Forest and Stream. 
A Weekly Journal of the Rod and Gun. 
Copyright, 1901, by Forest and Stream Publishing Co. 
Terms, $i a Year. 10 Cts. a Copy. ( 
Six Months, $2. ) 
NEW YORK, SATURDAY, OCTOBER 26, 1901 
I VOL. LVII.— No. n. 
! N6. 846 Broadway, New York 
The Methodist Episcopal Church of Clockville, N. Y., 
we are told, has organized a side-hunt to raise funds for 
the church's support. The two sides are to be captained 
by two of the prettiest and most popular young women of 
the village, and each one of the fair captains has chosen 
"seventy-five of the crack shots of the neighborhood." 
If there are actually one hundred and fifty crack shots in 
Clockville, they should have sense enough to discourage 
side-hunting. The truth probably is that the town has no 
such regiment of wonderful shooters, but just the aver- 
age awkward squad that annually musters for a side-hunt, 
so that. the devastation wrought by the Clockville shoot- 
ing anniversary will not amount to so much after all. The 
side-hunt is something that' should be prohibited by law. 
It is a foolish institution, because it results in the killing 
of both useful and useless creatures for no good purpose. 
The fame of the California tuna fishing has gone around 
the world, and the anglers of other lands have been 
prompted to endeavor deeds of prowess with the great 
fish of the sea. We reprint from the Nineteenth Century 
Mr. W. H. Grenfell's extremely interesting account of the 
tuna, or, as it is there known, the tunny, in the Medi- 
terranean, and his own quest of it as an angler's fish. His 
failure, as appears from the narration, was to be ascribed 
only to the inopportune season of the year. In a more 
fitting time the Mediterranean fish, now doomed to the 
death character of the "matanza," may have a place in the 
annals of the angler's art, along with his relatives of the 
California coast. 
The tuna of Santa Catalina Island is an excellent ex- 
ample of the pecuniary value of 'a game fish properly ad- 
vertised. The stories of tuna fishing published in Forest 
AND Stream at once turned the attention of anglers every- 
where to the fish, and the result in dollars and cents ex- 
pended for railroad and steamboat fares, board at hotels, 
guide and boat hire, tackle, photographs of big fish and 
their captors, and other things, has-been immense. To the 
question, Does good fishing pay ? the tuna of Santa Cata- 
lina Island is an irrefutable answer in the affirmative. But 
the tuna is not the only game fish that pays. Every other 
one does, or would, if it were given the chance. Consider 
the Lake Champlain bass, of which Mr. Van Cleef writes 
to-day. If, instead of jigging the fish from the spawn- 
ing beds and permitting the net fishermen to capture 
them for market, the game were kept for anglers, the 
advantage to the community at large would be much more 
considerable than it ever can be under existing conditions. 
The newspaper report commented upon by Mr. Van 
iCleef is erroneous in so far as it refers to licenses for 
[seines in Lake Champlain granted by the New York Com- 
' mission, for while the Commission is empowered to grant 
such licenses, it has very wisely refused to issue them. 
The legalized netting is practiced in the waters of Ver- 
mont and Canada, and while it is sanctioned by the 
authorities of both, we believe that all concerned are 
agreed as to the wisdom of banishing the nets entirely. 
The reason that Vermont permits netting in its waters 
is that netting is legalized by the Canadians, and so long 
as the Canadians persist in netting the people of Vermont 
are human enough to be unwilling to stand by and see the 
fish go without getting their share. At the meeting of the 
North American Association last winter an agreement 
was made between the Canadian and Vermont officials to 
abolish net fishing in the lake. Up to the present time 
this has not been done, and the failure to accomplish it on 
the part of the Canadians is understood to be because of 
political complications. The true interest of all those 
living on Lake Champlain demands an absolute prohibi- 
tion of the netting of game fish. We trust that the sub- 
ject may be agitated until such a system of protection 
shall prevail. 
•I 
The game reports from every section of the country 
indicate that the past breeding season has been one of 
exceptional prolificness. The prairie chicken, the ruffed 
grouse, the quail and the woodcock alike have shown 
relative increase of numbers in many widely exteinding 
covers. There is here sufficient cause fot the planning of 
where to go; the inspecting oi dogs, whether owned by 
pne's self, or to bf bought or borrowed; the refurnishing 
of guns, airing of old shooting toggery, and broodings 
over the kinds and quantities of ammunition to take afield. 
These in turn beget long, grave and oft-repeated conver- 
sations with some brother sportsman, the arranging of the 
outing with others, inquiries for still others who have 
been lost in the swirl of the world's activity; in short, a 
general taking up and readjusting of the broken, lost or 
neglected threads of the web and woof of one's sports- 
manship. 
In the sea.son of abundance the sportsman is at his 
best. At such juncture he does not hesitate for a moment 
to tell his brother sportsmen where the best covers and 
coveys are to be found, excepting those which he has 
reserved for himself and friends. And yet, even in sea- 
sons when there is a dearth of game, he is equally un- 
selfish, for then he is more inclined to lend his gun or his 
dog. In matters of generosity, the sportsman is thus in 
a class by himself. Whether game is scarce or plentiful, 
his generosity in respect to his brethren is ever in action. 
;\rdent of temperament, ever considerate of the pleasure 
of his fellows, even to his own loss, and unswerving in his 
belief and loyalty in the sport dear to his heart, he is 
above any fluctuations of character or action on account 
of numbers of birds or their absence. Nevertheless, it may 
be conceded without any prejudice to the character of 
sportsmanship in general that in a season of general 
abundance the shooter or the fisherman will be more 
Dpenly and frankly in communication in respect to the 
good places where most game or fish abound than he will 
be in seasons of great dearth. This peculr'arity is no index 
whatever to a change in his character, although it may 
be taken as a very good index concerning the status of the 
game supply. In a season of dearth, if a sportsman only 
knows of one good place by hearsay, he is not apt to impose 
a hardship on his friends by suggesting that they investi- 
gate the one good place before he can report upon it from 
personal examination made by himself. In a season of 
abundance, if he should, happen to err in his advice, the 
contiguous abundance affords means of ready readjust- 
ments. The season of abundance thus, besides the sport 
afforded directly to the individual in testing his equip- 
ment and skill against the elusiAi-e birds, provides him 
opportunity to give full play to those benevolent and 
brotherly traits for which the craft has a world-wide 
fame. 
In default of a quail season fixed by law in Illinois, 
State Game Commissioner Lovejoy has designated the 
period extending from Nov. i to Dec. 20 as the open 
.season for quail shooting. These are the dates which 
were named in the former law. While the Commissioner 
is. of course, without any authority to fix open and close 
seasons, his designation of these dates may be accepted, 
and we trust that they will be accepted, by the sportsmen 
of Illinois as binding, not in law, but in honor. Indeed 
we think that it would have been far wiser for Commis- 
sioner Lovejoy if, when he found that the Legislature had 
by a blunder omitted quail from the list of protected birds, 
instead of getting that disingenuous opinion from tbe At- 
torney-General, he had accepted the situation and appealed 
to the good sense and sportsmanship of the shooters of 
Illinois to refrain from shooting quail except within the 
period stated. Some more birds might have been killed, 
it is true, but both the Commissioner and the Attorney- 
General would have stood higher in popular esteem as 
officials who themselves have a becoming respect for law. 
•I 
From many sources come added reports of an unusually 
immature quail crop this season. The birds are small and 
unfit to be killed. This may be accounted for in a meas- 
ure at least by the extraordinary conditions of wet weather 
which prevailed over a large extent of territory during 
the breeding season. On the other hand, as we have said 
before, the wiser course would be to extend tlie close 
season through October. 
•6 
A Philadelphia sportsman who killed a moose on 
Quaker Brook bog, in the Chesuncook Lake region of 
Maine, on the night of Oct. 11, four days before the sea- 
son opened, was visited in his camp on the next day by 
Commissioner Carleton; the moose was dug up out of 
the mud whei^ it l?fea buried for concealment, and 
the Philadelphia man settled for his fun by paying over 
the fine of $500 and surrendering the head. Thus Nemesis 
camped on the trail and descended swift and sure. It 
was one of the record performances of expeditious punish- 
ment of wrongdoing in the heart of the woods. 
Our Boston correspondence this week records that there 
have already been three fatal shooting casualties in the 
Maine woods this year — human beings shot down for 
game; but we have yet to hear of any enforcement of 
the law which makes the killing of a man for game a 
crime. The law reads: 
Chap. 263, Laws 1901. — Sec. 1. Whoever, while on a hunting trip, 
or in the pursuit of wild game or game birds, negligently or care- 
lessly shoots and wounds, or kills, any human being, shall be 
punished by imprisonment not exceeding ten years, or by a fine not 
exceeding $1,000. 
It is of vastly greater imoortance to punish the slayers 
of men than the close season moose killers, and to be 
most useful for warning the punishment of the man killer 
should be quite as speedy as that of the moose killer. The 
Maine authorities cannot afford to go on any longer treat- 
ing this man killing as accidental and something to be 
deplored, but condoned. Let the law of 1901 be enforced. 
It was on an elevated railway train. She was recalling 
with a companion some happy days they had spent in the 
Rocky Mountains with a pack train, and she was so in- 
terested and so enthusiastic in" the recollection of it all 
that the other passengers could not help but hear, as she 
described the climb above timber line and the gathering 
around the camp-fire at nigbt, until reaching her station 
she left the car with the exclamation, "I'd like to do it all 
over again, but not unless we bad an awfully congenial 
company." That was her summing up of the discussion 
we have had from time to time in these columns about 
companions for an outing — they must be "awfully con- 
genial. "~ v ■> \ 
Sportsmen who return with game trophies from the 
Maine woods via Bangor complain that some of the war- 
dens encountered on the trains at that point are altogether 
too zealous in their capacity as drummers for a Bangor 
taxidermist. The warden-drummer suggests to the owner 
of a game head that the most convenient and cheapest 
plan is to leave the trophy to be done by the Bangor firm ; 
and if the owner assents, everything is made as smooth as 
possible. If, however, there is any demur, the warden- 
drummer insists upon the most rigid investigation, and 
makes it as unpleasant as he can for the sportsman. We 
have been told of one case where the conduct of the war- 
den-drummer was so annoying that its effect was to turn 
the victim of it to other game fields. 
That ''Walk Down South" undertaken by Mr. Spears is 
something unique in our chronicles of outing.s. It demon- 
strates for one thing that he who is intent upon getting 
back to first principles need not seek the remote wilder- 
ness ; it lies all about us at our doors. To carry out such 
an enterprise as here undertaken one needs to have in 
addition to his pack basket and other accoutrements a 
goodly stock of pluck, grit, resolution and fortitude; and 
the jeading of this first chapter will abundantly demon- 
strate that our correspondent possesses all of these. We 
have in hand further chapters relating to the progress of 
Mr. Spears toward a warmer zone, and as these shall 
follow in due course, his plucky tramp will be watched 
with great interest. 
Of all the hours of days in the woods, those which hold 
a place most gratefully and most vividly in our memo- 
ries are the ones which reflect the blaze of the camp-fire 
at night. The ent're day may have been filled with en- 
joyment—the early breakfast, the tramp on the trail, 
sighting the game, and the true-aimed shot, but the par- 
ticular scene to which we recur most fondly in after years 
is that of the evening gathering about the camp-fire. 
Ex-President Geveland has published a defense of 
fishermen. The natural comment is that fishermen are 
not in need of any defense; they are conscious of their 
own rectitude, and can well afford to let tlie world soofif 
and call them lazy and xnendadous, 
