Oct. ii, 1913. 
FOREST AND STREAM 
467 
A Day on Barnegat Bay 
By CHARLES G. BLANDFORD 
I T was our first trip to Barnegat. We had 
fished in Raritan Bay with little success, then 
jumped down the coast to Anglesea on Here¬ 
ford Inlet, where they run specials on Sunday 
from Camden and Philadelphia for the fishing- 
banks. It would be a story in itself to describe 
the headlong rush of those train loads of fish¬ 
ing "bugs” across the salt meadows for a short 
cut to their favorite boat lying alongside the big- 
wharf. There was good fishing at Anglesea, but 
not the sort we were after. Barnegat was the 
place. When I say Barnegat, I mean Barnegat 
Bay, not Barnegat, the sleepy little town lying 
two miles from the Bay, nor Barnegat City on 
the point by the inlet where Barnegat Light 
flashes its lonely warning every thirty seconds 
to coastwise vessels. 
When we left the Lakewood flyer at Lake- 
hurst to board the little jerk-water train that 
was to puff its fishward way through a lot of 
mosquito-ridden hamlets, of which Toms River 
is the metropolis, we began to experience the 
pleasurable thrill of expectancy. First of all 
we hadn’t the slightest idea where we were to 
anchor for the night. A loquacious porter in¬ 
formed us that Barnegat village was two miles 
from the bay. “Better git off at Forked River,” 
he said, and we did. At Forked River station 
stood a smart-looking touring car. Two red¬ 
cheeked little tots occupying the front seat in¬ 
formed us that Hotel Blank was the best hotel 
in Forked River. Nothing is too good for two 
fishermen with a week-end vacation, so we piled 
in with our rods and things for Hotel Blank. 
Again we were disappointed, for the bay was 
still a mile away, though the hotel was well ap¬ 
pointed and Forked River afforded a dozen 
“power cats” that left daily for the fishing 
grounds. 
Lowest Forest Fire Loss. 
(From the Forest Service, U. S. Dept, of Agriculture.) 
With the middle of September the fire sea¬ 
son on the national forests has come practically 
to an end with less damage than ever recorded. 
There is always some danger from carelessness 
of campers or of settlers burning brush and 
clearing land, but the real danger season ex¬ 
tends only from the middle of June until the 
middle of September. 
Forest officers throughout the West are 
congratulating themselves on a season so mar¬ 
kedly free from heavy losses. They feel that 
the immunity from loss has been due to two 
principal causes, partly to a favorable season, 
but largely to a much better organization of fire 
prevention than has been attained heretofore. 
The effectiveness of the organization is shown 
particularly by the fact that while there were 
in all approximately 2,260 fires, as against 2,470 
last year, yet the area burned so far this 'year 
is only about 60,000 acres as against 230,000 
acres in 1912 and 780,000 in 1911. 
A single administrative district, which 
covers the intermountain reffion of Southern 
Idaho, Western Wyoming, LItah, Nevada and 
Western Arizona gives an example of the most 
After a good dinner we consulted our time¬ 
table and found we could make Waretown on 
the Bay that afternoon. The quarter we paid 
to find there was such a place on the map as 
Waretown, Ocean county, N. J., was well spent. 
We stopped at the Bay View Hotel, happily 
situated within a stone’s throw of the fishing 
wharf and overlooking the best fishing grounds 
in Barnegat Bay. This is not to recount fabu¬ 
lous catches of weakfish; merely to “wise up” 
fishermen who may be hunting the same as we 
were for good fishing. The best we did was 
fifty-five weakfish in five hours’ fishing to two 
rods. Smaller weakfish weighing from a pound 
to two and one-half were to be had in numbers 
on Jackson's Beds, while the larger ones seemed 
to bite better on “Whaleback,” another ground, 
where the water was only about six feet deep. 
Here we got fish weighing to four pounds, which 
afforded plenty of sport with our light tackle. 
"Jed” Penn was the captain who put us among 
the fish each day we went out, and when he 
can't find them, they are not there. Boats for 
the day are five dollars, bait extra. About the 
bait: Barnegat weakfish are fastidious, for they 
must have shedder crab with the point of the 
hook covered with shrimp, though Jed seemed 
to catch just as many with a slice of lafayette 
or “spot,” as they call them down there. It 
was comical to see Jed lean back on that old 
15-foot “slap pole” when he hooked a big one 
and when he fell flat on his broad back when 
the hook tore out. There, I wasn’t to mention 
that. Anyway, Watertown is the place to start 
from for good fishing in Barnegat. There are 
a few inconveniences one must put up with at 
the hotel, but good dyed-in-the-wool fishermen 
don’t mind little things if the fish are there, and 
July or August are the months. 
favorable situation. Only forty-three fires were 
encountered, twenty-nine of which originated in 
Idaho. The total area burned over amounted 
to only 956 acres, which is considerably less than 
four-one hundred thousandths of the total area 
patrolled by forest officers in these States. 
California, Arizona and New Mexico have 
suffered most during the past season. 
The various causes of fires have not changed 
greatly in their relative proportions. Railroads 
and lightning head the list with campers next. 
There has been, however, a marked decrease 
in the number of fires caused by burning brush, 
which, according to the forest officers, indicates 
a closer co-operation with the settlers in and 
near the forests and with timberland owners in 
fire prevention and control. It is still true, 
nevertheless, that a large proportion of all fires 
started are due to human agencies and may gen¬ 
erally be charged against carelessness. Fires 
caused by lightning are of course not prevent¬ 
able, but the system of lookouts by which they 
may be detected immediately after being set is 
greatly lessening the loss from this source. 
Total expenditures on Panama canal up to 
May 30 were $295,587,518. 
Beasts of Prey Killed by Foresters. 
During the past fiscal year, 4,686 predatory 
animals were killed by Federal officers on the 
national forests, according to an actual count of 
carcasses. An indeterminate number of animals, 
whose bodies were not found, are presumed to 
have died from poison. 
The ranger’s bag of beasts of prey this 
year, as shown by forest service figures, was 
made up of 206 bears, 3,541 coyotes, 133 moun¬ 
tain lions, 62 lynx, 583 wildcats, 65 wolves and 
97 wolf pups. The figures indicate that the 
national forests are becoming cleared of wild 
animals that prey upon domestic live stock and 
game, for the forest ranger fills in odd moments 
between other jobs by thinning out "undesirable 
citizens” of the animal world. 
Wolves are said to cause greater losses to 
Western stockmen than any other of the preda¬ 
tory animals. It is estimated that a family of 
wolves will destroy about $3,000 worth of stock 
per annum, and that one able-bodied individual 
costs the grazing industry $600 a season. 
The wolves are of two classes—the smaller 
prairie wolves or coyotes and the larger gray, 
black or timber wolves, called Hobos.” These 
latter are the great stock destroyers against 
which the campaign of the rangers has been 
waged. 
The methods of hunting wolves in the West 
vary. On the plains wolves are sometimes 
hunted with dogs and horses, but this way is 
considered expensive and often dangerous. This 
sport is described by Roosevelt in his earlier 
hunting books. On national forests the rangers 
either set out poison or baited steel traps or by 
watching trails and hiding near a wolf’s den are 
able to shoot one or both of the old wolves 
when they return from foraging. In no other 
way, according to the forest service, can the 
number of wolves be kept down so well as by 
finding their dens and destroying the young. 
The skins of the predatory animals killed 
by the rangers are either kept as souvenirs or 
sold for a price or for bounty. Wolf skins in 
the West are said to bring from $4 to $6 tor 
robes and rugs; a mountain lion skin, $10 to 
$20; and a bear skin, anywhere from $20 to 
$150, according to size and species. In addition 
to this there are bounties on bear, lions and 
wolves in most of the Western stock States. 
Wyoming, in ten years, has paid out, it is said, 
over $65,000 in bounties on wolves alone and 
$95,000 more on coyotes and mountain lions. 
Through his activity against these pests the 
forest ranger, it is said, has saved the stock- 
men many thousands of dollars during the year, 
while the protection to game animals, such as 
deer, elk and antelope, is of almost equal im¬ 
portance. 
Karl Helfferich, director of the Deutsche 
Bank, has completed a report to Kaiser of wealth 
of German nation, showing aggregate of $75,- 
000,000,000 to $78,000,000,000. Wealth of France 
is placed at $60,000,000,000; England, $57,000,000,- 
000 to $65,000,000,000, and United States, $124,- 
000,000,000. German per capita wealth is placed 
at from $1,100 to $1,200; France, $1,425; England, 
$1,250 to $1,385; and United States, $1,360. An¬ 
nual income of German people is placed at be¬ 
tween $9,000,000,000 and $10,000,000,000, of which 
about one-sixth is used for public purposes. 
