430 
FOREST AND STREAM 
[June i, 1901. 
The batteau was reduced to flinders, and all the light 
,work blown off the steamer. The man overboard was 
picked up, considerably hurt by flying debris, but not 
seriousl3^ Nobody on the steamer was badly hurt. Four 
or five fishermen and guides in boats not far away were 
not hurt, though considerably shocked. 
J. B. Watkins, of New York, goes home happy with a 
trout of nearly 8 pounds, beating Mr. Suffern by at least 
a pound. Special. 
Eastern Tuna, 
New York. — Editor Forest and Stream: Several fisher- 
men who have spoken of prospective trips to California 
for sport with the tuna seemed to be much surprised when 
I informed them that the tuna Avas a common fish on our 
Eastern Atlantic coast. The fact does not appear to be 
generally known. If any one will take his tuna outfit to 
Halifax or Canso when the herring approach the coast he 
will have no trouble in finding all of the sport that he 
wants, provided that he can find boatmen who will accom- 
pany him. They are afraid of these monsters, and several 
natives whom I have tried to employ refused to go, say- 
ing that the}^ did not care to "get upset quicker'n 
lightnin'." The tuna is called albicore and horse mackerel 
from Massachusetts to Newfoundland, but it is the same 
fish that is just now attracting fishermen to California. 
Robert T. Morris. 
Ffsiores. 
Sept. 2-5.— Toronto, Can.— Dog show of the Toronto Industrial 
Exhibition. W. P. Fraser, Sec'y. and Supt. 
A Little Stofy from the French, 
M. E. P., emploired by the administration of the rail- 
road of the State, is a very enthusiastic fisher with the 
line. His passion is well known to his chiefs and his 
fellows, and each one knows how he improves every occa- 
sion and invokes all the pretexts for himself to devote to 
his pastime favorite. 
Wishing to profit by the opening of the fishing of the 
trout, he himself presented the other day in the ofiice of 
his chief of bureau: 
"My sist6r herself marries, monsieiu" ; T would like " 
"Certainly, my friend; I not have any objection to this 
that you should go from time to time to the marriage of 
your sister, only you would do well me to bring a little 
of the fish," ' 
Adirondack Fishingf, 
JoHNSTOWNj N. Y., May 27. — Our local paper reports 
that the largest lake trout ever taken out of Lake Piseco 
was caught by W. N. Cottrtney on Tuesday. The weight 
was 29^4 pounds, length 43 inches, girth 25 inches. John 
Yost, of Johnstown, held the record until now, having 
caught one which weighed 26^ pounds. The fishing for 
trout has not been up to usual standard, although there 
has been a few exceptional^ fine catches. High water 
and cold rains have made the season backward. Very 
few trout have been taken with the fly. The best catches 
have been made trolling with spoon and li^ve bait. 
C. M. R. 
Canadian Tro«t Export* 
An Order in Council. May 13. forbids the export 
of speckled trout, river trout or sea trout from Ontario. 
Quebec, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia and Prince Edward 
Island, except that an angler may export 25 pounds of 
trout, if accompanied by certificate issued by local fishery 
officer. 
New Jersey Weakfish. 
Bayville, N. J., May 24. — The first school of weakfish 
(that is, biters) came in to-day/ I caught some one mile 
south of the pier. There were plenty of them, so I do not 
think that the bad weather has affected the run. Parties 
would better hold off a short time longer. Herb. 
Fly-Fishingf for Pickerel. 
West Roxeury^ Mass., April 24. — The other day while 
talking with a friend he remarked that he had read that 
pickerel could be caught with a fly. Perhaps some of 
your readers can settle this question, -and if it is true what 
flies are best. Muskodosa. 
Shenandoah River Bass Fishing. 
Black bass fishermen should not overlook the account 
of Shenandoah River fishing in our canoeing columns this 
week. 
100 Spomnten's Tfnas. 
Some of the Qtteef Discoveries Made by Those Vho Ate 
Loofckig for Game or Fish. 
66 
Eddyville,' N. Y., April 24, 1901. — Robert O'Neil, 
while fishing in the Ulster & Delaware Canal, below the 
creek locks, last week, caught a large German carp. He 
says he found imbedded in the back part of its mouth a 
pair of false teeth. The teeth were identified as the prop- 
erty of Benjamin Tor bush, of Eddyville, who, about 
three years ago, while removing driftwood from the sluice 
on the upper level of the canal, was taken with an attack 
of sneezing. The teeth became loose, dropped over- 
board and were lost. — New York World. 
Eiiiiiitiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii!iiiiiiiniiiiiiiiiiiiniiiimiiii= 
I REPORT YOUR LUCK | 
I With Rod and Gun | 
I To FOREST AND STREAM, 1 
I New Yqrk City. 1 
iiiiiiiiuiilfilllipnnlfiijifii;;^ 
A Battle in the Dark. 
I not going to .assert that thei-fc aiiy ui the 
scientific, brand in the foUoWing- StOry, nor thoroughly 
trained dogs or crack shdtS. foi- tliei-e are not. There 
never are »n a plain, bld-fashionied ebon bunt: but, afe 
for a few hours of exCitenrent and uneertainly, the night 
I am about to describe wafe nboUt a& full of it as any I 
ever had the pleasure of Ittixing up in. 
In the late autumn of 18 — all the farmers and farmers' 
son,s weVe greatly excited over some animal that was 
said to be making its home m a piece of heaA'y timber, 
containing, perhaps, three or four hundred aci-es, and 
consisting principally of oak, ash and elih, of ill sizei-, 
and a greater portion of it Covered with wild gfflpe arid 
ivy. wliile the ground \yas thickly COvet'ed With shrubbery,, 
making an ideal spot for the Wily old eooii to rest diir- 
ing the day and go forth in search of striy coi-nflekls 
at night; and yOU Were pretty sure to run one into a 
tree almost any night with a fairly goad dt^f. 
Nearly all .the fatmers round thfe neighborhood had 
dogs of some breed, and inoSt of i:hem had, in some por- 
tion of our lives, killed or been unceremoniously 
whipped by some old long-legged papa coon, and it was 
the pl'ide of the young men's heart to own a dog with 
a good coon record. At this particular time excitement 
was at fever heat. There had appeared in the woods, 
from no one knew where, some animal said to be all 
sizes, from that of a Newfoundland dog to a large eooii; 
and before the coon hunting season was three weeks old 
he had whipped somewhere about twc-nty difl^ereiU dngS, 
and had whipped them .singly and ill pairs, thfeeft and 
fours, and had done it in .such an ftrti§tie nianhfel- that 
he left no show for an argument, and the tefetee's deci^ 
sion always stood. His mode of scrapping consisted 
of a warm reception for the dogs from the first, and a 
neat break-away and run at the first chance; and tlie 
dogs never cared to follow after the first mix up. He 
had made himself famous; he was the talk of the village 
and surrounding country. Small boys needed no curfew ' 
to get home before night. Men waited for their neigh- 
bors going home from the corner grocery and postoffi.ce, 
no matter whether they were friends or not, and coon 
hunting parties became fewer and fewer, until the old 
woods were silent at night. This was the state of affairs 
when three other boys and myself, all considering we 
were past boyhood, met one Saturday night and the 
conversation turned on the animal in "the big woods." 
The elder of two brothers proposed we go after it, say- 
ing they had a dog that he felt sure would stay to a 
finish and give a good account of himself. The dog in 
question was not considered a coon hunter; he would, 
however, hunt anything else, from a field mouse to the 
pantry. He was a good tracker, however, and as a 
fighter he was a winner from the jump, and if that animal 
could have looked him over once he would certainly 
have given up the fight; he was as larg-e as -an ordinary, 
timber wolf and about the same color, and his breed was 
descended at least 100 years from registered stock. He 
was a vicious brute and was ncA'er unchained. 
We talked it over, and as we were all reluctant to show 
the white feather in a crowd, we finally decided to tackle 
him. As there was no gun nearer than a mile, we took 
an axe, in case we had to cut a tree, and marched forth. 
We called at Tom's place and he got old Major. We 
all owned dogs of some sort, but we decided to take only 
one, as one good dog is better alone than in company 
with several, as they get in each other's way or fight 
among themselves, and we wanted to give old Major 
a show for his white alley. As soon as we got in the 
woods we lighted the lantern; and it's really strange the 
feeling of affection that existed between us bo}'s that 
night. We seemingly could not walk close enough to- 
gether; and we w^ere so alert that a falling leaf was 
not passed unnoticed. Old Sleuth would have been a 
four-horse team compared with us in regard to noise. 
We turned old Maj loose just before we went into 
the wods. None of us expected to hear the dogs, as we 
had.no idea he would find the game. But after penetrat- 
ing the woods for a hundred yards or so we sat down on 
a log and waited. But I noticed the two^boys on the 
outer end of the line soon preferred to stand, so we were 
huddled pretty close together, and didn't talk much. 
We had sat for some time and listened, but not a 
sound reached us, and we had just begun to think that 
Major had gone home, or taken it in his head to go 
after some stray mutton which, by the wa3'', he was 
som.etimes accused of, and was looked Upon with sus- 
picion accordingly, and we were trying to brace up our 
caiirage to jokingly telling Tom the same, when, from 
the thickest and gloomiest part of the swamp, as that 
portion was called, we heard old Major's deep, hoarse 
bark. Usually, when coon hunting, the bark from the 
dog meant for us to spring up and the man with the lan- 
tern to head the line and plough through the woods, sin- 
gle file, as fast as we could go. Not so this evening; oh, 
no: we don't up and away. We sit still for a couple of 
minutes, when Tom says hoarsely: "Yes, that's Major, 
by thunder; he's in the thickest of the swamp. Wish 
we had a gun." We talked for a few minutes, then we 
decided to go on. The dog was bai'king more furiously, 
and we each armed ourselves with a good heavy club, and 
Tom taking the lead we commenced the toilsome tramp 
oi nearlv a mile through the heavy brush. 
We had no trouble locating the dog. as he barked 
incessantly. We found him gazing up a large ash, about . 
16 or 18 inches in diameter and probably 25 feet to the 
first limb. We were meditating whether to cut it or 
stay till morning, when Tom took the axe and said: 
"Boys, I wonder if she's holler." Chipping the bark off 
he gave the trunk a resounding whack. Again and again 
the back of the axe struck the trunk, probably six or 
seven times, and Tom dropped the axe with the excla- 
mation, "§otin4 as a Mil" when, bark! w^ish, thud, and 
a heavy body struck the earth nbt thirty^ feet from where 
.Sfdipd and IVSS. up khd away ih &n instant With ©Id 
MajSf in hot pUi-suit, pouting olit such M, fdlidihe. of lloWl- 
ing yelps that the .w.bods eelibfed and fe-etehoed until it 
seemed to be fitll bt db^S: tJniil hoW We had hoped that 
it mig-hk hp a coon, but all doubts were dispelled — for 
hO Coon ever leaves a tree until nearly forced to, and we 
kheW also that had it been a coon he would not have 
gotten away so riipidlyi 
t)ur .SpiVit^ W'efe somewhat risen, by the way Maj of got 
away after it, and while we had no jdea a§ to. this identity 
of the stranger, we had .great faith ih tHte dbg'§ £lbiiity 
to take eat-e of hlhi hnbiilu it doihe to clo§e ,qti3rtel^§: 
Tht i-aEfe Was not a Ibng bne, ho^fevfer, and tVe Md liklg 
time for refletti'bn, as Major came to a standstill about 
200 yards toward the endge of the swamp. We found 
him at the foot of a basswood about the same size as 
the -first one, but he was in a different frame of mind; his 
hair stood on end and his eyes blazed; he was simply 
spoiling tor a fight. We tri^d sounding the tree 
again,. but to, no. pUfp«DSej his loi-dfehip hsid eithgi- groi¥ii 
tirefl frbni the iaSt rim o.r didia'f like the looks of thfe 
dog. There Was ii.one of us who cslred to eliqib t lS 
tree and we had about decided tb .GRrttp theM for tig 
night, as aftci- having gotteh WRfhifed tip. We .tv'efe. d^ttei'- 
mined to. Swjve h]§ identity It it tobk ti§ Ml fiight. , 1, how- 
ever, Vbilmtefered to shin Up a tree that stood nfear it 
anil take a birdseye view of the surroundings, which I 
did, and located the game on a limb running directly 
toward me. but some twenty feet away. I am not going 
to saj' I- felt quite as comfortable as I do right now. 
^ut, corraling all my courage, I told the boys to look 
6Ut — I would shoot him. The assertion was backed by 
a .22 caliber revolver of tlie most uselesg typt, bvit I ^Irgw 
on him, i!o to speak, or oii the huneh in thg tr§e that 
looked like him, took deliberate aiih' .and filled: The 
bunch in the ttee did not fall, hoWevfef ;, it Simply seehied 
to run a. feW shbrt j limps on the limb, fise and soai- 
away, eii-elint doWnWRtd: Hfe strliek th.g grotind a.s be- 
fore arid was 'hp and away before, th^ dbg. got to hlriij 
but .Major mM'e it hiUch hotter fot Hihi this tillie flha 
put him tip a tree inside of 100 yards, I slid down the 
tree and joined the boys and we were soon at the foot 
of the tree. As I was the only one that carried firearms 
I was delegated to climb the tree, and as it was in com- 
partively clear ground we thought we could bring our 
game to bay. We had noticed in the two previous times 
we had treed him, he, she or it had made hig sraGeful 
descent as far from the light as possible, and as tlie dog- 
was always with the light I volunteered to hold the lan- 
tern, inwardly thinking, "1 should be delighted.'* But 
Tom said sometliing abolU not wanting it broken, and 
as he owned it 1 told him t would hold the dog, thinking 
I would be about as safe with die dog ils the Iflritefn, 
But as 1 WEis delegated to climb the ttee I cotild hot 
hold either Until Tom's brother Jack, eI 1M of .Slxtefen, whti 
aUvays wanted to shoot off a revolver, said he would go 
up the tree "and blow his gol durned head off" on sight, 
and as the animal had hitherto always shown a disposi- 
tion to get away if possible, he stuck my popgun in his 
coat pocket an.d scrambled up the tree. He had gotten 
nearly to the first limb when there was a scratching in 
the tree, and Jack said he guessed he would come down 
as there seemed to be nothing up there. I was holding 
LVfaior by the collar and his eyes were riveted on some- 
rhtng. »i the tree top.' I told Jack to go on, for the dog 
saw him. Jack crawled to the first limb and surv^eyed 
the surroundings. He did not survey long. His voice 
trembled when he said. "I can see his eyes; they are like 
coals of fire," and right after he let out a yell like a fog- 
horn and said, "There he goes right toward the dog." 
It was unnecessary for him to have said this. Old Maj^or 
let out a roar like a caged beast, reared up, and in another 
instant therf- was nothing to it but a shower of flying 
leaves and. dust, mingled with a few bunches of gray hair, 
and out of this mix-up came in a beautiful discord, yelps, 
howls and snarls, accompanied by the occasional whine 
of pain from, the dog. Whether it was an instinctive dnd 
accelerated desire to give the dog a show, or, as we hear 
in a _street fight, to "make room," I cannot answer; but 
certain it is I made room, and made room very rapidlj^ 
clearing about 15 feet of space the first leap. Tom, . 
however, started to run — I am not saying which way— 
toward the dog, he says, and" I am not trying to rob him 
of glory. At any rate he got tangled in the brush and 
fell, putting out the lantern, and we were in inky black- 
ness. I have witnessed many fights in the woods between 
dogs and animals, but this was the fiercest I ever saw, or, 
rather, heard. They went over the ground so rapidly 
it seemed as if there were a dozen of them, and the 
uncertainty of the affair made it seem like a night scene 
from the infernal region. We hastily got the lantern and 
attempted to relight it. but as such is the case always, we 
were too excited to go about it in a manner that would 
bring haste, but as all things have an ending we at last 
got a light and, following as best we could the turmoil, 
which had som_ewhat abated, we found old Major fight- 
ing desperately with an animal which we could tell by 
the fleeting glimpses we caiight of it was light yellow 
in color and larger than a coon, and as full of fight as a 
man hit in the face with a piece of pie from an excursion 
train. We could also see that the dog was holding his 
own; if anj^thing. was getting the better of it, and finally 
getting a firm hold of it by the back, he pinioned it to 
the ground, and we saw that the struggle was nearly 
over and it had been a battle royal. After a few vicious 
shakes the animal ceased to struggle, and a few blows 
on the head with a club finished it and old Major was 
the hero of the hour. But he had not come out scathless; 
he was cut, scratched and bitten; we found blood flow- 
ing from OA'er a dozen places on our arrival home. We 
examined o.ur game, and though some of us had never 
seen anything like it, Tom. who had traveled, being to 
Barnum's circus once, proudly stated it was a wildcat, and 
"a whopper," too. He was correct in the first — it was a 
real wildcat, but was rather small, or I fear old Major 
would not have come out of it so easily, as many of the 
old pioneers said when vieAving the skin which Tom 
had tanned and to this day occupies a conspicuous place 
m his mother's parlor. We were -very jubilant over our 
capture and rather made life miserable for those who had 
failed before us. But we were justly proud, as no game 
of this- sprt ha4 Ijeefi ?e?n ?,T9m4 that locality fof ym%, 
