230 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
[March 21, 1903. 
captured at 8:30. October 22, treed at 7 P. M., after 
short run. November I, track at 6 P. M., treed and cap- 
tured at 6:50; another track found inside of half an hour, 
treed at 8 :30. November 13, treed first one at 7 :45 ; struck 
another track at 9:05, treed and captiired before 11. In 
all we caught twelve 'coons in thirteen hunts last fall, and 
eighteen in eighteen hunts in the season before, 1901. As 
almost all of these were caught before midnight, and 
many of them early in the night, we have revised the rule 
to read, get your dogs started as soon after dark as pos- 
sible, and we think we have good reason for the faith that 
is in us, 
"All this hunting was done with the two hounds whose 
pictures you have. They may not be the best in the world, 
but are the best I know of, and are the result of 'coon dog 
hunting since 1896. It seems there are two ways of get- 
ting 'coon dogs. One is to keep advertising, answering 
advertisements, buying and trying until you find a good 
one and then pay what the man asks; the other to have 
some good friend in Byhalia or elsewhere present you 
with a pair. The latter plan I have never tried. For- 
tunate is he who has such a friend. 
"The long eared black and tan, Massachusetts born and 
New York bred and trained, has a voice that alone is 
worth a trip to the woods and a night out to hear. The 
smaller hound was sent me by 'Old Dominion,' of White 
Post, Va., and is mountain bred and trained, I believe. 
The big dog had a record of forty-four or five in the 
season of 1900, but his then owner is a man who drops 
farming and all trivial pursuits when the 'coon season 
comes. 
"Possibly we are not true 'coon hunters, for most of 
our hunts have ended before midnight, the controlling 
fact being that we had jobs to do the next morning. How 
nice it would be if there were no next morning to think 
about. You may have thought of this yourself. 
"Why don't more people take up 'coon hunting? The 
game is good for the best there is in the best hounds you 
can get. In 1809 one old fellow kept three Virginia 
hounds busy for two hours and a half before he treed. 
Last fall one kept this pair going for three hours, and 
then got away." 
It is always a logical fallacy for one to reason from 
particular to general, or from general to particular. The 
sportsman who observes the habits of a given game ani- 
mal in one section of the country is too apt to generalize 
and think that those habits are the same everywhere else. 
Of course the writer of the above is entirely correct, as 
any woods wanderer can certify. I have very often en- 
gaged in 'coon hunts where we killed game long before 
midnight. I have sometimes tracked raccoons in the day- 
time upon the snow, and once shot a lazy old fellow out 
of the fork of a tree to which I had thus tracked him. 
He had been out in midday. Once in Mississippi I in- 
curred the wrath of Col. Bobo by killing a 'coon out of a 
tree where it had been chased by some of his dogs in 
broad daylight. I think even my friends of lower Illinois, 
with whom I hunted last fall, would not call it a universal 
habit of the ring-tailed gentleman to venture forth only 
after midnight's holy hour had struck. Upon the other 
hand, it was really Mr. Powel who advised me that our 
chances for getting a 'coon were better after midnight 
than before. This statement should be regarded as ac- 
curate, for Mr. Powel is a good hunter in whatever 
branch of sport he undertakes. At the same time it may 
be capable of qualification by the statement that we were 
in a very much hunted country. A neighbor by the name 
of Litzke had some 'coon dogs and was in the habit of 
making a hunt nearly every night. As he no doubt got 
into the habit of going home along about midnight, the 
'coons perhaps also got into the habit of coming out about 
the time he went home. Your 'coon is something of a 
philosopher, and not without adaptability. Perhaps herein 
lies the fact that later hours of the night are considered, 
in that part of the country, most apt to be productive of 
results. It requires a little enthusiasm to get up at two 
or three o'clock in the morning to go 'coon hunting. I 
am not sure whether I am so brim full of that sort of en- 
thusiasm as I once was. I remain very well satisfied, 
however, that both my friends are right in their views 
of 'coon hunting, each from his own standpoint of en- 
vironment. 
Furs. 
The Western office of Forest and Stream still main- 
tains its proud boast that it can get anything or do any- 
thing which anybody in any corner of the world may 
happen to want. Now there was our friend W. J. Dixon, 
formerly of Cimarron, but now of Dodge, Kans., who 
had been some industrious in the skunk line and had ac- 
cumulated a right smart chance of fur. He wanted a 
market, wrote to me, got his market, sold his furs at a 
good price, and now writes a letter of thanks for this 
service. A good manv of these ready-made information 
bureaus charge money, but the Western office of Forest 
AND Stream charges nothing but thanks. 
Mr. Dixon, by the way, says he has been studying that 
interesting animal, the skunk, and intends before long to 
write a story on skunks for the Forest and Stream. "I 
will make it a strong story," says he. 
E. Hough. 
Haetfobo Boilding, Chicago, III. 
The Spoftsmen's Show. 
Freeport, N. Y., March 12. — Editor Forest and Stream: 
I read with great satisfaction your very discriminating 
and, in my judgment, entirely just editorial note on what 
was calleS "The Sportsmen's Show," recently closed in 
New York. 
If Indian blankets and motor boats combine to make a 
show that is properly named a Sportsmen's Show, the 
last exhibition was a success. But there are a few who 
do not think that this is a proper name for such an ex- 
hibit Personally I was greatly disappointed in the show 
this year and regard it as being far below any that have 
been held iir the Garden under the above named title. 
Probably a score of persons from this community who 
did not visit it would have done so could the exhibit have 
been honestly commended. I know nothing of the com- 
mercial aspect of the aflrair neither this year nor in any 
previous year, but am of opinion that two or three more 
like the last will exhaust the patience and interest of 
many who would like to attend and support a genuine 
Sportsroeu's Show? p. A. ]o^a^, 
New Jersey Game* 
AsBURY Park, N. J., Sunday, March i. — This after- 
noon when strolling near a brook a mile or so west of 
here, I found many well grown spathes of the skunk cab- 
bage — the first blossom of spring. Also saw several blue- 
birds. 
MiLHURST, N. J., March 2. — This morning I saw both 
crow-blackbirds and redwings, bluebirds, robins and song 
sparrows. In the afternoon I found skunk cabbage 
spathes along the brooks in several places; also found 
them well grown in a swamp near here. 
The prospects for game in this section of central Jersey 
were never better. I have seen several coveys of quail 
within a short time, in one of which there were at least 
twenty birds. Reports from farmers and fi-om local 
sportsmen all point to like conditions. Too late now for 
snows to be of much detriment to them. 
Owing to our game laws forbidding tracking and 
shooting when snow covers the ground, lots of rabbits 
wintered over about here, as I have seen during the past 
month the snow in many places fairly pathed with their 
tracks. Have also in my woods rambles during the past 
winter seen a great many gray squirrels. So prospects all 
point to a first class gunning season here next fall. 
A. L. L. 
West Virgfinia* 
Morgantown, W. Va. — Editor Forest and Stream: 
Sporstmen all over this State are busily engaged in 
securing signatures to a petition urging that the bill now 
pending in the Legislature, and known as the Greynolds 
bill, shall not pass. 
The bill seeks to remove all restrictions against ship- 
ping game out of the State and to abolish the office of 
game warden. 
It is also imderstood that there will be an effort made to 
do away with the present non-resident law, which requires 
the payment of a license fee of $25 from non-residents for 
the privilege of hunting in the State. If all these restric- 
tions are removed, it will leave a wide open road for the 
complete extermination of the game, since the law, as it 
now i.s, allows anyone to kill all the deer they can. 
Emerson Carney. 
A Remarkable Shot. 
Last fall Mr. F. R. Dickerman, cashier of the First 
National Bank, Bristol, Vt., had a singular experience 
which hunting small game with a 12-gauge hammerless, 
While stalking a gray squirrel he heard a partridge in 
the bushes. Soon he knocked the squirrel out of a 
tall tree, but on striking the ground the squirrel gath- 
ered himself and ran a short distance, stopping on a 
tree trunk a few feet from the ground. The second 
barrel laid him low. On advancing to pick him up, Mr. 
Dickerman heard a flutter beyond, and going a little 
way picked up the partridge, which had been killed by 
the second shot. He had not seen the partridge at 
all before the shooting. He recently went rabbit hunt- 
ing, and the result was a game dinner for the writer 
and his friends. Juvenal. 
Bro'^klyn, N. Y. 
Winter-Killed QttaiL 
Poughkeepsie, N. Y., March 9. — A gentleman coming 
in from the country to-day reports having found a bunch 
of quail, fourteen in number, that had been winter-killed. 
Owing to the unusually heavy snows and wind storms 
in this section the past winter, local sportsmen have feared 
that these birds would suffer. This is the first case, how- 
ever, that has been reported of these gamest of all birds 
having actually perished, although many coveys have, 
through hunger, been driven to neighboring barnyards, 
where, in most instances, the farmer has generously 
sprinkled a quantity of wheat for their sustenance. 
Snaniweh. 
— $ — 
Pro^rietori of fishing resorts will find it pro€tabIe to advcrtite 
tbem in Forest and Stkeau. 
Rainbow Trout vs. Black Bass. 
Council Bluffs, la., March 8. — Editor Forest and 
Stream: Having for many years fished in the best bass 
waters of Canada, Wisconsin and Minnesota, and hav- 
ing had occasional experiences with mountain and lake 
trout, until lately, I have agreed cordially with Dr. 
Henshall in his statement concerning the black bass, 
viz., that it is, "inch for inch, and pound for pound, the 
gamest fish that swims;" but last summer, in British 
Columbia, when fishing in an almost virgin trout river 
some two hundred miles from the railroad, I became 
acquainted with the rainbow trout, so now have to 
change my opinion. 
The fish in the swift, cold water of this stream were 
plentiful, large and gamy — more gamy, in fact, than any 
fresh-water fish that I have ever seen. They struck 
fiercely, ran swiftly, jumped high and far, and fought 
till they were either in the landing net or on the beach; 
in fact, sometimes afterward, for I lost several after I 
thought they had been secured. It was not uncommon 
for them to' jump six or eight times; and I don't know 
how many times more they would have jumped had I 
given them a chance, because invariably I took them in 
with the least possible delay. 
The largest that I caught weighed 3^/4 pounds; and 
the average weight for a day's catch was about i pound. 
In all, I had only four and a half days' fishing in this 
stream, three days with a companion, near a small 
settlement, and a day and a half alone, some twenty-five 
miles further up and about fifteen miles beyond the last 
ranche. 
In one day, fishing alone, I caught fifty that weighed 
an even 50 pounds; and on another day my companion 
and I took eightv-four that weighed over 60 pounds. 
A f?W of quf fish weighed 3 pound? Qr more; quite 
a number 2 and 3 pounds, many between i and 2 
pounds, and about half of them between half a pound 
and a pound. Of course, as in all waters, there were a 
few that weighed less than half a pound. These served 
to keep down the average weight, and to supply our 
table (or, rather, frying pan, as usually we had no 
table). The larger ones we either gave to the people 
in the little settlement or rubbed over with brown sugar 
and salt and took to our friends in Victoria, who pro- 
nounced them excellent when preserved in this way. 
There were larger fish in this stream than any that 
we landed — I know because I had several of them on 
my line and lost them, generally by my own fault. As in 
the past, I had always used three flies when trout fish- 
ing, I continued to do so here. They worked well enough 
near the settlement, where the big fish were not so 
plentiful,' but on a number of occasions I landed doubles 
and two or three times three at a time; but when I 
reached the virgin waters the three flies brought dis- 
aster more than once. Sometimes a big fellow would 
take my leader and slash the other two flies around 
to such an extent as to induce one or two more trout 
to take hold, the result being either the escape of th« 
big one or the breaking of the leader and consequent 
loss of all three fish. 
At the highest point of the stream which I reached, 
in a pool at the junction of another stream, I saw leap 
the largest trout that I have ever seen alive — it must 
have weighed nearly six pounds. With some difficulty 
I succeeded in placing my fly where it jumped, and in 
raising it, setting the hook in good shape. After play- 
ing the fish about a minute, another took hold, and I 
fought them both for a short space of time; then the 
large fellow broke loose, and I soon landed the smaller 
one, which weighed 2^ pounds. 
The next time that I fish in those waters (which I 
hope will be next August), I shall put on one, or at 
most two, flies, and thus try to land fewer but larger 
fish. 
In their tastes these trout appeared to be rather ple- 
beian, for, although they did not refuse the Jock-Scotts 
and silver-doctors at 50 and 75 cents apiece, which I 
occasionally offered them, they seemed to prefer as a 
steady diet common every-day flies at 50 cents per 
dozen. One black hackle with a red body and two red 
streamers for a tail was specially enticing. A couple of 
expensive Montreal flies, presented to me on the train 
by a sportsman whom I met there, did not seem to 
find much favor. The various hackles and several vari- 
eties of coachmen gave most satisfaction; but, truth to 
tell, these trout were uneducated, so took readjly nearly 
everything that I offered them. My only way to dis- 
cover their special likings was to try them with three 
different kinds of fly in one cast, and even then the 
position of the fly had something to do with their 
choice. In still water the leader was often taken, but 
in swift water the said leader was generally in the air, 
so the tail fly was then more liable to be the one 
chosen. 
On one occasion a small trout jumped several times 
clear out of the water, nearly a foot high after my 
leader, and finally succeeded in hooking itself. I was 
standing right above it on a high log, and fishing 
among some driftwood with a very short line, only the 
tail fly being in the water. The leader, which was a 
red hackle, must have had some special attraction for 
the little fellow because it could have taken the middle 
fly with a lower jump. 
On this trip I took with me my 5 or 6 ounce Leonard 
fly-rod, a heavier lancewood fly-rod of English manu- 
facture, purchased in Victoria before starting, as a re- 
serve ; a 6-foot split-bamboo_ bait-casting rod that I 
bought from that expert bait-caster Mr. J. M. Clark,' 
of Smeltzer & Sons, Kansas City, and two Bristol 
steel rods. Nearly all my fishing in this stream was 
done with the Leonard rod, than which, in my opinion, 
there is no better fly-rod in the world; but I caught a 
few as an experiment on the bait-casting outfit, employ- 
ing a very small spoon and a hanging sinker to prevent 
twisting the line. The fish took the spoon fairly 
well, and the average weight of those caught thus ran 
high; but the sport of fly-fishing was so much superior 
to that of spoon casting that I did but little of the lat- 
ter. The Bristol steel rods I reserved for trolling on 
the lakes, of which more anon. 
Although through carelessness in handling of small 
fish in a little brook I had partially crippled the middle 
joint of the Leonard rod before reaching the good 
fishing waters, nevertheless I preferred using it in its 
injured condition, after reinforcing, rather than to 
handle all day the heavier English fly-rod. 
Before I made the up-river trip, my companion and 
I put in two and a half days trolling on a couple of 
lakes, and had fairly good luck, although none of our 
rainbow trout caught there weighed much more than 2^/2 
pounds, and the number caught daily per rod was less than 
our average for the river fishing. On the other hand, 
though, the average weight of the fish was greater. 
By putting on a heavy sinker and trolling at a depth 
of fully 100 feet, my friend one morning took two lake 
trout of 6 and 7 pounds weight; but, although I tried 
this style of fishing for a couple of hours, I was unsuc- 
cessful. These lake trout are marked something like 
pickerel or great northern pike, and are very heavy for 
their length, being apparently over-fed. 
The standard formula for weight when applied to 
these fish was a pound shy in each case, while it fitted 
a number of large rainbow trout almost exactly. The 
reason for its failure in the case of the lake trout was 
probably because they had their bellies full, their girth 
making a sudden decrease toward the tail, near mid 
length, while the rainbow trout varied in circumference 
uniformly throughout. 
My friend informed me that at first the lake trout 
pulled like logs, but that after they reached the sur- 
face they afforded fairly good sport. 
As soon as the weather begins to get cold, which in 
that latitude (52 degrees) it does early in September, 
these fish frequent the shallow water and take a spoon 
readily. . , , 
Generally, trolling for trout requires such a heavy 
sinker that the fish cannot jump well when hooked, SQ 
the sport is spoile4 thf r^^y ^ ^^^^ fisherman. 
