July 7, 1906.] 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
19 
In cold northern waters, they will often rise 
to the red colored trout flies of the angler, and 
I have seen Colonel Haggard take them on his 
trout tackle in Lac des Aigles, northwest of 
Lake St. John, over six pounds in weight. If 
my memory serves me rightly, some of these 
fish have been similarly taken in Lake Kiski- 
sink by members of the Metabetchouan Fish 
and Game Club, where they grow to an im¬ 
mense size, often exceeding nine pounds in 
weight. 
Some Literary Fishermen. 
Colonel Andrew Haggard, to whom refer¬ 
ence has just been made, and who is so well- 
known to many of Forest and Stream’s 
readers, was seriously ill in Boston during the 
months of February and March last, and very 
near to death’s door. It was under the care 
of that literary angler, Dr. F. M. Johnson, the 
strenuous advocate of the single hook in fish¬ 
ing, and of his assistant, Dr. McSweeney, that 
the Colonel’s health was restored; and so.there 
is no cause for surprise in the fact that in the 
middle of May, as soon as ever he was strong 
enough, the patient was sent ofif to the woods to 
recuperate. He writes me that after fishing at 
the Otter Ponds in Maine in all sorts of weather 
for three weeks, he seems to have got quite 
strong again, and before leaving there three 
weeks ago, could row a boat half a day against 
a gale of wind. The Colonel is now on his 
way to British Columbia, after having enjoyed 
very fair sport in his Maine fishing. 
I had occasion the other day to refer to the 
volume containing the Colonel’s “Sporting 
Yarns,” in order to refresh my memory con¬ 
cerning our experiences in Newfoundland “in 
search of salmon,” therein related, that I might 
be the better enabled to reply to a friend’s re¬ 
quest for information concerning the sport; 
and having for a time mislaid my own notes. 
Then I bethought me of what another fishing 
friend had written on the subject, and strange 
as it may at first sight appear, I turned to 
fiction for my facts. “The Romance of Piscator” 
may or may not be entitled to rank, as I have 
classed it, with fiction, but it certainly bubbles 
over with hard facts, attractively adorned with 
a light veiling of romance, concerning travel 
and sport in “the new fonde londe quhar men 
goeth a fisching.” I gave the author, Mr. 
Henry Wysham Lanier, all the information I 
could about the salmon fishing of the island, 
while he was passing through Quebec on his 
way thither, and he has returned it to me with 
compound interest in his instructive and life¬ 
like story of the adventures of an angling party 
in Newfoundland. 
The Quebec License Fees. 
I Was particularly struck upon picking up the 
copy of Forest and Stream, which came to 
hand to-day—that of June 23—with the force 
of your editorial remark that “After a law has 
been long on the statute books without being 
taken seriously by the officials whose duty it is 
to see that its provisions are carried out, its 
sudden enforcement always seems a hardship 
to those who suffer by it, and not only a hard¬ 
ship, but an outrage.” This is specially the case 
in regard to the Quebec license fees, and per¬ 
haps even more so than with reference to the 
particular matter to which your words referred. 
The provisions of the Quebec law requiring all 
non-resident anglers to pay a fishing license, is 
contained in the same act from which the gov¬ 
ernment derives its authority to grant leases of 
fishing privileges, namely the Act 51 and 52 
Victoria, chapter 17. It was the duty of the 
government and its officials to enforce the law. 
The exception in favor of non-resident lessees 
was made in opposition to its provisions, and 
it is not altogether surprising, therefore, that 
its sudden enforcement now should be the 
cause of considerable indignation. 
That there was never the slightest intention 
on the part of the Legislature to exempt for¬ 
eign lessees of hunting or fishing privileges 
from the payment of license fees, is clearly 
demonstrated by the legislation of 1884 (47 
Vic.), which provided that the fee for hunting 
licenses was only to be $10 in the cases of non¬ 
residents of Quebec or Ontario who were mem¬ 
bers of fish and game clubs in this province, 
but there was no provision at all for exempting 
them altogether from payment of the license 
fee. Subsequent legislation abolished the dis¬ 
tinction between Ontario sportsmen and 
other non-residents of Quebec province, and 
the absolute refusal of the present Minister, 
Hon. Mr. Prevost, to renew it, when such 
action was urged upon him, both at con¬ 
ferences in Montreal and Ottawa, with all the 
eloquent appeals to the unity of the Dominion, 
the Empire and the flag that provincial self-in¬ 
terest could suggest, renders less difficult of 
comprehension the fact that Ontario sportsmen 
are well in the lead in denouncing the apparent 
outrage of enforcing a law that had virtually 
come to be considered as a dead letter. 
Quebec Politicians are Sportsmen. 
The references to Quebec legislation remind 
me that there is scarcely a single member of 
the present Quebec government who is not an 
ardent sportsman. The Premier, Hon. Mr. 
Gouin, is a devoted angler. Early in the season 
he was the guest of Mr. G. W. Stephens at 
his fishing preserve in Maskinonge county. 
This preserve, like the adjacent ones of Mr. 
C. H. Simpson, of New York, and of the St. 
Bernard Fish and Game Club, are now very 
much more accessible than they were since the 
construction of the Great Northern Railway of 
Canada, which shortens the buckboard drive 
from fifteen to twenty miles or so. I was with 
Mr. Gouin, when he killed his first salmon a 
few years ago, and some months since I met 
him on a railway train on his way to fish for 
tomcods and smelt. When game fish are not to 
be had, Quebec’s premier is ready for the best 
fishing that is available. Hon. Mr. Turgeon is 
a successful hunter of big-game, and Hon. Mr. 
Prevost is equally proficient with rod and gun. 
The Secretary of the Province is fond of fish¬ 
ing, and the Hon. Mr. Tessier, Minister of 
Agriculture, enjoys some excellent salmon fish¬ 
ing every year in the Rimouski River, close to 
his own home. E. T. D. Chambers. 
Fishing in Washington. 
Spokane, Wash., June 20.—Fishing in the 
Spokane country is better this season than for 
many years, according to reports received from 
all the anglers. Probably more men and women 
have fished this season than ever before. The 
success in the lakes is especially good, while 
more fish are being taken from the rivers and 
creeks than usual, even in this part of the coun¬ 
try, which is famous for its good fishing. Hav- 
den Lake, thirty miles east of Spokane, is one 
of the most frequented resorts. Bass, trout and 
perch are found in this lake. Ed. Sanders is 
claiming the biggest catch of the season, a big 
black bass that weighed g% pounds. He and 
H. J. Neely, C. F. Young and W. W. Drey- 
foos returned recently with eighty-four bass and 
about one hundred perch. Mr. Sanders got 
three that weighed 23 pounds. A new bait, 
called Australian frog, was used, and the party 
is enthusiastic in its praise. 
. Walter McCally in Mill Creek, near Walla 
Walla, a few days ago, made a catch of eighty- 
seven fish, ranging in size from six to seventeen 
inches long. The Dolly Varden and bull trout 
are biting splendidly in that vicinity. Black 
bass are plentiful in Newman and Sucker lakes. 
Charles F. Krum, Dr. Rich L. Howell, H. M. 
Richards, George E. Crump, W. S. McCrea and 
Victor Smith have returned from fishing on 
Priest Lake, in northern Idaho, where the trout 
have been biting ravenously. It is said each 
member caught the full limit, 25 pounds, each 
day he fished. The best catches were made with 
large-sized flies. Extra large coachmen, brown- 
hackles, and professors were the favorites. The 
trout there are said to be the gamiest fish found 
anywhere in this vicinity. 
Deputy State Game Warden M. H. Harbaugh, 
of Idaho, has planted 1,500 Oswego bass in 
Waha Lake, twenty miles south of Lewiston, 
Idaho. 
State Fish Commissioner Thomas B. Ker¬ 
shaw, of Washington, is planning to move the 
State fish hatchery, located ten miles north of 
Spokane, to a different and larger site, where 
a greater number of fish can be hatched each 
year, and where there will be better facilities 
for keeping the fish. When the hatchery is 
moved, it will be enlarged to double its present 
capacity, so that it will be able to hatch enough 
fish to stock most of the streams in this vicinity. 
The Little Spokane River, which skirts the 
Great Northern Railway from Newport to a 
point near Spokane, has been a favored stream 
for trout fishing this season. There are six sta¬ 
tions between Newport and Spokane, and fish¬ 
ermen who have but little time at their disposal 
go up on the morning train and fish the river 
from one station to the next below, and return 
on the evening train. For a day’s fishing this 
trip is unusually popular this year, as the trofft 
are rising with spirit, and excellent catches have 
been made. Curlew Lake and Curlew River, in 
Stevens county, are reported unusually good this 
year. The bass season in eastern Washington 
opens July 15, while in Idaho it is open the year 
round. The open season for trout in Washing¬ 
ton is from April 1 to Nov. 1. S. B. 
Pelagic Sealing. 
Among the North American mammals which 
are approaching extinction—following the wake 
of the species that have already gone—is the 
fur seal, whose enormous multitudes so astonished 
the old explorers in northern and in southern 
seas. Those of the south have been nearly or 
quite exterminated, and those of the north—the 
herds of the Bering Sea—have been reduced to 
perhaps one twentieth of the number which ex¬ 
isted there when Alaska was bought by the 
United States less than forty years ago. The 
cause of this decrease is pelagic sealing, the kill¬ 
ing of females and their young. This destruc¬ 
tive practice is well described in part by Prof. 
David Starr Jordan, who says in the Pacific 
Monthly for June: 
“The method of pelagic sealing is to find the 
seal asleep in the water and to transfix her with 
a spear or shoot her with buckshot. The seal¬ 
ing vessel cruises about until seals are sighted. 
Sail is taken in and the vessel left in charge of one 
or more members of the crew. The boats are let 
down and go off to windward, diverging in their 
course like the ribs of a fan, the vessel drifting 
along in the same general direction so as not to 
be too far behind at nightfall. A hunter and 
steersman are in each canoe. Sails are used 
until a seal is sighted, when the paddle is relied 
upon to bring the boat noiselessly to the animal. 
The hunter with spear or shotgun, poised in the 
prow, kills the sleeping animal when the proper 
distance is reached. The spear head is detachable 
from its shaft, and both are secured to the boat 
by a line. The seal is drawn up and clubbed 
on the head. If it is not shot, skill is required 
to bring the canoe quickly to the spot before the 
animal sinks. Guns are not allowed in Bering 
Sea, a matter of no hardship to the sealer, 
as the report would awaken other seals. In 
the Northwest coast sealing the gun is allowed, 
and is useful, as the animals are then more 
scattered and more generally on the move. At 
night, or on the approach of a storm, the boats 
return to the vessel with their catch, the skins 
being removed and salted in the evening. 
“To understand the effect of pelagic sealing it 
is necessary to contrast it with land sealing. The 
lessees of the islands under the United States 
Government take a quota of seals on land each 
season. This industry has been in operation ever 
since the islands were discovered in 1786. Dur¬ 
ing the twenty years, 1870-1889, following the 
acquisition of Alaska by the United States, the 
land quota averaged one hundred thousand an¬ 
nually. This land killing is confined to the super¬ 
fluous young males, the animals being polyga¬ 
mous. The young males herd by themselves, 
and are driven up and killed without disturbance 
of the breeding herd. During the latter half of 
the above period pelagic sealing began to make 
itself felt in increasing measure. In 1890 it be¬ 
came apparent that the herd was in a serious 
condition of decline, the quota of that year fall- 
