392 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
[May i6, 1903- 
known as the Gaylord Club. Among others who go 
up from Chicago to the first fishing on this well-known 
preserve are Messrs. Wm. Holabird, Wm. G. Beale 
and W. H. Whiteside. These should meet good fish- 
ing, as to-day, May 9, the weather is warm and con- 
ditions are more favorable. Mr. F. M. Stephenson, 
president of the Coleman Lake Club, is still absent in 
Mexico with his friend, Mr. Wm. Kent, also of this 
city. These should meet success in their project of a 
bear hunt in Mexico this spring. Mr. Stephenson is 
due in Chicago this week, but it hardly need be said 
that promptly upon his arrival he will start for Cole- 
man Lake Club to join his fishing companions in that 
delectable vicinity. 
Bass Fishing, 
We have had no bass fishing in this part of the 
world, owing to the backward condition of the spring. 
At this writing the weather conditions are a trifle bet- 
ter, and to-day a great many of the best-known fisher- 
men start for their initial trip of the season. Among 
these are Messrs. Fred Feet, A. C. Smith, W. Horaan, 
Geo. Murrell and others of the Chicago Fly-Castmg 
•Club, who go to Cedar Lake, Ind. I have often men- 
tioned this lake as being the first of the bass fishmg 
waters near Chicago to open up in the spring. 
Fly-Casting CLb. 
Quite a number of Chicago anglers will go up to 
Fox -Lake chain this afternoon. Lake Villas is the 
most popular point of disembarkation for this coterie, 
and Fourth Lake, Channel Lake, Grass Lake, Crooked 
Lake and others of this well-known chain will be fairly 
well patronized to-day and to-morrow. 
Angler III. 
Advices from Saginaw state that Major Farnham 
Lyon, one of the oldest members of the Saginaw 
Crowd, is in the East, ill, and it is doubtful whether 
he will be able to join the party in any of the sum- 
mer fishing trips which have been planned. This is 
much to be regretted, as on the schedule of the Sagi- 
naw Crowd is a second trip to the grayling waters, 
which were discovered by that band of worthies last 
summer. Mr. C. E. Davis is in command of the expe- 
dition to these waters, and I hope to have more definite 
news regarding this trip before long. It is not neces- 
sary to say that Major Lyon will be much missed by 
all his friends should he not be able to join the party. 
"Wisconsin Fish Commission. 
The Wisconsin Fish Commission will this year plant 
wall-eyed pike perch fry to the number of about 100,- 
000,000. There will be planted about 1,000,000 mus- 
callunge fry. The commission has been keeping a good 
eye out for specimens of muscallunge for the World's 
Fair at St. Louis. The best specimen thus far secured 
is 4 feet 2 inches long, weighing 43 pounds. 
The authorities of Wisconsin are having diflficulty in 
collecting the license fees from the dififercnt county 
clerks over the State. It is thought that the money 
collected for hunting licenses during the past year 
should figure about $50,000, and the State Fish and 
Game Commission may have to bring suit against 
some of the clerks to compel them to remit fees col- 
lected by them under the State license law. 
Pelee Island Clob. 
Members of the Pelee Island Club of Lake Erie 
are this week making preparations for the summer cam- 
paign, which is still some distance in the future. These 
gentlemen buy several gross of flics, sinkers, etc., every 
j^ear. The method of fishing is to use a four-ounce 
sinker, above which is attached a four-foot gut leader. 
On this leader are strung a live minnow, a red ibis 
fly and a bright green hackle. The upper end of this 
leader is attached to the fisherman's line, and in spite 
of the heavy encumbrance at the lower end of the 
tackle, the latter is usually able to discover when he 
has a bite. A great amount of such flies, tackle, etc., 
is lost on these reefs during a day's fishing. 
E. Hough. 
Hartford Building, Chicago, 111. 
Looking- Backward. 
DuKiNG a very recent visit through northern New 
York State, some people and difljerent incidents once 
more called to my mind the mental and physical har- 
vests reaped, and the fine store of reminiscences en- 
joyed by men of the forest and tlie stream who, as 
they approach the "sere and yellow" period of physical 
iiiactivit}', still live life over and over again in memory. 
Sucli lives are apt to make us wonder if we have mis- 
used any years. By knowing such men we recall some 
of another kind we have known. A few years ago there 
died in one of our fine uptown hotels a man 73 years 
old, alone, excepting for his nurse and doctor. He 
left $350,000 to institutions of various sorts because 
he couldn't take it with him. He had only what money 
could buy, absolutely nothing else. Poor man, he only 
realized when it was too late what he had missed. 
Many a hunting and fishing story I told him in his 
declining years, and he read with interest my small 
contributions to Forest and Stream; yet he had never 
pulled a trigger nor cast a fly. The precious instinct, 
however, was there, but his motto seems to have been 
"wealth first, then play." He only got the money, ab- 
solutely nothing else. Surely an unenviable end. 
In Syracuse I called on Gen. Bruce, unfortunately 
for me" late in the day; the next time I will go earlier 
so I can hear more. Gen. Bruce soon forgot his 
official duties, and in the most natural manner possible 
became the agile youth by the brook side, dwelling on 
the scenes of so long ago, which are yet as di.5tinct 
to him as those of yesterday, and making his hearer 
a part of the play. As he puts it, "Those days, those 
scenes, those sensations came before my mind so dis- 
tinctly, so real in detail, so charming in fact that the 
brush of the artist would be sacrilege." A moisture 
was in the eyes as he said, "Nature will owe me little 
when I quit her for good." 
Thus do such men live life over and over again, and 
furnish living pictures of men as men should be as they 
go along, loved by everybody. 
A slight lameness keeps the general from hunting, 
but it don't keep him out of the woods, where he whiles 
away pleasant days listening to his old guide's stories. 
In the store of W. A. Able, Uncle Daniel Lefever 
told his famous bear story, and for me to undertake 
to tell it would be as foolish as the artist dabbling in 
the mind pictures of Gen. Bruce — simply foolish. I 
do not hesitate, however, to say that Uncle Daniel will 
accommodate all comers. 
T. E. Batten. 
On the Potomac. 
Five thousand people went fishing yesterday. Four 
thousand eight hundred came home empty handed, but the 
other two hundred had fine luck. The fish were in the 
river, but the fellow who goes fishing only once a year, 
the Sunday .after the first really enthusiastic fishing 
stories appear in the newspapers, doesn't know how to 
get them out of the water. And this man and his wife 
and daughters and best girl lined the banks of the Poto- 
mac from the Aqueduct to the Chain Bridge and filled 
the river with a thousand boats. It was said by old fisher- 
men that there was never such a crowd out before in the 
history of the river. ... • 
The newspaper stories lastrweek of the perch fishing 
were the most alluring that have appeared in a long tirne. 
The good fishermen who came back last week from trips 
had long strings of big white perch. They told of other 
catches even bigger than theirs. Always they had seen a 
man that caught 50 pounds of perch in two hours and had 
them weighed on a correct pair of scales to verify his 
statement. These stories, with the clearness of the water 
and the clouds in the sky yesterday morning, proved a 
combination too strong' to be resisted by the fellow that 
goes fishing only once a year. 
The great crowd simply went fishing. It got what it 
went for. It got tired and sunburned. The people who 
went out to get fish got them. Certain it is that the 
perch are big and plentiful this year, and some of the 
catches yesterday were excellent. The best luck was had 
by those who tried the river not far above the Aqueduct 
Bridge, the first half of the stretch between there and 
the Chain Bridge. A good many baskets of perch weigh- 
ing from three-quarters of a pound to a pound were 
caught. Around the Chain Bridge the fish were smaller, 
though there were plenty of them. 
The herring ran plentifully also, and it was possible to 
snag them by'the basketful with good tackle and the trick 
of knowing how. The largest catches of the day went to 
the herring snaggers. They threw their lines from the 
bank into the center of the current, above Qiain Bridge, 
and on an average snagged an irnportant fish once in three 
or four throws. 
The boatmen and the. railway caught tbc harvest of the 
day, however. The railway hauled S,ooo fishermen two 
ways. The boatmen rented their boats at double rates. 
Everything that would float was rented before noon, and 
the I'lsual "price was a: dollar for the day for the worst 
specimens and 25 cents ah hour for the fairly good looking 
rowboats. The bait boys, too, made money selling worms 
at 10 cents a h^lf can. And late in the afternoon the 
same boys sold fish at 25 cents' a" string to the fishermen 
that bought the bait and were afraid to go home without 
something to show for their day's work.— Washington 
Post, May 4. 
Pennsylvania and New York Trout. 
Savre, , Pa., May 9.— The trout season should be in 
its prime, and but for lack of a few warm rains to stir the 
streams up and freshen our vegetation, it would be. Hap- 
pier results are, however, to be shortly expected. 
The best day's catch the writer is aware of was made by 
Frank Baker, of Spcedsvillc, N. Y., and consisted of 35 
nice sized trout. The stream around Specdvillc, Slaler- 
ville Spa, Richford, Harford Mills, McLean and in the 
vicinitv of Cortland are all easily fished, and traverse as 
pretty a lay of country as canbe:found in so.uthern New 
There arc two or three beautifiil and usually fruitful 
trout streams in Enfield township to be reached from 
Ithaca. 
The streams below Towanda on the State Line and 
Sullivan branch of the Lehigh Valley are probably as 
prolific of good sized trout as any in this section 
of Pennsylvania, b'lt the countr.v, oh the whole, is a bit 
rough and inaccessible. 
There are a few inviting trout streams around Owcgo, 
and the distressed business man, unable to ccipe with sucli 
country as lays smiling under the sun around Monroeton 
and Towanda. could not well do better than to work (put 
the Owcgo streams and the land between Harford Mills 
and Richford. As a matter of fact, this section along the 
line of the southern Central, between Sayre and Auburn, 
is an ideal fronting cottntry fur tbc physicailly weak angler 
to bestir himself in. M. Chill, 
Quail in the City Parks. 
The quail in Van Cortlandt Park are surely well aware 
of their safety witbin its confines. While speeding for 
Yonkers and dinner about noon on Sunday last, I was 
sin-prised to hear a strong "Bob White" seemingly within 
a few yards of the road. Dismounting from my wheel 
I tried to get sight of the bird, but the repeated calls was 
all that rewarded my search. This was in a swampy piece 
of ground with Broadway on the west, the Mosholu Road 
on "the north, and rising rather abruptly to the Putnam 
Railroad tracks and deer paddock on the east. What with 
trolley cars, automobiles and steam cars passing inces- 
santly on three sides of this plot of a few acres, it would 
seem as if Bob White was fast becoming accustomed to 
civilized surroundings. C. L. S. 
Shamrock III. got under sail for the first time since 
the accident, on May 7. Shamrock I. was also out, but 
the breeze was too light for the boats to have a brush. 
They drifted around with the tide after the wind died 
out entirely, and finally got back to their anchorages 
at Gourocic. The day following Shamrock III. went 
out alone to stretch her sails. There was a fresh breeze 
blowing, and the new spars stood well. She has re- 
ceived a new boom as well as a new mast. The boom 
is stiffer than the old one, and is quite a bit longer. 
The two Shaitirocks sailed a race over a forty-mile 
course on May 9, and the new boat again demon- 
strated her ability to beat the old one on all points of 
sailing. The boats started out soon after nine o'clock; 
at this time the breeze was light and club and jib top- 
sails were carried. The start was made at half past 
ten, the old boat got away ahead and to windward of 
the new boat, but after a little while Shamrock III. 
worked out to weather of Shamrock I. and they were 
soon on even terms. Shamrock HI. rounded Powder 
buoy eight seconds in the lead. Spinnakers were set, and 
tl:e new boat drew away from the old one in good 
shape. Off Gourock pier Shamrock HI. had a lead 
of one minute and twenty seconds, but the old Sham- 
rock was doing well and holding a better breeze. The 
day's trial proved to be more of a sail stretching 
spin than a regular race. Shamrock III. proves her 
ability to beat the old boat, yet Shamrock I. is show- 
ing up well. 
Columbia and Reliance had their first brush on the 
afternoon of May S, and in the light breeze Columbia 
had rather the best of it. Reliance left her moorings 
off New Rochelle just after three o'clock. A club top- 
sail and a reaching jib topsail were set over the lower 
sails. Reliance was heaaed toward Sands Point, and 
Columbia was becalmed off to the eastward. The wind 
was S. W. by S. Reliance was put off before the wind 
and the spinnaker was set to starboard. After a few 
moments Reliance's spinnaker was taken in, her boom 
jibed over and the spinnaker reset to port. Columbia 
was trying to get out of a soft spot in the meantime, 
and Constitution was becalmed in Glen Cove. Re- 
liance's spinnaker was taken in and she was headed for 
New Rochelle, and a baby jib topsail was set. Colum- 
bia had caught a little breeze and stood after Reliance. 
After jogging around a while Columbia caught up a 
little on the new boat, but was still some distance to 
leeward. 
It was just after half past four when Columbia and 
Reliance came together. Reliance had a reaching jib 
topsail set, while Columbia had a smaller one aloft. 
As they headed for Red Springs Point, the new boat 
was some distance to windward. Columbia drew ahead 
slowly in the light breeze, and Reliance was kept off 
and given a good full and picked up a little, but was 
forced to pass astern of the old boat. 
Columbia was put on the wind, and as she took the 
port, tack her jib topsail was taken in. Reliance fol- 
lowed suit and took in her jib topsail. Columbia was 
out to weather, and the boats were moving along on 
about even terms. When Columbia tacked a little 
later Reliance was also put about, and she was then 
right astern of the old boat. On this tack Columbia 
opened out a little on Reliance, and when she finally 
came up into the wind she was some distance^ ahead. 
The result of this spin was, to say the least, immense- 
ly disappointing, for it was generally believed that Re- 
liance would show her heels to Columbia in any 
weather. It is understood that on this occasion 
both boats were pushed for all they were worth, and 
eveiV making allowance for poor sails Reliance ought 
to have done better. 
So far seven suits of sails have been made for Re- 
liance, representing an output of about $100,000. With 
sncK a large number to select from it does seem as 
though one really good suit could be found. The sails 
bent so far on Reliance have been indifferently good, 
and it is certain that the boat will not be at her best 
until she gets some good canvas. 
• Scows, unless they can be heeled well down, cannot 
be driven in a light breeze, and this appears as well 
to a boat as, large as Reliance, as it does to the small 
craft. This has been demonstrated in the racing during 
the past few years to everyone's satisfaction. It is now 
said that Reliance needs 20 per cent, more sail, this 
additional canvas would undoubtedly help her in ligbt 
and moderate breezes, but it would be next to irn- 
possible to keep such an enormous rig in the boat in 
a strong wind. Even if the rig stood the boat with 
such a sail area would be a constant danger, not only 
to those on board, but to rival craft, for a boat of 
that type and enormous rig would be extremely diffi- 
cult to handle in a breeze, and, besides, she is very 
likely to take matters in her own hands, as did one of 
the 90- footers at Newport two years ago. 
Constitution is from three to eight minutes faster in 
any weather than Columbia, and she will demonstrate 
that in the racing this summer. It is hardly possible 
that Columbia will be selected a third time to defend 
the cup, and as we said some time ago. Constitution 
can defend the cup safely. This being the case, it is 
more than probable she will have occasion to do so. 
Mr. August Belmont, Constitution's owner, is a thor- 
ough sportsman, and the yacht will be raced under his 
management this year. All yachtsmen would be glad 
to see Mr. Belmont's boat selected for the important 
and delicate task of defending the America's Cup. 
The annual meeting of the Beverly (N. J.) Y. C. was 
held on May 5, and the following officers were elected: 
Corn., George W. Halloway; Vice-Com., Blair Fer- 
guson; Sec. and Treas., William T. Kirk, Jr.; Finance 
and Elective Committee, John W. Hamer, Gilbert M. 
Wilson, William T. Kirk, Jr., Jade C. Wilson and 
Henry W. Hall; Regat^^ (^Qii^rajttee, Theodore Bon- 
field, Chairman, _ i 
