May 23, 1903.] 
I 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
407 
pounds (length and drop of stock to suit the shooter). 
The above gun corresponds almost exactly^ with my 
own gun, which I have used for the past five years. 
This gun has become so dear to me that when I am 
pretty sick it does me good to have it stand near me 
where I can look upon it. Of course, in. alt the fifty-five 
years of my shooting I have used and owned many 
guns, large and small, but I have never owned one so 
bewitching and true as the one I now have. In the 
five years' use I have given it I have never had a shell 
misfire. This speaks well for the ammunition as well 
as the gun. 
A good duck load for a 7-pound gun is 3^4 drams 
of black powder, or its equivalent in smokeless, and 
1% ounces of No. 4 shot is considered all right by 
most of our duck shooters— unless to be used over de- 
coys. In this case No. 5 or 6 shot are preferred. 
Uncle Dan. 
Staten Island Game. 
Prince's Bay, Staten Island, N. Y., May 18.— Editor 
Forest and Stream: The sportsmen in general on Staten 
Island are glad to know that Gov. Odell has signed the 
bill to protect gray squirrels at all times in Richmond 
county; also that it will be unlawful hereafter to kill rab- 
bits while snow is on the ground, and the close season for 
quail has been extended until the year 1908. All this has 
been done by the push and energy of the Richmond 
County Fish' and Game Association (incorporated), and 
1 know that all members will thank our good Assembly- 
man, and be ready for him in the future if he puts him- 
self in our way for us to help him in our way. 
Now, as to Staten Island, gray squirrels being protected 
at all times, some people will laugh at the idea, but it is 
simply a sentiment. There are a whole lot of people on 
this island who wish to see the wild things preser\'ed as 
long as they can. Staten Island is slowly but surely be- 
ing denuded of its forests, and streets are being cut 
through field and marsh; people from the city proper are 
Inlying land and building homes here, and it will not be 
many years before Richmond county, or the interior of it, 
will be one grand park; and it is well that the squirrels 
should be protected; by and by they \vill become tame, 
and no one will be sorry that they are still with us, 
Protecting rabbits Avhen the snow is on the ground 
means more rabbits next year. Dogs are not of much use 
trailing rabbits when snow is here; but there is another 
animai that gets its work in then — the two-legged cur. It 
carries a club and tracks its prey through the snow until 
the rabbit is found sitting; then one blow with the club 
does the rest. That is sport, I suppose, but I never saw it 
registered as such. 
The quail that the game association bought and put 
out in igoo have done fairly well. They can be heard 
now every morning from Sequin's Point to near the Greii 
Kills on the south side of the island, and on the north 
side, in the vicinity of Rossville and Greenridge, they seem 
to be fairly well established. We have a hard time to 
bring them through the winters; they must be looked 
after and fed; but the trouble is little compared to the 
satisfaction one may get if he likes to hear the sweet call 
of Bob White. 
I wonder what has become of the "War Cry" from Port 
Richmond? Does he send any more arrow-heads wrapped 
up in a rattlesnake's skin ? *** 
Proprietors of fishing: resorts will find it profitable to advertiM 
tbem in Forest and Stkkam. 
Wild Trout that I Have Met. 
My experience with uneducated, wild and roving trout 
has been more limited than I would like it to have been. 
I have sat on the bank of a well-stocked trout stream 
and after having tried every fly in my book unsuccess- 
fully, have seen the trout not twentj'^ feet away from me 
breaking the water and flouting their tails at me in mute 
disdain. I have seen a trout cast goo-goo eyes at me 
from a few feet down in a clear, crystal pool as the flies 
skitted over the surface above it. I have even gone so 
far as to imagine that that trout laughed at me. In one 
instance, up in Maine — the home of big trout and bigger 
trout stories — I actually had a trout, in his wild dash 
at a moth miller which had dropped alongside the boat, 
leap into the boat with the moth miller in his mouth. On 
another occasion, after getting up at daylight and work- 
ing hard for an hour or two and not getting a rise on the 
lake, T laid my rod on the gunwale of the boat and incau- 
tiously allowed the leader to work loose and become 
wound round the rod toward the tip, the flies hanging 
overboard, when up came a lusty trout who, seizing a fly, 
snapped my tip, but, thanks to the strength of the leader, 
paid the penalty that all rash trmit deserve if the hook, 
leader, line and rod hold out. 
After reading the following veracious description in the 
Duluth News-Tribune by Mr. Grant, of his trout, Friday, 
] iTiade a resolution never again to tell any more fish 
stories. 
Lei the story speak for itself t 
"John S. Grant, who lives in a*eomfortabIe log camp 
on the banks of the Cloquet River, six miles from Wood- 
hmd postoflice, came into Duluth the other day for some 
fishing tackle. 
'"What's the matter, John?' inquired the clerk, who 
waited on him. 'You look as if you had lost your best 
friend.' 
" 'T have,' was the reply. 'I have lost Friday.' 
"'Friday? Who is Friday? I thought you lived 
alone.' 
" 'Well, I did — only Friday. He was my tame trout. 
T took him a year ago about this time, in a net, find 
he was such a handsome critter that I hated to kill 
liim, and for a week kept him in a pail in the kitchen. 
At first he was pretty shy, but after a time he would 
come up to the top of the water and eat out of my hand. 
And finally, one day, as I was sitting out on the piazza, 
smoking, he flopped out where I was, and lay right down 
side of me, just as though he wanted to keep me company. 
"'From that time on, Friday— I named him Friday 
because it was on that day I caught him — Friday and me 
v/as inseparable. Wherever I went, he went. All through 
the summer he camped down in front of the door, and I 
tell you the way he would jump up and catch a fly beat 
anything I ever saw. And in the fall he would follow 
right along after when I was on the trail of a deer. 
When the snow come, I fixed up a box for him by the 
stove, and there he staj'ed until the other day, when he 
went with me down to the river, where I was sluicing 
some fire-wood. 
" "1 had to cross on a log, and Friday, he followed right 
along after, just as he always did.- But the log was 
slippery, or something, and he missed his fin hold, and 
fell into the water.' 
"'Didn't he ever come back?' queried the clerk, who 
was beginning to get interested. 
" 'Come back? No, Friday never come back,' responded 
Grant, with a mournful shake of the head. 
'The poor little feller drowned. I found him the next 
day, and gave him the decent burial he deserved.' 
"And John, paying for his tackle, took the first car 
back to Woodland and the grave of his little tame trout." 
Charles Christadoro. 
Fish and Fishing. 
Disappearance of the Ice in Canada. 
At last the ice has left Quebec's northern lakes and a 
few trout have rewarded the efforts of patient fisher- 
men on the lakes adjacent to the city, which are always 
open a fortnight or so before those along the line of 
the Quebec and Lake St. John Railway. Very little, 
however, has yet been done in the way of fly-fishing. 
East winds have been the rule since the ice went out, and 
up to the second week of May there has been but a couple 
of warui days in Quebec. It was well on toward the end 
of the first week of the present month before the ice 
left the last of the lakes along the line of the railway. 
Nothing had been done in the way of fishing in any of 
them up to the commencement of the following week. 
It will be the third week of May this season before the 
A.-ihing will be good in Lake Edward, and it will doubt- 
less be better a week later. There will be no fly-fishing 
for trout, worthy of the name until well on toward the end 
of the month. Ouananiche are reported extremely 
abundant in Lake St. John this spring, and though the 
ice only went off it on the 5th inst., a number of splendid 
tjK'cimens of the -fish found their way to the Quebec 
market for the following Friday, when they sold for 14 
cents per pound. Needless to say they were taken by bait. 
Ihi fortunately there is a very great deal of this fishing 
done in the spring of the year. Fly-fishers for ouananiche 
ought to find excellent sport at the mouths of the Meta- 
belchouan and Ouiatchouan by the time this letter ap- 
pears in print, and the sport should continue good there 
until well on into June. By the time it slackens ofl^, there 
is generally good fishing to be had in the Grand Dis- 
charge. This year the snow in the woods is melting very 
slowly on account of the cold weather, and it would not 
be surprising if the fall of the water in Lake St. John 
which precedes the opening of the fishing in the Grand 
Discharge, will be somewhat later than usual. At all 
events, I intend to watch the reports from the north very 
carefully in order to keep American friends posted 
through Forest and Stream's columns of the progress of 
the season. 
A few fishermen destined for the Lake St. John coun- 
try have already put in an appearance here. Messrs. R. 
F. and W. W. McCorraick, of Biscayne Bay, Florida, 
arrived some days ago, and are going to fish on the 
Tourilli Club waters prior to visiting Newfoundland for 
salmon fishing. Rev. Dr. Zimmerman, of Syracuse, has 
t'.ken up his headquarters at Lake Edward, ready for the 
first big trout of the season there. Messrs, Preston Lea 
and H. Swift, of Wilmington, Delaware, have passed 
through Quebec on their way to the Stadacona lakes, and 
Dr. Porter, of Bridgeport, R. J. Fisher, of Washington, 
and W. E. Lincoln, of Pittsburg, were here a day or two 
ago en route to the Metabetchouan. It will be fully a 
week from present writing before there will be much of 
a rush to northern waters. 
Salmon Fishery Dispute. 
The Government of the Province of Quebec and some 
of the best known salmon fishermen of Canada and the 
United States are parties to an important lawsuit arising 
out of the right of fishing in the river Moisie. Alexander 
Eraser, of Quebec, claims to have owned the fishing rights 
of the Moisie, in virtue of his proprietorship of the banks 
of the river. For some years he leased the fishing in the 
river, and some time ago Messrs. Fitch, Boswell and 
others, of Quebec, became possessed of it. A little over 
a year ago, Mr. Ivers Adams, of Boston, purchased Mr. 
Eraser's property for $30,000, and claims the sole right of 
fishing in the river. On the other hand, the Government 
has always claimed the ownershiup of the fishing rights 
in the Moisie, in virtue of a judgment of the Imperial 
Privy Council, which declares the Province to be the 
proprietor of the fishing in all public navigable waters. 
The details of the present lawsuit possess a very great 
interest to all. salmon fishermen on navigable waters. 
While Messrs. Bcswell and Fitch were exercising their 
supposed rights to fish the Moisie, as owners of the 
riparian privileges., the Government resolved upon assert- 
ing the rights declared to belong to it by the highest 
court of the empire. They therefore notified Messrs. 
Boswell and Fitch that they were fishing upon Govern- 
ment waters and asked them to come to an arrangement 
with their officers. The owners refused to recognize the 
alleged rights of the Government. Meanwhile, Mr. 
Adams became proprietor of the riparian rights of- the 
river. Then Messrs. Boswell and Fitch, who had become 
dispossessed of proprietary rights before they were aware 
tbit any negotiations were afoot for the change, applied 
to the Government for a lease of its rights. The Govern- 
ment believed it proper first to give a refusal of its rights 
to Mr. Adams, who had purchased the river from Fraser 
in good faith, and Adams took the Government lease for 
$^.500 a yeaf, so as to be sure that nobody could interfere 
witli him. The Government is iiaturally delighted to have 
made this lease, which they regard as a quasi recognition, 
at least, of the correctness of their claim. _ This year, 
however, Mr. Adams dropped the lease, which has beea 
promptly taken up by Messrs. Boswell and Fitch. Both 
parties now propose to fish the river and a conflict may 
ensue. The Government lessees naturally look for Gov- 
ernment protection, and the whole case lias been thrown 
into court to decide whether or not the Moisie is a public 
navigable and floatable river forming part of the de- 
pendency of the Crown domain of the Province, and 
whether the defendants, Fraser and Adams, have any 
right to fish the river. The outcome will naturally be 
looked for with very great interest, for if the ultimate de- 
cision be favorable to the Government's contention, many 
anglers will find that they have paid out good money for 
supposed salmon fishing rights to riparian owners who do 
not really control the fishing of the streams at all. The 
present test case will doubtless be appealed from court 
to court until a final judgment is obtained from the 
Privy Council. ' "* 
Lieut .-Col. Andrew C. P. Haggard, D. S. O. 
The many American and Canadian sportsmen who have 
met Colonel Andrew Haggard or have read his stories, 
will regret to learn that he has been very ill all the winter, 
which he spent in Italy and the south of France. Tie is 
back again in England, however, contributing, as before, 
to the columns of the Field, and busy preparing two new 
books for the press, one a novel, the other a volume of 
sporting yarns from Canada, Newfoundland, India and 
Japan, to which Mr. John Bickerdike has written an 
introduction. 
Royal and Other Fishefmeo. 
An English letter says that the Prince of Wales has 
lately had a very good week of salmon fishing on the 
Dee. The King's Balmoral and Abergeldie waters ex- 
tend for fourteen miles, beginning at Invercauld Bridge, 
while a few miles lower down the river His Majesty has 
another stretch. 
The fact that King Edward is a very poor angler re- 
minds me of a story which I lately read of another 
monarch whom he has lately visited. I mean the King of 
Italy. ■ Victor Emmanuel is very fond of fishing, but it is 
the one sport at which he has no kick. One day he was 
out for several hours and was returning to the castle with 
the keeper, on foot, with three poor fish on a string, when 
they met a poor man with a magnificent catch of trout.. 
The peasant planted himself before the King and asked 
a light for his pipe, and when he had received it, he 
said with scorn: "You seem to be no great things at 
fishing. To look at your catch one would think you were 
the King." His Majesty, rather red in the face, asked 
why. "Oh," returned the other, '"he thinks a good deal 
of himself, but he is a very poor body more fit to be a 
king than a sportsman." E. T. D. Chambers. 
Fifth Annual Tuna Tournament. 
Santa Catalina Island, Cal., May 12.— As the big 
steamer Hermosa drifted into the dock at Avalon a 
line of men appeared not far away, which reminded 
some of the passengers of the old-time Chicago or 
New York hackmen, but it was a little different. In- 
stead of "Have a hack?" it was "Have a boat, sir?" 
"Tuna boat, sir?" "Glass bottom boat, sir?" "For the 
Admiral Dewey, right this way." "Here you are for 
the glass-bottomed side-wheeler Admiral Sampson." 
"Here you are, the 'Teddy' glass-bottom boat." "Go- 
ing yellow tailin', sir? Fine boat, sir; best of tackle." 
and many more from as jolly-faced and pleasant- 
voiced a lot of sea dogs as ever spliced the main 
brace. There are horses at Avalon, but the "livery" 
is boat, Avalon being a sort of a Venice, where you 
get into a glass-bottomed boat or a launch to go any- 
where; and a very delightful custom it is. But it 
takes some time to get accustomed to hearing the 
wealthy residents of Avalon talk of launches and 
boatman as they would of horses and carriages, as 
every one has his launch and "driver" or boatman. 
The hotels and boarding houses at Avalon— all have 
their quota of tuna anglers from all over the country 
who are anxiously awaiting the arrival of the big game, 
which is due now. 
Judging by former years, the exact arrival of the 
game is very uncertain. Sometimes they come in 
April, then disappear; again it is May 15; and one 
year they did not arrive until June, and then came 
with such a rush that many were taken. Eastern ang- 
lers are often astonished at the small number of 
tunas taken. In no one season have over 200 been 
taken with the regulation rod and line of not over 24 
strands; and no angler has beaten Mr. E. L. Doran's 
record of eighteen for the season. The reason for 
this lies not in the small numbers of fish, but in their 
game qualities. They come in thousands, fairly cover- 
ing the sea at times; but the angler who takes his 
fish without several or indeed many losses, is fortunate 
indeed. There have been known certain anglers who 
could never land their tuna; yet offer up lines, hooks 
and rods year after year. The average fish in its 
best condition is apt to demoralize the average angler, 
and a wreck of tackle is the result. In a word, the 
chief reason why more tarpon are taken than tunas lies 
in the fact that the tuna in its best condition is much 
harder to take, and again, there are in the United States 
many hundreds of miles of coast providing tarpon fish- 
ing, from Aransas Pass around to the mouth of the St. 
John's in Florida, 'not to speak of Tampico, while the 
tuna, remarkable t"o relate, is, so far as sport with the 
rod is concerned!' confined to the three or four-mile 
limit between Avalon Bay and Long Point of Santa 
Catalina. The season for this fish may be said to be 
from May 15 to August 15, though it changes every 
season, and fishes have been hooked at Catalina in 
February. 
The angling tournament given this season by the 
Tuna Club, orgau.ized by Chas. F. Holder several years 
ago to encourage rod fishing and prevent the waste 
and over killing of large game fish, is attracting much 
attention, and many w^ell-known anglers are on hand 
hoping to beat .some of the records, Among them are 
