
- 
_ jointed plain 



: FOREST AND STREAM. 75 
=  —SsSSS5qqqg LU 

GAME FISH IN SEASON IN SEPTEMBER. 
Bluetish, (Temnodon saltator.) 
Land-locked Salmon, (salmo Gloveri. 
Trout, (Salmo fontinalis.) 
Striped Bass, (Labraa hneatus.) 
Black Bass, (Centrarchus fasciatus. 
Maskinonge. 
ZT get a 
We have most favorable reports of the black bass fish- 
ing in the upper Potomac river, of great catches of fish all 
along its course that run up to six pounds in weight, some- 
times, and all the result of the most judicious system of 
restocking depleted streams that was inaugurated only a 
few years ago. At Little Falls, eight miles above Wash- 
ington City, fine sport has been enjoyed all through the 
season, and. will continue until the ice begins to make. It 
ina beautiful drive up there from town; or one can jump 
wboard a steam tug that plies on the canal, and soon reach 
his destination. At Great Falls ten miles further from the 
head of the aqueduct that supplies Washington with water, 
the fishing is still better, and at Harper’s Ferry, mouth of 
the Shenandoah better yet. The last named points are not 
quite as accessible as Little Falls, which accounts for the 
greater amount of fish. At each locality ‘are sporting 
houses for guests, where bait is furnished and tackle, if 
desired. At Great Falls the bed of the river is much filled 
with great boulders, and the fishing is all done from the 
shore. At other places boats are anchored in the stream to 
enable the angler to get better casting room. Use small 
minnows for bait, a medium-sized hook, with rod and reel. 
{t will pay our anglers to run down to Washington for 
three days. When they are tired of fishing, they can pass 
the time by loafing around the Capitol. 
Of striped bass (sea fish) we have writen at length in 
our two previous numbers. The fishing has been fair 
among the islands off Massachusetts and along the east end 
of Long Island, but we hear of no great catches such as 
we herewith append. It is the score of a single day’s 
fishing at Pasque Island made by Jacob L. Dodge on July 
17th, 1868. The figures wiven specify the individual 
weiehts: 
40—37—33—32—27—_ 2492 90) 20 18 17 15 —15—15 
14—14—14 131311111088 total 451 pounds. 
This must have been a hard day’s work for Jacob, and 
would have astonished Peter as well as James, and John, 
“who also went a fishing.” On the i7th of September, 
1869, Mr. J. B. Dunlap caught at the same place a bass 
that weighed sixty-two pounds, 
Here is a feather in the sea-side hat of Mrs. T. 
whom may the propitious fates forever serve! She took a 
bass on the 28rd of August just past, 1873, at Pasque 
Island, that weighed thirty and one-half pounds. The 
powers this lady has displayed in bringing such noble 
game to hand should excite the emulation of all the fair 
sex who go down to the sea in ships, or in railway cars and 
steamboats. 
As respects blue and bass fishing there seems to 
haye been a /iatus for both fish and anglers lately. The 
fish ceased hiting altogether for a time, and jolly yachtmen 
rigged out their outriggers in vain. But within a few days 
past some boats have made a fair showing, and the advent 
of a large run of fish is confidently anticipated day by day. 
The market fishermen have on occcasion taken good fares 
of bonita and king-fish. By the way the indefatigable 
Genio C. Scott took eighty-two king-fish outside of Rocka- 
way beach a week ago, which was unusual luck. We met 
him on the morning of his success, he with his,bait and his 
tackle, and we with our central fire shot gun, and promised 
to exchange two of our snipe for one of his king-fish when 
the day’s sport was over; but as we went home early in the 
day, we lost the opportunity of clinching the bargain. 
The most convenient place for Brooklynites to obtain 
boats fora day’s fishing is at Canarsie; for New  York- 
ers at Jersey city. There is excellent bass and weak fish- 
ing at times on the Jersey Flats, and down at the N arrows, 
and out at Rockway Beach. Among the rocks in the vicin- 
ity of Hell Gate, East river, isa favorite resort for Some 
anglers. Boats can be hired at the Club House, Jersey 
City, at and opposite Mott Haven, New York, at the Penny 
Bridge, Brooklyn, and at Canarsie landing, the terminus of 
the East New York Railway. There are over sixty boats 
and forty yachts constantly on hire at the last named lo- 
cality. Rockaway Beach is eight miles from Canarsie, 
and can be reached by a steamboat three times a day—10 
A. M.and 1 and 4P. M. We know of no better place 
for fitting out or for temporary sojourn than Canarsie. 
The Bay View House there has a piazza that incloses it en- 
tirely on three stories. For striped bass, and, indeed, for 
nearly all kinds of sea fish worth catching, use a stout two 
bamboo rod, a reel, anda stout line with 
a float, the whole costing some $12. If the reader never 
attempted to cast for bass, let him take his friends out in a 
decked }oat when he goes and when he is ready to cast 
send them all below; then. he will catch his hook in no- 
body’s ear but his own, and bang nobody’s head but his 
with thé leaden plummet he uses for a sinker, when he 
swings it around for an elegant effort. A novice, however, 
E. Triplet, 
will bear some instruction in this practice. It beats throw- 
ing cogged dice ‘‘all hollow.” Use shedder crabs or clams 
for bait. 
“ne excursion which we wonder is seldom taken is 
by the 11 o’clock night boat for New Haven. Youreach New 
Haven at daylight and have the day before you, returning 
the second night by boat which leayes New Haven at 11 
o'clock. Thus the angler looses but one day from business 
and enjoys two nights of refreshing rest. At New Haven, 

best month for sport. 

one has choice of localities and sports. The steam- 
boat landing is within a few rods of the East Haven 
marshes where snipe abound. On the hills wild pigeons 
abound in-their season, and quails also. On the ridge that 
joins the East and West Rock, quail are found in considera- 
ble numbcrs, and on the West Haven side is a series of salt 
water flats that extend for several miles. These of course 
are much hunted. Butitis of fishing we wer speaking. 
Savin Rock or Light House Point are within an hour’s 
drive by carriage, and both afford good fishing, while by 
the Shore Line Railroad a few minutes ride by the early 
train will place the angler at Branford, Double Beach, Stony 
Creek, Guilford, the Thimble Islands, and other places 
long known as tip-top fishing grounds for black fish, sea bass, 
weak fish, lobsters, &c., and now provided with hotels and 
boarding houses of all classes and every style of preten- 
sion. The charges are trifling, and the trip perhaps the 
most enjoyable and likely to be the most profitable of any 
immediately accesslble to New Yorkers. 
A letter from the Saranac , Lakes,‘of September 1st, says 
that there are many people still in the ‘‘ Wilderness,” but 
they are not enjoying the same degree of sport as in days of 
yore. We quote literally: ‘‘ Raquette river abounds in 
dead pickerel, and no trout can be taken at their usual 
places of resort.” 
A gentleman writes to us from Jordan river, Shelburne 
county, Nova Scotia, offering to sell us two live moose. 
By the way we have six of these animals now at our dis- 
posal, of both sexes and various ages. He says in his 
letter: 
“Don’t imagine the Nepigon is the only place where 
trout can be caught. I can leave home any day and re- 
turn in the evening, spring or fall, and bring from thirty 
to forty pounds of trout, large ones, but not eight pound 
trout; about four pounds is the largest. September is our 
That is for trout and moose.  Sal- 
mon fishing is good from the last of February, until the 
1st of June. I have killed with the rod and fly in one 
day’s fishing, morning and evening, twelve salmon from 
ten to thrirty-one and one-half pounds. This Nova Scotia 
is a good Province for game, but we have but little time to 
indulge it.” 
D. i. Fitzhugh, of Bay City, Michigan, took two hun- 
dred grayling in Hersey river, of that State, last month. 
We hope to receive full particulars of this new game fish | 
and his capture for publication in our next number. 
Strange how the Chicago ‘Daily Tribtine should get up 
a French fish story, It talks of a carp 375 years old who 
was young in the reign of Francis first (circa 1515). Think 
too of his having been bought for 1700 franes in 1871, and 
to have been eaten up, not-by a Prussian, but by a pike! 
Residence of the carp Chantilly. Mr. Frank Buckland has 
some trouble in swallowing this fish story; as for ourselves 
we are forced to reject it entirely. 
+e ______ 
WHAT BECOMES OF THE FISH. 
iS oy ees 
To THE EDITOR OF THE SPRINGFIELD UNION: 
About three miles east of Springfield there has been for years a large 
rookery—or heronry perhaps it had better be called—where thundreds of 
night heron have congregated and reared their young annually. This 
bird is a wonderful fisherman; he fishes in the night and carries his own 
light on his breast; so he just wades into the pond or shallow stream, and, 
by the light of this strange *torch, seizes his prey as they approach, at- 
tracted by its rays. They are great gormandizers and require a large 
amount of food, as they bolt it whole. They are not given to economy, 
for they kill and carry away to their young vast numbers of fish too large 
for them to swallow, and large ,quantities are found at their rookery. 
Last year, while some parties were out to shoot mpecimens for our Tax- 
idermist, Mr. Horsford, they found§baskets of fish from the Wilbraham 
ponds and brooks,—trout, perch, pickerel, etc. There was formerly a 
large heronry just east of the3one mentioned above, between the ponds in 
Wilbraham, but the swamp was cleared and the birds had to move their 
quarters. A large heronry was broken upin Agawam, a year or two since; 
also one below Hartford, near the Connecticut river. Since I commenced 
this article T have learned that a large herony has been discovered in Lud- 
low the present season. I believe the one east of this] city has been 
broken up this spring. I have dicated some of the habits of the night 
heron, letme give them more in detail: They are nocturnal, never moy- 
ing in the day time, and hence the difficulty of finding them; they are 
gregarious, living and breeding in large communities; they seek the most 
secluded and inaccessible swamps in the neighborhood of ponds and shai- 
low streams; they live almost exclusively on fish, but sometimes gobble 
up young chickens, and young birds fall a prey to their capacity. Prof. 
Horstord informs me that he has found in the stomach of a night heron a 
chicken as large as a pigeon. Now, the conclusion from the above facts 
is, that the night heron is catching all the smaller fish from our ponds 
and shallow streams. Trout, pickerel and perch are growing scarcer 
every year owing to this nocturnal fisher and I would respectfully suggest 
to the owners of trout fisheries the necessity of providing a grating screen- 
ing for their race-ways, to prevent the nightly depredations of this terrible 
enemy to fish breeding. Esnecially is this necesssary as trout always 
seek shallow water at night. I would also suggest to sportsmen the neces- 
sity of destroying these lawless fishermen. 
5S. W. HamMonp. 

—th 0 > 
A disagreeable discovery has been made in Fifeshire, which tends to 
destroy all confidence in fish, who appear to be ,quite as unscrupulous as 
retail tradesmen with regard to their own weights and measures. It 
seems from the account given by the Dundeé Advertiser that one day last 
week a Pittenween fishing boat put into the Dysart laden with skate, ling 
and cod. One of the cod, of enormous size, was purchased by a ship 
carpenter who lives in a neighbouring village. On the fish being cut open, 
the stomach was found to be so exceedingly heavy that the carpenter was 
luduced by curiosity to open it, and to his astonishment found that it con- 
tained an iron mallet upwards of six pounds in weight. This article now 
lies at the building yard where the carpenter is employed, and is an object 
of great curiosity to large numbers of persons who come to inspect it. The 
mallet is worth about seven shillings and sixpence, and the carpenter is 
satisfied that in purchasing the cod she made a good bargain; but if, 
instead of a useful fand marketable article, the fish had stuffed itself 
with heavy rubbish to increase its weight, its purchaser would have suf- 
fered a serious loss. In the meantime, it must be admitted that since the 
day of’the prophet Jonah no more singular instance of the voracity of fish 
has been recorded than the case of this cod, captured by the Pittenween 
fishermen, Indeed, nine big fish ont of ten would infinitely prefer swal- 
lowing a prophet to swallowlng an iron mallet, 


Shot Gun and Rifle. 
GAME IN SEASON FOR SEPTEMBER. 
——_>- 
Elk or Wapiti, Cervus Canadensis.) Red Deer, Caricus Virginianus.) 



Rabbits, common Brown and Grey.) Squirrels, Red Black and Gruy.) 
Woodcock, Scolopax rusticola.) Pinnated Gronse, Téelrao Cipidy.) 
Ruffed Grouse, Tetrao wnbellus,y Curlew, Numenns Arquaid.) 
Esquimaux Curlew, Vumenius bo- Sandpipers, 7ringinw.) 
realis.) Willets, 
Plover, Charadraius.) Reed or Rice Birds, Dolichonys oriz- 
Godwit, Limosine.) ion. 1 
Rails, Rallus Virginianus,) r . 
Wild fowl generally after 15th September, and Ruffed Grouse also in 
> 
many States. * 
Je eS 
[Under the head of “Game, and Fish in Season we can only specify in 
general terms the several varieties, because the laws of States vary so much 
that were we to attempt to particularize we could do no less than publish 
those entire sections that relate to the kinds of game 
would require a great amount of our space. In designating game we are 
guided by the laws of nature, upon which all legislation is founded, and 
our readers would do well to provide themselves with the lanr of their re- 
spective Staies for constant reference. Otherwise, our attempts to assist them 
will only create confusion. | 
in question, This 
Me ht 
Just at this scason one of the finest shooting ¢rounds to 
be found anywhere, is in the vicinity of the Bay Chalen 
in New Brunswick. By taking railway to St. John. an 
thence 108 miles to Shediac, connection can be made by the 
Gulf Port steamers with Dalhousie, which is 
mouth of Restigouche river, 
’ 
{ 
4 
near the 
All through the month of 
September, the marshy and grassy islands that fill the river 
swarm with wild geese and other water fowl, and in what 
is known as Eel river, which is but twelve miles dtive from 
Dalhousie, curlew, brant, snipe, ducks, and veese, and nu 
merous other varieties of wild fowl abound. The place is 
accessible by a wagon road, and canoes and Indians ean he 
always had at Dalhousie, if not on the spot. It abounds 
with suitable feed, and here the birds tarry long in their 
migrations southward to the waters of the Chesapeake and 
the sounds of North Carolina. The shooting is equal to 
that found later in the places last named. The journey ean 
be made in three days from New York via Bangor and the 
European and North American Railway, and the cost of 4 
fortnight’s trip should not exceed $75, all expenses in- 
cluded. The climate of September and October is delighit- 
ful, though liable to be interrupted by storms. Moreover, 
when the migratory birds have departed, other resources 
remain, for the sportsman is here upon the outskirts of the 
finest game country on the Atlantic. Here aré a million 
and a quarter acres of primitive forest, traversed by many 
streams navigable for canoes, and abounding with moose. 
caribou, bears, pheasants, beaver, and various kinds of fur 
bearing animals. 
A arty of gentlemen, including Henry L. Breyoort, 
Hsq., of New York, started for this region last week to 
call moose, intending te return 1st October. They went 
by railway to Woodstock, New Brunswick, and thence by 
stage wa Grand Falls to the mouth of the Grand river, 
whence they took batteaux and voyagevrs up the stream 
fifteen miles to the portage. At this point they find canoes 
and Indians that have been sent to them from the lower 
Restigouche, whose waters are reached by a portage of a 
mile and a half. Descending some twenty-five or thirty 
miles they reach the heart of the hunting territory. Our 
readers will some day be favored with an account of their 
experiences. 
Now, as regards erouse shooting, some of our sporting 
friends make themselves almost ridiculous, Tivery day men 
who ought to know, waste sixpence (they always enclose a 
three cent stamp for answer, which is proper,) by asking us, 
“where shall we ge to shoot grouse?” Why hang it, man, 
““go West.” Sportsmen of Wisconsin generally go to lowa: 
residents of Minnesota usually cross over into Wisconsin, 
and Iowa men always go to Mlinois, There is no 
en” ground like Illinois—unless you except Wisconsin, 
Minnesota, and Iowa. In Illinois, Iowa, and Wisconsin, 
you can drive an empty wagon at daylight out into the 
scrub-oak prairie, and bring it back at night filled with 
birds. At certain periods of the year we have seen them 
sell at five cents apiece in market—when buyers could be 
found. In those times a bird is worth just the price of a 
cartridge. To speak point blank, there is no species of 
game, except wild fowl and buffalo, so abundant in America 
as the pinnated grouse. All through the prairies wagon 
trails lead out to sundryypoints, and any fine day in Septen 
ber or October the teamster can whistle his lonesome way 
along, and sitting in his wagon knock over the fowl as they 
rise from the edge of the road. It is no trick to do it either; 
for the birds just get up quietly and fly ina Straight jine 
over the tops of the scrub a few rods and then settle down 
No use tosend a dog in for them, for you have only to jou 
on a bit, and let your horse put up another bird from tie 
road, Itis all very well to work a dog, but two men can 
beat the bush with all the success one could desire. We 
don’t intend to mislead our eastern friends by: inducing 
them to believe that game lies around promiscuously, waiting 
to be put into the bag, for grouse are like other birds—on 
some days they are more plenty than on others, and they 
seem to have their choice of ground. But if any one thinks 
we exaggerate, let him step into Washington market and 
he will learn from the dealers in game that tens of thous- 
ands of birds are brought to this city every year. 
- IOlal= 
We read of early shooting, and the putting up of covreys of 
birds, and men boast of knocking over three at a shot #s 
they arise from the stubble fields, Doubtless, on occasions, 
we should follow suit, if we hada gun in hand; but we 
don’t fancy this practice of knocking over coveys, for it 
means that the birds are still young and under the wing of 
the hen. Later, they scatter, and are found singly most 
frequently. They are thus wilder and fly greater distances, 
