April 12, 1902.] 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
■m 8 0 
well located for poachers, and it has had rumpuses with- 
out number connected with its history. 
Jacfcsnipe. 
A warm rain is falling to-day in the vicinity of Chi- 
cago, and this will soften up the ground and induce the 
succulent worm to leave his erstwhile fastnesses beneath 
the surface of the earth. Now, when we get a good 
moonlight night we may count upon a flight of jacksnipe 
without fail. Indeed, there are already some few birds 
in as far to the north as this. Some shooters the middle 
of the week out along the Drainage Canal got half a 
dozen jacksnipe. Yet others report birds in along the 
Kankakee River. They have been reported also as seen 
in the vicinity of Fox Lake, though in no great num- 
bers. Jacksnipe are in the market, and the dealers re- 
port that they come from different parts in Indiana and 
Illinois, although they do not cheerfully specify the exact 
locality from which they are getting most of their ship- 
ments. The general belief is that it will be a few days 
yet before these birds are up in numbers sufficient to 
afford good shooting. 
Quail on Toast. 
Quail on toast in April would hardly seem just exactly 
the right sort of thing, but perhaps it would please well 
enough the man who believes there are "just as many 
quail as there ever were," and that tKis desirable state 
of affairs will continue to exist in spite of all. This is 
apropos of the fact that in the bill of fare offered on the 
dining car of a railroad running out of Chicago^ ! this 
week saw "Quail on toast, au cresson, 50 cents." Re- 
ferred to State Warden Lovejoy, ^ _ 
The Booming Grounds. 
Mr. J. Amberg, of this city, came into town from a 
Western point yesterday, and says that from the car 
window he saw the pretty spectacle of a lot of^ prairie 
chickens doing their love dance on the booming grounds, 
a spectacle not so familiar to the average Western sports- 
man as it might have been twenty years ago. Many a 
time during my childhood and youth I have crept up and 
watched the dance of the prairie grouse in the spring- 
time, and it seemed like old times to have a friend men- 
tion his enjoyment of the same spectacle to-day. 
By the way, simply as a suggestion to those who think 
there are "just as many chickens as there ever were," one 
might suggest that the spring booming ground is an ex- 
cellent place to pot a prairie chicken, especially a prairie 
hen, as the birds at that time are much preoccupied, and 
not so very difficult to approach. True, there might be 
some sportsmen who would object to shooting prairie 
chickens in the spring, during the mating season. What 
is the difference between this and shooting wild ducks in 
their mating season? If some fellow can explain this to 
•me I shall be deeply in his debt. 
Game in Ohio. 
A gentleman interested in fishing and shooting writes 
me from New Philadelphia, Ohio, regarding- sport in 
his vicinity. "We might have excellent fishing here," he 
says, "if it were not for some who dynamite and seine. 
As it is, we have some bass fishing and some jack salmon. 
Quail and grouse shooting was pretty fair last fall, and 
I think the quail have wintered well. There were no 
squirrels last fall to speak of. We have no duck shooting 
here worth mentioning, as the ducks do not stay with us 
either in the spring or fall, and, in fact, very few pass 
over this section." 
I wonder if there are any gentlemen of New Phila- 
delphia who believe there are "just as many fish there 
as there ever were." 
From Puget Sound. 
Mr. W. S. Phillips (El Comancho), formerly of Chi- 
cago, and now of Seattle, writes from Vancouver, B. C. : 
"I think I have found a place where you can get a bear, 
a sheep, a goat, an elk. some deer, plenty of 
trout and maybe a gold mine, all in one trip. It is a 
hard proposition to get to and you needn't worry about 
the strenuous life — it is here ! I see Chicago is under the 
snow yet, but out here salmon berries are in bloom, bass 
are biting in Lake Union, and the weather is like May 
in Chicago. Come on out here the next time you take a 
trip. You have never been in God's country till you get 
to Puget Sound. This is the best country ever finished 
and it's plum full of white folks." 
Geese. 
An unusually large number of wild geese have appeared 
in this part of the North this spring, or rather I should 
say a couple of hundred miles further north than this. 
While up in Wisconsin on a hurried trip, I saw a bunch 
of these big, white-throated fellows out in the middle of a 
plowed field, and I hear every now and then of some 
Wisconsin man killing a wild goose, usually with a rifle, at 
long range. From the lower edge of Wisconsin north for 
150 miles the geese have been fooling around for two 
or three weeks, not always to their own best interests. 
E. Hough. 
Hartfoed Building, Chicago, 111, 
are lovers of sport, and others who take slight interest in 
the preservation of our game. 
Judging from the number of moose yearly killed, prin- 
cipally by foreigners, it will only be a matter of a few 
years before the moose will be a thing of the past, and 
can only be referred to as past history, as the buffalo are 
spoken of to-day. 
Our Government demands a reasonable license ($30) 
from non-residents for the privilege of hunting the game 
of our forests, and in doing this I think they are well 
within their rights. The Americans I have had the privi- 
lege of meeting have not objected to this charge, in fact, 
they seem to think it well worth the money. 
J. W. Smith. 
Game Reservation in New Brunswick. 
Moncton, N. B. — Editor Forest and Stream: As the 
Forest and Stream has been strongly advocating the 
establishing of game reservations in the United States, it 
may be interesting to your readers to know that a bill 
has been brought before the Provincial Parliament "at 
Fredericton, which is now in session, by the Surveyor 
General, Hon. Mr. Dunn, providing for the establishing 
of a fish and game reservation of about nine hundred 
square miles. 
It is likely to be in the interior of the Province, prob- 
ably in the basin between the Tobique and Mepis,quit 
waters. This .legislation seems to be a step in the right 
direction. It no doubt will at first be a difficult matter 
to carry out and see that the law is enforced, but with 
good wardens and caretakers it should at least meet with 
a fair amount of success. 
Some of our legislation is often open to criticism, but 
on this matter 'the Government are deserving of praise 
and there should only be one opinion, both by those who 
Proprietors of fishing resorts will find it profitable to advertise 
them in Forest and Stream. 
pond. Poachers have in the past been able to capture 
hundreds of pounds out of the pools in a few hours. In 
the old days it used to be a favorite- but risky practice 
to descend on the Damariscotta fish pools by night and 
haul enough fish away to peddle around the country for 
a few weeks. But the guards now are instructed to shoot, 
and the poachers know it. 
Notwithstanding the fact that the ascent of the fish 
is so spectacular, no one sees them depart from the lake, 
but it is sometime about the middle of summer. Occa- 
sionally the fry are seen in the lake, traveling m belts 
many feet across. Sometimes, sitting on the shore, one 
will see this procession of little fellows passing in ap- 
parently interminable parade, hour after hour. 
p W. Bert Foster. 
Where Alewives Soawn. 
We used to see them strung on sticks in the. markets — 
rows upon rows of them; especially were they plentiful 
in New England and New York, and "smoked herring" 
was a common item on the ordinary bill of fare. But here 
in New York "bloaters" have taken their place to a great 
extent. 
Why they shomd-ever have been called herring is Hard 
to understand, unless it is because they appear in such 
great shoals as the real herring only can equal. But the 
alewife is a member of the shad family — an aristocrat, if 
you please, to the red herring. In the spring and early 
summer the alewives appear in great numbers on our 
eastern coast, entering (Chesapeake Bay about March 
and getting into New York waters and those of New 
England during April. They never go further north than 
the Gulf of St. Lawrence, while the true herring is found 
in the Arctic seas and seldom gets south of Ireland. 
Of late years the alewives, like all other edible fish 
once so plentiful in these waters, have grown more scarce. 
They never appear now in many streams formerly chosen 
by them to spawn in. For instance, the writer has seen 
the Seekonk River— a wide branch of the Providence 
River — fairly white with shoals of alewives. and men in 
boats chased them with nets, or "gigged" for them with 
three-pronged spears. But that was years ago. Rivers 
beaten -by the paddles and propellers, of many steamers 
and tugs, or made filthy by city sewerage and mill slops, 
do not attract spawning fish. 
But there are rivers where the alewives seem to have a 
regular spring engagement and appear in their waters 
annually to spawn. One of these is the Damariscotta, in 
Maine, and the scenes which occur there while the fish 
are crowding up the tideway are really marvelous. Little 
else is thought of or attended to but the fish during this 
time in the towns of Damariscotta and Newcastle. "The 
alewife rush" is by far the most interesting event of the 
year. ■! 
Some fine April morning, without any warning of their 
approach, all at once down the river the calm surface is 
broken by little glints of silver in the sunshine, little 
flirtings of the water and quivers as though something 
of broad extent were moving below. Then with start- 
ling suddenness a queer sort of a tidal wave seems to 
form. It moves rapidly up stream, extending from bank 
to bank. The wave rails a foot" high, and it is a wave of 
fish! 
It comes sweeping on, one fish leaping over another 
and falling only to leap again. And thus, flashing and 
splattering, and leaping till the surface is afoam and the 
air is full of the queer rushing noise, the fish come till 
they break at the foot of the falls. From the pond above 
.the village the river descends, by successive leaps, the 
face of a rather steep bluff. There are two branches of 
the stream flowing down the bluff, one much harder for 
the fish to ascend than the other. 
During these rushes, which happen frequently during 
the day, the fish are (many of them) forced, flapping and 
floundering, out upon the banks, and may be picked up 
by the basketful. The laws of Maine permit the capture 
of these alewives under somewhat peculiar provisions. 
All the fish which turn to the right at the foot of the falls 
and ascend the stream which is hardest to mount, must 
be allowed to pursue their way undisturbed. They "are 
permitted to hop from pool to pool, flop out on the bank 
and then flop back again, and thus make their difficult 
way to the lake, the journey occupying a hearty and 
active alewife at least two days. 
The fish that select the left hand stream, which is 
wider and much easier of ascent, are caught in a lock, 
not one escaping. At certain intervals, as soon as the 
lock is full, the water is drained off, and men with great 
dip nets ladle the struggling fish into a runway that 
slopes to a packing house. A thin stream of water is 
running down the sluice, and the fish are borne awa}^. 
As they come out at the end, men stand there with bar- 
rels, and as soon as one barrel is full another is substi- 
tuted. During the season of a few short weeks fifty 
thousand barrels are secured. 
Most of the fish are pickled in strong brine, but few are 
sold in this form in the United States, as the Yankee 
prefers his smoked. Nine-tenths of the fish the Dama- 
riscotta packers catch are shipped direct to the West 
Indies, and are readily sold there to the natives. The 
call is for plenty of salt and fat fish, and the alewives 
that run up the river are in fine condition, fat as butter, 
and the females are full of roe that makes good eating 
in itself. 
All the profit from the result of the sale of the fish 
to the packers goes to the treasuries of the towns of 
Damariscotta and Newcastle. The sum realized is so con- 
siderable that the taxes in the two municipalities are very 
low. By an ancient provision every widow in the towns 
is allowed to come to the side of the stream and receive 
a hundred pounds of the fresh fish from the hands of 
the selectmen, who are on duty during the whole of the 
season. 
Each night armed guards patrol the banks of the 
stream, especially the right hand stream, where the fish 
that are allowed to pass are struggling bravely up to the 
TroutfFishing: at Upper Dam, 
Having had a very successful trip to the big pools at 
Upper Dam, and now having time to think it over, I 
havcoa number of times questioned myself as to how long 
will these big trout exist in the Rangeleys, and have come 
to the conclusion that if the present laws are carried out 
and a few possible improvements made, that the supply 
will last for years, and I hope forever. 
One of the greatest checks on the fish at this place is 
the example set by such men as Mr. T. B. Stewart, R. 
N Parish, Osgood. Tom Barbour and others. These 
men fish only with the fly and look with scorn on the man 
that puts a bait or spoon in the waters of the big pools 
A stranger that comes to the Upped Dam House and 
watches these men fish for one day soon begins to agree 
with them that bait fishing is poor sport and m a day or 
so will be seen trying his best to be classed as a true 
sportsman and not a grubber, and if he will persevere he 
will be rewarded with a fish before long, and after once 
having the sensation of seeing a large trout or salmon rise 
and take the fly and seeing how he fights for liberty, he 
is generally satisfied that it is the correct way to fish. 
Another good unwritten law at the pool is to keep no 
small fish. All, or nearly all, the men return all fish 
under three pounds weight. All fish three pounds or over 
are put on record at the Upper Dam House and weighed 
bv a pair of balance scales by the proprietor, who looks 
over all fish and gives the exact weight, no more and 
no less. He cares not who takes the largest fish of the 
year or the largest fish on record, but what he does want 
is a correct and complete record of all fish from the 
pools for future reference, so that one year may be com- 
pared with another. . 
I am sure that if the laws of the Rangeley Lakes were 
the same as they are in the pools and nyer at Upper 
Dam the supply of trout would increase from year to 
year and the fishing would soon be as it was twenty years 
ago. These fish now are hdlding their own both for size 
and numbers. Some of the largest fish have been taken 
in the last few vears. the largest being nearly ten pounds. 
This is the heaviest trout since accurate weights have been 
kept There are accounts of much larger fish, but how 
carefully they were weighed I cannot say. I know that 
at one of the oldest camps at the lakes their largest trout 
is eight pounds. This camp has been m constant use 
since 1864, and some of the party made visits prior to 
this and it has contained many noted fishermen, ine 
record is accurate and full, .giving the name of the man 
that took the fish with the date, weight and length of big 
fish In looking at the record at the hotel and compar- 
ing it with the camp I have come to the conclusion that 
ten pounds is about the limit. I do not mean to say 
larger trout have not been or will not be taken, but the 
number has been and will be few. 
I learn from looking over the records of these two 
places that the weights at present do not show any 
change, but that where twenty years ago numbers of big 
trout were taken where one or two now are. 
At the present time there are large numbers of trout 
taken, and I believe that the fishing at Upper Dam Pool 
is the finest in the world. I do not think there is such a 
remarkable pool to be found. t , 
Think what the history of this pool and nver is. About 
i860 laws were not known and I have an intimate friend 
who tells me that he has seen them in those days netted 
at the head of the river for years and taken out _ by the 
wagnnload for market, and no law to prevent it. He 
also told me he had seen the same men jigging them off 
their beds in the fall. Now, even with all this slaughter 
and fishing through the ice, there are lots of fish there 
yet. '. , , 
Should a man not care to fish for big trout m the pool, 
he can try many other places near by with only a short 
row or walk, say an hour or an hour and a hall The 
lake has a number of fine streams that empty into it, and 
they all contain trout up to three or four pounds for the 
largest, with numbers of two and two and a half pounders. 
Mill Brook brings forth as large fish as the pool, but 
fewer of them. George Thomas, a guide, told me of one 
of nine and three-quarter pounds being taken this year. 
If you do not like stream fishing there are a number of 
fine ponds with beautiful scenery, and if you are there 
at the right time you might take any number. I heard 
of one party taking ninety some trout one day this fall. 
This is wrong, and such men should be taken care of. 
Another very good law .is the one forbidding fishing 
in the streams emptying into the lake above the first 
rapids. This, as you see, gives the small trout a_ chance, 
and as they increase in size they come down into the 
deep' water, When a man fishes in the big pool he does 
not expect to take a five, six, seven or nine pound trout 
daily, and my readers must not think if they go there that 
they will be taken by them daily, for if they do they 
will go away much disappointed. _ What they may look 
for is a few record fish during their stay, say six ; by this 
I mean over three pounds. They may not come up to 
this, but during this time they may take a number of 
smaller ones, all or nearly all of which they will return. 
In 1901 I saw some men fishing that did not make a 
record, and yet they persisted in their work cheerfully, 
and had the pleasure of seeing other men take one daily. 
No doubt many of my readers have never seen this 
pool, so it might be well to mention that it is very large; 
I should think it was nearly 300 feet long and 200 or more 
feet wide, with a strong current through the middle mak- 
ing two strong whirlpools, one to right and one to the 
left. 
