FOREST AND STREAM. 
35 

lunch, and leaving our impromptu camp we turn our steps 
towards the salmon hole. Half a dozen casts and I am well 
into a large-sized fish, which, after a lively struggle of 
twenty-seven minutes, Peter lands on the bank. With my 
next salmon, a large fellow of not less than twenty pounds, 
T am not so fortunate, as after playing him ten minutes he 
bolted for the rapids, and with a tremendous leap threw the 
fly out of his mouth and escaped. As the sun was sinking 
behind the woods, and long shadows fell athwart the pool, 
IT killed a fish of about ten pounds, and after this, as they 
did not seem to rise, I put miy rod up, and shortly after five 
o’clock started for camp, which we reached about six 
o'clock. De Courcy had not been very successful, his bag 
consisting of only five duck. In weighing the salmon we 
found them to run fifteen, thirteen, and nine and a half 
pounds respectively, and cleaning the largest we gave a 
portion to the Indians and also to Gamache, and had the 
remainder cooked for dinner. It proved a most acceptable 
change in our diet, and with some of Madame Gamache’s 
rolls (which, with all respect for Flanigan, I infinitely pre 
fer to his ‘‘Chupatties”), and a black duck to wind up with, 
we dined on galore. It was a bitterly cold night, and, as 
bad luck would have it, the wind blew straight into our 
camp, half suffocating us with the smoke from the fire in 
front. However, it had one good effect, that of banishing 
the mosquitoes which usually persecuted us half the night, 
and turning in about nine o’clock we were soon oblivious 
of the dense black smoke that whisked and whirled with 
every fresh gust of wind around the interior of our domi- 
cile. Limur. W. Hurcueson Por, R. M. L, I. 
[ To be Continued. | 

Long Island Saund Reminiscences. 
Se » 6 6 G 
SHARK FISHING. 
REM. NO. 1. 
per ees 
T is seldom that this miserable fish is sought for by the 
A genteel fisherman, though he can yield some good sport. 
Forty years ago several jolly good friends of Eli Kimberly 
formerly keeper of Faulkner’s island made their annual 
visit to the genial old man, on a week’s cruise during the 
month of July. At the close of every trip they invariably 
had ashark frolic. Uncle Eli kept the requisite gear, such 
as swivel chain, hooks bent on good new warp, harpoons, 
spades, knives; with moss bunker bait, waifs, &c., and 
thus equiped, they started for the shark reef, which lies 
west of Goose island, in about six fathom of water. They 
generally had three sets of gear, and waifted about one 
hundred rods apart, on or just before highwater slack, al. 
ways selecting a calm, quiet time. Hook on the bottom 
and four old fogies telling yarns, waiting events, over the 
lunch, and choice old Grenada rum, which in those days 
was as pure and smo:th as oil. It was a scene worthy the 
brush of a painter, and your humble servant, now the only 
survivor of that party, can fancy he hears the shout of 
that good old soul, Uncle Ely, ‘‘ there goes the waif,” 
Whirrah! Whirrah!! ‘‘Clear up decks,” ‘‘ Never mind 
lunch,” ‘There she goes!” ‘There she watches!” ‘‘ Man 
your oars,” ‘‘ Head boat,” ‘‘ So—so—steady—way enough.” 
As the old man grabbed the waif and fetched it up, we gave 
two good yanks in order to make a sure hook of it, and 
eried ‘‘ Take the helm and steer as I tell you” —‘‘ turn ship,’ 
Whirrah! as the yawl boat cut through the water for 
about a half mile, when the shark made for the surface, 
changed his course and started in shore. But the old man 
kept a taut line, and finding him a little easy on the bit 
hauled in for a sight. ‘‘ Nine foot by Jingo,” as the 
shark lifted his tail and turned again. ‘‘Hard a star- 
board,” the old man cried, ‘‘and we'll beach him!” But 
it was no go. The shark was mad; the linesoon became 
slack; the shark sighted right under the boat, the whole 
crew expecting a tail stroke, but were breathing free 
again as he shot off a-beam on anine knot tansion, till 
the better end of the warp as he turned, was in the skip- 
per’s hands, who placed the line in the scull hole and 
hauled in hand over hand. The fish was coming head to 
and evidently bent on mischief. ‘* Stand by your lance.” 
‘‘Oneof you take the harpoon—‘‘I see him—he’s coming 
for the stern, and by jingo, he’ll board us!” but it wa stoo 
late. ances and harpoon in the excitement were knocked 
overboard, and the position we held brought the boat's 
stern level with the water, and the fish had good way on 
him and landed fore and aft in the boat, mouth wide open as 
he slid between the old man’s legs, smashing things, like a 
mad bull in a china store. Two of us jumped overboard 
-asthe fishcamein. ‘‘ Kill him! strike his nose!” “by jin- 
go, he’ll swamp us,” cried the old man. The tiller was 
the only weapon for us, and with a few taps on the nose he 
was stilled. The result—two broken thwarts, the cealing 
knocked out in two places, Innch and old Grenada ground 
to pummice. Oars, lances, and bait-dish overboard, one 
broken finger, boat full of water and shark, hat-bailing in 
order, the two men overboard—and all hands fully satis- 
fied with that closingscene. The shark measured nine feet 
six inches, and a madder subject never came into any 
society than he. 


Op Sat. 

—There is a lobster farm in Maine, where 46,000 lobsters 
were placed last year. This spring 140,000 male lobsters 
were taken from the pond and sold. About this period 
millions of little lobsters must be crawling round. 
pee eet a RES 
—Twenty bags of potatoes will overstock the Honolulu 
market. 

THE U.S. GEOLOGICAL SURVEY. 
2 Bnd hots 
Prof. G. H. Batty, ornithologist of the United States geo- 
logical survey, sends the following letter to ForEsr AND 
Stream. It will be perceived that he has made some valu- 
able scientific discoveries. This letter was received a day 
too late for publication in our last number, but its contents 
are new and none the less interesting. [Ed. F. and 8. ] 
Twrn Lakes, Colorado Ter., August Ist, 1873. 
DEAR Sir: 
Dr. Hayden’s geological surveying party has worked 
the country up thoroughly from Denver to the Buffalo Peaks. 
The main party is separated into five divisions. The photo- 
eraphers’ party travel all over this section of the country 
where there are good views to .be had, but the other divi- 
sions have each a section of the country to go over and com- 
plete by the 1st of October, and thus the parties will be 
separated from each other until they all meet at the depot 
camp at Denver at the close of the season. The party to 
which I am attached-is in charge of Mr. Gannet from Bath, 
Maine. We have visited a great many of the highest peaks 
of the Rocky mountains, on which I have collected a great 
many rare and interesting birds and animals. Of birds, I 
have taken about three ‘hundred, representIng one hundred 
and fifteen species. The rarest of birds taken are Lagopus, 
leucurus, (white tailed Ptarmigan,) and young, Tetrao ob- 
scurus, (dusky grouse), and young, Picicorvus columbianus, 
(Clark’s crow, or nuteracker,) Hydrobatta Mexicana, (water 
ouzel), Oyanocitta Woodhousii, (Woodhouse’s jay,) Argialitis 
montanus, mountain plover), Salpinenes obsoletus, (rock wren), 
&c., &e., &c. [have also taken the nest, eggs and young of 
the Regulus calendula, (raby-crowned wren), which has never 
been taken before. Of animals I have collected the black- 
tail deer, (mule ear), lynx, Rocky Mountain hare, tailless 
rabbit or coney, marmots, porcupine, gophers, prairie dogs, 
&e., &e. The tailless rabbit is the rarest of the animals 
taken and is only found in the highest peaks of the Rocky 
Mountains, far above the timber line, near the perpetual 
snow banks where there is but little vegetation, in fact 
where they are most numerous there is nothing to be seen 
but immense piles of volcanic rocks, which the coneys are 
greatly attached to. In these piles of rocks the faint squeak 
of the coney may be heard as he suddenly appears froma 
hole in rocks, and with a sudden jerk of the head gives his 
note, a single squeak, and immediately returns to his retreat 
in the rocks, only to reappear in an instant and give his feeble 
squeak as before. The following are the measurements 
taken of the coneys collected on Mt. Lincoln, Colerado Ter- 
ritory, July 10, 1873: length frem nose to end of tail, eight 
inches; length of head, two inches; breadth of do. one and a 
quarter inches; color, gray, inclined to mouse color en the 
hind parts. Panthers, elk, mountain sheep, (big horns,) 
antelope, black, cinnamon and grizzly bears are not uncom- 
mon in Western Colerado. One of our party, J. T. Gard- 
ner, met with two old grizzlies and a cub on the summit of 
a mouutain a few days ago, and succeeded in badly wound- 
ing one of the old bears, andif he had followed the bear 
down the mountain he would probably have killed it. Mr. 
Gardner killed one of the largest grizzly bears ever taken 
in this section of the country last summer. ‘The grizzly 
bear is the master of all animals in the mountains, and can 
easily pull down and destroy a mule or horse with but little 
exertion. During the hot weather, the grizzlies retire to the 
highest peaks of the mountains, far above the timber line, 
where one would think so large an animal could not subsist, 
but there are thousands of grasshoppers, and an abundance 
of vegetable matter that furnish ample food for the bears. 
Bears delight in rolling in the snow banks, and are always 
found near them in the fore part of the summer, but 
when berries are ripe, they resort to the valleys and streams 
in search of their favorite food, the wild cherries. It is 
generally supposed that the grizzly bear will attack a man, 
but this is not correct. If a man be wounded he will at- 
tack his assailant at once, if hard pressed; but nine times 
out of ten a grizzly will run when shouted at, as they stand 
in great fear of the human voice. I am positive of this, as 
it has been tried on several occasions by members of our 
party. The mountain sheep are only found on the higher 
mountains during the summer, but when the cold weather 
comes, they gradually descend to the valleys to feed, and 
the greater body of them winter in the foothills. I have 
heard it stated that a mountain sheep would leap down a 
rugged mountain fifty or sixty feet, and striking on its horns, 
regain its balance, and would go down a mountain in this 
manner by a succession of leaps, until it had escaped the 
hunter, When a big-horn sheep is descending a mountain 
by jumping from one rock to another, it strikes on its feet 
and not on its head.. When in motion, the sheep carry the 
head very low, and when jumping alight stiff-legged, and 
at a distance appear to strike the head against the rocks. 
A few days ago I drove one off a cliff partly covered with 
snow so 1 could have a good opportunity to observe its 
movements, and was rewarded for my trouble by seeing it 
run a distance of half a mile over a very rugged mountain 
side in a very short time. By following its trail I.saw at 
once the seeret of its long Jeaps, as it slid from six to ten 
feet at every leap, with its hoofs spread to their fullest ex- 
tent to check the force of its headlong retreat. The elk feed 
on the high grassy mountains, above timber line, in bands, 
in this country, but inthe Yellowstone and Snake river 
country where they are more numerous than here they are 
found scattered all over the country in small bands in the 
summer, and in the fall they collect in large bands of from 
fifty to two hundred, and when shot at from several points 
at once become confused and bewildered and run from 
place to place in a confused manner, and at such times they 
may be shot down like cattle. ' 
Mr. Batty adds: ‘‘Please excuse the manuscript as I am 
writing by the light of a camp-fire, and have to jump up 
and kick the charred logs every five minutes to make them 
blaze and give me what is at best a poor light.” That is 
what the patrons of Formst AND SrREAM would call “‘rough- 
ing it,in the bush.” 

—The Hawaiians are dying out. In 1882, the island had 
a population of 130,315 souls, in 1860 it was only 62,959. 
The decrease has been over sixty per cent in forty years. 
Mr. Nordhoff thinks if the islanders went back to old cus- 
toms as to dress, that is to no dress at all, their health 
would improve. He says in fact, that pantaloons, shirt- 
collars and stockings have been the death of them. 

SNIPE SHOOTING IN VIRGINNIA. 
CSRS f 
Hoag Isuanp, VA., Angust) 28rd, 1873. 
Eprror Forrest AND STREAM: g 
The precise locality from whence I date my letter, is 
not I think very well known, I therefore trust such informa- 
tion asl may give may be of interest to your readers. 
How to get to Hog Island, is | suppose first in order. From 
New York I took the Norfolk steamer, On board I met 
several fellow sportsmen, bent on the same errand as my- 
self, to shoot bay snipe and curlew, intending to make 
Chincoteague and Mockhorn Islands the center of their op- 
erations. All these islands are situated within a few miesl 
of one another, lying near Capes Henry and Charles. <Ar- 
rived at Norfolk, I took steamer to Cherry Stone, some 
sixty-five miles distant. At Cherry Stone I hired a small 
fishing smack to carry me to Hog Island. I happened to get 
a good boatand a fair breeze, anda pleasant sail of two 
hours landed me on the island. On the way I had a chance 
to try my Snider Allen, on a flock of curlew flying near 
the boat, and killed eight birds. Hog Island is not a para- 
dise, though old Jake may be the colored Adam. The 
island is a sandy waste, with a few sand dunes, and some oc - 
casional trees, rugged specimens of the red cedar. Jake, the 
landlord of the locality, has a rough shanty, and makes 
you welcome, for the reasonable price of one $1.50 per 
diem, throwing in his valuable services for the money. I had 
provided myself against all contingencies, by laying in a 
stock of bread and ham, and after having arranged my 
baggage for the night, I turned in early, in order to be up 
the next morning before the dawn. Long before day-break , 
Jake had me out. Though an ardent sportsman, Jake’s 
imitative faculty as far as the manufacture of decoys went 
was not pre-eminent, therefore our stool-birds were of the 
most peculiar ornithological character, though Jake said 
they would do. From his manner I thought he had some 
surprise in reserve. After a bite of bread and ham we 
took to the beach, and about a mile from the shanty we 
commenced digging our blind. The stools Jake planted 
quite artistically about twenty-five yards from our blind; 
then Jake chuckled as he drew from his pocket no less than 
three live willets and two marlins, which he declared were 
well ‘‘ educated birds.” These he had tethered with a bit of 
leather and a piece of string and they were packed among 
the wooden shams. Now Jake showed himself a master 
of his art, and piped the willet’s cry with a skill which 
was inimitable. The tide now was rising rapidly, and the 
decoys fluttered and whistled away. Soon inthe distance 
loomed a flock of willets. Coming strong with the wind 
they overshot the decoys, but flew low enough for me to 
let them have both barrels; then returned undismayed, ap- 
parently recalled by the cries of some of the winged birds. 
“Tet ’em have it agin, Massa,” said Jake, and so I did. 
These four shots gave me some thirty birds. The wind then 
became so fresh, piling in the sea so far on the beach, that 
we had to pick up the decoys and make another screen 
further inland. Again came the willets, and by ten o’clock I 
had bagged eighty-six snipe. The shooting then ceased 
for the day, ebb-tide putting an end tothe sport. Next 
day I tried the curlew on the other side of the island. This 
time Jake’s stools, if not perfect as to form, were better as 
to color, having been fresh painted. Jake again gave me 
the benefit of his acquaintance with the curlew, using a 
bandana handkerchief tied to a stick which he waved to 
and fro, attracting the birds. JI had seen this particular 
dodge tried before, but never with the same success. I 
shot for about three hours, killing some thirty-two birds. 
They weighed on an everage one and one-half pounds each 
and the longest bill measnred precisely twelve and one-half 
inches. On the third day I varied my sport by spearing 
sea-eels. JI must confess that my first experience was an 
unfortunate one, as I fell overboard from the boat, in my 
eagerness to kill my prey. But gaining courage and ad- 
dress, after having spearéd a bushel basket full of eels I 
had enough of it. Sincerely yours, C. B. 
P. S.—Having lost my pen I write this with a bill of a 
curlew. I softened it first with vinegar, then split and nib- 
bed it nicely, and it makes quite a good stylus. Jake isa 
master in cooking snipe and curlew, and has a stock of ex- 
cellent Southern red pepper, but if any of your friends 
have the least bit of gourmandism about them, tell them 
not to forget the lemons, the juice of which enchances the 
flavor of these birds. 


—At the sale of the Perkins collection in London last 
month, a vellum copy of the Masarin bible fetched £3,400, 
and the first Shakspeare folio £585. 
——_¢—_— 
—About £225 is the price asked for the privilege of 
shooting over a Scotch grouse preserve of about 15,000 
acres. Six persons are allowed to shoot, each to pay the 
above price. 
ee ee 
—In the United States in 1871, we used the wool from 
32,000,000 of sheep, or about 128,000,000 of pounds. About 
17,000,000 more of sheep would make us independent of all 
other countries as to wool. 
pM res 
—The salmon season in Oregon, has yielded an enormous 
catch this year. It is safe to say that this fish alone, has 
swelled the imports of Oregon over 1,000,000 more than 
they would otherwise have been. 
i 1 ae 
See how readily theChinese take to the manners and 
customs of civilization. Two of them fought a duel in 
Arkansas the other day, and one was killed, 
