952 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
[Dec. 30, 1911. 
disappearing fast; that the matter is the most 
important of any game measure of the year; 
that it is fortunate that the movement is na¬ 
tional; that unless it is passed our game will 
soon be exterminated; that shore birds are 
showing special diminution; that market hunting 
is terribly destructive; that northern markets 
ought to be closed to the ducks which are 
slaughtered in great numbers by southern 
hunters; that propagation of wild game by 
private persons ought to be encouraged, for it 
will save wild game by supplying the need. A 
rising vote was asked for on the passage of the 
motion, and there were forty-five yeas to no 
nays, although quite a number of men and 
women did not vote. 
It was voted that a committee of five be ap¬ 
pointed to draft a bill to present to the Legis¬ 
lature. The chair appointed Commissioner 
Graham, chairman, and ex-Representative 
Poland. Mr. Seagraves of the Middlesex asso¬ 
ciations, J. H. Thomas of Middleboro, and 
William Minot of the Massachusetts Fish and 
Game Association. Mr. Graham said he would 
have the bill ready by Jan. 1. 
Next the matter of restraining stray dogs 
was discussed. Geo. P. Clark, of Boston, for 
it, said that the plan had been maliciously mis¬ 
represented. He had bird dogs and it is not 
the purpose of the bill to restrain all dogs dur¬ 
ing the nesting season, but only such dogs as 
have proved that they are unworthy of r liberty. 
One speaker said that the present law could 
be much better enforced against unlicensed 
dogs, for the benefit of birds. The president 
of the animal rescue league, Mrs. Huntington 
Smith, heartily approved the bill. 
Charles S. Ballard, of Springfield, said he 
should hesitate before putting in a bill restrain¬ 
ing all dogs. Mr. Clark said the bill did not hit 
all dogs, but only those which do damage. Mr. 
Ballard thought the bill would meet objections. 
He did not think the dogs are as destructive 
as some people suppose. 
Lawson Savage thought it would be imprac¬ 
tical to draw a bill to meet the case. Mr. 
Clark insisted that it was practical to restrain 
all self-hunting dogs. Mongrel, unrestrained 
dogs ought not to be allowed to hunt at will. 
Another speaker noted some one familiar with 
the Mt. Tom reservation as saying that dogs 
did more harm there to game than all other 
causes put together. By a rising vote of 31 
yeas to no nays it was voted to have a commit¬ 
tee of three to draw a bill for the reasonable 
regulation of dogs, and D. H. Mason, George 
P. Clark and Bradford S. Turpin were ap¬ 
pointed. 
On motion of James E. Thomas, after debate 
and indorsement by Chairman Field, of the 
State commission, it was voted to approve the 
proposed districting of the State for game 
warden service, with a chief in charge. 
Next was the question of protecting birds 
from enemies, especially stray cats. Chairman 
Charles said, amid applause, that cats are the 
worst enemies of our song and insectivorous 
birds, while insect pests are increasing. William 
Minot said that last year he trapped thirty-eight 
cats in a little wire inclosure, where he was 
raising game. It was moved to appoint a com¬ 
mittee to draw a bill to license cats. Mr. Po¬ 
land objected. It had been tried once and the 
legislative hearing became a roaring farce. 
They will never pass such a bill. There are so 
many farmers they will never pass a bill to 
limit cats. Frank Murphy, of Boston, said he 
would like the job of putting the bill through. 
Farmers’ sentiment has changed. They are 
having to pay too much for insect damage and 
are looking around to see what the cause is. 
He would see that the bill was put through. 
Dr. Tuttle agreed that the cat nuisance is the 
worst there is in the bird problem, but licens¬ 
ing will not be enough. The vote as passed 
was for a committee to minimize the damage to 
bird life by cats. 
The meeting postponed the matter of substi¬ 
tuting imprisonment in place of fines for vio¬ 
lating game laws. On the matter of the shoot¬ 
ing of deer, gray squirrels, pheasants, ducks, 
brant and upland birds, there was a protest 
against the great slaughter of wild geese and 
other migratory birds. Mr. Poland moved the 
appointment of a committee of three to draft 
a bill to regulate the use of decoys for wild 
fowl. A rising vote had 18 yeas and 12 nays. 
Messrs. Poland, Williams, Wharton and C. C. 
Clapp were appointed. It was voted to appoint 
a committee of three, of which Rev. Dr. 
Rowley, president of the Society for the Pre¬ 
vention of Cruelty to Animals, was chairman, to 
consider changes in the deer law, there being 
a desire in some quarters that the shooting of 
bucks only should be permitted.-—Springfield 
Republican. 
THE RIVER FISHER. 
When I write “The River Fisher” for my 
heading, I do not mean any of those enthusiasts 
who sit in a boat all day long and sip whisky 
enthusiastically. I am not meaning that type of 
fisher commonly seen on the estuaries of the 
coastal rivers; nor do I mean the rock-fisher 
of the sea-coastal rivers. I refer to the rod and 
hand-line fishers of the Murray, Murrumbidgee, 
or Darling. 
He is a type distinct from the coastal fishers. 
His rod is not usually a jointed one, with reel 
attached, but a stout stringy bark sapling, any¬ 
thing from ten to twenty feet in length, and 
light enough when dried to be capable of hand¬ 
ling. He has attached to this a good stout line 
—not one that will break on putting on an extra 
pound or two of “pull.” For his rod is not to 
angle, but to “yank” out the fish, as is com¬ 
monly done by the novice. The expert river- 
bank fisher lands his fish, however, as skilfully 
as a trout-angler creels his. But, unlike most 
of other fishers, he is not content with a rod; 
he has from two to six or a dozen hand-lines, 
which he will place in favorable position up and 
down the stream. Each is fastened to either a 
root or limb on the bank, or the stick upon 
which the line is wound is driven into the soft 
ground of the bank; a thinner stick about two 
or three feet long is pushed into the mud, and 
the line twisted once or twice around the top. 
The slightest pull on the line is shown by the 
lapse from perpendicularity of this stick. Should 
he be fishing during the night, he generally at¬ 
taches a small bell to each line. The bell gen¬ 
erally is made of a nail tied inside a baking- 
powder tin. It serves the purpose excellently, 
however, the slightest bite causing it to tinkle 
merrily. Should the river-fisher have a boat, as 
the men who “live on the game” usually have, 
they set cross-lines—that is, a line is fastened 
right across the stream, and to this a number 
of other lines, with four, five, or six hooks at¬ 
tached at different levels, are left dangling. 
But only the professionals adopt these methods. 
The amateurs are quite content with the ordi¬ 
nary rod, hand-lines, and bells. 
No one has better opportunities of studying 
the wild life of the bush than the river fisher. 
He, like Nature, is silent; and it is only to the 
silent watcher that nature reveals many of her 
secrets. How happy is he, too; for there is a 
subtle pleasure in sharing the secrets of the 
silent world around him. He is a philosopher 
in his happiness, for self is lost in ever-increas¬ 
ing wonder at the manifold mysteries revealed 
to him. Riding or walking along the banks of 
the out-back rivers or creeks, you will see him 
sitting there placidly, making no sign nor sound 
except the puffs from his pipe, which sound 
strangely loud in the silence. He hardly ac¬ 
knowledges your “Good-day,” and you wonder 
at his patience. But it is not patience, if we 
use the word in its correct significance; it is 
“placidity”—it is nature’s mood, and he is a 
child of nature. So when you only get a grunt 
for your “Good-day,” you must not go off say¬ 
ing, “Surly beggar,” but rather. “Silent beggar.” 
As the afternoon closes, he becomes a man of 
action; the fish are beginning to bite. And the 
fisher is all attention. It is very tiresome work 
holding one of those tringybark rods for longer 
than ten minutes, so the fisher has adopted the 
novel method of driving the sharpened end into 
the bank, with the remainder stretched out hori¬ 
zontally, nearly parallel to the surface of the 
Y OU know mallards —wisest and wariest of all 
ducks- Solomons of the air. You can’t knock 
down mallards with a paddle nor can you get them 
with a gun that plasters its shots all over the face 
of creation. 
A mallard shot is generally a long shot, and long 
shots require a hard-shooting, close-shooting gun. 
That’s why the long-headed man who goes to a 
mallard country takes a Lefe ver. When he swings 
it on a towering pair of mallards he does not ques¬ 
tion the result. He know it— 
TWO CLEAN KILLS 
The reason a Lefever kills clean and sure and 
far is Lefever Taper Boring. 
But if you buy a Lefever for the taper boring 
alone, you will get more than your money’s worth. 
For instance, you will never be handicapped with 
looseness at the hinge joint. The exclusive Lefever 
screw compensates for a year’s wear by a trifling 
turn that you make yourself with a screwdriver. 
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water. It so happens that when-a hooked fish 
runs straight out toward the other bank he 
sometimes takes rod and all; and this necessi¬ 
tates a swim after the bobbing rod. When a 
fish is securely hooked and is not immediately 
landed, it seems to know, by instinct, that the 
only chance it has is by twisting round a snag, 
and if one is to be found (and they generally 
are) within reach of the hooked fish, he will 
generailly be found securely twisted around. 
Occasionally the fish escapes by tearing the 
hook right out by this means. The bending of 
the fastening on the bank does not enable it to 
do this, as it cannot get a firm pull. 
Many tall stories are told as to the size of 
“cod” caught in these out-back streams. But I 
have seen several of over one hundred pounds in 
weight. One I saw carted around Wagga, the 
tail dragging on the ground. A number of 
Chinese bought the entrails; the remainder was 
cut up and sold by the pound. That one went 
one hundred and thirty-two pounds. It was a 
Murrumbidgee cod. 
One old fish story I heard when a boy. Some 
one’s grandfather—I believe it must have been 
my own—had to get a team of bullocks to pull 
a cod out of the “Bidgee.” But it appears the 
cod had “snagged’ ’itself, so the bullocks were 
fastened by chains on to the snag, and snag and 
fish were hauled out at the same time. For 
the fish only weighed eighty pounds in all. But 
certainly he was a man of resource. 
This river-baink type of fisher is. I’m afraid, 
dying out to a great extent. The rising genera¬ 
tions do not seem to have the same fondness 
for the sport as their fathers—and mothers, even 
