J 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
89 
The Arkansas Tax. 
Wtor Ihn-eil ahd Stream t 
lh yoiff issue' of Jtily 23 is ah afttele from J. M. R. 
bat breathes, forth it .ttite Spoftsih'ah's .spirit. The pres- 
nt non-resident tax in Arkansas is a 1 failure.- Meri -who 
ire mean enough to do real damage to th'c gairle iritef- 
sts of the State are none too good to manipulate tkeif 
chemes to evade the tax. Those who pay it sire those; 
yho would not injure the game interests of the State if 
here was no tax. J. M, R. has the right idea exactly. 
>top the shipment of game. Make it impractical for the 
.dlroads and market hunters to combine for the defraud- 
rig of game interests of the State, and then those who 
tint for the mere pleasure of the outing will never ser- 
iously afreet the Quantity of game, 
Arkansas. is beyond fill question the finest game State 
jh the Middle West: The swilrhps, eanebriikes and vast 
tretches of Woods will prote a state retreat for many 
ears to come, if the horde of gattie hogs that flow make 
heir living out of game butchery e.rtn be effectually 
becked. 
There are several clubs of sober, staid, solid citizens 
h Kentucky and Tennessee with whom I am personally 
icquainted, who have been wont to take an annual out- 
ng in Arkansas. They usually stay about two weeks. 
They keep only what game they need while in cam)). 
They buy all their provisions from Arkansas merchants, 
nd hire the wagons and teams of Arkansas citizens to 
iaul.thetn out to camp and back again, They leave two 
§■ three hundred dollars every fall With the Arkansas 
jeople, The gaine tliey kill would Hot tie ttotth the tenth 
A what they pay out, ihid tliey pity it cheerfully jtist for 
lie pleasure of the outing, ftow' that iioh-resident tax 
las put a stop tb all these men, a.iid leaves all the mote 
>ame for the market hunters, , who are not worth on'e 
Slit to the State! Is it good business management for 
.try State to thus work a total prohibition on rrttn who 
o cheerfully pay for all they get, while tliey leave a lOOp 1 - 
icle for those who abuse their privileges, trample under- 
oot the Jaw, and destroy all the game and fish they 
lossihly can? 
1 assure M. R. that he has the sympathy of the non- 
•esidents in his desife tb save tile gaihe, and at the same 
itiie tteat clean; white men fairly. PrO fifjfid; 
Seats in the Dismal Swamp. 
The Dismal Swamp perhaps holds more,. bears than 
my place of its size in America, and there is little tt'oubk 
ibout bagging them in the late summer and early fall. 
have not hunted them in fifteen years, and hardly 
enow what is considered the best way of doing so 
tow. In those days we used about a dozen fine dogs 
tnd two or three llotinds. Bob Flora, of Shawboro, 
to. C, on the Norfolk & Southern R. R., told me 
jbotit shooting a big bear with No. 8 shbt, killing it 
nfetahtly, Only a few days ago. 
I used to hunt neat MbyO.isk, north of Shawboro, on 
the same road, but my old friend Win. Cbx ; who had 
killed over 300 bears, is dead. 
Mr. M. C. Poyner, of Moyock, could no doubt tell 
y*GU the best bear hunter in that section now and the 
best time to hunt them. J. B. White. 
Bass Fishing in the Greenbrier, 
It is with a full heart that I Write of the bdSs of Green- 
brier River, for to that king of gahie fishes I owe a great 
deal of what has made life worth living. Unfortunately I 
am addicted to the fishing habit. I am one of the worst 
victims in this whole section. I do to point a moral and 
adorn a talc. I rely for the excitement and the stimulus 
that such an anglomaniac requires on the wild fight for 
freedom the bass makes when I have ensnared him. I 
can scarcely remember when I had not yet tasted of the 
fruit of knowledge. If it had been given me to extract a 
fish or two with a pole better fitted for a "hand spike," I 
would have led the life of an exemplary citizen, and in 
time probably been elevated to the position of justice of 
the peace, but as it is now I have sacrificed fortune and 
position to revel in the delights of those who endeavor 
to get a fish on an angle. I take it that it is owing to 
circumstance principally that makes the fisherman. No 
man who ever gave a fine fish half a chance could resist 
the temptation to experience the exquisite sensation 
again and again, until he is only saved from his worth- 
less ways by winter. 
But this is not intended for a rhapsody. To get down 
to facts, we return to the Greenbrier. This river is per- 
haps 170 miles long. Its whole course lies parallel to the 
Alleghany Mountains in West Virginia. Its waters are 
as clear as crystal. I live 100 miles from its mouth. The 
stream- here has an average width of about 100yds. _ Its 
fall -is uniform and about 8ft. to the miles. A man in a 
boat can easily see the bottom through 10ft. of water. 
About 1880 a fish commissioner came idling along and 
saw the stream. He put some bass in it, and when he 
dies We will erect a monument over his grave. The food 
-was plentiful, and in five years the river swarmed with the 
fish. They were of the small-mouth variety, as is best 
suited to clear streams with rocky bottom. The fish com- 
missioner had placed the bass in the stream near the 
mouth, where he could reach it from the railroad, and; 
went his way. : ' 
In a few years they had gone 100 miles up stream, far 
from the madding crowd and the farmers of Po.cahontas 
countv, a countv without a railroad, had a new problem 
to solve. The day of . going down to the .river on days 
when the water was muddy and hauling* out big catfish- 
was past. We all have our gifts, and some of the Poca- 
hontas people went to catching them as if to the manner 
born, while others went .down_.to their graves .trying; to 
ip.tch a bass.' " . - ' 
X well remember my experience in 1886,- when I. struck 
my first bass with a birch pole,, and found him all "hot 
sand and ginger." In those days, when I had mastered 
.the art, .the taking of a basketful was as.' certain as taking 
meat otit of the smoke house, and many a time, when 
things to eat weTe scarce, my mother has sent me to the 
river to catch bass, as many ft less gifted youth has been 
sent to the barn to gather eggs. 
That was in the first flush of the bass fishing- I have 
been told that it is the history of every stream where 
the' conditions arc favorable. The new fish increase with 
too gre.it rapidity, and a term of years is required to 
bring dow'ri tbe number to a normal quantity. Now the 
number is quite sufficient to make it interesting to those 
who cam take them. 
It is clearly recognized here that bags fishers are divid- 
ed in two classes 1 : They who can and ihey who can't. 
The ones that catch them" get great quantities, and those 
who can't none at all. , 
I very early realized that it was necessary to east a 
long line. In those days I had read of fly-tods and seen 
Knghshnien fish down the river with rods that cost' 
pounds, I went to the woods and searched for dayS tin- 
til T found a rod nature had grown for hie that had a 
spring to it, that T look back to now with pleasure, since 
1 have reveled in Hy-rods of my own. With it I could 
throw',*! line' 3gft. ilt least, and perhaps take a bass weigh-, 
ing 2lbs. Giving him the "Spring of the pole," I would 
wade to the shore and land him high and dry on. the 
shingle. . 
It was with boyish, fiendish, socialistic glee that I have 
caught bass after bass, when the *'ft>te summer boarder 
with rod and reel, and other highly in'/|»ort>tnt parapher- 
nalia, stood alongside and caught nothing. This carries 
out Washington Irving's picture of the bare-footed boy 
who with pin hook and worm caught more fish than a 
gang of well-equipped sportsmen, who no doubt were 
Well bottled up and cared not whether the fish bit or 
riot. 
i have seen these presumptuous mortals try their hand 
on bass. Tliey came from (lie pegged down fishing on 
the banks of A carp pond, and tried their hand on the 
sensitive natures of the bass, and fottnd they could wait 
forever and get no fish. It eould be truly said of them 
they "toiled" all day and caught nOfbittgv 
The fritted fisherman toils no more than any other 
artist who depends upon 'A skillful touch and delicate 
handling. * 
Our bass season opens June 15. Th'e*n minnows are 
the best bait. Patent minnows are used by a number 
with some stifceesg; One of the best old men in ot»r 
country took a parent minnow and sank it in a pool 20ft. 
deep, and let it lie on the bottom for three hours, and 
didn't get a bite! He had more respeft for. bass fishers 
after his failure. Crawfish, tadpoles, young fr'OgS, bacon, 
grasshonoers, lielgra'mites, are all used with great Sue-" 
cess, and later in" the season the fly-fisher gets in his 
work. Under favorable circunis'tanees from ten to thirty 
good sized bass should be caught in the Greenbrier in 
half a day's fishing. 
My experience with bass has taught me that they will 
choose their own time to bite, and it is a privilege that 
cannot be denied them. As' a fttfe, when mountains be- 
gin to cast their evening shadows ofi hot summer days, 
bitss pan be caught, but the most likely times often bring 
the fisherman no return. There is no way to tell when 
they are in the mood. T verily believe, however, that an 
hour after the slightest rise in the water will stop any 
fishing. 
My scheme is to be prepared to offer bass aM that tbe 
mafket affords, and by this means I have, after hours of 
fishing, changed defeat .into a comparative victory. But 
it takes forging to do it. 
This seems more of an autobiography than I could 
have wished, but I know about this subject by experi- 
ence. I believe that slbs. will weigh any bass eVef taken 
iii the Greenbrier. We hear of heavier fish, but their 
weight cannot be proven. I caught my largest bass at 
the mouth of Knapp's Creek, and it weighed .#£lbs. on 
the steelyards, but I have never caught another that 
weighed more than half so miiefc It was on a sultry 
morning when the sun was shining red through the 
clouds. I was fishing in the deepest water for miles, and 
using carefully selected crawfish. I had caught sixteen 
and during the time I had been trying to cast underneatk 
a limb which projected above the Avater from a sunken 
tree. The place looked likely enough, and I at length 
succeeded in placing the bait there. The bass Came to 
the top of the water, and when I saw it I was rattled. I 
had a light rod and a cheap reel. The bass was safely 
hooked and the reel fouled, and for about two weeks I 
stood in the water and let the bass have the "spring of 
the pole." It was a very glorious sight, and when the 
bass turned he seemed to light up the whole pool. Fin- 
ally the fish was tired out, and having it safely landed, I 
quit fishing. I had had enough. It has been the dream 
of my life to catch another such a bass on a light trout 
rod in this cold, clear mountain stream, but ten years 
have passed without it materializing. 
My next largest bass was caught in a manner that is 
now illegal: I drove it ashore and picked it up with my 
hands.' This river is a great stream to gig suckers and 
catfish. The pine torches throw a bright gleam upon the 
water, and every pebble on the bottom is revealed with 
a distinctness that outclasses the sunlight- The light 
on the water, with the impenetrable darkness beyond, 
forms a scene very weird and beautiful. The fish blinded 
lie still and are speared The bass go crazy. Occasion- 
ally one is gigged as it lies dazed, but they generally 
shoot away and hardly a night passes but what a bass or 
two scoots out on dry land and is picked up. . One night 
a party of two were giggmg up the river We entered a 
cove, and heard farther up a weighty splashing- As we 
advanced a big fish came charging down, fairly making, 
the water foam. Nearly opposite the light he. struck the 
neck of land on the river side, and no doubt thinking the 
rfver lay before him, charged the other bank and struck 
a clump of bulrushes. In a moment I was on him and 
dribbled him out upon the bank as I would a football. 
The fish was the catch of the night, and would have 
probably weighed 2V 2 \bs. 
If your gifts run toward catching bass you can hnd 
good sport in Greenbrier. River. They push their frontier 
lines further up the river each year, and have driven the 
trout back into the forks. The old-time fish have been 
sacrificed, but it was a grand exchange..-. - 
Marlinton w, y 3 . . Andrew Price. 
Wild Fishers I Have Fished With. 
BY FRED MATHER. 
(Continued from $age 71.) 
The list of birds with which I have fishsd, as recorded 
last week, was quite long, and the pelican and cormorant 
might have been added. When we think of all the birds, 
mammals, reptiles and insects that live wholly or in 
part, on fish, in addition to the piscivorous kinds of fish, 
we. see why it is necessary for some fishes to produce 
many thousand eggs in order to preserve their species 
from extermination. 
The Muskrat ? 
The question mark denotes that I am 111 doubt about 
this animal being the least bit of a fish eater. Its food : 
is largely vegetable in the warm months, but I do 
not know what it lives on during the winter. I have 
always suspected it of eating fish, because we know that, 
it eats the Unio, or fresh-water mussel, and has often, 
left mounds of their shells in evidence. How many hun- 
dred stomachs cf this animal I have opened in search , 
of fish is not recorded, but a great number were ex- 
amined without finding a fish bone. 
This sociable rodent is more like a beaver than, a ; 
rat. Every angler who fishes in ponds has observed 
it swim to the beds of flags or rushes, cut a bundle and 
swim off with a mouthful to help its kindred build a. 
house for winter, find later in the season has seen the 
house rising above the water like a haycock, but with no 
entrance above water. Those muskrats which I have 
killed were mostly burrowing about my trout ponds, and 
in summer, for in my fur trapping days in Wiscons-in, 
long years ago, we were on small streams where there 
were no ponds such as the musquash loves.' I have fished 
in his company hundreds of times, but ,GS|,pnot say that 
he eats fish @an any one prove that the mus-ksat eat-s 
fish in winter when vegetation is scant? 
Th« Mink. 
Once upon a time I was a boy and looked with joy to 
(he day when I could fish or shoot with the village Natty 
Bumpo, "Old Port v Tyler, if he would allow. We had 
been shooting rail down the Popskinny, and had rowed 
up near the bridge to get a shot or two at the evening 
flight of ducks. The boat was made fast, and we wer» 
taking a bite when I touched the old man's arm and 
pointed to a small animal on the opposite shore, about 
100ft. distant. 
"That's a fflink," said Porter, "an' about three months 
from now his-hide'll be a-dryin' back o' my house.' If I 
didn't trap for fur I'd kill that fellow now, for they're 
the meanest an' crudest animal on four legs. A mink 
'11 kill for the fun of it, an' keep on when he can't begin 
to use what he has killed, and I believe that a mink would 
kill everv living thing on earth, if it could, and starve to. 
d(*Hth to-morrow. An' I dunno but there's some men. 
that's just like minks; I «ee 'em a-shooti"n' away at 
chipmunks an' all the little song birds, as well as the 
hawks an' owls, and anything that liv&s. Now I never 
shoot at anything 'less I want it." 
The mink had goae, hut the word-s of th# old trapper 
remained, ^ears after, when a mink got' among my 
tame wood ductfs and killed fourteen, th« whole flock. 
Port Tyler's sketch of the character of the mink came' 
up as T sat down and cried like a child. Then my heart 
hardened when my terriers told m» that the fiend was 
among the loose stone* tleat were the foundation of an 
old house then used as a fi»h hatchery. Men coirld not' 
get under the building, and several times the dogs drove 
him out, but we dared not shoot on account of the dogs, 
and the villain dodged back. Next .morning I had him 
in a trap, and the many tortures that I had planned wer« 
given up. The terriers shook his life out, but he should 
have had thirteen more in order to pay for my beautiful 
pets. _ 
A mink loves muskrat meat, and the trappar prefers 
this for bait. Onee when Henry Neaville and I we<re 
fishing the sloos of the Mississippi, in Grant county, 
Wisconsin, we saw a mink capture a muskrat and roll 
into the water with it, but while musky has a formidable 
set of incisors, they are no match for the canines of 
the mink. . ,' c 'jf 
A steel trap is a cruel thing, and i have taken animals 
which brought a feeling of compassion, but never such , 
feeling for a mink. I have taken them when they had' 
frozen t^-death in the trap, and when their leg bones 
were crushed, but I have a more tender feeling for a 
rattlesnake than for a mink. 
When I had trout ponds at Honeoye Falls, N. Y., I 
saw a mink enter a pond, and by the time I could get a 
gun it was out and galloping off with a 2lb, trout. A 
charge o. duck shot and the skin of that mink changed' 
ownership. I got $3 for the skin, and had the trout for 
dinner. It is said that a mink , can roll itself into a 
ball and drift down under a fish and seize it; that it 
catches fish we know, but how it does it is another thing. 
These wild animals do thing* when men are not about,' 
and it is only by chance that a man has an opportunity 
to see them "take their food, and then it might happen 
under the nose of a man who took no interest in watch- 
ing or in recording it — the kind of man to whom a 
primrose by the river bank was just an ordinary every- 
day primrose. • 
The neck of a mink is as large as its head, and is all 
muscle. I have" known one to kill an adwlt tame 
goose, and if any reader ever got a walloping from the 
wings of a goose, wings which have broken a man's 
arm, they can form some idea of the strength of a mink. ' 
I have kept them in confinement, and a few years ag® 
sent one in a tin-lined box with a wire-cloth front to 
Washington, and the mink actuality chewed through that 
wire and escaped on the way. The late Prof. Goode 
wrote me: "f would not have believed this if I bad not 
seen the hole in the wire," 
Once, while, camping with a party of three, on tb^e 
Hudson, there, was a great commotion on the opposite 
shore of a little b*@qk, a flopping, squealing, squawking 
babel' of sounds, and th*n aff Was still. In the morning 
there was tire bqdy of a-night he*on, or quawk, with its 
thsoa't out, and the tracks of- a -mink. The. mink will eat 
but "little, flesh- if it can get "plenty of warm blood; that is 
