479 
e 
kind of country they are going to locate in, is 
not all that is necessary to establish them here. 
A capable game-keeper in the old world would 
be very careful of a shipment of partridges 
which he had received for the purpose of stock¬ 
ing a shooting estate. He would have the birds 
liberated on cultivated land if possible, where 
part was grass and part a vegetable garden. 
Nearly all our English authorities agree that 
a field of growing turnips furnishes the best 
cover for European partridges during the spring, 
summer and early autumn months. 
'When liberating birds on entirely new ground 
a professional game-keeper would be careful to 
confine the birds in small coops near the covers 
they wished them to remain in. 
The birds would be kept there a few days, fed 
plentifully, and allowed to escape a few at a 
time. 
The first ones which escaped would naturally 
be called back near the enclosure by the birds 
remaining inside, and if a supply of food was left 
conveniently near they would get accustomed to 
the locality and become attached to it before 
the remaining birds had all been liberated, 
whereas if the keeper simply opened the crates and 
FOREST AND STREAM 
allowed all the birds to escape at once they might 
make a long flight and settle in a place utterly 
unfit for them to procure food, and perhaps they 
would never be seen again. Possibly there are 
such reasons as this to account for the fact that 
some of our States have poor luck in stocking 
territory with game. 
One of the best reasons for bringing foreign 
game here is the fact that the rearing and han¬ 
dling of the birds for sporting purposes is thor¬ 
oughly understood in the countries from which 
we would obtain our supply, and we could rea¬ 
sonably hope to accomplish something, as we 
might have the benefit of the knowledge acquired 
by keeping and rearing the birds for a good many 
generations, but if we, at the present time, con¬ 
fine our attempts to our native birds we are ex¬ 
perimenting with unknown problems. 
I think the systematic attempt to master the 
breeding of our own game in captivity as it is 
being carried on by some of our game commis¬ 
sioners will lead eventually to success, for I be¬ 
lieve there is no reason why our birds can not 
be reared as well as foreign ones. But, unless 
we take some decided action, our own birds will 
be gone before the problem of increasing them 
by artificial methods is worked out satisfactor- 
ily, or if they do not entirely disappear their 
numbers will be so much diminished that our 
chances of success in making them abundant once 
more will be poorer than they are now. 
We certainly need long closed seasons on some 
of our game birds, but it we arc to expect the 
average gunners to respect a closed season we 
must furnish some other shooting for them each 
year. 
I am well aware that some do not favor the 
introduction cf foreign game, but as yet they do 
not propose any other plan which seems to offer 
the same chances of success. 
The ideals of this country have always taught 
us that it is safer to trust to the combined opin¬ 
ions of all interested persons, rather than to let 
the ideas of a few rule the many. Let us hope 
that sportsmen as a whole will pay more atten¬ 
tion to our future game prospects. 
Now as the question of funds necessary to 
carry on this work is so closely connected with 
it, why is not this a good time to make the fol¬ 
lowing inquiry: ‘<If a large part of the money 
received from hunting licenses is used by the 
state fish and game commissioners to propagate 
and distribute game fishes, why should not the 
sportsmen who go fishing pay a license, too, or 
better still, why not have one license to cover 
both hunting and fishing?” 
% 
Little Trip After Trout In 
The Southern Appalachians 
Hendersonville, N. C., June 20, 1915. 
Editor Forest and Stream: 
I have recently fished a stream new to me—the 
Nantahala River, near Agnona, Macon county. 
To get there I went via Asheville, from which 
place it is 108 miles to Andrews, and about four¬ 
teen miles thence to Agnona. 
A lawyer friend of years’ standing, who tran¬ 
sacts business for the Tallahassee Power Com¬ 
pany, in the course of conversation mentioned my 
name to the chief or managing engineer, as a 
friend of his of the fly-crank persuasion, with the 
result that the engineer expressed a wish to meet 
me, and very kindly sent me a season’s permit 
to fish the company’s waters—Nantahala River, 
and Buck Creek, a tributary of the Nantahala, 
and protected. So I joined him at Agnona and 
found him a most genial, pleasant gentleman, 
with none of the “sport” about him. We 
stopped at Bob Barnett’s. A big man 
with a big heart, whose little wife did 
all possible to make us comfortable. 
Those of Forest and Stream readers 
who have read Horace Kephart’s book, 
Our Southern Highlander,” will remem¬ 
ber the picture of Bob and those who 
have not, have a treat coming to them 
when they do read it. The Tallahassee 
Power Company bought about thirty 
copies of it, so that all the company’s 
men and their families might have the 
opportunity to read it. 
1 he Nantahala River is a most beauti¬ 
ful stream, well stocked with rainbow 
trout; the smaller streams and its head 
waters, with brook trout. 
The company is very wisely keeping 
the little streams free from all fishing, 
as a constant supply of trout came into 
the larger waters from these little feeders. I 
fished only a small part or stretch of the Nan¬ 
tahala, because Jupiter Pluvius kept up his un¬ 
fortunate habit, at this season of the year, of 
dropping in at just such times as I desired to 
acquaint mysfelf with some of the larger fish. 
Yet every minute of my time was one of en¬ 
joyment on that beautiful str, am, and I took am¬ 
ple toll of its waters, the 'able at Bob’s being 
supplied at almost every meal. There are sev¬ 
eral log jams, and as I passed carefully around 
the second of these I felt sure some nice fish 
were on the watch under the logs. But every 
fish could see me from at least half way across 
as I stepped gently into the water at a point 
from which I could cast. Carefully I dropped 
my flies close to the logs, a little further at each 
cast; the water was not deep. On the further- 
Talking It Over. 
side of the stream a log jutted out toward me, 
and I felt there was my chance. 
I dropped my flies within a few inches of that 
log, and I had a very quick response. How he 
bent the little rod in an attempt to get back to 
safety! I told him, as fishermen sometimes talk 
to fish: “Oh, no, my dear sir. not down that 
way, but all the line you wish, to go up stream.” 
But he paid little heed to what T said, his fight 
being logward. This I would not concede, and 
so, after a little time he lay in the bottom of 
my creel on fresh green grass; but not until I 
had killed him, for I never put a live trout in my 
basket to die by slow degrees. 
And then my last attempt on the river, when a 
thunder storm came up, and how the rain poured 
down 1 
The water was just clearing enough for the 
trout to see the fly, and the old J. P. 
was at it again. 
He gave me another downpour as I 
crossed the mountains on my return to 
Andrews. 
I wish I could have spent a month 
there in those beautiful mountains, on 
that wonderfully beautiful stream. I am 
sure I would have made intimate acquain¬ 
tance with some of the big fellows. I 
trust I can go again. 
Ernest L. Ewbanr. 
“A long string of fish is never carried 
“P , a Slde street.” So said Sir fsaac 
Walton, or some other philosopher. 
When you place your advertisement in 
Forest' and Stream, it goes right down 
the middle of the Main Street of Buying 
Possibility. Why stick to side streets 
when Main Street and its customers are 
open to you? 
