LITTEBS FBOMSPOBTSMEI^. 
Some on Fish. 
H.O.-XIBAL, Mo., Aug. 18. 
Editok Rod ajtd Gux : 
We have something new in tlie fishing line out here, 
which may prove a novelty. A friend was out fishing 
yesterday morning with a trout-rod and line in the Mis- 
sissippi River for a little sport, when, to his surprise, 
the bait was taken by a monster alligator. It fought 
furiously and he played him handsomely, finalh' cap- 
turing him after he had upset a boat and nearly drowned 
two fishermen. It was five feel nine inches long and 
weighed about 100 pounds, and was the third largest of 
the kind ever caught in this vicinity. John. 
New Club. 
AVarres, Pa., Aug. 18. 
Editor Rod and Gcs : 
I am directed to inform you that a number of gen- 
tlemen, residents of Warren, Pa., and vicinity, met last 
week to form a club to be called the “ AVarren Sports- 
men's Club.” Its leading purpo.ses are the preservation 
of game and certain varieties of fish, the advocacy of 
proper game laws, the enforcement of such laws when 
passed, and the promotion of healthy public sentiment 
in relation thereto. A constitution was adopted, and 
the following officers were elected for the coming year : 
President, Al 3 Ton AVaters; A’ice President, F. H. Rock- 
well; Secretary, E. Cowan; Treasurer, Robert Denni- 
son; Counsel, H. E. Brown; Executive Committee, E. 
B. Eldred, C. A. Boardman, A. .J. Rockwell. E. C. 
Old Peiinsylvania .Clive. 
SuNBURY, Pa., Aug. 18. 
Editor Rod and Gun; 
Having seen nothing in your most valuable paper from 
this part of the old Keystone State, I venture to pen 
j’ou a few lines to let you know that we are not quite 
dead if we are so fearfully quiet Sunbury is the head- 
quarters of the “Northumberland Co. Game Protective 
Association,” with the Hon. William L. Dewart, ex M. 
C. , at our head as tne worthy president. Our orgau- 
ization, although young, is already doing good in vari- 
ous ways. It is composed of the best gentlemen through- 
out the county, and among its members may be found 
several knights of the trigger who can hold their own 
anywhere at any time, from April snipe to December 
quail. July woodcock shooting is over with its fearful 
heat and very indifferent bags. The largest hag made 
heiL this year was sixteen birds by two guns, other par- 
ties getting smaller bags, so that our summer shooting 
was not quite as good as usual. The reports from dif- 
ferent sections are that the quail will be quite plenty 
after all the hard winter thej’ had to encounter. Sun- 
bury can turn out about as nice a lot of capital setters 
as any town of its size anywhere in the State. We have 
the Gordon and Irish mostly; some of them have not a 
pedigree over a half a mile in length, but put them in 
the field with the gun, and leave their ancestors names 
at home, and we’ll back them for downright hard work 
and all other good qualities against all comers. 
We are soon going to give a free pigeon shoot to our 
shooting friends of the town of Milton, whom we want 
to become on more intimate terms with, and get them 
interested in our club. I will trj- and send you a score; 
there will be about twenty shooters in the team. Mr. 
Spiece, of Harrisburg, I see, is publishing through the 
different papers the necessity of a State Association. 
AVe all concur with him, and will do aU in our power 
to effect the same. 
At any rate long life to the glorious Rod and Gcn. 
Hemp. 
Organization of Sportsmen’s Clubs. 
Franklin, Pa., Aug. 14. 
Editor Rod and Gun; 
Some one suggests whj- not organize a club here? 
AA’ehave about a dozen double-barrel breech-loaders 
and several single-barrel breech-loaders; dogs, but few 
of any note — curs, ratters, bulls, anj' number. Another 
sav’S, call at my office and we will talk the matter over. 
AA’ell, how about this club? Have j'ou talked to any 
one about it? Yes! well, what do they sa\’? Some saj' 
that it would be a good thing; others want to know 
“what do J'OU intend to do, and what is your object?’’ 
AVeU, sir, I will show you (handing him a list, headed 
:is follows) : 
“We, the undersigned, each and severally, do herebj' 
agree to become ‘charter members’ of a Spoilsmen’s 
Club and Game Protective Society, to further the pro- 
tection of game and game fish, and become more pro- 
ficient with the rod and gun, and otherwise advance the 
chances of a daj'’s sport; for that purpose agree to pay 
the sum of dollars upon the organization of said 
club; notice to be given of time and place of organiza- 
tion.” 
In circulating a list of this kind it is good policy to 
call on such men whom j'ou know will sign with a 
smile. Some will saj', “I will see j'ou again; will think 
it over,” etc. Others will say, “halloo, there, put my 
name on that list.” I have had a list in my charge for 
a short time, and have,'up to this writing, secured twen- 
ty-seven names, mostlj' of men who are fond of manly 
sport occasionally. AA' e expect to effect a permanent 
organization next week, when we will send you the re- 
sult. L. S. W. 
.4 Trip Up the Lakes. 
Chicago, Aug. 16. 
Editor Rod and Gcn; 
There are many, no doubt, who have never known of 
those magnificent fioating palaces which used to traverse 
our great inland waters before the Lake Shore and M. S. 
R. R. was built; but there are thousands of others 
who remember with pleasure and pride those fa- 
mous steamers, the Queen of the AA'est, the Crescent 
Cit}', the Plj-mouth Rock, the AA'estern AVorld, the 
AA’estern Metropolis and the Citj' of Buffalo; and who 
believe that all the comfort, all the luxury, all the glory 
of a trip up the lakes by steamboat had departed with 
them, and I might but recently have been numbered 
among the latter class; for, when I had determined to 
“ go AA’est,” and it was suggested by those who were to 
be my traveling companions that we take a propeller 
from Buffalo to Chicago, tlie proposition .-struck me 
scarcely less favorable than would that of making a trip 
to New York on a Baxter steam canal-boat. Steam- 
boating, to my mind, was an old fogyism, well enough 
in ante-railroad daj's, but not to be thought of in these 
daj'S, when even the “lightning express" is a “slow 
coach,” and Chicago being onlv twenty hours from 
Buffalo by rail and one hundred by steamer. 
However, health and pleasure being the chief objects 
sought bj' the trip, and the matter of time being onlj- a 
secondary consideration, I was induced to take passatie 
in the propeller China, she being one of ten which fonn 
a daily line between Buffalo and Chicago. In point of 
magnificence, these boats may suffer by comparison with 
those fioating palaces I have named— and there are but 
few that will not ; but they are elegant in the fullest 
acceptation of that term, affording so much of luxurj- 
and home-like comfort that there seems reallv nothing, 
left to wish for in that direction. Our passenger-list 
comprised nearly one hundred persons — pleasure-seek- 
ers almost without exception— strangers at first, but who 
seemed almost as one household after the first twentj'- 
four hours of our trip had passed. AA'e steamed out of 
Buffalo harbor about nine o’clock p. m., and a few mo- 
ments later were on the broad bosom of Lake Erie. The 
gods smiled upon us, for we were favored with an al- 
most “ full moon,” and the scene which greeted us can 
only be appreciated by those who have witnessed the 
gloij’ of a moonlight excursion upon the waters. 
The next morning dawned upon us at Erie, Pa. , where 
we received new acquisitions to our passenger list, and 
where a seemingly endless amount of freight was stored 
away in the capacious holds and lower decks of the pro- 
peller, and this caused the only detention of consequence 
on the whole trip. 
The scenerv of a lake voyage, comprised chiefiy of a 
vast expanse of water, is necessarily monotonous, al- 
though, with the exception of a few hours, land may be 
sighted from the decks of the propeller, j-et so far away 
as to afford no interesting detail From the mouth of 
the Detroit River, however, which we entered about 
noon of the second day out, to Port Huron, at the out- 
let of Lake Huron, the scene is interesting and pic- 
turesque. Sitting upon the decks of the steamer, culti- 
vated fields, tasteful residences, and forests in their 
primeval beauty — which are still the home of the deer 
and wUd turkey — beautifid islands and enchanting baj-s, 
make up the scene which passes before j'ou like a grand 
panorama. 
At the head of Lake St. Clair are the great St. Clair 
Flats, a spot familiar, in name, at least, to eveiy sports- 
man. From September till the close of the season thej’ 
are the haunts of millious of ducks and snipe, and al- 
though I have never shot or fished there, I imagine they 
afford excellent shooting and fishing, for some enter- 
prising individual has erected a large three-story hotel 
for the accommodation of the devotees of the Rod and 
Gun. It is within gun-shot of the channel tluough which 
our steamer passed, and I should judge it would accom- 
modate a hundred persons, and within a mile of it below 
is the Club-house and boat-houses of the “ St. Clair 
Fishing and Shooting Club.” This being private, its 
privileges and accommodations of course are enjoyed 
only by members and their invited guests. 
After leaving Port Huron the .scene again becomes 
monotonous, for we are in the midst of Lake Huron, 
and our next stopping-place Mackinaw. Twentj'-four 
hours are consumed between the two points, and we 
reach Mackinaw at midnight, a circumstance which I re- 
gret, for this is perhaps the most interesting point on the 
i\ hole trip. It is an island of rock which, according to 
an old Indian legend, raised itself suddenly from the 
water; and I am not disposed to doubt its truth, for evi 
dences are not wanting that it had its origin from vol- 
canic action. It has become quite a resort for tourists 
cii account of the wonderfully pure and inviarorating 
atmosphere; for it is said to be one of the healthiest 
spots in the world, and its unsurpassed facilities for 
fishing, the crystal clearness of tht waters here is a pe- 
culiarity which no one fails to note. Fish and objects 
on the bottom can be distinctly seen at the depth of fifty 
feet or more. 
Through the Straits of Alackinaw, past manj’ a beau- 
tiful island— among them the Alanitou, whose Indian in- 
terpretation is the “Spirit Island” we had at length 
pointed out to us the “Sleeping Bear.” It would re- 
quire a great stretch of the imagination to discover any 
resemblance to its namesake, for it is simply a bluff or 
sand bank, with scarcelj- a vestige of vegetation upon 
it except a clump of cedars, which the imagination of 
“Lo” has formed into the shape of a bear, hence its name. 
Again we lose sight of land for a time, not seeing it 
again until we awake next morning to find ourselves at 
the dock in Alilwaukee — the “ lager city.” A good por- 
tion of our freight was discharged here, a few of our 
passengers left us, and we were on the home stretch to 
Chicago. Our last afternoon on the water wa-s perhaps 
the most remarkable period of all the trip. The weather 
had been exceptionally beautiful, and the condition of 
the water all that the most timid could desire ; but the 
passage from Milwaukee to Chicago was marked by a 
calmness seldom experienced. Ttie water seemed liter- 
ally like a sheet of glass; not a wave, scarcelj- a rijiple ; 
and as our good ship plowed through its stilly depths, 
her wake could be seen for a mile astern. And thus 
ended my first trip up the Lakes. To me it was one of 
the most delightful that I have ever made. The com 
panionship with" my fellow-passengers had been so 
pleasant that the parting with them seemed almost like 
the breaking up of a household. The officers of the 
China had been uniformly courteous and obliging, which 
contributed largelj- to my enjoyment. The scenerj- had 
been beautiful, sometimes grand ; the lake breezes had 
been sweet and health-giving ; the elements had been 
kind, and I left the China with all mj- prejudices against 
steam-boating entirely overcome. Burlington. 
Game Fish in A'irginia. 
Lawrenceville, A'a., Aug. 16. 
Editor Rod and Gcn ; 
It has been said that we have no game fish in Virginia 
waters. I have never had the good fortune to fish in 
waters outside Piedmont, Va., and really do not know 
whether we have or not. But if we have not, for manj- 
years I have deluded myself into the belief that we have ; 
classifying all scale fish in our waters as such, that 
would bite eagerlj- at the artificial or live minnoiv, and 
which possessed sound table qualities. The king of 
these fishes we know as the “ chub,” and which I have 
authoritative reasons to believe to be the trout of the 
Southern lakelets and ponds. AA'ith us they are most 
highly esteemed for eveiy attribute of the table and the 
stream, and are a beautiful and vigorous fish in appear- 
ance and power. They are found both in our rivers aad 
ponds, but have become rare in the rivers, in conse- 
quence of the cultivation upon their banks, and the 
dams across them without fish-waj's, destroying their 
capacity to breed by destroying the spawn, and prevent- 
ing their ascent to the clearer waters of the smallec and 
tributaiy streams. They grow to a weight of ten or 
twelve pounds under the most favorable conditions, bile 
voraciously at the artificial flj- or spoon dunng several 
months of the year (June, August and September), and 
during every month of the year, except those of extreme 
winter, at live minnows — our most usual bait. They 
resemble the striped bass, without the spots, being rather 
