268 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
[April 6, igox. 
A Turkey Httntar^s Bull Luck* 
Raleigh, N. C. March 25.— A suit in the Superior 
Court here against the Seaboard Air Line Railway has 
developed one of the most novel accidents known to the 
annals of jurisprudence. 
A vestibuled passenger train from Atlanta was bowling 
along toward Raleigh on a down grade at the rate of fifty 
miles per hour at 10 o'clock in the morning. William 
AVatlington was on his way to a wild turkey blind which 
he had baited, and had his double-barreled breechloading 
shotgun on his shoulder, two cartridges being in the 
chamber.s. On reaching the railroad track, which was 
on an embankment about 10 feet high at this place, Mr. 
Watlington heard the train in the distance and stopped 
on the side of the track about 50 feet away to view the 
train as it swept by. He could not see over the em- 
bankment to the other side of the track. 
Alongside the embankment, on both sides of the track, 
are the usual ditches, which were filled with water. Mr. 
Watlington was standing between the embankment and 
one of these ditches on the north side of the track with 
his gun on his right shoulder. On the other side of the 
track Avere a number of cattle nipping grass, which Mr. 
Watlington could not see. A few seconds before the 
train passed these cattle commenced to straggle across 
the track to the side on which Mr. Watlington was 
standing. The bovines all got safely across except one 
small Jersey bull, Avhich was caught on the cow-catcher 
and hurled away with terrible velocity. 
As misfortune and luck both would have it, the animal 
struck Mr. Watlington about amidships, knocked him 
down into the ditch, and landed on top of him. The 
bull was stunned, and struggled, but could not get up, and 
the water was drowning both man and beast. The en- 
gineer was watching the cattle and had not seen Mr. Wat- 
hngton. When the fireman told him what had happened 
he stopped the train, hurried back and got there in time 
to pull Watl'ngton and the bovine out of the ditch before 
they were drowned. 
Striking Mr. Watlington and knocking him into the 
water saved the life of the bull, and the water prevented 
the blow by the bull from killing Watlington. Further 
examination showed that when the bull struck Mr. Wat- 
lington, the shock knocked the guii some distance away, 
and when it struck the ground it was discharged and 
killed one of the cows and wounded another so badly that 
it had to be kUled. The gun was not injured. 
On these facts Judge Brown held that the railroad com- 
pany Avas not liable in damages to Mr. Watlington. 
Since the trial the owner of the two cows has sued Mr. 
Watlington and recoA-ered $roo in full of damages for 
their killing. 
Since all this happened Mr. Watlington has had a great 
piece of good luck. He has been working for H. N. 
SnoAV at High Point, in the furniture business, and the 
latter, Avho is getting- old and tired of the business, re- 
tired and ^ave the Avhole plant and business, worth $20,000, 
to Mr. Watlington, who was of no kin to, him, but simply a 
faithful employee. — New York Times. 
Minnesota Game. 
Minneapolis, Minn. — About Oct. 21, 1898, a party of 
four of us went to Devils Lake, N. D., for a short hunt, 
■principally after geese, but Avere unfortimate enough to en- 
counter a heaA'}' snow storm, Avhich lasted a great part 
of the tAvo days that we were to hunt, and we were dis- 
appointed as far as geese were concerned, only securing 
four. The birds did not fly in and out of the lake during 
the storm. 
There were quite a number of mallards flying. gd.'-'w-e 
turned our attention to them and succeeded in bagging 
eighty-one, including a fcAV redheads and gray ducks. 
The mallards Avere the largest I have ever seen, and 
out of curiosity I weighed three males out of my bunch 
on return to Minneapolis, or about forty-qight hours 
after being shot. They Aveighed 14?^. pounds. One 01 
them weighed a trifle over 5 pounds and the other two 
very near 5 pounds each. 
Our shooting last fall Avas very poor, the duck flight 
being very irregular and not very heavy. I heard of a 
fcAv good bags being made, but not so good as former 
years. 
On account of the favorable season, prairie chickens 
were strong when the season opened, and I regret to say 
the law had not been observed. 
I find the bicycle to be quite an important factor in 
the violation of the game laws, as it is a A^ery easy matter 
to jump on a wheel Avith gun strapped to it (it is not 
alwajrs necessary to have a dog Avhen the coveys are once 
located), take a run of three or four miles out of the 
small towns near which the chickens abound, start say 
about 6 P. M., get half a dozen or more birds and re- 
turn just after sundown. It Avas the experience of a good 
many hunters as well as ours to fiud the coA^eys broken 
up and very wild, and this as early as Sept. i. It has 
always seemed to me that we can always hear from good 
authority how the game laws are violated,, but the deputy 
warden who liA'^es, as you might say, on the grounds is 
usual!}' blind and deaf to such violations. I am glad 
Ave have our former game warden back Avith us again— I 
mean Mr. Fullerton, He has done more for the pro- 
tection of game the last month than his , predecessor did 
in two years. " K. 
Th.e Platform Plank of Forest and Stream* 
DuNCARTOisr, N- H., March 25. — Editor Forest and 
Stream: At last New Hampshire has to a certain ex- 
tent adopted the Plank of Forest and Stream, as I am 
told that it is now illegal to sell at any time or to offer 
for sale Avithin the State any ruffed grouse and wood- 
cock. For some time the sale of brook trout has been 
illegal. ■ 
It Avas intended_ to include deer, lake trout and salmon 
in the laAV prohibiting the sale of Avoodcock and grouse; 
but as there Ava.s considerable opposition from the north 
country (the home of the deer and lake trout), it was 
considered best tojeave the laAv on them as noAv in force. 
Thi,s has 'been a Avise movement on the part of New Hamp- 
shire. . With the open market in Massachusetts closed, the 
market shooters of the above State have come into New 
Hainpshirf. md hunted steadily through the season, fir\^ - 
mg a ready sale at pretty good prices in our local markets. 
A prominent market man when talking about the law 
now in force said to me : 'T am not sorry I had to keep 
a supply of woodcock and partridges on hand, as my 
customers wanted them. There was very little profit in 
handling them at the prices I had to pay." New Hamp- 
shire should have had such a law earlier, but it is better 
late than later. Great credit is due to Forest and Stream 
inasmuch as it has shown clearly that other States were 
realizing the absolute necessity of the Plank. 
The ruffed grouse is ,the bird we count on in New 
Hampshire, and with its extermination our bird shooting 
would practically end. So far as I can see or hear from 
reliable sources, the attempt to introduce foreign game 
birds has not proved a success. Under the law just 
passed, our grouse possibly may fail to increase to any 
extent. If they can hold their OAvn, which I am sure 
they have not been doing, there will be enough for those 
who can kill them to get all they need or should have. 
C. M. Stark. 
Bob White in British Columbia. 
Cumberland, V. I., B. C, March 9. — Editor Forest and 
Stream: This Aveek the .Cumberland Game Association 
received a shipment of six dozen Virginia qus.il from 
Wichita, Kan. The birds were liberated the same even- 
ing between this place and Courtney. Most of them were 
quite lively, there being but tAVO which showed any sign 
of weakness. The loss en route Avas sixteen. HoAvever, 
as eight extra birds had been shipped by the dealer 
gratuitously to cover losses, the actual loss was eight 
birds. It is to be hoped that people will unite in protecting 
the little fellows for some years, when they will afford 
grand sport. It is the intention of the Association to 
attempt the importation of the English partridge next sea- 
son, if suitable arrangements can be made. 
California quail turned out on the southern end of Van- 
couver Island have done Avell, and there is no reason Avhy 
Bob White should not flourish and increase. 
; W. B. A. 
Ducks Breeding: in Vermont. 
North Ferrisburg, Vt., March 29. — I very much hope 
you will all be successful in putting a stop tO' spring 
shooting. Here on Little Otter, teal, wood and black 
ducks have nested for years, and I am quite sure that 
some seasons the mallard nests here, as on several occa- 
sions I .have seen them on opening- day, Sept. i. and I 
hardly think they would come in from other places so 
early. This is the condition of things on the Otter, and 
only half a mile to the north is Long Point, on which 
are nearly fifty camps, and with from one to twenty-five 
boats going up the stream each day. Why should the 
ducks nest here unless protection in the spring is respon- 
sible for it? 
I have thought an honest sportsman did not need a law 
to protect the game in the mating season, but I must be 
in the wrong or they are not all honest. 
H. B. Chase. 
Trout on Long Island. 
The trout season opened on Long Island Friday last: 
The day was cold and blustering. The wind was so 
strong from tlie northwest that it was almost impossible 
to keep a fly in the water. 
Mr. Rhinelander, of Manhattan, is credited with having 
landed the first fish, at the Southside Sportsmen's Club. 
Col. Wagstaff and some others returned from the 
Southside preserA^e, Friday afternoon, Avith a fair basket 
of fish/ Many of the other sportsmen there and to the 
eastern end of the island remained over until Monday. 
Green Creek and Brown Creek, at Sayville, were not 
fished on account of the wind. The favorite fly for the 
windy days was a big fat Lumbricus terrestris. 
Markets and Game. 
Sauk Centre, Minn. — The markets here have been 
closed against prairie chickens for a. year. That is all 
right; I was in favor of it years ago. This Avinter a laAv 
has been passed prohibiting the sale of ducks ; that would 
be all right if the markets in all the States Avere closed. 
Noav Ave will raise and feed the young ones for some one 
else to kill and sell. There are quite a few quail here this 
winter. They, as well as chickens, are wintering well. 
The chickens, however, are getting more scarce every 
year; if they would only close the season two or three 
years it would give them a start again. C. W. V. 
Massachusetts Game. 
Danvers, Mass., March 21, — Game has wintered Aveil. 
I never saAv less snoAv. Saw first spring birds to-day- 
bluebirds, robin and meadowlark. We are having good 
rains, and the trout will run up the brooks. The new 
law that cuts off a month shooting on black ducks will 
not be welcome to the duck shooters, who have their 
best shooting in April. Many muskrats are being trapped 
on the river. Usually they are flooded out of their abodes 
by the spring freshets and boat loads killed. This Avin- 
ter. Avithout snow, Avill be in their laA'or. 
John W. Babbitt. 
Ducks Wintering in Ontario. 
Toronto, Canada, March 25. — A month ago a gentle- 
man Avhile ice-boating on the bay caught a live canvas- 
back duck; its feet were frozen to the ice. Thousands 
of wild ducks stayed all Avinter in the AVestern Gap and 
the open lake. As far as I could distinguish, they con- 
sisted of at least four varieties. They all seemed to know 
that the law would protect them near large cities, for they 
loved to swim around the mouth of the sewers Avhen the 
water Avas warm. G. H. Corsan. 
Long Island Ducking. 
New York, April i. — While down at East Quogue, L. I., 
last week, Mr. E. A. Jackson (guide), of above place, and 
myself killed eighteen black ducks, seventeen sprigtails, 
four geese and a few other ducks, The ducks Avei^e all 
A-ery fat,, an^ the geese f^Y§r?ig<?d 12 pounds. 
— $ — 
Proprietors of fishing resorts will find it profitable to advertise 
them in Forest and Stream. 
Notice. 
All communications intended for Forest and Stream should 
always be addressed to the Forest and Stream Publishing Co., and 
not to any individual connected with the paper. 
Talks to Boys,— XIV. 
. ; 
Bait Casting for Bass. 
Now we come to another sort of bass iishing— that is, 
lake fishing— and it is here that you will need all your wits, 
as well as a long experience, before you may become 
perfect, or get to be what we call a scientific bass fisher. 
In your roying along the streams you have had some ad- 
vahtages on your side, and you have only been doing such 
fishing as almost any one might do. When you come 
to catching bass in the open water of a lake, where you 
have to fish from a boat, where there is uo concealment, 
and where the bass can see you for a long ways, the whole 
question takes a different form. Again I am going to 
ask you to sit down and study the matter before you go 
to fishing. 
You will observe that in the spring time the black bass 
makes its spawning bed out in the shallow water close 
to the shore. It feeds in this shallow water also, all day 
long in cloudy weather, though usually only for an hotir 
or two in the eA^ening of a warmish day. It follows these 
habits up till late June or early July, Avhen its habits un- 
dergo a change. It leaves the shallow water and goes 
to the deeper part of the lake, where it' feeds on min- 
nows, small fish or craAvfish. In late summer you can 
therefore catch it by still-fishing in deep water, or better 
speaking, along the face of some bar Avhich drops off 
into deep water. This form of bass fishing sometimes will 
do. when there is nothing better going, but it is not 
the sort which will give you the most sport, and not the 
sort of which I wish now to speak. 
The best form of this lake fishing for bass is known as 
bait casting, and the bait commonly used is the frog. I 
would not counsel you beginning to fish for bass in these 
lakes until they are Avell through their spawning season, 
as that is a time Avhen no fish should be disturbed. If 
we killed the setting hens we vi^ould never have any 
chickens, and it is the same way with fish. We must give 
them a time lo rear their little ones. There is ample 
time for this, and also for bait casting, in the early sum- 
mer, along the shores of our bass lakes. - 
You will get the theory of this thing when yovi Avill 
observe that a bass can see you in this bright, clear, shal- 
low water, and Avill dart away like a flash Avhile you are 
still 40 or so feet away from him. You will note also 
' that in the evening the bass will come and feeed right 
up at the edge of the grass, and in among the rushes and 
lily pads Avhere the frogs live. I have often seen bass 
with their backs out of water, chasing frogs almost 
up on to the dry land. If a frog drops off of a lily pad 
and tries to swim, a bass will nab him in a rush so swift 
that it can hardly be followed by the eye. New, there 
ought to be room here for you to make a litttle argument 
for yourself. If you can get a frog to that bass without 
his seemg you, and if you can have a hook in that frog, 
and if you can make the frog move as though it were 
alive, you are sure to get a strike from that bass 
if he sees the frog. He is sure to strike it on the surface 
of the water, and to strike it mighty hard and swiftly, 
since he will be afraid it is going to get away from him. 
That is sport, and that is your problem in this sport. 
You will find that you cannot get at your bass from 
the bank, because a bank Avhere there are frogs is too soft 
and marshy for you to walk upon, even if the bass could 
not see you there. You therefore get into a boat, and you 
approach your bass not from the shore side, as you did 
in your river fishing, but from the open water side. 
Now the problem is hoAV to get your frog out to the 
bass Avithout his. seeing 3'ou. 
As a boy you have often thrown a crab apple off a stick. 
Well, now you are going to learn to throw a frog off. a 
rod. Your rod is short, slight and stiffish, and in its 
best form is not over seven feet in length. It would be a 
beautiful thing for throwing a crab apple, but it costs you" 
$10 or more, and it is to be devoted to throwing frogs 
and not crab apples. Your old bamboo pole Avill not do 
m this game. Your rod must be made for this purpose 
and for uo other purpose. Your old linen line will net 
do, but you must have a fine braided raAv silk line, which 
will slip through the upright guides of the rod with per- 
fect ease. The line is very thin and firie, and though it 
is strong enough for your purposes it Avill only wear a 
feAV days if you use it steadily. 
But though you have your rod and your line, you have 
not yet got control over your frog. Here is where the' 
casting reel comes in. The perfect casting- reel is a' 
quadruple multiplier, and it runs as smooth^' as a watch. ■ 
It is an expensive reel, but it aa^II Avear a long time • if 
you take good care of it. It will run so easily that you" 
can give the handle a twirl and it will keep moA'ing for 
15, 20 or even 30 seconds. 
You will at once observe that if you give your frog 
a good pitch off the end of your rod,' it Avill pull this little 
line off this smooth running reel vtry easilj^ indeed. 
Now practice SAveeping the rod from a point half way 
down your bod}^ and opposite your elbow, upward and 
forward over your shoulder. Hold the rod Avith the three 
lower fingers of the hand. - Let the pressure come on the 
side and base of your forefinger. Your thumb will rest 
gently against the spool of the reel, and you must feel 
the line all the time lightly with your thumb, but you 
must be strictly careful not to push Avith your thumb. 
You must learn to think with that thumb. 
As your rod tip goes up and over, your frdg makes a 
long shoot out ahead of you, just as your crab apple did 
off the stick, only it does not go quite so high. As the 
frog goes out and down, follow it with the tip of the rod. 
so that as the frog lands, the tip of the rod will point 
directly toward it. This Avill allow the Hne to 'fee pulled out 
straight through the guides, and will enable you to cast 
mi\ch i^^th^V t^?:i} you qthenvise coi^^, ^t^^ it vf^U ^sfj 
