180 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
tFB& 14, 1903. 
Staten Island Enlisted 1 for the"] War. 
Port Richmond, Feb. 5. — Editor Forest and Stream: 
When I returned from a trip "up the State" and took up 
Forest and Stream I was pained to see that a mildly 
satirical finger had been pointed at some of my metaphors 
contained in a "War-Cry" against game legislation — of a 
kind. 
Phosphorescent fossils have been remarked and "corus- 
cate" is "to shine." 
Pshaw! Why stick on a mixed metaphor or two? 
Don't try to turn our gaze away from the main point by 
carping at a little cross-eyed diction. 
Take your eyes for a moment from your study of "The 
Perfect Letter-Writer" and look at little old Staten 
Island. With little game and less incentive to protect it 
than any county in the State, it has a live protective asso- 
ciation, and our Assemblyman will present for passage 
eight bills which will secure protection for our game. 
We pay our money and we give our time, and that 
means something when quail for propagating are forty 
cents apiece and a buckwheat crop has to be raised 
specially for their sustenance. 
No. my dear Mr. Editor, you cannot distract our at- 
tention by criticising the lameness of our diction, when 
our discourse is oth' 'wise sound. 
We are for Game Protection and Game — ^and mighty 
little of the latter do we see either afield or on platters at 
national, State, local or private protective association 
dinners. 
It is seldom that Staten Island howls for herself, but 
once in a while she has just got to, and she deserves the 
chance and an audience, for while others are "going 
through the motions" we are working. War-Cry. 
Ticonderoga G«n CI«b. 
Editor Forest and Stream: 
The Third Annual Planked Shad Dinner of the Ticon- 
deroga Gun Club. Incorporated, K. W. Y. A. A., will be 
held in the Colonial Banquet Hall of the Yale Club, No. 
30 West Forty-fourth street. New York City, at 7:30 
sharp on the evening of March 6, Friday, the last week 
of the Sportsmen's Show. This active organization of 
city and countrj'- sportsmen residing at Ticonderoga and 
in the large cities, and having grounds at Eagle Lake, in 
the land of Cooper's Natty Bumpo and Uncas, as well as 
Israel Putnam, Rogers and other sportsmen and soldiers, 
will discuss some needed legislation relative to hunting 
and game preservation based upon the recent experiences 
of various of its members who haA^e hunted in Essex 
county. All of the twelve hundred or so enrolled mem- 
bers of the K. W. Y. A. A. (Know What You Aim At), 
a voluntaiy association composed of very many hunters, 
guides and city sportsmen, will be welcome, and several 
guides have promised to be present at the dinner and 
give their views. The dinner will cost $1.25 without 
wine. A good time is expected. Further particulars and 
tickets from Peter Flint, Secretary, 150 Nassau street. 
Room 2012, New York City, or Paris Scott Russell, 
Treasurer. Hanover Bank Building, Nassau and Pine 
streets, New York City. 
We are prettv glad that owing to the steady words of 
caution reiterated" by the press and by the work of our 
Association the number of persons who lost their hves 
in the Adirondacks while hunting deer last season was 
only three, and of these two were woodsmen or farmers. 
Only one death resulted from city carelessness. This is 
comforting and true^ Peter Flint. 
New Brunswick Visitors Get their Game* 
Chatham, New Brunswick. — Editor Forest and 
Stream: I was reported by quite a number of 
prominent newspapers of both the Upper and Man- 
time Provinces of Canada as having said at the meeting 
of the North American Fish and Game Protective Asso- 
ciation in Ottawa, when referring to this Province: 
"The game and fish laws of that Province are holding 
their own; big game are decidedly increasing, although 
sportsmen seldom secure the coveted moose and caribou 
heads," 
What I really said was this: "There is an un- 
doubted increase of big game animals— particularly^ of 
moose and caribou. The sportsmen of both the United 
Slates and Great Britain are finding their way into our 
Province in larger numbers each succeeding season, and 
it is a rare thing for any hunter to fail in securing the 
coveted heads. If he does so, it is, in nine cases out of 
ten, not the fault of his guide, or of the game he fails to 
bring down." . 
You will perceive that the synopsis of what 1 said, as 
it appeared in the papers referred to, did New Brunswick 
a great injustice, to say nothing of the awkward position 
in^vhich it placed me, as speaking for it at the time in 
regard to its wonderful game attractions, in which it is 
our pride that we stand second to no other part of 
Canada. . , • . t 
If you will assist in correcting the error to which 1 re- 
fer I will be grateful. _ „ „ 
D. G. Smith, 
Fishery Commissioner of the Province of New Brunswick. 
A Cougfar Fight. 
The Northwest has probably furnished more cougar 
fiphts and encounters with wild animals than any other 
part of the United States. A successful cougar fight is 
never a dull reminiscence, particularly when a human be- 
ing gets his cougar. James McGinnis, who came from 
the Red River in northwest Canada, to the wilds of Cow 
Creek in southern Oregon, a few years back, had a very 
interesting cougar fight in the Cascade _ Mountains. 
McGinnis was an experienced hunter. He is of Scotch 
and Canadian stock and raised on the frontier and is now 
living on the south half of the Colville Indian Reserva- 
tion in Washington. In his days of vigorous manhood he 
was a large, muscular, powerful man about six feet tall 
and weighed about 175 pounds, without carrying much 
fatty tissue. .... , f j 
Shortly before his encounter with this cougar he had 
been thrown from a wild horse that he was breaking and 
received some injuries which required some medical 
treatmex^t. ^SPMf? W he ha(3 ^^^yel per- 
haps five or six miles to the doctor. On his first trip he 
noticed many cougar signs along the trail which he had 
to travel. On his second visit to the drug store he_ con- 
cluded to carry his rifle, and, well for him that he did, or 
he should not now be living to tell about his cougar bat- 
tle, nor would he be able to show in evidence the four 
long cougar teeth taken from the mouth of his van- 
quished wild antagonist. McGinnis' faithful old dog also 
was along and was no small factor in the final_ struggle. 
The cougar first attacked the dog, which made its escape 
in considerable terror. The savage brute then jumped at 
McGinnis, whose big rifle was rather heavy and his aim 
was rather hurried. In this way the bullet only grazed 
the cougar's head and intensified its rage. While Mc- 
Ginnis was endeavoring to eject the spent cartridge, the 
mechanism of the rifle failed to work and before 
he could get it out the big cougar was at close quarters 
with him, tearing his clothes and clawing away at him. 
By a well directed blow of his fist under the jaw of the 
cougar he succeeded in turning the animal away from 
him a little way, and at this juncture of affairs the old 
dog, which Mac was lustily calling, had recovered his 
courage and got a hold of the cougar by the ear, and then 
they had some diversion of their own. While the dog 
and cougar were engaged the hunter managed to get an- 
other cartridge in his rifle, and by the time the beast had 
disposed of the faithful old dog he again attacked Mc- 
Ginnis. So enraged was the cougar that it came right up 
with its mouth open and so closely that McGinnis shoved 
the rifle barrel into its mouth and blew its head off. The 
cougar, in biting the rifle, took the silver bead off the 
barrel. The animal was an old female and measured 
eighf feet from tip to tip. Mac has the four cougar tear- 
ing teeth as trophies of his very serious but victorious 
encounter with a bad and hungry cougar. A. M. 
Myers Fails, N. W. 
Detroit Sportsmen's Show* 
Among the prominent exhibitors at the Sportsman's 
Show now being held here are the following firms: 
Vvinchester Repeating Arms Co., Parker l^ros.. Sav- 
age Arms Co., Lefever Arms Co., Fletcher Hardware 
Co., Peters Cartridge Co.. W. L. Marble, Truscott 
Launch Co., Hartford Rubber Co., Fisk Rubber Co., 
Michigan Steel Boat Co., Twentieth Century Co., U. 
M. C. Co., Detroh Canoe & Oar Works, B. F. Good- 
rich Co., Diamond Rubber Co., A. J. Reach & Co., 
Smith Trading Post Co., Vceder Manufacturing Co., 
Bridgeport Gun Implement Co., New Departure Bell 
Co., R. & F. Corbin, Farrand Organ Co., Grinnell 
Bros. 
The gallery is reserved for the use of the first an- 
nual bench show to be given in connection with the 
sportsmen's exhibition. T. E. B. 
Detroit, Feb. 8. 
A Largfe Adirondack Buck. 
Forest, Fish and Game Commission. — Albany, N. 
Y., Feb. 3. — Editor Forest and Stream: Your readers 
may be interested in a report which has come to 
this office relative to the killing of an unusually 
large deer. The animal, which weighed 415 pounds, was 
shot by William Coulter at Johnsburg, N. Y. Inquiries 
made by this office have resulted in letters from several 
reputable residents of the locality who will attest the 
fact that the deer weighed as stated, and further say that 
it was the largest they have ever seen. 
John D. Whish, Secretary. 
Proprietors of fishingr resorts will find it profitable to advertise 
thetn in Fokest and Stseah. 
The Stocfcinc of Inland Waters with 
Black Bass. 
BY S. T. BASTEDO. 
A paper read before the North American Fish and Game Pro- 
tective Association. 
This is a subject which I must treat chiefly by the aid 
of such light as T have obtained in the discharge of my 
official duties, rather than as the result of special observa- 
tion and investigation otherwise; and my paper will there- 
fore of necessity be more a relation of the work as it has 
been conducted in this Province than a treatment of the 
question from a technical or scientific standpoint. 
The work of re-stocking the inland waters of Ontario 
with black bass on an extensive scale is of but recent 
origin. It is recorded that bass were transplanted by the 
Dominion Government as long ago as 1873, and have been 
transplanted at irregular intervals since; but the in- 
stances are few, and the work does not seem to have been 
prosecuted to any considerable extent or with any special 
vigor, for only incidental references are made to it in the 
official reports. It appears to have been treated merely 
as an incident of what presumably was considered more 
important, or at least more necessary, work, the propaga- 
tion of the greater food fishes — the trout and whitefish. 
The Provincial Government, while the dispute with the 
Dominion Government as to the ownership of the fisheries 
remained unsettled, probably felt a difficulty in doing more 
than grant pecuniary aid to localities which were under- 
taking a little stocking on their own account. But, be 
this as it may, no systematized or organized plan was in- 
augurated or carried into execution by the Province until 
the Judicial Committee of tlae Privy Council of England 
had decided that the fisheries were the property of the 
Province, and the Province had assumed the duties which 
the committee determined belonged to it, and had organ- 
ized a departrnent. The fact was at once appreciated by 
the Ontario Government that our inland waters could be 
made a fruitful and lasting source of profit and pleasure 
to our people if good fishing could be established and 
maintained therein, and that it was manifestly a public 
duty to put forth every effort for the accomplishment of 
that great end, and as speedily as possible. Most, if not 
pf \^\i\V,<\ ^Yf^ ^^^^ nVPr* of Pntaria ayf M^eJi 
adapted to the black bass. It is well known that, given 
a fair chance, a few pair will in a short time populate the 
waters in which they are placed, their fecundity being 
great, and their habit of protecting their young insuring 
them immunity to a great extent from the depredations 
of other fish ; consequently a relatively large number 
reach maturity; they will thrive under conditions where 
the brook trout could not exist, and in water of a much 
higher temperature; and they can be successfully intro- 
duced into waters in which they are not indigenous. 
These, and other reasons, seemed to indicate the black 
bass to be the ideal fish with which to re-stock our 
waters ; and the most practical, successful and speedy 
means of accomplishing this, having regard to the success 
which had signalized the work already referred to, to 
transplant the parent fish. Many lakes in the sparsely set- 
tled districts are already n?.turally well stocked, and it was 
suggested that these waters migh be drawn upon for 
stocking waters which had become more or less depleted 
in the older and settled portions. But such a policy was 
open to objection, because these lakes would in turn, it 
might reasonably be expected, soon themselves become 
popular as a resort for anglers and tourists. Besides, they 
were so difficult of access, and so far from railway com- 
munication that the primitive means of transportation 
which would have to be adopted would be tedious and 
expensive, and accompanied by so much loss as to make 
it impossible to enter upon the work as extensively and 
as economically as would be desirable and necessary to 
meet the demand which was known to exist. The depart- 
ment therefore felt that such a plan could not be enter- 
tained — that the fish would have to be obtained from 
waters where a minimum of opposition would be raised 
to their removal, where they could be obtained in large 
numbers, and convenient to railway points. Such points 
having been located upon one or more of our great lakes, 
the next matter to be considered was that of rapid trans- 
portation. The Province was not yet prepared to build 
a car for the purpose, and therefore the Government ap- 
proached the railways, which it was thought would be 
interested in the work, with a view to obtaining their 
active co-operation to the extent of fitting up and placing 
at the disposal of the department a car for the purpose 
of carrying the fish, bearing in mind that in some of the 
States the railways had co-operated in that way. A well- 
known passenger agent has observed : "What would the 
interior travel amount to if no effort was made to keep up 
the supply of fish and game? It is not to be supposed 
for an instant that persons are going to our interior just 
to see what the rivers and lakes look like. It is, of 
course, for the pleasure derived in the way of sport inci- 
dent to the catching of fish and the hunting of game." 
It was not suggested that a car on anything like so elab- 
orate a scale as some of the United States fish cars should 
be provided, but merely that a superannuated passenger 
or express coach should be adapted for the purpose. 
Ultimately it was found that a greater part of the work, 
or that which, in the opinion of the department, should 
first be done, was at points to be reached by the Grand 
Trunk Railway, and therefore the matter of the construc- 
tion of the car was thoroughly gone into with representa- 
tives of that road. Their willingness to co-operate was 
graciously and readily expressed, a plan was prepared, 
and the car was equipped. Originally a first-class passen- 
ger coach, it is divided into sections, with a passageway 
down the middle. A double door in the center on either 
side is provided for convenience in loading and unloading, 
taking on ice, etc. There are ten tanks, besides two com- 
partments for ice. The tanks are lined with heavy gal- 
vanized iron, and are so constructed that the crater may 
freely circulate from one tank to the other. The car is 
charged from a railway hydrant or tank en route. At one 
end of the car is a double lower and upper berth, a lava- 
tory and a compartment for storing the various utensils 
in use. The fish are taken by seines and in pound nets 
under contract, which provides that they he delivered on 
the car. The Government pays for the catching and load- 
ing of the fish, the railway company furnish the car and 
practically free transportation, and the fish are distributed 
at the point of destination by interested parties under the 
supervision of the Government overseers. During the 
first season (1901) in a few weeks' time nearly 10,000 
adult bass ranging from 12 to 20 inches in length were 
deposited in some 18 different lakes and rivers, a greater 
number than had theretofore been introduced in the 
Province's whole history. The bulk of these fish were de- 
posited before they had spawned that year. 
The main essentials to successful transportation are (x) 
healthy and vigorous stock, and (2) unceasing attention 
while in transit. The water should be changed as often 
as possible, kept at a proper temperature, and frequently 
oxygenated. The latter is done by means of a hand pump. 
Our attendant in charge of the car has been much inter- 
ested in and most devoted to the work. The success of 
our operations so far may be characterized as almost phe- 
nomenal. The fish have been transported in some cases 
nearly 400 miles; 850 was the largest number carried at 
any one time, with a loss of only ten per cent; 720 were 
carried 225 miles with a loss of not more than two per 
cent. Of course, without the car we should have been 
unable to pursue the work with anything like the success 
that has attended it. Where the car has been hauled over 
other systems than the G. T. R., this has been done gra- 
tuitously, and at times special service has been furnished. 
The most convenient way to distribute the fish where 
there is a steamboat plying on the lake or waters to be 
stocked we have found to be from a scow towed along- 
side the steamboat. Upon the scow are placed a sufficient 
number of tanks or barrels to conveniently hold the fish 
without crowding. Flat bottomed boats, where these can 
be obtained, answer admirably. For carrying fish or- 
dinary washtubs (new of course) are considered much 
better than cans or pails, as more can be carried at a time. 
A few inches of water should be placed in the tub. In 
transferring the bass to the water, we place a dozen or 
so, as may be desired, in the tub and dump them quickly 
but carefully at suitable spots. This plan we find prefer- 
able to depositing with dip nets, as the fish are not so 
likely to become separated. We know the parental in- 
stinct is very strongly developed in the bass, and why not 
the social habit and other domestic qualities also? 
Discretion is of course exercised in regard to the waters 
which are being stocked. The department has been criti- 
SoiT^fW^t for placing bass ip ^ ^fTt«iip w^ieh 
