^26 
FOREST AND oTREAM. 
[Oct. 21, i^g. 
shore seemed but a span, thinking of what would happen 
should those hawsers snap. They didn't. But in the 
storm of 1873 thirty-one American mackerel schooners 
were driven ashore and became total wrecks. The shore 
that had at first been their their protection became, when 
the wind suddenly changed, a fearful and fatal danger. 
The herring have been very plentiful, 1,500 barrels 
being sometimes taken at one catch. The Frances, full 
to the hatches, took advantage of a good breeze and sailed 
on Sunday. We had to lay to for three hours during the 
night in a short but violent wind, but in the morning 
we were beating into Aspy Bay. A thick ciirtain of fog 
enveloped the land, but it soon disappeared, and a beau- 
tiful scene was disclosed. The high and thickly wooded 
shore stretched away on either hand, terminating on the 
right in towering Cape North. The forest, dressed in 
the fresh green of spring, was lit up by a dazzling sun. A 
scrap of fog still lingered along shore, but presently it 
vanished and the picture took a new interest by the dis- 
covery of a large barque headed for shore, to which 
it was dangerously near. The lifting of the fog had 
apparently averted a wreck, for she immediately came 
about. She passed close to us, but we saw no one on 
deck except the man at the wheel and a dog. The 
dog, with his paws on the rail, barked loudly at us, but 
the man did not answer our hail. 
During the next week I became a staunch admirer of 
Cape Breton scenery. From Cape North to West Point, 
P. E. I., via Canso and thence to Boston, is quite a cruise 
but I have only space for a slight description of a lobster 
factory, A small sloop comes up the harbor and makes 
fast to the wharf. Her skipper climbs ashore and I 
learn that he has 3,000 lobsters on board. The manager 
buys them and they are piled on the wharf and kept wet 
and alive. It is a gigantic pile of clawing crustaceans. 
They are boiled by hundreds in immense caldrons, thence 
hoisted upstairs to the packing room, where they shed 
their shells for the last time. Forty or fifty people — men, 
women and young folks — were at work transferring the 
meat from the shells to the cans, about four lobsters 
filling one can. Everything was very cleanly. 
Ah, bixt the cook house ! Can I ever forget it or its 
kind matron? To appreciate this picture as we did, it is 
necessary to have lived as we did. To ease Louis' work 
Conrad and I had taken our meals in the forecastle. 
This on a sixty-six-ton schooner is not very commodious. 
It is low and rather dingy; besides, there is the peculiar 
compound odor found on ships, and especially fishermen. 
Conrad's supplies were liberal, and of the best, but, of 
course, there was not much variety. Moreover, the 
butter and sugar had given out, and we had been using 
molasses as a substitute for several days. But the cook 
house was large and airy and well lighted, and if we could 
see all the studs and planking, wasn't the floor as clean as 
a table and not a mote of dust visible? There was a table 
and about a dozen chairs, the big range and the cooking 
utensils. The stove .glistened and the pots and kettles 
bubbled and sang, and when the oven door was opened 
an odor came forth fit to make the gods hungry. 
The long table was hardly big enough to hold its 
delicious burden. Such fish I have never tasted else- 
where. The meats and biscuits and jam were superlative ; 
perchance it was their environment of corned beef and 
bread and molasses. We had to refuse an invitation to 
play baseball and stayed contentedly in our rocking 
chairs until it was time to return to the Frances — that is, 
bed time. 
One more picture: A dense fog, so thick that we cannot 
see the length of the schooner, with horns and conches 
blowing all round us on the smothered vessels. Not a 
breath of wind, but the ocean laboring in such a tremen- 
dous swell that all hands excepting Larry are seasick. 
Up, up, up, the Frances seems to climb to heaven, only 
to slump with sickening motion to the depths below, 
while spars are creaking and sails flapping in a weird 
uproar. In a certain sense seasickness is the only thing 
in which I can hold my own on board ship, and I smile to 
see Conrad and Bridle in a similar state. But the wind 
comes, the fog lifts, the hard granite coast of White- 
haven is plainly visible, and blessed sight, the welcome 
form of a cook house, that Conrad says is almost as good 
as the one I have just described. 
Hale Howard Richardson. 
The Horn Snake Cycle. 
New York, Oct. 13. — Editor Forest and Stream: In 
various parts of this country workers in the field com- 
monly believe and talk of a snake which stings with a 
sting in its tail. It is called in westei'ii Mas.sachusetts. 
the stinging adder, in the Catskills the horn snake, from 
the tip of its tail being coated with a horny covering. 
Truthful men tell of having seen and killed this snake, 
others equally truthful of having seen the snake sting 
through the leg of an oM-fashioned leg boot, or strike so 
hard with its sting as to stick fast in and hang from a 
scythe snath. 
Thus the evidence for the existence of such a snake is 
very considerable in amount, goes into particulars, is 
clean cut and conies from truth loving, intelligent people 
without an end to gain by lying, who are not romancers 
by nature and who are telling of what they honestly be- 
lieve. 
If such a snake does not exist, this furnishes a very cu- 
rious case of human delusion. 
Of course there is the imaginary "hoop snake," but I 
have never known any but -very tmintelligent people be- 
lieve in that, while intelligent people believe in the sting- 
ing adder. 
I should, however, like to be allowed to inquire through 
your columns if any of your readers has ever seen a snake 
that stings with a sting in its tail, or has ever known of 
anybody to be stung by one. Eliot Nortok. 
■V 
Homing Pigeon Registry. 
We have many notices of carrier pigeons gone astray 
or killed. Th owners of such birds may be reached by 
eommunicating with the homing pigeon registers, which 
are: C. E. Twombley. 32 Hawley street, Boston; or 
Chas. H. Jones, 10 South Broad street, Philadelphia, Pa. 
Autumn Breezes. 
Somewhere near the beginning of Caius Julius Caesar's 
"De Bello Gallico" occurs the statement, in indirect dis- 
course, that to those whom they wish especially to pun- 
ish for their cussedness the gods are accustomed to grant 
thirty days of grace, in order that, collection being forced, 
men may suffer the more from tlte put-off-ed-ness of the 
penalty. To the truth of the assertion I can testify as I 
write from a cot and am forced to admit that there is no 
fool like an old fool. None the less, my horse is more to 
blame than I, as my narratiA'e will prove. 
As a matter of fact, there are some men who have not 
sense enough to grow old. Every Forest and Stream 
bears evidence of the fact. I am one of the guilty. Why! 
Some of us, year after year, will welcome the first violet 
of spring and follow a rabbit's track in the light De- 
cember snow with the zest and pleasure that we had 
when 
"All the world was green 
And every bird a swan, lad, 
And every lass a queen." 
So when the crisp, bracing breezes of September dispelled 
the sultry heat I found the temptation to go to the lake 
irresistible. 
The mountains were just beginning to change the dull 
green summer for the red and gold of autumn. In the 
quiet waters the naked peaks, dotted with snow banks 
left over from last season, were invested in softer tints. 
Beyond the water's edge were farms, stubble fields and the 
hum of the threshing outfit. Hamlets, so far removed 
that r aught but their picturesqueness remained, set in 
verdure, encircled. Close at hand the tules were brown 
and amid them the leaping bass gave promise of rare 
sport. Now, the bass is a queer fish. In June, when the 
breeding season is on, he goes into deep water; but in 
autumn he seeks the shallows and the rushes, and I have 
found in his carnivorous paunch young blackbirds and 
half grown mud-hens. That he relished birds I did not 
know until quite recently, but observation has proven to 
be a very eccentric creature as regards his diet. Trout, 
too, are fastidious when meal time comes. Thej' will eat 
young mullet and chubs and minnows and their own frj^; 
but let a carp get half way down the gullet and it is dis- 
gorged instanter. In spite of arguments to the contrary, 
I confess that what a hungry trout refuses is not good 
enough for me. The thousands of acres of destroyed feed 
and befouled waters tell why the ducks miss us in their 
migratory flights, and the lake trout are all but exter- 
minated. Carp alone are responsible, and yet carp and 
thugs and rattlesnakes have their counsel for the de- 
fense. 
In the rushes it was impossible to cast a fly, but here 
and there, where an opening gave a few square feet of 
clear water, I could drop a minnow. Generally the little 
chap would enjoy his fancied libertj'^ for only a brief mo- 
ment. Then would come the tug and the reflexive strike, 
so different from the gentle twist of the wrist to which 
the trout fisher is accustomed. I lost many fish from 
striking too gently, but when a good sized bass was 
hooked fairly he combined all the work and pleasure that 
I wanted in bringing him out from the rushes to the 
side of the boat. Boys in neighboring boats, by the use 
of angleworms, caught large messes of small catfish. The 
flesh of our imported "bullhead" is very insipid. I Avould 
not take one home as a gift. Lengthening shadows, red- 
splashed mountains and the chill of evening called a halt, 
but not a retreat. It was the opening, and not the clos- 
ing, of my season. 
Visiting the river a few mornings later, I foutid that 
while it was altogether too late for trout fishing with flies, 
minnows were as seductive for the 2-pounders as they had 
been with the bass. Never have I so enjoyed the autumn 
angling. Yet it was only preliminary to the bringing out 
of the gun, for our duck and snipe season opened on 
Sept. 15. 
As an experiment the change of opening from Oct. i 
to the present date is a lamentable failure. The spring 
was very late, and young teal and mallards were scarcely 
able to fly. In many cases pot shots were taken at broods 
floating on still ponds and the survivors would rise, circle 
and drop back into the same spot. It is not exaggera- 
tion to say that hundreds of young ducks were clubbed to 
death on the opening day. On Salt Lake, but not on 
Utah Lake, I am happy to say, a great amount of shoot- 
ing was done on the 14th, and I have not heard of any 
arrests being made. The ducks killed were those that had 
bred and summered in this vicinity. There has been no 
severe weather to bring the south-bound flight. With the 
limicote the case was entirely different. Never have we 
enjoyed better sport with jacksnipe, plovers and curlews. 
Out one morning long before daylight and up into the 
heart of the mountains in quest of grouse! Ah! This is 
the sport that turns the dial back a score of years and 
makes one thrill with the exuberance of youth. As I 
rode through the cailon amid the rustling leaves, the wild 
hops and the purpling grapes, where the sounds were 
those of the woodchopper and the creaking drags, I let 
my horse walk and fell into a morning dream. 
Somewhere in the Connecticut Valley, where the shad- 
ows of Holyoke fall athwart its old walls and Mount Tom 
stands like a sentinel on the opposite shore of the beaitti- 
ful river, is a famous female seminary. It was old when 
Vassar and Smith and Wellesley were_ unthought of. 
Now, the young ladies in this far-famed institution were- 
all of them exceedingly pious and learned, well fitted to 
become schoolmarms and tninisters' wives, but under the 
stringency of the then existing regulations it became 
necessary for them to have relations of the masculine 
persuasion in order that they might enjoy the society that 
they craved. So it came to pass that a majority of the 
juniors and seniors at Williams and Amherst, and many 
of the theologians at more remote Andover (all being 
young men of proven integrity), had cousins at Miss 
Lyon's noted school. This made possible botanical trips 
in the spring, chestnut parties in the fall and sleigh rides — 
oh, such sleigh rides, when the snows of New England 
drifted above the old rail fences. That such sleigh rides 
were sometimes taken surr.eptiti©ttsly but added zest to 
the endeavor. .-. ■ 
It was with an Amherst man and our mutual cousins 
that I made a trip northward in those halcyon October 
days to Northampton and Amherst and North Amherst, 
with its white church, mill pond and comfortable farm 
houses, to Mount Toby, one of the three guardians of the 
middle valley. It was nature in her autumn loveliness 
rather than the companionship of the hour that made it 
a red letter day in a varied life. Chestnuts in gold vied 
with maples in scarlet to panoply the old mountain. As 
we climbed we saw beneath the valley and its hamlets, its 
stately rows of graceful elms in the sere and yellow leaf. 
As we rested our eyes peered in every copse for the rare 
Hurtford fern, the blue-fringed gentian and the carpeting 
of wintergreen. We listened to the whirr of dusky 
partridge, to the subdued echos from the farms be- 
low, to the faint song of coming winter in the half- 
bared boughs. But when we reached the summit and 
looked down upon the mighty ox-bow, on the brown and 
gold of mown and harvested fields, on the lazy smoke 
from ancient chimneys, and on a score of white, heaven- 
pointing spires, it seemed as though Olympus had been 
reached. Then kind Mother Nature touched my eyes and 
I loved her, and since then she and I have been very, very 
close friends. 
Of all this was I reminded as I went into the core of the 
Wasatch, and, reaching the summit, saw to the west the 
valley, rivaling in its beauty the Connecticut Valley of 
long ago, and to the east billow upon billow of pine-clad 
mountain chain. The shooting was unusually poor. Only 
one little ruffed grouse came to my bag. As we de- 
scended, however, we found plenty of squirrels gathering 
acorns in the oak brush. 
At 2 o'clock we came back to the mouth of the cafion 
and I proposed an hour's skirmish through the wheat 
stubble. For a half hour we rode, seeing nothing to 
blaze at, and I became quite careless. Suddenly, from bur 
very feet, came a whirr, and a bevy of sharp-tailed grouse 
sailed majestically around us. There was no time to dis- 
mount, so I dropped my reins on my colt's neck, leaned 
over and let drive. My horse whirled as the grouse 
dropped. I dropped also, and unfortunately I have been 
obliged to keep down every since. However, I hope to 
get out again by the time the ducks and geese drop in. 
Until then, vale. Shoshone. 
In the Alaskan Sheep Country. 
Having recently returned from an extended trip 
through southwestern Alaska, I am frequently questioned 
as to the hunting and fishing, and some of my experiences 
may interest others. I am convinced that this region in 
many respects is the best hunting and fishing ground on 
the American continent — that is, the southwestern coast, 
including the islands and the immense territory tributary 
to Cook's Inlet, all of which has a splendid climate, tem- 
pered by the warm Japanese current. The interior, or 
over the coast range, is colder and does not afford so 
good hunting, although there is a vast unexplored region 
between the lower Yukon on the north and Cook's Inlet 
on the south, which hunters who have been far up the 
Sushetna River say contains large herds of caribou. But 
for moose, mountain sheep and bear, the Cook's Inlet 
region is the place. Deer are more plentiful on the 
islands south of Sitka, keeping away from the mainland 
on account of the large wolves, which do not take to 
water and are not found on the islands. 
Water fowl of all kinds are seen between Sitka and 
Cook's Inlet, especially in Prince William's Sound and 
along the mouth of the Copper River, the latter of which 
has formed an immense delta many miles in extent, where 
thousands of wild geese, ducks, swan, snipe and plover 
come every season to hatch their young in the swamps 
and marshes back from the beach. Many specimens of 
ducks that are never seen in Eastern waters are among 
them. The parrot duck, more commonly known as the 
sea parrot, seems to be most plentiful, and is a very hand- 
some bird. I shot several before I discovered that for 
eating the common black crow was preferable. 
Birds of the grouse family are common and some of 
them are similar to the Easterik partridge. At Kodiak 
Island, back from the coast, I saw flocks of fifty or a 
hundred having so little fear a true sportsman could 
hardly have the heart to kill them. These are sometimes 
called "fool hens," but are really ptarmigan. 
Mountain troitt are very plentiful and are caught in the 
large streams near the coast and inland lakes, weighing as 
high as I2lbs.; but what are called brook trout are small 
and look somewhat like and are about as gamy as the 
common chub in Eastern brooks. This I attributed to 
the extreme icy coldness of the water. They might be 
rightly styled "fool trout," as after fishing faithfully for 
two hours in a stream at the head of Cook's Inlet where 
a beaver dam had checked the current, making a large, 
clear pool, and in which were countless numbers of these 
trout, trying all kinds of fly hooks and the most tempting 
morsels of moose meat (no angle worms in Alaska), in 
despair I fastened a piece of red flannel on the hook, 
which they grabbed voraciously. 
For sea fishing no other waters in the world ofifer such 
inducements either for sport or commercial purposes. I 
found great pleasure in trolling for sea bass around the 
small islands close to the shore. They weigh from i to 
Slbs. and look very much like our fresh water rock bass, 
and are very gamy. 
In trolling one never knows what he is going to catch, 
as it is not at all untisual to get a halibut, shark or large 
salmon. This in most cases means the loss of your spoon, 
and in one instance it came very near meaning the loss 
of the irrepressible small boy on our boat. He insisted 
that his fond parent should let him hold the fish line while 
we were anchored in Yakatut Bay. He succeeded in 
hooking a whopper of some kind and in entanghng his 
legs to such an extent that I think he would surely have 
been drawn overboard but for the fact that he possessed 
a good pair of lungs and knew how to use them, bringing 
reinforcements, and with the aid of a knife the line was 
severed, releasing the unknown and saving the boy. 
Other species of fish are found in abundance all along 
the Alaska coast, sfich as codfish, herring, mackerel, sal- 
mon, halibut artd^ shallfish of every description except 
oysters; but, as is well known, this is the great breeding 
ground and home of the salmon, the canning of which is 
at present the- largest industry in Alaska; Salmon com- 
mence to run about the middle of May, going up the 
streams to spawn about June 15. The first run is the red 
mon, halibut and shellfish of every description except 
mon, then the humpback; lastly the silver salmon. 
Some thiiik the red salmon is the best, \vhich is not so. 
