130 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
[Aug. 17, igoi. 
Canadian Angling Notes. 
"Six Thousand Miles for a Six-Pound Trout'' is the 
heading of a story in a local paper, telling how C. B. 
Wells, a prominent sugar planter of Hawaii, had reached 
Quebec on his way to Lake St. John for ouananiche fish- 
ing, and to Lake Edward for trout. He is accompanied by 
his family, the members of which are all keen anglers. 
"Some people may say we are foolish to tra^^e! 6.000 miles 
to go fishing," said Mr. Wells, "but if I get one 6-pound 
trout I shall return satisfied.'' 
The rush to the ouananiche fishing waters continues. 
Sir Thomas Gooch is one of the latest arrivals at Lake 
St. John. 
Recent rains and the advent of somewhat cooler weather 
are the probable causes of an improvement in the charac- 
ter of the trout fishing in our northern waters. One catch 
in the lakes near Lake Edward a few davs ago contained 
a number of fish running from i to 3 pounds each. Some 
heavy fish have also been taken recently out of the pre- 
served waters on the Auiatchouan River. 
Lovers of angling who are specially interested in the 
preservation of the ouananiche of Lake St. John and its 
tributary waters will learn with plea.'iure of the intelligent 
interest manifested in the artificial reproduction of the fish 
by the Messrs._ Beemer. Several hundred thousand of the 
young fry, this season's hatching, both Atlantic salmon 
and ouananiche, are now to be seen in the fish hatchery 
at Roberva], where they furnish quite an interesting study 
and attractive object lesson to summer tourists and sports- 
men, teaching the latter the necessity and duty of avoid- 
ing waste and of aiding nature in her work of reproducing 
those forms of life most useful to man, so as to ensure the 
preservation of desirable species. No fewer than 600 
adult ouananiche have already been secured in the salmon 
river at Lake St. John, and are now inclosed in breeding 
ponds to furnish spawn for the coming winter's opera- 
tions in the hatchery. 
One of the best known of the veteran anglers of New 
England, Mr. George E. Hart, of Waterbury, Conn., has 
lately returned home from his first salmon fishing trip, 
loaded up to the muzzle with youthful enthusiasm and 
new and thrilling experiences. He took in a number of 
the Gaspe salmon streams during his outing, experiencing 
the usual fate with his first salmon, but winding up with a 
record that, both for numbers and size, far exceeded his 
expectations. It was my good fortune to share his excite- 
ment during his two-hour fight with one fish, a noble male 
of 31 pounds, hooked foul, just below the adipose fin. 
The weight and vigor of the fish and the fact that he was 
played upon a light, split bamboo rod. prevented all Mr. 
Hart's efforts to Tift his tail out of the water, which would 
necessarily have materially shortened the fight. Despite 
the length and the fatiguing character of the combat, Mr. 
Hart promptly declined every offer of assistance, and 
never let the rod out of his hand from the time he hooked 
the fish imtil it was brought to gaff, exactly two hours 
later, the Indian wading a distance of nearly 40 feet into 
the river in the shallows below the pool to secure the big 
fish, which he did while standing almost up to his thighs 
in the water. E. T. D. Chambers. 
Quebec, Aug. 10. 
How Shall Dn Ehrhardt Feed ; His Fto^s'? 
Just a suggestion, Doctor, from one who knows frogs 
to some extent. Imprimis, don't try to bring them up on 
the bottle. It won't work. Their mouths are kept 
clamped, shut like unto a clam shell, opening only for 
strictly business purposes of the lightning-change variety. 
Spoons, also, are unavailable, unless to catch a frog, or to 
amuse a pair of lovers on the banks while four frogs 
sing unto them sweet carols in emulation of turtle doves. 
No ; treat your friends like reasonable beings mature in 
manners and in thought. The infant frog will squeak and 
skip flipflap across the lilypads quicker at your step than 
his older, more ponderous, neighbor. Regard his feelings, 
then. 
To begin with, set the table. Your frog has manners. 
Consider them. Is he a pig, that he should be given a 
trough? Not so. His ways are sudden, yet is he given 
to long mediation when deep calleth unto deep, especially 
when the deepest is a lately swallowed, smaller frog, 
Then do the large eyes of the outside one stare solemnly 
skyward, and man knoweth not what thoughts are thunk. 
what wisdom is enshrouded in that as yet untranslated, 
ponderous "podunk." 
But — to our table. Get a plank, bevel the edge on one 
side, and to the other side nail one or two short bits of 
board athwartship. Put it in a pond bevel side up. Freight 
it with offal, or even molasses, at a pinch. Presently thou 
shalt see a swarm of flies buzzing around that festive 
board — influx! — and in due time a row of 'green heads 
will appear along the edges, and pink streaks will begin to 
play upward like a fringe of summer lightning along a 
murkj-^ cloud as fly after fly is nailed-by that darting lasso 
of a batrachian tongue. Sabe? 
And the tribe of bald heads that dwelleth round about 
also will rise and call you blessed. J. P. T. 
The Swan Never Sings. " -. ^ 
A vulg^ar error means merely a widespread error, sucli as even 
the most refined may easily share, and do sometimes share, maybe 
yielding a little to their taste, in spite of their better knowledge. 
The belief that the swan sings herself to death is one of these 
Videspread errors which poets and their next intellectual kin are 
Wath to forego— nay, do their best to keep alive. Tennyson, for 
instance, speaks of the death song of the swan. So, too, does 
Phineas Fletcher, who in the days of Charles I. penned an 
allegorical poem called "The Purple Island," wherein he sings: 
"The beech shall vield a cool, safe canopy 
While down I sit and chant to the echoing wood, 
Ah! singing might I live, and singing die! 
So by fair Thames or silver Medway's flood, 
The dying swan, when years her temples pierce. 
In music-strains breathes out her life and verse; 
And, singing her own dirge, dies on her watery hearse." 
But truly the difficulty is to name a poet who_ does not, so to 
speak, sing this self-same song. You may find it in Byron, Camp- 
bell, Wordsworth, Pope, Dirden, Thomson, Milton. Shakespeare. 
Spenser, and Horace; and 1 know of only one writer who takes 
the trouble to tell us that this is all moonshine; and that writer's 
name is PHny, who in plain prose says that he has seen swan 
die, but never heard them sing. — Gentleman's Magazine. 
All communicatioBS fntended for Fobkbt a«b 9issaic should 
ahrays be addretsed to Forest and Strean PvMirfifaiv Co,, and 
not to any iadividtul connected with the paper. 
— $ — 
Fixtores, 
Sept. 2-B. — ^Toronto, Can. — Dog show of the Toronto Industrial 
Exhibition. W. P. Fraser, Sec'y. and Supt. 
Training the Hunting Dog. 
By B. "Waters, Author of '•Fetch and Carry: A TreatJa* 
on Retrieving." 
XXn -Field Trial Judging. 
The field trial judge is rarely other than thoroughly 
competent to properly fill the position. The many years 
of field trials have given to him a thorough schooling 
in field trial principles and field trial management. Re- 
porters, handlers and owners have also derived common 
' field trial knowledge from greater experience, so that 
the field trials of the present are conducted on principles 
and rules in which all who are properly experienced read- 
ily concur. The trials have fully demonstrated that field 
experience alone is an insufficient schooling for a field 
trial judge. There is now a sharply recognized distinc- 
tion between following a dog for the purpose of killing 
birds over him, and following him to determine how his 
hunting qualities compare with those of some other dog 
or dogs, or what they are intrinsically in themselves. 
There is all the difference between the two instances that 
there is between a horse drawing a plow and a horse in 
a race; and yet the man who held a plow all his Hfe 
very well might not be able to judge in a horse race 
very well. Indeed, there are many good shooters who 
can reap the best results from the work of a setter or 
pointer, yet who cannot explain in detail the essentials 
of good field work, nor wherein one manner of it is 
better or worse than another. 
The field trial judge should have a perfect theoretical 
knowledge of the different degrees of the qualities 
which are recognized as being competitive, each as it 
concerns itself and as it relates to the others. This 
knowledge should be broadly supplemented with prac- 
tical experience, so that he will be able to discern the 
real from the sham work displayed in actual competition, 
as, for instance, Avhen two dogs are ranging alike in re- 
spect to speed and area of ground covered, yet one is 
running merely from high spirits without using his nose 
nidustriously, while the other is working after the best 
manner. Again, some dogs will hunt well with a dog 
which will take the initiative and lead thenr out. They 
like company and rivalry. Alone such dogs might not 
take an independent cast of a hundred yards; in com- 
panjr they go as wide as their leader. 
As ]iearly all field trial managements engage three 
judges, the third man may be a novice, although he 
should be an expert as to experience. This serves to 
graduate new material. With two competent experts, 
the third man, whether he be competent or incompetent, 
will have no material effect on the results, for if he be 
competent he agrees with them, and if he be incompetent 
they outvote him and decide against him. 
Contrary to the estimates of the inexperienced, the 
mere matter of deciding which is the better of two dogs 
or the best of a lot of dogs is but a small part of the 
duties of a judge. He should have a good sense of loca- 
tion, so that after working out the grounds once or 
twice he will have a knowledge of their topographical 
features and the habitats of the birds. For each heat, 
when he knows the field trial resources of the grounds 
he can lay ovtt a course which will equitably divide the 
grounds which contain birds and those which do not, 
with a due consideration of open and cover so that 
there will be a free opportunity to display range and 
work in cover, the heat proceeding consecutively the 
while without any disorder. 
The unskillful judge, in the matter of locality, is 
merelj drifting about from place to place, running 
squarely against boundary lines which cannot be crossed, 
or creeks, or dense thickets, or farm yards, or places 
which are nowhere in particular and no good at all. 
with the result that the dogs must be i^epeatedly called 
in, the whole party doubling back on itself and on its 
trail, with a general readjustment to make a new start, 
with a walk of a few hundred yards or a mile before new 
grounds can be reached. 
The judge whose memory is bad as to locality is gen- 
erally governed by his vision from point to point, so that 
instead of a consecutive course planned out, the heat is 
a succession of disorganized readjustments, which either 
mars or destroys the competition. The dogs are hardly 
well started on one course before the handlers are di- 
rected to send them on another. The handlers become 
separated in searching for their i^espective dogs, or, one 
dog being well in hand when the new course is given, his 
handler hurries him ahead on it while the other handler 
tarries far behind in an effort to turn or find his dog. 
When the heat ends, this kind of judge does not know 
where the wagons are which contain the dogs to be 
run in the next heat, nor where he is himself, so that a 
long search and wait is entailed before the next heat is 
begun. 
Before a heat is begun the judges should carefully 
estimate where it will end, and direct the competitors 
to be at that place with their dogs in waiting. All such 
matters are now by expert judges managed with a pre- 
cision which a few years ago would be deemed impossi- 
■ Je. Every detail is so provided for that it comes in its 
proper sequence. 
A course when once laid out and the heat begun, 
sliould be followed with a reasonable degree of consist- 
ency. Any material dcAn'ation from it for momentary 
advantage is sure to result in a serious disarrangement 
of the general plans. There are many incidents which 
tend to change the course and disorganize the plans of 
inexperienced judges, not the least of which is the 
dramatic cry of "Point, Judges?" made by a handler two 
or three hundred yards away from the announced coiirse. 
The novice-judge, nine times out of ten, rides in a 
furious gallop to see the supposed point, and nearly as 
many times ottt of ten there is no point. 
It is an old and many times successful device on the 
part of the straggling handler to draw the judges near 
him so that he will not have the trouble of walking back 
to the judges, nor disturb the range of his dog in turning 
and working him back on the true course. Nor shcijild 
the judges gallop out after the dogs which di'sappfer 
for a few moments in ranging; for when the dogs see 
the judges they will cast out further and further, work- 
ing to the horses as they would to their handlers, sg 
that the judge who rides ahead of the handlers at all is 
seriously and directly interfering with the competition. 
If the dog is trained properly for the competition, he 
will range to his handler; hence the spectacular gallop- 
ing to the front is imnecessary aside from the display 
of brave horsemanship. If the dog will not range to his 
handler, it is a matter with which the judge has no coii- 
cern as an assistant in the handling. Galloping about, 
right and left, here and there, is undignified and unneces- 
."Miry. The handlers are entirely responsible for the 
handling of their dogs; the judges are responsible only 
for judging the dogs as the handlers display their 
merits. 
When a dog is really lost, as a good dog will be at 
times when on a point in a thicket, etc., it is a matter 
of courtesy then to assist in finding the lost dog in an 
ordinary manner. Half-broken or unmanageable dogs, 
however, should never induce the judges to leave their 
places behind the handlers. 
The best judging distance is about twenty to thirty 
yards behind the handlers, in the open fields. The 
judges can spread out from thirty to fifty yards, taking 
advantage of rises in the ground, to see the work of the 
do.gs at a distance, and this without interfering with the 
range or the duties of the handlers. Their effort should 
be to see all the work done. Avithout interfering in any 
way with the dogs' opportunities. 
If a handler cannot keep his dog on a course laid out 
for him by the judges, his delinquency in this respect 
is his own loss. It is unreasonable to expect the judges 
and all the rest of the field trial interests to follow the 
erratic course laid out by an unmanageable dog, although 
the new judge is not at all unlikely to attempt it; less 
so than formerly, however. 
.\ firm, good-tempered management of the handlers 
and a strict observance of fairness toward them will win 
their respect. The judges, however, should be supreme 
in dictating all that concerns the competition. No inter- 
ference with their prerogatives should be tolerated. 
Any flurry on the part of the judges is certain to have 
a corresponding eft'ect on the handlers and the competi- 
tion. If the judges stampede at every cry of "Point," 
etc., there is sure to be what is termed in field trial par- 
lance "hustling" on the part of the handlers. When the 
handlers note that the judges will not go in other than 
an orderly manner, they go in an orderly manner them- 
selves. 
A dog which will not hold his point or back till his 
handler can walk up to him has little claim to winning 
a field trial, even if he has competitive ability worthy 
of consideration at all. Steadiness is a matter of test 
quite as much as is any other quality, therefore there is 
no reason for unsteadiness on the part of the judges. 
A matter of the first importance is to know when a 
heat is ended; that is to say, when the dogs in it have 
displayed fully such qualities as they have; and to know 
when all the dogs in a stake have shown the best com- 
petition of which they are capable. Generally speak- 
ing, all the competition in a stake, if handled by the 
judges so that the dogs will display their best qualities, 
tends to a certain definite climax, which brings certain 
dogs to the fore as the legitimate winners. 
If the dogs are overworked from heat to heat and 
thereby the natural climax of the competition is de- 
stroyed, there follows a series of anti-climax circum- 
stances which destroys all possibility of intelHgent deci- 
sions. Some of the field trials of the past have not been 
free from such mistaken management on the part of the 
judges. 
When all the dogs in a stake are run to a standstill, 
they are all then on the same level as to performance 
and ability. An analogous case would be if the judges 
in a horse race insisted that all the competitors should 
trot till they were all so completely exhausted that they 
could only walk. If this procedure were kept up heat 
after heat, it is readily apparent that, from a racing 
standpoint, there would have been a long departure 
past the true racing climax. 
When the true climax in a field trial is passed, the 
whole competitive situation begins to change. The 
judges may know which are the best dogs, .but if they 
h.ave run them to a standstill, dogs of inferior quality 
may apparently be making a better. showing at the finish. 
Lucky finds, made by poor dogs, will still further aggra- 
vate the anti-climax, and a competition which was once 
well in hand and definite as to its results will then be- 
come indeterminite on the competition shown, and noth- 
ing is left for the judge but to settle it arbitrarily. 
It is a most embarrassing situation for the judges 
when the best dogs have been run to a standstill, while 
others, less deserving, are fresher from unavoidable cir- 
cumstance, and from accidental advantage, such as the 
cooi parts of the day, better parts of the grounds and 
better opportunities on birds, may make the best final 
showing. 
The last impressions are the most realistic and the 
best remembered, so that the good work of the best 
dogs in the commencement of a trial is not so impres- 
sive as the good work of any kind of a dog at the con- 
clusion, when the best dogs have been incapacitated from 
excessive competition. 
There is always a small percentage of grumblers at 
field trials regardless of the wisdom of the management 
or the decisions of the judges, and of these the shallow- 
est is generally the most assertive and the most malicious. 
Irresponsibility and moral courage not infrequently go 
hand in hand as do responsibility and moral cowardice. 
The "kicker" is not obsolete at trials, though his num- 
bers are not so great as they were formerly. 
Some men are constitutioaal kickers. Whether at 
play or at business, their selfishness always dominates 
their will and bliftds their judgment. Advertising their 
dogs, a love of notoriety, faulty information, etc., actuate 
others, but whatever the opinion of the multitude may 
be, the judge should not be influenced by it in the least. 
Just decisions as the Judge himself makes them should 
