488 
FOREST AND STREAM> 
[June 21, 1902. 
pose of the law and the actual provisions thereof, and that 
the latter tend in some plain and appreciable manner to- 
ward the accomplishment of the objects for which the 
Legislature may use this power." Judge Ross, in the case 
in re Marshall, 102 Fed. Rep., 323, says: "Laws enacted 
in the exercise of the police power by a municipal cor- 
poration acting in pursuance of the laws of the State, or 
by a State itself, must be reasonable, and are always sub- 
ject to the provisions of both the Federal and State Con- 
stitutions, and they are always subject to judicial scru- 
tiny." And as further said in the same case: "Property 
is everything that has an exchangeable value, and the 
right of property includes the power to dispose of it ac- 
cording to the will of the owner." Mr. Justice Field, in 
his dissenting opinion in Geer vs. Conn., 161 U. S. P.. 
541. says: "When property, like the game birds in this 
case, is reduced to possession, it becomes an article of 
commerce and may be the subject of sale." Mr. Justice 
Harlan, in the same case, also dissenting, says: "The 
State, as we have seen, does not prohibit the killing of 
game, but permits hunting and killing of quail between 
the first day of October and the first day of January. The 
game in question, having been lawfully killed, the person 
who killed it and took it into his possession became the 
rightful owner. This, I take it, will not be questioned. 
As such owner he could dispose of it, by gift or sale, at 
his discretion." Although these are dissenting opinions, it 
would not be the first time in the history of jurisprudence 
if they contained the better law. 
In ex-parte Knapp, 127 Cal., 101, it is said : "An ordi- 
nance intended to discriminate in favor of sportsmen and 
against all other persons in respect to the disposition of 
game lawfully killed, is not a proper exercise of police 
power." And to show that this rule is made applicable 
also to State legislation as well as ordinances of a city or 
county, the opinion proceeds : "The statutes of the State 
in regard to game, prohibit the offering for sale of game 
during the time it is unlawful to kill such game (Stat, 
1897, p. 90). State legislation upon this subject seems 
complete, and restricts the rights of citizens so far as was 
necessary to prevent the unlawful killing of game. It 
was stated on argument, substantially, that the ordinance 
was aimed "at pot-hunters." I understand this phrase 
covers all except sportsmen. Relatively, a small part of 
the_ community only are sportsmen. A law or ordinance 
which would discriminate in their favor would not be a 
proper exercise of the so-called police power. 
For the foregoing reasons I think the prisoner should 
be discharged. Van Dyke, J. 
I concur : Temple, J. 
Proprietors of fishing resorts will find it profitable to advertise 
them in Forest and Stream. 
Fish and Fishing. 
The Salmon of the Far North. 
The rarious projects now in contemplation for the 
Construction of railway communication with Hudson 
Bay are leading to a revival of interest in the wealth 
of fish life contained in the waters of the far north, and 
it is by no means unlikely that the Dominion Depart- 
ment of Fisheries may in the near future concede cer- 
tain exclusive fishing privileges to a company which will 
operate in Sub-Arctic waters. Some three or four years 
ago a Canadian fishing company applied for a lease of 
very extensive fishing grounds in James' Bay, but as 
most of the area affected really lav within the bounds 
of the Province of Quebec, the Dominion Government 
declined to grant the concession. The application has 
recently been renewed by a number of Ontario capital- 
ists, but this time for rights in waters further north, and 
therefore beyond the limits of provincial jurisdiction, so 
that there is every prospect of a favorable response. It 
certainly does not say very much for Canadian enter- 
prise that up to the present time the people of the Do- 
minion, with the exception of the Eskimos, Indians and 
Hudson Bay Company's employes, have made no use 
of their valuable fishing resources in the far north, 
having left them entirely to the crews of visiting whalers 
and other fishing craft from Scotland and the New Eng- 
land States. 
Without taking into consideration the enormous 
Wealth produced by the whale fisheries of Hudson Bay. 
these northern waters contain immense quantities of 
marketable fish. Fablulous stories are told of the al- 
most incredible supply of salmon in Hudson Straits and 
iUngava Bay. A former agent of the Hudson Bay Com- 
pany_ states that these salmon are the finest of the world, 
and just as superior to the Restigouche fish, or to those 
of any of the other rivers of the St. Lawrence basin, as 
these last are to those of the Pacific slope. Of course 
this difference in quality will cause no surprise to those 
who know how the firmness of flesh of the principal 
fishes of the Salmonidae is improved by a low tempera- 
ture of the water and a northern habitat. 
It is only within comparatively modern times that any 
attempt has been made to take these fish in considerable 
quantities for export. The plan adopted for their cap- 
ture was borrowed from the porpoise fishermen of Hud- 
son Bay.^ and it is doubtful if salmon or trout fishing 
is done in the same manner in any other part of the 
world. The coast of Hudson Straits is indented by thou- 
• sands of small bays and estuaries into which many riv- 
ers flow. At low tide there 5s little water in any of 
these inlets, but at high tide the water rushes up into 
them for long distances. The tides rise twenty-five, and 
311 some instances as much as fifty feet. At high tide 
an the seasons when the salmon and sea-trout are run- 
ning, these fish follow with the water into the bays and 
rivers as far as the tide goes and swarm back with it 
when it ebbs. The Hudson Bay man already referred 
to states that he has seen the smaller rivers and streams, 
or rather the stream beds, perfectly filled from shore to 
shore with salmon or sea-trout, for the two seldom run 
together, struggling upwards with the tide. It is im- 
possible to draw seines against such a mass of fish, and 
the fish wheels of Oregon would be impracticable. The 
simple trap copied from the porpoise hunters proves 
very successful. Immense nets are made from the lar- 
gest and strongest twine, and of length and depth to 
suit the inlet to be fished. At low tide the nets are set 
at the mouths of the bays or inlets, and the top of the 
net is loosened and allowed to sink to the bottom in 
order that no obstruction may be offered to the fish as 
they pass up with the rising tide. Just before the tide 
turns the lines holding down the top of the net are 
raised, when the buoys instantly rise to the surface and 
the trap is set. As the tide comes back, men are sta- 
tioned some distance above the nets, and with the aid 
of poles and brushwood, with which they beat the river, 
contrive to prevent the great mass of the fish from 
pressing upon the net and carrying it away. The sal- 
mon rush up stream again by thousands, and so panic 
stricken do they become at the frightful disturbance of 
the water that tons of fish are often left on the dry beds 
of the inlets by the receding tides. As many as ten 
thousand salmon have thus been taken at a single haul. 
Those who have seen them say that the marvelous sal- 
mon runs of the Oregon rivers are not to be compared 
to the tremendous rushes of the fish in Hudson Straits. 
If the latter had large fresh water rivers to explore, it 
is prqbable that they would not be massed nearly so 
thickly along the coasts, but the channels they seek are 
not sufficient to let them all in. 
Cruelty to Ffsh. 
Every honest angler believes that no more cruel in- 
justice to a good man's memory was ever wrought than 
when Byron formulated his " unfortunate charge of 
cruelty against the gentle Walton. One looks in vain to 
the sensual wordling, even .though he be ever so richly 
endowed with the gift of song, for an honest apprecia- 
tion of the true spirit of angling, and no injury to the 
reputation of any lover of the gentle art attends the as- 
sertion that "no angler can be a good man," when it 
drops from the pen of one who is guilty of the misstate- 
ment that "angling is the crudest, the coldest, and the 
stupidest of pretended sports," that "the angler merely 
thinks of a dish of fish," and that "a single bite is worth 
to him more than all the scenery around." 
The pot hunter and the angler belong to two very 
different classes of beings. While the latter is merciful 
as well as gentle, the tender mercies of the other are 
cruel. The one may be known from the other, not only 
by the difference in their relative regard for the value 
of fish and other forms of life, but also by their treat- 
ment of the fish which they take from the water. Every 
honest angler sees that his fish are mericfully killed as 
soon as landed. 
There is naturally a good deal of satisfaction in British 
angling circles over a conviction which has recently 
been obtained against a London naturalist for cruelty 
to gold fish confined in an aquarium. The evidence 
proved that the fish had been left for several days in 
their bowls in the shop of the accused without any care 
while he was abroad. Seventeen fish in thirteen bowls 
were found dead, and those still alive were gasping at 
the top of the water. Expert evidence proved that the 
victims had suffered a painful, lingering death, and the 
defendant was consequently fined £2 and £2 4s. costs. 
E. T. D. Chambers. 
Some Anglers' Ways. 
There are comparatively few hunters, even among 
those who have had many years of experience, who do 
not prefer to shoot an uncommonly large specimen of the 
particular kind of game which they are hunting than one 
of average size. Anglers as a rule are constituted in very 
much the same way, for they are generally anxious to 
catch as big a fish as possible. It would be interesting if 
we could get at the true inwardness of this tendency and 
definitely determine the motive. At first thought one 
may be inclined to believe that there is an element of 
selfishness in it and that the hunter or angler in his 
desire to get the biggest, is but following in the footsteps 
of the small boy, who habitually singles out the largest 
apple in the pile or basket, when he is given -the privilege 
of selecting one. It has aptly been said that "the boy is 
father of the man," and, perchance, the trait of 
choosing the largest, which is so frequently inherent in 
youth, is retained throughout life. Selfishness enters into 
so many things in this world that it is not difficult to be- 
lieve it has some bearing on this matter. The lad who 
instinctively picks out the biggest apple often does so re- 
gardless of the fact that it is wormy and that by taking 
a smaller one he might get an apple which was more 
juicy and of finer grain and flavor. So the hunter, who 
is in pursuit of deer, for example, and is fortunate 
enough to be in a position to make his selection from a 
number of the cervine animals, will almost invariably 
level his rifle at the largest one, even though he has had 
experience enough to know that the flesh of the venerable 
buck at which he aims is certain to be tougher and of 
stronger flavor than that of the younger but somewhat 
smaller one which perhaps is standing within equally 
easy range. And the trout fisherman frequently sits hour 
after hour, and day after day, in a boat on a lake, wet 
through to the skin by a soaking rain or sweltering in 
the hot sun, endeavoring to capture at his baited buoy 
or by trolling, as the case may be, a few big speckled 
beaut'es, when he would be certain of catching twenty 
times the number of fish and at least five times as many 
pounds in some not far distant stream. He knows that 
the trout in the creek will be smaller, probably none ex- 
ceeding six or eight ounces in weight, while on the lake 
there is always a possibility, if not a probability, of his 
capturing a whopper. But he knows, too, if he is an ex- 
perienced angler, that the smaller trout are fully as tooth- 
some as the big ones and less apt to be dry eating. Most 
people who are posted on the subject concede that 
speckled trout weighing from four to six ounces are more 
desirable for the table, being less dry and of finer flavor 
than those of extremely large size. 
If we seek for another motive than that which has 
been mentioned as possibly the one which prompts the 
hunter and angler to strive after "the biggest," then per- 
haps we may hit upon ambition as the incentive. Ambi- 
tion is accountable for a good many things, and it may 
be that this is one of them. Ambition thus directed 
would mean a desire to secure something larger and more 
noteworthy than other hunters or anglers have taken, or, 
in other words, an effort to surpass the record of others. 
As an incentive to this there is the knowledge that the 
killing of some notably large game or the capture of a 
remarkably big trout is likely to be an event that will 
linger in the memory and form the basis of a good story 
with which to _ entertain brother sportsmen. This sort 
of ambition is in a sense commendable, or at all events 
it is less open to criticism than some other forms. There 
have been so-called sportsmen in former years whose am- 
bition it was to see how many deer, partridges or other 
kinds of game they could shoot in a season, or how 
many trout or bass they could capture, but thanks to 
wholesome legislation and an educated public sentiment 
there is little encouragement now for such ambition. A 
few years ago it was considered by some to be quite an 
achievement for a hunter to kill a half-dozen deer on a 
trip, or for a fisherman to capture in a day 400 or 500 
brook trout, most of which were under six inches in 
length, whereas now such a record maker would be amen- 
able to the law. 
Sallust does not tell us that he had in mind an am- 
bitious angler, addicted to relating big fish stories, when 
he said: "It is the nature of ambition to make men 
liars and cheats who hide the truth in their hearts, and 
like jugglers, show another thing in their mouths; to cut 
all friendships and enmities to the measure of their in- 
terest, and put on a good face where there is no corre- 
sponding good will." In fact we cannot believe he was 
thinking about fishermen at all when he thus expressed 
himself, for the ambitious angler is usually an honest 
sportsman and a hail fellow well met. He despises cheat- 
ing of every description save such as may be requisite to 
entice_ a wary trout. He makes friends readily and holds 
them in bonds of fraternal sympathy and good fellowship. 
He has "a good face" which invariably beams a cordial 
greeting to all comrades of the rod and reel, and there 
is no mistaking the fact that behind it is a kindly nature 
overflowing with hearty good will. As to his veracity, 
that, too, is unquestioned, for even in the absorbing 
occupation of narrating his experiences with big trout 
he will adhere to the truth as closely as it is possible to 
do in telling a fish story. 
It is quite probable that some anglers, if questioned on 
the subject, would say that they like to catch big trout 
because there is more sport in it than there is in taking 
small ones. They would tell us that the larger fish are 
more unyielding and fight harder, and hence there is 
more excitement in capturing them. It would not be 
surprising to hear one of them declare that he had rather 
catch one two-pound speckled trout than a creel full of 
quarter-pounders. But as a matter of fact, the fighting 
. qualities of a trout are not always proportionate to its 
size any more than those of a man are proportionate to 
his physique. The big fellow may be sluggish and in- 
active, while one of half his size may be full of stub- 
bornness, audacity and fight. I have taken speckled trout 
weighing from two to three pounds which came in a 
good deal as a pickerel or sucker might, while at other 
times I have known half and three-quarter pounders to 
furnish a battle royal. All things being equal, the big 
fish may be expected to make a more vigorous resistance 
than the smaller one, but a trout weighing a pound, 
hooked in swiftly running water, will often fight harder 
and longer than one of twice the size hooked in the still 
and comparatively deep water of a lake. Furthermore, 
the angler is likely to find it requires a greater amount of 
patience and skill to bring the former to creel than it 
does the latter. It is unquestionably a good thing for the 
trout family as a whole that there are fishermen who 
devote most of their energies to trying to capture the 
big ones, for as a consequence many of the smaller fish 
are spared. 
In conclusion, it may be said that whatever th,e mo- 
tive is which prompts the hunter or angler to strive after 
the biggest, the endeavor seems to be praiseworthy rather 
than otherwise. The spirit with which he enters into the 
pursuit is evidently somewhat akin to that which governed 
him when he purchased a splendid rifle or rod, viz., a de- 
sire to possess something as good or better than others have 
In other words, he desires to equal or excel, and certainly 
this seems commendable, but it is "ambition," so perhaps 
after all, that is the real secret. At any rate, this appears 
to be a plausible and satisfactory theory, for we are told 
that "ambition is not a vice of little people." 
W. E. Wolcott, 
Utica, N. Y., May 22. 
Angling: Near New York. 
Salt-water fishing in the vicinity of New York, which 
has so far been backward, is steadily improving, and from 
the various fishing stations good catches are reported. 
At Giffords Station, Staten Island, weakfish are now 
numerous. On Sunday and Monday the ebb tide yielded 
from eight to twelve fish to a boat, all being of good size. 
Weakfishing at The Raunt, Jamaica Bay, is very good 
at present. Mr. George Schwind, of that place, reports 
that on Friday of last week one boat got sixty-two and 
another forty-five, while catches of from twelve to twenty- 
five are of daily occurrence. Fluke, sea bass and black- 
fish are also plentiful. Last Saturday nine fluke, the 
smallest weighing 2%. pounds and the largest pounds, 
were caught within five minutes' row of the boathouse. 
This latter fish is one of the largest fluke ever taken in 
the bay. Another boat, fishing one hour of the flood 
tide, brought in eleven sea bass, averaging a pound, and 
nine blackfish, one of which weighed 234 pounds. Last 
week (Tuesday) Mr. Schwind's son fished for bottom 
fish and caught fourteen blackfish, eleven sea bass and 
six fluke, one of the fluke weighing S Z A pounds. The 
next day he brought in nine large weakfish, some of which 
weighed four pounds. 
The boats leaving Sheepshead Bay report large catches 
of ling and whiting, but weakfish have not yet begun to 
bite. A few fluke are caught, but at this season there 
should be many of them, G, F, Diehl, 
