I^EB. 7, 1903.1 
FOREST AND STREAM, 
111 
mnemonics cannot be approved, though the latter are 
often so deceptive in their apparent utility that they are 
not to be condemned unqualifiedly. The hunter who 
adopts the mercenary and commonplace plan of Aesop's 
husbandman and "leaves no stone unturned" is likely to 
be rewarded with a certain banal success, but obviously 
he loses the real joy of the chase. To secure that, the 
hunter must be a little in doubt as to the exact quotation 
he is after and very much in doubt as to where or how 
it is to be found. It is only on these conditions that he 
will be tempted to wander wide and deviously, sometimes 
in promising paths and on elusive trails, but more often 
under wayward impulses that have little or nothing to do 
with the particular passage he had in \-iew in starting. 
It is in these unexpected and practically aimless divaga- 
tions that the finest opportunities of the chase present 
themselves, and the hunter who is obedient to their 
charms gets much more than he dared to expect. His 
eye may not light on what he "went out for to see," but 
it will light on many a bewitching glimpse of beauty, 
many a surprised and surprising source of pure pleasure, 
so that he may return from his quest baffled but fortunate. 
As for the game he sought and did not get, that remains 
the incentive- for further hunting, the excuse for further 
wandering.— New York Times' Saturday Review. 
Iowa Game. 
HuMBOi-DT, Iowa, Jan. 17. — Editor Forest and Stream: 
The past hunting season in Iowa has been a remark- 
able one from manj^ points, and now that it is closed 
it is not out of place to give a review of the seilson. 
It opened Sept. i on ducks and prairie chickens. The 
latter bird was scarce in Iowa this year; it is practi- 
cally extinct. The northern section of the State af- 
forded the only shooting to be had, and that was very 
poor. The duck hunting was great. Old hunters mu,st 
look back many yeiirB before they find a year equaling 
it in abundance. Every country slough was filled to 
overflowing, and large numbers of ducks bred here dur- 
ing the summer. The quail were scarce this year. 
The winter has not been very hard on them so far, and 
tliey will probably winter all right In Iowa last year 
there was a strong example of wet weather, influencing 
the supply of quail. Had it not been for the continued 
rainy season in the summer, there would have been 
good hunting here last year, but the little quail were 
nearly all drowned out. 
I see that the plea on no spring shooting is getting 
stronger among thinking sportsmen. Iowa has no law 
in prohibiting it as yet, although the Legislature next 
winter may be itiduced to pass a law. 
Rabbits are quite plentiful in this region this winter, 
and I have been having some good sport with them. 
Franlc Jaqua, of this town, and two other hunting com- 
panions, killed twenty-five of them in about an hour 
one afternoon, and what surprised me most. Mr. Jaqua 
tells me that they shot four fat mallards. They found 
them in some spring holes along the E>es Moines River 
a few miles north of here. 
I inclose a photo of my hunting partner, Lou Shockley, 
placing out the decoys on a country slough not far from 
here. We had some good shooting at teal on this 
pond several times. B. 
The Massachusetts Commission* 
The Pittsfield Evening Journal of January 30 says: 
The members of the Pittsfield Rod and Gun Club claim 
that they have been misrepresented in statements issued 
to the press regarding the movement towards having the 
western part of the State represented on the State Fish 
and Game Commission. 
No less eminent authority on fish and game than 
Forest and Stream has been either maliciously or inten- 
tionally misinfonned of the intent and purposes of the 
Pittsfield Rod and Gun Club. The editor of Forest and 
Stream holds with certain North Adams papers that 
the Pittsfield Rod and Gun Club is to turn down and out 
the present commission. This is absoUitely untrue. 
One of the leading members of the Pittsfield Rod and 
Gun Club said this afternoon that there was not a sports- 
man of the club that had anything against any member of 
the Fish and Game Commission. It is stated that the 
local club recognizes the intelligent and successful work 
of Commissioner Collins, and that the local club likes 
his methods. What the club does want is a representa- 
tive on the commission from the western part of the 
State. That is what it is working for. 
The members of the commission are: Chairman, 
Joseph W. Collins, Boston; Edward A. Brackett, Win- 
chester; Jno. A. Delano, Marion; all living within the 
vicinity of Boston. ' The commission has no representa- 
tive for the central and western part of the State, and in 
western Massachusetts, with its fine forests and streams, 
there is as much if not more need of a commissioner 
than in any other part of the State. 
The Pittsfield Rod and Gun Club has no grievance 
against any game warden; it is not worknng against any- 
one and IS not playing any political or "long" game 'in 
theiv efforts for representation on the commission. All 
they ask for is just representation. 
It Weaifs Well. 
CENTR.^L Falls, R. I., Jan. 22, 1903.— I have taken 
the Forest and Str'.;:am most of the time for over 
twenty-five years and like it just as vrell as ever. 
Geo. T. Earle. 
K ^ 
K Take inventory of the good things in this issue H 
H of Forest and Stream. Recall what a fund was 
given last week. Count on what is to come next 
week. Was there ever in all the world a more 
abundant weekly store of sportsmen's readingP 
U 
it 
K 
Proprietors of fishing resorts will find it pro^table to advertise 
them m Forest and Stream. 
Reminiscences of an Octogenarian. 
j» ui/»«uu«» weeKty nure uf spurismen s reaaingr ^ 
Part VII. 
BY THE OLD ANGLER. 
{Continued from page 92 ) 
When the Old Angler first fished the Cascapedia, none 
of the rivers flowing into either side of the Bay Chalcur 
was leased; all were free to every angler whose love of 
sport induced him to take the long and unpleasant jour- 
ney necessary to reach them. The only steamer on the 
route made but one trip a week from Shediac to Dal- 
housie. The roads to New Richmond were so rough 
that it was more convenient to hire a boat at Dalhousie 
and make the trip by water, which occupies hut a few 
hours in ordinary weather. Take it all in all the Casca- 
pedia IS perhaps the best angling river in America, if not 
m the world. The fish run from 20 to 45 pounds— oftener 
30 than 20. They are not so numerous as they were 45 
years ago, when the Old Angler first cast his line in its 
transparent waters; but they are still plentiful enough to 
give the angler all the fishing he wants for a week or two. 
The scenery is beautiful and magnificent, ofi'ering a new 
picture at every turn of the' stream, which runs through 
a mountainous country with a current from four to five 
miles an hour, according to the state of the water. The 
rapids are numerous; many of them diflicult, some dan- 
gerous to ascend, and almost as dangerous, though much 
less difficult, to run. Indian Falls is the most "broken, 
rapid and dangerous place on the river; but so great is 
the skill of the Indian canoe-men that accidents rarely 
happen. The pools are numerous, and from July till 
September all are generally well stocked with fish. Be- 
tween tide-head and the forks there are 50 miles of the 
finest salmon waters in America. Most of this distance 
the river runs through deep gorges with high and steep 
mountains on each side, generally wooded to the water*s 
edge. At the forks, or junction of the two large streams 
which form the main river, are several pools always full 
of fish, which do not rise so freely to the fly as they did 
lower down the river. But the surroundings are the ideal 
of the angler who can enjoy the beauties of nature as 
well as the pleasures of fishing. Good angling will al- 
waj'S raise some of the numerous salmon lying in these 
pools. Unlike the lazy fish of the Restigouche, the sal- 
mon of the Cascapedia rise gallantly to the fly and gen- 
erally take it on the surface. Their great size, surprising 
strength and persistent pluck, added to the strength of the 
current and the force of the rapids, all combine to make 
anghng in this river the very finest sport that rod and 
line can afford. In no other has the Octogenarian ever 
fished where there is such scope for scientific work with 
fly, rod and gaff. The Old Angler has never seen a Cas- 
capedia fish on a fin de siecle split bamboo rod. No doubt 
in competent hands— such as those wonderful artists who 
fish from armchairs with crossed legs and glowing cigars 
—they would give a good account of themselves ; but, for 
himself, the Old Angler would much prefer a longer, 
heavier and stronger rod, Avith but one splice and no fer- 
rules. The rod with which he fished on his first visit was 
made by Bob Tannahill, whose boyhood was spent on tlie 
Tweed, where the fish are as heavy as those in Casca- 
pedia. It was 16 feet long, in two pieces; the first 8 
feet was well seasoned ash, saturated with raw linseed 
oil; the second consisted of four feet of greenheart and 
four of lancewood; the extreme tip was exactly three- 
sixteenths of an inch in diameter, and these two joints 
of 8 feet each were joined by a long scarf careful Iv and 
closely wound with strong waxed thread. With the reel 
two feet from the butt, the rod was nicely balanced; 
sprang evenly from butt to tip, and cast 80 feet of line 
with an easy swing; a slight extra effort sent the fly go 
feet straight ahead in any desired direction. With this 
old-time, plain-looking and cheap rod, which cost just 
five dollars, the Octogenarian had such angling that the 
mere memory of it sends a thrill through his old r.ervcs. 
Ay de Mie! These were pleasant days, and not all the 
pleasure of angling was in catching fish! Just here the 
Old Angler would sav to those Avho are desirors of cast- 
ing a long line, that they will succeed as soon as they have 
learned to make the middle of the rod do the work in- 
stead of the tip. Those who have seen and wondered at 
a Tweed angler send out a side line in a succession of 
waves, will try in vain to imitate him as long as the tip of 
the rod is made the center of force. Of course, the mil- 
lionaire of the Restigouche has little need of skill in 
casting his line; as long as he can keep his fly under 
water and imitate the jigging of the small boy with his 
worm, the fish will hook themselves without "any more 
assistance." Skill in such fishing is quite unnecessary — it 
would only be wasted if used. Those of the jeunes. -'j dn-e 
who fish from armchairs and are ambitious to combine 
fighting a forty-five pound salmon with the dolce far 
niente of kid gloves and glowing cigars, have nothing to 
learn from any angler, old or young. Hat in hand the 
Octogenarian sits at their feet, lost in astonishment, as 
well at their "complacent serenity" as at their peculiar 
ideas of sport. 
Though we had good sport at the forks, the desire to 
fish new waters and to enjoy new scenes— a feeling al \'ays 
strong in your true angler— tempted us to visit the falls 
about ten miles Up Salmon River, the largest of the two 
branches whose junction with the main river makes "the 
forks." These falls are impassable to fish, and the 
memory of the falls pools on Nepissiguit stimulated the 
desire to visit the highest point that Cascapedia salmon 
can reach in their native "stream. True, our guides told 
us fearful stories of the difficulties of ascending the 
.stream- strong currents, foaming rapids with jagged 
rocks, and generally "a hard road to travel," rather dulled 
the^edge of our desire; but, truth to tell, the scant supply 
of "hoots" was the strongest argument, and so we con- 
cluded to make all speed down stream and intercept the 
steamer due at New Richmond the following afternoon. 
Our course down the river was the most pleasurabk trip 
the Old Angler has ever taken in a canoe. We ran aU 
the rapids safely, and in eight short hours retraced the 
Course it had taken two and a half days of hard poling to 
aSCend. The descent of this fine river, fmming, as it does, 
through scenery that cannot be surpassed, was worth the 
expense even without the finest sport that angling affords 
its votaries. Although in after years ihe writer made 
several visits to this king of salmon rivers, when "boots" 
were easier, limited time and the fine fishing afforded 
by the lower pools left no inducement to go as high 
as the forks and so the falls' pools are yet a terra 
incognita to the Old Angler. As many more pairs of the 
'almighty boots" are now required to get access to this 
aristocratic river and its "blue-blooded" denizens th.m 
sufficed 40^ years ago, the hoi_ polloi of the brotherhood 
cannot aspire to wet their plebian lines in its sacred waters. 
But the Nepissiguit and the North and Southwest Mira- 
michi, with their smaller fish and their more subdued 
scenery, are yet within their reach and will have to satisfy 
ambitious longings. But they Can console themselves 
with the knowledge that either of these rivers and some 
of their many tributaries will, give them angling of 
a much higher class than the millionaire can find in all 
the waters of the Restigouche. 
The most incorrect and unfounded statements have 
been made of the vast increase of salmon in all the rivers 
that have been monopolized by the millionaires. The only 
foundation for these silly statements is the alleged annual 
mcrease of the anglers' catch. After every net has been 
removed from the river above Camnhellton, and all 
spearing prevented in its upper waters, it would be 
strange indeed if more fish did not get into the Resti- 
gouche, The same must be Said of the Nepissiguit and 
the Miramichi. Nets are no longer set above tideway 
and the fish these formerly caught^are now added to the 
anglers' stock; but Still there is no denVing the fact that 
the number of salmon is rapidly diminislung in all the 
rivers^ of Nova Scotia and Ncvv Brunswick. In the 
WTiter s early manhood a Couple of spearing raids on any 
of these rivers would, in a few nights, take more salmon 
than all the anglers on either of them aggregate in the 
whole_ season from June to September, to say nothing of 
the still greater nuniber formerly taken in the nets set in 
all of them above tidewater. This alleged increase is at- 
tributed to artificial culture and the millions of fry dis- 
tributed from the hatching-houses at Ga.'ipe, Restigouche 
and Miramichi, and the wildest hones are indulged bv 
American anglers that fish-Culture will, ere long, r"il-stock 
all the rivers of the States. Some 34 years have elaosed 
■since Seth .Green in the States and Samuel Wilmot in 
Canada commenced the artificial culture of salmon and 
trout eggs, the former to re-stock the streams of New 
York and New England, the latter to re-stock those flow- 
ing into Lake Ontario. The writer has never heard nor 
rev.d of a single adult salmon taken from any river re- 
stocked by Mr. Green. He has read, however, that it 
costs about two dollars for every pound of trout taken 
from streams in which they were not indigenous. Mr. 
Wilmot himself told us the result of his costly opera- 
tions. In his Report for the year 1881 is the following; 
"I cannot disguise from myself that the time is 
gone by forever for the growth of salmon and speckled 
trout in the frontier streams of Ontario. But this fact 
could not have been evolved from intuition. I reached 
the conclusion through observation and experiment; 
through depositing fry in certain ponds and waters, and 
ascertaining that they languished and died there, 
though forty years ago these same streams and waters 
swarmed with the same fish and sustained life in the 
highest degree. The change is, therefore, in the waters; 
and that change is dv.e to the clearing of the forest 
off the land in the neighborhood of these streams and 
their feeders, and the consequent reduction of writer 
volume by reason of the increased evaooration and - 
defilement by the surcharge with vegetable matter, 
field filth and other foul matter." 
Mr. Wilmot has been dead some 3'ears; if the total 
failure- of his hobby and his hopes did net hasten his 
end, it must have added much to the gloom and lassi- 
tude of his last days. Poor Wilmot! Fortunately he can- 
not know how complete this failure was, nor how uni- 
formly it has gone on in the Maritime Provinces as well 
as in Ontario. After eight years' costly experimenting 
in a new hatching house, and the planting of over 6,000,- 
000 fry in the rivers of P. E. Island, the result was total 
failure; the hatching-house was abandoned and has since 
rotted down. In 1874, the year the first hatching houses 
were built in New Brunswick and Nova Scotia, the whole 
catch of salmon in the former Province, as given in the 
Blue Book of the Department, was 3,214,182 pounds. In 
1901, the last year for which the figures are given, the 
catch was only 1,235,350 pound.s, a decrease of nearly two 
million pounds. In Nova Scotia the catch in 1874 was 
1,758,818 pounds; in 1901 it was 557,802 pounds, a de- 
crease of nearly a million and a quarter. In P. E. Island 
salmon are no longer quoted as part of the annual yield of 
its fisheries. And yet the work goes on under an imported 
Professor who combines in his own person, as we gather 
from his platitudinous verbiage, the offices of Scientific 
expert, Superintendent of fish culture, Commissioner of 
fisheries and General Inspector of all the fisheries in the 
Dominion of Canada. LTnder the direction of a professor 
who has to perform duties so multitudinous we cart 
scarcely look for much improvement, when Mr. Wilmot's 
whole time was fully occupied in the management and' 
supervision of fish-culture alone, with the above result. 
Our rivers,^ like our forests, must submit to the law of 
Nature. As civilization and cultiv?.tion extend, the "kin- 
dred of the wild" must recede. Our legislators and 
sportsmen must recognize the undeidable truth that the 
past wasteful destruction of fin, fur and feather must 
cease and that true protection must take its place. No 
doubt the game laws of Europe are hard on the masses 
for the sole benefit of the classes, and yet we are forced 
to admit that without the game laws of Britain there 
would be neither fin, fur nor feather in England, Scotland 
or Ireland. Let us hope that a more enlightened public 
opinion is being created and that the masses as well as 
the classes will sec the wisdom of preserving and per- 
petuating, as far as that can be done, the wild denizens of 
the Horest and stream- 
