Aua 5, 1899.3 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
109 
CwHtucfc Game. 
Knotts Island^ Currituck Sound, N. C, July 55. — 
Editor Forest and Stream: The bay birds arrived as 
usual about Julj^ 10, but owing to the verj' dry weather 
they did not stop with us. There was no rain water on the 
flats, and consequently no food. But it is rainy now 
and the shooting is fine. Some excellent bags were made 
yesterday, and the birds are in splendid condition. 
I notice again this summer that a number of black 
ducks have raised their young at Currituck just as last 
season, and are beginning to fly around noAv. The crop 
of quail seems unusually large, and we should have good 
quail shooting this fall. Currituck is literally filled with 
wild celery this season, and canvasbacks should cost a 
dollar or two les§ at JDeUnotiico's next winter. 
More Amon. 
Long Island Gannmgf. 
QuEENSWATER, L. I., July 31. — Snipe are beginning to 
arrive from the North, and are quite plentiful. The law 
regarding the shooting of meadow hens was misunder- 
stood by many local gunners, who supposed they could be 
shot after ]\i\y i. A notice will be posted calling sports- 
men's attention to the fact that they cannot be killed itntil 
after Aug. ig. 
Do you want Guides? — Parties wanting guides for hunting moose 
!ind caribou in New Brunswick this season should correspond with 
A. Pringle, Stanley, N. B.—Adv. 
Proprietors of fishing and hunting resorts will find it profitable 
to advertise them in Forest and Stream. 
Toledo and Thereabouts.— IL 
Something About a Pioneer Sportsmen's Orgamzation. 
If the people of Toledo and thereabouts have been 
ardent and enthusiastic devotees of the rod and the gun, it 
is to their credit that, for the most part, they entertain a 
just regard for the rights of their fellow men in the deni- 
zens of the field and stream. From a very early date in 
the history of Toledo her hunters and fishermen realized 
the importance of legal measures for the preservation and 
protection of fish and game, and they have been a potent 
factor in the passage and enforcement of some of the best 
laws now on the statute books of the State. 
Very much of the educational influence on public senti- 
ment and the consequently healthful tone of the com- 
munity upon this subject is due to an association of 
Toledo gentlemen whose inception dates back more than 
thirty years ago. 
In October, 1867, half a dozen of the most active fol- 
lowers of outdoor recreation were drawn together by 
that sort of telepathic influence common among sports- 
men, to consider the organization of some kind of sports- 
men's association at Toledo. At that time there had been 
in this locality no attempts to secure through lease and 
ownership the control of the vast hunting territory by 
private or corporate interests. The great Monroe marshes, 
the extensive hunting grounds about Bay View on the 
west and Cedar Point on the east side of Maumee Bay 
were all as free as the air to anyone who chose to enter 
them, and posted land along the scattered farms of the 
northwestern Ohio was a thing unknown. In the later 
sixties, and indeed for several years thereafter, deer were 
not infrequently seen and occasionally taken six or eight 
miles west of the city. The only exception to the lack of 
organization was found in the Minous Point Club, of San- 
dusky Bay, a veteran association which originated in the 
earlv fifties, and which at this time was in vigorous 
existence. 
In view of the somewhat unsettled condition of domestic 
atfairs in the period immediately following the close of 
the War of the Rebellion, the game laws of Ohio were 
fairly good as they stood upon the statute books of the 
State. There was little difficulty in ascertaining their 
intent, but when, it came to their enforcement that was 
quite another thing. The population as a whole paid little 
or no attention to their provisions, and the machinery for 
their execution was lamentably defective, Judging it from 
the standpoint of those days, the public apathy was not 
difiicult to comprehend. With game and fish abundant on 
every hand, both in season and out of season, it was 
hard to make the average sportsman understand that they 
should need protection when the supply seemed apparently 
in excess of the constant demands made upon it. The 
story is not a new one, and it need not be amplified here. 
The informal conference among the six gentlemen al- 
ready named resulted in the calling of a preliminary meet- 
ing, which was held in the same month (October) at the 
office of Dr. C, H. Harroun, himself a faithful son of 
Nimrod. Some twelve or fifteen gentlemen responded, 
and the outcome was the appointment of a committee to 
draft a constitution and by-laws, which were duly adopted 
and an organization effected at an adjourned meeting held 
later. The influential spirits of the new movement were 
m_en who, with a Avise foresight into the future, were 
enabled to foresee the changes that were imrninent, and 
because they were in advance of public sentiment they 
were prepared to mold and direct it on the subject of 
game protection. Many, very many of them are gone, 
but their influence still lives in the game^ laws of the 
State and in the kindred organizations of which theirs was 
the worthy progenitor. 
The new society was styled the Maumee Valley Shoot- 
ing Association, a title broad enough to include not only 
the city but a wide reach of surrounding territory through- 
out this portion of the State. Its objects were to establish 
a headquarters where it might develop and foster the 
social spirit among sportsmen ; to improve the game laws 
. of the State and- aid in their enforcement; to make orni- 
thological collections of the permanent and migratory 
■feathered game at the head of Lake Erie; to gather a 
library of acknowledged authorities on sporting subjects 
with an incidental list of the current periodical publica- 
tions J to. secure paintings of fuf red and feathered game by 
artists of recognized standing and ability, and finally to 
promote in every honorable way tlie means and facilities 
for lawful sports afield. 
The first president of the As.sociaHon wax Robert Cam- 
mings, then the head of the wholesale boot and shoe house 
of R, & J. Cummings & Co. Subsequently the chair was 
filled for succeeding years by Messrs. D. C. Baldwin, E. C. 
Skinner. C. O. Brigham and others. The latter gentle- 
man (now the efficient superintendent of the Western 
Union system at Toledo) was twice chosen as the chief 
officer of the Association, an honor no doubt largely due 
to his earnest and active efforts in its behalf^ Messrs. 
Theodore Klemm and Z. C. Phcatt were its first secre- 
taries. 
The first location of the Association was in rooms at 
the corner of Madison and Summit streets, but at the end 
of the year it removed into more commodious quarters in 
the Drummond block. Among its first acts was to send 
out collectors to secure desirable specimens of the game 
birds of the valley. These, as fast as they were obtained, 
were mounted by Mr. James Booth, of Drummondsville. 
Ontario, one o£ the most skilled taxidermists of his day, 
and in a few years the Association had secured a collection 
second to none other in the State. An excellent library 
was built up through donation and purchase. During 
the early days of the Association Mr. W. H. Machen, the 
well-known landscape and dead-game painter, completed 
from studies on tlie ground a large oil painting of the 
marshes of the Maumee, which he presented to it, and 
which was held as a valued momento of the donor, 
The little handful grew apace, and the new chtb soon 
numbered a hundred members, representing the best of 
the social, business and professional elements of the city. 
The late Judge Emory D. Potter was one of its honorary 
members, and gave to it at all times the benefit of his 
ripe legal experience and his lifelong acquaintance with 
the fish and game of the State. One of the pleasant epi- 
sodes in the career of the Association was an address de- 
livered by him before it in the early seventies on "Game 
in the Maumee Valley in 1840," an address that was re- 
plete with valuable and interesting data regarding that 
now far-oft' time. 
The rolls of the Association are no longer accessible, 
and yet it is possible to recall many of the men whose 
efl^orts did so much in their day to further the cause of 
game protection in Ohio. The list of members, if it 
could be given in full, would include such names as those 
of M. D. Carriiigton, T. B. Casey, E. D. Potter, Jr., 
Robert, John and Joseph Cummings, Louis Wachenheimer. 
Z. C. Pheatt, W. H. Lewis, G. K. Pheatt, a gunmaker of 
more than local reputation; W. O. Hall, A. L. North, R. 
W. Matthews (now of St. Paul, Minn.), Frank Drake. 
Samuel Andrews, Theodore Klemm, L. Humphrey. Fred 
B. Shoemaker. William Schansenbach (now of Ogden, 
Utah), W. B. Wiltbank, D. C. Baldwin, C. O. Brigham, 
Dr. C. H. Harroun, John B. Carson and S. H. Standard. 
Other names will doubtless suggest themselves to the 
survivors who may read this history. 
In addition to its regular monthly business aiid -socia;! 
sessions, the Association early introduced frequent meet- 
ings for trap shooting, and some of its contests were occa- 
sions of much interest throughout 'the State. In the fall 
of 1868 a national tournament was held in Toledo under 
the auspices of the Association, and noted shots from all 
parts of the country competed for the prizes. At that 
tournament wild pigeons, then still plentiful throughout 
northwestern Ohio, were used at the traps as furnishing 
the most available and inexpensive targets. Alas, the 
day that was, but is not ! 
Upon its organization the Maumee Valley Shooting As- 
sociation at once took the ground that its first systematic 
efforts should be directed toward inducing the State and 
the county to appoint special officers to enforce the game 
laws, instead of leaving that important duty to the in- 
different ministrations of the magistrates and their con- 
stables. The main plank in its platform was "full and 
cordial co-operation with all State officers" in the enforce- 
ment of the game laws, and the result of its exertions was 
to put a virtual stop to the illegal killing of all varieties 
of game in northwestern Ohio. It was at all times an 
earnest advocate of the abolition of spring shooting, and 
of the establishment of closed days during the season for 
waterfowl, and whatever place these measures have had 
in the Ohio game laws has been largely owing to its in- 
fluence. It sought at an earl}' date to secure the passage 
of national legislation controlling the shipment and 
marketing of game, and to obtain the aid of Congress, so 
far as its jurisdiction extended, in bringing about a uni- 
form system of game laws throughout the entire country. 
In December, 1882, a disastrous fire visited Toledo, 
destroying in its rav.ages what then was the finest busi- 
ness block the city could boast. In one of the upper 
stories were the rooms of the Maumee Valley Associa- 
tion, and with many hundred tons of grosser chattels 
perished its ornithological collection, its paintings and its 
library, all possessions too valuable to be listed in dollars 
and cents, and which cannot now be replaced. Some of 
the records of the society were preserved hy Mr. C. O. 
Brigham (himself the repositary of much of its unwritten 
lore), but ten years later a second fire, which wiped out 
the Toledo Chamber of Commerce, made a final end of the 
records and the few rare books which Mr. Brigham had 
up to that time hoarded in his private desk in the latter 
building. 
The Maumee Valley Shooting Association no longer has 
an existence, save in the hearts of its former members, 
yet its name will always recall a host of pleasant memories 
to those who were imited in its brotherhood. 
The Rape of a Michigan Ttout Stream. 
The Slagle River (spelled "Schlagel" in cold weather) 
is one of the most fruitful trout streams in the southern 
peninsula of Michigan. It lies to the south and west of 
Ann Arbor Railway, its upper vvaters being easily reached 
by that line at Harrietta, some eighteen miles above Cadil- 
lac. Its waters meander through the counties of Wex- 
ford and Manistee and empty into the Manistee River, 
after having distributed over the territory nam_ed some 
twenty miles or more of as delightful and productive 
trouting water as may be found out of doors. For many 
years it has been the Mecca ot Toledo trout fishermen, as 
.well as those of other localiti'"=. and it is estimated that 
during the season the "average daily enrollment" of rods 
upon its waters is never less than twenty. Its average 
width is about loft,, and Its depth will range from 2ft. to 
four times as many. The Slagle 'Trout Club, with some 
forty members, has very comfoitablc quarters on the 
stream near flarietta, and manages during each season to 
net a good many days of solid enjoyment and an indefinite 
number of fi.sh. The lower portion of the stream near the 
Manistee was at one time cleared for logging purposes, 
aiul a dam built about three miles above its junction with 
that river. The logging has long since been concluded, 
but the clearing out of the stream has left below the 
abandoned dam lo'ng stretches of wide, deep water, not 
any too accessible to the most ardent angler, and here 
some of the finest trout on the stream are taken by 
those who have tiie coui'Jige and energy to work for them. 
The Slagle is a natural trout stream, and so far as the 
writer is aware has never been artificially stocked, but 
the thousands of fish which are annually taken from its 
waters are replaced each year by the natural process, and 
the supply never seems to suffer any diminution. ♦ 
The Slagle has alway,6 been an open stream, but this 
season Mr'. Daniel Segur, of Toledo, who has waded its 
ripples for a number of vcars, encountered an Idea on its 
lianks. And the Idea said to Mr. Segur, in a perfectly 
confidential way, that there was a vast amount of good 
fishing lying in the Slagle which did not belong to any^ 
body in particular, and that there was something more 
than a possibility that in the mutations incident to a new 
and "growing" country some one who cared more for 
hardwood timber than for trout might come in and work a 
desolation that all the Michigan Legislatures of the 
future would be powerless to cure. Mr.' Segur thanked 
the Idea and took it home with him to Toledo, and shortly 
afterward began a vigorous correspondence with some of 
the authorities of Manistee county. The result of his cor- 
respondence was that he succeeded in locating the owners 
of the land surrounding the Slagle, and he has just com- 
pleted the purchase of 1,500 acres of it, including some 
twelve miles of the river running through it. In com- 
passing this transaction he has been obliged to deal with 
fourteen different owners of as many different parcels of 
' land in all shapes and sizes, but it has put him in posses- 
sion of all that part of the. stream lying within Manistee 
county, and he has supplemented his purchase by con- 
tracting for fifteen irules of wire fencing with which to 
indicate the boundaries of his property. 
The Slagle is a spring-fed stream, running through a 
still heavily timbered country, for the most part over a 
sandy soil, and per consequence always cold and clear. 
The land has a fall of loft. to the mile, and in the natural 
windings of the stream it surpasses even the farnous 
"Meadow Brook" of the Castalia, since the Slagle in one 
mile of lineal measure has five miles of stream. It is pos- 
sible to locate a fishing lodge on the banks of the Slagle 
at a point where Mr. Segur would have his entire twelve 
miles of fishing water within such easy reach that not any 
part of it would be more than half an hour's walk from 
his quarters. 
It seems a little odd that some one has not long before 
this taken some such action as that which has just been 
narrated, and which has been rendered practicable by com- 
paratively recent surveys; and yet it is intimated that 
there were others who were "just agoin' " to acquire the 
rights and privileges that have heretofore been held as' 
public property. Mr. Segur, who, by the way, is a mem- 
ber of the Bostwick & Braun Company, wholesale hard- 
ware, has associated with him in the riparian rights of 
the property Dr. H. E. Harlan, also of Toledo, and they 
have doubtless plans for its future which will be developed 
later. It is not altogether a pleasant thing to see a fine 
piece of open trouting water pass under private control, 
but it is consoling to know that there are still a good 
many miles of free fishing on the Slagle, and that any 
private stocking of their portion of the river by the new 
owners cannot fail to benefit the whole stream. 
Jay Beebe. 
Toledo, O., July 22. 
Fishing Up and Down the Potomac. 
Overiiead Bait-Casting. 
"S-H0E,M7VKKR, sticlc to your last," was said to a son of 
St. Cri.spin, who, finding a .sculptor heeding his just 
criticism of tlie shoes on a piece of statuaiy, was pre- 
sumptuous enough to criticise the rest of the figure. So a 
fly-fisherman might lay himself open to unkind comment 
who attempted to find fault with some brother angler's 
method of luring the finny tribes from the deep. But it 
may at least be permitted one to admire a method not 
his own. 
Everyone to his taste and his tackle. Some there be 
who enjoy best the worm and float; some want many 
fish and are satisfied with small ; some want big ones and 
are content with few. Others again like large game and 
plenty of it, but only now and then can such an individual 
he found with means and leisure to gratify so expensive 
an appetite, and then, like Senator Quay, he disdains any- 
thing but the silver king, and goes on season after season 
adding to his record of tarpon till they are getting be- 
yond count. That he should take them with a hand line 
instead of with a rod and reel is purely a matter of 
taste, and no one will doubt his contests with the big 
fellows and his victories afford him a pleasure just a 
little keener than he gets out of any other occupation in 
life, and when it has accomplished this angling has done 
its perfect work. 
This recalls a thrilHng incident of one of his many 
trips to his bungalow on Indian River. His launch takes 
his boat down to one of the inlets where the tide makes 
with a swift current and through which the big fish of the 
ocean come to feed or play or rest. Near this great 
natural sluice gate he anchors his skiff and stays alone till 
after dark, if he does not tire sooner, and gets all there 
is to be had of the absorbing elements of the lonely ocean 
and the vaulted sky ; as far from the madding crowd_ as 
one may well get in this dense world. On the occasion 
in question he was fishing at this point, while his son and 
the launch tender were occupying, another skiff further in 
the bay. " ' . ' * 
He had taken a large tarpon of above loolbs., which was 
