'A'pRIL 7, 1900.] 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
or two, but generally saw only cows and youngsters. They 
saw a drove of four caribou crossing the ice one day 
at the foot of the lake. As for partridges, they believe, 
that they are about all done for. They saw very few, 
especially after the big snows in March. The narrow 
gauge railroad from Piiillips to Rangeley was blockaded 
by snow from March i for about sixteen days. The train- 
men suffered a good deal, as they were frequently stalled 
in the woods a long distance from any settlement. They 
were in the game country, and tell incredible stories of 
Avild animals so overcome by hunger as to come very 
near them.' .A.s for the deer, they were completely over- 
powered by the snow, and suffered the men to approach 
them almost without a struggle. In one instance it comes 
from the statement of a railroad official that a. deer was 
so overcome b.v hunger that it ate a biscuit out of his 
hands. These railway officials also believe that the par- 
tridges and- other birds have suffered very severely. 
Special. 
Some State Legislation. 
Massachusetts. 
Boston, April 2. — Matters concerning Massachusetts 
game legislation are in a bad way at this time. The com- 
mittee on fisheries and game have given the supporters 
of the Bennet bill leave to withdraw " and have recom- 
mended the passage of the bill being put forward by .the 
Worcester County Game Protective Association, It 
be remembered that the Bennet bill is a compromise 
measure between the marketmen and tho-se who desire 
absolute prohibition of" the sale of game for a series of 
years, with a positive close time on partridges for a num- 
ber of years, as well as shortening the season on other 
birds. The bill which has the indorsement of the com- 
mittee shortens the season somewhat, but permits the sale 
of partridges and woodcock in open season, and places 
no restriction upon the sale of quail. The Bennet bill 
Ixas the indorsement of a number of associations in the 
State, including the Fish and Game Protective Associa- 
tion, and ostensibly the marketmen. But these market- 
men ivcre pushing forward so many provisos as to utterly 
corrupt the bill, while the Worcester County Game Pro- 
tective Association is accused of opposing any measure 
that prohibts the sale of game in the open .season. 
Still the advocates of prohibiting the sale of game have 
not j-et given up the fight. They say that the only essen- 
tial difference between their bill and the one recommended 
by the committee is that their measure prohibits the sale 
of partridges and woodcock in open season, while the 
other permits such sale. They hope to finally pass a 
measure that shall prohibit the sale of partridges and 
woodcock, though they have given up the hope of pre- 
venting the sale of quail. It is on the subject of quail 
that the marketmen make the greatest opposition. They 
contend that quail amount to but little in this State, and 
that they have many thousand dollars invested in cold 
storage plants for preserving game, and that to stop the 
sale of quail from other States would leave these plants 
worthless on their hands. As for partridges, they are 
well aware, though scarcely outspoken enough to own it, 
that none are to be had of any consequence, and they 
begin to see what game protectors have seen for a long 
time — that partridges are doomed in New England unless 
absolute prohibition of their .sale can be made. As for 
woodcock, the marketmen count but little upon them, the 
number received by them being already reduced to ex- 
tremely small proportions. The poor farmer's boy, who 
makes a few dollars by selling partridges, is still in evi- 
dence. When there are no partrid.ges to shoot his friends 
will be willing to prohibit their sale. Special. 
New Yoifc. 
Albany, April 2. — (Special.)— The Governor during 
the past week has signed Mr. Knipp's bill amending the 
forest, fish and game law to prevent the transportation of 
birds or game without the State. 
Senator Douglas has introduced a substitute for a for- 
mer bill, to allow part owners of a lake or game preserA-c 
to exclude others from the whole of the lake or park, if 
he leases the right, and the bill has been reported .favora- 
bly by the committee. 
The Senate has passed these bills: 
Mr. Marson's making the close season for woodcock 
and grouse from Dec. 16 to Sept. 15, instead of Dec. 16 
to Aug. 31. as at present. 
Mr. Marson's making the close season for deer from 
Nov. 16 to Aug. 31, instead of to Aug. 14. 
Senator Ellsworth's appropriating $20,000 for continu- 
ing the acquisition ©f land in the Adirondack Park, and 
$50,000 for the extension of the forest preserve in the 
counties of Delaware, Greene, Sullivan and Ulster. 
The Assembly has passed the following bills: 
Mr. Wheeler's amending the fish and game law by per- 
mitting the chief fire warden to appoint three. .expert for- 
esters who are to act as deputy fire wardens. . ' 
Mr. Wheeler's yjroviding for the appointment ot .a chief 
forester and fire patrols 'in the forest preserve.. 
Lost Men. 
Editor Forest and Stream:- .... 
The frequent reports of sportsmen "lost in the woods' 
during the hunting season suggests the inquiry of what 
can be done to help the unfortunates. In. the Adiron- 
dacks some fifteen years ago they used, and I suppose 
still do, the following call, as T remember it: Three shots 
fire<l about five seconds apart would bring an answer (if 
heard), and it repeated woidd start every lumberman, 
guide or sportsman hearing it to answer and investigate. 
No attention was paid to four or more shots. . 
My experience with guides in nearly every part of that 
region was to sec them listen -carefully when more tlian 
one shot wa^ fired, to sec whether it would be three or 
ntorc. If- there was any doubt, a shot was fired and an. 
answer wailed for. If some rule could be madc-and ad- 
vertised t!iat a eertain number of slmts nroans trnuble. 
R^omething would be gained, and possibly life saved; fire 
your shots make a fire and wait long enough to give any 
one in hearing a chance -to look you up. This would n.,'i 
meet every case, but- add a chance to l>eing fount! -a]'ve. 
J., o. t-*. 
ANGLING NOTES. 
Feediog Fish Not a N w Idea. 
My friend Mr. E. T. D. Chambers, writing from 
Quebec, adds a postscript to his letter which is extremely 
interesting to me, and I doubt not that it will be of con- 
siderable interest to readers of Forest and STRfiAM, as 
it shows that the necessity for feeding fish was con- 
sidered more than a century ago and before the discovery 
of the art of artificial fish propagation was made public 
by Jacobi. In fact, the extract which Mr, Chambers 
sends me is taken from a poem apparently written nine 
years after Jacobi made his discovery in 1741. 
If it was important that food be provided for fish one 
hundred and fifty years ago, how much more is it impor- 
tant that food be provided now when hundreds of millions 
of }f0ung fish are hatched annually by artificial processes 
and turned out into wild waters to seek their own living. 
Mr. Chambers says: 
"To-day i was reading an old poem on fish ponds. The 
date of tlie manuscript, says the author who fm-nishes it, 
is uncertain, probably about 1750. and from corrections in 
the original, appears to have been the copy of the trans- 
lator, the Rev. John Duncombc, of Corpus Christi Col- 
lege, Oxford. Rector of Ilcarne, Kent, and St. Andrew, 
with St. Bredman, Canterbury, who died Jan. 19, 1786, 
aged fifty-six. 
"Half a dozen lines following the description of ponds 
upon the necessity of providing food for planted fish re- 
called so vividly j'our own frequent insistence on this 
point that I copy them. Tliey show that all the ancients 
were not qnite such tools as Komc of the moderns arc. 
who. forgetful of the fact that they don't live on air though 
they do exist in it, seem to think tliat fish should live both 
on and in the water : , , 
" 'Be mindful, thou, tlie hungry race to feed, 
.The fish themselves in their own cause will plead, 
And, rising to the surface of the flood. 
With gaping jaws demand their wonted food. 
Ponds for your fish wherever you provide. 
They with f.e.-h stcre in spring slu u'd be supplied.' " 
The very next day after I had read Mr. Chambers' 
letter, the Fishing Gazette. London, came to hand with 
an account of the annual dinner of the Fly-Fishing Club, 
over Avhich Sir Edward Gi*ey, Bart., M. P., presided. One 
of the most delightful of modern angling books is "Fly- 
Fishing," by Sir Edward Grey, published last year in 
London, a book that I have intended to write a notice 
ofj and will, if ever I get the time to do so. 
Sir Edward Gre/ on Fish Food. 
Having quoted an opinion in regard to the necessity of 
feeding planted fish that is one hundred and fifty years 
old, it is here followed by an extract from the address 
of the chairman at the dinner of the Fly-Fishing Club in 
the year 1900: 
"I read the other day in the newspapers that the School 
Board for London, which has devoted great attention to 
the education of children, was beginning to devote atten- 
tion as to how they were to be fed. Now, my thoughts 
are always running upon fishing, and this stiggested to 
me something in fishing which may not, perhaps, be 
obvious to those ntenibers who are not so fond Of fly- 
fishing as I am. They are dealing with children, but how 
about trout? We have educated our trout most success- 
fully. There is nothing to complain of in the education 
of trout. Certainly, but really there is something to 
find fault with in regard to their feeding. We have taken 
exceedingly little trouble about feeding our trout, far 
less than we have done about their education. Let us 
take a leaf out of the book of the London School Board. 
"I am convinced that a great deal might well be done. 
Here, therefore, is one of those subjects for research 
where I think the Fly-Fishers' Club may provide most 
useful information in the future. Let me give you an 
incident of what happened on a Highland loch. 
"It was not a very large loch, only big enough to pro- 
vide ample fishing for two rods a day. It had never had 
any fish in it. and was stocked with yearling Loch 
Levens. Great pains were taken in one or two following 
seasons to educate those Loch Levens, but they acquired a 
fine, rich, dark, peaty color. They were apparently lively 
and thriving, but they never attained the weight, even 
the biggest of them, of a quarter of a pound, and that went 
on for two or three years. My friend who owned the 
loch thought that enough had been done for the education 
of the I-och Levens. and thought that perhaps he had 
bettc^r pay a little attention to the feeding. So he im- 
ported some fresh-water shrimps, and turned them down 
iff suitable places. Those little; trout which remained 
stationary two or three years at once went with a bound 
to a weight of nearly a pound." That, I think,' is an in- 
stance of a' neglected stud^^ viz., that of feeding trout, 
AVhich' is as important as the education of. them." 
"Some thing^^ are accomplished by hamrnering at them, 
ahd-FoREST and Strkam has been hammering at this mat- 
tei-"6f feeding'fislriof a 'long time, and I expect in time yet 
to come it will receive the recognition it deserves for 
yoeman's service in this field. Slowly, little by little, those 
Interested in planting the waters with fish are coming to 
realize how important it is that food must be provided to 
make the planting a success if the waters do not already 
possess the food, or that additional food must be sup- 
plied to sustain the addition to the fish supply. In the 
matter of fishculture man is itnprdving upon nature, and 
planting from 75 to 90 per cent, of fish from eggs that 
nature, if left to herself, would hatch only _t to 5 per cent, 
of. and the increase mu.=;t be fed or they will perish. 
Greeowood Lake. 
, .When i'said th^t .hammering at a thing would bring 
about its. accomplishment.' I bad in mind the black bass 
law in Greenwood Lake, partly in New York and partly 
in New Jersey. Once unon a time the season for bl.Hck 
bass fishing opened legally in New York State at a dale 
later than May 30, and a bill was introduced in the 
"'Lpo-islature to open the season throughout the State on 
May 30, to conform to the New Jersey law, and the 
chief reason advanced at the time for putting the law 
back was to accommodate anglers in New York city who 
desired to fish in Greenwood Lake on Decoration Day — 
a legal holiday. 
Curiosity caused me to look back and find where I began 
to protest in Forest and STr<i;AM against this law, which 
in its operatioit tended to destroy breeding black bass that 
anglers might have a holiday at a fixed time. I cannot 
fix the precise date, but I do find that sixteen years ago 
in this journal I protested against the then existing law, 
and that Forest ano Stream said, editorially, in com- 
menting upon my protest: "We think that Mr. Cheney 
has rather understated the case. Even in sotithern New 
York the black bass are not done spawning by the middle 
of June, and it seems to us that while his request to inake 
the close season end at that time would be a- step in ad- 
vance, we would go still further and make the law for the 
whole State exempt black bass from capture before July. 
This may deprive sonte anglers of their accustomed fish- 
ing. If they cannot fish later, we are sorry for them. 
These are few, however, and they should sacrifice their 
pleasure for the public good.— Extract from Forest and 
STt<EAM, Sept. 25, 1884. 
I did not advocate a close season to end June 25. 
What I did say in the same issue was: "I hope that our 
law makers will extend the close season for black bass 
throughout the State imtil July i. Even then, some 
waters require a still longer time for the bass to spawn." 
Forest and Stream has been hammering at this law 
ever since, and the clo.se- sea.son for black bass was ad- 
vanced to June 9 and then to June 15 in New York, and 
the New Jersey law retnained at May 30 until New Jersey 
had a new board of Commissioners within a few montiis 
past, and they were unanimous for a close season for 
Greenwood Lake that would be uniform with the New 
York law. and they introduced a bill two weeks ago in ' 
tlicir Legislature to that end. 
We know more about the habits of black bass now 
than we .did sixteen years ago. We know that they do not 
spawn until the temperature of the water gets up to 
about 65 degree.^, and even if the water gets warm enough 
to attract them to spawning beds, that a lowering of the 
tentperature will drive them away to deep water again, 
and the actual spawning may be delayed two weeks or 
such a matter, and that the young bass require the parents' 
care for the same length of time, whether the spawning 
be early or late. We also know that if the black bass arc 
not protected during the spawning season and the period 
while the young are brooded, the fishing must fall 
off and eventually be destroyed, for there is no way of 
artificially making up the waste, as only the adult fish can 
be depended upon to keep up the stock through natural 
increase, but nature is wise in respect of increase of 
black bass, as she is in most things, for while she ordains 
that by natural methods only i to 5 per cent, of the eggs 
of the salmon family shall hatch, and man can hatch 95 
per cent., of black bass eggs 80 to 90 per cent, hatch by 
natural processes, and man can hatch none worth streaking 
of. Black bass protect their young; no other fresh-water 
fish does so except the bullhead and sunfish. 
A Woman Did It. 
I once heard a sermon from the text, "The Woinan Did 
It," in which it was shown that our common ancestor, 
Adam, put the blame for a certain act upon our common 
ancestres.s. Eve, and then the inference was that man^ had 
been doing the same sort of ungallant thing ever since, 
down to the present generation. Since I listened to that 
sermon I have had a desire to expunge x\dam's name froin 
the family tree and give womankind all the credit I 
can, though I never expect to be able to give women all 
the credit they deserve. 
Most of us who fish know that the, credit for compding 
the first book upon angling printed in the English language 
is generally given to a woman. Dame Juliana Berners, 
prioress of 'the Nunnery of Sopwell. near St. Albans, The 
date of "Fyssbynge with an Angle" is 1496, and a little 
more than one hundred and fifty years later another 
woman adorns the pages of angling history by being the 
first, in all probability, to make an artificial minnow. A 
few days ago I noticed in an English newspaper a dis- 
play advertisement of an artificial minnow, and it gave 
us to understand, by implication at least, that the maker 
was the original Jacobs in inanufacturing that particular 
stvle of artificial minnow. My memory machinery got to 
work on the subject of artificial minnows, and finally it 
came to me in a flash, "Why, a woman did it !" Yes, a 
woman was the first to make an artificial inhmow, but 
who was the woman, and where, and when, did I read it? 
It seemed to be an easy matter to find it, but I searched 
my books for two whole evenings before I came to the 
reference in good old Walton's "Angler," and here it is: 
"And here let me tell you, what many old Anglers know 
right well, that at some times, and in some waters, a Min- 
now is not to be got, and' therefore let me tell you. I 
have— which I will show to yott— an artificial Minnow, 
that will catch a Trout as well as an artificial fiy ; and it 
was made by a handsome woman, that had a fine hand, and 
a live Minnow lying by her; the mould or body of the, 
Minnow was cloth, and Avrotight upon or over it thits with 
a needle ; the back of it with very sad French green silk, 
and paler green. silk toward the belly, shadowed as perfect- 
ly as you can imagine, just as you see a Minnow; 
the belly was wrought also' with a' needle, and it was a 
part of it white silk, and another part of it with silver 
thread; the tail. and fins were of a quill, which was shaven 
thin; the eves were two little blac'k beads, and the head 
was so shadowed; and all of it so curiously wrougiit. and 
so exactlv dissembled, that it AVould beguile any sharp- 
sighted trout in a swift stream. And this Mimiow l 
will iiow show vou; look, here it is; and" if you like it, 
lend it to you. to' have two or three made by it, for they be 
easily carried about an Angler and be of excellent use; 
for note, that a large Trout will come fiercely at a 
.Minnow, as the highest mettled hawk doth seize on a 
partridge, or , a grcyhtjund on a hare, T have been (old 
that one hundred and sixty .Minnows have been found in 
a Trout's belly: either the Trout had devoured so 
many, nr the miller that gaA^e it to a friend of rnine had 
forced them down his throat after he had taken him." 
There are two things which strike me forcibly in con- 
nection with this extract. Gallant as Walton was, and 
appreciative of the skillful work of a handsome woman. 
