FOREST AND STREAM. 
m 
rock on which our friends were perched, who called out to 
them to stop and partake of their hospitality, hoping at the 
ssme time, that the strangers’ boat might contain some- 
thing more substantial than eye-water. A thorough search 
being instituted, the whole cargo was found to consist of a 
bottle of pickles. They had to make the best of it, how- 
ever, and the night was spent in search of a soft spot to lie 
on. 
Huckleberries in their season are very plentiful, and are 
Plucked as large as cherries. The black bass fishing in the 
lake is first-class, especially at the mouths of Jack’s and 
Lei creeks. Trolliug is also good in all parts of the lake, 
maskalonge and land-locked salmon, taking the troll 
freely. The latter fish afford magnificent sport for the 
angler (with live minnow for bail) early in May, at Purleigh 
Falls; they are seldom caught weighing less than seven 
pounds, and have beeu taken over thirty pounds in weight, 
and in point of flavor, I never tasted their equal. Summer 
duck shooting begins on the 15th of August, and remains 
good for four or five weeks, when the Fall flight com- 
mences. Wild rice and celery grow in great abundance in 
all of these waters, which are visited by millions of the duck 
tribe, until the cold weather closes the waters, compelling 
them to seek a mote congenial clime. Deer hunting, or, 
rather, the open season begins 1st of September, Stoney 
Lake, Lovesick Lake and Deer Bay, (all contiguous,) being 
favorite resorts for the deer hunter, as they are all easy of 
access, and deer are plentiful. Surely the sportsman 
should be satisfied in the heart of such a game region as 
tin's. 
The Mount Jnlieu Hotel, erected Iasi year on the very 
shore of Stoney Lake for the especial comfort of tourists 
nnd sportsmen, has accommodation for sixty guests, with 
every luxury that could reasonably be looked for in the 
back woods of Canada. In fact, the house will be kept 
only in first-class style, and persons desiring to take their 
families for a few weeks vacation, will find every induce- 
ment for their harmless enjoyment. The proprietors are 
determined to see that the wants of every guest, male or 
female, man, woman or child, are supplied. Sailboats, 
rowboats and canoes are always at band. Guides, if nec- 
cessary, can be procured, aud dogs in the deer hunting 
season. Our Americau friends will probably find the 
cheapest and most direct route via Rochester. Take the 
6tcainer Norseman at Charlotte in the evening, get a com- 
fortable berth and a good night’s rest. You reach Port 
Hope in time for the morning train, of the Midland mil- 
way, purchase tickets for Lakefield, on Lake Katchewau- 
nook, where the steamer Chippewa is in waiting to convey 
you to Mount Julien; time from Charlotte about fourteen 
hours; total cost less than four dollars per head. I take 
upon myself the responsibility of adding that any further 
informal ion respecting Stoney Lake and vicinity will be 
cheerfully given on application to Messrs. R. C. Strickland 
& Co., North Donro, P. O., Canada. Bogging your in- 
dulgence, I am, most respectfully, C. A. P. 
Pelcrboro, April 12, 1875. 
[We are indebted to our correspondent for the informa- 
tion contained in his letter. —E d.] 
of beetles, then rolling over a decayed log to expose some 
nKt!?lv < t r * n , a ^ e ’ aDd 80 0U until 11 ,oc< ‘ u *y has beeu com! 
Sfilftv ov "* and y ot som o individuals doubt their 
found id lri i pp,n £'. When the proper places have been 
know w!i St ; le€ u <f fo I 8eUil * I**!", the next thing is tS 
knows what halt 1 the,u . w,th - Tho veteran collector 
10 use « experience lias faueht him 
this time Pat eyed me curiously, and seemed very much 
puzzled He evidently thought I was after a pig, and did 
not see the necessity for so much caution, nor anv sense in 
such mystery. He scorned anything like creeping on a foe 
in that surreptitious manner, aud would dash forward occa- 
sionally on his own account, probably with visions of a 
stray pig in his mind to be done for, but by grabbing him 
\zhz 1 ■ J UP J 1. .o 
narrow through the tules, and very soft on either side, and and so on with the “°- t0 cou,<m,s > 
I was thus enabled to keep him in tho rear; but now aud of prey until the n^ ,, of !U " ,,mls Mrds 
then he would bear something, or fancy he was being 1m- out * natural key to their existence Is studied 
posed upon anil defrauded of his right to be “in ff aud 
would make a dash to go over my head as I crept along in 
a stooping position, or else would make a plunge to go be- 
tween my legs; he nearly capsized me several times 
Finally, taking mjr gun in one hand and his collar in tho 
xpcrience has taught him 
The amateur has but to examine 
f.,) Vh ! n ^ ab0Ul lo Btftrl on a collecting trip for specimens or 
Inimni ludy groun, ‘ ov or carefully, uni think what 
Inrtl 0 r ,11 “ C#tWllh Ul localities you propose vis* 
V“ ““/J “J “* "W uuuu anu ms collar in the I Colorado FurV not / f U8 *, boul lo visit 
other I dragged him along, as 1 bad got too near tho game yet, in some n l? in t % fr< T that territory, 
to let him get loose, fearing he would spoil my shot. The hearing «,«im«iP . f..." 1 foot hills and mountains fur- 
collar was rather tight, and he would efSy^ovJ^d tHco I &a^g/ 8 TSuW°DOt wiS U fo the 0[»>‘iioloKlst and 
give a little cough, to prevent which I jammed his nose in mens Sero wo ilmU flirt ° “ be,tt,r , ? eld f ? r , rarc 8 P*Ci- 
the mud. Having reached within shooting distance I care- foxes wn i„! 0 W S , "* fl . ud oemrer, otter, mink, marten, 
fully parted the tules with my gun, and peepiug through, gophers mountain 1 ‘‘\ res ‘ P ra J rl ° ‘logs, 
saw a flock of several dozen splendid mallards, all within ForoS four N J \ Ve ta ? K0 *J° No - 8 ,r «P® 
a circle of ten feet clustered together beautifu ly for a rak- one doxen N? T \r° H cav , er ’ mx No 3 for 
ing shot. I crept a few steps further to a little “bog,” just tTaos fm mtS f ° r f< ? X08 ’ do *‘*« No. 3 
large enough to stand upon fairly, aud dragging Pat alter thtP wcak 8DrI?c H aJd M le ?A,52 d #A U0 .S° Zcn No \ v * ot 
me, stowed him away between ray feet, giving him two or take small amm.Ss with J vL 1 } ps for , th . L ' nnlura ' iat ,0 
three cuffs by way of warning. I rose gradually to iret a dcor - “atelopo, mountain 
good view through the tops of the tules. Raising my gun a rnnA hlaJlfcu W1 co ™° 1,1 f° r attention, but wo will use 
fo my shoulder, ! was reckoning on about six SSJSS, Clng tZl Vd f fo - r • 
when Pat, who had watched my proceedings with suspi- I hnifn i/JE ?.! “° t ,. be . ll l v ?, ini . .Occasionally 
cion, with Ins upturned red eyes, gave a little hark and a 
id, but one has to earn a bear 
ds of trap ovor tho mountains. 
FRED’S 
For Forest arul Stream. 
RETRIEVER. 
H 
APPENING up at Napa during the shooting season 
and observing that ducks and geese were abundant, 
I harrowed a gun and a pair of long boots for the purpose 
of making a raid early next morning, but I had no dog, 
and could not hear of a good one to be borrowed. On 
putting the question to my brother Fred, a matter-of-fact 
sort of a fellow, he answered, 
“Dog ! why, what do you want better than Pat?” 
“Pat I” said I, “who is Pa 
“Why, niy dog.” 
“Where (s lie ? 
house.” 
Pat?” 
Have not seen any dog around the 
‘Oh ! Pat is not a lap dog; he lives in an out-house of 
his own; goes it on independent principles. Come along, 
I will show you a dog ‘as is’ a dog; the best dog in Napa.” 
He took me out to a kennel. I saw no dog; but there 
was a whistle, aud “here you, Pat, come out aud show 
yourself I” 
“Out came Pat, the first end, as he crawled out yawning, 
displaying a pair of broad jaws, cropped ears, teeth visible, 
a thick, stubby, briudle body, followed lastly by an inch 
of tail, wagging with such energy as to slew him around 
from side to side. I looked at him, “that dog I call that 
bow-legged, villaiuous cur a sporting dog? He’s nothing 
but a bull, and the ugliest brute I ever saw. Call that a 
retriever? What the deuce do I want of a bull dog for re- 
tneving?” 
“Never mind,” said Fred, “don’t condemn Pat until you 
have tried him; lie is a splendid retriever, will bring any- 
thing from a chipping bird to a bullock. Oh, you will be 
pleased with Pat.” 
. 1 looked at Pat; his eyes were blear and red, his lower 
jaw projected, showing formidable teeth; his forelegs were 
an arch ; he had but little hair on his back, having a play- 
ful habit of scratching it on the upper end of his kennel as 
he went in and out; taking him all in all, he was the most 
unprepossessing animal I ever made friends with. Pat, 
evidently thinking lie had made an impression, proceeded 
to smile, lick his chops, writhe and twist himself into all 
sorts of shapes, like a boiled shrimp, wagging his brief nar- 
rative with great rapidity, unbalanced, as it was, by any 
outboard weight. I said, “Pat, truth and veracity being 
called into question, I am compelled to admit that you are 
not a handsome dog; and if you arc a retriever, you have 
gone a long way out of your regular business, and have 
mistaken your calling.” Pat, thinking to make a favorable 
impression, sneezed, rubbed ins nose against me, and made 
frantic efforts to reach my nose, at the same time playfully 
snapping his jaws together to indicate what he could do if 
called upon. “Well,” said I, “Pat, to-morrow morning 
we will try it, anyhow.” 
Break of day saw Pat at my heels as I followed a eow- 
patli through the grass along the bank of the creek, until I 
reached some little inland ponds, where I knew the ducks 
upu geese were to be found, and I now beard them, and so 
did Pat for he began to growl and bark. I hit him over 
the head with my gun, but he seemed hardly to notice the 
matter until 1 brought it down somewhat forcibly on the 
top of his skull, when he turned one blear eye up at me 
which said, enquiringly, “Do you mean me?” Cautiously I 
approached the pond, nearest to which there was a trail 
throughtlie tall tules, and heard the mallards frolicking 
about, creeping along noiselessly, preparing for a shot. All 
knew I was going upwards and then downwards, head fore 
most into the black mud and water, and did not stop until 
I was entirely under. I kicked and struggled until I got 
hold of the tule9 and hauled myself to a more solid foot 
hold. As I did 60 , I glanced through the opening into the 
pond and there lay five or six splendid ducks. I looked 
around for Pat, but he was nowhere to be seen. I 
whistled and called, but no Pat. Extending my range of 
vision, however, I caught sight of an object making tall 
time through the grass; I could see a pair of crop-ears rise 
and disappear, ana a stub-tail rise as the head went down. 
It was my retriever making the most frantic 
through the grass and a straight wake for home, 
say I was mad at having to come away and leave those 
mallards after a three-mile tramp before breakfast, but it 
was useless to try to get them. I was already wet, it is 
true, but it was too cold for a swim, as the pond was ten 
feet deep, to say nothing of the soft mud. I turned away, 
regietting that my gun was not loaded with something 
more substantial than mud and water, and that Pat was not 
within range. I trudged home with bitterness in my 
heart and water in my boots, which I dared not remove, 
fearing I could not get them on again. I tried laying down 
and elevating my heels to let tho water run out, but it 
would persistently run up my legs. 
I reached home tired and hungry, but the first thing I 
did was to look for Pat. I fouud him with his head una 
body jammed in his rather tight fit of a kennel, liis stub- 
tail sticking out. Laying hold of that I dragged him 
forth, but rolling up his eye and recognizing me, he dove 
into his hole again, scratching and digging so that I feared 
if I held on to his tail it would pull out. 
I staid at Napa two days, and up to the hour of my de 
parture, Pat had not been enticed out of his box. In vain 
tempting bones had been swung before bis door, and a good 
imitation of the grunt of a pig was without effect. It was 
forty-eight hours after I left before Pat ventured forth, and 
then with evident fear and suspicion. It was only uecos- 
sary to show him a gun to see him make a bee lino for his 
kennel at top speed. As nearly as I could estimate from 
the moment he upset me in his astonishment and fright at 
the explosion of the gun over his head, until he plunged 
through the garden fence nnd head foremost into his kennel 
the time did not exceed six miuutes. Ho had made three 
miles in the briefest time on record. 
It is my private opinion that although a bull terrier may 
possess qualifications of a high order in his legitimate line 
of business, a9 a sporting dog I cannot conscientiously re- 
commend the breed. However, if you have lost a bone 
or found a rat’s nest, I can advocate Fred’s retriever. He 
may be able to retrieve a pig or a bullock, but not ducks or 
his character. Podoems. 
P. S. — Pat subsequently lost his life in an unauthorized 
and surreptitious effort to take tho census of a hen roost. 
He was mistaken for a coon. 
INSTRUCTIONS IN TRAPPING.— NO. 1. 
TO TAKE BEAVER. 
T HERE are many naturalists and collectors who seldom 
use traps for taking ornithological, and more par- 
ticularly, zoological specimens. Supposing an animal is 
tumbled over at short range with a shot gun— a hare, for 
instance, the CDtrails are cut in pieces, or perforated with 
shot holes, the coat of the animal is partially spoiled, and 
wads of hair are driven into the firth, making it in somo 
cases almost unfit for food. I have spent many nights in 
preparing skins, and the flesh of hares, when mutilated, as 
described above. Often, when one has been packing a 
gun, and perhaps a load of game over the mountains all 
day, lie reaches camp at night tired, hungry and footsore. 
When arriving at one’s tent the first thing to be done is to 
have a good wash; the next is to eat supper; and the last, 
but not least job, is to skin the specimens, and press the 
plants collected during the day’s rambles. When one is 
forced to sit up in a sleeply condition to wash and dry 
bloody animal skins by the faint light of a candle, he 
naturally begins to study out some way to decrease his 
work. A mao’s wits are gradually sharpened by ex- 
perience. Every hunter knows how to trap if he is ac- 
quainted with the habits of animals. Traps should he set 
where animals have been observed. No class of men arc 
better fitted for trapping than naturalists; they are familiar 
with the ways of the forest aod plain; they are exploring 
every nook and cranny, now turning over a stone in search 
bruin is taken with tho trat 
skin by packing twenty poun< 
ilh lovers, 
lay awake 
uiuy happen 
and get his 
, - . ^ -o-j i .. twenty or 
forty pound trap; so we will take a good dog to flud bears 
and leave the big traps with their makers. 
Having been out with pack mules, two weeks travel 
from Denver, wo finally strike the Eagle River, or somo 
other good mountain stream for trapping, when wo dis- 
mount, cook dinner and picket our stock. After dinner 
we shoulder our guns and strike out in different directions 
to find “sign.” Night finds us gathered around the camp 
fire, having supped ou dusky grouso, or trout, which wore 
taken during the afternoon’s rambles. Jim is the first one 
v ,.nr i lo reIat ® hi8 . re80archc8 - “ I hnvo found two dams within 
rr*": l ) vo camp, and plenty of beaver sign all along tl.o 
ic Plunges river. “I found ottor sign at the forks of the river below 
"E I here on . a 8and bar »” another. “I was following somo 
mountain sheep across that bald hill opposite camp and 
saw a flock of white tailed ptarmagans,” says the ornithol- 
ogist. 
Each member of tho party gives his opinion on tlio sur- 
rounding country, and it is agreed that a camp is lo bo 
built on tho site occupied by the party. Now some one 
moves that wo turn in, and the hint is taken, and wo are 
soon rolled up in our blankets and fast asleep. The first 
man that awakes in tho morning builds a fire and arouses 
the whole party. While one is getting breakfast the others 
commence falling aud hutting logs, which are split through 
the middle for building an A camp. Finally our camp is 
completed and we are about to commence business in 
earnest. With a selection of traps tied to our belts tightly 
so chains will not jingle, wo start out to set them, two of 
us going up the river nnd tiio other two men down it. 
Having traveled a short distance we find bear sign and look 
for a place to set a trap. Now we have not yet caught our 
first beaver, so we have no “medicine” to assist us, nnd 
must look for the beaver’s trails, elides and boles. We 
must catch our beaver, and drown him at the same time 
unless wc are content with a beaver's foot for our trouble.’ 
While searching we finally find a good slide in a small 
dam, and set the trap at the foot of it, about four inches 
under water, in a depression in the ground, partiully cover- 
ing it with dirt. Make as little sign as possible about tho 
trap, aud fasten a stick about three feet long by the middle 
to the end of the chain. Now take a piece of rope, tie ono 
end of it to the chuin of tho trap and tho other end to a 
piece of dead buoyant wood, which will net as a float. 
Conceal this contrivance as neatly as possible and throw 
water on the leaves and soil you have handled. The trap 
is now set for the beaver. If ho does not put in an ap- 
pearance the first night he will tho second, aud in veiling 
the place where wo set the trap, we find It missing, and 
discover our buoy near the opposite shore. A pole, willi a 
crotch at the end, is cut, and after twisting it tightly in um 
rope the buoy is hauled in and we find that one end of tho 
rope runs down under the bank in deep water, where it 
appears to be fast. Now run the pole down the rope, keep- 
ing it taut until it will go no further, nnd by pushing away 
from you, the trap is pulled out of the hole, and when 
brought to light it is fouud to hold a beaver curled up nnd 
stiff, his glossy coat laid close to bis body by tho wuter. 
When a beaver finds he is caught, his first move is to reach 
his hole. He drags the trap in after him until the cross 
stick on the chain comes across his hole, and when thus 
held he continues his struggles until-hc is drowned. In 
my next we will catch other furred anlmuls, finding each 
one in its favorite haunt. J. U. Batty. 
— An exchange says that trees have been found in Aus- 
tralia which exceed the giants in California in height, 
though not in circumference. One fallen tree in Victoria 
measured 420 feet in length, and another 480, while the 
highest yet discovered in California reaches only 450 feet, 
the average being from 300 to 400. These are the celebra- 
ted Eucalyptus globulus, or Australian gum tree, which aro 
said to possess the property of absorbing malaria, una aro 
now being planted so extensively throughout different sec- 
tions of the country. If rapidity of growth is any indica- 
tion of ultimate size they might attain tho above dimen- 
sions without extreme ago. 
—A German gentleman, dining out, on being asked if he 
would take some ox tail soup, replied: “God forbid that I 
should be reduced to such extremities. 
—Every convict now discharged fiom tho Nevada State 
prison receives $25 in gold to start a new life with. 
— “We all have our opportunities to rise in the world,” 
as the boy said when lie was kicked by a rnau who had 
nitro glycerine on the toe of his boot. 
