Nov. 17, igoo.l 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
891 
Two men were on a deer hunting trip. In the morning 
of the first day's hunt a bear was sighted feeding beneath 
an apple tree; the bear took flight and a shot was lost. 
On the following morning an early start was taken, and 
on reaching the hunting grounds objects were scarcely dis- 
cernible, but in the dim light the supposed Bruin was 
again sighted beneath the apple tree, and this time within 
easy range. A whispered consultation was held. There 
v.'^as doubt in the mind of one whether it was the bear or 
a stump, but the other was positive it moved. While 
discussing the situation it was plainly seen to move by 
both, and now there was one doubt left. The only ques- 
tion, should they shoot in the dim light or wait. It was 
decided to shoot. The better shot dropped to one knee, 
cocked the rifle and peeper through the sight. It was an 
uncertain shot, but he thought he could kill it, and was 
pulling the trigger when the black object beneath the 
tree j'elled, "Hold on." The .supposed bear was a man 
\vrapped in a big overcoat watching for deer. He had 
sighted them when they first came into the clearing, and 
supposed they could see him plainly also. There is no 
doubt that many similar incidents have occurred, but too 
much cannot be printed on the subject. B. A. E. 
Massachusetts Association. 
Editor Forest and Stream: 
The Massachusetts Fish and Game Protective Asso- 
ciation held a very enjoyable and successful meeting on 
Thursday evening, Nov. 8, at the Copley Square Hotel. 
Mr. Harold Hutchinson, secretary of the Massachu- 
.setts Rifle Associatijan, and Mr. James O'Brien, of the 
Ashland Gun Club, were elected corresponding members, 
and Commissioners J. W. Collins and E. D. Buffington 
honorary members of the Association. 
Dr. J. T. Herrick, president of the Sprinfield Sports- 
men's Association, was elected to life membership, and 
Mr. F. J. Pope, of Somerville, to yearly membership. 
VVm. A. Macleod, ex-president of the Megantic Club, 
who was expected to relate his recent experiences in 
salmon fishing in New Brunswick, was compelled to be 
. absent, which was a source of much regret to all present, 
but the time was fully occupied to a late hour by other 
speakers. 
Mr. A. W. Sprague, of Gleasondale, Mass., who re- 
cently returned from Presque Isle, Maine, laden with 
trophies of his skill as a nimrod, gave a graphic descrip- 
tion of this year's experiences, as well as those of pre- 
vious years. Being a native of Aroostook county, Mr. 
Sprague knows just where to go for partridges, deer, 
bears and moose, and has been fortunate enough to get 
his quota of all, although he admitted that in one in- 
stance a moose which he secured was shot by his guide. 
Mr. Sprague impressed his hearers as a very unassum- 
ing and truthful sportsman, and his story was listened 
to with the closest attention. 
He was followed by Mr. M. E. Hawes, ex-president of 
the E. Weymouth Fish and Game Association, who gave 
a brief account of the forming of his society to protect 
birds and fish. By the efforts of its members, he said, 
the ten miles of Fore and Back rivers have been patrolled 
" and illegal seining has been made dangerous for those 
engaged in it. He explained how he had been able to 
get an appropriation of $200 a year from the town to aid 
in this work. The association' now numbers more than 
150 members. 
After Mr. Hawes. President Wiggin called upon Prof. 
F. W. Putnam, of Cambridge, who has been for many 
years an honorary member of the association, and was 
formerly a member of the State Commission on Fish 
and Game. He spoke of the beginning of the work of 
the Commission, and the first attempt to propagate fish 
in the United States, mentioning the labors in those days 
of Dr. Wheatland, of Salem, Commissioner E. A. 
Brackett, Hon. Theodore Lyman, Prof. Agassiz and 
Capt. Atwood, of Provincetown. As is well known. Prof. 
Putnam is now in the lead as an anthropologist, and his 
prfesence and his remarks furnished a rare treat to our 
members. 
Ex-President E. A. Samuels spoke of the standing of 
the association outside of our own State, and said it had 
been a source of pleasure, as well as a surprise, to him 
to learn that its history and work had become known 
throughout the country, and this, he said, he believed 
to be due largely to the fiequent reports of its doings 
published m Forest and Stream. He expressed the 
opinion that the association should have at all times 
permanent headquarters. 
President Wiggin announced the committee to nomi- 
nate candidates for officers for 1901 as follows: Dr. E 
W. Brannigan, Hon. Robt. S. Gray. Arthur W. Robin- 
son, Dr. Geo. H. Payne, Wm. S. Hinman, A. D. Thayer 
and George H. ]\ioore. 
Representative Harry D. Hunt was one of the guests 
and informed me that the N. Attleboro Association has 
made extensive preparations for the Sportsman's Ex- 
position, to be held in that place from Nov 16 to 24 
Some of those present were Waldron B. Hastings 
Thos. H. Hall, Dr. W. P. Woodward, of Middleboro; 
A. B. F. Kinney, of Worcester; Ivers W. Adams, C A 
Barney, Charles Stewart, N. Le Roy, Edward J Brown' 
Lonng Crocker and Dr. M. A. Morris, of Charlestown' 
who had shot his moose every year for the last half-dozen 
years, and recently returned from a successful trip to 
New Brunswick. 
The readers of your paper who have political aspira- 
lions will do well to read the subjoined extract from a 
Worcester letter published in the Sunday Globe of Nov 
11 relating to the re-election of Hon. John R. Thayer 
the National House of Representatives: 
•Mr. Thayer is president of the Worcester Fur Company 
whose only object is hunting foxes for pleasure, and he is 
a hunter himself of great renown through the district in 
which the chase after Reynard is esteemed an ancient and 
honorable sport, so that when he got out in the country 
he was right at home among the farmers, as well as the 
city men Avho hunt foxes for diversion. More than that 
3ilr. Thayer is an expert on fox hounds, and there isn't 
a hound in Worcester county that he doesn't know by 
name, and of which -he cannot tell the pedigree at sight, so 
pvery fox hunter in the county— and pretty nearly'' every 
man outside of Worcester rify js a fox hunter— is a 
]\]^r\n CT the Congressman. 1 
"Away back in the town of Paxton Mr. Thayer was in- 
troduced to an old man he ran into out hunting with a 
pack of his own hounds. The old man didn't just like 
the idea of talking with a Democrat about politics, and 
he never had a thought of voting for one for anything 
from constable to President, but as soon as Mr. Thayer 
got to talking with him about his hounds, and had 
praised them up, for they really are very fine dogs, the old 
man was won. 
"Later he admitted to some of his friends that he was 
going to vote for John R. Thayer, because he was a good 
fellow. Rallied at having decided to vote for a Demo- 
crat, the old man said : 'You needn't talk to me. Any 
man that knows ez much about haounds ez he does, and 
likes 'em ez well, is a good feller, and I'm goin' to vote 
fer him anyway.' 
"In the very most active part of the campaign, when 
the workers of both parties were driving all over the 
district making personal appeals to the voters by day 
and addressing gatherings of them by night, Mr. Thayer 
announced that he was going to take a day off' and go 
fox hunting with the Worcester Fur Company, and he did. 
Even some of his friends told him that he shouldn't take 
the chance of losing a day from his campaigning, but it 
made no difference to him, and when the voters read in 
the Worcester papers that he had stopped campaigning for 
a day to go after foxes, and more, that he was the only 
man of the party to bring jn a brush, it made him more 
votes that he could have gained by personal talks with the 
men of his district. 
"Mr. Thayer is a famous story teller, and his popularity 
in that line is as great in the committee rooms at Wash- 
ington as it is in the back districts of VVorcester count}-. 
Back in the country he tells the farmers of the good 
things he has heard in Washington, and in the latter city 
he is always in demand to tell the stories he has found in 
Massachusetts, and particularly among the fox hunters." 
Henry H. KiMBAi.L.^Sec'y. ' 
The Ohio Situatioix. 
Ci.EVELANu, O., Nov. 10. — Editor Forest and Stream:- 
The Ohio law is a disgrace to the statute books of any 
State, and about all the sportsmen can do is to bear it, for 
it is too bad to grin and bear it. 
_ The law gives only twenty days of' shooting, and at a 
time that is too late in the year for mOst of the migTatory 
birds.. I , -i L ." 
It allows one to have certain kinds of game in posses- 
sion when it is illegal to kill it, and then to kill same 
game at a time when it is illegal to have 'it in possession^ 
Hard to obtain conviction with'such law. 
As we only have biennial sessions^ of the Legislature 
there is no relief in sight until 1902. 
The law is so manifestly unfair and unreasonable that 
there is a great deal of unlawful shooting done, and I 
gi-eatly fear an increase of this kind of shooting and a 
growing contempt for all game laws. 
There is this silver lining to the clouds, however, and 
that is that all sportsmen all over the State are thor- 
oughly aroused and determined to have laws passed at 
the next session of the Legislature that will be fair and 
reasonable to all concerned. 
I think it will be possible now to have a good gun 
license law passed that will do more to control unlawful 
shooting than any law we have eyer had. 
^ J Paul North. 
New York League Meeting-. 
New York, Nov. i, 1900. 
The annual meeting of the New York Fish, Game , and 
Forest League will be held at the Yates Hotel, Syracuse, 
N. Y., at 10:30 A. M. on Dec. 6, 1900, and a full , at- 
tendance is hoped for. 
In order that they may be fully discussed at the annual 
meeting, all proposed amendments to the present game 
laws should, if possible, be. forwarded to the Chairman 
of the Legislative and Law Committee, Mr. Walter S. 
Macgregor, 41 Wall street, New York city, prior to the 
first day of December, 1900. 
Applications for membership should be made to the 
Secretary, who will gladly give any further information 
which may be desired. 
Robert B. Lawrence, 
Ernest G. Gould, Sec'y, President. 
Seneca Falls. 
A 62-Inch Moose Head. 
Mr. C. E. E. Ussher, General Passenger Agent of the 
Canadian Pacific, tells us that late in October a moose 
head was taken out of Kippewa district by Mr. J. C. 
Bates Dana, of Worcester, Mass., and shipped from 
Kippewa to Montreal. The spread was 62 inches. A Mr. 
W. S. Lincoln, of Worcester. Mass., at the same time 
shipped two heads from Kippewa to Montreal, one of 
which had a spread of 58 inches. 
Proprietors of fishing resorts will find it profitable to advertise 
them in Forest and Stream. 
ANGLING NOTES. 
Long Island Ducks. 
East Quoque, L. I., Nov. 10.— The change in the 
weather has brought the ducks in the bay. Several good 
bags of ducks have been made; ten mallards, with black 
ducks, widgeons, sprigs and broadbills. If weather con- 
tinues the outlook for shooting will be good. Quite a 
number of sheldrakes have come in the bay since the 
change of wind. E. A. 'Jaqkson. 
The Forest and Stream is put to press each week on Tuesday. 
Correspondence intended for publication should reach us at the 
latest by Monday and as much earlier as practicable. 
DON'T SHOOT 
Until you see your game, and 
see that it is game and 
not a man. 
Trout Fry and Iced Fry. 
More and more the New York applications for public 
fish for stocking waters that are public (for under no 
circumstances will State fish be furnished for stocking 
private waters, and I might alsoi say that the State of 
New York does not furnish fish for stocking the waters 
of other States, be they public or private) demand finger- 
ling fish, particularly of the salmon family, and conse- 
quently fewer trout fry are asked for. There is no 
reason why fry properly planted should not give good 
returns, but the trouble is to have the fry properly 
planted, as I have pointed out in former notes. Very 
recently I met a committee of gentlemen in Cattaraugus 
county to look over various places where trout fry may 
be reared to fingerhngs, and one of them gave me a leaf 
from his experience in planting fry. He said he had been 
just as successful in planting fry as in planting fingerling 
fish, because he took the fry to the very headwaters of the 
streams and planted them at the sources, taking the fry 
from the cans in a dipper and depositing not over six 
to twelve of , the little fish in a place. This made con- 
siderable hard work, fot each can probably contained at 
least 3,000 fry, and to plant six to twelve and carry the 
can to another point and repeat the operation required 
tinie and hard work, but Mr. Blessing assured me that 
this sort of fish planting brought as good results as when 
fingerlings had been planted. The fish so distributed 
were assured of a fair division of the food in the streams 
and were placed where they would not be eaten by their 
larger brethren of the same or other .species. 
^ This evening I was looking at the circular of the 
Solway Fishing Company, of Dumfries, Scotland, and 
noticed What it had to say about fry. Mr. Armistead, the 
proprietor of the fishery, is a man of large experience as 
a fish breeder, and wfiat he has to say on the subject 
must have weight, and as I desire always to present a 
case fairly, I give an extract from the circular : 
"Many of our correspondents we find prefer fry, and 
have been remarkably successful in stocking waters with 
them. Fry do very well, and are ^o much better under- 
stood than they were twenty years ago that we have far 
more confidence in recommending them. There are cases 
in which it would be injudicious and possibly useless to 
use fry for stocking, but such cases are exceptional. The 
great secret of success with fry lies in having good healthy 
fish." 
The trout fry sent out by the State of New York are 
good healthy fish — there can be none more so — and if they 
were not they would not grow into the good healthy 
fingerling fish that are so frequently commended by those 
who receive them. Breeding fish are carefully selected 
and only healthy specimens are used for breeders. The 
stock fish are changed between the different hatcheries 
that have stock "ponds. Fish above four years of age are 
now disposed of by planting them in public waters. Fresh 
blood is introduced by taking eggs from w:ld fish, and eggs 
are obtained from waters outside of the State. The differ- 
ence between the cost of fry and yearlings is exemplified 
m the circular before me. Fry from selected fish are 
sold at $6.25 per 1,000, and selected yearlings are sold for 
$75 per 1,000, If yearlings are not properly planted they 
will amount to little more than fry improperly planted, so 
it remains, if one is to be successful in fish plantins?. for 
the applicant for State fish to see that, whether the fish are 
fry or fingerlings, they are properly placed in the water. 
Sometimes I think it would be money well invested for 
the State to insist that all fish be planted by men from 
the State hatcheries, and then, if these men did not do 
the work as it should be done, to get others who would. 
It is a great saving of time and money for the State to 
deliver the fish, whatever they may 'be, at a railroad 
station into the hands of the applicant, and go on to other 
stations with other assignments of fish. In this way a 
m.essenger might distribute 60,000 fish in three days that 
would require a week or more to plant if the messenger 
put every fish in the stream himself. 
However, I have wandered away from ice on trout fry. 
I was greatly surprised to read in the Solwav circular 
this declaration : "We have often heard of fry being iced 
for a journey. No wonder they did not succeed. Here 
ice has never been used for such a purpose, except under 
the most exceptional circumstances." 
There is no reason why ice should not be used, and 
there is every reason that it should in transporting fry, 
and no harm ever came from using it, and if ever fry 
failed to succeed, the failure cannot be charged to the 
use of ice in the cans on the journey from the hatchery 
to the Water where the fry were planted. 
This may appear to be strong language in the face of 
ithe quotation, and I mean it to be, for if it is wrong to 
ice trout fry in the cans on a journey, the State and 
national fish commissions have been doing wrong for 
years and continue to-day to do wrong. Nevertheless 
they are very successful in so doing. 
_ Occasionally I have heard some one wonder that ice 
IS used in a can of young fish, only because they happen 
to think that the ice may strike the fish or iam them 
against the side of the can. In a can the ice floats at the 
top of the water and the trout fry, like all fry of the 
.salmon family, hug the bottom. It is for this reason thst 
round cans are used, for if they were square corners th- 
fry would crowd into the corners at the bottom ani 
smother. 
Over and over again have fry (and older fish, too) been 
lost for want of ice, and the ice question is a rather ten- 
der subject with me. One night I started with a lot of 
choice trout fry for an all-night journey, and I was 
plentifully supolied with ice, as I supoosed but ther° 
was a fire in the express car, and the ice melted in th-; 
cans- at a fearful rate, and in the middle of the night the 
ice gave out. The sleeping cars in the train contribu<-c [ 
each a small quota of ice. but not enough to save the 
fish. To be sure, the cans were overcrowded at the start, 
t^Hl's was g, tnatter of necessity, and an extra (^tsantity 
