2S 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
[March 24, igod. 
could not be found, and whose names were not in the 
Directory, and as they were perishable goods they were 
sold by the officials of the Public Stores. 
A reporter of the Forest and Stream endeavored to 
learn from these officials something as to the quantity of 
foreign game brought to this market, but since, as above 
stated, this game is not subject to duty, no record is kept 
of it, and the customs officials have no knowledge of the 
amount imported. 
It is, however, a sufficiently common sight to see itin- 
erant venders passing along the street with strings of 
foreign game birds hanging from their shoulders. Pheas- 
ants, grouse, and lapwings are often offered for sale in 
this way, but just where they come from, or how they get 
here, is not known. 
We frequently hear the statement made that vast quan- 
tities of American game are shipped to- Europe, and in 
past times this may very well have been true. We know 
of no satisfactory evidence that it is true to-day, and we 
are not entirely inclined to credit the statement fre- 
quently made that great numbers of canvasbacks and 
other good ducks are shipped abroad. People in Eng- 
land and France do not appreciate our best ducks, and 
are not willing to pay for them the price demanded. 
They think more highly of a pheasant than they do of 
Canvasback, widgeon or redhead. 
Points in Ballooning-* 
An account recently published in Germany of a balloon 
trip made last September is interesting for more thai* 
one reason. The aeronauts were Messrs. de Saint- Victor 
and Mallet, who started from Paris at 6:15 P. M. Sept. 
30, and on the evening of the next day landed near Veste- 
wick, in Sweden. 
The trip lasted just twenty-three and one-quarter 
hours, and the distance accomplished was 1,330 kilo- 
meters, or about 825 miles. Certainly very rapid travel- 
ing. 
Another point of very great interest as having to do 
with the effect of a large body of water on the temperature 
of the air above it: The balloon, sailing along at a height 
of less than 2,000 feet, began to pass over a part of the 
Baltic Sea at about 9 A. M. on Oct. i. The observers at 
once noticed that the temperature began to fall, and that 
the air through which they were moving became in- 
creasingly humid. The balloon at once began to fall, and 
it was necessary to throw out ballast in order to keep it 
at its level. 
f "That rcmindi me." " 
''Italian Toe.'' 
Mr. Hough has discovered Italian Joe. I did not know 
that this genius was lost, strayed or mislaid; but am 
glad to know that his interesting personality is again to 
the front. 
The only time it was ever the writer's privilege to see 
this celebrity was back in the early eighties, and the im- 
pression was lasting. 
In company with another youthful resident of the great 
-city of the restless W^est, he had taken a day off to try the 
ducks down on the Des Plaines River. 
It was a very cold day, and we were both without 
the slightest knowledge of the best direction in which to 
prosecute our hunt. The details of the hunt are for- 
gotten, but two events stand forth clear : we got no 
ducks, but had the pleasure of dining at the table with 
Italian Joe. It was at the hotel, where some hunters, 
transients and local residents had gathered for the noon 
meal. Every one seemed to know Joe and had some- 
thing to say to him, and he was engaged in good-natured 
badinage with some member of the party during the 
entire meal. 
The amusing part of the conversation that made an 
impression was about a mink that Joe had killed and 
brought in with him. 
After some general questioning one of the company 
asked Joe what he would do with it. 
'T sicin-a," said he, "an' sell-a de skin." 
"But you shot it with a shotgun, Joe," said he. 
"Don' mak-a no diff what I shot-a wid," was the reply. 
"Oh, Joe will fix that all right," said another; "he will 
say he shot it in the head, won't you, Joe?" 
"Naw," roared the honest fellow, indignantly, " I say 
I shoot-a on de head-a, shoot-a on de tail-a ; I shoot-a on 
dis side-a, an' I shoot-a on de odda side-a; dey buy-a 
de skin or leave-a de skin ; no diff." 
This independent outburst was greeted with shouts of 
laughter by all, while Joe calmly continued his dinner. 
Lewis Hopkins. 
Dawson City's Fife Dogs. 
There is here in Dawson City one of the most remark- 
able fire brigades in the world. The engine is drawn by 
a team of dogs, and the sight of this team driving through 
the streets of Dawson City, with the fire engine trailing 
behind, is one of the most unique exhibitions in Alaska. 
The way the horses jump into their places when the alarm 
sounds in an American engine house has always been a 
source of pride to the citizen spectator. The dogs are not 
a bit less active and intelligent than the horses. The in- 
stant the alarm sounds in the fire house of a Dawson City 
brigade the dogs are alert, and when the number of 
strokes has been given which announces the calling out of 
the brigade the clever animals immediately spring into the 
place where their collars are ready to be snapped into 
position, 
A few seconds later they are dashing through the 
streets of Dawson City at full tilt, dragging the fire ap- 
paratus at their heels and tearing along in response to the 
cracking of the whips of the drivers, as though they fully 
realized the importance of their duties. When the brigade 
turns out the streets of Dawson City are sure to be lined 
with spectators, for the people never tire of watching their 
dog team dash through the town. It is about the first 
thing to which a new arrival is introduced when Dawson's 
attractions are on exhibition — Correspondence Washing- 
ton Post. , . . . 
difd ^ivi^r ^islfing. 
Caroline; 
Of, How a Bachelor Went a-Fishing ; the Fiih Ithat he 
Didn't Catch, the Fish that Didn't Caich 
Him, ano the Fish Ibat R^n 
Aw a/ with Hts Hook. 
EnglewooDj Lemon Bay, Fla., Feb; I4.— Hrfi^or Forest 
and Sir earn: I doubt not that very many of my fellow 
sportsmen readers of Forest and Stream are not aware 
that I am a bachelor, and really it doesn't make much 
difference to them anyhow, but as I have been for long 
beset by the most earnest questioning of my lady friends 
as to "why it is I have never got married," it has occurred 
to me that here in this lazy Southern land with plenty 
of time to spare, I will just devote it to a little explanation 
on that subject. Now to my mind marriage, whether it 
be the hunting of husband or the looking for a wife, is 
very much like "going a-fishing," and as I have been 
diligently fishing here I made up my mind that one of 
these fine days I would just get to work and name every 
fish that came to my hook after one of the girls of the 
olden times, some of whom I have fished for, some of 
whom have fished for me; none of whom I caught, and 
none of whom, alas! have as yet caught me (so far as I 
know), so here goes: 
This bright, beautiful, warm morning George and I 
sally forth and it isn't long before our boat is fastened 
to the trunk of a royal palm tree, one of a group quite 
close to the water's edge at one of the passes or inlets not 
far from this hotel. It is a hot and dreamy day with very 
little wind, and the shade of the group of royal palms 
which overshadow my boat is indeed most grateful. 
Close by are thundering upon the beach the great 
breakers that come in from the Gulf of Mexico, a most 
delightful place for a bath, as I soon found out. So 
I fasten my reel to my rod and string out my line and 
put on the bait. One feels so sleepy and lazy that one 
doesn't put very much vim into anything, and as my bait 
disappeared in the water my mind began to fill with 
thoughts of long ago. Suddenly there is a gentle touch 
at the hook; it is only a light little nibble, but nevertheless 
I give the usual pull and up to the surface comes a bright 
little fish. As sure as life! it is nothing but Fanny; 
pretty little Fanny, my first love of the Auld Lang Syne, 
with her bright little eyes and shining dress. Up she 
comes, and I am almost reaching forth to gather her in 
when she gives a flip and a jump and away she goes. 
This is just what Fanny did, so you see I didn't catch 
that fish. 
Again I bait my hook and cast it overboard. The hot 
sun pours doAvn, but the grateful shade keeps it away 
from us. Once again my thoughts go to musing, when 
suddenly there comes a vigorous jerk. Of course I return 
it with a vengeance, and after many struggles I bring to 
the surface a very fine, good, large, fat sheepshead, one of 
those big wobblers, which reminds me of none other than 
Maria of the olden times, for Maria had a broad back 
and always wore a striped dress just like Miss Sheeps- 
head, and I well remember the day she turned me down. 
How broken-hearted I was, and how, in later years, when 
I saw her parading down Broadway, upon my honor she 
was so broad in the back that there wasn't room for two 
on the sidewalk, and gracious heavens! she actually 
waddled ; and as for me, indeed I was so grateful and I 
gave her such a look of gratitude that she must have 
thoroughly understood it. But the sheepshead that is fast 
to the hook must be attended to. She is a fine fat fish 
and seems to be well hooked, and finally just as I am 
about to put her in the net the hook breaks and away she 
goes. Good-by. Maria, my pretty fat sheepshead of long 
ago ! How glad I am that she didn't catch me. 
Now it is pretty warm, and I brace up with a drink 
of water and wipe my perspiring brow and put on some 
more bait and try it again. The fish seem to have gotten 
scarce all at once and a long time goes by before another 
sensation comes along, and this time the feeling is rather 
gradual. It don't .strike my heart all of a sudden as the 
other girls did, but is a sort of a gradual pull, and in 
return I make a sort of a gradual haul and up comes a 
very queer looking little fish. This gay bird I, of course, 
got into the boat, and then, to my astonishment, it pro- 
ceeded to swell up like a toy balloon. Up, up, up it 
swelled until it seemed ready to burst, and as it is not a 
very pretty fish I forthwith cast it overboard, and away it 
goes floating on the top of the water, unable to dive be- 
neath. Now what shall I call this one? I rummage my 
mind, and I rummage my head, and I think finally we 
will call this one Lulu, for certain I am that the fish 
reminded me of just such a girl in the long ago. 
Well, I fish and I fish, and somehow or other my 
luck don't seem to be very good this morning; they all 
seem to get away. It is now very hot and a gentle breeze 
is blowing, and the thunder of the surf is somewhat 
abating. There is a haze from over the Gulf and all is 
balmy and drowsy, and my thoughts begin to dwell on 
the green hills and mountains of the Grand Cascapedia 
River in Quebec, Canada, and my gaze falls upon a spot 
up the mountain side where there is a bright rivulet 
which sparkles in the sun as it laugliingly wends its down- 
ward way toward the clear river on which I have so often 
cast the fly. I am in my canoe again on a salmon pool 
and the cool water rushes by, and here and there a lordly 
salmon breaks the surface with a splash. I cast my 
line, upon the end of which is fastened a silver-doctor fly, 
and as it touches the surface a beautiful speckled trout 
seizes it and bears it away. She is clad in blue and 
purple, this princess of the pool, with crimson spots here 
and there upon her dress; her eyes are- bright, and as she 
seizes the fly and carries it off it comes across my mind 
that this can be none other than "Caroline the Beautiful" 
— she who has captured my heart and run away with line 
and fly and all. 
"The waters kissed her lovely face. 
As she rushed away in merry chase, 
And quick indeed the victory's won, 
VQt sl%6, and lijie, and hook, are gone." 
Suddenly there is a jar at the boat and I spring to my 
feet, for. alas! it is too true that the drowsy summer air 
has been too much for me and I have been fast asleep. 
The jar was caused by a porpoise, or shark, that has 
passed so close to the boat that his tail struck it. A little 
more and he would have upset the whole cargo just as 
Fanny and Lulu, Maria and Caroline have done, so I am 
now pretty wide awake and think it is about time to stop 
musing and dreaming and get down to business, which I 
proceed to do. 
I have been fishing in a great many places throughout 
iny life, but never have I found fish so plentiful. The 
maffnifi'^pnt sheeri=head can be rn"<yht by the ton. and as 
to bluefish, Spanish mackerel, redfish and here and there 
a shark, together with the opportimity of getting hold of 
a 300 or 400 pound jew fish, one can go it galore. 
Lemon Bay is a beautiful sheet of water about twenty 
miles from Punta Gorda, reached via steam launch twelve 
miles to Myacca Landing on the Myacca River, thence 
eight miles by stage to the Hotel Englewood, located at 
Englewood. Fla. The steam launch, the stage line and 
the hotel all belong to the Lemon Bay Company, of 
Chicago, who are bringing in settlers upon their lands. 
The country, of course, is perfectly flat and deer are 
abundant everywhere. There are also plenty of quail, but 
the Florida quail I found to be very much smaller than 
the quail of North Carolina and other parts of the South, 
and as they live on the buds or small seeds of the pine 
and palmetto, their flesh is not altogether as palatable as 
other quail. I found it entirely too hot for quail shooting 
anyhow, and the scrub palmetto leaves cut and scratched 
the dogs. There are also a great many snakes in the 
woods, rattlesnakes of enormous size, for I saw some 
rattlers' skins in Punta Gorda that were 6\4 feet long 
and 10 or 12 inches wide, and as the country is covered 
with numerous gopher holes, into which the dogs are sure 
to plunge and which the snakes inhabit, I came to the 
conclusion that it was not a healthy place for dogs, and 
therefore went a-fishing, and ah ! what fishing it was, 
I thoroughly believe that if one chooses to make a day 
of it there would be no difficulty whatever in taking a 
ton weight of the finest sheepshead I ever saw, weighing 
from 3 to 6 pounds. There is also an abundance of sea 
basSj redfish and later on Spanish mackerel and bluefish, 
which latter was rather scarce while I was there, it being 
too early for them, but the royal tarpon, silver king that 
he is, is most plentiful toward the latter part of March 
and throughout April. I was informed on good authority 
that one could hook on to half a dozen of these lordly fish 
per day almost any time during their season, and I was 
greatly disappointed that I had gotten there too early. 
Of corrrse, being so far south, it is the country of the 
pineapple, the orange, guava and other tropical fruits, and 
as Lemon Bay is separated from the Gulf by narrow 
islands called keys, and as said islands are covered with 
royal palms, mangroves and other tropical trees, they are 
beautiful to look upon. I Avas told that there are a good 
many deer upon these keys, and wildcats and some 
panthers — in fact. I saw fresh tracks of such a large size 
on the beach several times that I concluded it must be 
a panther, or else an enormous wildcat. This beast 
seemed to frequent this very spot regularly, and I think 
it was fishing, and I now greatly regret that we did not 
make a trap for it, for I think there would have been no 
difficulty in captttring it. 
As a whole I think that Englewood is the most charm- 
ingly located spot in that part of eastern Florida, both 
for the sportsman or the invalid, or for any one Avho de- 
sires balmy air, absolute rest, superb fishing and fine 
shooting, together with delightful surf bathing in the 
Gulf of Mexico — it is the place that I should recommend. 
Robert O. Lowry. 
Boston and Maine. 
Boston, March 17. — ^Boston trotlt fishermen are plan- 
ning for April i, but no one is'specially enthusiastic as to 
prospects, unless it be the owner of some well-stocked 
preserve. The dry weather of last season is considered 
to have been the hardest one on the brook trout of any 
season in the recollection of the fishermen of to-day. 
Fishermen tell me that they are afraid that their favorite 
brooks are ruined, but that they shall try thcra April 1, 
or as near to that time as weather and circumstances 
will permit. The brooks in Maine and New Hampshire 
suffered even more than those in Massachusetts, because 
there were rains in this State last fall, but they did not 
extend to Maine, and up to cold weather the streams in 
northern New England were as dry as August. Both the 
Maine and New Hampshire Commissioners are somewhat 
discouraged concerning the prospects for trout, especially 
in the smaller streams in either State. They say that the 
only salvation of these streains lies in restocking, with 
the hope that the streams may not again be dried up in 
years. In northern Maine and New Hampshire there is 
now on the ground a most remarkable volume of snow, 
and this means swollen streams during the early part of 
the fishing season. It is claimed that this high water is 
favorable to the migration of the trout ; that is, to their 
moving up the streams, from the larger bodies of water 
they may have sought during the excessive drought of last 
autumn. Fishing parties to the Maine lakes are being 
early planned this year. It is possible that the show 
of fish in the Sportsmen's Show is the cause of the early 
breaking out of the fever. At any rate, two or three 
fishermen have already outlined their spring trips to me. 
They propose to start early and stay as long as possible. 
One gentleman tells me that he has not taken a day off 
from business since his fishing outing of a year ago, and 
for that reason he thinks that he is entitled to start early 
this year and stay longer than usual. He says: "I am 
not going to see how many fish I can catch. I am going 
to get as much enjoyment and rest as possible out of the 
outing. I can always get all the fish- we want to eat 
almost any day; and that is enough for any reasonable 
m"an or woman. About May 20 will see niy wiff. nT'^-'lf 
a friend and his wife, our party of last year, in the fishing 
camp again." 
The crust hunters are not all dead yet, much as it is to 
be desired that they should see the evil of their ways. It 
is well understood that there has been a inost remarkably 
strong crust over the deep snow in Maine. Mnn6r\v I 
saw, in a well-known commission marketman's place, three 
saddles of venison. The stuff was retnarkably long- 
haired 3n4 y.ery thin. The salesmen declared that they 
