^ ■ OcT. 3, I903-1 
iiB0 
contrary to law. We hope that by the time the new game 
law has been in effect a year, everyone will be willing to 
abide by its provisions. A. J. Lovejoy, 
State Game Commissioner. 
Preserves and Game* 
Editor Forest and Stream: 
A most interesting letter appears in Forest and Stream 
of September 13, written by Coahoma, on the subject of 
private game preserves. Certainly private preserves are 
better than no preserves at all, and they are serving an 
excellent purpose in stimulating ^ thought and . discussion 
upon the subject involved. Legislation can only follow 
experience, and no precedents but our own will fit our 
own case. . • • .. 
The points raised in the beginning of Coahoma's arti- 
cle are sufficient to form the basis for an entire overhaul- 
ing of the question of land tenure, its rights and its 
responsibilities. "May the owner exercise full right of 
ownership over a part of his lands and only partial rights 
over the remainder? * * * This is simply one phase of 
the ancient warfare between the rich and poor; and 
further, as long as some men are lazy, thriftless, and in- 
capable, and others are industrious, provident and effi- 
cient, so long shall we have the rich and the poor,, and all 
the gradations of life between." 
As to the question of what rights shall be exercised 
by men holding tracts of various sorts of land, this seems 
to me a question purely of legislation within certain very 
broad lines. Does any man really exercise "the full rights 
of ownership?" The fact is that there are very serious 
limitations to his ownership. And if his rights are lim- 
ited to some extent already, why should they not be still 
more limited, if such limitation is for the public good. 
A stranger may mine gold on his property vvithout paying 
for the privilege, and he himself may not direct a water- 
course within his own boundaries. He cannot close an 
ancient highway, and he cannot shoot game on his o\vn 
property during the close season. In some States he is 
liable to prosecution for running deer with dogs on his 
own land, as if he did not own the land at all. The 
title to the game on his land is not vested in him, but in 
the State. Thus his powers within his own borders are 
very mucli limited under the existing laws. And, if this 
is so, why should not other limitations be created? 
The right to close land to the public might very well be 
restricted to such lands as would be injured by the en- 
trance of the public upon them. Otherwise it serves no 
useful purpose and may be a serious inconvenience. The 
game upon the land belongs to the public, and if it were 
ihe owner's caprice to exterminate it by poison or other- 
wise, he would be restrained by law. Unless the owner 
is making some actual use of the land, unless he cultivates 
it and has built his house upon it, the exercise of this 
'•right of exclusion is an arbitrary limitation which is not 
in accordance with public interest. This being the case, 
why should not the laws, which .already limit the owner's 
privileges, be so framed that the public, having con- 
formed to the game laws, may enter upon lands of cer- 
tain classes for purposes of sport and recreation? . 
That the laws against trespass upon timber lands 
should be the same as the laws against trespass on culti- 
vated lands or city property is absurd. Indeed, if any 
individual wishes to exercise any such privilege, it is 
altogether reasonable that he should be heavily taxed for 
it, and that it should come under some other regulation 
than the mere law against trespass. W. M. E. 
B LTiMOi^E, Sept. 20. 
Iowa Shootingf. 
Humboldt, Iowa, September 19. — The fall hunting 
season opened in Iowa the first of September. In the 
northern section the sport on ducks, principally young 
teal, has been good, but at this date, after furnishing 
nearly three weeks of shooting, the birds are pretty well 
shot off. Many sportsmen regard the young teal as; the 
best of the duck family for eating; the young teal is to 
the duck tribe what the spring chicken is to the domestic 
fowl. In two or three weeks the big ducks will begin to 
come down from the north, and sportsmen will be ready 
to drop business at any time then for some favorite duck 
resort that they know of. It is the latter part of October 
and November that the best duck and chicken shooting is 
to be had, the cold weather driving the birds down from 
the north. 
The prairie chicken shooting on local birds was practi- 
cally a failure in Iowa this year. Of course in scattered 
spots in northern Iowa the birds gave sport for a day 
or two, but aside from that there have been no birds 
killed. There is some consolation to the Iowa sportsman 
for this, however, as he knows that the northern birds 
will make their appearance along some time in October, 
when the cold weather has driven the birds down. At 
that time the choicest shooting is to be had. 
There has been plenty of fishing along the Iowa rivers 
this year. Many large fish of all varieties have been 
taken. George J. Bicknell. 
October* 
Ho! for the glens — the bosky glens ' 
Of brown October time; 
And the sombre fens — the browning feus, 
I And the meadows sweet with thyme. 
Ho! for the brook— the babbling brook - 
That flows from the fretted bower; 
And ripples out of the forest nook 
• The home of tlie gentian flower. 
Ho! for the breeze — the balmy breeze — 
That wafts o'er the nut-grown larder, 
Scattering leaves from the crimson trees 
To the floor of the forest arbor. 
Ho! for the time — the sunset time — 
When the reddening sun in the westing, . 
\ Whispers a chime for the frosty rime 
That forms while the earth is resting. 
Ho! for the haze — the purple hale — 
That hangs o'er the mountains' slumber. 
Ho! for the days — October days — ■■• ' 
Ho! foT the Indiam summer. 
GxoKOji W. Beaux fiSa^v thorn). 
- t ' : 
' . ■ — ♦ — - ■. 
AH communications intended for Fokxst and StkbAu should 
alwmys be addressed to the Forest and Stream Publishing Co., 
New York, and' not to liiiy individual connected With the .paper. , 
The; Game Laws in Brte{. 
is the standard authority of fish and game laws of the United 
States and Canada.- It . tells everything and gives it correctly. 
See in advertising pages list of Some of the dealers . who handle 
the Brief. '. . : , . 
In Old Virginia. 
Even, if there had been nothing else save the fact that 
we were camping in old Virginia,: the Rod and Reel, Club 
of Wiuchestertown would have enjoyed their outing this 
year on the banks of the Shenandoah.^ We camped right 
along the. line of the Norfolk , and Western Railroad, 
about two miles from Front Royal, and for the first time 
in five .years took up quarters in a four-room house in- 
stead of under canvak. We could, find no good place 
near the river- to pitch our tents, and seeing this un- 
occupied building, which was put up by the Norfolk and 
Western for their workrnen when the track along here 
was raised several feet, we concluded to stop right here, 
if we could rent it. ' We hunted up, the party who had 
charge of it j and succeeded in renting it for 25 cents a 
v/eek. Of course we missed the sight of the white can- 
vas, but still we kept dry, and rthis year, in. the -tents,; we 
would probably have got a little wet. i. - - • 
We left old Winchestertown- about 2 o'clock 'Monday 
morning, and arrived at the river at 8 o'clock the same 
inorning. We soon had the camp in order, for we had no 
tents to piit up,, no ditches to dig-^nothing much to do 
but rig up; our stov^e/and make: our beds. Heretofore 
we nev«r fished .any . until the next , day after our arrival, 
as it .always took the best part of the first day to get the 
camp in order, but as we had nothing much to do this 
year, we decided to try the fish in the afternoon. The 
•yvater was ifi, splendid condition, . .and a great .many 
anglers were dawn from Trorit Royal. _ . , ; _ 
■ Chatley.Srdwh h^d the honor of getting the first strike, 
k grid he started his fish, but — the. rascal made for a rock 
and that settled it He wa.s a good one (so Brown says), 
and. I sympathized with hini for I. knew how he felt over 
it. I've been there myself. He got his next one, though, 
THE 1903 CAMP OF THE ROD AND REEL CLUB. 
of course, it was nothing like as Isr'ge as ' the one that got 
away. The bass were in. a biting humor on this par- 
ticular afternoon, aiid by 6 o'clock we had quite a nice 
string to _take to camp. How good it was once more to 
see the line slipping out oyer the reel— to feel the tug 
at the other end, and— then ' the fight. Ah! it's worth a 
million to any man ! Let a man once go camping, give 
him a rod and let him wade the . riffles, and unless his 
heart is as hard as stone, his eyes shut to all the beauties 
of nature, he will be inspired, by the beautiful scenerj-, 
become fascinated with the sport ojf apgling, arid, the:. next 
yfear hfe'U be at it again. , . - ' , ./ '■' 
Arriving at camp we changed our .wading clftthes and 
put on dry ones, and then got .supper. Once more ,we 
were seated around the old camp table, each man with 
a tin cup full of coffee by him and a great dish of- fried 
bass before us. Onte more we ,were camping— once more 
we were sniffing the pure fresh ai.r wafted from the slopes 
of the old Blue Ridge, and were intoxicated with anticipa- 
tions of the good times we were going to have. After 
supper we .lit up the torch and played cards till 9 o'clock, 
when Quartermaster Dorsey Yeakley, as usual, announced 
that it was bed time, and. we were .soon off to the land 
of dreams. Our little, mascot, Jack Greenwalt, was, lying 
by the side of his bosom friend, Dorsey Yeakleyj and, as 
he stirs in his sleep, he half whispers : "Here comes a 
'double-hitter,' Dorse." The Norfolk and Western run 
double-headers along here nearly altogether, and Jack al- 
ways called them "double-hitters," and when . only one 
engine \vould come along he would call it ar "double- 
single." He always w'anted to bet when he heard the dis- 
tant whistle of the locomotive whether it was a "double- 
hitter" or a "double-single," and he would put up his cap, 
pants or anything he possessed on what he thought was 
coming. He is only about six or. seven years old, and 
probably the youngest camper that ever J.eft Winchester. 
He was the life of the camp, atid we all enjoyed having 
him along. ^ , . 1 . 
The next day it rained, and rained hard,, to.o, and conse- 
quently spoiled bass fishing for" the next few days. But 
we ri^ed up our outline and. lived on eels and. catfish 
until the virater cleared .up. To me there was .something 
very fascinating in running the outline at night — to lift 
the great big eels into the boat, and take them off. Some- 
times we would get as high as a dozen big ones at one 
haul. Carson Yeakley and myself always operated the 
outline, and what a time we would have out there, in .the 
middle of the river some nights. Sometimes there would 
be six or eight big eels floundering about in the bottom of 
the boat,_and then maybe we would add -a big turtle to, the 
aggregation, and between the, eels an^ the , turtle and our 
bare feet we would have cJne mischief of a tittle. • ■ 
" The' water w&s beginning to clear up nOw, and the jjros- 
pects were bright for sorne good fishing. We had quite a 
nice lot of little "catties" down in the live-box, and were 
longing to "tenderly put one on." The next morning we 
decided to try it, although the water "Sifas a Httle eloudy. 
Charley, Brown wa« soon, in his virading clothes and off 
for.ihe riffles. Carson Yeakley (the handiest man and 
■pne of the best all-round campers we have ever had with 
us) and myself were right behind him, and Dorse and 
his little friend Jack were to come down later on to. help 
us bring back the fish. Out into the riffles- we go, and 
with a .swing of our rod. send the line out into the rqlling 
water. J^ilr. Yeakley got the first strike, and I knew he 
was just- itching to pull on him, but he thinks>:he'Il give 
him. a little more time. Charley Brown, who was stand- 
ing near him, tells him to let him keep on going, that the 
bass in the South Branch require a lot of coaxing. Carse 
pqaxed hirn.for some time, and finally he yanked on him 
and pulled him in. Charley scored next, and presently 
jjny turn- came. We got one every now and then, and by 
noon we had a fairly good string, considering the water 
was not in first-class condition. 
We had "tenderly put on" about the last of our catties, 
and in the afternoon Brdwn, Carson and myself rigged 
up a sort of a dip-net and started out to catch some min- 
nows, Dorsey Yeakley said he was going across the 
mountain to hunt up a threshing machine, and we all 
knew what that meant^ — he was going out to hunt up some 
of the female gender. 
' We succeeded in catching about 200 nice river minnows, 
and were all ready to try our luck the next day. 
It was the close of a hot August day. The surface of 
the old Shenandoah glinted in the. re^ rays of the set- 
ting sun. The dark green forests surrounding our camp 
grew darker, as the tremulous twilight faded'-into dewy 
dusk. Blue smoke curled gracefully from our stove. _ A 
tinkling sheep bell broke the stillness and a twinkling 
star peeked from the dusky vault above and gave us sorne 
encouragement as to the fishing on the morrow, but still 
we Were doubtful. Mr. Carse Yeakley had gone dowii to 
look ait the outline, arid had" you been along the ri-ver 
in that vicinity you could have seen a solitary pedestrian 
wending his way up the track of the Norfolk and 
Western, with his head down, but every now and then 
looking up to see if the clouds were breaking. But all 
was dark and he continued his way toward camp. 
"Boys," he said, as he came through the gate leading to 
camp, "I'm afraid our fiehing is done for to-morrow. 
It looks threatening, and I think we'll have rain, and 
plenty of it, before morning." 
His prediction came true, for it rained. My I but it 
rained hard. We had' the live-box containing the min- 
nows tied to a rope and thrown out into the river, and 
when it corrimenced to rain Dorse and myself slipped on 
a gum coat apiece and went down and got out the box, 
and ' putting the minnows into a strainer carried them 
high and dry and set them down into a lard can filled 
with fresh water. Had we left them in the live-box in 
the river they would have all been gone the next morn- 
ing, for the river was almost out of banks. The old 
Shenandoah was muddy and was muddy right, too, and 
she staid muddy the rest of the time we were there. We 
had to content ourselves with the eels, perch, and catfish, 
and, when we were lucky enough to catch them, they 
made good eating, I can tell you. 
Time was drawing near to leave, and we began to ap- 
preciate our living along the Shenandoah more than ever. 
It was Iiard to think that we had to leave these laughing, 
muddy waters which would soon be clear as crystal, when 
the bass would be jumping crazy for the ily, but our 
commissary said "everything was out," arid nothing 
remained but to turn our faces toward old Winchester- 
town. So we bid a last farewell to the blue mountains 
of the old Blue Ridge, to the musical murmurings of the 
riffles, and to the distant whistle of the "double-hitter," 
as Jack called them, and started for home, hoping some 
day to return and live over the good times we had had 
along the Shenandoah. Alf Cline. 
Fish and Fishing. 
Ouananiche Season Extended. 
Reference has been more than once made in this 
column to the advisability of a change in the open season 
for ouananiche. There is room for a great deal more 
knowledge of the life history of this fish than all that is 
at present possessed, though there has been considerable 
observation in recent years as to its breeding operations, 
all .tending to corroborate the contention that the ouan- 
aniche is a later spawner than the brook trout, notwith- 
standing that its close season has, until now, opened a 
fortnight earlier than that of the trout. It has taken the 
department of Marine and Fisheries at Ottawa a long 
lime to arrive at a conclusion upon the mass of expert 
testimony, subrnitted to it upon the spawning habits of the 
ouananiche, but it has finally accepted and acted upon it, 
and la.st week an order in, council was adopted by the 
Governor-General in. Council extending the open season 
for this fish in Canada by fifteen days, so that it -will 
hereafter close upon the 30th of September, as that for 
brook trout does, instead of upon the isth of the month, 
as hitherto, This is all right as far as it goes, but the 
close season for ouananiche, which is now made to ter- 
minate upon the last day of November, should certainly 
be extended to the last day of April, as that for trout is. 
Only pot-hunters with nets and bait can take the ouan- 
aniche in the spring of the year prior to the first of May, 
and for these there are plenty of varieties of coarse fish 
to be , taken in and near the chosen waters where the 
ouanapiche are waiting. Ouananiche fishermen in Canada 
will hereafter, like troiit fishermexiv'iiie able to spend the 
whole mont|i of September in the woods, dividing their 
time betweeji fishing and hunting. 
Anglers Do Some Shooting. 
And so far as the hunting is concerned, this last month 
of September has witnessed the killing of many fine speci 
mens of both moose and caribou by anglers m the Lake 
St. John country. Only last week two New York mem- 
bers of the Metabetchouan Fish and Game Club were 
returning to the club house at Lake KisKisink, after fish- 
ing in the lily-pads a Httle b^low the railway bridge, when 
a fine 4hree=fyearr0ld moose stepped Out upon the railway 
track immediately in front of them. One Of the two, Mr. 
Geo. fl. Wilcox, was carrying a .22 caliber Winchester, 
and firing at the animal at a distance c>f Only fifty yards, 
brought it down at th« first shot v^ijothtr iisherniin« 
