of Boston The committee is composed of Morton E. 
Clapp, Chairman; J. L. Little, Jr., Treasurer; Roy B. 
Baker, Secretary. All communications should be sent 
to Roy B. Baker, secretary of open-air bench shoAV com- 
mittee, NeAV England Kennel Club, Braintree, Mass. 
Mettopolitan Kennel CItth. 
New York, April 29— Editor Forest and Stream: At 
a meeting of the MetropoHtan Kennel Club held on 
April 27 it was decided that the club hold its third 
annual dog show during Thanksgiving week next, in 
Brooklyn. 
