FOREST AND STREAM 
311 
This is a bad beginning for a fish story. The 
language seems to suggest that the narrator has 
already become unreliable. As a matter of fact, 
phrases which are strictly accurate may be pal¬ 
pably misleading. 
The language of hyperbole is needed to present 
an adequate picture. Perhaps the mosquitoes 
are not quite so big or fierce or numerous as 
stated. But they seem to be. 
But to the fish story. And the language of 
vivid metaphor shall be laid aside. What fol¬ 
lows is fact, unadorned, unexaggerated fact. I 
could not have dreamed it. I cannot even now 
that I have begun to put pen to paper hope to 
tell it in such a way as to bring the scene with 
realizing earnestness before the eye of my bro¬ 
ther anglers. 
It was evening. I was on the lake alone in my 
little canvas boat. The fishing had been good. I 
was returning to camp satisfied. The sack of 
fish, my fishing kit, discarded tackle, the net, etc., 
lying at the bottom of the boat, it seemed safer 
to leave the rod to poke out over the stern, the 
flies trailing the water—out of mischief, as I 
thought, where they could not get tangled with 
any of the truck. 
So I rowed along gently, happy in the slaugh¬ 
ter I had accomplished, and wishing my friends 
had been with me to do their share. And the rod 
shot over the stern of the boat before my very 
eyes! 
I had the presence of mind not to make a for¬ 
ward dart and grab for it as it disappeared. Such 
a violent movement would undoubtedly have col¬ 
lapsed my collapsible boat. I sat in speechless 
amazement, too startled for thought. 
And then close by a mighty splashing and 
plunging. I turned and saw on the top of the 
water something swimming, a red-brown head 
and shoulders. I was frightened. It was so 
huge. 
I thought of a bear, of a shark, and stories of 
sea monsters flashed through my mind. The 
thing was swimming slowly. What I could see 
of it looked for all the world like the head of a 
magnificent St. Bernard dog I used to own. 
Then I came to myself. I realized that this 
was a fish of a species not known to me and of 
an incredible, unheard of size. He had taken my 
fly, had hooked himself on to the rod which he 
had dragged overboard, and was swimming slow¬ 
ly because he was drawing it along the bottom 
of the lake. 
I chased him. He dived, came up again with 
a splashing like that of an elephant in a pond, 
and smashed down again. Almost I could keep 
up with him, so slowly did he swim and so much 
time did he waste in his frantic efforts to get 
free. 
If I had been able to row properly, facing in a 
direction opposite to the one in which I was mov¬ 
ing, I believe I could have overtaken him. But 
I needed to keep my eye on him, and so had to 
backwater with the oars, losing power at every 
stroke. I was thinking slowly. I was still too 
stunned to think normally. I was puzzled by 
the fact that such a monster did not break my 
frail tackle in a moment. There was no resis¬ 
tance so long as the forty yards of line continued 
to unwind or the rod to move easily 'through 
the water. 
As often as he swung over and dropped down 
on the six-foot leader it simply yielded beneath 
him. Five times he rose, and the fifth time I 
was quite near him. He semed to be anything 
from four feet to six feet long. I have at home 
a muskallonge which I caught five years ago in 
the St. Lawrence river. He weighed 32 pounds 
and measures 47 inches. This fellow was much 
bigger and more terrifying. And I have no other 
means of guessing at his size and weight. 
Then with the sixth leap and dive something 
gave, and the monster was seen no more. I 
rowed slowly back to camp actually unnerved 
by the adventure! Literally, and he who will 
may laugh at me, I felt afraid to be alone in the 
failing evening light, alone on a piece of water 
inhabited by such creatures as the one who had 
pursued me and whom I had pursued. 
I was glad to hear the friendly hail of my 
guide from the landing place of logs which we 
had constructed, to see the glare of the camp¬ 
fire, and to sniff the smell of supper. Then I 
reckoned up my loss: A Leonard rod, $35; a 
Hardy reel, $17.50, and a $4 line—nearly $60 worth 
of property at the bottom of Red Eagle Lake!— 
New York American. 
COMMISSIONER PHILLIPS REPLIES TO 
PRICHARD. 
My attention has been called to the publica¬ 
tion, in the Wilkes-Barre newspapers and in the 
“North American” of Philadelphia, of a speech 
delivered by David Prichard, of Scranton, at a 
meeting of the United Sportsmen in Wilkes- 
Barre, in which he reflects upon me as an in¬ 
dividual and also as a member of the board of 
game commissioners of Pennsylvania. Inas¬ 
much as up to the time of the delivery of this 
speech Mr. Prichard and I were apparently on 
good terms I am at a loss to account for this 
attack. 
Mr. Prichard charges that: 
“John M. Phillips, of Pittsburgh, state game 
commissioner, does not want the searching eye 
of the ‘Pennsylvania Sportsmen’ bulletin to fol¬ 
low the expenditure of $800,000, which will be 
in his hands after January 1, and because of 
this he is endeavoring to have the bulletin taken 
over by ‘In the Open’ a corporation paper.” 
He further states that I am financially in¬ 
terested in the magazine “In the Open.” 
Mr. Prichard makes the astonishing state¬ 
ment that the resident hunters’ license fund, 
which he alleges will amount to $800,000 by 
January 1, will be in my hands by that date 
and he recommends: 
“That the state use one-third of the hunters’ 
license receipts for the purchase of barren and 
waste lands in the state, and that there are 
thousands of acres of timbered and barren, 
stony and mountainous land in the state that 
can be purchased for as little as 50 cents an 
acre; that his plan is to conduct a systematic 
purchase of all this land with money provided 
by the hunters’ licenses, reclaim it and restrict 
it to the use of the hunters, picnickers and poor 
of the state.” 
This is a strange statement to come from one 
who professes -to be a sportsman and who was 
elected on that assumption as the head of a 
state organization of sportsmen. It shows his 
amazing lack of knowledge and comprehension 
of the resident hunters’ license law and his 
ignorance of the amount of the revenues accru¬ 
ing therefrom and the specific purpose to 
which same can be appropriated. The resident 
hunters’ license fund will not amount to $800,- 
000, as stated by Mr. Prichard. As a matter 
of fact 303,000 licenses were taken out last 
year, netting the state, after the deduction of 
expenses, about $272,000. The funds realized 
will never pass into the hands of the game com¬ 
mission, which consists of six members, but will 
remain in the state treasury until there is a 
specific legislative appropriation. 
The law provides that up to one-half of this 
fund, if needed, must be used to reimburse coun¬ 
ties for the payment of bounties only. On the 
basis of the amount raised during the season of 
1913 it will be seen that about $140,000 will be 
available yearly to the game commission for the 
employment of game protectors, the creation 
and maintenance of game preserves, purchas¬ 
ing game, the establishment of game propaga¬ 
tion farms, if necessary, and feeding game dur¬ 
ing severe winters. 
The distribution for these purposes must be 
by state treasury warrant upon the itemized ac¬ 
counts rendered by the game commission and 
audited by the auditor general of the state. 
Further, the game commission welcomes and 
expects the scrutiny of all sportsmen on the 
appropriation and expenditure of this fund, of 
which an annual public report will be made, 
giving the details of all expenditures, 
The magazine “In the Open” was founded 
some years ago by James B. Sansom, an active 
newspaper man of Pittsburgh and an all-round 
sportsman and out-of-doors man, who has been 
given aid and financial assistance by more than 
125 active sportsmen from all parts of Pennsyl¬ 
vania and also from such well known conserva¬ 
tors as Dr. William T. Hornaday, Howard 
Eaton, Enos Mills and others in various parts 
of the country. No corporation owns a share 
of its stock, and neither do I, but I have been 
one of many to support it as an educational 
enterprise wherein sportsmen, boy scouts and 
others interested in the conservation of wild 
life and out-of-doors can have an opportunity to 
express their views. 
In reply to Mr. Prichard’s recommendation 
that one-third of the hunters’ license fund be 
used for the purchase of ‘land to be restricted 
to the use of hunters, picnickers and the poor 
of the state,” attention is called to the text of 
the resident hunters’ license law, which provides 
that the funds shall be used 
“solely for the purpose of wild bird and 
game protection and for the purchase and 
propagation of game under the supervision of 
the board of game commissioners of the Com¬ 
monwealth of Pennsylvania, and the payment of 
bounties under the provisions of law.” 
Therefore, this hunters’ license fund must be 
expended in accordance with the state act. The 
forestry department of the state already owns 
1,000,000 acres of wild land, costing about $2,- 
500,000, scattered through 26 counties of the 
state, which is being used for the purpose urged 
by Mr. Prichard, and the sportsmen are aiding 
the forestry commission to increase its holdings. 
It would be illegal, as well as unfair to the 
sportsmen, who have contributed to this fund 
for game protection and propagation, to use 
this money for picnic grounds or any other 
purpose not specified in the act. 
JOHN M. PHILLIPS. 
