Jan. II, 1913 
FOREST AND STREAM 
47 
THE DAY S CATCH. 
By Cecil Aladin. 
Stream and river, at Ine present instant, ap¬ 
parently, is teeming with sea-rnn trout. The 
“dry-fly” man can pick his quarry and catch 
plenty; the average fisherman can kill a basket¬ 
ful; an angler with minnow lures has just re¬ 
turned from the Rangitata—a big snow river^—• 
with twenty-six trout, each weighing from six 
to nine pounds. Sadly, I condense that red- 
letter day of my own into a line—ten fish, all 
weighing over four pounds, caught with dry-fly, 
in the Kakahu Gorge. From its inaccessibility. 
I imagine that as yet few people have explored 
this place. Breakfasting in camp at 5 a. m., we 
waded nearly all day under sunshine and 
shower, up the rocky gorge, often having to 
scramble round a slippery corner crag, where 
a missed footstep would mean a drop down 
fifty feet: but never was a day more enjoyed, 
or a “second-meal” in camp at 7:30 p. m. 
To turn from fishing to shooting, it may be 
said for one thing that the Auckland Province 
is now by far the best ground for pheasants, 
and there the season was unusually successful. 
The Aukland Acclimatization Society has im¬ 
ported a number of Mongolian pheasants, and 
the experiment of crossing them with English 
birds has produced the most satisfactory re¬ 
sults. It seems that game eggs will stand a 
fair amount of rough usage on a journey, for 
settings of wild duck eggs are being exchanged 
for those of Mongolian pheasants with sports¬ 
men in Tasmania, a week away by rail and ship. 
A few years ago we were seized with a 
desire to stock the wildest wastes of our 
islands with animals which might form quarry 
for the hunter’s rifle, in addition to the great 
existing herds of red and fallow deer. No 
doubt that would have been very nice for all 
An Appreciation. 
New York City, Oct. 28.— Editor Forest and 
Stream: I have been meaning, ever since my 
return from New Brunswick, to call upon you 
personally to thank you for your kind considera¬ 
tion in my behalf and to tell you what a suc¬ 
cessful trip I had. I found Mr. Mackenzie a 
good guide, with a splendid hunting country, and 
I was fortunate in being able to secure a really 
good moose head. I can report as to the coun¬ 
try that the camps are clean and in good con¬ 
dition, food and cooking excellent, an abundance 
of moose, a good many deer, and some caribou, 
but the latter are not hunted until November, and 
first class trout and salmon fishing. Of course 
the latter closes on Sept. 15, but I saw a good 
many fish. Cornelius W. Wickersham. 
Any subscriber may supply a friend with a 
copy of current issue of Forest and Stream 
by sending us on a postal the name of that 
friend. 
concerned, but some of the efforts made by the 
government of that period were the reverse 
of wise. For instance, a couple of thar and a 
pair of markhoor were obtained from the Him¬ 
alaya Mountains at a cost of about £600, and 
being turned out on a snow-clad New Zealand 
range, were never seen, again. Afterward, half 
a dozen moose were brought over from Can¬ 
ada and released somewhere in the southern¬ 
most part of the country, in the vicinity of 
Dusky Sound. For the succeeding years noth¬ 
ing has been heard of them; but now comes a 
tale of “great splay tracks bigger than my 
stretched-ont hand.” Two men on a pioneer¬ 
ing expedition heard animals — presumably — 
crashing off through the densest bush, and 
finding these tracks, they measured according¬ 
ly; but I think that it is possible their legs 
were fully “stretched-out" as their hands, for 
I am given to understand they got out of there 
right away. All things considered, the men are 
not greatly to be blamed.' It is easy to imagine 
that an old bull moose in a bad temper might 
ha\-e made matters extremely interesting for 
them; still, as a local paper a little unfeelingly 
remarks, “the right of New Zealand to the 
title of a ‘big-game’ country” might then have 
been established. 
As an example of indiscreet acclimatization, 
the importation of stoats and weasels into 
New Zealand must be given a first place: but 
it seems that the idiot responsible for such a 
folly is not without his peer. The stoats and 
weasels were intended to destroy rabbits, but 
soon becoming fastidious, they preferred to 
decimate the feathered game, so foxes were 
taken to Australia for hunting purposes, but 
instead of remaining in their own place like 
nice well ordered foxes, they are now killing 
the poultry and lambs wholesale. These foxes 
were liberated first in Victoria, about a score 
of years ago, but since then they have in¬ 
creased with wonderful rapidity, and may be 
found in almost every part of Australia. Now¬ 
adays they are destroyed, whenever that is pos¬ 
sible: and at a shoot recently organized on a 
run in New South Wales, more than four hun¬ 
dred were slain; but even such dreadful pro¬ 
ceedings as these will not suffice to keep their 
numbers within bounds. 
