The Maine Winter. 
Camp Bemis, Me., Maixh 5. — Editor Forest and Stream: 
I was much amused at the editorial headed "Witches in 
the Woods" in the issue of March 3. We are not all 
believers in witchcraft, not even in the witch of Endor, 
though we read in Holy Writ that she disturbed the 
departed spirit of the prophet. Those who did not have 
faith in the profession of clairvoyants certainly did not 
become converted during the past season when the young 
man referred to was lost and for whom a reward of $400 
is offered till June, 1900. either dead or alive. It is not 
strange that his body has not been found, for a man 
lying in the shelter of a windfall or under the low- 
hanging branches of an evergreen tree could not be seen 
unless the person finding him shotild by mere accident 
stumble over him. Everything was done that money 
and intelligent woodcraft could do, and the clairvoyants 
were followed only as their different localities were as 
favorable as any place after certain sections were thor- 
oughly hunted. A few of the many of them did describe 
certain localities well; in fact, as well as woodsmen who 
were acquainted with the topography of the country could 
haA'e done. 
While we hear from traveling men that the grass in 
the parks of New York and Boston is green, we have 
about 6 feet of snow in the woods here, and over 3 feet 
of solid ice on the lake. Teams are traveling hither and 
thither with enormous loads for the various lumbering 
concerns to the north and west toward the Canadian 
line. Those who were obliged to be out Thursday after- 
noon and evening of last week report one of the worst 
storms of their experience. About 2]A feet of .snow fell 
in twelve hours, the mo.st of it coming between 6 o'clock 
and 12 o'clock midnight. It was accompanied by a 
terrific wind, which piled it in huge drifts. The R. F. 
& R. L. train that night encountered a snow slide 
near Valley Dan\ which nearly sul)!nerged the snow plow 
and two engines, and did stall tlie passenger car. Luckily 
all people were inclined to sta}^ at home that night, and 
no passengers were on board. 
Among other guests who have been at Bemis this winter 
were Enoch Cohen and Dr. G. B. Elliott, of Lawrence, 
Mass., who returned lionie Saturday of last Aveek. after 
several days' recreation tramping on snowshocs. visiting 
the various logging camps, etc. Wm. W. Small. 
The Boston Show. 
Boston, March 12. — The Sportsmen's Show closed 
finally Saturday evening. It closed as it began, with a 
grand success up to the very last. The attendance was 
something phenomenal, the last days showing that people 
were crowding to see what they had been unable to get to 
till the very last. Excursions were run from many sections, 
and were generally successful, though terribly deep snows 
and winterish weather in northern New England were un- 
favorable. The management may well congratulate itself 
in having learned that a fine showing of game animals, 
birds and fish will draw crowds day after day; while 
everybody must appreciate the tremendous growth of in- 
terest in forest, lake and stream sports. The success of a 
sportsmen's show need never be a question, if the pro- 
moters will give enough of animal life, in natural haunts 
imitated as closely as possible beneath a roof and under 
glass. The love of outdoor sports and camp life is in- 
creasing wonderfully, and people will gladly visit that 
which portrays as much as possible of it. The problem 
that is most troubling fish and game commissioners and 
those who have the best interests of such sports nearest 
to heart, is. How shall the supply of fish and game be 
kept up to anything like satisfactory proportions? Sports- 
men's shows are rapidly making amateur sportsmen, and 
amateur sportsmen many of them become, full fledged. 
What power under the sun can keep up the supply of fish 
and game for all these new converts ? 
The animals at the Sportsmen's Show were doubtless 
glad when the lights were turned off Saturday night. 
The two weeks' of exhibition must have been trying to 
them, but Mr. Dimick and the rest of the management 
are congratulating themselves that there were no losses. 
Some of the animals have been sold, and will go to other 
game parks, public and private. But generally they go 
back to where they came from. None of the public 
park commissioners in this vicinity took the slightest in- 
terest in the proposition of the show promulgators to 
donate the animals brought here for the show to the said 
commissioners, as the nucleus for a zoo, provided the 
commission would provide suitable accommodations for 
the live creatures and guarantee that they be taken care 
of. All of the animals of the Merrimeeting Park exhibit 
go back. The animals of the Province of Quebec ex- 
hibit also mostly go back, though some have been sold. It 
is worthy of note that deer have been the favorite ani- 
mals to be purchased for private grounds or parks, this 
being especially true where the creatures have shown 
tameness and fondness for humanity. 
The fish will generally go back to the waters whence 
they came, and it is a most remarkable fact that scarcely 
a fish has been lost. No fungus has appeared on themi, 
though many were considerably bruised in transporta- 
tion. Commissioner Wentworth and Mr. Harding are 
justly pleased with their success in transporting the fish 
of the New Hampshire exhibit. Notwithstanding there 
were fish in the exhibit tip to 18 pounds in weight, they 
stood the transportation well. It was a rather tedious 
route they had to be brought over. Take the Sunapee 
landlocked salmon and saibling, for instance. They had to 
be transported four miles to Newbury station; thence by 
cars to Nashua ; thence by teams two miles to the 
hatchery of the U. S. Fish Commission; thence in the 
car of the U. S. Fish Commission to the Boston show. 
Still not a fish was lost. Some of the big fish were much 
exhausted when they reached Boston, of course, but once 
tinder Mr. Harding's care, with the means at his hand for 
.supplying fresh water, and the new system of air pumps 
for aerating the water, the big fellows soon revived, and 
seemed to thrive all through the show. The trout and 
salmon in the pool of the Maine exhibit went through the 
two weeks of show in good shape. 
The latest reports I have from the Maine game regions 
speak of 5 feet of snow, The last storm was followed 
FOREST AND STREAW. 
by a most remarkable crust, sufficiently strong, in many 
sections, to bear up teams. This is favorable for the 
moose and deer, for they can move about freely on top of 
the snow. If they are only let alone when the crust be- 
gins to thaw, the winter can go on record as a very favor- 
able one for them. As to the partridges, the chances 
that they have again suffered by being crusted under 
are all too many. Special. 
[March 17, 1900. 
ANGLING NOTES. 
Salmon and the Dry Fly, 
The "Potest and Stream" Plank. 
Marlinton, W. Va. — The present winter season is very 
favorable for game, with practically no snow up to this 
time. Hundreds of deer and turkeys were killed in this 
county (Pocahontas) during the open season of 1899, the 
Legislattu'e of 1898 having repealed the five-year recupera- 
tion law enacted by its predeces.sor, owing to unwise pres- 
sure brought to bear upon it by impatient lobbyists. I 
know that the repeal measure was framed by two sports- 
men, who had no connection with the Legislature, and 
placed in the hands of the farmer representative from this 
county. The good results of the two years' rest even 
(preventing the sale of game, at least) are to be seen on 
every hand. May we soon have an end of the sale of 
game at all seasons, and for this we ever pray. 
Norman Price. 
New Hampshire Game. 
HuT).soN, N. H^' — ^The hunting season is practically over, 
except for the northern hare and fox. The grouse hatched 
out well and were very plenty up to the middle of Septem- 
ber. They then practically disappeared and were not found 
ON THE FIRING LINE. 
in our covers again imtil after Dec. i, when good bags 
were made. Woodcock shooting was almost a total fail- 
ure in many parts of the State, on account of the drougli'. 
Fifty dozen quail have been purchased and will be liber - 
ated the coining spring. N. Wkntworth. 
On the Fifingf Line. 
Lakewood, N. J. — Editor Forest and Stream: Here 
is a picture that was taken from life on the Lakewood 
shooting grovmds. The bunch of quail is on the other 
side of the little bunch of brush which you see in the 
picture. The shooters are from New York, and the 
guide is Ralph Parker, from the Lakewood shooting 
grounds, and the dog also. Lakewood. 
Tricks and Wrinkles. 
A FRIEND of mine who hunts squirrels takes a boy 
along, and the boy takes thirty thumb-sized firecrackers. 
He never pounds trees nor cuts holes, nor makes smudges. 
The boy drops a lighted firecracker in the hole, and out 
jumps the squirrel. The same man carries his postage 
stamps between the outside case and the inner one in his 
watch. Pink Edge. 
Massachusetts Birds. 
Danvers, Mass., Feb. 26. — We have had a most favor- 
able winter for game, especially for the quail. Only one 
.snow was badly drifted, and that was soon off. All the 
boys are enthused over the prospect of the new proposed 
game law to stop the sale of grouse and woodcock. 
John W. Babbitt. 
Hotels for Sportsmen. 
Persons who are conducting hotels or camps in regions 
where there is good shooting or fishing should under- 
stand that the best way to make their places known to 
nersons interested in these sports is by advertising in the 
Forest and Stream. Sportsmen have come to depend 
on the hotels which are advertised in Forest and Stream. 
and registered in its Information Bureau, and the hotel 
keeoers who patronize these columns are unanimous in 
declaring that thev receive most satisfactory returns for 
the money invested. " ^ ' f -f^Vf^_ 
NAMELESS REMITTERS. 
I The Forest and Stream Publishing Co. is holding 
several sums of money which have been sent to it for 
subscriptions and books by correspondents who have 
failed to give name and address. If this note comes 
to the eye of any such nameless remitter we trust to 
bear from bim. 
I was talking about fish with Mr. Oliver W. Bird, of 
New York and Hempstead, particularly of salmon and 
salmon fishing, when he asked if I believed that they 
would take the dry fly — that is, a fly with cocked-up wings 
floating on the water. The question surprised me, for I 
have, on occasions, had trouble in swift water, with short 
lines, to make a salmon fly stay just beneath the surface 
of the water, w^here it belongs, and not to come to the 
top and drag on the surface, where it is difficult to "work" 
it, and I asked what put the idea into his head. He said 
that he and Mr. Frederick O. Beach were fishing the 
W. H. Vanderbilt water, on the Ristigouche, and on sev- 
eral occasions, when the water was particularly low and 
very clear, and the fish were not rising to the salmon fly, 
they had seen salmon come up quietly and suck in millers 
that were flo.ating on the surface — not only millers, but 
drakes (May flies) and other up-winged flies — the fish 
often taking the flies close to the canoe in which the 
fisherman was sitting. This had given rise to the thought 
that it might be possible to take salmon with a floating 
or dry fly when they would not take the wet salmon fly. 
I cannot now recall that I have ever seen a salmon take 
a miller or drake in the manner that Mr. Bird described; 
but when salmon are in a pool and will not rise because 
of low, clear water, it might be worth the experiment to 
try a floating fly, for tackle could be' arranged for the 
experiment. The largest salmon I ever, s'aw in the water 
came up to my salmon fly in exactly the same manner 
that a trout comes up to suck in a fly floating on the sur- 
face, lifting himself apparently without effort to the sur- 
face, with scarcely a fin moving,- and without disturbing 
the water with boil or break, and, after a look at the fly, 
slowly, and still without movements of fins that were no- 
ticeable, settling down toward the bottom of the river 
again, with curiosity satisfied and fly untouched. It is 
heart-breaking to see the broad shoulders of a huge sal- 
mon part the surface of the water on such a quest as I 
have described, and if Mr. Bird's suggestion of a dry fly 
on such an occasion will connect the fish with the reel 
line, 1 shall go armed with dry flies to hold a salmon. It 
would be interesting to know what Mr. George Kelson, 
Air. Frederic M. Halford or Mr. George A. B. Dewar 
may think of dry fly-fishing for salmon, or, in fact, what 
any of the English or Scotch salmon fishermen might 
offer upon this subject. As salmon have been seen to take 
in a floating miller or drake, there is apparently no rea- 
son why they should not take a good imitation fastened 
to a casting line; and if they will do this, the number of 
blank days may be reduced when one goes to kill salmon 
and the water gets low and clear. Vast may be the possi- 
bilities of fishing for salmon with the dry fly, and Mr. 
Bird may rival Mr. Halford as the apostle of a new de- 
parture in fishing with the artificial fly — one for the lordly 
salmon, the other for the patrician trout. No valuable 
time would be lost to him who would try the experiment, 
for a wet salmon fly is not killing at a time when the 
water is in its best condition for a te^t of the dry fly, and 
the suggestion is not protected by letters patent. 
To a ComspoDdeot. 
A gentleman writes me as follows: "I am about to 
purchase a couple of thousand yearling trout to put in 
my brook, and there are one or two points I want to trou- 
ble you about again. 
"I have dammed the brook and am preparing to screen 
the dam, and am in hopes that the big freshets that some- 
times come down can be persuaded to leave my screen 
intact. Now, I own about 1,000 feet of this brook, and, 
while I can screen the lake at one end without any trou- 
ble, I cannot screen it at the upper boundary with any 
eft'ectiveness mitil the water gets lower, in May. My 
question is, do you think any large proportion of tlie 
yearlings would go up the brook within the first month 
after they were put in, or would they be apt to stay in the 
deeper water of the lake and near it? I planted some 
10,000 of the fresh water shrimp, just as you suggested, 
and I believe conditions are favorable enough to keep a 
good supply of them on hand." 
It ma}^ be unwise to attempt to predict just what a lot 
of young trout, fresh from a rearing pond at a hatchery, 
would do when liberated in a wild pond; but the chances 
are largely in favor of their running up the stream. The 
lake is not so large but what the fish would soon come, 
in their wanderings about their new home, within the 
influences of the current produced by the stream at the 
inlet and follow it up the brook to play on the sand and 
gravel, as trout love to do in the spring of the year. 
Whether the trout would remain in the brook until low 
water or higher temperature of the water caused them to 
return to the lake is another question, but I am of the opin- 
ion that the larger part of the number planted would run 
up the stream, just the same as if they were bred in the 
lake. A trout seems to take positive delight in having a 
roll in the sand or gravel of a stream in the spring, run- 
ning up from a pond or lake, or even from the deep holes 
in the stream itself into the rapids, and there they dis- 
port themselves until the winter's accumulation of slime 
is removed by twisting and turning in the sand-a,t the 
bottom of the rapid. 
When fishing in the spring with Mr. Edward R. Hew- 
itt, I have noticed that he always has an eye for the 
marks a troiit makes in the sand when it is divesting 
itself of the slime and parasites taken on during the win- 
ter. Particularly is this true of breeding fish. Often have 
I heard him exclaim that there was a trout of a certain 
size, which he would gi^^e, in a '"hole;" and this he de- 
termined by the length of the mark in the sand when the 
trout had performed its spring toilet, and generally he 
would catch the trout to prove that his estimate of it? 
size was correct. A current attracts trout at other seasons 
than spring. I have seen the gate in the dam at Upper 
■Dam, Me., opened in September to draw the trout with 
vbreeding instinct into the pool below the dam; and in 
mid-summer a shower that causes a rise in the water of 
a brook will cause the trout to run up on to the rapid.*? 
and give good fishing where for days and perhaps 
