Aug. 3, tgbt.] 
FOREST AND STREAM.^ 
86 
game within the State is concerned, is not questioned. 
When game is brought from another State, by whatever 
means, or for whatever purpose, or in whatever condi- 
tion, it becoities, upon the moment of its introduction 
into the State, a part of the game of the State^ and sub- 
ject to the control of its laws. 
In the case of In re Davenport (C. C), 102 Fed., 540, 
the court holds that one 'State does not have the con- 
stitutional power to prohibit traffic in game imported 
from another State. 1 regret my inability to adopt the 
view of the learned judge who decided that case. The 
respect which I have for his opinion has caused me to 
hesitate in reaching a conclusion different from his. The 
pptition for a writ of habeas corpus is denied. 
A Winter Time Outingf. 
Camden, Del., July 24. — Editor Forest and Stream: 
There is perhaps no recreation practiced by may that 
gives to its devotees so much that is satisfying as the 
yearly outing. After weary months of confinement in 
a close and stufty office, shut in by endless masses of 
masonry, sweltering with heat and worried with business 
cares, what can be more restful to one than to run away 
from it all for a few weeks, and with gim or rod in hand 
wander over forest or stream and hob nob with nature? 
What music so sweet as the merry ripple of the water, 
the rustle of the wind among the trees, the quack of the 
duck or the honk-honk of the goose, the shrill call of the 
quail or the bugle notes of Hector and Driver as they 
come straight to your stand with a noble buck? What 
nector so sweet and life-giving as the pure atmosphere 
of the forest? You throw back your shoulders and fill 
your lungs to their greatest capacity, confident that the 
, air you breathe is pure and fresh from nature's labora- 
tory. What a feeling of rest and comfort to know you 
have nothing to do for a season but enjoy all these 
blessings! 
For many years I with my family have taken to the 
woods each fall and spent the winter there, and already 
we begin to count the days to when we shall start again. 
Doubtless there are thousands of Forest and Stream 
readers who would gladly partake of the joys pictured 
above if they but knew where to go and how. I will 
gladly answer questions from any such who will inclose 
stamp. My business is such that I can only leave in 
the winter months; so, like the birds, we fly to the 
southward each fall, and, while our friends are shivering 
in snow and ice, and the mercury is trying to creep out 
at the bottom we are wandering in forests of perpetual 
green, where the white mantle of snow is seldom spread. 
I Perhaps there are those who would like to join us there. 
I If so. the latch string hangs out, and we always have an 
; extra bed in our camp and a vacant chair at our table 
for brother sportsmen who chance to wander our way. 
S. H. Thomas. 
On the Santa Fe Trail. 
The scribblers wbo write of the braves of the West, 
Their glory in stcry and rhyn)e have expressed — 
Have lauded the scouts to the heavens, and sung 
Of the deeds of the soldiers with rapturous tongue. 
The fearless frontiersmen in picturesque diress, 
The fellows who rode on the pony express. 
Were heroes, but never a hair-raising tale 
Of Ihe boys who whacked bulls on the Santa Fe trail. 
Over deserts that flickered with midsummer heat 
They plodded along on their sand-blistered feet. 
And kicked up the echoes with pops of their wnips 
And oaths that were £ung from their alkalied lips. 
Their menu was often but bacon and bread, 
A sage root the pillow that rested the head. 
Their lullabys but the coyote's drear wail. 
While crossing the plains on the Santa Fe trail. 
For them there was always a dare-devil charm 
In springing from bed at the midnight alarm. 
When the watchers had heard the hoof-beats on the plain 
That told that the redskins were after the train. 
Then every brave whacker was ready for fight. 
The flash of their rifles lit spots in the night. 
And they fought with a courage that never would fail. 
Those boys who whacked bulls on the Santa Fe trail.* 
The graves of the dead were soon leveled again 
By the hoofs of the buffalo swarming the plain: 
Forever they're hidden, and there they will he 
Till the trumpet rings out the last call from on high. 
No parson was there with a burial word; 
The graves were unmarked by a slab or a board; 
Not a visible sign that would tell the sad tale 
Of the whackers who fell on the Santa Fe trail. 
The bards and the Western historians aim 
Their volleys of praise at far loftier game; 
And yet the red fields of the West never gave 
A picture of heroes more recklessly brave. 
Undaunted they all held their lives in their hands. 
Their law, but the trainmaster's spoken commands; 
And never an imminent peril could pale 
A whacker's brown face on the Santa Fe trail. 
—James Barton Adams in Denver Post. 
A FISHING FANCY. 
From the Illustrated Sporting and Dramatic News. 
ea mid ^tv^r ^iB^iti^. 
Proprietors of fishinjg resorts will find it profitable to advertisfl 
lem in Forest and Stsxak. 
ANGLING NOTES. 
Elvers. 
My good friend. Dr. Robert T. Morris, has been very 
prompt to reply to my query in regard to the run of 
elvers, whether they have actually been observed to run 
on both banks of a" stream at the same time. This is 
his letter: 
"Your query about elvers ascending a river on both 
sides simultaneously had never occurred to me as a mat- 
ter of interest, I have often watched the eel ribbon at 
some one point without making; a note of it; but your 
query brings to mind one occasion when I was fishing 
the Washshecoolat River, in eastern Quebec, some five 
or six years ago. One morning, about July 20. I noticed 
the eel band passing the falls at the head of the first 
salmon pool, and the run lasted for at least three of four 
days. The young eels were ascending the river on both 
sides simultaneously at the falls, and were making their 
way over rocks wet witli spray, as the current was too 
swift for them. 
"In the early morning, when the rocks and moss were 
wet for a considerable distance frotn the sti-eam. the 
young eels were traveling through the wet moss in a 
wide path, but as the sim dried the rocks more and more 
during the day the eel ribbon narrowed to a little string. 
The eels attracted numbers of gulls, ducks, crows, 
Canada jays, and perhaps other birds, but I have for- 
gotten about others. There were two families of young 
dusky ducks, one family of young butterbill scoters, and 
one family of yound red-breasted mergansers, that spent 
nearly the whole of the time during each day feeding 
upon the young eels during their run over the rocks. In 
the water above and below the falls there was a swarm 
of brook trout, young sea trout, salmon parrs and smelts, 
all engaged, apparently in feasting upon young eels. In 
spite of all the attacking parties, a constant stream of 
eels was escaping i:pstream. Eels are such persistent 
spawn eaters that it occured to me that the stock of game 
fish in the river would be largely increased if one were 
to place fine nets to catch all the ascending eels every 
year, but on the other hand it is always risky to disturb 
the balance of nature. It is possible that the young eels 
furnish an important or necessary food supply for young 
fish of other species, or that they destroy other enemies 
of fish." 
Just about the time that I received the letter from Dr. 
Morris (it is post marked in Maine, July 9) the elvers 
were running in the Hudson River at Mechanicville, or, 
to be precise, on July 8. 
The eel question is one that has disturbed a number of 
English anglers not a little during the past^ear, judging 
from the angling papers, and one thing stands out in 
bold relief in several communications, and that is that 
so many writers have disputed that eels do not travel 
over land or rocks, because they have not seen it. Last 
January one English writer concluded that some eels 
breed in fresh water because he saw elvers running 
downstream; and I studied over the situation as he de- 
scribed it until I could make neither head nor tail of his 
story. It seems that a weir was being built somewhere, 
and that there was a concrete foundation and some 
iron work, but all that I could make out of .it was that 
there was an obstruction in the stream and elvers were 
seen coming down instead of going up, and without 
investigating to find why, the writer of the article jumped 
at the conclusion that the elvers were born in fresh water 
and were going down to sea. • If he was to suppose 
something, it would have been, it strikes me, far more 
natural to suppose that the recent obstructions had 
turned the elvers from their course upstream, and. they 
were trying to find a new channel, that they might 
resume their upstream movement; but he did not seek 
the cause of the elvers' running down, simply smoked his 
pipe for an hour, although the double obstruction was 
practically under his eye. This gentleman's communica- 
tion is followed by one in which the writer prefaces his 
remarks with these words: "As one who has lived all 
his life in a district where the eels descend and the elvers 
ascend in their appointed time." The subsequent issues 
of the paper were examined carefully, but I could find 
no comment on the supposed downward movement of 
elvers, and perhaps it was not considered worthy of 
comment. 
The Steelhead. 
A few years ago I planted some frj-- of the steelhead 
trout in Lake George, New York, but up to this time 
have no knowledge that is reliable that the fish have 
been caught; but it is possible that some have been. 
The lake also contains landlocked salmon, and this year 
I have heard of some landlocked salmon being taken 
that weighed about 3 pounds each. In other lakes, where 
the salmon have been planted, they have not been caught 
until of a greater weight than 3 pounds, and before the 
introduction of steelheads into Lake George I did not 
hear of a salmon being taken as small as 3 pounds, and 
so I more than suspect that some of the 3-pound salmon 
may have been steelheads. 
Mr. Edwin C. Kent, who some time ago furnished me 
with information about the steelheads planted in the 
waters of the Tuxedo Club, has very kindly furnished me 
with more information, which is of interest, in reply to 
queries I put to him: 
"Some of your questions I can answer definitely, but 
about some I can only make deductions which may not 
be correct. 
"My opinion on the value of the steelhead as both a 
sporting and food fish, is unchanged; in fact, after the 
experience of the past j-^ear it is even higher than it was. 
They are a much stronger and more game fish than the 
landlocked salmon, and are quite as good on the table. 
A 2j/2-pounder this spring took about 40 yards of line 
ofif my reel in one dash, a thing which never happened to 
me before with any fresh-water fish in stIH water (bar 
Atlantic salmon). 
"I do not know whether they try to reach salt water. 
The outlet of our lake has always been screened, and 
this spring I noticed once or twice two or three steel- 
head lying in the suction of the outlet. The spring 
freshets compelled us to take away the screens to lessen 
the pressure on the dam, but after carefully examining 
the waters of the lower ponds, I cannot find that any 
took advantage of the opportunity, as I have heard of 
only one being seen below, and that one may have 
escaped from the hatchery. 
"I think there is no doubt about their spawning nat- 
urally in fresh water." 
(I framed this question badly, but Mr. Kent under- 
stood me, and it will be better for me to explain that as 
the steelhead is a seagoing fish on the Pacific, and it was 
questioned if it would spawn when it did not have access 
to salt water and was confined exclusively in fresh, the 
question was put briefly, but blindly, now that others are 
to read the answers.) 
"During the season of 1900, I was in Europe, and no 
one seems to have taken the trouble to watch the fish, but 
last fall I determined to try, and worked the nets. We 
caught about a dozen fish, but they then showed no 
signs. However, we kept then in one of our hatchery 
pools to await developments. This spring, as you know, 
the rains were very heavy, and during the latter part 
of March and the first of April we found the little brooks 
which run into the lake literally jammed with steelheads 
in every stage, from ripe to completely spent. We took 
about 25,000 eggs, stripping the fish on bank of the 
brook. Those which we had kept in the hatchery also 
yielded a fair number of eggs, but very inferior in quality, 
being small and white, and although they hatched out 
successfully, the fry are comparatively small and weak. 
The eggs which we took from the free fish were large, 
almost as large as those of the land-locked salmon, and a 
dark red, and have developed into strong, healthy fry. 
"The boatmen and others have repeatedly told me that 
they have seen numbers of steelhead yearlings in the lake, 
but as I have not seen and examined the fish myself I can- 
not be sure that they have not confused them with the 
salmon fry, as I know that the salmon are spawning nat- 
urally. Judging, however, from the actions of the fish 
this spring, I think they are probably right in their state- 
ments. 
"I cannot answer your question about the fly-fishing very 
well, because they have never been giv^n a fair trial. 
The mode adopted has invariably been to troll for them 
with a spinner or natural minnow, with two or three flies 
hitched above the spinner on the leader, but my experience 
has been that almost as many have been taken on the flies 
as on the spinner. * * * The fish have all moved now 
into the deep water, but I confidently expect they will be 
up again next fall and then I intend to give them a full 
trial with the fly. The average growth of the fish is re- 
markable. We turned them into the lake in the late fall 
as two-year-olds, about four to the pound. The following 
year none were taken. Next year they were caught run- 
ning from I to 154 pounds. This year, including those I 
weighed after stripping them, they weighed from 2 to 2^/2 
pounds. I cannot guess how much larger they will get, 
but they have already far outstripped the salmon. I im- 
agine that it is a question of the food supply, and I am 
watching with great interest the result of planting the 
whitefish we got from you in exchange last spring. I am 
beginning to think the much hated German carp are of 
great value for furnishing food to the steelheads and 
salmon, for the lake is swept clear of minnows and dace, 
and yet the steelheads and salmon are in good condition. 
I fished for salmon this spring at Grand Lake Stream, 
Maine, but could see no difference between those I took 
there and ours. Perhaps the reason you have not heard' of 
the steelhead you planted as fry is that time enough has 
not passed. We at Tuxedo did not see or take a single 
fish until they were four years old." 
Some five or six years ago I was rather inclined to 
take a gloomy view of the fitness of the steelhead for 
Eastern coast waters, but I became satisfied that the 
meager information I obtained from the Pacific coast re- 
garding the habits of the fish was not based upon an inti- 
mate knowledge of the fish and its breeding, and the more 
I found out about the steelhead the more it impressed me 
as a fish to be cultivated, and 1 have desired to do it 
justice because I came very near doing it an injustice 
from my imperfect knowledge of it. In the report of the 
U. S. Fish Commission, printed last year, Mr. Ravenel 
quotes some of the results from planting steelheads : 
"Particularly gratifying reports have been received 
from Minnesota with reference to the introduction of 
the steelhead trout in Lake Superior. Mr. L. E. Bald- 
ridge, foreman of Duluth Station, Minnesota, reports, un- 
der date of March 13, 1899, that large numbers of steel- 
head trout, varying in length from 7 to 28 inches, were 
caught during the summer and fall of 1898 along the north 
shore of Lake Superior, between Duluth, Minn., and Ross- 
port, Ont. ^Mr. D. J. Greensword, treasurer of the 
Duluth Fly-Casting Club, informed him that a number of 
members of his club took over 400 steelhead trout from 
Sucker River, in two days' fishing with hook and line, and[ 
that he had captured eighty-five in a single day. He fur- 
ther states tha't not less than 2,200 steelheads were taken 
in the same manner from the French and Sucker rivers, 
and that they will take the fly as readily as do the brook 
trout. The fishermen operating gill nets along the north 
shore for lake trout have also captured a number, varying 
from 14 to 18 inches in length. * * * Dr. James A. 
Henshall. superintendent of Bozeman Station, Montana, 
reports that during the past year a number of steelhead 
and Eastern brook trout have been taken in Bridges Creek, 
which runs through the station grounds, and which is a 
natural trout stream about 20 miles long and 30 feet wide. 
* * * Steelheads have also been captured with the fly 
in Bozeman Creek, which was accidentally stocked in the 
fall of 1897 by a can of fly jolting from the wagon into 
the stream from a load of fish intended for Mvstic Lake. 
* * * Mr. E. S. Whitcomb, of Underbill, Vt., also re- 
ports the capture of a steelhead trout in Brown's River, 
Essex, weighing 2j4 pounds, and 19 inches long, and 
another weighing 3^ pounds, also a number of small ones. 
They have frequently been reported from Lake Champlain 
and its tributaries." . . 
