FOREST AND STREAM, 
I * [Oct. 7, 1899 
The Minnesota Sale! Law. 
In the Minnesota law one clause provides that wild 
ducks may not be killed or possessed or sold between Jan. 
I and Sept. i, and another clause forbids possession or 
.sale between Jan. i and April 15. "The discrepancy," 
Mr.: Sain F. FuUerton writes, "happened this way: You 
remember that fight we had against spring shooting here 
in Minnesota. Well, the House at first defeated the 
measure, and as a substitute adopted the language you 
find in the latter part of Section 10. stopping the sale. 
The Senate did away with spring shooting, but left the 
clause in regard to sale, thinking it would do no harm; 
and when a conference of both houses took place the en- 
tire section was adopted, although it is not necessary to 
have that part of the section relating to sale or shipment 
between Jan. i and April 15, for it is unlawful to have 
in possession at that time, as at all times between n. 
I and Sept. i, 
"The commission men are only beginning to realize 
what our new law is. You know quail, ruffed grouse 
and pinnated grouse are all in the list of birds that can- 
not be sold or shipped. We cannot begin to estimate the 
good this law is going to do in saving these birds. 1 
believe that if the law is properly enforced Minnesota will 
always enjoy and have good shooting of these birds, for 
if we can stop the sale absolutely the problem of game 
protection is solved. 
'■'Chickens are plentiful, both in Minnesota and Da- 
kota. I had a pleasant shoot as the guest of State Game 
Warden Bowers,' of North Dakota, and never saw grouse 
and chickens so thick. We got all we wanted without 
any effort. For three days we averaged thirty each day, 
arid while there were fbur in the party only two did any 
s-hooting; but I am sorry North Dakota did not get its 
law changed so that the season would open the same as 
our in Minnesota — Sept. i. We found lots of coveys too 
small to shoot, showing that Sept. i is the right time for 
the shooting to commence instead of Aug. 20. 
"We like to see Forest and Stream keep up the 
good work. When you get every State to stop the sale 
of grouse, then we will have protection." 
North Carolina Quail. 
Mount Airy, N. C. — Editor Forest and Stream: ^ As I 
am constantly receiving letters of inquiry about birds in 
this section from gentlemeii addicted to the quail shooting 
habit, and knowing that your paper is read by all sports- 
,men, I thought I would write j'ou the facts as I know 
them. During the extreme cold weather of last February, 
owing to a high range of mountains which encircle four 
or five hundred square miles of our territory, we did not 
have over 2}A'm. of snow, and that entirely disappeared in 
three or four days. In every other part of this and ad- 
joining States the .snow ranged from 12 to 2oin. in 
depth, and covered ground for two to three weeks. Great 
quantities of small game froze and starved to death. It 
was not the case here, as a number of gentlemen from 
Bo.ston and other places who hunted here soon after the 
cold snap will attest. 
The seasons have been most favorable for hatching out, 
and their increase has been remarkable, and the conse- 
quence is, from the most reliable information I have been 
able to gather, that there are more quail here than has 
ever been known before. Farmers tell me that the 
partridges (as they are called here) were more de- 
structive to corn last spring than the crows. 
. I will be glad to give any information to parties who 
desire it, if they Avill take the trouble to write to me. 
Geo. R. Quincy. 
Hamilton, N. C. — ^There is more quail and turkey at 
this place this fall than for many seasons, and no better 
shooting section in the State than here — ^but very little 
posted lands, and all sportsmen welcomed. Good accom- 
modations can be had in the village. Old Leggings. 
Buffalo Hunting in 
,-j,4?rc»rr' the Village School Geography, published at Hartford, 
ISonn., by Reed & Barber, 1836. 
"The Indians who roam about over the Territories live 
Ijy fishing and hunting. =1= * * When they wish to kill 
buffaloes they generally mount their swiftest horses and 
take a 'bow and arrows. Then they chase the buffaloes 
until they come near enough to shoot them. The Indians 
sometimes practice another method, by which they kill a 
great many at a time. They make them rush over high, 
steep rocks. One of the swiftest young men puts on a 
buffalo skin which has ears and horns. Then he goes 
and stands between a large herd of buffaloes and the steep 
rocks. Other Indians go behind them and yell, to frighten 
the buffaloes. There is no way for them to run but toward 
the Indian who has on the skin, and whom they suppose 
to be a buffalo. He runs on and they follow. When he 
arrives at the top of the rock he slips into a little crevice 
which he prepared beforehand. But the buffaloes that are 
in front are crowded on by those behind, and down they 
tumble over the tops of the rocks on the rocks and stones 
below. After an occurrence like this, wolves and greedy 
birds flock about and feast on the poor buffaloes that the 
Indians leave." 
Memo. — The Territories enumerated at that date were 
Florida, Missouri, the Northwest Territory, which in- 
cliided Dakota, and Oregon. Buffaloes are mentioned as 
being very numerous in Arkansas in 1836, the date at 
which it viras admitted as a State. Charles Hallock. 
Vermont Game. 
vSheldon, Vt.— Small game is more plentiful in this 
section than for several years past. The broods of young 
rufifed grouse average from ten to fifteen each in the 
JiioLst covers. Migratory woodcock are thin in flesh, ow- 
ing to the extreme dry weather in their Northern breed- 
ing grounds. 
As nuts will be plenty this autumn, it means many 
gray squirrels. 
Several coveys of quail are reported, the result of the 
jilant made several years ago. 
Foxes are numerous, and deer are seen every day by 
^nnie of our farmers, and are quite tame. 
■ ' Stanstead. 
ANGLING NOTES. 
Small-Mouth Blaefc Bass Grow to jOlfcs. 
Therk is not the least doubt in my mind that when 
I he next century is as near its end as this one is 
there will be plenty of people who will declare that the 
small-mouth black bass does not and never did grow to 
weigh 61bs., and for proof they will assert that Forest 
AND Stream offered, more than a hundred years ago, a 
prize for a black bass of 61bs., and it was never produced. 
There will be a small and select few who will swear that 
no such fish exists or existed, because they never saw 
one. I say small and select because there is a chance 
that most of the people who do not believe what they 'have 
not seen will be killed off within the next hundred years. 
There will be also another lot of men at the end of the 
next century who will swear in the fashion of that day 
that the brook trout— "our common brook trout, the 
httle fellows that grow right here in our brooks" — never 
grow to 4lbs. in weight, because a man by the name of 
Barnum., who was in the show business, offered $roo for 
a brook trout of 4lbs. and could not get it in all the 
United States. Of course he did get it, and I saw it,' 
and he could have had any number of dead 41b. trout, 
but it was live ones he wanted; but that will not make 
any difference at the end of the next -century, for the 
same doubt will be expressed as is expressed now. How- 
ever, I have got away from black bass, and will get 
back to them. I have declared in Forest and Stream 
that I have had reason to regret that I ever told any one 
that I caught a black bass of the small-mouth species that 
weighed over 81bs., for it required too much proving; 
but I have come to expect that with a fair degree of 
regularity some one will ask if this species of black 
bass ever does grow to exceel 6 or /lbs. The last letter 
on this subject 1 found on my return home last evening, 
and it is from Mr. Silas H. Paine, of the Standard Oil 
Company, and is as follows: "A few weeks ago two of 
the guests at the Silver Bay House, Lake George, caught 
four black bass; they were not weighed until about three 
hours after being taken from the water. At that time the 
largest one weighed strong 7lbs., the second 61bs., the 
third S/^lbs., and the fourth 4>2lbs. Naturally I 
have been doing a little bragging about the 
weight of the fish, claiming the first mentioned 
to be the largest or nearly the largest small- 
mouth black bass ever caught. I haA-^e just struck a 
snag in the person of one of my associates in the office 
who does a good deal of fishing during the summer on 
the St. Lawrence, and always comes home with a good 
stock of stories, and who boldly denies that a small-mouth 
black bass ever was caught weighing 7lbs.. and says 
the Lake George catch was not of that variety, bpt are 
known as Oswego bass. Will you inform me if the 
black bass in Lake George are what are known as small- 
mouth bass, or are they Oswego bass, and if they are the 
small-mouth bass whether there are any of the other vari- 
ety in the lake at all?" 
The black bass of Lake George are all small-mouth 
bass, and the big-mouth, called Oswego bass, when it 
should not be, does not exist in the lake. Forest and 
Stre.am's "Big Fish Record" has the details of the cap- 
ture of a small-mouth black bass from a pond near Lake 
George, originally stocked with bass from Lake George, 
that weighed lolbs. Two days ago a young man caught 
in Glen Lake, near Lake George, a black bass weighing 
8341b3. There are no species of black bass except the 
small-mouth in any waters near Lake George. Theiolb. 
bass is mounted in^ New York city — somewhere in Liberty 
street, I think. Two other bass of the small-mouth 
species weighing over Bibs, each are also mounted in New 
York city. I weighed them all soon after they were 
caught, and know the weights and species to be what is 
claimed for them. The Smithsonian Institution (National 
Museum) in Washington has a small-mouth from Glen 
Lake that now weighs Bibs,, and did weigh Bj^lbs. when 
sent there. 
One word about bass or other fish being weighed at the 
time of capture or hours afterward, for like Mr. Paine 
the point is often made that fish are not weighed until 
some time after they are captured. If fish are kept 
moist tire shrinkage in weight is very inconsiderable 
between the time of capture and hours later. If the 
fish are allowed to dry and become hard f:he shrinkage 
will be greater, but it will not come within four miles 
of what I have heard claimed this very season on Lake 
George and elsewhere, when fish were shy in weight. 
lateroational Fisheries Review. 
Last winter Mi". W. Weschniakoff, president of the 
Russian Imperial Society of Fishculture and Fisheries, 
St, Petersburg, Russia, wrote me asking my co-opera- 
tion in estabhshing an international review of fishculture 
and fisheries as a permanent organ of International Fish- 
eries Congresses. The Review has been established, and 
I have just received the initial number. It is published 
by the Russian Imperial Society, and edited by Mr. N. 
A. Borodine, Fish Commissioner of the Ural District, 
and is printed in German, French and English. Its 
mission is to give new facts pertaining to fish and oyster 
culture; data pertaining to fisherics-yStatistics, inventions, 
laws and fishing news; work of fishing societies; reviews 
of scientific investigations relating to fisheries; new 
books on fishing and fishculture, etc., etc. It has an in- 
telligence department, giving titles and addresses of the 
Fishery Commissions of the world; a list of specialists 
in ichthyology, fishculture and fisheries, and a list of 
periodicals dealing with fisheries and fishculture through- 
out the world, in which Forest and Stream occupies 
a prominent place. A great deal of practical information 
is condensed within the thirty-eight pages of the first 
issue of the Review. In an article by Commissioner 
Borodine upon the artificial propagation of the Russian 
sturgeon he mentions that he first impregnated the eggs 
of sturgeoit and hatched the young in 1885, and it oc- 
curred to me that this antedated the work of Dr. Dean 
in hatching the sturgeon eggs in the Delaware River. 
1 am aware that Seth Green hatched sturgeon eggs in 
the Hudson River in 1875, but eggs and milt were se- 
cured by cutting open the fish and removing ovaries and 
milt sac, while Dr. Dean and Commissioner Borodine 
took eggs in the usual way that is employed by fish 
breeders in handling either species of fishes. In fact, 
Mr. Borodine says that "when the ova are ripe they flow 
from the fish quite easily," and this was true also of the 
fish handled by Dr. Dean. With Commissioner Boro- 
dine the sturgeon ova hatched in seven days with a water 
temperature of 19 to 20 degrees centigrade, and they 
were hatched in Seth Green shad boxes, no longer used 
in this coimtry, where they were invented. It was found 
to be very difficult to rear the young sturgeon in con- 
finement, as they were easily affected by changes of tem- 
perature in the water; but they are great feeders, ind as 
a natural consquence grow rapidly, attaining a length of 
S^^in. in two months' time after they are hatched. I 
quote one paragraph: "Several thousands of sturgeon 
fry were put in a large box in the river, but most of 
them escaped through the small holes of the metallic 
grate. It is demi-fluidal consistence of the body of the 
young sturgeon that enables it to get through the holes, 
which are four and five times less than the thickness of 
the body. I draw all fishculturists' attention to this fact." 
I smiled when I read what I have quoted, and I would 
like to add that if there is any fish born in water with a 
body of greater "demi-fluidal consistence" than the 
small-mouth black bass T have yet to find it out. So 
many years have elapsed since I found this out that it 
may be perfectly safe to tell it now. Some impregnated 
black bass eggs were gathered and placed in a box to see 
what they would come to, and as the water where the 
experiment was tried happened to be a trout brook, every 
precaution was taken to prevent the escape of the black 
bass when they hatched. The box had a wire bottom of 
very fine mesh, but over this cheesecloth was fastened. 
When the young bass hatched every one of the little beg- 
gars had a body of such demi-fluidal consistence that 
they went through wire mesh and cheesecloth to the 
last one. It is hoped that the trout for once got even 
with the black bass tribe, and finished them to the last 
one; any way I never have heard of any black bass m the 
brook, and now I believe there are some; but a brook 
is not a good place in which to experiment m hatchmg 
black bass eggs. 
The Fly-Fishers' Clab. 
In this caption I use the definite article advisedly, for 
there is but one Fly-Fishers' Club, holding no tournament 
and giving no prizes, and it is in London. Every year 
for fifteen years, when, as an honorary member, I have 
received the annual report of the club, contaming an 
account of the annual dinner, the speeches, etc., I have 
wished there were at least two and that one was in New 
York city There is no good reason that I can see way 
there should not be a Fly-Fishers' Club in New York and 
there is every reason why there should be, but I have 
said so half a dozen times already in Forest and Stream 
New York i^ not as big as London, but it is big enough 
to support a club of this sort, and surely with towm and 
country membership of a small part of the fly-fishers 
available for the purpose, such a club could be instituted 
and made to flourish so easily that every one would 
wonder that it had not been done before. The London 
club has grown from the start in 1B84, and has been 
moving into larger and larger quarters, until now the 
members talk of having a club house of their own. The 
list of members in last report shows about 350 names. 
The membership dues for town members are $15, and 
for country members ^7-50- The London club has a fine 
fly-fishcrs' library, which is being added to annually, so 
that the club possesses about all the literature on the 
subject that has been printed. There is also a fly-tying 
room, containing all the feathers and materials used m 
fly-tying, all properly classified and mounted. The re- 
port of a special committee for the collection of feathers 
and fly-tying materials would fill more than two columns 
of this paper. After showing diagrams of birds' wings- 
upper and under surface— with pointers to indicate por- 
tions, by names, useful to fly-dressers, typical hackles 
other than poultry are shown between glass sides; thus 
back, breast, crest, neck, rump, tail and every feather 
are displayed. Then shapes of cocks and hens, hackles 
and typical poultry hackles, dyed and undyed. Examples 
of special hackles, examples of wings. Body materials, 
floss, furs, gut, hair, india rubber, herbs, mohair, pig's 
wool, seal's fur, tinsel, wools, crewels, silks, etc., and 
finally the birds which furnksh the feathers for the fly- 
dresser. The Fly-Fishers' Club professes to be a social 
club alone, but it has grown by e^volution into an educa- 
tional club. I notice that one of the rules of the Lon- 
don club is that no member shall engage a room for 
more than a month in advance, and I'll warrant that in a 
similar club in New York a country member could not 
get a room unless he did engage it a month in advance. 
A few years ago I found there was a decided feeling 
among some of the fly-fishers in New York with \whom 
I talked in favor of a Fly-Fishers' Club in town, but no 
action was taken, and the matter was dropped. From 
time to time I have mentioned the matter to fly-fishers out- 
side of New York, and not one but favored the plan, and 
I believe . that to-day a club could be organized that 
would become permanent and a joy to fly-fishers all over 
the country as a common meeting place. All roads lead 
to New York in this country, as all roads lead to London 
in Great Britain, and as a Fly-Fishers' Club is bound to 
come, I hope it will be organized in New York before 
it is organized in some other town. If I mistake not 
Forest and Stream was in favor of such a club when on 
previous occasions I have brought up the subject, and 
probable Dewey would indorse it, and that would settle 
it. 
It is not for would-be country members to take the 
initiative in organizing a Fly-Fishers' Chib in New York, 
but I am satisfied that they would give substantial support 
to such a club if the fly-fishers in New York would afford 
them the opportunity. 
Silkworm Gat, 
When the late Dr. Garlick, the father of fishculture in 
America, produced gut from an American silkworm that 
was 9ft. long, the American eagle probably ruffled its 
feathers with pride and may have thought that he was 
it so far as gut was concerned, and 1 thought so too, but 
