
dences of their industry and skill, in cuttings of all sizes, 
from one to four inches in diameter, and from the length 
ofcordwood down. ‘their habit is to bring these twigs 
and billets to their houses, and after devouring the inner 
rind or bark ‘to cast them adrift. Charlo selects an old, 
dry sound spruce for our raft, and late in the afternoon we 
launch the first craft on the lake, and we set out on a voy- 
age of discovery. I splice my rod, and attaching my most 
tempting flies to my casting line, Charlo paddles towards 
some lily pads that rear themselves in the centre of the 
lake. As we near them I cast my line, and scarce had my 
fly touched the water whenrushing upwards with opened 
mouth, ahuge fellow seizes it, and turning to descend with 
a twisttof my hand I feel that he is secured. Carefully I 
play him, till exhausted I bring him in to the raft, and he 
is safely landed, Two dozen trout, averaging two pounds 
in weight, rewarded our skill and fully sustained the name 
of this little mountain gem. Never before, as a fisherman, 
had I enjoyed such sport, and it was long after dark before 
I thought of returning to camp. 
It is a difficult thing to pass through a forest at night. It 
is particularly hard where you are obliged to cross numer: 
ous windfalls. You walk ten feet on some fallen monarch, 
and are doubtless surprised when it comes to an unex- 
pected termination and you are launched into space. Our. 
experience that night returning to camp was, to put 
it mildly, rough. Rent clothes, scratched hands and 
faces bore full evidence of it. A good supper and com- 
panion pipe put us it good humor and these annoyances 
are soon forgotten. 
This eamp here is Etiennes’ headquarters for balsam 
gathering, and his implements and ladders are carefully 
laid beside the stockade. The process of gathering it is 
quite simple. A small can, the shape of a tin tea-pot, is 
used to prick the blister filled with the gum with which 
the balsam trees are covered at certain seasons. Large 
quantities are thus collected, the market price of which is 
some ten shillings per gallon. Its healing qualities are too 
well known to need farther description. 
The flies to-day have made sad havoc of my physiogomy, 
and two swollen eyes, nose, and chin run into chaos attest 
the virulence of these pests. Brine water reduces the 
swelling and somewhat relieves the irritation. When black 
ilies cease to exist then indeed will this become the sports- 
man’s paradise. A blessing it is that from sunset till next 
morning’s sun has again revived their drooping energies 
they are “not visible, and the tired sportsman may enjoy 
good rest. 
One more day’s good sport on Belle Truite, and I bid it 
a reluctant farewell. My expectations have been more than 
realized, and we carry home some trophies that will excite 
the envy and admiration of every fisherman in the settle- 
ment. My largest is a little over two pounds, strong, gamey 
fish that require no little skill to capture. We spent the 
last night at camp in a jollification. Charlo favors me 
with a Huron song, though I doubt if he even knows 
the meaning of it. He has a rich voice, pleasing in the 
» extreme. 
On our return to Tontari we decide to spend the night 
on the island and enjoy one evening fishing off th® point, 
which proves to be good. I rose, some large trout. Our 
only covering to-night is our blanket and the broad canopy 
of the heavens. A good fire is kept up, and on our beds 
of balsam we enjoy a refreshing night’s rest, with no fear 
of miasmas in these clear regions to worry us. About ten 
o’clock two loons, attracted by our fire, swam round us and 
commenced their shrill cries, till annoyed by their perse- 
verance, I seized my gun and gave them both barrels. The 
report and their scream of defiance, as they rapidly moved 
off, awoke a thousand echoes among the silent mountains. 
Our progress next morning down to the first lako was 
accelerated by astrong wind, and I doubt whether ever 
raft before made such time. The loons of last night ac- 
company us part of the way, uttering their discordant 
cries. An amusing incident occurred here last season. 
My friend Dr. W, of Staten Island, while on a visit ac- 
companied me here on a trip, and returned a gad and dis- 
appointed man. He isa tall, long-legged fellow, and it is 
proverbial among his friends that those same legs area 
source of no small amount of misery to him. He either 
has no control over them or they over him. I leave it to 
the reader to decide which. We were eachout on our raft 
early one morning, and having an exciting time among the 
trout, which ‘tose greedily to our flies. I had struck a 
large fish which was giving me some trouble, as hé proved 
, sulky and obstinate. Allmy energies were devoted towards 
making a successful landing, whena loud splash! splash! 
about a hundred yards behind me in the direction of the 
Dr. admonished me that something was up. ‘‘Ah, ha!” I 
mentally ejaculated, ‘‘the Dr. has hooked the king fish.” 
A suecession of splashes here followed, and fearful lest the 
Dr. should lose him, and intent on, my own fish, I yelled 
out to him without turning my head, *‘Play it, Dr. play it, 
or you will lose it; give him line.” No answer vouchsafed 
this, and having by this time landed my own fish, I turned 
enviously to the Dr. and took in the whole situation at a 
glance, It was the Dr. himself that was creating all this 
commotion, in his, vain endeayors to pull himself on the 
raft, but each effort only resulting in a fresh splash. The 
thing was so absurd thatI sat down and roared loud and 
long. As soon.as I could command my risibles I went to 
his assistance, Hat, seat, fish, rod, corseau, and_ trout all 
floating about promiscuously! Collecting these we made 
for camp, and starting a fire the Dr, divested himself of 
his outer garments and hung them up before it to dry, 








_FOREST AND STREAM. 



This was all very well until the flies, scenting him out as 
legitimate prey, made such an onslaught that the Dr., with 
a howl of pain, made for the lake at a 2-40 rate, never 
once stopping until he had submerged himself to the neck 
in the water, and there remained disporting himsetf until 
his clothes were dry. His account of the accident was, 
he had hooked a fish, but having in some unaccountable 
manner hooked his legs in his pole, he had tripped and 
gone in headforemost. His blundering footsteps often 
called forth deep and forcible anathemas from Pat, which, 
to give him credit, he aly rays took in good part. 
Our road from here out has been described. No accident 
worthy of note occurred. That night I sat’ down with my 
old companion, Mr. Neilson, and dined on the belle truite. 
In concluding this account let me add for the benefit of 
-any sportsman that may at any future time visit this re- 
gion, that the most killing fly on the lakes is a large bright 
yellow wing and body to match. Gis Bendre 


Che Magazines. 
PIGEON SHOOTING IN SPAIN. 
ee 
Pigeon shooting in Spain occupies a most prominent po- 
sition, and is a leading act in the programme of all the 
public festivals, ranking next to bull fights. In each mu- 
nicipality (ayuntamento) is kept the list of those desirous 
of partaking in this and other exercises, No one ean be 
enrolled among the pigeon shooters (palumberos) but those 
who are crack shots, and who. understand all the subtle- 
ties of their art. Such are called escopeteros. In a numer- 
ous population there may be fifteen or twenty escopeteros, 
who alone have sufficient skili to enter the lists. 
In every important towna place is, devoted. to pigeon 
matches, and at Pampalerna it extends beyond the ram- 
parts. ‘ 
It is only on fete days that pigeon shooting is allowed, 
and then all'the champions, gun in hand, present them- 
selves before the mayor of the corporation, From the 
ayuntaniento, accompanied by a numerous escort, the al- 
cade himself being in the lead, preceded by a military 
band, the cortege of pigeon shooters, followed by ‘the 
whole rabble of the town, proceed to the shooting ground. 
A double barrier separates the palumberos from the specta- 
tors. In the centreis a platform occupied by the pigeon 
shooters and the members of the municipality, all dressed 
in their grandest costumes. At the lower part of the stand 
with atable before him, is the sinbano or scorer, Three 
immense panniers hold each twenty birds. On the left, 
faeing the dignitaries, are placed the shooters. The alcalde 
gives the signal, and a man lets slip the birds from the bas- 
kets at certain stated intervals. As the pigeons are loosed 
‘one by one, the first shooter fires at them. If he hits the 
first bird he fires at the second, and so on, until he makes 
a miss, when the next man takes his place, every one shoot- 
ing until a bird is missed. The assistants in the meantime 
show by their shouts whether the marksmen are skillful or 
not. While the match, is going on the sinbano keeps a 
careful count of the birds, to credit the shooters with their 
pigeons, and he who has shot the greatest number is de- 
clared the victor. The alcalde then presents to the winner 
a, handsome gun, and the cortege, music in the van, 

} marches back to town, amidst the acclamations of the rag- 
tag and bob-tail. 
Generally a grand, fandango concludes the pigeon per- 
formances. The crack shot becomes an object of the great- 
est interest. -Asto his gun, it remains in his family as a 
precious heirloom, and is handed down from generation to 
generation At Pampelerna we saw a carabine of honor, 
which had been won some one hundred and forty years 
ago, by an ancestor of the possessor, and it could not have 
been bought for all the gold of Peru.—Translated for For. 
EST AND, STREAM from La Chasse Illustrée, o 
|Perbaps. Messis. Brown, or Der Forest, or Le Breton or 
Mr. Sage would like to go to Spain and teach the slow old 
antediluvian Dons how to handle a Murcot’s hammerless 
pigeon shooting breech loader. ]— Ep, 
—<S-9 
THE CONSERVANCY OF OUR FORESTS. 


EW subjects are of so universal importance as the pro- 
tection of our forests. Trees are things of slow 
growth—it takes a lifetime to grow a pine or oak, and 
when cut down they can-only be replaced by the panting 
or preservation of other trees, and by protecting their 
infancy and sparing their growth for another generation. 
And.as trees grow in, all countries, are needed for the 
health of all nations, and are indispensable in the industries 
of every people—their preservation becomes as just stated, 
a matter of universal concern, and one in which all nations 
may most appropriately unite to carry forward. This 
work has been inaugurated by the recent holding at Vien- 
na, of the International. Congress of Forest Culturists, at 
which the Italian, Belgian, French, German, Dutch and 
Hungarian governments were represented, by a delegation 
of nearly four hundred members, and where the preserva- 
tion of the forests as a protection of the water supply form- 
ed the chief topic of the discussion. The deliberations of 
this body brought out such facts and statements as the 
following: 
In Palestine the springs are dry, and the river Jordan js 
now four feet lower than in former times. Greece has 
suffered in this respect from the cutting down of the forest ; 
in Hungary the drouth is periodic; Sardinia and Sicily are 
less fruitful than formerly. Now on the other hand, what 
have been the positive results from the planting of the 
large numbers of trees in such districts? In the Delta of 
Egypt, there were formerly but five or six days of rain in 
the entire year. By the planting of twenty millions of 
trees, performed under direction of Mehemet Ali, the num- 
ber of rainy days in a year has been increased to forty-five. 
Formerly, rain was unknown. in Ismalia, a district on the 
Suez Canal, but since that canal was opened, and the land 
has become saturated with water, trees, shrubs and plants 
have grown, and this has steadily increased the number of 
rainy days throughout the district. And this marked 
change, from years of no rain to fourteen rainy days in a 
ear, has been wrought in the. short space of five years, 
rieste, formerly a finely wooded region was long since de- 
vastated by the Venetians and twenty-five yenrs ago rain had 










ceased to fall. To save the country from utter desolation 
the Austrian government planted.seventy millions of olive 
trees in this section, and with similar results to those just 
mentioned. 
To come nearer home. It has been. stated on good au- 
thority that the rivers of New England have diminished in 
volume within the last half century, during which time the 
forests have been cut off to furnish fuel for our factorics 
and furnaces and engines, and «in many instances, manu- 
facturers have been obliged to employ steam to‘drive the 
mills formerly operated by water.’ But if there are in- 
stances of this kind among us, there are also those just as 
marked in the opposite direction. . 
The conversion of the desert of Utah, into.a country of 
vegetation has already raised the level of the, Salt Lake at 
least seven feet above its former level, Throughout 
Kansas, Utah, and Nebraska. the planting of forest trees 
has produced a complete change inthe ‘climate of those 
States, and they are no longer blighted by drouth and 
scorched by the sun. 
Foreign states have recognized the importance of con- 
troling this matter; “and in ‘Switzerland, Prussia and the 
German States the governments’ are pursuing not only a 
rational, hut a legal mode for the protection of forests and 
the encouragement of tree cultute, And itwas to make 
general throughout the nations this action of a few of the 
States that the International Congress of Forest, Culturists 
was held. Through this means.it,is to be, hoped that the 
system of forest conservancy may becomegeneral, and that 
by'a universal system one country may not suffer in conse- 
quence of the ignorance or indifference of another. 
In our own State greater attention should be given to this 
matter. There is beginning to bea searcity -of wood and 
timber throughout the older portions of the State, and lum: 
ber men each succeeding year are seeking ayennes into the 
farther interior, for the purpose of obtaining, large and 
smiall lumber of every description. About ourolder towns, 
and upon the farms that have been long. cleared, there are 
acres upon acres of waste land, that could be devoted to no 
better purpose than to grow up to forest.) And.we belicve 
the law of February 29th, 1872, in regard. to;the exemption 
of taxation from land devoted.to transplanted forest trees, 
should be so changed as to include all land s¢t_aside for the 
growth of forest trees, in any town or township of Maine at 
the discretion of the town authorities.— Maine Furmer. 
Witp Boar Huntine mn Arrica,—aAs an example of the 
immense muscular power of the wild boar, we give a short 
description of a hunt from the London Field:— 
Thad gone out shooting early one morning, and one of 
my dogs had followed me unperceived.. The. brute knew 
well enough it would be sent back if [ caught sight of it, 
and so kept itself well in the background until. I fired at, 
and as I supposed missed, a great. boar which was rooting 
about in one of the glades of the jungle. It thea made a 
ruch past in pursuit, and some ten minutes afterwards I 
heard it giving tongue; and, as the sound was steady in 
one place, it was plain the pig must be at bay. Knowing 
from many a camp-fire story that a hound was nearly cer- 
tain to lose its life in such dan enceunter; and this one being 
an especial favorite of mine from its skill’ and pluck in 
tackling wounded buffalo, I made an attempt to force a 
way through the jungle, here so thick as to be all but im- 
passable, and while doing so I came. on the spoor, not ten 
minutes old, of a troop of buffalo, which. the noise made 
by! the dog had disturbed, and which were making towards 
ani evergreen thicket, where they would. be sure to stand. 
The first thing was to get the dog quieted, and so I went on 
until I reached it. The boar,an immense brute, with tusks 
eight or nine inches long, was standing with his hind quar- 
ters protected by a bush, facing the dog, which I was sorly 
to perceive all covered with blood from the severe gashes it’ 
had already received. TI would not fire for fear of driving 
the buffalo out of the covert, but took a couple of spears 
from my gun bearer, and went_up-to within five yards of 
the grunting brute, and hurled one into its ribs behind tke 
shoulder. On receiving the wound—a deadly one, as there 
spears can be thrown with great force as well as precision— 
it wheeled round, ploughed up a furrow with its curved 
tusk, and came straight at me. It was utterly impossible 
for me to get out of its way, so using the remaining spear 
asia leaping pole, I planted it straight in between its shoul- 
ders, and leaning all my weight on it sprang over the brute’s 
back just in time to escape his tusks, I lost my grasp of 
the spear, which was driven right down through him, but 
my Kaffir ran up and stabbed it as it struggled to rise, and 
the dog, seeing its enemy on the ground pinned it by the 
ears, and in a few seconds it was dead. ‘ 
1 
A Marrrmiqup SNAKE.—The bane of this delightful par- 
adise is a serpent—-what paradise. is without its bane2— 
called by the fearfully suggestive name of the “iron lance,” 
This reptile, with venomous taste,.chocses the coolest and 
most delightful places in the garden for his retreat, and it 
is literally at the risk of one’s life that one lies down on 
the prass, or even takes a rest in an arbor. The wounds 
inflicted, by these serpents are very apt to be fatal unless 
immediately cared for. .The whole island is infested with 
this dangerous reptile, and it 1s said that on an average 
nearly eight hundred persons are bitten every year, of 
which number from sixty to seventy cases prove fata] 
while many others result in nervous diseases which are al- 
most as bad as death. A few years ago, when Prince Ar- 
thur, of England, visited this island, a grand féte wag given 
in his honor in the Jardin des Plantes. In the evening the 
grounds were beautifully illuminated, and thousands of 
people sauntered throuzh its cool and shady.avenues. A. 


, Jarge number were bitten by the “iron lance,” and many 
of them never recovered from the effects of the poison. 
The fondness of this terrible reptile for cool and shady 
places is a serious drawback on the pleasure of rambling 
through the charming groves of Martinique, - A rest onthe 
grass under the shadow of some spreading tree is always 
| haunted by the dread of unseen dangers, and one cannot. 
even cross a field without exercising extreme caution, — 
Fambles in Martinique, in Harper's for January. 
—_—_—O eo 
—The Amateur Base Ball Convention will be held in 
March, when an attempt. will. be made to secure radical 
changes in the rules that govern base ball contests, ,, 
—A. Danbury man having given up all hopes of a war 
with Spain, has consented to accept, a position ona Slawson 
meat cart, Some people naturally incline to gore,—Dan- 
bury News, 
