Forest and Stream. 
A Weekly Journal of the Rod and Gun. 
I'feRltis, $4 A "^EAR. 10 CtS; A Col'V. { 
Six Months, $2. ) 
NEW YORK, SATURDAY, MAY 2 8, 18 9 8, 
i VOL. L.-No. 22. 
' No. 846 Broadway, New York, 
The Forest and Stream is tlie recognized medium of entertain- 
ment, instruction and information between American sportsmen. 
The editors invite communications on the subjects to which its 
pages are devoted. Anonymous communications will not be re- 
garded. ' While it is intended to give wide latitude in discussion 
of curretlt topics, the editors are not responsible for the views of 
Col'resportdettts. -< 
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pdrtiGulats respecting subscriptions^ see prospectus dil page iv. 
Souj^rriES for jyet^. 
New York has jlist eutfered (ipon a system of pftying 
iiotinties for tfie destrticUbri of ilkg'Hl nets, whicb giveS 
promise of accoinplishing jiiore to abate tlie nliiSSnf'e 
of this form of piracy than any expedient hitherto adopt- 
ed. Nets unlawfully used have long been declared pub- 
lic nuisances, and as such have been subject to de- 
struction by officers of the law. The constitutionality 
of the statute which authorizes a game protector to des- 
troy such nets summarily has been affirmed by the 
Supreme Court of the United States. 
The new statute is the result of agitation by the 
OiiDndaga Anglers' Association, of Syracuse, It de- 
clares that fish nets of every kind (except minUow nets 
and Such as may be licensed by the Fish Commissiorl- 
ets) afe public nuisances, and ma,y be relnoved by any 
{3ersbn and takfcn before a justice of the peace, town 
Isiei-k; of teivti of vVaM supervisor. Who, ypon the affida- 
vits of two pel-sons that the net 6r nets afe illegal 
or not licensed as provided for ty law, and that tllfcy 
were taken from water inhabited by fish, or from ice 
over such water, shall order the net destroyed by the 
person seizing it, in his presence. "Upon payment to him 
of a fee of fifty cents for each net ordered destroyed, said 
justice of the peace, town clerk or supervisor shall de- 
liver to the person seizing and destroying a net or nets 
as herein provided, a Certificate to the county treasurer 
that the person named therein has seized and destroyed 
according to law a net of nets, as the fact may be, and 
that he is entitled to a bounty on the same as follows: 
For each scap net, drop net, dip net, minnow net, gill 
net and seine net under one hundi-ed feet in length, $3; 
for each fyke net with hoops less than four feet in dia- 
meter and for each seine net and gill net over a hundred 
and Under two hundred feet in length, $5; for each five^ 
foot trap net, for each fyke net with hoops over four feet in 
diameter, for each seine net and gill net over two hun- 
dred feet and under three hundred feet in length, $7.50; 
for each trap net over five feet and for each seine and 
gill net over three hundred feet in length, $10, and for 
each pound net, $15. Before granting a certificate for 
bounty as herein specified, an examination of the net or 
nets shall be made by the justice of the peace, town 
clerk or supervisor from whom a certificate is requested, 
and in case it is found that they are rotten or worthless 
for fishing purposes no certificate shall be granted, and 
his decision as' to the facts of such matter shall be final." 
The bounty is paid by the county treasurer, who in turn 
collects it from the State. 
The promoters of this system anticipate that the re- 
wards offered will h& .sufficient to encourage fishermen 
who are not netters, and the people who live near the 
net infested waters, to take the law into their own hands. 
Such a general authorization of the private citizen to 
deal personally with an illegal contrivance wherever he 
encounters it should stiffen the backbones of the long 
suffering anglers of Central New York, who have for 
years endured the plague of fish piracy. The new law 
makes every man his own fish protector. The working 
of the system will be watched with wide interest, for if 
it shall aid to solve the problem of net abolition in New 
York, it would be as efficient in other States, and we 
may look for its general adoption. 
The Monday following the date of this issue will be 
celebrated in many States as Decoration Day; and it 
will be in large measure an occasion of pleasure outings 
and sports. Some of the members of the Grand "Army of 
the Republic, noting with growing impatience and re- 
gret this conversion of the memorial occasion into a 
holiday given up so largely to pastime and merrj^- 
making, are discussing a plan of so changing the fixture 
of the anniversary that it shall always fall on a Sunday. 
This might indeed restore to the day something of its 
lost solemnity and the seriousness of its observances. 
But to attempt to stay the growing holiday character of 
the day, so long as it shall be other than a Sunday, is a 
hopeless resistance to that tendency of human nature 
which lias always and everywhere eventually converted 
such holy days into holidays. 
Since the foregoing paragraphs were put in type Con- 
gress has passed the bill; it became a law last week, and 
the first conviction for violation of the provision against 
netting has already been had. 
7V-/E BOARD BILL GUIDE.- 
Ti-iis gttide who works out his board bill is a distinct 
gpfecleS.- You encounter him in Maine, in the Adiron- 
4aGk§, in gvefy district much frequented by sportsmen, 
find wliere guiding is an industry. He is usually a 
spurloti!§, no-aGdoiailt woodsman, not for a moment to be 
classed With the Gofflpetenf, efficient, woods-Avise men 
Whose services and Companionship on the trail and in 
the eahip contribute so largely to the satisfaction and 
success of an odting. The board bill guide's only excuse 
for guiding is that he is in debt to the landlord of the 
hotel where the tenderfoot happens to VawA on his way 
to the wilderness. When the newcomer asks the land- 
lord for a guide, the landlord, having in mind the fact 
of the incompetent man's indebtedness, recommends him 
and gets him a job for the sake of securing payment of 
the back board bill. In this way numerous sportsmen 
arc every year imposed upon and their outings spoiled 
by this unconscionable fraud. The injury extends not 
only to the employer, but to other guides, competent 
men, who are thus deprived of employment. There is 
only one remedy for the imposition, and that is to hold 
a hotel-keeper to strict accountability for the character 
of the gttides he recommends. Every visitor to Maine 
who has an incompetent board bill guide saddled upon 
him by a hotel-keeper should make such a vigorous -pro- 
test, private and public, that the abuse may be thor- 
oughly exposed. Exposure means correction. 
A BIT OF LOGLC. 
There is now before Congress a measure designed to 
secure protection for the black bass and other game fish 
of the Potomac within the confines of the District of 
Columbia. The bill, which was introduced by Senator 
Proctor, has passed the Senate and gone to the House. 
Its terms forbid net fishing, restrict fishing to angling, 
set the minimum length at nine inches, and make a 
close season from April 15 to June i. Going further than 
this, the bill makes it unlawful to have fish in possession 
or to expose them for sale during the close season for 
fishing. In support of this clause the report of the Com- 
mittee on the District of Columbia says: 
"Washington City constitutes the natural and largest 
market for these fish, so that if taking the fish alone out 
of season from the waters of the District was prohibited 
the fishermen would merely drop their boats below the 
District line, a short distance from the city, and could 
supply the local demand from there. This would be 
practically at the expense of fish on their way from or 
to the waters of the District. Hence it was thought 
necessary to incorporate a clause forbidding exposing 
for sale or having in possession the enumerated species 
during close seasons." 
This is incontrovertible logic. 
The only way under heaven to make a close season 
effective is to stop the sale of fish in that season. With 
this anti-sale clause in operation the purpose of the 
Potomac bill may be attained; without such a prohibition 
the law will be just so much rubbish. 
By the abolition of netting and by an adequate re- 
striction of the drain upon the supply of black bass, it 
is the intention of Congress to provide in the Potomac 
within the District limits a permanent spawning ground, 
where the species "will have immimity from the many 
pot-hunters and fishermeir who are regardless of their 
preservation." 
If the waters within the District are to afford spawning 
grounds, the fish must be given an opportunity to reach 
those grounds; if they are to reach the grounds, they 
must be immune from netters outside of the limits, and 
one way to insure immunitj^ is to take from the netters 
any opportunity to market their catch. With Washing- 
ton City markets wide open the fish will not escape; 
with closed markets the problem will be comparatively 
simple. We trust that the House may concur in the 
action of the Senate, and that the bill may become a law. 
SNAP SHOTS. 
Our Utah contributor Shoshone notes that the black 
bass, which in that State is an introduced species, is grad- 
ually deteriorating in flavor. The phenomenon is not 
unusual. All fishes are susceptible to the influence of 
their surroundings in that respect. An instance is re- 
called of two adjacent bass waters in Wisconsin, one a 
natural lake fed by .springs of abundant flow; the other 
formed by a dam and fed from the first lake. In one 
the fish were bright, clear and well flavored, in the other 
dull and tasting of the mud in such degree as some- 
times to be inedible. 
By courtesy of Mr. Hammond Van Vechten we are 
permitted to print in our angling columns to-day a 
chapter from an unpublished manuscript by S. FI. Ham- 
mond, author of "Wild Northern Scenes" and other 
well-known books on Avoods life. This spirited sketch 
of fishing on the St. Lawrence, and the other chapters 
which are to follow it, will be read with all the more in- 
terest because they come from the pen of one who in 
his day did so much to establish the dignity of forest 
and stream recreations, and to popularize them with the 
men of his generation. Hammond was a con- 
temporary of Joel P. Headley, whose "AcUrondack, or 
Life in the Woods" appeared in 1849. "Hills, Lakes 
and Forest Streams," by Hammond, was published in 
1854, and described adventures in the Chateaugay 
woods. "Wild Northern Scenes" followed in 1859. It 
was the fruit of ten years of annual excursions into 
tlie wilderness, and had a wide influence in directing 
attention to the attractions and health-restoring and 
strength-giving influences of the region. The Adiron- 
dacks in 1859 were virgin wilderness in truth; Harri- 
mond makes record of having been within shot of 
twenty deer in an afternoon, and of having seen forty 
within view at the same time feeding on the margin 
of one of the beautiful lakes hid away in the ■ forest. 
"Here," he writes, "T heard the howl of the wolf, the 
scream of the panther and the hoarse bellow of the 
moose." 
Statistics are going the rounds to illustrate the dangers 
of shooting as practiced in Austria. It is alleged that in 
the year i8g6 "Bohemian sportsmen shot and killed about 
fifty men and women and wounded 2,014 persons. They 
also killed over 15,000 dogs, 2 horses, 15 cows, 132 calves, 
276 goats, and 129 sheep." Considering what store of 
comfort some of the writers of field sports find in these 
figures, and with what unction they recite them, it would 
be cruel to question the accuracy of the census and to 
show it to be fanciful. But they have no bearing on the 
actual conditions of field shooting in this country, for 
we do these things better over here. Americans know 
how to put projectiles where they shoidd be landed, 
whether moose hunting in Maine or sinking warships 
in Manila Bay. What a fine tribute to American skill 
that was the other day, when after the superb gunnery 
of the Olympia, the Boston and the Baltimore had de- 
stroyed the Reina Maria Cristina and the Isla de Cuba, 
Admiral Mdntejo sent word by the British Consul 
to Admiral Dewey that he wished to compliment the 
Americans upon their marksmanship. To wTiich amen- 
ity the American returned in kind, congratulating the 
Spaniard for "the gallant manner in which you fought." 
When a person is heard to say that the more he sees 
of men the more he likes dogs, if it be a young person 
who says this we may safely put it down as parrot talk 
which does not mean anything; if an older person, the 
probabihties are ten to one that his digestion is dis- 
ordered, or that he has been cooped up too long and 
should take a day off to go fishing. 
It is rarely that we have the privilege of presenting a 
paper of such historical interest as that contributed to 
the present number by the writer who prefers to be 
known by the pen-name of Jack Hildigo. 
