810 
the list of officers prepared by the nominating committee 
for the ensuing year. The election will be held at the 
next meeting on January 13. 
Commissioner Wentworth, of New Hampshire, says he 
thinks the number of deer killed in that State is about the 
same as last year. The sum received for licenses is about 
$1,200, which will be turned over to the detective fund. 
The summing up of shipments of game from Bangor 
at the close of the hunting season shows 4,602 deer and 
208 moose, as against 5,250 deer and i8g moose in 1902. 
Speaking for Washington county. Warden G. W. Ross 
says the season has been marked by "an abundance of 
game and comparatively few hunters." Some sportsmen 
returning from Aroostook county report seeing one herd 
of eight caribou and another of seven. This may indicate 
those animals are returning to Maine. Central. 
The Ctivlet CIttb. 
In a New Year address to the members of the 
Cuvicr Club, President Alex. Starbuck writes: Our 
membership is fast increasing in numbers, and as our 
organization becomes larger we hope to make our in- 
fluence bear strongly toward the enforcement of our 
game laws. 
As parents, we restrain our boys from either killing 
the birds or destroying their nests. We must inculcate 
within our daughters' minds a distaste for that adorn- 
ment which has cost the lives of hundreds of birds. 
By advocating these measures we will sow the seed of 
humane feeling that will broaden and deepen through- 
out life and eventually make an impress upon public 
as well as upon individual character. 
Laws are made in the interest of mortality, honesty 
and justice. These are enforced by the vigilance of our 
officials in public life, but let each member of the Cuvier 
Club consider himself an active official in supporting the 
laws which regulate the preservation of our game. It 
is a question of such vital importance that, to ignore 
it, would be criminal, and, moreover, denote degeneracy 
in the instincts of a true sportsman and a good citizen, 
As an educational influence our museum will always 
be a medium for the benefit of the public or private 
schools, whose pupils can here behold the beautiful 
plumage and imagine the sweet strains these denizens 
of the woods can utter. The artistic work of Professor 
Dury has filled our cabinets with an endless and at- 
tractive variety from all parts of the world, which can- 
not fail to be an instructive object lesson to the re- 
ceptive minds of the young, to impress them deeply as 
to the sinfulness of destroying even one member of 
nature's tuneful choir. 
The past year has been a prosperous one. Many new 
members have been added, to whom we extend the hand 
of fellowship and welcome, for each new member will 
give us increased strength and power in advancing the 
ends we have in view. 
Ffom Cttrtitttcfc. 
- Currituck, N. C. — Our shooting up to a week ago has 
been generally good. . We have killed more canvasbacks 
here this fall so far than we have killed before in twenty 
years at the same season, and we expect good shooting 
through the winter, as we still have an abundance of game 
in the Sound. We have had some fine mallard shooting, 
like that we had three years ago, and in fact a large 
quantity of marsh ducks along, with the canvasbacks. 
Swans and Canada geese have been unusually abundant, 
and some nice bags have been made; the writer made 
a bag of 36 canvasbacks within half a mile of his front 
door a. few days ago, and at this moment they are to be 
seen in great numbers. 
■The clubs have had very good shooting so far and I 
think will continue to have. Our game wardens are 
vigilant, and while there have been very few arrests and 
convictions, it is because there is a general disposition 
among the gunners for market to keep the Jaw. The 
'sunrise law has been well kept, and there has been .very 
little night shooting. -There has been some kicking about 
the non-resident tax of $10, which, personally we think, is 
a good thing, if the laws are to. be well kept, asirom this 
sourcie the garne- wardens, receive their pay. .„.... : 
. • - ■ More Anon. . 
All conunijnications for Forest and Stream rwiait 
be directed to FQrest and Stream Pub. Co., New 
^gr^ to reeejvf^ttentipn.-- We have jno other e£gqe. 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
In R hode]^ Island. "^^^^ 
Westerly, R. I., Dec. 11.— -Editor Forest and Stream: 
I have shot more woodcock this fall than I have ever 
shot before; in fact, this has been the best shooting for 
that bird in this vicinity that I have seen in ten years. It 
has been a common thing to start them right out in the 
oi}en. Grouse have been seen in good numbers, but very 
wild; still there have been a great many killed. Quail 
have been very scarce; but I know myself personally 
where there have been several bevies this past spring. I 
don't know what became of them : could not see them 
this fall. It must have been the heavy rains in June that 
had some effect on them. In all we have had a good 
season on most everj^thing except quail. We also have 
quite a few pot-hunters who won't let anything live that 
comes within gunshot; but they are mostly Italians; 
some have been caught and given the full extent of the 
law, thanks to our game warden, who seems to be active 
this season. A Reader. 
Governor Aycocfc at Cttrritticfc* 
Our Governor spent a few days at Currituck this wfeek, 
and while he does not profess to be an ardent sportsman, 
he is sufficiently fond of it to be a member of the Audu- 
bon .Society, and during a very pleasant chat of an hour 
with him we found him alive to all interests pertaining to 
the protection of game in North Carolina. He has a 
charming personality, and is much loved by the people of 
North Carolina. He is a magnificent specimen of hu- 
manity, and it is said by the Swan Island people who 
entertained him that he is by no means an indifferent 
shot. The people of Currituck anticipate much good 
from his visit to us, and the latch string hangs out to 
him at all times. More Anon. 
mid ^w^r f^isJfing. 
— • — 
All communications intended for F<}rest and Stbeau should 
always be addressed to the Forest and Stream Publishing Co., 
New Y<rk, and not to any individual connected with the paper. 
The Game Laws ia 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. 
How to Boil a Fish. 
Editor Forest and Stream: 
My note on cooking ducks in last week's Forest and 
Stream has brought letters from two old acquaintances. 
One asks, "Do you mean to say that the water in 
which a fish has been boiled is the only proper sauce?" 
The other says, "Tell us more in detail about cooking 
ducks and fish." 
There's no use in trying to go into detail about these 
things. Two women will read a mathematical receipt, 
and they proceed to put in "about so much" of every- 
thing. The product of one will make a man leave his 
happy home for her, and the product of the other will 
make a man leave his happy home on account of her, 
and both women working from the same receipt. 
If two yachts are built upon the same model, one 
will regularly outsail the other, and beat her on all 
points, year in and year out. I will try, though, to tell 
how to boil a fish. In the first place, buy the sort of 
fish that is being caught right then arui there; never 
mind what kind. The man who goes out and buys blue- 
fish in January, or pompano in Boston, is a man who 
will buy the kinds of cigars that are advertised on bill 
boards, and who thinks that all this world is a vale of 
tears. The woman who does the same thing is the one 
who bets on a horse because it has a pretty name. 
Cold storage has made our time the flavorless age. 
Game and fish are put where they will keep until you 
cannot tell a partridge from a shad with your eyes 
closed. Apples are picked before they are ripe, put 
where the chemistry of ripening cannot occur, and then 
put on the market at a time when their cost is highest 
and vklue lowest. Cream is thrown out of milk with 
a separator before bacteria have liberated the . delicious 
ethetj-and is kept at a temperaiure that prevents anyone 
from- getting anything good out 9^ \t, excepting the 
dealer; who packets 3 profit ' _ ..- i 
([Dec. 2(5, 1903. 
But to return to the fish. Buy one that was not 
caught a single day too soon. Put handcuffs on the 
cook, and fasten her securely at some place where her 
squeals and kicks will not disturb other people. Take 
the cook book and turn to the recipes for boiling fish, 
tear out these leaves and start the fire with them. 
Pause, if you will, to read something like this: "Add 
^ cup vinegar, i small carrot, 2 onions, i bay leaf, 12 
peppers, i bunch parsley." Great Scott! A fish that is 
in that stuff is in the soup for sure. Why add the fish 
at all? If it is a cold storage fish it will not hurt the 
flavor of the soup, but it fills the pot too full. 
Having started the fire, put on the pot, and water 
enough. Put into the water a lot of salt pork cut into 
small pieces, and boil for an hour and a half. The 
object of this procedure is to fill the water so full of 
fat in mechanical mixture that the fine, delicate volatile 
flavoring matter of the fish will not be abstracted by 
the water, and dissipated with the steam. Cut the fish 
into pieces weighing about one pound each, and wrap 
each piece in cheese cloth or mosquito netting. The 
object in cutting up the fish is to have it cook evenly 
and not have one part spoiling vvhile another part is 
getting ready to be good. The object of the cloth cov- 
ering is to keep the flakes together and to allow neat 
skimming as the pot boils. 
Put in enough pepper and salt at the end of about 
twenty minutes. Boil twenty or thirty minutes longer. 
Take out the fish. Take off the covering. Put on a 
little more pepper and salt. Put one piece on each 
platter, and pour over each piece a whole lot of the 
wate!?'in which the fish has been boiled, remembering 
that fish naturally swim. 
Now the very nicest point in this recipe is one 
that cannot be written. The cook must accurately 
judge in advance about the amount of water that will 
boil down to exactly the right thickness at the moment 
when the fish is to be served. 
Robert T. Morris. 
58 West Fiftv-Sixth Street, N. Y., Dec. 16. 
Notes on Forest and Stream Items. 
BY EDWARD A. SAMUELS. 
Almost every number of Forest and Stream eon- 
tains matter that would furnish an inspiration and treat 
for more than one instructive volume. I have been 
greatly interested in the discussion on the "Red Gods," 
and once or twice wanted to add my quota to the opinions 
expressed. The sharp click of the iron-tipped pole that 
the canoeman uses in impelling his buoyant craft up or 
down the Canadian streams whose roclcy bed would fur- 
nish a slippery and uncertain hold to the soft end of a 
pole not thus guarded, is a familiar sound to every sal- 
mon fisherman, but I refrained on account of the space 
that had already been occupied in the discussion, but there 
are general items in recent issues of the paper upon 
which I will make a few comments. 
The Growth of Trout. 
The article by Dr. Henshall .printed in the December 
12 issue is very interesting to me, and will prove valuable 
for future reference to those who are interested in such 
matters. 
It was once said by Prof. Agassiz that it would require 
at least a score of years to build up such leviathians as 
the ten-pound Rangeley lake trout; he may have been 
right, probably was, but in my opinion the rapid growth 
of fishes depends very much upon the amount of food that 
is accessible to them. 
There is a great abundance of food in the Rangeleys, 
an abundance more lavish than I have ever seen in any 
other waters ; shoals of minnows many rods in length and 
containing thousands upon thousands of the little fish 
are often to be seen, and if a trout will take the trouble 
to open his mouth he could gorge himself without any 
ether effort. The abundance of these minnows easily ac- 
counts for the rapid growth of the landlocked salmon 
that have been placed in those waters, which have already 
attained a weight of ten or a dozen pounds. _ Many years 
jjgo the progenitors of these fish in their native waters in 
which there was a continued scarcity of food rarely ex- 
ceeded a pound and a half in weight, as I stated in mv 
article in the issue for December 20, and elsewhere where 
similaf conditions obtain the result has . always been the 
sfime. 
Undoubtedly fishculturists, or rather those who breed 
trout for the market, can furnish pretty correct data con- 
cerning the growth of these; but those fish are in cap- 
tivity, and are gorged to repletion with chopped "plucks," 
or other cheap meat, and are not obliged to "hustle" for a 
living as wild trout are compelled to. I have no doubt 
that trout thus "stall-fed" will increase in size and weight 
veiT much more rapidly than will the others. 
Dr. Henshall's figures are of particular value, for they 
relate to trout in their natural conditions. To show how 
trout increase in size if furnished with the proper environ- 
ment and abundance of food, I will cite a single incident 
which came under my own observation. 
In a field on my father's farm in Massachusetts there 
was a large spring; it had in bygone years been dug out 
to the depth of about six feet, and was about eight feet 
square. The sides had been loosely boarded up and the 
bottom consisted of sand and gravel. Its water was 
magnificent, almost ice cold at all seasons of the year, 
and as clear as crystal. A pipe had been laid from this 
spring to my father's house, and that oi one of our 
neighbors, and an abtmdant supply of this most delicious 
water was always available. We were often much an- 
noyed by the number of worms, spiders, grasshoppers, 
crickets, etc., that fell or jumped into the spring, and to 
do away with this nuisance I caught in a brook near-by, 
in which there were a few trout, none of which were ever 
known to exceed four or five inches in length, a single 
specimen, which was hardly more than a fingerlmg, and 
placing it in a pail of water hurried with it to the spring, 
into which he .was dropped. He at once became recon- 
ciled to his new home, and in consequence of the 
abundance of food found therein quickly began to increase 
in size. Before he had been in the spring three months 
h^ -hecame so familiar that be wQuld-4fift up to the suf« 
