Forest and Stream. 
A Weekly Journal of the Rod and Gun. 
Copyright, 1.899, by Forest and Stream Publishing Co. 
'Terms, 
. A Year. 10 Cts. 
Six Months, $2. 
A Copy. ( 
\ 
NEW YORK, SATURDAY, JULY 22, 1899, 
f VOL. LIII.-No. 4. 
(No. 840 Bkoadway, New Vor 
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Carp is a fish of which I know not what to deteraiine. Fran- 
ciscus Bonsiietus accounts it a muddy fish. Hippolytus Salvianus, 
in his book "De Piscium Natura PtEeparatione," which was 
printed at Rome, in foUo 1544 (with most elegant pictures), es- 
teems carp no better than a slimy watery meat. Paulus Jovius, 
on the other side, disallowing tench, approves of it; so doth 
Dubravius. in his book on fish ponds. Frietagius extols it for 
an excellent wholesome meat, and puts it amongst the fishes of the 
best rank; and so do most of our countrey gentlemen, that store 
dieir ponds with no other fish. But this controversie is easily de- 
cided, in my judgement, by Bruerinus. The difference riseth from 
the site and nature of pools, sometimes muddy, sometimes sweet: 
they are in taste as the place is, from whence they be taken. In 
"like manner almost, we may conclude of other fresh-fish. — Burton's 
Anatomy of Melancholy (1621). 
SUMMER. 
When we are in the midst of the desolatiori of winter 
with the muffled whiteness spread far around us, the 
nakedness of trees on every side, far and near only gray 
and white, and above us the cold steel-blue of the sky, no 
songs of bird,s, no lap of waves on shores, no tinkle of 
running brooks, no cheerfuller sound anywhere than the 
mournful baying of hounds awakening the echoes among 
the silent hills, summer with all its gladness and bright- 
ness seemed as far away and unattainable as the red and 
golden glory that mocked us in the sunset cloud. 
Yet, like the swift, unaccountable shiftings of a dream, 
we have seen the transformation from white and gray 
through almost imperceptible changes to drearier dun, to 
the green flush of sunny slopes, to purpling of woods with 
swelling buds, then sprinkling of tender green, then to 
full leafage with tints as varied as autumn's hues, and 
the broad fields all green with lush herbage, dappled 
with bloom. And again we have heard the rush of free 
brooks and the wash of waves on pebbly shores, and the 
songs of all the birds and the droning of the vagrant 
bumble bee. 
The summer that but a little while ago seemed so far 
off is here. Sunbonnets and straw hats bobbing above 
the herdsgrass and daisies, with bobolinks in arrested 
iiight scolding musically over them, give token of ripe 
strawberries. Busy robins flock to the cherry trees to 
claim the first fruit. The incessant chirr of the mowing 
machine comes from a distant meadow, like the voice of 
some gigantic locust, arid, mingleel with it, the old mid- 
summer music of the whetted scythe. The first rasp- 
berries are ripening in the fence corners, the apple 
branches stooping to the weight of growing fruit, and the 
squirrels are making middens heaps under the pear trees. 
There are days and weeks of drought, when corn leaves 
droop and curl , and even the sturdy weeds wilt ; the 
cropped pastures grow sear and dusty under the hoofs of 
the hungry flocks and herds; the babbling rivulets are 
silent, di-y gullies , and the noisy rivers are shrunk to 
attenuated threads that crawl among the boulders of 
their beds with scarcely strength enough to stir their shal- 
low pools. Distant thunderstorms growl unfulfilled 
promises of rain. For a little while the red, rayless sun 
is veiled with clouds ; the shifting breeze brings the whole- 
some fragrance of moist earth, and the parched ground is 
tantalized with a patter of great raindrops, and then the 
red sun blazes forth again, fierce and relentless. 
But one night we awake to hear the steady patter of 
rain upon roof and leaves, the drip of eaves, until the 
thirsty earth drinks its fill, and the replenished brooks 
overflow and comb- the meadow grass down flat and 
straight upon their banks. 
The sportsman has his bout at the woodcock in the 
swamp— doubtful sport when one considers being 
smothered in the murky heat and the torrent of mos- 
quitoes. Yet it is good to feel the familiar weight of the 
gun again, and to find that eye and hand have not for- 
gotten their cunning. 
Along the shaded stream or rock-botmd shore of lake 
the angler invites the capricious bass with various lures. 
or trolls for pike and pickerel in vi^inding, rush-paled chan- 
nels where white squadrons of anchored waterlilies are 
tossed on his boat's wake. The plash of his oars frightens 
a wood duck and her half-grown brood to flight, tearing 
out of the sedges with a prodigious flutter and a clamor 
of tremulous squeaks that makes one's heart beat as quick 
as their vibrant wings, in anticipation of glorious autumnal 
sport. A startled bittern with an unmistakable expression 
of disgust at the intrusion springs awkwardly from the 
weeds, and a great heron breaks from statuesque repose 
and sags away on laboring pinions, until he is a wavering 
speck against the sky. 
Wandering in neighboring woods where dwarf cornel 
dapples the hemlock shade with its white blossoms and 
scarlet berries, the summer idler may get a shock of 
the nerves by the sudden outburst of a pack of grouse 
from a quiet bramble thicket, the half-grown birds almost 
as strong of wing as the old, and already shaking thunder 
from their swift pinions sounding another promise of 
autumn's glorious days. 
As swiftly as the spring went, the summer passes; the 
bobolink has donned his sober coat, and gone ; the plover 
chuckles his farewell to Northern uplands; the swallows 
congregate in grand council, considering migration; the 
last flame of suinmer is kindled in the cardinal-flower's 
bloom ; presently we shall see the first glow of autumn's 
many colored fires. 
SNAP SHOTS. 
Of the numerous classes of those who did not mean to 
do it, one which is coming into growing prominence is 
that of the defenders of gardens and orchards, who shoot to 
frighten and not to kill. When one of these persons kills 
the raiding small boy he pleads that the event was a pure 
accident. It is a lame excuse and not a justification. 
Firearms are deadly weapons, and their use carries a 
responsibility which may not be evaded by the accident 
plea. Once a bullet is discharged, even though the weapon 
be not aimed at the victim, one cannot control nor fore- 
see the flight of the projectile. In two cases currently 
reported it was shown that the bullet ricochetted; while 
this of course goes to prove something as to the intent 
of the shooter, it is not a full extenuation, for it is per- 
fectly well known that bullets do ricochet, and the shooter 
who aims in the vicinity of a victim has good reason 
to believe that he too may make a ricochet. The peo- 
ple who have recourse to firearms to frighten oft' small 
boys are usually those who have had little or no ex- 
perience in the use of firearms. For this very reason 
perhaps they fail to realize the perilous nature of their 
random shooting. Only a -proved William Tell should 
imagine himself a marksman qualified to shoot to scare 
and not to kill. There is a story going the rounds, of 
some sportsmen in Maine, who, to have revenge on a 
game warden, shot at him from across a stream, sent 
their bullets whistling abottt his head in order to frighten 
him into flight, and then shot close to him as he fled and 
as long as he was within range. If the story has any 
basis w^hatever it is not a tale of sportsmen, for those 
who are accustomed to the use of arms realize most 
sensibly the hazard of any such practice as that described, 
and would be the last ones in the world to commit stich 
criminal folly. As for the fruit garden shooters, there are 
other ways to protect property. 
Young America's characteristic mode of celebrating 
the Fourth of July has been attended this year with so 
many accidents resulting in lockjaw that the newspapers 
have referred to them as an epidemic. In almost all cases 
the disease has been caused by wounds received in the 
careless handling of firearms, so that the newspapers 
have spoken of toy pistols and blank cartridges and 
other forms of ammunition as the specific causes of the 
disease, much after the manner that the specific germ is 
referred to as being the cause of yellow fever or other 
germs diseases. 
There is in this something of careless definition or at 
the least of loose reasoning. In temperate climates and 
in nearly all cases tetanus, commonly called lockjaw, re- 
sults from a wound, and it matters not whether the wound 
be produced by a rusty nail, a sharp stick, a knife or a 
firearm. If the tetanus bacillus is by the wound admitted 
to the body tetanus supervenes; the wound, not the in- 
strument which made it, is the essential beginning. 
Scientists maintain that tetarius is a germ disease, and 
there are certain sections of country, together with 
conditions of temperature, which are more favorable 
to its development than others; for example, there are 
parts of Long Island which have an unenviable notoriety 
for the prevalence of tetanus from wounds caused in 
various ways. A humid temperature also is considered 
as a favorable condition, and this is one which has 
prevailed largely since the Fourth of July in those re- 
gions where the disease has been most commonly re- 
ported. If the boys, old and young, throughout the United 
States had celebrated the Fourth by eating watermelons 
as itniversally as they did by niaking a noise with toy 
pistols and blank cartridges, enough of them might have 
cut themselves with knives or punctured themselves with 
forks to have produced another so-Galled, epidemic of 
tetanus, quite as general as that which has been caused 
by firearms. For, it may be repeated, it is the wound 
which gives the starting point for the germ, and the 
disease under favorable conditions for its development 
follows. Any wound, particularly if an irritating foreign 
substance enters, may result in lockjaw, regardless of the 
implement which makes the wound. We are inclined to 
believe then that the suggestion which has been made 
that there is something peculiar in the composition of 
the shells used for blank cartridges is fallacious ; the num- 
ber of cases of lockjaw following the celebration of the 
Fourth may be fully accounted for by the ordinary wound- 
ing quite apart from any peculiar composition of the 
ammunition itself. 
The reports which come from Pine Ridge Agency in 
South Dakota of a threatened "uprising" of the Sioux 
are manifestly of the usual exaggerated summer Indian 
scare type; and in so far as another Indian war is pre- 
dicted, they will be received with the usual nonchalance. 
Under existing conditions we can never have any more 
Indian wars in this country, but it is well worth while 
to note that the trouble, such as it is this year, grows 
out of the conventional cause of all such affairs in recent 
years, a lawless hunting expedition. For several weeks, 
according to the press dispatches, - the Sioux have been 
killing game in Wyoming, and when they were con- 
fronted by the sheriff they resisted, defied the posse, and 
set out for the Bad Lands. There is but one way to 
prevent these annually recurring Indian troubles which 
are caused by hunting parties, and that is to restrain the 
Indians on their reservation. The responsibility here 
rests primarily with the agent, who should have refused 
the people under his charge permission to go on a hunt- 
ing expedition. 
In what manner, except by actual experience, shall one ar- 
rive at the truth about the ouananiche as a game fish, when 
out of a dozen anglers who repair to the Northern waters 
to make test of the fish, six return with reports which 
tax the English language to find adjectives fitly to describe 
its strength, agility and game qualities, and the other six 
refer to the much-lauded species as a little lower than 
the bullhead in the anglers' list? Your ouananiche en- 
thusiast on occasion appears to be possessed of a fine 
frenzy in his glowing description of the mighty tussle 
with his fish ; and then comes another fisherman, who was 
perhaps lured by the eloquence of the first one, to de- 
nounce the ouananiche as a fraud and fishing for it a 
tame delusion. Where lies the truth? or are there two 
separate and distinct fish? We commend the subject to 
the attention of the ichthyologists. 
A Washington correspondent has discovered at Atlantic 
City a mode of fishing which consists in letting down 
hooks from an ocean pier and jigging fish out of a pound 
in which they are confined; and being a good angler he 
expresses himself as naturally perturbed at the sight. 
The practice, he thinks, is one Avhich reflects upon the 
sport of angling and tends to degrade it. Possibly it does ; 
but a more reasonable view might be that the Atlantic 
City pier jigging has no remote connection with angling, 
and cannot be confounded with angling nor in any way 
held to discredit angling. Grown folks who indulge in 
catching fish in this way are either perverts in a class all 
by themselves, or else they are persons who, in every 
day life being reasonable and sane, become possessed of a 
spirit of idiocy when they visit a sea shore resort and in- 
dulge in antics which if perpetrated at home would set 
one down as non compos menu's. 
I 
