May 29, 1909.] 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
855 
A New Region in the South. 
Raleigh, N. C, May 23. — Editor Forest and 
Stream: I have just spent a joyous \veek travel¬ 
ing in North Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia and 
West Virginia in a private car with Charles B. 
Ryan and J. J. Campian, of the Seaboard Air 
Line and the Carolina, Clinchfield & Ohio rail¬ 
ways. Last August, when I made the first trip 
through on the Carolina, Clinchfield & Ohio 
Railway, on a construction train on the day the 
road was completed, a promise was made that 
the next journey should be made under spring 
skies and in far handsomer style, and this 
promise has been kept. Our purpose was to 
see not merely the construction of this wonder¬ 
ful road, but to look at it from the viewpoint 
of a tourist .and as a sporting proposition, so 
to speak, and we found immense possibilities 
for game and fish for 275 miles, since for very 
little of the entire distance does the road leave 
what may be made splendid trout water. A 
great deal of the country is practically virgin. 
Our route lay from Raleigh by way of Char¬ 
lotte, Bostic, Johnson City and St. Paul to Dante 
in the coal region. The North Fork of the 
Catawba, Honeycutt’s Creek, Thompson’s Creek, 
the Toe River, the Nolichucky, the Clinch River 
and one of its forks all give unlimited possi¬ 
bilities for restocking. There are trout in the 
Toe and in Thompson’s Creek and perhaps 
other streams, and into these come a multitude 
of tumbling streams. 
We left Johnson City in the early morning, 
stopping along the Nolichucky River at Unaka 
Springs, in Tennessee, and two or three points 
in North Carolina, spending an hour or two on 
the crest of the Blue Ridge at Altapass. 
Our journey-came to an end at Linville Falls 
and at the hotel kept by Mr. Penland, and we 
kept his good'wife and daughter busy supply¬ 
ing us with food. Big dishes came in every 
now and then, piled with brook trout and rain¬ 
bow trout—big fellows—just out of the river 
and caught for us. 
Mr. Penland told me about the one-legged 
eagle of Linville Canon, remarking that for 
many a year this bird, a male, had made his 
home there, and that his mate has not only fed 
him, but their eaglets, season after season. The 
big fellow on one occasion flew past, with stately 
swing and swoop of his great wings, on a level 
with us, his unquailing eye taking in not only 
our poor selves, but that wonderful world of 
depth and height, and stone and stream and 
flower and tree, which was his kingdom. Along 
the canon the people have a great respect for 
this bird, who must needs be waited upon and 
tended and ministered unto by his devoted 
spouse. Mr. Penland said that on one occas¬ 
ion this eagle was observed attempting to catch 
a young wild turkey. He had marked down a 
bunch of the young turkeys and suddenly dashed 
among them. He had to strike the ground with 
his one foot and then leap in order to grasp 
at them, but was so handicapped that he could 
do nothing, and the birds got safely into cover. 
Time after time he has been seen trying to 
catch grouse, but very rarely does he succeed. 
Young Wiseman, after whose father the 
place is named, told us that during the past 
two years he and his two brothers had killed 
thirty-two bears in the canon and that last win¬ 
ter his thirteen-year-old brother, with a three- 
dollar shotgun, had been on a bear hunt, and 
in climbing down the canon wall in a dare-devil 
pursuit of a she bear and her two cubs, had 
come up with them after he had almost broken 
his leg and shot the mother, who made off, leav¬ 
ing the cubs. Then he climbed up the mountain 
after he had tied his coat to a tree to mark the 
place, found his brothers, took them and their 
dogs to the spot, whence the cubs were packed 
up the mountain, the brothers keeping up the 
pursuit of the she bear and killing her. 
Fred A. Olds. 
Continental Field Trial Club Matters. 
Hempstead, L. I., N. Y., May 15. —Editor 
Forest and Stream: The activity of the Conti¬ 
nental Field Trial Club and the interest its 
members are showing in an effort to improve' 
field trial methods, and promote interest in the 
MR. BULKLEY and HIS TROPHY. 
game generally, is shown in their zealous en¬ 
deavor to make their trials of 1909 a “red 
letter” event. At a meeting of the governors 
of the club held in New York city, on the 28th 
prox., many questions of interest to sportsmen 
in general and to field trial lovers in particu¬ 
lar, were discussed, and well devised plans 
formulated with a view to improving present 
conditions and making the game more attrac¬ 
tive to breeders, owners and handlers of bird 
dogs. One of the several questions dealt with 
was the bench show given by this club each year 
in connection with its field trials. Having made 
this bench show a prominent fixture of the 
annual meeting, the club has decided to divide 
the sexes in both pointer and setter classes, 
making four classes in all and to give to the 
winner in each class a sterling silver cup or an 
appropriate trophy, and to the handler of each 
winner a five-dollar gold piece. 
The bench show has been a very interesting 
feature of the Continental Club’s meeting for 
the past two years. In 1907, Happy Day, Mr. 
U. M. Fleischmann, owner, won the setter cup, 
and Outran, Dr. LTowe, owner, won the pointer 
cup; J. White, judge. In 1908, Ransom Tony, 
H. R. Edwards, owner, won the setter cup, J. 
White, judge; and Manitoba Rap, Thomas 
Johnson, owner, won the pointer cup, U. M. 
Fleischmann, Irving Hoagland and Dr. Atkins 
judging. 
It was fun enough to hear Ed. Garr and Jake 
Bishop calling the judges’ attention to the 
faults of the other fellow’s dog. The field trials 
of to-day are contested in a friendly spirit. It 
is a pleasure to witness the handlers’ courtesy 
to each other, all jokes are taken in good part, 
and nobody gets offended and every handler 
seems to be willing to help his foe if need be; 
somewhat different from the older times when, 
with few exceptions, all seemed to be out to 
win, and none regarded greatly the rights of 
others. 
Owing to the numerous prospective nomina¬ 
tions made for the coming members’ stake 
of the club, the Continental’s board has de¬ 
cided to start this event on Eriday, Nov. 19, 
allowing two days instead of one to finish the 
stake. The bench show will be held on Sun¬ 
day, the 21 St, and the derby will begin on Mon¬ 
day, the 22d, followed by the all age. Hand¬ 
somely gotten up certificates of merit will be 
given to all dogs winning a place in the field 
trials or the bench show, and certificates of 
merit will be given to all dogs which the judges 
shall deem worthy to compete in the broken 
and hunting dog classes at bench shows. 
The Continental Club has also taken up the 
question of a thorough and scientific investiga¬ 
tion of distemper in dogs, with a view to dis¬ 
covering, if possible, an effective anti-toxin for 
this disease. It appears that when this project 
was mentioned some months ago the necessary 
amount of funds to carry it through, viz., 
$2,500, could not be raised. However, at the 
meeting and dinner of the Continental Club 
held at the Lafayette Hotel in New York on 
April 14, 1909, the subject was again brought up 
and approximately $1,000 promptly subscribed 
by the members then present. Dr. A. S. Clark 
volunteered his services in connection with 
Dr. Sherwood to conduct the. investigation. 
The balance of the $2,500, the Continental Club 
has now furnished by popular subscriptions of 
its members. The benefit derived from the in¬ 
vestigation which will be immediately com¬ 
menced and earnestly pushed forward will be 
given gratis to the public by the Continental 
Club, with the sincere hope that it may reduce 
the mortality and ameliorate the sufferings of 
the truest and best friend of man, the honest 
dog. John White, Sec’y-Treas. 
Mississippi Shantyboat. 
Clarksdale, Miss., May 12.-— Editor Forest 
and Stream: Referring to E. J. McCartney’s 
letter in your issue of May 8 it would be better 
for him to make his boat ten feet wide for 
navigation on the Mississippi, as an upstream 
wind makes pretty big white caps sometimes, 
though shanty boats as narrow as seven feet 
are sometimes seen. The Mississippi River part 
of his trip is perfectly feasible. I believe the 
navigation laws require that if a craft is float¬ 
ing at night it shall have a light in plain view 
and a man on watch, but I have heard of no 
other requirements for this kind of boat. 
The above are the requirements for a raft 
of sawlogs. I wish to qualify by explaining that 
I once made a two hundred mile trip on a raft 
and held every office from cook to watchman, 
but never got to be captain. Tripod. 
