Feb. 8, 1913 
FOREST AND STREAM 
169 
Season in the Middle West 
By SANDY GRISWOLD 
and by locks and Rideau River to Ottawa, 
where this river empties into the Ottawa River, 
has some excellent points for bass and lunge, 
together with some lake or gray trout. West- 
port is a good point of entry and below Jones’ 
Falls, near Smith’s Falls, is another good spot. 
Camping is excellent all along the route, either 
for a canoeing or motor boat party. A number 
of good small hotels all along the lakes, insure 
comfortable accommodation in case of wet 
weather or for those ladies who do not care to 
enjoy the pleasures of camp life under canvas. 
A navigation company runs steamers between 
Ottawa and Kingston, thus allowing ready ac¬ 
cess to any point on these lakes. 
The Ontario season opens for lunge and 
bass on June 16. The flies and mosquitoes are 
over early in July, and trips anywhere here 
after July 5 to 10 are in order. Personally, I 
would say my choice for the earlier fishing 
would be the Kawarthas, with the French for 
a wilder and longer canoe cruise. (Full data 
as to any specific trip will be supplied upon re¬ 
quest of Forest and Stream readers.) 
Gently Tapping on the Window Pane. 
Jersey City, N. J., Jan. 25.-—Editor Forest 
and Stream: From year to year I have noted 
that your correspondents have reported the ap¬ 
pearance of the first robin and other signs of 
spring. This afternoon I opened every window 
in my modest domicile that the balmy January 
air might blow through. This evening as dusk 
approached there was a large active Jersey mos¬ 
quito bumbling against the window in the din¬ 
ing room trying to get out. 
Can you beat that? Switch Reel. 
[And why, Brother Switch Reel, should a 
little early activity on the part of the Culex 
pungens surprise you, who live in Jersey? Like¬ 
ly it was a missionary trying to get you into a 
proper frame of mind to receive, hospitably, 
later in the year his brother culicidae.— Editor.] 
A White Blue-Wing Teal. 
Souris, N. D., Jan. i .—Editor Forest and 
Stream: I inclose a photo of an albino duck. 
This bird was shot by my good friend Sam 
Wilson while hunting in the Turtle Mountains 
of North Dakota. It is a perfect specimen of 
blue-wing teal, except that it is perfectly white 
in color. I would be pleased to have you use 
the picture in Forest and Stream, which is a 
welcome weekly visitor at my home. 
Henry W. Peterson. 
F or the first time this winter the ground out 
this way is whitened with snow this morn¬ 
ing, to the depth of probably an inch. The 
flurry came in the night, but couldn’t have lasted 
long, for there is not the vestige of a cloud 
visible, and the sun is shining as beautifully as 
in June. [Letter dated Jan. 15.] 
Up to date there has been no winter like 
this known in Nebraska—famous, however, for 
its matchless climate—in thirty year.s. We 
have not had one cloudy day since Sept. 3, and 
last night’s skiff of snow was the 
first flake seen here this winter. 
It has been simply one long unin¬ 
terrupted stretch of beautiful, 
balmy and golden weather, and 
looks now as if it meant to con¬ 
tinue on indefinitely. 
Another unprecedented fact is 
that the fall shooting season of 
all kinds was the poorest known 
in an equal period of time. There 
were but few prairie chickens, 
practically no quail at all, and the 
ducks and geese were lamentably 
scarce. 
There was fairly good sport in 
September immediately after the 
opening of the chicken and wild¬ 
fowl season on both classes of 
game, but the chicken that had 
been so fortunate as to escape 
the ante-season lawbreakers were 
speedily killed off, and so were 
the locally bred ducks, and by the 
time the really bona fide bird 
shooting season—October—rolled 
round, there was mighty slim 
picking on either. The quail sea¬ 
son was of but two weeks’ dura¬ 
tion, the first two in November, 
but of all the numerous parties 
that went out, to my personal 
knowledge there was not one that 
met with even fair success, and 
the majority of them got skunk¬ 
ed absolutely. I myself with 
Ralph Crandall, with two of the best dogs in 
the State, spent the three first days of the sea¬ 
son on the formerly fine grounds north of Chap¬ 
man, and bagged six birds and two chickens. 
The quail were badly winter-killed, and it will 
require years for them to recuperate, even with 
the brief open season we are accorded. 
But the strangest thing of all has been the 
persistent absence of the wildfowl, both ducks 
and geese, in fact, so far as the latter are con¬ 
cerned, it might be said, almost literally there 
were none at all, excepting until the past ten 
days, when quite a few Canadas have been killed 
up along the Loup and the Platte. 
After the first issue of blue-wing teal, spoon¬ 
bills, mallards and widgeon from the close north, 
there has been nothing that even approximated 
what might be called a flight, and the far north¬ 
ern birds either took another route or passed us 
by in the night without even lingering long 
enough to say howdy. The more probable theory 
is, however, that the birds came and went in 
small and straggling bunches, and while both 
feed and water was abundant, for some un¬ 
accountable cause, they failed to linger here for 
any considerable time, and the shooting was 
never up to even the most ordinary standard. 
As for the geese, even along their favored 
old haunts on. the Platte River they have been 
only noticeable for their absence. Even back in 
October there were but precious few Hutchins 
and fewer white and speckled fronts, but a few 
PRAIRIE HE.\S. 
Canadas, which have been showing up better 
lately than at any period during the fall or 
winter. I spent a week out on the Three Spring 
marshes, on the Hon. Charles Metz's far-famed 
ranch, and bagged forty-four mixed ducks, two 
Canadas and an occasional old cock grouse. 
Earlier up on the Loup, at the mouth of Plorse 
Creek, from time immemorial famous for its 
ducks and geese, I was all but skunked, simply 
able to get enough for the camp. 
In a talk with State Game Warden Miller, 
he told me that upward of 20,700,000 fish were 
distributed among the various lakes and streams 
of the State during the years 1911-12. This num¬ 
ber included 18,825,000 wall-eyed pike, 812.750 
brook trout, 703,600 rainbow trout and 290,150 
big-mouth black bass. 
According to the warden the cultivation of 
bullfrogs in the State has not been very success¬ 
ful, although at Long Pine, Imperial, Beatrice, 
Benkelman and Bassett he is still looking for 
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