FOREST and' stream. 
4S7 
Some prbjecting bl-anchcs, now nioved into tlie open and 
gave H. a lovely shot, -tvliich he imrriediately availed 
himself of, and putting one of his little bullets nicely 
Into the tdskei-'S eat, dropped Iiini dead sis the provei-bial 
door-nail. 
. The female, however, was intensel}^ alarmed at the 
shot, and broke away from the mahont, nearly capsizing 
my friend as she rushed of?. She was, however, shortly 
captured, and tile party returned in great glee at the 
dpUbly shccessful termination of the stalk. H. was 
simply overwhelmed with thanks by the delighted con- 
tractors, who were naturally highly pleased at the re- 
covery of the erring lady, and rily friend returned to 
c.amp, consideraibly pleased, and not a little amused at 
the success of his dodge for stalking the amorous old 
tlisker. — The AsiaH. 
CHICAGO AND THE WEST. 
Cowboys in Chicago. 
Chicago, 111., May 21. — The Dakota Regiment of 
Cowboys, Col, Gfigsby comnianding, arrived in Chicago 
to-day en route for the front. They are a very work- 
iiianlike lot, and if they have half a Chance Will come 
nearer to tunning down and roping the Spanish f^cet 
.tkcln anybody has for the last thirty days. ^Setter ti'oOpS 
than these and theit* fellows, now in camp under Cols. 
\Vobd and Roosevelt at San Antonio, never threw a 
ifeg ovet- a saddle. There is going to be news, and not 
just rumors, if these folks get into Cuba. 
Natoralited Qu&iU 
The Rod and Giin Club of Spokane, Wash., last year 
ihipoi-ted a lot of Bob White quail from Kansas, and 
turned them down among ranches near that cit3^ The 
vety encotiraging report comes that the birds have win- 
tered finely, and haVe been breeding this spring, so that 
many broods of young quail have been seen in different 
piarts of the country. The sportsmen are congratulating 
thetnselves on their success. 
Confiscation. 
State Warden Lovcday told me this week that he had 
himself, personallj'-, and in the city of' Chicago alone. Con- 
fiscated just 18,972 head of illegal game during his fir,st 
year, which has just ended. This is good \vork. And it 
shows whete the game goes. E. Hough. 
I2D6 BoYCE BuitDiNG, Chicago. 
A Piayed Out Game Country. 
Ten Sleep, Wyo. — Editor Forest and Stream: No one 
who saw this section of country a few years ago could 
credit the rapidity with which the game has been cleaned 
out. W^here within a decade there were thousands of 
elk roaming over the Big Horn Mountains, now there 
are not 100 (about one to every ten square miles), and 
for every elk there al"e about two to three rifles, which are 
going from January to December. 
The immense flocks of sheep that ate herded the 
whole length of the mountains of course have aided in 
the destruction of game. Between 300,000 and 400,000 
are roaming every summer from one end of the range 
to the other. This drives the game to the foothills, and 
as soon as a deer or an elk shows up it is killed. One 
man here who acts as a guide makes a boast of having 
caught a band of elk in some deep snow and shot seven- 
teen as they passed him. It is hard to say how many 
he wounded. A band of seventeen now would be a rare 
sight. It is not tourists, although they get the blame, 
who slaughter; it is would-be hunters, who shoot at a 
band as long as they are in sight and come home and 
tell of the blood they found and all they wounded and 
probably do not get one. 
Not only is the game played out, but a saw mill on 
Ten Sleep Creek, once the finest trout stream in the 
country, will very soon wind up the fishing. As usual 
I have had numbers of letters from old friends, whom I 
have guided, and have written all of them that their vaca- 
tion will be wasted if they come in here. 
Had this game had the protection that Maine provides 
it would have been a source of wealth for years to come, 
and unless something is done, and done quickly, it will 
be simply a second edition of the buffalo. 
About 200 miles west from here and south of the - 
Park there are plenty of elk, but of course no one will 
outfit here for that country, as it takes all the time 
gomg and coming through a gumbo desert, with noth- 
ing of interest to see. A Guide 
Eagle and Deef. 
The illustration of the eagle and deer, which has an in- 
teresting resemblance to the Audubon painting, of which 
an engraving was given in the issue of May 7, is from 
Mr. Harting's recent work on Falconry. The berkute 
or bearcoote, the golden eagle, is trained and used by 
the natives of Tartary and the Kirghis Steppes for hunt- 
ing foxes, wolves, boars and deer. Mr. Harting quotes 
this description from Atkinson: "We had not gone far, 
when several large deer rushed past a jutting point of 
the reeds and bounded over the plain about 300yds. from 
us. In an instant the bearcoote was unhooded and his 
shackles_ removed, when he sprang from his perch and 
soared into the air. I watched him ascend as he 
wheeled round, and was under the impression that he 
had not seen the animals; but in this I was mistaken. 
He had now risen to a considerable height and seemed 
to poise himself for about a minute. After this he gave 
two or three flaps with his wings and swooped of¥ in a 
straight line toward his prey. I could not perceive that 
his wings moved, but he went at a fearful speed. I gave 
my horse his head and a touch of the whip; in a few 
minutes he carried me to the front and I was riding 
neck and neck with one of the keepers. When we were 
about 20oyds. off the bearcoote struck his prey. The 
deer gave a bound forward and fell. The bearcoote 
had struck one talon into his neck, the other into his 
back, and with his heal? was tearing into the animal's 
liver," 
m mid ^ivi^r ^mlfing. 
Fresh- Water Angling. 
No. VII.— Somie Odds and Ends. 
BY FRED MATHER, 
These articles have brought quite a number of letters 
on angling, several of them asking for details wiiich had 
not been entered into because there was no intention to 
write an exhaustive treatise on fresh-water angling. That 
is the province of a book, while these little sketches Were 
merely intended to touch on the main points of dis- 
tinguishing out more common fishes and then to indicate 
the tackle, baits, etc., (iSed in taking them. As in some 
cases several anglers have asked the same question it is 
easier to reply through Forest and Stream, and picking 
up these odds and ends there is also a chance to reply to 
some things that have appeared in 'these pages. 
The Name Dolataieu. 
In the issue of May 14 Dr. Elliott Coues hints that 
this name, the specific one of the small-mouth black 
bas.s, has sonie Inystefy attached to- it which he has 
solved and may telL 
1 know of the narrie orilf what 1 have read in the 
"Book of the Black Bass,'' p. 86, as follows: "Etymol- 
ogy: Dolomieu, proper name (in honor of M. Dolo- 
mieu)," and that it was given to the fish by Lacepede in 
1802. Only this and nothing more. Who the gentle- 
man was that is thus rendered famous is unknown to 
me. Did he catch a bass and present it to the learned 
man who gave the name to it? Or did he show him how 
to cook one? I ncA'ef gave the subject thought before, 
but now there is curiosity to know who the man was 
whose name will go thuuderlng down the centuries by 
being attached to a grand American fish. Will Dr. 
Coues or Dr. Henshall tell us about him? 
Fishing for Gars. 
And now comes an angler from Michigan who wants 
to know the best bait for gars, and says: "They are 
sometimes called gar-pike, and on one of our lakes I saw 
about fifty of them in shallow water, playing around, but 
they disappeared into deep Water when my boat ap- 
proached, i tried to get them to bite at a shiner, but did 
not succeed, and am desitous of giving them a tl'ial with 
hook and Jine.'* 
Success to you. Catch, and be sure to kill, every one- 
of these beasts that you can. They belong to a past 
age, and if they had perished when most of the other 
ganoids did there would be more fish. They eat nothing, 
iuit fish and are not fit to eat. Before man appeared and 
used his destructive methods, this fi.sh had a mission to 
keep down other species. Man attends to that now, most 
thoroughly, and the mission of the gar is ended. 
I took a large one on a spoon in PamunTcy River, Va., 
some years ago, but the long, slim nose of the gar is not 
made for spoon victuals for it takes its prey sideways 
and may thus bite the spoon and avoid the hook. The 
gar moves slowly to its prey and alongside it, with its 
nose beyond the unsuspecting minnow, until right for 
a smart side snap Avhich takes the minnow crosswise in 
its bill and then awaits a chance to eject and turn it in 
shape to swallow, and all this time j'ou must wait. 
Use a narrow hook, i. e. with short distance between 
point and shank, for the beast's throat is small. A 2-0 
Carlisle, or the same sized Pennell with turned- 
down eye, is about right, and fasten it to your line with 
a foot or more of steel wire out of respect to those saw- 
like teeth. Hook your minnow through the lips if you 
cast or troll it, and just under the dorsal fin if still-fishing. 
Use any kind of tackle at hand, but be sure to let the gar 
swallow the bait and begin to fight before you do a 
thing after it strikes. The hook docs not penetrate the 
jaw well, but once into the interior of the gar he is 
yours and you can learn something of its anatomy while 
dissecting the fish to recover the hook, but beware of a 
side blow from its jaw on your hand. When you kill 
a few tell us all about it. You may catch on to some new 
wrinkle. I never fished for them, but they have favored 
me with attention while looking for better fish. 
Gaffing. 
Two anglers wish to know about gaffing a large fish, 
as one says: "A great pike or lake trout." Any black- 
smith can make a gaff, but not one in a thousand can 
give the proper kink to the point which tnakes it dtaW 
into the flesh and make sure of the fish which you have 
fought to a standstill. This thing has been thought out 
with as much care as the form of a lisli-liook, and the 
men who make for the trade make the best. Don't 
think of making yonr own gaff unles yom understand the 
lines of draught, or are too poor to buy one. 
For boat fishing a 3ft. gaft' is lon^ enough, but for fish- 
ing from steep banks of from rocks it should be longer. 
If kept at the club, or near the fishing ground, it is 
better to be in one piece, and in this case the well- 
sharpened point should always be protected by a cork. 
There is a compact gaff made which has a telescopic 
handle with a steel protector for the point, and this is 
the best form for traveling with. Beside tltc risk of dull- 
ing the point there is danger from having such an im- 
plement lying around loose and lacerating anglers in- 
stead of fish. 
Suppose that you have a grand fish exhausted and 
lying on its side and your boatman makes a jab at it in 
an awkward way, just enough to alarm it, and with an 
energy begotten of fear it makes a supreme effort and 
breaks away. Words which you did not realize were in 
your vocabulary suddenl}^ assert themselves and there is 
a sudden lowering of the temperature between yourself 
and the boatman, and no matter what he may do with 
other fish you can neither forgive nor forget. A blunder 
at this time is worse than a crime. A man who handles 
a gaff has no right to be ignorant of its proper use, un- 
less he is also the angler; then there are no remarks 
to be made, unless to blame the dealer for such a weak 
line, or leader. The dealer, not being present, can be 
iaid out in great shape and so some satisfaction for one's 
own blunders may be attained. 
I once had a boatman who knew all about gafifing a 
fish and I had fought a great pike to the side of the boat 
when my man raised the gaff in air and struck at the fish. 
The pike was only sparring for wind, tired, "somewhat 
disfigured, but still in the ring," and when it saw the 
gleam of that gaff descending it rallied its reserve force 
and was no longer one of my angling assets. With my 
heart pumping thousands of gallons pei minute, and my 
bulging eyes gazing on the biggest pike that ever swam, 
I sat down. Like the old fellow with the load of ajples 
who found that the boys had lifted the tail board of his 
wagon as he went up hill, "language could not do jus- 
tice to the subject." 
A model gaffer for pike or lake trout was Jack Shep- 
pafd, formerly an Adirondack guide. Before the fish 
was alongside the boat the gaff was in the water, and 
when the fish was near enough the gaff was slowly 
slipped under it and with a quick, upward motion the 
fish was impaled either in the belly or in the gills. Shep- 
pard never lost a fish which I had brought alongside the 
boat. And this point should be remembered: the tired 
fish is still vigilant, its eye sees as well as ever and it 
is alert and observant of a condition of things which 
never happened to it before. Because it turns on its side 
IS no proof that its vitality is exhausted ;it is merely 
resting tired muscles, but its brain is active. With this 
in mind no thinking man would treat an exhausted fish 
as if it was a saw-log. 
A gaff mark in the belly of a handsome fisTi has a 
cruel look, and if it can be avoided it is well to do it, for 
the angler has a pride in the appearance of his gama. 
Years ago Jack Sheppard told me that he preferred to 
put the gaff in the gills instead of the belly, and last sum- 
mer I received a 251b. salmon, caught by Col. Charles 
H. Raymond on the Restigouch'e, but there was no mark 
of gaff. The jaw showed where the fly had been, but the 
fish was too big for capture in a landing net. A closer 
inspection showed that the Indian guide had slipped the 
gaff from below under the gill cover and had retrieved 
the fish without marring it. 
This tells the story of gaffing. It is a delicate bit of 
work that requires tact, for it is actually the coup de 
grace to a fish which the angler has brought to a con- 
dition of weariness where it can be delivered. 
The Relation of Rods and Lines. 
This is a question that has not been treated by any 
angling writer that I have read, and it is an important 
one. A wrong combination of the best rod and one of 
the best lines may result in disappointment to the be- 
ginner in fly-casting. Tackle dealers advertise all kinds 
of rods and all Icinds of lines, and will give you advice 
on the subject to the best of their ability, if you ask, but 
in their brief catalogues there is no hint of the proper 
equipment of line and rod. The absence of this from 
books is more remarkable, as almost every subject in 
connection with angling has been treated of in the 
numerous angling works. 
It is doubtful if the subject would have occurred to me 
to write about, but for such intelligent readers of Forest 
and Stream as write from Newark, N. Y.; Newark, N. 
J.; West Pownal, Vt. ; Dubuque, la.; Denver, Colo., and 
Bay City, Mich. I feel indebted to these gentlemen for 
opening a question which has been neglected, and which 
is vitally important to the fly-caster who has no time nor 
means to experiment in this line. As an angler pure 
and simple, a knowledge of the correct weight of line 
for a certain weight of rod might not have been obtained 
in years of ordinary fishing. What I know of it has been 
obtained as manager, referee, or judge, in the contests 
of experts in the best fly-casting contests ever held, and 
in training amateurs for those contests, all of which has 
been recorded in these pages for many years. The 
lines used by experts, with tricks of splicing to give 
weight in the middle in order to get out a long line, 
are familiar to me, but that is not angling, and, while 
there is no claim to infallibility, or in other words to 
make a hard and fast rule that the angler should use a 
certain weight of line for a certain weight rod, there is a 
limit of which he should be the judge, basing it not on 
absolute weight, but upon "backbone," or stiffness. For 
this no exact formula can be laid down. 
S. D. C. wants to know the proper line for a Soz., 9ft. 
trout rod — also best length of leader, reel and maker of 
flies, "the very best regardless of expense." To him I 
would say: For trout fishing get braided waterproof 
silk line, size G, 30yds.; a 9ft. A leader, and flies of 
"A" quality. In these articles I will not advertise any 
make of rod, reel, lines nor tackle. For dealers in these 
things see advertisers in Forest and Stream, they are 
all rehable men. 
J. E. A. asks: "What weight of line should I use on 
an loj^oz., loj^ft. bass rod, which has a stiff backbone?" 
He needs an E line, if not as heavy a line as D. I use a 
line of the latter size on a trout rod about the size and 
weight of his bass rod. B is the heavy waterproof silk 
line, and then they grade smaller to H. For the light- 
est trout rod I would use a G, but others prefer a lighter 
one, for every man has his notion. 
The worst combination is a light line on a stiff rod, 
better have the line a- trifle heavy than a bit too light. 
Some tournament casters have weighted their lines with 
white or red lead, beginning about 30ft. from the end. 
This is the principle: There is a certain weight of stone 
that your arm will cast furthest, if lighter or heavier it 
will fall short. You can throw a silver dollar further 
than you can a quarter, and so it is with a rod, it rnust 
have something of weight to cast, and as a rule the lines 
are too light for easy work with the rod. 
Once I was fronting with a friend and we each had 
Soz. rods of about the same action, and I could easily 
reach a rising trout at 60ft. while he used much effort to 
get there, but failed. We exchanged rods and the case 
was reversed. "Your rod has a finer action, and casts 
easily," he said. 
"The chances are that your line is too light," I re- 
phed. He had a G, and I an F line. He had the popular 
notion that a Hne must be of the lightest, and we argued 
the case while fishing. After getting into camp I pro- 
posed to change lines, and to his surprise he found the 
"finer action" had changed from my rod to his, and the 
result was that he bought a heavier line. 
No hard and fast rule can be laid down that a rod 
of a certain weight requires a line of a given size. It 
