Oct. 31, 1903.] 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
Pennsylvania Shootingf. 
Sayre, Pa., Oct. 23. — Gray squirrels are reported 
plentiful in some sections of Pennsylvania and unusuallj' 
scarce in others. Across the woody ridges of the Wya- 
lusing country some fine bags of squirrels have been re- 
cently taken, but in woods about Sayre where ordinarily 
ten or tnore grays may be bagged in a day, only here 
.and there is one found. 
Generally speaking, ruffed grouse are reported less 
plentiful than usual, the wet nesting season haAdng, it is 
said, reduced the number of young birds hatched to con- 
siderably below the normal. However, as the season ad- 
vances it is likely that the wary grouse will be found in 
greater numbers than the present visible supply would 
indicate. 
The woodcock supply is about an average one, tak- 
ing the past few years as a basis for comparison, which 
means, of course, that a few long-bills may be had for 
the seeking. And how delightful the quest after all ! 
There is really nothing in the whole line of sportsman- 
ship quite so enticing as an October day abroad a likely 
woodcock ground with the big robust fellows bouncing 
up over the line of vision to stir the blood and test the 
accuracy of one's aim. 
The quail crop is about normal, but the birds in many 
sections — in fact, in most sections — of the State are 
small and immature, and will require some time in which 
to grow to full size. In view of which sportsmen may 
-well forego pursuit of these confiding little chaps. 
The raijbit season, which opens November i, promises 
an enormous stock of "bunnies" in all parts of northern 
Pennsylvania. 
From Cayuga Lake a friend advices that the last cold 
weather brought down an unusually large flight of wild 
ducks of all varieties, and the shooting at the northern 
end of the lake, and over the Montezuma marsh, during 
that time was particularly good. M. Chill. 
Long: Island Robin Potters* 
New York, Oct. 23. — Editor Forest and Stream: Is 
there any game protector for Long Island City, Wood- 
side, Corona, and North Beach? I ask you this for this 
reason : Last Sunday on the 10 o'clock boat for Astoria 
were four Italians with guns. I thought at first they 
had a shooting match in some park, but in my \valk 
through the above mentioned towns I found at least eight 
gunners shooting robins, and anything with feathers. 
One could hear the report of shotguns in every direction 
all day. Seven of the men I saw were Italians. Is there 
no way of stopping this? As there was a strong wind 
the poor birds would only fiy a hundred yards or so and 
light on another tree, so I guess the Italians found very 
good shooting. G. E. J. 
New Hampshire Game. 
Derry, N, H., Oct. 20. — Editor Forest and Stream' 
Still the report is that ruffed grouse are very scarce. 
Woodcock have been coming some our way. One man 
got twenty in three days. I saw three fresh 'coon skins 
in one of my neighbor's barns. J. W. B. 
— ♦ — 
All communications intended for Forest and Stream should 
always be addressed to the Forest and Stream Publishing Co., 
New York, and not to any individual connected with the paper. 
The Game Laws in Brief, 
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. 
Fish and Fishing. 
Angliag Contests in England and fa Canada. 
The Fen district of Stonea in Cambridgeshire, Eng- 
land, was last month the scene of a fishing contest held 
under the auspices of the Sheffield Anglers' Association, 
the members of which are stated to number 18,000. In the 
competition 970 anglers actually fished. Separated by in- 
tervals of a few yards only they covered a distance of six 
miles — three miles on each side of Stonea railway station. 
The total value of the prize list was £120, and the first 
prize (£10) was secured with a catch weighing 5 pounds 
T4?4 ounces. So that less than six pounds of coarse fish 
was the best basket made in the day's fishing by any of 
the 970 anglers participating in the contest. Surely the 
Waltonian qualities of patience and quietness are pos- 
sessed in a superlative degree by our English angling 
brethren, and often, very often, must their experience 
recall that of the poor Galileeans who toiled all night and 
caught nothing. But how distressing to dear old Juliana 
Berners, who endeavored to limit the circulation of her 
fishing book lest the sport of angling might become too 
much vulgarized if it fell into the hands of the common 
people, would have been this long row of nearly a 
thousand anglers crowded along six miles of water, and 
how enormously has the pastime become popularized in 
England since the good prioress wrote in her "Treatyse of 
Fysshynge wyth an angle :" "For whanne ye purpoos to 
goo on your difportes in fysshinge ye woU not defyre 
gretly many perfones wyth you, whiche myghte lette you 
of your game." " , « j ■ 
At least two Canadian newspapers have offered prizes 
this year for angling competitions, the awards to go to 
those producing evidence of having taken the heaviest 
fish of certain species during the open season of T903. 
While the offer of a prize for the largest fish is likely to 
work less injury than one for the biggest basket, as 
offered by the Sheffield Anglers' Association, I cannot 
avoid the temptation to go on record as opposed to 
angling competitions of all kinds in which size or quantity 
of fish captured are the determining factor. It would 
be different if the competition took some other form, 
fuch 49 ^ measure of success achieved improved 
methods of angling, in the use of finest tackle, in a more 
intimate knowledge of the fish life of lake and river^ in 
wresting from nature her innermost secrets, in a more 
profitable reading of the pages of her ever open book, in 
renewed health of mind and body and a higher apprecia- 
tion of the grandeur of this beautiful world and of the 
-outdoor life which it constantly offers us, and last, but 
not least, in the acquisition of a deeper sense of gratitude 
that these pleasures are within our reach, and that we 
have life and health and leisure to go a-fishing. What, 
in comparison with such joys as these, and with the rare 
delights of forest, lake and stream, can possibly be the 
assurance that we have caught a bigger fish or a larger 
number of them than our fellow anglers? 
Nevertheless it is uninteresting neither to the angler 
nor to the scientist to hear of new records in size of 
captured game fishes, and possiblj^ these newspaper prizes 
may cause the publicity of some which would not other- 
wise become very widely known. In my last letter to 
Forest and Stream mention was made of a trout which 
had turned the scales at nine pounds, and which had been 
captured in the Grand Lake Jacques Cartier. A news- 
paper in Montreal, which had offered a prize for the 
largest trout of the season caught in Canadian waters, 
has not only received satisfactory testimony of the tak- 
ing of two brook trout of Lake Jacques Cartier, weigh- 
ing respectively 9^ and 8^4 pounds, but has the mounted 
skins of the two monsters on exhibition in its office win- 
dows. There are some who claim that the larger of 
these fish is probably a record one, so far, at least, as 
Canadian waters are concerned, though there may be 
some successful American anglers who have something 
to say about almost or quite as large fish taken in the 
Batiscaii or other famous northern waters. 
Aa Interesting Legal Decision. 
The Superior Court of the Province of Quebec, sitting 
at Three Rivers, has recently given a decision of great 
interest to members of Canadian fish and game clubs. At 
the last annual general meeting of the St. Bernard Fish 
and Game Club, General W. W. Henry, U. S. Consul at 
Quebec, presided, in his capacity as president of the club. 
The attendance of members was not large, but General 
Henry and his friends had a majority of proxies, though 
they were in the minority of those present. The test of 
strength of the rival parties for the control of the club's 
affairs was made upon the election of treasurer. There 
were two candidates for election, James W. Brock and 
Charles W. Wilson. The friends of the former, who 
were in the minority at the meeting, but who held a 
majority of proxies, proceeded to elect their candidate, 
when the other side raised the point that the proxies 
should be set aside and only the votes of those present 
be counted, since there was no provision in the by-laws 
of the club for voting by proxy. General Henry declared 
that the proxies were perfectly legal in a club duly in- 
corporated under the laws of the Province of Quebec, 
and had a perfect right to consideration. The other side 
appealed from the decision, and when General Henry re- 
fused to entertain the appeal, the majority of those 
present declared the chair overruled, and instructed the 
scrutineers not to count the proxies. Wr. Wilson was 
thereupon declared elected Treasurer. Later, General 
Henry took a writ of quo warranto against Mr. Wilson, 
claiming that he had been illegally elected to the position 
which he had usurped, and requiring him to cease to 
occupy it or to fulfill its duties. The decision of the 
court is that the St. Bernard Fish and Game Club is a 
corporate body, legally constituted in virtue of the 
statutes of the Province of Quebec, and as such governed 
by the laws concerning joint stock companies, and that 
in virtue of these laws the voting for the election of 
directors may be by proxy. It is consequently declared 
that Mr. C, H. Wilson usurps, intrudes into, and unlaw- 
fully holds and exercises the office of treasurer of the 
club, and orders that he cease to so occupy and to exer- 
cise the said office. 
All the fish and game clubs in this Province are incor- 
porated under the same statutes as the St. Bernard, and 
the decision above reported may be therefore applicable 
to them ; but it is always advisable that the by-laws of the 
club should specifically state whether or not proxies are 
to be recognized, in order that no misunderstanding may 
occur on the point. Both time, money and good sport 
may be wasted by the lack of such an arrangement, and 
perhaps good fellowship and old friendships among 
sportsmen sorely tried or altogether severed. Fortunately 
for the St. Bernard Club, the members of the two con- 
tending parties are too good sportsmen to permit the 
holding of different views as to the management of the 
club's affairs to interfere with their old-time friendships. 
But club memberships are not always so happily con- 
stituted. 
leaak 'Walton and his [Friends, 
There are good and sufficient reasons, as every angler 
knows, as well as many who are not anglers, for the cult 
of the gentle Izaak. The reverence paid him is so great 
that scarcely a year now passes that does not witness a 
new edition of his "Compleat Angler," and many of his 
contemporaries have been made memorable simply be- 
cause they were counted among his friends. I am re- 
minded of this latter fact by the recent issue of a new 
work in England, entitled, "Isaak Walton and His 
Friends." In a sense, of course, all anglers and all book- 
men are Walton's friends. But the friends of whom Mr. 
Stapleton Martin writes in the book_ in question are 
chiefly those of Walton's personal acquaintances whom he 
honored with his friendship, and who, according to one 
of the number, Charles Cotton, must have been an ex- 
emplary lot, "for my father Walton," he says, "will be 
seen twice in no man's company he does not like, and 
likes none but such as he believes to be very honest men." 
One of Walton's friends, whose biographer he became, 
was Dr. Sanderson, Bishop of Lincoln, and in turning 
over the pa.ges of a Boston book dealer's catalogue the 
other day, I found the entry descriptive of quite an 
unique copy of this biography, an entry which, for the 
moment, made me envious of those who possess the means 
of gratifying their love of books and of Walton. This 
copy, for which the sum of $100 was asked, and no doubt 
promptly paid, was one of the original edition of 1678, 
bound in sheepskin, measuring 4J4 by 7 inches, containing 
276 pages and a portrait engraved by R. White. It was a 
presentation copy from the author, as noted in the hand- 
writing of the recipient — the Bishop of Salisbury — "Seth 
Sarum, Donum Authoris June 20:78." What makes the 
book invaluable to the Waltonian is the fact that it con- 
tains a number of corrections in the text, in the hand of 
the author, made with the pen of which Wordsworth so 
well says that 
"the feather whence the pen 
Was shaped that traced the lives of these good men, 
Dropt from an angel's wing." 
E. T. D. Chambers. 
The Alaska Salmon Fisheries. 
The special commissioners sent out by Hon. Geo. M. 
Bowers, Commissioner of Fish and Fisheries, to make 
a study of the salmon fisheries of Alaska, have returned 
to Washington, after an absence of nearly four months. 
The commission consisted of President David Starr Jor- 
dan, of Stanford University; Dr. Barton Warren Ever- 
mann, assistant in charge Division of Scientific Inquiry 
of the U. S. Bureau of Fisheries ; Mr. J. Nelson Wisner, 
field superintendent U. S. fishcultural stations ; Mr. 
Cloudsley Rutter, naturalist, Str. Albatross ; Mr. A. B. 
Alexander, assistant in charge Division of Statistics and 
Methods of the U. S. Bureau of Fisheries, and Lieut. 
Franklin Swift, U. S. N., commanding the Albatross. 
The following assistants to the commission accom- 
panied the expedition : Dr. Harold Heath, Dr. Chas. H. 
Gilbert, Mr. M. H. Spaulding and Mr. Harold Jordan, 
of Stanford University; Mr. F. M. Chamberlain, Mr. L. 
E. Goldsborough and Mr. H. C. Fassett, of the U. S. 
Bureau of Fisheries, and Mr. A. H. Baldwin, the well- 
known fish artist. 
The principal object of the investigations was to make 
a careful study of the salmon fisheries of Alaska for the 
purpose of determining what regulations are necessary 
for their preservation. 
The steamer Albatross, which was assigned to the 
work, sailed from Seattle for Alaska June_ 18. Visits 
were made to all the salmon canneries, salteries and fish- 
ing grounds in Alaska from the southern boundary to 
Chignik Bay, Alaska Peninsula. A special visit was 
made to the Government reservation on Afognak_ Island, 
where a salmon hatchery may be established. A visit was 
also made to Sand Point and Pirate Cove in the Shu- 
magin Islands, where the needs of the cod fisheries were 
considered. The Alaska cod is very closely related to 
the Atlantic species, and the fisheries about the Shumagin 
Islands and in Bering Sea are of considerable and in- 
creasing importance. But to preserve them, artificial 
propagation will have to be resorted to. 
The Alaska salmon fisheries are in fairly satisfactory 
condition, but cannot long so remain under existing con- 
ditions. 
Most of the regulations governing the fisheries are 
observed, but some of them are v/hoUy impracticable and 
cannot be enforced. This is particularly true of the one 
requiring the canning companies to maintain hatcheries. 
The artificial hatching of salmon is the solution of the 
whole question, but it will have to be done by the U. S. 
Bureau of Fisheries and on a very large scale. 
There are five species of salmon in Alaska, namely, the 
king or chinook, the red or sockeye, the coho or silver, the 
humpback and the dog. The largest and best of these is 
the king salmon, which reaches a maximum weight of 
90 pounds. It is, however, the least abundant salmon in 
Alaska. It is found in numbers only in the larger rivers, 
such as the Yukon, Nushagak, Alsek, and Taku. In 
southeast Alaska it is not at all common. 
The most valuable salmon in Alaska is the redfish or 
red salmon. This is exactly the same fish that is called 
sockeye on the Eraser River and Puget Sound, and blue- 
back salmon on the Columbia. It attains a maximum 
weight of 7 to 10 pounds. Its habits are peculiar in that 
it is not known to enter any .stream which has not a lake 
somewhere in its course. It is abundant throughout 
southeast Alaska, about Afognak and Kadiak islands, the 
Alaska Peninsula, and especially in Bristol Bay. It is the 
most sought after of all the salmon. Its flesh is a rich 
salmon color, and makes a more attractive appearance 
when put in the can than any other species. 
The next most desirable species is the silver salmon 
or coho, which is fairly abundant in southeast Alaska and 
south to southern Oregon. It attains a weight of 12 
pounds, and is a good food fish. Its flesh, however, is 
not so red as that of the king or the red salmon. This 
species runs later than the other salmon. Perhaps the 
most abundant salmon in Alaska is the humpback, the 
smallest species of any, reaching a weight of 3 to 7 
pounds, running a little later than the red salmon, and 
then literally swarming in all the streams however small. 
When sea-run the humpback is a trim looking fish, but 
at spawning time it develops an enormous hump_ on the 
back, its jaws become greatly distorted, and, withal, it 
presents a very unattractive appearance. The sea-run 
humpback, as a fresh fish, is delicious, being excelled, if 
at all, only by the king. Humpback bellies are a great 
delicacy, and great quantities are now salted every year. 
Of all the Pacific Coast salmon the humpback is the one 
most desirable for introduction on our New England 
coast. As a fresh fish it would soon be in great demand 
in the markets of Boston, New York and other large 
Eastern cities. As a canned fish it is inferior to the 
king, red and coho. The dog salmon, the remaining 
species, is the least valuable of any, albeit, when sea- 
run, it is a beautiful fish, not a whit less attractive than 
the king. But even then its flesh is spongy and pasty; 
and as the spawning season approaches, the dog salmon 
becomes repulsive in appearance. His jaws become 
hooked, great fang-like teeth appear, the body becomes 
blotched and splotched with dark and dirty red, and the 
flesh becomes unpalatable. Until recently this species 
was not canned at all, and even now it is not extensively 
used. As a salted fish it is held in high esteem by the 
Japanese, and a market is developing in Japan for our 
salted dog salmon. 
In Alaska the trade names under which the different 
species of salmon are canned are as follows : The king 
is labeled "King Salmon," or "Spring Salmon;" the red- 
^sb is called "Red Salmon," "Red Alaska Salmon," qt 
