FOREST AND STREAM 
171 
New Way To 
The difficulty in transporting fish fry and adult 
fish from one place to another has never been 
altogether overcome, but the California Game 
Commssion which has faced the problem of ship¬ 
ping fish for hundreds of miles over mountain¬ 
ous territory and through utter wildernesses, 
has finally found a plan that has worked well 
and which will prove valuable to fish culturists 
and clubs all over the United States. 
Experiments having demonstrated that canvas 
containers offer added advantage over tin in the 
carrying of trout, a new packhorse fish “can” has 
been envolved by deputies of the Fresno office, 
which apparently is the acme of perfection in 
fish carrying receptacles in regions where ice is 
unavailable and where aeration must be obtained 
without the aid of artificial methods. The size 
and shape (oblong) of the usual packhorse can 
has been retained. The tops and bottoms of the 
new containers are of pine five-eighths of an inch 
thick; a throat of tin is inserted in the top, pro¬ 
vided with a removable screen as in former cans. 
A strip of canvas of special design, eighteen in¬ 
ches wide, the ends lapped and sewed in such 
manner as to make an open envelope, is fitted 
to the wooden top and bottom and secured 
thereto by means of clothes-line wire drawn in 
such manner as to press the canvas tightly into 
grooves which encircle the boards. To give 
rigidity to this container, a galvanized iron 
shield is provided with hangers which, when 
bolted top and bottom to the “can,” makes it to 
all intents and purposes as rigid as though the 
whole container were of metal. This shield does 
not completely encircle the can, covering only 
the back and ends, and to it are attached 
straps for hanging the container to the pack- 
saddle. For packhorse work the new device has 
many advantages. First, just enough water ex¬ 
udes through the canvas to keep down the tem¬ 
perature within the container by evaporation; 
second, aeration of the water is infinitely better; 
third, the fish are not liable to injury by striking 
against canvas; fourth, the cans may be carried 
“knock down,” and set up at any time without 
the use of tools; one packhorse can carry a 
dozen or more of these “knock down” contain¬ 
ers, leaving the rest of the packtrain to carry 
barley and other necessary supplies for the ex¬ 
pedition. A few extra canvas envelopes, which 
occupy little space, can be carried for emergency 
Ship Live Fish 
repairs, and in event of an accident to a can 
on the trail a new canvas form substituted for 
the injured one. To avoid infection, the canvas 
envelope may, at any time, be removed and 
placed in boiling water. The cost of this new 
type of packhorse can is 50 per cent, less than 
for a well constructed tin can. The details of 
the new fish-carrying device were worked out 
and 14 pairs of the “cans” were constructed by 
Deputy D. H. Hoen of the Fresno Division. 
This new method can probably be adapted to 
man-packing as well as horseback packing, and 
the experiences of the California Commission 
have shown that even adult live fish can be 
transported to almost inaccessible places and 
kept alive for days at a time. 
NOVA SCOTIA APPRECIATION. 
Digby, N. S., Feb. 5th, 1915. 
Editor Forest and Stream : 
The monthly Forest and Stream is a “ripper.” 
I was wondering how I was going to do without 
“Bluff”-a Good Tolling Dog. 
my weekly number, but now I am quite willing 
to postpone the pleasure until the first of every 
month. 
I am enclosing you photo of “Bluff,” my best 
tolling dog, taken with his winter coat on, I have 
had so many inquiries about tolling dogs since 
my article appeared in Forest and Stream 
describing these dogs, that I thought you might 
think it worth while to publish a picture of a good 
specimen of the breed. To my mind, “Bluff” is 
the best retriever and fastest swimmer that ever 
looked through a collar. 
“A SURE SIGN OF AN EARLY SPRING.” 
The Fisherman’s Club of Chicago will hold its 
Annual Dinner at the Auditorium Hotel, Chi- 
cago, Saturday, March 27, at 6 o’clock p. m 
Some of the foremost speakers in the country 
are booked, and a first-class program has been 
arranged. 
A REMARKABLE SHOT. 
The flimsy little newspapers which some of my 
German relatives send me each week are not 
very satisfactory nor illuminating as to what is 
going on at present over there, but there will be, 
once in a while, an item so unusual as to be 
worth translating. 
The following account it of a quite remark¬ 
able and well-attested rifle-shot which ought to 
interest your readers. The article is called: “A 
shot which deserves to go on record” and tells of 
a French rifle-ball which had been shot into a 
German gun-barrd, where it met and exploded 
the cartridge to the great detriment of the gun 
and the man—the German infantry man—who 
was aiming it at the enemy. 
Disbelieved, defended, ridiculed and solemnly 
attested by reporters, soldiers and experts this 
news-item has been going the rounds o'f German 
local papers; and at last came to the eyes off Dr. 
Linz—an army-surgeon, home on sick-leave and 
wading through the accumulated war-literature, 
his good wife bad been collecting for him. Dr. 
Linz, strange to say, was the very surgeon who 
had bandaged and treated the eyes oif the badly- 
damaged man whose rifle had been so queerly hit, 
and he positively affirms the absolute truth off the 
story. French bullet—‘much elongated and badly 
deformed—and German rifle had been examined 
very carefully by him, his assistant, and many 
bystanders and were found to be of 7.91 milli¬ 
meter calibre for the German Mauser and 7.8 
millimeter for the French gun. “The French¬ 
man’s aim (?)” concludes Dr. Linz, “was truly 
wonderful; off a straightness and a ‘directness 
quite marvelous. The bullet must have hit the 
German rifle-muzzle plumb in the middle of the 
center. And we are all hoping that the German 
lad who had the ill-luck to fire just a ‘hundredth 
part of a second too late is doing at least as 
well as can be expected.” KATE H. 
H. A. P. SMITH. 
