FOREST AND STREAM. 
[JAN. 13, 1906. 

60 
Vice-President Stetson, of Bangor; Director 
E. P. Mayo, of Waterville, Collector of Cus- 
toms, Wm. W. Sewall, of Houlton; Vice-Presi- 
dent D. M. Parks, of Pittsfield; Gen. Farring- 
ton, of Augusta; Carl E. Milliken, of Island 
Falls; Deputy Secretary of State Brown, of 
Augusta; Hon. Parker Spofford, of Bucksport; 
Dr. L. S. Chilcott, and Abe Hunt, of Bangor, 
were among other who spoke, most of them 
indorsing the suggestions and ideas brought out 
by the first speakers of the evening. Secretary 
Farrington, in a short speech during the even- 
ing, spoke in favor of obliging all persons, resi- 
dent or otherwise, to obtain a permit to enter 
upon the wild lands of the State to camp, canoe 
and fish, that they may be known to, and under 
the control of, the fish and game commission. 
Dr. Chilcott was the only one of those called 
up by the president, who offered any opposition 
to the several plans proposed, and he objected, 
in the name of the farmer, to the proposed 
shortening of the open season by removing the 
fifteen days in December. He was inclined to 
question, too, the authority of the State to pro- 
hibit a United States citizen from carrying arms 
(openly) on to the wild lands during any part 
of the year. Commissioner Carleton assured 
him at the close of his remarks that this pro- 
vision of the United States Constitution ap- 
plies only to those who “‘bear arms for the com- 
mon defense.” 
Mr. Milliken, of Island Falls, who was in 
the last Legislature when the present laws were 
enacted, felt that the laws were about as good 
now as they could be, were universally satis- 
factory, and he deprecated change unless it could 
be shown that certain and decided benefit would 
result from such change. By unanimous vote 
it was decided to make Kineo the place of the 
usual midsummer meeting and outing, at a date 
to be decided later by the Executive Board of 
of the Association. 
During the day the Wardens’ Association 
held its annual meeting, and elected its officers 
for the coming year as follows: Chairman, D. 
L. Cummings; Vice-Presidents, F. M. Perkins 
and W. T. Pollard; Secretary and Treasurer, E. 
M. Blanding; Directors, D. L. Cummings, W. 
I. Neal, George E. Cushman, Frank J. Durgin, 
C. S. Adams, W. R. Butler and M. C. Morrill. 
The wardens voted to have a special button 
made, by which members of the Association may 
be known, which shall be of celluloid, with the 
name of the organization circling the portrait of 
Chairman Carleton of the commission. 
The annual report of the commissioners of 
inland fisheries and game has just been presented 
to the Governor and Council, and is made public 
to-day. It contains much of interest to those 
who go into Maine’s recreation belt for hunt- 
ing, fishing, camping and canoeing. Among 
its most prominent features is a statement of 
the amounts received by the commission from 
its several sources of revenue, chief among 
which is the license to non-residents to hunt. 
The total amount turned over to the State 
treasury during the year is $38,508, of which 
the large amount of $31,455.53 is the net product 
of the sale of 2,413 non-resident licenses to hunt, 
451 being for bird hunting, 147 being extensions 
of the bird hunting licenses, while 1,962 were 
issued for all hunting after Oct. 1. The balance 
of the $38,508 was for other licenses, such as 
the 1,970 guides, the dealers in deer skins, the 
taxidermists and ornithologists, camp proprie- 
tors, marketmen, trappers and sales of seized 
game, and fines and penalties for violations of 
the law, a total of $7,053.47 from all sources 
outside of the non-resident license fund. The 
guides alone paid in $2,236, for their registration 
alone. The report gives the number of prosecu- 
tions “instituted” as ror, but does not say how 
many were successful, at least in the summary 
given out for publication. Seventy-one moose 
have been reported as killed illegally, during the 
year. Forty-eight of the 87 licensed dealers in 
deer skins have bought 4,053 skins, and 1,680 
guides who have reported, have guided 3,642 
residents and 8,291 non-residents (this is for 
fishing season, too), an aggregate of 74,651 days. 
They quote the American Express Company’s 
records of shipment through Bangor, of 4,836 
deer and 216 moose, but do not think the great 
increase in deer shipments can be laid to an 
increase in the supply of game, and say that 
“nobody, however, who is well informed, be- 
lieves .that the supply will equal this great 
yearly diminution for many years.” 
The eight hatcheries of the State are credited 
with turning out 1,000,000 fish for stocking the 
public waters of the State, of which some have 
been liberated, while the balance is being raised 
to greater size at the several feeding stations 
before being placed in the waters for which they 
are destined. Low water has for two years 
greatly hindered this branch of their activity. 
HERBERT W. Rowe. 
Channel Cat of the Upper Missouri. 
“Kinoe of all food fishes is the channel cat of 
the upper Missouri,” said the Colonel dog- 
matically, as we drew around the camp-fire. “I 
assert it and will maintain it against all comers. 
Throw a fresh log on the blaze there, Judge, 
and I’ll tell you how I found it out. 
“Tt was ’way back in ’69; seven white men and 
their nigger cook, Bill, had been left on the 
upper Missouri to guard half the cargo of the 
Walter H. Stockdale, while the steamer went 
on up the river with the other half to Fort 
Benton, on discharging which she would come 
back for us and the remainder of the cargo. 
When I tell you that Sitting Bull had just then 
begun his harrying of the upper country, and 
had been hot on our trail all the way up the 
river, you can imagine our task was no sinecure. 
However, we made a walled fort of the boxes 
and bales, stuck green cotton on the water side, 
to hide it from war canoes bound up and down 
the river, and kept regular military watch with 
sentinels, relieved every six hours, pacing the 
ramparts from sunset to sunrise. One night 
I had the second watch from midnight to sun up. 
“I had been sitting there perhaps an hour 
listening to the wild night sounds of the 
wilderness, my ears strained to catch the 
light footfalls of .a moccasin, when _ hap- 
pening to glance down, I saw a small fish 
pole with a short line and minnow hook on the 
end with which Eph Horn, one of our men, had 
tried to catch some minnows the day before. 
It was baited with a piece of bacon, and idly, 
without dreaming of a bite, I let it fall into the 
water. In a few moments I jerked on it and 
found it was fast. ‘Well,’ thought I, ‘here’s h’ll 
to pay, for Eph ’Il make more fuss over the loss 
of that hook and line than if it was silk and 
catgut just from Spaldings.’ 
“I tugged at it this way and that, and, by 
Jiminy, the thing moved; then it dawned on me 
that I was fast to an almighty big fish. 
“He wasn’t making much fuss, so I crept 
cautiously down to the water’s edge, drew him 
gently in until I could get my fingers in his 
gills, and flipped him up on the bank. It was 
a beautiful, blue, forked-tail channel cat, weigh- 
ing probably eight pounds. I rushed over and 
woke up the boys, and being true sportsmen, in 
ten minutes they had rigged up hooks and lines 
and soon had half a dozen cat flopping on the 
bank, all considerably larger than mine. 
“When Bill, our cook, woke up and saw those 
fish he was the happiest mortal in the bunch. 
He danced round and round and cried out, ‘Say, 
men, mebbe we won’t have the best dinnah to- 
day evah you flopped yoh lip ovah. Tse gwine 
to make a real fish chuck, I is,’ 
“We were all interested in watching Bill 
prepare that fish chuck. I don’t know that I 
can give all the ingredients after thirty-five 
years, but I remember that several fine fish were 
cut up about the size of a hickory nut and 
thrown into a large camp kettle of boiling water. 
To this was added canned corn, canned tomato, 
potatoes cut fine, and perhaps other ingredients 
which have escaped me, but: I do remember 
that when we were ranged along the rude table 
and Bill with a big dipper ladled out the fra- 
grant ‘chuck’ an ordinary spoon was far too 
small for our use, and words failed to express 
our appreciation; but we all agreed that it was 
one of the best dishes ‘we had ever flopped our 
lips ovah. From that time on while we stayed 
at Fort Reckless we had fish chuck every day ~ 
for dinner. 
“T may add that on the day the Stockdale re- 
lieved us, Sitting Bull’s* band, about four hun- 
dred strong, half Sioux and half Blackfeet, 
jumped us, but we stood them off and got the 
stuff safely on board, and saw it landed at Fort 
Benton.” ALBERT EXETER. 
Reports on Trout in Massachusetts. 
Barnstable county, all reports poor fishing. 
Berkshire, all reports, poor or fair fishing, save 
3 good. Bristol, 15 reports poor, 3 fair, none 
good. Dukes, all (4) reports poor. Essex, 15 
reports poor, 1o fair, none good. Franklin, 5 
reports poor, 6 fair, 3 good. Hampden, 8 re- 
ports poor, 6 fair, 6 good. Hampshire, 9 re- 
ports poor, 3 fair, 6 good. Middlesex, I9 re- 
ports poor, 14 fair, 4 good. Norfolk, 21 reports 
poor, 2 fair, none good. Plymouth, 11 reports 
poor, 4 fair, 1 good. Worcester, 24 reports 
poor, 16 fair, 9 good. 
This very poor showing is in some degree 
due to a bad season. But for all that, it is 
very evident that Massachusetts is not doing as 
much as she should for our trout streams. 
To the inquiry whether the work done by the 
State in. stocking is sufficient to maintain good 
fishing, the majority of those reporting from 
every county say it is not. Twenty-five per 
cent. of all those who have replied answer in 
the affirmative, 75 per cent. in the negative. 
Many correspondents emphasize the importance 
of planting fingerlings instead of fry in order 
to keep up the fishing. Several would shorten 
the trout fishing season. H. H. KimBatt. 
Food Qualities of the Carp. 
Editor Forest and Stream: 
Referring to your recent articles about the 
German carp, or, properly speaking, the Euro- 
pean carp, why don’t your writers take the carp 
for what it is, namely, a cheap, common food 
fish? Do they compare the codfish with the sal- 
mon, or run down its codfish because it is not 
like the salmon? No more sense is_ there 
in decrying the carp because it is not a trout. 
As to the eating qualities of the carp, it is as 
good as any fish, for every fish tastes different. 
To me, for instance, the worst tasting fish is 
the black bass. The fact is that the carp is a 
prolific cheap food fish for the millions, and in 
time will be recognized and appreciated as such. 
If it don’t tickle the palate of some super-re- 
fined sportsmen, let them leave it aside for us 
common trash, and say no more about it. 
CARPER. 
The Turtle’s Flippers. 
ACCORDING to a decision just rendered by Judge 
Taylor, in South Norwalk, Conn., to pierce the 
flippers of a turtle is cruelty to animals and 
therefore contrary to law. As the result of this 
decision, Capt. Charles E. Ducross, a market man, 
has been fined $5 and costs. 
Ducross, through his attorney, Mr. Keogh, 
took an appeal. The decision of Judge Taylor in 
this case, in which scientists, doctors and old sea 
captains have testified, makes it illegal to pierc 
the flipper of a turtle and thus tie it up. — 
Mr. Keogh, for the defense, held that if it was 
cruel to pierce the cartilage between the toes of 
a turtle it was cruel to open a clam or an oyster, 
while the person who would broil a live lobster 
ought to be hanged. ; 
The defense also showed that the brain of a 
turtle was one five-thousandth of the entire 
weight of the body, while the human being’s brain 
is one-fortieth of the body. The tortoise’s cere- 
bellum is infinitesimal and has no connection with 
the medulla oblongata, he asserted. It lives for 
seven months with the brain removed and for 
twelve days with the head severed. The defense 
held from this that the brain of a turtle could be 
of little use or necessity. 
This brought out an interesting contention, and 
doctors, lawyers and experts were wrangling over 
whether it would be cruel to eat a turtle before 
the end of the twelve days. 
