Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1890-02-23
NIMRODS PARADISE.
Judge GildersleeVe, the Great Rife
Shot, Writes of Canada,
ITS GAME ALMOST TOO ABUNDANT.
Chasing the Deer, Tracking the Moose and
Angling for Trout.
JOYS OF CAMP LIFE In FOREST SNOW
WRITTEN FOR THE p1sPArcH.I

While Canada may not be a garden Of
promise to the agriculturist and herdsman,
it is an ideal country to the disciple of the
rod and rife. The very conditions which
make the farmers lot an unhappy one inure
to the benefit OF the lover of outdoor sports.
1t is singular fact that the best places for
the huntsman and fisherman are the worst
for the tiller of the soil. Cultivation kills
sport. Even in the present generation long
lines of territory on Long Island, CoHnecti-
cut New Jersey and Maryland that were
once famous for the game which frequented
them have been utterly abandoned by the
sportsman on account of the disappearance
Of their chief attraction. Only where they
have been preserved by private organiza-
tiOns or protected by special legislation is
there any sport left worthy of the name.
The great rock formations of the Canadian
Dominion, which have no parallel in our
country east of the Rockies, unless it be
here and there in the Adirondacks, the
White Mountains and the Maine woods in
the North, prevent profitable cultivation Of
the ground on the one side and on the other
afford every facility for the growth of the
forest and propagation of game. This rock
formation will never be forgotten by who
ever has seen it. In the Saquenay and
Restigouche country it takes the shape of
great deiles and chasms, in whose depth
run never-failing streams and rivers that
are full of the best fishes known to the rod
man. The GOODNESS of the water, its rapid
motion and the large supply of natural food
for the piscic inhabitants produce type Of
fish which for frmness of flesh, for size,
muscularity, full development and game
ness can be equaled nowhere. Its praises
have been so sung by William J. Florence,
our great comedian. Lawrence jerome and
cthe- enthusiastic followers of Izaak Wal
ton that nothing more can be said.
WHERE ANGLERS NEVER SET FOOT.
The territory named is but a small frac-
tion OF what is open to every lover OF sport.
The whole country north of Montreal and
Quebec is equally rich in stores of fish.
There are hundreds if not thousands of
ponds and brooks where the line and hook
have never been dropped. Here you can get
brook trout that weigh over a pound, and
lake trout three, four and even five times as
large Here the Frenchman can catch the
bull-frog in its best form. United States
Fish Commissioner Blackford says that the
largest and finest frogs legs oil the world
come from Canada. How true this NAV be I
do not know, but frogs weighing over a
pound, and, in rAre cases, two pounds, are
caught in inexhaustible numbers. The
policy of rhe Canadian Government is so lib
eral as to deserve special praise. There is
no restri .tion upon foreigners or alien cor
pOrstions buving or leasing lands for sport
ing purpo ,es. The Paradise Fin and
Feather Club, of New York City, of which
am a mem 'er, controls territory almost
as large as ,te entire State of Rhode Island.
At least 100 clubs, which are American to
the backbone, are likewise the owners or
lessees Of vas: tracts OF land. OF course the
Dominion is wise in this policy. The 5000
sons of Uncl, Sam who invade it every year
expend from so to S., 900 apiece. The sum
total of their expenditures cannot be less
than 81, OOO, 900, and probably exceeds three
times that amount. The result of this
policy is visible at a hundred points where
sporting associations have reclaimed the
wilderness, constructed roads and bridges,
built homes and cottages, started new in
dustries and even brought towns and vii
lagos into being.
NEVER ENDING PROCESSION OF GAME.
Way up in the vast woods to the north
and west Of Montreal the game runs wild.
The hunter is constantly surprised at the
never-ending procession of quail, partridges,
rabbits, deer, passenger pigeons, ducks OF
all kinds, from the dainty wood-duck to the
all-devouring maillard; squirrels and all
other kinds of "wood meat" The carbon
abounds and even the moose is sometimes
found there. Although somewhat rare, that
most splendid OF Americas game birds, the
great wild turkey is present, and affords
manv good meal to the man happy enough
to find him. The brooks and lakes abound
with trout so big that the angler who pays
81 pound for all he catches on Long
Island says q silent prayer for forgiveness
whenever he repeats and appropriates the
stories he has heard of them. But trout are
not the only fish to be found in the waters of
this great region. Black bass, pickerel,
pike, king fish, yellow perch, and all kinds
of fresh water fish are there in such num-
bers as to astound the fortunate man who
goes there for the first time.
There are beasts of prey, too. The Canada
lynx, that most peaceful looking of Ameri-
can carnivora, is everywhere, and it is no
rarity for one OF them to stalk noiselesslv up
to a camp and walk off with the fish lust
prepared for cooking, even while the cook is
within a few feet, peacefully smoking his
pipe. Wherever there is a clearing and
cOrnfeld, days march will be rewarded
WITH BLACK BEAR,
sometimes of great size; some of them have
been known to weigh more than 800 pounds.
Wildcats are common, and the wailing cry
of the catamount, or, as he is called when he
grows old and very large, the panther" is
often heard in the still air, sounding as if a
child were lost in the woods. Foxes are
common, and all the fresh water fur-bearing
animals can be found In quantities. Otter,
mink, muskrsts, swarm the streams, and
every now and then the hunter runs across
a beaver dam in the open.
There is not as great a variety in the forest
trees as there is in the game. Vast stretches,
miles upon miles in extent, of enormous
pines; endless vistas under the pointed
arches made by thousands of black wal
nuts, showing where gothic architects took
their ideas Of structural beauty; only these
and such hardy trees are found, because
the bitter winters could kill off ali teuderer
varieties. Birches are everywhere. black
yellow and white and the silver boles of the
great canoe trees shine through the soft
gloom Of the primeval forest like the ghosts
of centuries long past. Once in long time
one of these white birches stands with 10 or
II feet of its trunk deep, rich brown show
ing that the Indians have at some time
stripped it Of its cleaning coat to make
that lightest and most graceful Of all craft.
a birchen canoe. The earth is everywhere
covered with a carpet of pine needles 50
thick and soft that the Wiltons and Ak
ministers in the parlors of the rich moaE in
Jealous anguish to think of them, or with
deep rich layers of fallen leaves. so softly
living one upon the other that the hunters
foot makes scarce a sound in walking on
them.
vAsTNESs OF THE FORESTS.
Fast as the lumbermen eat up the forests;
fast as they push their little narrow gauge
railways up the sides Of the mountains and