Dec. 9, 1905.] 
FOREST AND STREAM 
477 
t 
ti 
of business that will be placed before the congress. 
If any of your acquaintances, interested in fish and 
game matters, wish to attend the convention, I shall be 
glad to have their names and addresses in order that they 
jnay be notified how to take advantage of the specially 
reduced rates that the railway companies are offering for 
this occasion. 
Awaiting the pleasure of your reply, I have the honor 
to subscribe myself. Yours very truly, 
Jean Prevost, 
Minister of Colonization, Mines and Fisheries of the 
Province of Quebec. 
Mr. Charles Stewart Davison, of this city, who is 
familiar with the salmon situation, has sent tO’ the Min- 
ister the following communication : 
New York, Nov. 29. — Hon. Minister of Colonization, 
Mines and Fisheries of the Province of Quebec : Sir — I 
acknowledge the receipt of your invitation to attend the 
Congress of Fish and Game at Montreal on Dec. 13 and 
14, and will endeavor to be present. 
Answering your request for suggestions to be made to 
the Congress and appreciating the necessity for brevity 
and clearness and of the elimination of immaterial mat- 
ters, I urge upon your attention the primary importance 
of an increase by one-half inch in length when pulled out 
of the mesh of salmon nets ; with the result of allowing 
.the passage of females large enough to spawn. All 
females should be allowed a free entrance to the rivers 
on their first return as salmon from the sea. A female 
that has reached the spawning age is too large to get 
through the nets of the present size of mesh. An extra 
half inch would allow the passage of many females who 
have that year reached sexual maturity. Not to allow 
the females tO' spawn once freely is the most serious 
•detriment to the increase of the salmon. To allow it on 
the other hand will result in the steady increase of the 
'fish taken in the nets, both in number and in average size. 
Those who oppose are the selfish ones, who for a pres- 
ent small gain exhaust the available supply of a natural 
commodity; who willfully strip a locality of its natural 
resources and then bemoaning their hard lot seek gov- 
ernment aid. You will find the short-sighted “netters” 
demanding an even smaller mesh on the ground that the 
supply is diminished and they must have a smaller mesh 
or else make less from their nets; when it is their own 
rapacity which has produced th'" conditions of which they 
complain. Respectfully, 
Charles Stewart Davison. 
The Experiences of a Psychological Piofesior 
at a Maine Coast Resort. 
Written by T. H. Tibbies for the Springfield Republican. 
Prof. FIatfield taught psychology in the university. 
He had had a long year of it, and the last week before 
leaving the city had been very hot and depressing. He 
was determined to get as nearly as possible away from 
all mankind and recuperate. He found a fishing village 
on the coast of Maine, and secured board in the family 
of a well-to-do fisherman. The next day after his arri- 
val he started out to take a walk. He climbed the hill 
through the spruce trees for a time, but finding the foli- 
age so dense that he could see nothing two rods distant,, 
he turned his steps toward the sea. d'here was a long 
fioint of land covered with grass. Behind were the 
spruce trees and the shore — a mass of jagged rocks. 
He stood for a long time looking out on the water, and 
then turned around, intending tO' go back to his lodging- 
place. At his right and half way to the spruce trees 
there was a little girl picking strawberries. The pro- 
fessor had just stepped off the rocks on the soft green 
turf when he saw a herd of cows coming out of the 
woods. At the head of the herd was a black bull. The = 
professor hastened back upon the jagged rocks. The 
bull came on, holding his head high, followed closely by 
the cows. The professor got further out on the rocks 
and the bull stopped and gazed at him with flarning eyes. 
Once in a while the bull would advance a little, still 
keeping his “flaming eyes” fixed on the professor. ^ Half 
an hour passed and the bull still stood there gazing at 
him, while the cows were grazing around to the rear. 
The situation was getting painful. Dusk was approach- 
ing and the professor looked in vain for a way of es- 
cape. All of his attention was placed upon that bull, and 
he did not see the little girl who had been, picking straw- 
berries approaching, until she was at the side of the bull. 
He thought of risking all and rushing to the deliver- 
ance of the child, when the little girl put her arm over 
the bull’s neck and pushed him around. Then she picked 
up a little stick and drove the bull before her toward a 
house at the other end of the little pasture. When she 
saw the professor come off the rocks and start toward 
home, she stopped driving the cattle and began picking 
strawberries again, and one of the great tragedies of 
vacation time ended. 
Food for Squirrels. 
A corresi>ondent of the New York Evening Post 
writes of the Central Park squirrels : An examination of 
several of them recently has convinced me that an appeal 
is necessary tO' those who feed them, to choose rather 
liickory, pecan and hazelnuts than the chestnuts and pea- 
nuts upon which they are usually fed. The teeth of the 
squirrel grow very rapidly and they need hard nuts upon 
■which to exercise their gifts. In some cases the teeth 
have grown so that the little fellows are likely to actually 
die of starvation, ' unless they are promptly helped. 
Moreover, the fur of many of them shows that they are 
not getting sufficient salt^-a little meat, .a chicken bone, 
or a little salt with the nuts will save many of them 
from the loss of fur, which is all too apparent in a good 
many cases, and will furthermore protect the birds’ eggs, 
to which otherwise, in their hunger for salt, they will 
instinctive]}' turn. 
The Tale of the Tub. 
BY THE DECKHAND. 
Captain, son of the Old Man; Cook, the Captain’s 
aunt; Mate, the Captain’s mother; Deckhand, the Old 
Man. Guests, etc., etc. 
She is 48X II xyx I, which, being interpreted, means 
length, 48ft.; breadth, lift.; height, 7ft., and draft ift. ; 
and we call her the Tub, for she is much the same 
shape as a bath tub, with about the same means of 
propulsion — goes where she is towed and stays put. 
The house is 40ft. long, and gives as much cabin space 
■ as a schooner yacht looft. over all. She is not a beauty, 
. but very safe, and we had lots of fun. The picture 
show’s the tub moored in a sheltered cove and every- 
thing lovely; the Cook was then lying off in an easy 
chair on the upper deck; the First Mate was just going 
' marketing (you can see her head above deck on the far 
side) ; the Deckhand w'as lying around loose, and the 
. Captain was off in the small boat taking the picture. 
We started in August from Canaioharie, on the Erie 
Canal, some .sixty miles west of Albany. Our crew 
then was the Captain and his chum Sam, the boat 
builder from w'hom w'e bought the Tub, who volunteered 
to see us fairly started, and yours obediently. The in- 
terior fittings of the boat were barely finished, and 
there was much to be done; but that was part of the 
pastime and fun of the trip. We hired Abe and his 
horse and open express wagon to tow' us to Albany. 
. The reader may think the wagon was a useless addition 
. to the outfit; but it proved to be an excellent device to 
• relieve the horse of the direct pull of the tow line, and 
being of good height, served also to keep the rope off 
-the tow path most of the time. 
Our first day’s trip was delightful, but uneventful. 
We. halted for the night in the roomy barge basin .at 
the canal bridge at Amsterdam, and there the boat 
builder left us, and the Mate and Cook joined us, both 
in petticoats and fresh from Gotham. The next morn- 
ing we bought an ice box, a blue flame oil stove, such 
kitchen utensils, etc., as we had failed to bring from 
home, and a plentiful supply of grub and started at 
midday on the second day of our cruise, which was 
showery, but otherwise enjoyable, for we could always 
hunt cover from the wet, and the women soon made 
themselves felt, putting things to rights and tittivating 
the interior generally with window curtains, . Chinese 
fans and all the fakements women so well handle; and 
tlien a kitchen is hardly a kitchen till you get a woman 
into it. We moored for the night in the outskirts of 
■ Schenectady, foolishly rejecting the advice of aHriendly 
fisherman, who urged us to go a mile or two' further, 
where we would find an excellent inn right alongside 
the canal, where we could get ice and other supplies, 
and meals if we wanted any. A fisherman rnyself, I 
ought to have trusted that man. We found the haven 
the next day, and had a good breakfast there. If is two 
or three miles east of Schenectady and just at the bend 
where the canal turns sharp to the left to cross on a 
bridge or aqueduct to the north side of the Mohawk 
River. All that forenoon was delightful. The river on 
our right and below our level, brawling along over its 
shallow bed, with here and there a fishy looking pool 
and an occasional island. Now and then parties of 
children, playing on the far shore, returned our hail, 
and above and beyond rose the steep wooded banks 
from which cottage or camp peeped out. On 'our left 
the rocky bluff was cut away to make our artificial water- 
way, and showing plainly the strangest and most inter- 
pstihg geologic formations. ■ 
Occasionally, when passing through a lock,, one of us 
would jump ashore and keep Abe and his horse com- 
pany, for our driver was a veteran of the Rebellion and 
a fisherman; so we never lacked yarns when in his 
company. Late that Saturday evening we reached 
Albany and moored in the canal well in the outskirts 
to have a quiet Sunday'. 
Monday morning early Sam and the narrator hitched 
on to the tow line, mule-fashion, and towed that boat 
right into the town, and there we tied up in the canal 
basin to fit out. We bought anchors, boat-hooks, ropes 
and such hardware and lumber as we saw we would 
need. We already had a full kit of tools on' board, and 
mosquito screens or netting for the ten windows and 
two doors to protect us again flies by day rather than 
the pestilence which flyeth by night. Work on the 
boat and outdoor life gave us splendid twists. Don’t 
know what a twist is? Never read the inscription over 
the entrance to the old Bull and Mouth Hotel in London? 
“Milo of Cretonia an ox slew with his fist, 
Then ate him up at one meal — 
Ye Gods, what a glorious twist.” 
Tuesday morning we started early in tow of the good 
boat Pioneer, a small steam canal boat, just suited to 
our purpose and destination, Catskill; but it was a 
mean trip — a stiff wind and a cold, driving rain right 
in our teeth and the tide against us. Our towing boat 
and our boat had light draft, high freeboard — bad for 
such weather — and we were all glad enough to drop 
anchor in the quiet waters of Catskill Creek. There 
we lay for a week, fitting out and enjoying ourselves 
generally, working a little and loafing a little, and then 
repeat; shut up house one day and took the steam cars 
to the mountains, which all enjoyed immensely. At a 
boat house we found an old catboat mast about 20ft. 
long, which we bought and stepped forward quite skill- 
fully, as shown in the picture, and in such a manner that 
it can be unstepped and stowed fiat in a few minutes; 
but we had no sail, and had still to trust to towing. 
Our living was of the simplest kind, vegetables and fruit 
being the chief items. Ice we often got free from the 
refuse of the ice houses, and close by was a splendid 
orchard; but the owner was away and we therefore 
could not pay him for his fruit, and so — well we got 
the apples, but we only took the windfalls. 
At Catskill we lost the Captain and Sam, both being 
compelled to return to New York for business. 
Telephoning to Albany, to the office of the towboat 
line, they promised that the next tow going down 
should pick us up. We dropped down to the mouth of the 
creek and lay there all night, hourly expecting the tow ; 
■ but it did not come till daylight, and then the helper, or 
smaller tug of the tow, picked us up and hitched us along- 
side the big tow, and we had a great day’s experience. We 
hobnobbed with the bargees (Thames parlance for barge 
men) and replenished our larder from a bumboat, which, 
seemingly coming from nowhere, attached itself to the 
fleet, beginning with the three towboats at the head and. 
gradually dropping back, boat by boat (they were four 
abreast), till she had actually compassed about the sixty 
barges or more which formed the tow. She was a 
squatty little propeller, loaded to the gunwales with 
supplies, peddling for cash such delicacies as milk and 
newspapers, tomatoes and ice cream, potatoes and cab- 
bages, pies and cookies, eggs, etc., etc. The pilot of the 
bumboat declared that everything came fresh from 
Larry’s farm on Hudson’s banks thereabouts, and that 
he was Larry. I think he spoke the trutliY-he looked it, 
and was a bright, enterprising fellow.'? I forget the 
nam? of his boat, but it ought to be Multum in Parvq, 
And so we were towed all the lazy summer day, see- 
ing the Hudson as one ought to see it, the ladies knit- 
ting or reading or feeding the animals, and all hands 
delighting in the beautiful wooded shores and noting 
for future use the pretty coves and sheltered nooks in 
which we hope to drop our mudhook in times to come 
when we make another trip and the Tub is equipped to 
propel herself from place to place. 
And so past Saugerties and Tivoli, Kingston and 
Rhinecliff, Hyde Pai'k and Poughkeepsie, till, after tow- 
ing for fourteen hours we reached New Hamburg in 
the dark and a typical Fludson River squall with driving 
rain. The tug dropped us at the dock, and we made 
fast for the night. In the morning we pulled the boat 
around into the cove, which, being open only to the 
south, is well sheltered from storm or passing steam- 
ers; and there we lay as happy as clams for a fortnight. 
Here we rigged up our awning, mended and amended 
and painted the tender, and fitted up the Tub generally, 
lumber, hardware and a good blacksmith being all 
handy. Having friends in New Hamburg was the 
reason of our long stay there, and the “boys and the 
gurls” made the visit very entertaining to us. Some- 
times when the Deckhand, the only male member left 
on board, was called to town (you know, N. Y. city has 
got a way of calling people), one or other of the boys 
slept on board, the ladies needed the protection, or 
thought they did; the lads thought it as good as Rob- 
inson Crusoe. Side trips to Wappinger’s Falls brought 
back the women folks loaded with goodies and ferns 
from the woods. These they deftly planted in straw- 
berry baskets filled with leaf and mold and smothered 
with moss, and the same thrived exceedingly for the 
balance , of the trip. 
The Captain visited us here, bringing his friend 
Harry, alias Legs. At their advent our girl friends of 
the village suddenly evinced a liking to take tea under 
our awning or in the cabin, or escorted the boys to the 
ball game on Saturday afternoon, where we all rooted 
vigorously for the village team, which walloped the 
boys from a neighboring town properly. 
But September was at hand and our trip must end 
soon. An all-night tow took us to Peekskill, where we 
arrived at sunup, and the helper tug from the tow 
could not put us within, a mile of where we wanted to 
go because of the shallow water in the big elbow, and 
so the Deckhand had to take the oars in the. small boat 
and tow the houseboat a mile to the railroad draw- 
bridge, which was duly opened for us, and we were 
safely moored in Peekskill Creek, a delightful spot for. 
a week’s loafing, The women paddled around in the 
small boat to their hearts’ content, gathered arms full 
of wild flowers and decked our dining table with all. 
The marshmallows were just in perfection, while 
branches of bittersweet, with its cheery yellow-red 
berry, kept company with the Jap fans on the walls. 
A week later, having brought a square sail from New 
York and duly mounted the same on yards, we hoisted 
it on our stumpy mast and set sail on our own hook 
and saved our towage. We had only five miles to go to 
Tompkin’s Cove, and we fust made it, tying up inside 
the breakwater and intending to winter at the ship- 
yard there. The walk over the hills back of the Cove 
is a delight, the views up and down the river are per- 
fect pictures, and the village itself a pleasure because 
of its picturesqueness and cleanliness. It is one of the 
dozens <.)f obscure and little known places on the river 
which need hunting for and are not appreciated till 
found. But then the Hudson must be seen in detail 
before ypu know and feel its real beauties. 
In a few days we packed up our duds in sundry bojce§ 
