Dec. 27, 1902.] 
identity of interest in cold steel between man and wife is 
food indeed for modern reflection. 
Mr. Robert Hunter, of Fulton, N. Y., was most 
generous in giving me three hours of his crowded time 
showing me through their vast gun factory in this place, 
and knowing every detail of the work as he does, even 
to making of any of a gun's many parts, furnished me 
with much data that I never even dreamed of, yet I have 
handled guns so long that it tires memory to go back so 
far. Here I found 450 men employed and the factory run- 
ning night and day, superintended by five brothers, all 
working in different directions that merge into one ambi- 
tion, and that the highest perfection of their product. 
At Utica Mr. Savage best showed his devotion to rifle 
building by forfeiting his lunch hour to entertain me. 
He informs me they will be in their new plant by Jan. 
I, and Feb. i to 15 will be able to market their new prod- 
ucts in the way of calibers, etc, 
I visited Mr. H. H, Valentine in Albany and found 
him. at this end of the State in much the same frame of 
mind as Mr. Le Valley at the other, regarding the game 
laws. The well known conditions of Rensselaer County, 
where, under closed season for three years, the groitse 
have nearly become extinct, tells the story — snared to 
death. T. E. Batten. 
New York, Dec. 15. 
CHICAGO AND THE WEST. 
The Death of Col Boto. 
Chicago, 111., Dec. 19. — Last week there was printed 
in these columns some mention of that veteran bear 
hunter and prominent citizen of Mississippi. Col. R. 
E. Bobo. It is sad reading to ofTer in this time of 
cheer, yet I am obliged to chronicle the death of this 
friend, who was also the friend of thousands of other 
sportsmen in America. Col. Bobo died in this city at 
eight o'clock on Wednesday morninp: last, and his re- 
mains, in charge of his son and a friend, left this city 
yesterday morning for their final resting place in the 
•soil of Mississippi. The immediate cause of death 
was at! acute comnlication which resulted in something 
like severe jaundice, the liver being badly involved. 
Bobo was accustomed all his life to hunt in the ma- 
larial swamps of the cane brake country. Perhaps the 
swamps finally had their revenge on the man who had 
done so much toward conquering their seci'ets, and 
so much toward changing that country from a wilder- 
ness int-o a land of civili;^ation. Col. Bobo lived to 
see fertile plantations stretching over- much of^ his old 
bear hunting grounds, and he was one of the most 
prominent aids of the railroads, which have been do- 
ing so much toward settling the Mississippi Delta in 
the last few years. He died possessed of a fortune of 
$200,000 or $300,000, all of which he' had amassed by 
his own energy and foresight. He was at one time 
offered $too an acre for land for which he paid less 
than $2 an acre. 
Col. Bobo was, without question, the most expert 
hunter of the black bear which this country ever 
knew. To repeat earlier mention of his exploits, I 
may state that he was known to kill 206 bear in One 
year, 6 one day, 5 the day following, and so On. It 
was his delight to take his friends out upon these 
hunts. There was no master of besr hounds in ail 
the country like this same energetic Mississippian, as 
I am sure earlier mention in these columns must have 
shown fully. 
It was my sad office to help Col. Bobo's friends to 
assemble his efifects. I found in his pockets telegrams 
and letters bearing upon the recent presid'^ntial bear 
hunt in Mississippi, mention of which was recently 
made at his request in the Forest and Stre.am. Sick 
as he was and nearing his end, as he personally knew 
before any of us did, it was none the less a sotircc 
of great annoyance to him to have it reported in 
some of ths Southern newspapers that he had shown 
discourtesy to President Roosevelt in refusing to join 
the latter with his pack of bear dogs. No one who 
knew Bobo doubts that he was the soul of courtesy 
and hospitality. As bearing upon this, a few months 
ago there was a little railroad wreck near Bobo's plan- 
tation, in which some 155 persons were left brepkfa,st- 
Ie.ss on the train. They tramped over to Bobo's house 
and there they were fed. each and all of them. All of 
these people offered Bobo pay, but he stated that he 
had never charged a man for a meal in all his life, and 
was too old to begin it then. He practically kept 
open house in the old time Southern fashion, and he 
was one of the best living survivors of the old-time 
Southern type, generous, hospitable, readv to resent 
any wrong upon the instant, yet animated by a large 
sense of fairness and justice. There was not a negro 
on the Bobo plantation who did not love the "boss." 
I may say also, that, during his stay here, he made a 
wide circle of friends who not only respected but 
loved him, even on this sjiort acquaintance. 
He died at the age of 55 years. Mr. Fincher Bobo, 
his eldest son, is the sole remaining member of the 
family now at the old plantation. 
There will be no one to take the place of Bobo, the 
bear hunter. The Delta is changing very rapidly. 
Railroads are going through there at distances of 
every few miles. New problems and new customs are 
arising in that country, the last of the old South to 
experience change. The Bobo bear pack will perhaps 
be scattered. The memory of its owner will not read- 
ily die. certainly not in the minds of those of us who 
have ridden with him, slept with him in camp, and 
known that friendship which arises only between men 
who know each other for what they are in the out- 
door air, wide of all the artificialities and conven- 
tions- of city life. I knew Bobo and loved him. and 
am only one of very many of whom the same might 
be said. I feel sure it is my privilege to speak for them 
in expressing this sense of loss. R. E. Bobo was no 
ordinary man. He was a big man and w^s rapiijly 
FOREST AND STREAM, 
forging ahead into still bigger stages of life. We can- 
not have too many American citizens of his type, men 
of courage, fearlessness and a fine and delicate sense 
of personal honor. 
E. Hough. 
Hartford Building, Chicago, 111. 
D^er in Massachusetts and Maine* 
Boston, Dec. 2t. — Editor Forest and Stream: The 
case of Mr. Collins, of Maiden, has done more to adver- 
tise the deer law than anything that has occurred in 
Massachusetts for many a day. Hardly a daily paper for 
a week but has had something about it. Deputy Burne}' 
had him in court and he was fined one hundred dollars. 
Not having the money he was sent to jail where he re- 
mained some days. It was believed, however, that he 
was ignorant of the law. He had a numerous family de- 
pendent upon him, so the kind-hearted judge. Judge Pet- 
teng'ill, started a subscription to pay his fine. The gener- 
ous citizens of Maiden and others responded and the poor 
fellow is ixow at liberty. Now probably this man was not 
unable to read, and it seems very strange that he should 
not have known that the killing of deer is illegal. Query, 
hcv.' can a knowledge of the game laws be made univer- 
sal? • 
The total of deer shipped through Ba.ngor this j'ear is • 
5,289 ; of moose, 191. 
It is believed that fully five times this number of deer 
have been killed in the State the past season. Even this 
estimate may be too low. No doubt there are a great 
many stilt left in the woods, but what would be the re- 
sult of a very severe winter on the supply for coming 
years ? 
It is reported that excellent sport in the shooting of 
bears and foxes has been had in Washington County and 
southern Aroostook. Some of the Boston sportsmen re- 
cently returned with deer are: Messrs. J. H. Harding, 
S. J. Turner, W. H. and Mrs. W. H. Ellsmere, John 
Magee, F. F. Field, A. B. Pratt, O. E. Bowers, H. A. 
Lewis, John J. Moore and Harry B. Hobbs. 
Dr. A. F. Townsend, a dentist of Worcester, brought 
out two fine deer. He also obtained with his camera 
many of the best views of scenery about Katahdin. 
Central. 
^tfd §w^r 0sf(ing. 
— $ — 
Proprietors of fishing resorts will find it profitable to advertise 
them in Fokebt and Stexam. 
The Sea Trout Per Se. 
Editor Forest and Stream: 
In No. 3 of Mr. Venning's series of interesting 
sketches which are being printed in Forest and 
Stream under the caption of "Reminiscences of an 
Octogenarian," the author discusses the much vexed 
question whether the sea trout (so recognized by 
naturalists thirt3'--five years ago) and the brook trout, 
yclept Salvclimis fontinalis, are identically the same, or a 
different variety; and he courteously challenges me 
by name to meet his objections to my contrary opin- 
ion, which I am known to have pertinaciously de- 
fended for a lifetime. 
Well, under a position so well fortified and strenu- 
ously defended as his, I should say that my inevitable 
alternative would be to recant or burn, except that I 
happen to have, as I believe, the key to the problem, 
which, if admitted, should reconcile all variances. We 
will see! 
While both of us agree that there is no specific or 
structural difference between the two fishes, I main- 
tain that their environments, habits and food are so 
widely diverse that they predicate variety, distinct and 
obvious, just as parents differentiate and distinguish 
twins which cannot otherwise be told apart. I hold 
that the sea trout is a littoral marine irsh, which feeds 
(for the most part) along the estuaries on shore food, 
and spawns in the rivers at the head of the tide, or 
not far above it, while the brook trout dwells in the 
forest, feeding on insects and ephemera (for the most 
part), and spawns all along the length of a stream 
from its mouth to headwaters. One is migratory and 
gregarious, entering the rivers periodically in immense 
numbers, in June and October, after the salmon; not 
to deposit their spawn, but to eat the extruded ova 
which the salmon have deposited in the gravel, while 
the other is a purely local, stationary and fluviatile 
fish, which is never found in very large schools and 
never leaves his native water except in individual 
cases for a momentary picnic in the bri&e, supposing 
that he has access to it. The largest schools of brook 
trout that I have ever seen were in artificial retaining 
ponds. 
As to geographical distribution, brook trout occupy 
the greater part of the inland continental area of 
British North America and the United States, being- 
found in twenty-eight States, while sea trout are not 
met with below latitude 49 degrees on either the At- 
lantic or Pacific side, and -then only in coastwise es- 
tuaries and in rivers having access to the sea. 
Taxonomically, fishes may be classified as follows: 
1. Pelagic fishes, which are ocean rovers, though 
many species, such as bluefish, tilefish, menhaden, 
mackerel and herring, come inshore to feed at certain 
seasons, and some of them perhaps to spawn. 
2. Littoral or shore fish, which dwell and feed along 
the coast, but run up at times into the rivers and 
estuaries to feed and spawn, usually at or near tide 
water, M^here the flux and efflux nourishes the ova 
with alternate baths of salt and fresh water every day. 
Of this class are white perch, skates, sheepshead, 
some kinds of sharks, sea sturgeon, hyacks or gas- 
pereau, dogfish and sea trout. 
3. Anadromous fishes, which spawn and mature in 
the rivers, but take their salt and fresh water baths 
long intervaJs, returning periodically to their native 
81S 
gravel beds. Of these the shad and the so-called sea 
salmon, in contradistinction from landlocked salmon, 
are conspicuous. 
4. Fluviatile fishes, which spawn and live continu- 
ously in fresh-running water, though individuals at 
times run down to salt water if they have access to it. 
Black bass, pike (jack fish), and brook trout are 
notable examples of this class. 
5. In the great inland lakes the lacustrine fishes 
imitate the ocean fishes to a degree; the ciscowits, 
namaycush, herrings, whitefish and sturgeon ranging 
wide, for the most part, but approaching the inflowing 
rivers at stated seasons in quest of minnows, shad- 
flies, shrimps, and microscopic bottom food, or to 
spawn on the sandbars at and near the outlets. In 
lesser eastern lakes, the like habit is noticed, where 
landlocked salmon and togue follow the smelts into 
the rivers in early spring, though they do not them- 
selves spawn until October. (No more do the sea 
trout, although they run up the rivers in Julj^.) So 
also in the British northwest the trout and sturgeon 
of the great lakes spawn near the discharge, while 
grayling, trout and squawfish spawn all the way up 
to headwaters of the affluents, thereby providently 
stocking the water courses throughout their fluvial 
extent. 
This general information I have acquired chiefly by 
travel and observation, though Mr. Venning, who has 
not been thoroughly posted on my continuous field 
work, is pleased to intimate that I foregather mainly 
by hearsay. Such, I plead, has not been my life-long 
reputation. But give hearsay a chance! I will not 
affect to stand on my own ipse dixit. In canonical 
jurisprudence "the tesimony of two witnesses is 
true," and I have two accredited witnesses! One of 
these is Com. J. U. Gregory, of the Canadian Depart- 
ment of Marine and Fisheries, who has been at the 
head of the lighthouse supply for thirty-eight years, 
and has cruised along shore some. The other is John 
Manuel, of Ottawa, who owns the river Godbout, on 
the lower St. Lawrence, and has hardly missed a 
salmon fishing season for twenty-five years, to my 
personal knowledge. I have been bon camarade with 
both these gentlemen more or less since the 60s. Mr. 
Gregory writes: 
"1 am of opinion that sea trout are gregarious and 
migratory shore fish, which come and go periodically, 
feeding on littoral food, such as minnows, caplin, 
sand worms, shrimps, etc., as you say, and are looked 
for onlj'- at stated periods of the year; but I am aware 
that many rivers, at certain periods yearly, become 
well stocked with sea trout, which come in by the 
mouth of the river which empties into salt water; that 
these fish go a long distance up-stream, and are a 
nuisance in salmon pools. After a time, they disap- 
pear ; while in these same rivers, the ordinary Salmo fon- 
tinalis remain on, and are about as numerous as they 
were before the sea trout struck in and went out 
again; therefore, they do not follow them to sea, I 
consider this as an argument in favor of your theory." 
But Mr. Manuel's deposition is a clincher. He 
says, cautiously: 
"As to where sea trout spawn, I cannot declare at 
present. My observations on the Godbout are that 
they go up that river in large numbers; but I think 
it is for the purpose of reaching the spawning beds 
of the salmon and living on the ovum. My reason 
for thinking so is that they follow the salmon. When 
we see the trout going up the river, it is a sure sign 
that the bulk ,of the salmon are already up. Another 
reason is that I have never seen any trout fry in the 
river. If they spawn in the river we would surely see 
the young trout, just as we see the salmon, peel and 
parr, unless they all got out to sea before we reach 
the river, which is early in June. In that case they 
would be differently constituted from the salmon, for 
the young salmon cannot live in salt water until they 
are tv/o years old, and have got the silvery scales like 
the parent ilsh. But. even if they did go out, as stated, 
there would always be some late stragglers to be seen 
to show that trout had spawned in the river. I have 
seen them netted in large numibers at the mouth of the 
Godbout River. We net them every year, to prevent 
them getting- up to the spawning beds of the salmon. 
We don't market them, but give them to the habitants 
for food, our only object being to get rid of them and 
protect the salmon as much as possible. The large 
schools of trout that appear in the estuaries in July 
and August are going up. Some of them may come 
down again later in the season, but most of them 
remain in the river all winter and co.ne down when 
the river breaks up, in May. I incline to think that ' 
sea trout are littoral or shore fish, as you suggest." 
From the foregoing evidence it seems to me that 
Mr. Venning's observations can easily be reconciled 
to fit, if he would but allow that sea trout ascend 
rivers to eat spawn, and not to deposit it. We all 
know that the sea trout of Alaska are voracious spawn 
eaters, and that the Indians of the Pacific coast use 
little else than fish spawn for bait. The Dominion 
Coast Survey has reported sea trout all along the 
eastern and northern Labrador coast as far as Hud- 
son Bay; but these fish do not occur in the Mackenzie 
River, nor do any kind of salmonoids, and Lieut. Fred. 
Schwatka does not mention sea trout as occurring 
in Back's or Great Fish River, although he speaks of 
salmon fishing in July and August, and of catching 
them through the ice in winter. Had sea trout been 
present, some of them would have been hooked. 
I would suggest to the guild that comparison of 
the gills of fresh run sea trout when in the rivers 
with the gills of occupants which are known to re- 
main the whole year round, would show quite a differ- 
ence in the texture and color of their papillae. Nature 
has adapted every creature to its environment, and 
no one can thrive equally well in two elements, even, 
amphibians. Introduced species have to be acclimated. 
The difference of density of salt and fresh water is 
well known, and besides, the two are chemically qu.tei 
unlike- Chaig^s HALijOC^^, 
'FAYBTTiVILtE. N. G.' ' ■ 
