March ii, igi i.] 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
381 
should do so, and that the representative is not 
really paid in a commercial sense, since the club’s 
interest in his work is confined to the business 
meetings he attends and not to the contests of 
skill he may enter. If he wins, the club is proud 
of him, and of course wishes to see him near 
if not at the head of the list of all events, he 
enters. 
These are some of the reasons why the twenty- 
odd clubs affiliated with the National Associa¬ 
tion are not all represented in its councils. Take 
the California clubs, for example. Their dele¬ 
gates could hardly make the journey to Mil¬ 
waukee and home again for less than $200, and 
there are few busy men who feel that they can 
afford to pay so much for three days’ enjoyment. 
Amateur. 
An Irish Warden at Work. 
In a recent issue of the Irish Times there is 
a report of a case in which one Mooney was 
fined $35 by the fishing conservators of the 
Limerick district for poaching in the Silver River 
near his home at Ballinacarrig. The record 
shows that the Irish wardens prosecute their 
work with vigor. The sergeant who made the 
arrest was publicly commended. The record fol¬ 
lows : 
The evidence of Sergeant O’Donnell was to 
the effect that on Boxing Day he was on plain 
clothes duty, and noticed the defendant on the 
opposite side of the bank. Mooney, whom he 
did not know at the time, had a four-prong 
spear. The sergeant concealed himself, and saw 
the defendant lying at full length, watching for 
fish, and using the spear at frequent intervals. 
Sergeant O’Donnell, finding it would be impos¬ 
sible to “capture,” or even to identify, the man, 
he being a good distance away, jumped into the 
river, and swam across. However, when he 
got to the other side he found that the defend¬ 
ant had disappeared, and on looking round he 
saw that he had also jumped into the water and 
swam across to the opposite side, having dis¬ 
covered that the officer was on his track. 
The sergeant, finding that his movements were 
being watched, concealed himself for a consider¬ 
able time, and Mooney, thinking apparently that 
he had abandoned the chase, went up the river 
for a distance of about a quarter of a mile and 
resumed operations. The sergeant, however, had 
him under close observation all the time. He 
saw the defendant use the spear as if he was 
killing something, and then he took a large sal¬ 
mon from the water. “Just as he was taking 
up the salmon, your worships,” said the ser¬ 
geant, “I took a running jump into the river 
which was five feet deep and swam across to 
where Mooney was.” The sergeant added that 
he took possession of the salmon, which weighed 
seven pounds. 
New Britain Fish and Game Club. 
At the annual meeting, held in New Britain, 
Conn., the result of stocking nearby streams 
with trout was reported to be favorable, but a 
contrary report was made regarding Hungarian 
partridges. These officers were elected: Presi¬ 
dent, Hedley P. Carter; Vice-Presidents, Frank¬ 
lin Bassette and Orlando Swift; Secretary, A. 
W. Parsons; Treasurer, R. C. Merwin. 
THE TOP RAIL. 
Since one of our consuls has vouched for the 
accuracy of the following statements, it is not 
for me to say that “water-witches” are not de¬ 
serving of our faith; I have not been converted, 
that is all. 
“Recently,” says Vice-Consul General Baker, 
writing from Sydney of the efforts to extract 
water from the dry soil of Queensland, "it has 
become a common practice to locate subterranean 
water by the old-time expedient of employing 
a 'water diviner,’ and several men who are 
gifted with the strange power of detecting the 
presence of underground streams of water are 
engaged in selecting suitable sites. There is a 
certain proportion of failures, but some of the 
‘water diviners’ undertake to sink these wells, 
finding casing and everything, at a cost of $3.64 
a foot, on the stipulation ‘no water, no pay.’ 
For the deeper wells the cost is $2.91 to $4.13 
per foot for the first 1,000 feet, the borer find¬ 
ing casing and all needed material and supplies.” 
John Russell Bartlett says, in his “Dictionary 
of Americanisms,” that a water-witch is “a per¬ 
son who pretends to have the power of discover¬ 
ing subterranean springs by means of the divin¬ 
ing-rod, made once from the witch hazel, but 
now more commonly from the peach tree. In 
many parts of the country not a well is dug 
without a previous consultation with a water- 
witch ; and one who attempts to run counter to 
the popular delusion is in danger of having his 
common sense doubted.” 
In the Southwest a boy once took me into a 
little arroyo, and pointing to a stake, said it 
marked a vein of water. I was not from Mis¬ 
souri, nor had the famous expression now inti¬ 
mately associated with that State been invented, 
but I was incredulous nevertheless. This an¬ 
gered my friend, who said his father had paid 
a certain person well-known in that country to 
locate water. This person had cut a green moun¬ 
tain ash sprout, clipped it so that it resembled 
a letter Y, and holding the twig firmly by the 
stem, with the forks pointing ahead of him, had 
walked about until the sprout, of its own accord, 
pointed to one side and downward, indicating 
water. So they drove the cedar stake and pre¬ 
pared to unearth the water, which the diviner 
said was close to the surface. 
Boylike, I was interested, and agreed to help 
develop the vein. In the next three days I 
learned that dynamite is powerful; how to 
manipulate a drill; and finally, to put implicit 
faith in a saying then current in those dry moun¬ 
tains, “Believe nothing you hear, and only half 
you see with your own eyes.” 
With pick and shovel, drill and b'asting powder 
we drove a five-foot shaft about fifteen feet into 
the red earth and flinty stone. We cut through 
the dipping ledge that the diviner knew, from the 
surface formation, we would find, but the only 
water that gushed forth came from our canteens. 
Finally I was left alone while my companion 
rode home for more water. It was poor judg¬ 
ment on his part, and disastrous to his scheme, 
for while he was away I plugged all the drill 
holes with dynamite, touched it off and ran, hop¬ 
ing, in my innocence, to save ourselves much 
labor with pick and shovel. 
It rained earth and stone and cedar trees for 
a long time after the blast, but no water. What 
had been a shaft was but a mound of earth and 
stone, and it was not deemed worth while to 
clear it out. 
* * * 
The building of aeroplanes has created an 
important demand for the better grades of canes. 
Airmen have come to an appreciation of the 
lightness and strength of those canes which 
have long been favorites with anglers, and the 
average aeroplane seems to demand a greater 
number of the reeds than one would at first 
think were needed. They have a way of bump¬ 
ing into fences, alighting with a jar, or fouling 
various objects—all of which demand repairs 
and more canes. All things considered, canes 
are not much lighter than seasoned spruce, 
and are not so strong, for they will buckle 
where spruce will stand; but in the rupture 
spiuce splinters in long slivers that may prove 
dangerous. Then, too, spruce in long spars is 
becoming more and more costly. 
In the early days of canoe sailing lateen sails 
were much used. While the mast was short 
and was made from spruce or white pine, the 
yard and boom were often made from whole 
canes, for this type of sail required very long 
spars, its small area considered. The canes 
were more or less unwieldy, however, particu¬ 
larly as the taper was not satisfactory, and 
later on clear spruce was used. These spars 
were tapered from the center both wavs and 
wei e often bent like a bow by the wind, yet 
it was very rarely that one broke. 
Spruce is still the -standard material for canoe 
spars and for double paddles, though the cost 
has appreciated year by year. There are few 
varieties of wood that will outwear spruce for 
canoe paddles in deep waters where there are 
no rocks to split the blades. Along the Hud¬ 
son River to-day there are paddles whose shapes 
proclaim them to have been made in the hey¬ 
day of the Everssons; say thirty years at least. 
* * * 
One day a huge tomcat sat on a fencepost 
near one of my windows, expressing his views 
on stray cat life in his own fashion. I strung 
my bow and drawing an arrow nearly to the 
head, let it go with force enough to drive the 
steel head through an inch board. It struck the 
cat full in the forehead, but bounded up, indi¬ 
cating a glancing blow. As for Thomas, he sat 
perfectly still a moment, then looked up, sud¬ 
denly collapsed, fell toward me to the ground, 
kicked once or twice, then lay still. Thinking 
that his resonant voice was silenced, I went for 
a spade, but when I returned the cat was no¬ 
where in sight, and I have never seen him since. 
* * * 
James M. Nelson, a British naturalist, en 
route for Florida, is living on the after deck 
of the City of St. Louis in a portable house. 
Reason, no berths vacant. Our British friends 
carry a lot of duffle with them to camp. Was 
it not Kitchener who told his officers they could 
not take pianos and four-post bedsteads along 
with them to war? Grizzly King. 
