328 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
[April 26, 1902. 
down, and they had two Franklin grouse (fool hens) , 
Mrs. Snyder had a good laugh at the boys for letting the 
.22 get all the game. 
That Thanksgiving Mr. Strahl came up to the mill 
after some lumber, and I went down to the schoolhouse 
with him. On the way we saw a coyote standing on a 
knoll about 175 yards away. I had the .22, and I told 
Strahl to drive on and when we got opposite to it I would 
get off, and it would not run if he kept going. I raised 
the sight for 200 yards and fired, and at the crack of the 
rifle the coyote jumped up several feet and disappeared 
over the knoll. I told Frank to go after it. Strahl said I 
undershot it; I thought I had hit it. Soon Frank came 
back. I told Strahl that if he would go over the knoll he 
would find his coyote. He said no, but he went, and there 
was the coyote shot through the heart. Strahl then went 
and stepped the distance, and he made it 175 yards, and 
said that it was the best shot he ever saw made with a .22. 
When we got down into Antoine Valley a jackrabbit 
run off on to the hill, and Strahl shot at it and broke one 
of its legs, and Frank caught it. 
This winter while out at the lake I shot at a lynx up in 
a tree about 100 feet, and killed it dead with my .22. And 
last but not least, at the Christmas turkey shoot I shot 
for the first three turkeys put up, and I got all of them 
and quit — just what I will do now, before your many 
readers get as disgusted as did the boys whom I shot 
against. Lew. Wxlmot. 
K.ELL6R, Wash. 
"A Canada Special." 
Toronto, Ont. — The editorial and supplement with the 
above title in your issue of April 5 has tempted me to 
write a few lines to Forest and Stream about the bluebill, 
the name by which this duck is altogether known in the 
vicinity of Toronto. Some years ago it was a rare thing 
to see a bluebill after the fall migration until the follow- 
ing spring, but of late years we have had a large number 
with us all winter. Last January and February there 
must have been two or three thousand in Humber Bay 
(just west of Toronto Harbor), and when the bay was 
frozen over they were so hard pressed for food that they 
actually came into the holes in the ice at the foot of one of 
the principal streets, where a sewer empties into the bay 
and keeps a small part of it from freezing over during the 
severest weather. 
There is another feature about the bluebill that is 
peculiar. Quite a number stay about Toronto Bay all 
summer and do not go north with the main flight to the 
breeding grounds. In years gone by when spring shoot- 
ing was indulged irf, it was generally supposed that the 
birds that did not go north had been wounded, but of 
late years, since spring shooting has been stopped, the 
number of bluebills that stay with us during the summer, 
has increased. On July 1 of last year I counted seventy- 
two bluebills (mostly males) on Toronto Bay in one 
flock. The fact is, there are only about two months in 
the year when it would be hard to find a bluebill about 
Toronto. They disappear in August and September, pos- 
sibly to moult. In October the fall flight begins to 
arrive, and we have more or less bluebills with us until 
the following August. Jno. Townson. 
[The bluebill undoubtedly breeds in the neighborhood 
of Toronto, and the birds seen there during the summer 
are no doubt the males, whose mates have nests not far 
away. The species is known to breed within the United 
States, where the spring shooters permit it to live:] 
Real Robinson Crusoe* 
Honolulu, April 8, — By the steamship China comes a 
story of a real Japanese Robinson Crusoe, who lived for 
seventeen years on a deserted island near Gensan, off 
Korea. 
The Japanese Government sent a torpedo boat in search 
of the man on the island. He was found and brought 
back to Nagasaki. 
The man had been so long without companionship that 
he was reduced almost to imbecility. His hair and beard 
were long and unkempt, and he had almost lost the power 
of speech. He had been cast away on the island seven- 
teen years ago and had subsisted since that time on sea- 
weed and fish, living in a cave. The lone islander was 
entirely without implements of iron or any means of 
utilizing the scanty materials of nature which the island 
furnished. — Baltimore Sun. 
Laying: up Treasure for Old Age. 
Detroit, March 20. — Forest and Stream Publishing 
Co.: As I am away from New York about four-fifths of 
the time, I don't get much chance to read your very in- 
teresting paper, but as I have been a subscriber to your 
paper since January, 1886, and have always kept a com- 
plete file of your papers, I, therefore, very much like to 
continue my subscription, even if I do not get any leisure 
time to read your papers now, perhaps later on when I 
get to be an old man and have lots of leisure time I will 
simply give myself the pleasure of reading over all of 
your interesting papers. They certainly have afforded me 
many a pleasant hour in by-gone years, when I had more 
time than I have nowadays. A. F. P. 
In the Senate Friday President Frye sat in his chair 
and gazed at the ceiling. Senator Proctor tore the back 
off an envelope and wrote on it- 
"Dear Frye : How can you sit there when the ice is 
out of the lake? "Proctor." 
He sent the note to Senator Frye, who read it and 
made a gesture of despair that caused a dozen Senators to 
wonder if the presiding officer had heard bad news. 
Proctor and Frye are famous fishermen. For thirty 
years Senator Proctor has been in Vermont on the last 
night of April with fishing tackle ready, and for thirty 
years at sun-up on the 1st of May he has begun casting 
for speckled trout. He will be there this year.— New 
York World. 
All communications intended for Fokmt Aire Stream should 
always be addressed to the Forest aad Stream PaWiektaf G?., mi 
not to any itxi'Mimi <s*sa**te4 «4tk the inppr 
<$> 
Proprietors of fishing resorts will find it profitable to advertise 
them in Forest and Stsxah. 
Angling Anticipations* 
When the big. snowbanks have dwindled away until 
naught remains save an occasional remnant in the darkest 
woodland ravine, and the lakes and streams have shaken 
t>ff their icy fetters; when the grass on the lawns and in 
the fields begins to look fresh and green, and the leaf 
buds on the deciduous trees are bursting; when the 
tanners are plowing and planting, and bonfires are blaz- 
ing in the back yards; when Mother Earth is taking a 
bath in the warm April showers which are the forerun- 
ners of May flowers, and the sweet notes of the robin 
and bluebird are heard in the land, anglers who love to 
tempt the brook trout know that their opportunity is 
near at hand. This is the period of anticipation, and it 
is a time of keen enjoyment to the true disciples of Izaak 
Walton. Angling is fittingly termed the gentle art, and 
it is a, noteworthy fact that the majority of those who 
angle purely from love of the sport are good-natured, 
companionable, gentle men. With trout fishermen, es- 
pecially, the period of anticipation, which ordinarily ante- 
dates by several weeks the opening of the fishing season 
and continues up to the time the sport actually begins, is 
fraught with pleasure, as it not only brings inspiring 
memories of happy hours spent on favorite lakes and 
streams in days gone by, but awakens hope and fancy, 
thereby occasioning visions of equally or if possible more 
enjoyable times soon to come. So if the true angler is 
proverbially good-natured, he is pretty certain to be in a 
particularly happy mood in the days immediately pre- 
ceding the opening of the trout season. His thoughts 
frequently stray to the woods and fields, and when by 
chance he meets a friend who has similar tastes, the con- 
versation is sure to turn on the subject of fishing. "Well, 
have you got your fishing tackle ready?" is a very com- 
mon form of salutation among fishermen, and the ques- 
tion or the cordial greeting, for such it really is, as it 
possesses far more significance than a mere idle query, 
promptly receives a cheery response. When he accosts a 
brother angler in the manner referred to, the person 
sneaking is not necessarily anxious to know the exact 
condition of his friend's rod, line and artificial flies, but 
he does desire to signify his appreciation of the fact that 
they are mutually interested in the subject of fishing, to 
express his friendly feeling for him, to bring to mind the 
proximity of the open season for trout, and the possibili- 
ties of pleasant outings in the country. It is true that 
in fishing, as well as in other pastimes, and in practically 
all the occupations and pleasures of this life, as much, if 
not more, enjoyment is derived from anticipation as 
from realization. In fact, Goldsmith tells us that "the 
hours we pass with happy prospects in view are more 
pleasant than those crowned with fruition. In the first 
case we cook the dish to our own appetite; in the last 
it is cooked for us." Rochefoucauld says, "Our desires 
always disappoint us, for though we meet with something 
that gives us satisfaction, yet it never thoroughly an- 
swers our expectation," and as George Eliot tersely puts 
it, "'Nothing is so good as it seems beforehand." 
... . 
In thinking over this matter of anticipation and realiza- 
tion from the standpoint of the angler, it seems to me 
that perhaps the most substantial and satisfactory en- 
joyment is found in the past rather than in the present or 
future. That it is the memory of happy yesterdays or cer- 
tain hours which some years ago constituted first a 
to-morrow, then a to-day, and at length a yesterday, 
rather than in what actual pleasure the day now with us 
affords, or that which we anticipate the morrow will 
bring forth. 
While much enjoyment is derived from anticipation, 
our pleasure is pretty sure to be marred or gratified to 
some extent by reason of uncertainties or misgivings, for 
no man can count absolutely on what the future has in 
store for him. No one appreciates this fact more thor- 
oughly than does the angler. While he may feel that he 
can spare the time to take a fishing trip, and is confident 
from past experience that such an outing will be enjoy- 
able, there are always uncomfortable thoughts which 
obtrude themselves, for he knows that at the last mo- 
ment business matters or home duties may prevent his 
going, or if he is fortunate enough to get started, that he 
is liable to be called back at any time. Then, too, there 
is the thought that possibly the weather conditions may 
not be right during his trip, and that the fish may not 
bite. At best there is always uncertainty in anticipation. 
It is but natural that the mind should be better satisfied 
with a pleasing retrospect than a mere prospect, for the 
former is real and ours to keep and cherish, while the 
latter is necessarily shrouded in more or less doubt. Re- 
membered joys are priceless treasures, and as has aptly 
been said, "It is to live twice when we can enjoy the 
recollections of our former life." 
Anticipation would be robbed of its greatest charm if 
divorced from pleasant memories. In fact it is upon the 
recollection of pleasures enjoyed in the past that the ex- 
perienced angler bases his expectations of enjoyment on 
future fishing excursions. 
As to the present, I have sometimes wondered and 
doubted if there were any person living who could truth- 
fully say in any one hour that he or she was perfectly 
happy every one of the sixty minutes. Is there not cer- 
tain to be some shadow in the past or some misgiving as 
to the future which prevents the possibility of a person's 
being unqualifiedly happy for a whole hour? The angler, 
for example, may have a momentary feeling that he is 
superlatively happy while engaged in hauling in the 
speckled beauties as fast as he is able to remove them 
from his hook, but it is probable that several things are 
lacking to complete his happiness. Perhaps the mos- 
quitoes or black flies are pestering him, he may have lost 
the biggest trout of all, or he may have seen it and been 
unable to induce it to rise to his lure, or perhaps he 
would rather have his feet dry and w^rm than in 
the condition they are. In fact, he is to be sincerely 
congratulated if there are not a great many more things 
wanting to round out his happiness. It would indeed be 
a sad state of affairs if no happiness were to be found in 
the present, but there are so many degrees and shades of 
it that it is difficult to say when it is wholly unalloyed. 
Absolute contentment would seem to be essential to true 
happiness, and that implies a resting or satisfaction of 
mind, without disquiet. How then can a person enjoy 
either unless there is an utter absence of regret, annoy- 
ance, misgivings or unfulfilled desire. 
In contemplating the joys of the past it is easy to 
forget or overlook the minor troubles and annoyances 
which at the time of their occurrence, perhaps many years 
ago, served to mar the pleasure of the moment, hour or 
day. _ This is one of the notable advantages which retro* 
spection possesses. 
In view of what seems to be the actual state of affairs, 
is it not good reasoning to argue that the experienced 
angler who has a satisfactory record to look upon, can 
derive more enjoyment from retrospection than from 
anticipation and consequently more than from realiza- 
tion? The amateur fisherman, of course, will necessarily 
obtain the maximum amount of enjoyment from anticipa- 
tion until such a time as he has laid by an abundant store 
of pleasant memories born of experience on lake and 
stream. When that time arrives, he will not only be in 
a position to appreciate the beauties and delights of re- 
membered joys, but he will find the pleasures of anticipa- 
tion and realization immeasurably enhanced. 
It may be fitting to add that the person, be he an angler 
or not, who is made happy, whether by the expectation 
of good times to come, the realization of fondest hopes or 
the remembrance of former joys, is fortunate indeed so 
long as that happiness endures. Happiness is more diffi- 
cult to capture than the brook trout, and if we pursue her 
openly, no matter how energetically and persistently, she 
will surely elude us, but if we go about our business, un- 
obtrusively but earnestly, zealously striving to do our 
whole duty to God and man, she will seek us out and 
abide with us. 
The period of anticipation in New York State so far 
as trout fishing is concerned, has been superseded by 
that of realization in the case of many anglers, for the 
open season began April 16. Judging from the reports 
which have come from various parts of central and 
northern New York, there is likely to be excellent trout 
fishing this spring and summer, and, in fact, some fine 
catches have already been made. Although the weather 
conditions and the state of vegetation seem s to warrant the 
statement that spring has come somewhat earlier than it 
did last year, we have had so many cool days recently 
that it is probable the angler will be able to obtain better 
results in May than during the first fortnight of the trout 
season. 
In the smaller lakes of the Adirondack region the fish- 
ing is commonly supposed to be at its best just as soon as 
the ice goes out, but the angler who seeks to be on hand 
thus early is compelled to put up with many discomforts 
which can be avoided by waiting awhile. The ice dis- 
appeared from some of the little lakes and ponds in the 
wilderness two or three weeks ago, and has been out 
of most of the large lakes for several weeks, but it is be- 
lieved that next week or the week after will be soon 
enough for the angler who is anxious to get into the woods 
for the early fishing, to sally forth. It is said that on April 
15 the ice remained intact on Big Moose Lake and was 
solid enough to hold three men who walked across it. Al- 
though in many parts of New York State during the 
past winter there was far more than the average amount 
of snow, it is a somewhat -remarkable fact that in the 
Adirondacks it was not nearly so deep as in the winter 
preceding, and consequently it melted much earlier than 
usual. So far as can be learned, the trout wintered 
nicely in all Adirondack waters, 
W. E. Wolcott. 
Utica, N. Y., April 18. 
San Francisco Fly-Casting Club. 
Medal contests, series 1002, Saturday, contest No. 5, 
held at Stow Lake April 12. Wind, west ; weather, fair : 
Event Event Event 
No. 1, No. 2, No. 4, 
Distance, Accuracy, , Event No. S. , Lure 
Feet. 
Per cent. 
Acc. % 
Del. % 
Net* 
Casting % 
c. 
G. Young... 
91.4 
85 
77.6 
81.3 
H. 
Battu 
86 
93 
89.4 
81.8 
85.6 
80.5 
C. 
F. Grant... 
115 
81.4 
83.4 
82.6 
82.11 
w. 
E. Brooks., 
. 92 
89 ' 
82 
75 
78.6 
T. 
C. Kierulff. 
. 82 
88.4 
85.4 
74.2 
79.9 
T. 
Brotherton. 
.108 
94.4 
90.4 
78.4 
84.4 
94.3 
G. 
C. Edwards. 
. 92 
83.4 
84 
80.10 
82.5 
72.8 
H. 
F. Muller.. 
. 98 
94 
82.4 
81.8 
82 
E. 
. 96 
94.4 
89.4 
76.8 
83 
H. 
E. Skinner. 
94.4 
89.4 
81.8 • 
85.6 
P. 
J. Tormey. 
! 75 
84.8 
W 
Mansfield. . . 
92 
94.4 
84.2 
89.3 
96.1 
F. 
H. Reed, 
' 92 
92 
95.8 
82.6 
89.1 
Judges, Everett and Muller; referee, Brooks; clerk, 
Wilson. 
Sunday, contest No. 5, held at Stow Lake, April 13. 
Wind, light west; weather, fair: 
Haight ........ 
. 73 
88.4 
75 
74.2 
■ 74.7 
Battu , 
91 
91.8 
84.4 
75 
79.8 
75 
. 87 
82.4 
93 
75.10 
84.5 
Daverkosen . . . 
. 97 
89 
94 
80.10 
87.5 
Blade 
81 
82.4 
82 
63.4 
72.8 
96 
94 
82.8 
65.10 
74.3 
T. C. Kierulff.. 
. 76 
87.4 
90.4 
67.6 
78.11 
.102 
90.4 
£3 
73.4 
83.2 
9L8 
. 72 
73.4 
Mansfield 
95.4 
93.4 
90.10 
92.1 
96.2 
C. R. Kenniff.. 
!l66 
89.8 
91.8 
75 
83.4 
93.8 
77 
86.8 
87.4 
60.10 
74.1 
90 
90 
83 
70 
76.6 
,111 
83.4 
79 
65 
72 
Reed 
95 
93 
92.4 
76.8 
84.6 
T. B. Kenniff.. 
.109 
91.8 
85.8 
74.2 
79.11 
96.8 
92.8 
91.8 
80 
85.10 
m 
88.8 
93.8 
79.2 
86.5 
90.4 
92 
75 
83.6 
Judges, Daverkosen and Turner; referee, Kiemlff; 
clerk, Wilson, 
