Dec. 7, ipoi.] 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
4 81 
Islip Town" Gunnets'a Association. 
T«E lease of certain flats in the Great South Bay, re- 
cently made, was to" the Islip Town Gunners' Association. 
It includes all the shooting grounds between East Island 
Flat and Lone Hill, thus comprehends all the grounds 
lying in that part of the Great South Bay owned by the 
Smith heirs. The President of the Association is Mr. C. 
R. Purdy, well known as an indefatigable and skillful 
gunner; the Vice-President is Uriah Green; the Secre- 
tary and Treasurer, Regis H. Post, and the Recording 
Secretary, Chas. Suydam. 
The lease covers about seven miles of the best gun- 
ning grounds in the Bay. It is held for the Association 
in the name of Regis H. Post. The number of batteries 
is limited to i8, which covers about all the rigs in the 
neighborhood. 
■ Since the Association controls such large waters it 
will hereafter be necessarj^ for sportsmen who desire to 
shoot in this part of the bay to secure the services of the 
gunner who is a member of the Association. 
It was found necessary to form the Association and 
secure the lease to prevent outside parties from taking 
the lease in the interest of some club. As it is, all the 
native gunners retain their gunning privileges. 
The town of Brookhaven charges a license fee of $20 
for all batteries. The Islip Gunners' Association only 
issues licenses to residents of Islip town, with this, ex- 
ception, that in case there are not eighteen applicants from 
Islip town, the remaining licenses to make up the eigh- 
teen can be taken up by any owner of a battery in Brook- 
haven town west of Smithpoiut. 
It is easily conceivable that such an association as this 
may do much for wildfowl protection. 
The ducks were very late in getting in the Bay this 
season, but there are plenty of them now, and the shoot- 
ing is fairly good when the weather permits. 
Those Indian Temtory Quail. 
Cottonwood Falls, Kan., Nov. 29. — Replying to Phil- 
Hp's criticism of the 2,000 quail shipped in six crates, will 
say crates were about 4 feet by 6 feet, with two floors, and 
each floor well filled, and Sergeant E. Walker and I ex- 
amined them and we believed we made a very conservative 
estimate of the number of quail in that one shipment from 
Purcell, I. T., to Pittsburg, Pa., of quail "strictly for 
breeding purposes." The folioiwng clipping will show the 
interest the well-known citizens of the Indian Territory 
manifest in "the preservation of game." 
W. F. RiGHTMIRE. 
Ardmore, I. T., Nov. 27. — Deputy Marshal J. A. Tucker 
has arrested A. S. Gray, a well-known citizen, charging 
him with violating the game laws. The game warden 
of Chicago has during the past few months seized several 
hundred pounds of game shipped to that city from this 
Territory. Gray brought suit against the officials before 
the Illinois coiirt, and the Department of Justice officials 
at Wasliington ordered Gray's prosecution in Indian Ter- 
ritory. 
— ^ — 
Proprietors of fishing resorts will find it profitable to advertise 
them in Forest and Streau. 
League of Salt-Water Fishermen* 
Editor Forest and Stream : 
Our boys are now overjoyed at the prospect of some 
good cod fishing this fall and winter, for the coast of the 
Atlantic is ahve with sand lants, better known as sand 
eels. Reports from all along the beaches are plenty of 
cod, ling, hake and whiting. It is a well-known fact that 
more whiting have been caught off the old iron pier at 
Coney Island in the past two weeks than there has been 
in the last few years put together. I am not advertising 
any particular spot, but I do know this to be a fact. Any 
one wishing for a good evening's sport (I say evening, be- 
cause they will not take the bait in daylight) will find 
green smelt the best bait, and clam for cod and ling. Use 
about a 5 or 6-0 hook. Following is an extract of the 
New York Press of to-day, which just fills the bill: 
"When Izaak Walton wrote that God probably did not 
make any more peaceful pastime than angling, the Lon- 
don haberdasher and father of fishing did not have in 
mind angling for whiting. Angling for whiting is de- 
cidedly a bloody battle, and unless hooks with long shanks 
are used it is necessary to see the drug store man for a 
heeling preparation after the combat. Whiting on the 
northern New Jersey coast is known as the winter weak- 
fish, because he puts up a good fight and is not a log to 
pull up like the cod, although he is a member' of that 
family. 
"The whiting has sharp teeth, and those who fish from 
the Coney Island piers, off Norton's Point and in the out- 
side waters, can testiiy to this fact by the cuts and bruises 
on their hands. The whiting is a beautiful fish when 
alive, the upper parts of the body and sides are rusty 
brown with golden reflections, becoming leaden after 
death, silvery white beneath, iris silvery, dorsals and 
caudal rusty, the lower jaw longer, with teeth long and 
sharp-. 
"Whiting caught in the outside waters and from the 
piers extending into the Atlantic from the beaches on 
the soutli shore of Long Island reach an average length 
of 20 inches and weigh from 2 to 4 pounds each. The fish 
ic known as whiting, but in the New England waters, 
where the fish is plentiful, it is known as silver hake and 
Old England hake. ■ _ 
"Their flesh is pearly white, and their eyes so beautiful 
that a poet has remarked: 
"And here's a. chain of whitings' eyes for pearls; 
A musselmonger would have made no better." 
At our last League meeting an entertainment com- 
mittee composed of the following were appointed by Presi- 
dent A. Baywood for the j-ear 1901-2: Messrs. T. 
Biedinger, L. Berge, E. Fliedner, A. Michaels, B. Right- 
mire, A. Maillard, H. Kotzenberg, They are to report at 
our next regular meeting of the League. Their report 
will be interesting to all members, and anglers are in- 
vited to attend. The meeting will be Dec. 18 (Wednesday 
evening), at 106 West Thirty-first street, New York city. 
We expect delegations from Newark, N. J., and Yonkers, 
N. Y., to attend. Biedinger. 
Membership in this League costs only one dollar a 
year. Salt-water fishermen in the vicinity of New York 
are invited to join and give us their support. 
Unwise Stream Stocking. 
Editor Forest mid Stream: 
The time will come when those of us who have had 
their share of sport must lay aside their fowling pieces 
and hang up their rods. I have had over fifty years of 
sport with the rod and gun, and it is sad to know that 
those who will follow me will never enjoy the pleasures 
which my companions and I have enjoyed in _ many of 
these vears— and it is sad to know that this is largely 
for the reason that our streams and waters especially 
have been forever destroyed by those who should have 
-^,rotected them in their natural condition. 
It is quite time that some one should speak— and 
speak plainly. 
I am aware that our Fish Commissioners wrote to 
me some three or four years ago that I must concede 
that they, by reason of their superior position, must 
know more in regard to the waters of this State than 
any one else could in any way possible hope to know — 
but I have never seen the time when I did not in a 
general way know quite as much about the waters and 
fishes of this State as any one of our Commissioners, and 
in fact more than most of them. 
It is very easy to make this assertion, and I should 
verify it. 
A year or so before Seth Green engaged in the pi'opa- 
gatio'n of trout I had mastered the business with Thad- 
deus Norris, of New Jersey; after Mr. Green took up 
the matter I had considerable correspondence with him. 
In the sixties I was attorney in an action which set- 
tled to some extent the rights of riparian owners, and 
have had other suits with like results. Some twenty 
years ago I had for three years charge of the stocking 
of the waters of this county. 
About 1870 I met the Hon. Robert B. Roosevelt and 
Mr. Chai-les E. Whitehead at Albany, and a large por- 
tion of the fish and game law as then suggested by us 
has never been essentially changed. 
In 1894 the Senate committee on fish and game was 
authorized to visit the entire State and take testimony 
as to its waters. This testimoney, of nearly 700 pages, 
was turned over, to me as their counsel, and I think that 
it may be assumed that I know something about the 
fish and fish industries of this State. 
Not long before the death of Mr. A. N. Cheney, he 
wrote me a letter, in which he deplored the injury done 
to our waters by indiscriminate stocking, and stated 
that he hoped that he would be able to repair to some 
extent the damage already done— and it is a pleasure 
to know that our present Fish Commissioners are as 
anxious as Mr. Cheney was to prevent further injury 
to the waters of this State. 
And now let me give some general facts which I 
could verify by a score of cases: 
This State has paid out hundreds of thousands of 
dollars to our Fish and Game Cofmissioners, and what 
is there to show for it? Mr. Seth Green — and how far 
he was backed by the Commissioners no one will ever 
know^claimed that he knew better than the Maker of 
the Universe what fish were best adapted to its waters. 
Fish were furnished indiscriminately on application, 
although Mr. Green knew or ought to have known that 
they would be put in waters in which the riparian own- 
ers had vested rights, and these waters would be ruined 
forever. 
Many years ago the waters of this State were largely 
stocked by the State with large-mouthed black bass, and 
the fish then abounding in them have been practically 
destroyed by the bass ; but there are some fish which have 
not been altogether destroj^ed, such as eels and suckers, 
which have always been regarded as food fishes, and 
now our fish law makes it a crime to take an eel with 
a bob or spear or to take a sucker with a snare or spear. 
In other words, our farmers and their sons have no 
right any longer to catch the fish which as riparian 
owners they are entitled to catch as a vested right. 
I am not aware that our Fish Commissioners have 
ever recognized the rights of riparian owners, or that 
they have ever done anything to preserve or increase 
our food fishes. Perhaps the most notable instance of 
their neglect of duty is to be found in the case of Lake 
Ontario. Many years ago the commercial fishermen 
on this lake realized over $200,000 a year from the white- 
fish industry, and to-day they have almost entirely dis- 
anpeared. Do you ask why? Simply because they are 
not a game fish. 
The waters of Lake Erie and Lake Michigan have 
been kept stocked with whitefish, and the commercial 
fishermen will realize not far from half a million dollars 
for each lake— and in Lake Ontario, nothing. Would 
it not be wise to spend some of the money under the 
control of our Commissioners toward restoring and 
protecting our food fishes, and not quite so much for 
the benefit of the owners of private fish preserves? 
I have written with no pleasure, but with pain, and 
yet I am simply giving what has been the subject of 
common talk among our leading anglers for years. 
J. S. Van Cleef. 
POUGHKEEPSIE, N. Y , Nov 25. 
Canadian Salmon Take the Fly. 
A WRITER in the London Fishing Gazette says : "The 
old fable that the Canadian salmon will not take a. fly has 
long since been exploded." Yes, it was exploded before 
that man's grandfather had a father^ 
All communications intended for Fokest and Stkeam should 
always be addressed to the Forest and; Stream Publishing Co.j anij 
ilOt tp any individual connected with the pap^. 
About Louisiana Crawfish. 
Prom the New Orleans Times-Democrat. 
The crawfish is quietly resting on his oars, busying 
himself about his own little affairs, building mud chim- 
neys above his nest to protect himself from the wily "rac- 
coon's reach, and awaiting with' apparent composure the 
time when he is to stagger to the center of the stage, 
hind end foremost, as it were, and when he will play his 
usual engagement of sixty days with the epicures. The 
crawfish is peculiar in many respects, but this fact has 
robbed him of none of his sweetness of flavor, nor has 
it detracted one iota from his dietary value from the 
viewpoint of the epicurean caterer. 
Measuring between the earliest appearance of the 
crawfish in the local market and the latest data on which 
he is found in the market, the season runs for six 
months. But fishermen and men who make money out 
of the crawfish industry count simply on two months, 
March and April. During these two months crawfish 
are plentiful in this section, and all through the valley 
above this point. They thrive in fresh water, in shallow 
lakes and bayous and along the edges of the smaller 
streams. 
Millions of these creatures are marketed and con- 
sumed in New Orleans annually. They are a delicious 
food when properly prepared, and crawfish bisque has 
become one of the famed dishes of this city. 
How many crawfish are _marketed and consumed 
during the season in this city cannot be estimated 
definitely. Roughly speaking, it would be necessary 
to count them by the carload, for independent of the 
consumption in the hotels and restaurants, a great quan- 
tity is consumed by families who gather them for them- 
selves. 
At the fish market during the season they simply 
pour in from all sections. They are caught in nets. 
They are docile and clumsy, and it is easy enough to 
gather them by the dozens. They are always found in 
shallow water. Their reasoning power, if they have 
any at all, is at a low ebb. However, they have learned 
something about defensive methods, and one may be 
convinced of this by an examination of a crawfish nest 
at the edge of a lagoon, a creek of a bayou. The nest 
is simply a hole large enough to admit the body. It is 
burrowed below the water level, or is connected by a 
small tunnel with the main body of water, so that the 
crawfish may have access to the stream or lagoon for 
feeding purposes. Like other crustaceans, he is fond 
of vegetable juices, the smaller aquatic insects and 
things of that sort. 
Above his nest he usually constructs a mud chimney, 
and it will stand sometimes eight or ten inches above 
the ground. This is probably a defensive institution. 
Raccoons are fond of crawfish, and they make nightly 
pilgrimages in quest of these crustaceans. They -reach 
down into the nests wherever they find them, yank the 
clawed and tentacled fellovvrs out and devour them on the 
spot. Mud chimneys make it harder for the raccoon 
to reach them, and at least puts the forest marauder, to 
more trouble. The chimneys are not works of art. They 
are plain, awkward heaps of mud, but built in layers and 
hollowed out, very much after the fashion of the mud 
chimneys built by man in primitive sections of the 
world. 
These nests are also used for a sort of place of refuge 
for the younger members when they begin to take on 
the form of their kind, and before they are able to 
measure strength with the other creatures which live 
under the same conditions. 
The crawfish industry has been of slow growth. For 
more than 100 years persons living in this section have 
known how to use them for food purposes. But many 
changes have taken place in the way that crawfish are 
served. Crawfish bisque is probably the best known 
among the dishes made of these crustaceans. They 
are served the same way. They are thrown into a p,ot 
of boiling water, which has been highly seasoned with 
salt and hot peppers, and thej' are allowed to remain 
there for ten to fifteen minutes. They are then taken 
out and put through a soaking process for thirty minutes. 
They are then ready to be served. They are placed on 
dishes, covered with cracked ice and ushered out to the 
epicure who may «rder them. They are used in making 
soup, and they give a delightful flavor to the dish. 
Frequently the heads of crawfish are stuffed with a 
higl% flavored mixture of some sort, and they are 
served with a toast and in various- other ways they are 
prepared for the persons who are fond of them. 
The industry is not confined to New Orleans or Louisi- 
ana. It has spread all through the Mississippi valley, 
and up as high as St. Louis one may see the caterers 
serving crawfish in season. Here in Louisiana they are 
probably more plentiful because conditions are igpre 
favorable. The lowness of the land and the peculiar 
•topography of the country give the crawfish a splendid 
chance to thrive. Here he is prosperous, fat and saucy. 
The marshes are filled with sizelikes of him. A season's 
growth is sufficient to make him a marketable size. In 
spite of the increased demand and consumption, the 
rapidity with which the crawfish multiplies has enabled 
him to keep ahead of humanity's appetite, and the indi- 
cations are that he will hold his own as long as there is 
water enough in the land for him to wallow in. 
An Artistic Triumph.- — First Artist— "Have you heard 
of Palette's misfortune?" Second Artist — -"'No, what is 
it?" "First Artist — "He painted a realistic picture of a 
beefsteak, and his pet dog ate it up." — Chicago News. 
\ REPORT YOUR LUCK | 
1 With Rod or Gun [ 
\ To FOREST AND STREAM, \ 
iNew York City. ► 
