April is, 1899.] 
FOREST AND STI^EAM. 
29S 
than ours, may digest and assimilate foods which would 
poison us. 
Birds as Seed Distributors. 
The statement that birds ale fruit and berries and 
dtopped the Seeds undigested and unharmed was a fa- 
nii'iat onCi and I often Wondered how students of nature 
were sure of tHis fact, t foltnd it out in this way. In 
front of tny Loiig tsland lioiUe there Was an old lea'l 
pipe leading from a spring ttbove wbich had supplied the 
kitchen of a house that had been burned years before. 
I made a cement basin there of some to by 20ft., and in 
one end built a cemented rock-pile of the roughest stoU'^s 
at hand, with the old pipe as a cerUer. There was a 
basin in the top, some 6ft, above the level of the water, 
and from this small trickles dropped over the stones here 
and there in imitation of nature. In a few years the' 
stones mossed over, and somehow several water plants 
established themselves in the basin in such numbers 
that they had to be kept down. In keeping a rank 
growth of water plants down we found vegetation which 
was not aquatic. 
Just above the water line, and where no wind could 
have blown the heavy seeds of the raspberry, the wild 
black cherry and the choke cherry, these plants were 
found growing in the damp moss above the water line; 
not one or two, but dozens of them. 
The little basin on top, some 2ft. across- knd sloping to 
6in. deep, was my private property, but somehow the 
robins, wood thrushes, blackbirds and other neighbors 
came there, drank, bathed and never asked my permis- 
sion. Of course it was a case of trespass, but they were 
such lovable neighbors, so filled with song and genial 
companionship, that I never begrudged them a few 
mouthfuls of water nor a bath, and did not even put up 
a sign warning them of the penalties of trespass; yet 
every spring tllat dripping fountain had to be weeded, 
and the berries and cherries which had sprouted could 
not have blown there, and 1 had a belief that the robins 
were in some way responsible for the seeds being car- 
ried up there, and I believe it to-day. 
Nothing is more evident than the provision of nature 
for the life of every plant and animal; the plants especially 
need the agency of bird, beast, air and man to carry their 
seeds to fertile grounds and they get there. The rail- 
roads have scattered man}'^ weeds along their tracks; but 
this is a thing that demands a volume and is not to be 
compressed in a few pages of Forest and Stream. 
An Absurd New York Law. 
i read in "Game Laws in Brief," under the head of 
fish, the following: "No trout of arty kind, salmon- 
trout or land-locked salmon, shall be taken from any 
of the waters of this State for the purpose of stocking a 
private pond or stream." 
Now^ I am not a lawyer, but I'd wager a bottle of 
good spring water that this clause is not worth "an 
embankment across a stream." For instance: Mr. Jones 
is fishing in a legal manner and in the proper season 
and takes fifty trout which he may kill and eat, or leave 
to rot on the bank, as men have done. The fish are his 
after being legally reduced to possession, and the law 
says he may not keep them alive, transport them to his 
ponds to be kept for breeding purposes. He may kill 
the fish, but must not take them alive to his ponds! 
Would a judge or a jury bring that man in guilty of 
a crime? Not on your wife's Easter bonnet. If a test 
case comes up on this section the question of the con- 
stitutionality win bob up at the same time, and if Mr. 
Jones was convicted of an oftense it would be an ottt- 
rage on the right of a man to use his game as seemed 
best to him. If Jones has reduced a wild duck to pos- 
session by legal means and the bird is only wing-tipped, 
would any man, or court, deny him the right to either 
kill that bird for food or to try to domesticate it, as 
seemed best to him? And there the case rests. 
New England Angling* 
Boston. April to.- — The fishermen who went after trout 
last week in this part of the country have generally maiie 
but ver}^ poor catches. Cold weather and ice and snow 
water in the streams are not favorable conditions for 
trout fishing. A few small catches were made at Bourne, 
Falmouth and elsewhere on the Cape and Sonth Shore, 
so fas as reported. Along the North Shore almost noth- 
ing has been done, the brooks being still high and full 
of ice water. In the northern and western portions nf 
the State there is yet a good deal of snow on the hills 
and trout fishing is very late. A gentleman who is 
fixing over some buildings in Weston on a farm he 
has bought for a summer residence, says thai there is a 
pretty good trout brook on his land, which he pro- 
poses to restock and [irotecl. He drove down frcun the 
railway station the other day aiid happened to see a boy 
fishing his stream a short distance from the road. The 
carriage was stopped and the driver shotited to the boy 
to "Come out of that!" The boy dropped his impro- 
vised rod and line in some alarm. He was told to come 
up to the road, which he did. There he wa.s made to 
show his catch — two fairly good trout. He protested 
that he did not know that anybody objected to the stream 
being fished, and was willing to surrender his trout, but 
asked for the privilege of returning to the stream to 
get his line and jacknifc. This he was allowed to do, 
and when he came back, still shaking with fear, the 
gentleman returned him his trout, with the injunction 
not to fish the stream any more. This he promised to 
obey, and in his gratitude at getting off so easily prom- 
ised to "keep the other fellows away." 
In Maine the fishermen are still pickereling through 
the ice. with considerable catches reported. The ice is 
very thick on the lakes and ponds. A well-known guiJe 
was here Friday from the Rangeley region, and he sug- 
gests that the ice cannot possibly get out of the lakes 
earlier than May 20. This would not be the latest clear- 
ing on record, for in 1888 the ice did not get out till 
May 21. Again, in 1893, the ice staid in till May 20. 
Last year Mooselucmaguntic cleared May' 4, and Rich- 
ardson Lake the day before. Rangeley \vas not clear 
till two days after. The earliest clearing I have any 
record of was April 30, 1889, and the latest, as noted 
^iboye. , ^ 
In New Hampshire the brooks are either closed or 
overflown with snow water, the woods yet being full 
.snow; in son)c sections very deep. A gentleman, in 
from Nashua on Saturday, says that there are some 
pretty good trout brooks in that section, but nothing hns 
yet been done. Newfound Lake, noted for its lan'l- 
locked salmon fishing last year, is yet locked in very 
thick ice. It cleared of ice last year .'\pril 17, but must 
he much later this year. 
Salmon at Bangor, Me., are very late. Last reports 
say that the Penobscot is still full of ice, either solid or 
floating, and that the salmon nettcrs at Buck,sport and 
below have not yet been able to put in their nets. 
Special. 
Fishing Up and Down the Potomac. 
Analostan River. 
,\nalostan Island is a part of the District of Colutti- 
bia opposite Georgetown, and just below the Virginia 
end of the .\queduct Bridge. During the Civil War, 
and for long after, it was a pleasure ground; in latin- 
years was occupied by a local athletic club, and during 
la.st summer was the scene of sundry mysterious opern- 
tions that for awhile puzzled the neighbors, but whicli 
turned out to be official tests and experiments with mod- 
ern explosives, presumably in connection with the prepa- 
ration of mines and torpedoes for the Potomac. 
Analostan River, sometimes called Little River, and 
sometimes Lost River, is the narrow chute between the 
island and the Virginia shore. A causeway of rip-rap 
from the head of the island once joined it to the main- 
land, and near the lower end was a trestle bridge many 
years ago, the decaying piles of which still lift their 
black heads far above the surface at ordinary stages. 
The rip-rap has been broken away next the island, and 
the tide pours in and out over the stones, so that the 
river is really little more than a pool. At low^ water it 
rushes out with so strong a current and so shallow, that 
a skifif must be lifted over the causeway; but at high tide 
the rocks in the break are hidden and a boat drawing 
considerable water may pass through. 
Opposite the lower end of the island, on the Wash- 
ington shore, once stood the ancient city of Hamburg, 
a boom town in the early days; it looks pretentious 
enough on the first maps, but was lost in the shuffle whvui 
the seat of government was located all round it. 
Here, too, is "Braddock's Rock," so long- venerated 
as the "Key of all Keys," the wharf where Braddock 
was supposed to have made a sensational landing of h\h 
forces, before that day when he annexed our own George. 
Working the old stone wharf as a quarry to lay the 
foundation of Washington's present greatness, run over 
and dug out by the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal, which 
was located along the shore at this point; reclaiming the 
river flats and locating the channel so far out to the 
west as to leave Braddock's Rock far inland; using the 
nearby territory for a dumping ground, and an unsightly 
sewer arch tiiat passes now close hy, on its way to tiie 
river, has left nothing in sight but a big stone with an 
iron ring, that may have as well served to support n 
quarry derrick as the cable of a transport. And as if it 
were not enough that the poetry should have died atnid 
its loathsome surroundings, come now the modern his- 
torians and prove beyond any reasonable question tlt.'it 
it was impossible that Braddock should have ever landed 
here, either in person or by the proxy of his commissary; 
that it was out of the known line of his march from 
.Alexandria to Frederick. 
Thus one by one perish the traditions of youth. Maybe 
Braddock was a mj'th. Returning to the pool, for Lost 
River is little else, we find it quite deep just inside the 
causeway. It was 33ft, when the Coast Survey charted 
it in T862, but probably much less now, shelving up to 6 
or 7ft. near the old piles, and beyond these principally 
, marsh, with a narrow passage to the river at high water. 
The bass are caught for the most part about the piles, 
though sometimes they are found along the edges on 
either side for its entire length, and still more rarely a 
catch is made at the causeway at a certain stage of the 
tide which we have never found. 
Only a few chosen ones have been fortunate enough 
to secure great catches in this pool, and it is well it is 
so, for if the bass were always as responsive as they 
sometimes seem to be here, they would soon be extinct 
in this particular locality. 
We have made three or four efforts here and caught a 
few bass and crappie, but our visits seem always to be ill- 
timed. It has been at the sunset hour, the only holiday 
we cared to spare for so small a pool, and we have ever 
been too early or too late; the tide was wrong or tlie 
was not quite right. 
Reaching Georgetown after an early dinner, we have 
taken a gunning skiff at a local boat house, a low white 
cedar affair with two double paddles; ten minutes gets 
us across the river and into the pool, and the man in the 
bows lays down his paddle and whips till he catches a fish 
or despairs, and then we change places and, occupations. 
We have always found other unfortunates on hand who 
fared no better than we, and a single bass, taken with 
a spoon, is the only fish we ever saw our rivals pick up, 
and that did not weigh above i^lbs. 
We saw on one other occasion a spoon lose a three 
pounder after a few minutes of lively struggling. The only 
other fish we have ever seen here we rose ourselves, and 
their name is not legion. 
But for all our bad luck, large strings are caught here, 
both with fly and spoon, and twice to our knowledge by 
strangers, at least as much as we were, who either had 
the help of local boatmen who knew when, or were lucky 
enough to strike it right, or maybe (this admission is 
too humiliating), Avere more skillful. 
A season or two ago a friend had a strange adventure 
in this pool. He had gone with a companion for some 
reedbird shooting, which is sometimes very good when 
numerous gunners on the larger marshes have frightened 
the birds to take refuge in the little patches of wild oats 
that grow on the margins. They were out in gunning 
skiffs and noticed a large bird parrying something in his 
claws flying backward and forward -across the pool, 
and took it for granted that it was a hawk with a fish. 
Counting all fishers except with a hpok as pirates and 
thieves, he called to his companion, some distance away,, 
to "drop that bird." The bird fell at the shot not iar 
from the skiff, and putting out his punting pole :htf 
wounded bird clutched it and was proudly lifted into thd 
boat, where it perched on the bow seat for a few mi.>- 
mcnts. It proved to be a monkey-faced owl, and pres- 
ently began hopping down toward the captain with such 
a truculent bearing, such a general bloodthirsty threat 
in its eye, that the man wished himself at home, or any- 
where away from thi^ man-eater. A gunning skiff is not 
a good place for a fair stand-up fight with anything 
larger than a hornet, and the hunter began to grow ex- 
cited, "He's coming at me; come here, Charlie," andr 
he made a vicious kick at the still advancing bird, but it 
I'astened its talons in his left leg just above the knee. 
Thoroughly frightened now, and hurt as well, he struck 
at it with his fist, and the owl caught his right arm above 
the wrist and had him beautifully pinioned. 
He yelled lustily for help, for he could not move in 
the cranky skiff, and the claws, which were in the meat 
for fair, hurt like thunder, as he put it afterwards. 
When Charlie got there he found the owl ready to 
tackle another victim if he only had the tools, and so 
firm was his hold that it was necessary to cut off its hczd 
and both legs before his friend coidd be released, 
It is experiences such as we have had at this poo! that 
lead us at times to tem'^orarily agree with those be- 
nighted individuals who can see nothing in fish or fish- 
ing. Occasional failure has no terrors for the earne.st 
angler; but continued ill-luck would daunt the most 
enthusiastic. Those who have most bitterly opposed fish- 
ing as an amusement are those who have been unable to 
master the rixdimcnts of the science. The simply indif- 
ferent and contemptuous are those who have some other 
hobby which they ride as persistently, but which leads 
them to despise all other mounts. 
This recalls an oft-told story, sometimes credited to 
Evarts, whose keen wit was the father of many a good 
joke and the putative father of many more. It is said 
that once visiting the easy ward of an insane asylum, it 
had been suggested to him to humor^such of the patients 
as might exhibit a social front. Passing one seated on 
a table posing as a Jehu. Evarts remarked, "You are en- 
joying your hobby?" "This isn't a hobby, it's a horse, '' 
retorted the defective. "What is the difference?" said 
the great lawyer. "Why, you eternal i'diot," said the 
patient, "you can get down off a horse, but who ever saw 
anybody get off a hobby"? 
But as a rule, the hobbyist, no matter how different 
his pursuit, has a certain sympathy for the weakness of 
his fellow similarly afflicted, and his meanest speech i« 
usually that while angling isn't in his line, the pleasure 
so many good men get out of it is proof enough there 
must be something in it. 
But the angler that failed goes further than this, and 
sees no good in fish, no fun in fishing, nor sense in tli*; 
fisher. Such a one, Herbert, who wrote in 1834 in the 
American Monthly (p. 92) : "There is something un- 
happy in the physiognomy of a fish: in the downward 
curl of the mouth upon each side, that seems to betoken 
at least an infirmity of temper if not a settled misan- 
thropy. * * * Fish, to ray taste, is a poor, wishv- 
washy, unsatisfactory aliment; there is no getting fat on 
it. * * * No superiority of intellect is. required in 
their destruction. The veriest blockhead that ever put 
meat into his mouth shall catch you as many fish as a 
Scott or a Napoleon; ten chances to one indeed more, 
A bare-footed, smutt.v-faced dolt-headed boy, to whose 
thorough-going stupidity there is an inconceivable mys- 
tery in the A, B. C; one of those double-distilled nuni- 
sculls who seem to be gifted with a forty dunce-power of 
resistance to all efforts at education; upon whom argit-' 
ment and appeals, a priori and a posteriori, are equally 
thrown away; one of these with nothing more than a pal- 
try bent pin. a few wretched earth-worms and 3yds of 
brown thread, shall beguile from their native element 
scores of the best informed and sensible fishes that 
swim." And then he goes on to deny them sense, de- 
cency and feeling. 
Nothing could have prompted such a tirade save 
defeat. The poor abused fish, which he tried to beguile, 
refused to come and were at least smart enough to de- 
cline his advances. Here is. no doubt, the origin of that 
story of the man with fancy tackle having his eye wiped 
with a bent pin, which we have so long denied. This is 
the man, and he could not forgive the boy. the fish, or 
his sttccessful rivals. Hetstry Talbott. 
To Cook a Snapping Turtle. 
Dodge City, Kan., April 4. — Editor Forest and Stream: 
To dress and cook a snapping turtle, first cut his head off. 
.Scald him in a wash boiler of very hot water and scrape 
legs, tail and alt exposed skin with a blunt knife. Turn 
him on his back and ,saw the shells apart on the sides. 
Take off the under shell ; skin it off ; don't tear it off ; 
this exposes the intestines. Take out everything but the 
meat, taking care not to break or cut the gall. Cut out 
all the meat, leaving the ribs on the ineat. Soak the meat 
in strong salt and water at least three hours, twelve is 
better ; then rinse in fresh water thoroughly. Stew the 
meat in a dinner pot till tender. Take out the meat and 
fry it like beefsteak ; season to taste. You can thicken 
the soup and put in a leg or tail or two cut fine ; few per- 
sons care for the soup, however. Cut out the meat with a 
strong, sharp knife. If the turtle is big, don't use the 
skin. It's tough and strong. W. J. Dixon. 
Charleston Lake Bass and Salmon. 
Ch.\rleston Lake, Ontario, Canada, April 7. — Editor 
Forest and Stream: This spring promises to be a pretty 
late one. Last season the ice left the lake March 27, 
but the guides and those living near the lake think that 
it will be the last of April before the ice moves out this 
year. At present the ice is from 18 to 24in. thick and 
perfectly solid. Teams are crossing every day. As. soon 
as the lake is clear salmon fishing begins, and is usuall.v 
best from the ist to the 20th of May. The average catch 
to a boat per day is from ten to eighteen. • and in spring 
thev run large. Already several New York Brookljm, 
Philad'elphia, Boston, Trenton and Newark, N. J,, parties 
have engaged guides for the opening. 
W. H. Leavitt. 
