JLY 2S, I9O3.J 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
iummer months to a Chinese vegetable garden, _ The 
lam is impassable for fish at all seasons, clearly illegal, 
nd a public nuisance, but it has been maintained for 
wenty years or more. 
In this county of Shasta thousands of acres of timber 
and are burned over every summer by fires set by van- 
lals of one kind or another, square miles of forest have 
)een and are being denuded by smelting operations. Min- 
ng claims are located, the timber upon them cut and sold, 
md then the claims abandoned and others taken for the 
ame purpose. There is no local pov\;er or any other to 
Jrotest or prevent. If a few millionaires had some re- 
serves in this region and fortified them against trespass- 
:rs and vandals, I believe they would be a comparative 
Jessing, and that the next generation would be thank- 
ul that they existed. 
As I write a forest fire is burning in this vicinity. It 
las already burned for several miles over wild public 
ands. _ It is supposed to have started at a coal pit upon 
mining claim. It followed a ridge along which there 
■uns a ditch belonging to a mine that has been idle for 
fears. Fearing a flume might take fire, a ditch-tender 
'backfired" and "let it get away," as is usually the case 
u the woods. It is safe to say that the fire has burned 
imber of more value than the two mines and all the 
lumes in the county, and it will doubtless continue burn- 
ng for weeks, possibly for months. But forest fires in 
California on public lands attract little notice or attention. 
Nobody loses but the people. 
As soon as a system of forest reservation was pro- 
)osed for the Pacific Coast a small army of men that 
want everything wide open and free for all began active 
apposition to the measure. Stockmen want all the land 
ivide open and free. Prospectors and mineral land lo- 
cators want it open. All the small towns and communi- 
:jes want what the stockmen and miners want. A number 
jf counties sent their attorneys to Washington at the ex- 
pense of their citizens to work and protest against Gov- 
n"nment reserves. The mosquito fleet of country news- 
papers heralded the cry that the land was being reserved 
For timber grabbers, railroads and lumbermen. 
As to private preserves and property rights in wild 
ands and woods, the man or men owning them should be 
commended for preserving some wilderness and its fish 
ind game if they can. From my "point of view" they are 
nititled to their property, and I know of no reason why 
[hey should be delighted to have the public prey upon it 
any more than the people of our cities and towns delight 
in entertaining visiting strangers freely and without 
charge. There are things of value in a city street. Let a 
andal help himself to a loaf of bread or a flower from a 
[looryard and he will at once realize the sacredness of 
private ownership. Are bread and flowers any more sus- 
eptible to ownership than land? If Didymus and Mr. 
Spears are too poor to own wild land and pine for want, 
some others of us, poor mortals that we are, may say we 
are too poor to own anj-thing else ! If we do have right- 
ful, legal possession of wild land we hope and believe we 
are entitled to it. We grieve to pay taxes and build fences 
on public property. 
From my "point of view" I am almost ready to begin to 
believe I think that it will be well to give the millionaires 
all the land. If we could only get them stuck with a few 
square miles of it for each one of them it would keep 
them so busy that others of us might get some of the 
other things they have. 1 will swap several hundred acres 
of mine for a yacht, and will let some of them fish and 
hunt and chop trees if they will let me in on tame city 
preserves. This is a fair proposal. 
I believe sportsmen and lovers of the wilds are some- 
times retrogressive in their tendencies, for they want to get 
back to conditions that no longer exist. They ought to 
be glad to hear of all sorts of game preserves and protec- 
tion, parks, clubs, forest reserves, and anything but wide 
open public land. If there were more private reserves in 
the vicinity of our cities many people would be thankful 
if they could walk or ride through them, even though 
trespass signs were plentiful along the way. If that great 
cornfield, Illinois, had a wilderness of a hundred square 
miles in the middle of it full of bears and Indians it would 
be almost as beneficial to people as Chicago. 
And so, with regret for the retrogressive tendencies of 
Didymus and Mr. Spears, I send you this breeze from 
the Sierras. Charles L. Paige. 
Shasta, Cal . July. 
Still Heathen. 
Dr. Eugene P. Dunlap, the oldest missionary in ser- 
vice in Siam, has recently visited the Province of Nakawn. 
The people were still heathen, as the following incident 
will show: A tiger had killed' a bulfalo and left his half 
eaten carcass in the jungle. The natives feared to slay 
the tiger, lest his spirit should punish them. So, as they 
said, "they made the tiger commit suicide." A path was 
cut to the jungle where lay the half eaten body. Stakes 
were driven on either side of the path, and two old- 
fashioned flint muskets were securely fastened to the 
stakes with the muzzles pointing across the path. A tight 
cord was drawn across from musket to musket and tied 
to the triggers. In the morning there was a dead tiger, 
and the natives cut-his flesh for food to make them strong 
and to use as a preventive against smallpox, and crushed 
his bones to secure a powder as efficacious as the best 
patent medicine so freely advertised by the press in this 
land. The veteran missionary plead with the people to 
renounce such follies, but in vain. — New York Observer. 
Proprietors of fishing resorts will find it profitable to sdvertiM 
them in Fosxsx amo SntSAji. 
BItic Mountain Park. 
On the New Jersey Coast* 
AsBURY Park, N. J,, July 17 — Editor Forest and 
Stream: It is extremely doubtful if the New Jersey 
coast has ever had so poor a season for striped bass 
as the present one; and it is regarded as practically 
over with the ending of June. While in ordinary sea- 
sons a few fish are taken from time to time during 
August and September, still June is always the pro- 
lific month, and with the craft little endeavor is made 
after that month, save when heavy easterly weather is 
on. 1 think twenty fish will cover the entire number 
taken at all the favorite points, which is a most re- 
markably poor showing. 
One of 3154 pounds is the record fish, to the credit 
of Uncle Billy Brumaker, who deserves the prize, as 
it is safe to assert that he has fished a ' day for each 
pound of fish. 
Kingfish are fairly plentiful, and are fine in size — 
much above the average — but are biting but little, ex- 
cept early in the morning. 
Weakfish are beginning to take the hook, and Mte 
almost exclusively at night. As yet, however, they 
are quite small, the larger ones are not yet feeding 
inshore. 
A cheering indication of what we have in store is the 
myriads of sand eels crowding in along the beach. If 
they continue with us we know that all varieties of 
fish will soon be present, as they are the bait fish par 
excellence, and are eagerly sought by all our fishes. 
Plaice, too, are unusually scarce, and those that do 
favor us with their presence are very small. In the 
streams where last year, and, in fact, for many years, 
I have taken 20 to 30 at a tide of the finest size, a 
couple, or, at most, 4 small fish, are the usual result. 
Why this is so, it is difficult to understand. Their food 
is abundant and tidal conditions are good; but the 
fish are absent. A most remarkable thing in relation to 
the weakfish has come to light, of the thousands that 
I have taken from the ocean and the different waters 
of this and other States, I never before took spawn- 
bearing fish. Of a catch I made a few evenings since 
3 contained spawn. While the ova was far from ma- 
ture, still it was well advanced in growth, and a friend, 
who was with me, tells me that two of his fish were in 
the same condition. It is just another "new thing" 
under the sun. Blackfish are unusually abundant, and 
some very large ones of 10 to 18 pounds have been 
taken from the beach south of Long Branch, at the 
outlet of Pakannassee Lake. They are hard, heavy 
fighters, but are not a strictly game fish. Some schools 
of bluefish have appeared along the beach at remote 
intervals, but not close enough in to be within the 
reach of rod and reel. The boatmen, however, have 
secured some, and they readily sell for 15 cents per 
pound when fresh from the water. 
Leonard Hulit. 
Members of the family of the late Austin Corbin, of 
New York, have decided to practice forestry on the Blue 
Mountain Forest Park, near Newport, in Sullivan county, 
N, H., and have asked that a working plan for the man- 
agement of the timber lands be prepared by the Bureau of 
Forestry. Alfred Akerman, an instructor in the Yale 
Forest School, with eight men, will be employed on the 
work during the surnmer. 
The Blue Mountain Forest Park contains 25,000 acres, 
and is stocked with a variety of wild animals, including 
what '■".said to be the largest herd of pure-bred buffalo 
in thi,"^f'-ountry. There are 12S head of the animals. Be- 
sides .e buffalo, the park contains wild boar from Ger- 
many, elk, moose, and deer of several kinds. 
Chat and Criticism. 
CharlestowNj N. PL, July 14. — Editor Forest and 
Stream: The hot weather precludes physical exercise 
and reduces the mental activity to the amount necessary 
to read the papers, and make comments on their con- 
tents, and the last number of Forest and Stream affords 
me an opportunity to "put in my oar" in one or two of 
the verbal contests which its contributors are always in- 
viting. 
In the first place the mysterious monster, to which 
your Seattle correspondent calls our attention, has. noth- 
ing mysterious about him, he is simply the well-known 
"thrasher," otherwise the fox shark Carcharias vulpes, 
mentioned in all books on ichthyology, and often by Arctic 
navigators. I read of him 70 years ago, I think in 
"'Scoresby's Voyages," and have often seen him described. 
His tail_ is about half his whole length, and the upper 
lobe of it is very thick and heavy, and he uses this as a 
club, with which to attack the whales. 
The second point which strikes me is the grammatical 
-error in the title of the very interesting article heading, 
Visits With Apes and Monkeys. You can pay a visit to 
an ape or monkey, or one of them might go with you to 
visit some other person, but visit means to go to see, and 
not examination or conversation, for the latter of which 
it has been often used lately hy western writers, and the 
corruption is, I think, a "Chicagoism," as I note writers 
■of that enterprising city speak of visiting with a person 
when they simply mean talking with them. The Latin 
origin of the word merely means "to see," as a doctor 
visits his patient, or a general the army posts under 
his command, but the preposition with is wrong. 
The third point which has struck me lately, is the dis- 
cussion now going on in your columns relating to game 
preserves, and here I am much inclined to take the side 
of the preserve owners. It is all very fine to rave about 
monopoly and exclusiveness, but we have got to remem- 
ber that this continent is not very dift'erent from the rest 
of the world, and that the laws .and customs which time 
has brought about in other countries, must be adopted 
heiie, as the growth of population and civilization fill up 
the once waste lands. When this country was first set- 
tled by the whites it was mainly an unbroken forest, and 
deer, turkeys, grouse and other game abounded every- 
where, they formed the chief supply of animal food to 
the newcomers, and every one was free to kill them at 
his pleasure. 
As the country became settled, the game was exter- 
minated, and protective laws were passed, more than 100 
years ago, but the habit still remained among the mass 
of the people, of shooting and fishing at their will, regard- 
less of place or time. 
The rapid disappearance of the game has led to more 
stringent laws in the last century, governing the times at 
. which game may be taken, and the continued increase 
of population, renders it necessary to put some restriction 
on places as well. 
The old maxim, that "every man's house is his castle," 
covers the right to protect and preserve his property, 
and It is coming to»be understood that the game raised 
on a man's land is as much his property as any of his 
other crops. The right of everybody to kill game 
everywhere has become extinct, as the land came into 
private ownership, and while it may seem undemocratic 
or unrepublican, for any one person to own or control 
20,000 or 30,000 acres of land, it must be considered that it 
IS m most cases land unsuited for profitable agriculture 
while eminently fitted for the shelter and support of wild 
animals, and that the "overflow" of those preserved on 
It -will naturally stock quite a large neighborhood with 
sufficient game for reasonable sport. 
I quite agree with Mr. Avis in his answer to Mr. 
Spears, and I do not agree with Mr. Spears that his 
woodsmen have any rights at all. beyond the property 
they own. It is merely the survival of the free and easy 
customs of the days when nobody owned the land, and 
It was, of course, open to all. Time and growth have 
changed the conditions, and altered the question, and the 
sooner we make up our minds to the inevitable the bet- 
ter for all concerned. While, as the learned judge says 
in the decision in the case you print, the game on the 
land of any man cannot be considered as his property un- 
til he reduces it to his possession, and it may leave his 
property at its will, for that of some one else, by fencing 
his land, he reduces that to his possession, with the game 
on it, as long as it remains there, and any entrance on 
that property in pursuit of it, is clearly an act of tres- 
pass, and may be so treated. 
Now to another question. Your correspondent, Mr. 
Shurter, identifies the bloodhound with the old Talbot, in 
which I do not agree with him. I may be wrong, but 
I have always understood the Talbot to be the old Eng- 
iist mastiff, and that the family of that name, which bore 
his semblance on their escutcheon, were so named from 
their tenacity "to grip and hold on" in the old fighting 
days of the Plantaganet Kings of England. Which came 
first and gave the name, I cannot say, "whether dog 
wagged the tail or the tail wagged the dog." Perhaps 
your Washington corre.spondent, Mr. Henry Talbot, may 
throw some light on this question. 
Finally, and to close my growiings for this, 1 will go 
back a few _ months to a letter from Mr. Lodian, in 
which he claims that he discovered the process of making 
silk worm gut, and that he was sent to Spain by Mr. 
Marston for that purpose. Now he may have picked 
up a few minor details, as to the strength of the vinegar 
used, or the length of time of the immersion, but I have 
known generally how the gut was prepared ever since 
I first used it, nearly 70 years ago, I do not remember 
whether I got the information from Sir Humphrey 
Davy's "Salmonia," or Dr. Ure's dictionary of Arts and 
Manufactures, but I knew that the worm, when ripe and 
ready to spin, was immersed for a time in strong vine- 
gar, then broken open, the silk bag taken out, and 
stretched on a board to dry, and the first gut I ever used, 
in the hank, as imported, showed the spinal curls at each 
end, where it had been wound round the pins, which 
kept it in place. Enough for to-day 1 Von W. 
Sacramento Trout. 
San Francisco, Cal— Editor Forest and Stream: Last 
year I gave you a short account of my annual outing on 
the upper Sacramento River at La Moine, Shasta county. 
1 again visited this lovely spot and my stay of ten days 
was replete with similar scenes. The grand old river 
was just as enticing, the rainbow and brown trout were 
as plentiful, and my short vacation came to an end too 
soon. 
On my arrival I was met at the station by familiar 
faces. The genial landlord. Cliff Coggins, welcomed me 
most heartily, and the housekeeper, Mrs. Anderson, who 
loves to cater to the hungry fishermen, gave me a right 
royal good handshake and bade me welcome. I must 
not forget to mention Tom Kemper, known as "Missouri 
Tom," who is a character in himself, a whole-souled fel- 
low, always ready to act as your guide. When he is en- 
gaged by other anglers he will honestly tell you the best 
pools and riffles and the flies he finds most successful. 
He IS an all-right good fellow and knows the river like 
a book from Delta to Sims. ■ 
The best fly-fishing on this river is to be had from 5 
to 8:30 evening, while fishermen who use a spoon, may 
have good fishing morning, noon and night. It is well; 
however, to rest in midday, and it is generally the time 
which anglers devote to writing to their wives, friends 
and sweethearts— and sportsmen always have some one 
to wish them luck and a safe return. 
The manager of the lumber camp frequently invites his 
guests to go up to Camp No, i, six miles distant, which 
IS a most enjoyable trip. It is most interesting to see 
Ihe monster logs shoot down the hill side, half a mile 
in half a minute. The active lumbermen handle the 
logs as they drop into the pond, and when a jam occurs 
It IS wonderful to see how quickly they break it. 
Colonel W. Kelichor was my fishing companion for 
my first trip, a sportsman of the old school, a thorough 
gentleman, and an angler of long and large experience. 
When leaving the hotel I was informed that the Onion 
Patch Pool was alive with quinnat salmon. I there- 
fore took my casting rod along, hoping to hook on to a 
salmon, which I did on the second cast, and he proved 
to be a monster in size, the largest fish I ever hooked. 
My 7-ounce rod was worked as it never had been worked 
before, and for an hour and a half, under the careful- 
supervision of the Colonel, I enjoyed the grandest sport 
It was ever my good fortune to get. Thh fish broke water 
a dozen times, and at no time during the first hour did 
he let up once, and I had from one to two hundred feet 
of line out. All things come to an end, and I got him as 
I thought, completely under control, and was about to 
bring him to gaff when he gave one final effort to get 
away, and withm ten feet of the shore threw himself on 
a rock and the hook broke. He had the utmost difficultv 
to get out of the shallow water back to the deep pool 
again. I might have attempted to take him with my 
hands, he was m such a weakened condition, but he nut 
up such a great fight that I took my hat off to him and 
