FOREST AND STREAM. 



119 



grows from the bottom and bears seed. I have known it to 

 grow in the purest spring water. I think, if it indicates any- 

 thing, it would indicate pure water : grows very rapidly if 

 the water is clear and pure. This is beneficial as furnishing 

 shade for the fish." 



The efforts of the lawyers for the defence made very little 

 attempt to evade the fact that their clients did run their drain 

 into the plaintiff's ponds. What they tried to show was that 

 Mr. Seaman's fish died because his ponds were not sufficiently 

 shaded, or that if impurities arose in the. plaintiff's ponds, it 

 was caused by cattle. Air. Seaman had a very strong case, 

 though, as it may be seen by a careful reading of the law 

 paper— some 100 pages— that a good deal of testimony on 

 both sides was necessary in order to prove some very self-evi- 

 dent facts. 



• We must congratulate Mr. Seaman on having won his case, 

 which was undoubtedly one of principle and in defence of 

 the rights of fish culture. In fact, Seaman vs. Lee is a test 

 case, and may considered as establishing the proper precedent 

 in such matters. 



RENTING GROUNDS FOR SHOOTING. 



IN a late London Spectator, an article on the Scotch 

 moors is found, which, as it gives an apercu of the 

 methods employed there, may be novel to many of 

 us. Sixty years ago Scotland, though not a terra in- 

 cognita, seems to have been discovered for English 

 sportsmen by Sir Walter Scott. If the Spectator \s to be 

 credited, it was the Wizard of the North wh# almost invented 

 grouse shooting. It was the Lady of the Lake which made 

 Scotland fashionable. Before that time the stretches of 

 purple heather and their wealth of moor-fowl were unknown 

 to the Sassenach. Then came the demand for peat-flavored 

 whisky and Highland tartans, and money was made by moor- 

 letting. Nowadays extensive moors can be hired for about 

 fifteen pence per acre. Their rental is, of course, but a por- 

 tion of the outlay. Expenses of travel have to be added, 

 and the many comforts and conveniences the sportsman re- 

 quires increases the cost. It is not unusual to rent for a 

 couple of months as much as eight or ten thousand acres of 

 land at a cost of ±'500. An idea has gone apparently abroad 

 in England, since the sportsmen sell their game, that " a 

 good thing " is made out of the poulterers' account. Some 

 such sales from Leadenhall Market are given, which show 

 that from a particular moor, where 458 birds were turned in, 

 the gross receipts were £47 17s. lid., or 2s. Id. per bird. 

 Estimating then a rental and expenses at £'030, it would re- 

 quire the marketing of 4,000 brace of grouse in order to make 

 up the disbursements. In the case where the person renting 

 «. moor would assume the character of the pot-hunter, the 

 keen desire to make both ends meet might result in the utter 

 killing of every bird on the land. In order to prevent this, 

 ■canny " grouse lairds " sometimes only rent on the condition 

 of furnishing a keeper, who may cheek the greed of the lessee. 

 In old times, when driving was not in use, such havoc among 

 the birds was impossible. Beating over the grounds, then, 

 with the muzzle-loader, with good dogs, making some twenty 

 miles a day, for four days in the week, the sportsman's bag 

 would average about a brace of birds per mile gone over. 



It is the sensible and economic idea embodied in this article 

 which strikes us. What possible degradation can there be in 

 disposing of the birds which a man cannot eat or give away ? 

 The other day passing through Fulton Market, we noticed 

 some of the finest striped bass we . had ever seen. On inquir- 

 ing about them, we were told the fish came every now and 

 then from some well-known fishing clubs to the eastward, and, 

 from the excellence of the fish, they always commanded a 

 high price. The time will come when gentlemen sportsmen, 

 desirous of chicken-shooting, will be glad to hire some thou- 

 sands of acres of good ground from the Western farmers. In 

 fact we know now that this is the case. That sportsmen may sell 

 such game as they do not use, has this English precedent. Of 

 course the debit and credit account no one is so mercenary as 

 to wish to have exactly balanced. Tbe grand surplus of 

 profit is in the pleasure and health such sport gives. If well- 

 regulated leases were made by sportsmen and farmers, cover- 

 ing the time, say of 100 days, with proper restrictions as to 

 the numbers of guns, dogs and close days in the week, we see 

 that there would accrue to all parties a great deal of solid 

 gain and comfort. One thing which is quite positive is that 

 regulations of the character we had described, suggested by 

 the Spectator, would tend very much to make our game laws 

 more particularly observed. The farmers would be the parties 

 most interested. 



SHIFTING BALLAST. 



THE abominable nuisance of shifting ballast is still in 

 vogue. The racing season about to draw to a close has 

 evinced no amelioration among that large cIbbs of yachtsmen 

 given to match sailing in jib-and-mainsail boats. This fact is 

 to be deplored. As long as sandbags decide the day, just so 

 long will we perpetuate the folly of building smooth-water 

 racing machines, instead of able little craft that can serve as 

 cruisers as well as racers, that can give enjoyment, and in- 

 struction equally as much as lead to success m rivalry on only 

 one of the salient points of the sport. But two clubs in the 

 neighborhood of New York have this season taken steps in 

 the right direction for the advancement of legitimate yacht 

 racing. The members of the Central Hudson Yacht Club 

 sailed several matches with " fixed ballast," and the success- 1 



ful issue of these should have been quite enough to have led 

 to the abolishing of the sandbag infliction, imposed upon the 

 subHcquent open regatta of Newburgh ; but not the slightest 

 attempt was made by those in authority to do away with a 

 crying evil, which bears so heavily on all followers of the 

 sport, upon amateur sailors or machine jockeys alike. What 

 applies to the Newburgh regatta holds good for a dozen others 

 sailed in metropolitan waters. A small, flat, skimming dish, 

 huge spars, bowsprit as long as the yacht, itself, boom' still 

 longer, and canvas enough to drive a gas tank through the 

 water ; then pile up your saud bugs a dozen deep, and climb 

 out to windward ; win, or incontinently capsize— that is the 

 yacht racing of the present day '. When may we hope to see 

 a change for the better ; when will there be a prospect of 

 substituting bona ji<ie yachts of small dimensions for the 

 veriest sailing machines that man ever devised ? All praise 

 to the efforts of the Central Hudson and Monmouth Beach 

 yacht clubs to at last break through the baneful habit of 

 shifting ballast, and sailing matches with the floor down over 

 all weight, and limiting crews to rational numbers — the only 

 two that have in this vicinity ventured upon an innovation 

 vital to Die future design of our small yachts, and to the 

 development of real seamanship. All praise to the Eastern 

 clubs — the Dorchester, Nuhasset and Beverly most conspicu- 

 ous among them — which have long ago done away with the 

 pernicious custom of a store-full of dry goods dragging a 

 mountain of rubbish through the water- in a big saucepan. 



QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS. 



A. CORRESPONDENT finds fault with many readers for 

 the questions they ask us. He is apparenlly amazed 

 at the simplicity of the queries. "Reebuck" forgets that 

 the Fobest and Stbeam and Rod and Gun is read by 

 young and old— by those to whom life is just beginning, and 

 by those older and more experienced. If we have replied for 

 the thousandth time that a 10-bore is adapted to this kind of 

 shooting and a 12-bore to another kind, we are quite willing 

 to keep on answering the same question. We expect to print 

 the exact load for a gun as long as anybody is in ignorance 

 or a gun is shot. Why should we lose patience ? Among 

 the numerous easy questions and answers which " Reebuck " 

 smiles at, there comes occasionally one which puts us to our 

 mettle. The questions sent us are often very suggestive, and 

 have been the cause of making us study up many a doubtful 

 point. We have one now on hand which, in its development, 

 will possibly give quite novel points in rifle shooting. It 

 speaks well, we thiuk, of the intelligence of the audience wo 

 cater to, that so many leading questions are asked of us. If 

 we wished to extend the limits of our column by introducing 

 into it the settlement of wagers on games of cards, "Ree- 

 buck " might find fault with us. Our readers seem to appre- 

 ciate our efforts to satisfy a natural thirst for information, and 

 few weeks pass that we are not thanked for curing dogs, or 

 settling doubtful points as to the make of guns or the best 

 ways of rendering them effective. We believe that fishermen 

 throughout the country have had the advantage of most valu- 

 able information derived from our column of Questions and 

 Answers. Of course, we wince at times— when sixteen ques- 

 tions, for instance, are sent to us ia one string, or when a 

 man in Boston wants to know who lives next door to him. 

 But it is our business to take trouble, and to fulfill as well as 

 we can the task we have accepted. If, then, as our corres- 

 pondent amusingly asks, some one were to propose to us the 

 foflowing questions : "1. What iB the proper charge for my 

 gun to kill cats on my back fence by moonlight ? 2. Which 

 makes the best gun barrel, Jersey elder or Florida cane ?" we 

 would refer the first to Mr. Burgh and the second to "Ree- 

 buck " himself. As it is, send in your questions and you shall 

 be answered to the best of our abilities. 



[from otjr own oorbebpondent] 

 THE LOVELY VALE OF RAPID AN. 



Rapidan, Va., Aug. 13. 1878. 



I WRITE to you from the hospitable residence of Mr. P. B. 

 Jones, Jr., a lover of horses and au ardent sportsman. Un - 

 fortunately this valley, one of the loveliest and most fertile in 

 all Virginia, has been so denuded by the ravages of war as to 

 break up the haunts of the game with which it once abounded. 

 Just at this time plover may be found in considerable num- 

 bers just across the river in Culpeper. An invitation to a 

 morning's sport for this delicious bird, given last Saturday to 

 my host, had to be declined in consequence of the extremely 

 hot weather. 



Partridges, squirrel, hares and such small fry abound in 

 season, and upon Clark's Mountain, a mile or two off, cata- 

 mount have been killed within the last tkree years. In the 

 Rapidan River, which flows around this magnificent farm, 

 but few fish worth catching are found ; but higher up, on one 

 of the tributaries of the Rapidan — the Robinson River— trout 

 are plentiful. A trouting party will leave this place to-mor- 

 row or the day after. They go to a new mineral water resort, 

 which has become recently so famous as to fill the barns of 

 the neighbors with visitors, there being aa yet no hotel to ac- 

 commodate them. 



Upon the fine estates hereabouts blooded horses and cattle 

 may be found, but not in numbers as of yore, and of scarcely 

 importance enough, except in a few instances, to be mentioned 

 by name. Land is high-priced, that in the immediate vicinity 

 Of Rapidan Station bringing $100 the single acre, while the 



adjacent farms command from $30 to $00 the acre. Crops 

 this year are exceptionally good, the yield of wheat rising al- 

 most to the maximum of ante-bellum times, while the corn 

 promises to overflow all the bins and houses that the farmers 

 possess. Much of it will have to be left in the field. 



Gentlemen of wealth from Baltimore and New Orleans have 

 purchased large farms here and erected handsome residences 

 on them. A few Northern men have also settled here, and 

 others will follow when the times improve. Population, al- 

 ready thick, will become dense, and in after years the Rapi- 

 son Valley, famous for its beauty, its fertility, and its historic 

 interest, will rival New Jersey or Massachusetts in wealth 

 comfort and all the delights of rural life. 



I have not said a word about the magnificent scenery 

 around Rapidan, simply because it utterly transcends my 

 powers of description. ■ q., ^ jg 



■ .». . 



[from a staff correspondent.] 



ROCKY MOUNTAIN WANDERINGS. 

 No. 3. 



T N my last letter I detailed to you very briefly some of the 

 ■*- Incidents of my stay at Jones' Rauche on tbe Medicine 

 Bow River and my short hunt near the base of Elk Mountain. 

 Since my return from that country it has been the scene of a 

 most shocking tragedy in which two good nnd brave men were 

 foully murdered by a gang of train robbers. 



On the afternoon of August 1 7 a diabolical plot to wreck 

 and rob the western-bound passenger train on the D. P. R. R., 

 near Medicine Bow, was frustrated by the vigilance of the sec- 

 tion foreman, and attempts were at once made to follow and 

 capture the perpetrators of the outrage. The robbers had re- 

 moved the straps and spikes from a rail just east of a short 

 bridge which spans a dry gulch between Coues and Medicine 

 Bow, and had attached to each end of the rail pieces of stout 

 wire. The rail was left in position so that the engineer of the 

 approaching train could not see that anything was wrong, and 

 the purpose of the desperadoes was evidently to draw the rail 

 from its position just as the engine reached it and thus hurl 

 the train, with its living freight, into the gulch, inevitably de- 

 stroying two-thirds of the passengers. In the confusion which 

 would naturally ensue it would have been an easy matter to 

 slaughter, if necessary, the remaining passengers, and in any 

 event the express and mail cars could have been robbed, and 

 the valuables of the dead and wounded secured. For inge- 

 nuity and utterly reckless disregard of human life this outrage 

 could scarcely have been excelled. Little wonder that demons 

 who could develope such apian would not stick at the murder 

 of two men whom they had in their power. 



On the morning of August 18 some citizens of Medicine 

 Bow went to the scene of the attempted robbery, found the 

 tracks of eight horses and followed the trail for a short dis- 

 tance. It led in the direction of Elk Mountain and the citi- 

 zens, not feeling themselves strong enough to cope with the 

 outlaws, returned to tbe town and sent out two men, Robert 

 Widdowfield, a deputy sheriff, and Tip Vincent, who were to 

 follow the trail carefully and, after seeing in what direction it 

 led, to return to Medicine Bow and report. The two men 

 started out on Monday morning, and that afternoon a party of 

 surveyors, at work on the foothills of the mountains, saw them 

 enter Rattlesnake canyon which lies between Elk Mountain and 

 Code's Mountain. Shortly after the two men disappeared in- 

 to the gorge, the surveyors heard brisk firing for a few mo- 

 ments and, as they were ignorant of what had taken place at 

 the railroad, they supposed that the travelers had found some 

 game. Shortly afterwards seven mounted men, one of them 

 leading an extra horse, were seen to emerge from the canyon 

 and ride off. From that time until three days ago nothing 

 was heard of Widdowfield and Vincent ; then a party of twen- 

 ty mounted men who camo down from Rawlins found their 

 bodies in the canyon riddled with bullets and covered with 

 boughs, in lieu of burial. Vincent was about one hundred 

 and fifty yards further up the canyon than his companion and 

 was shot twice through the head, twice through the heart and 

 twice in the abdomen ; Widdowfield was shot in four places. 

 It seems altogether probable that the two men, not suspecting 

 that the outlaws had stopped in the canyon, had been follow- 

 ing up the old trail and, having been seen by the scout posted 

 by the gang, were ambushed and slaughtered without the op- 

 portunity of firing a shst having been given. Their bodies 

 were brought into Carbon for burial. 



It is hardly necessary to say that this dreadful act has ' 

 awakened the greatest indignation throughout this whole 

 country, and should the robbers be taken their shrift would 

 probably be a short one. Both Widdowfield and Vincent 

 were highly esteemed by all who knew them ; the former was 

 a quiet, gentlemanly person of undoubted courage and great 

 popularity. He had assisted last May in capturing a gang of 

 train robbers. Vincent was a frontiersman of the better stamp, 

 brave, a good fellow and ready to take part in anything that 

 turned up. Perhaps it was just as well that we left Elk Moun- 

 tain when we did. 



It was with feelings of genuiue regret that we left Mr. 

 Jones's hospitable rancbe, and once more turned our faces 

 toward Medicine Bow, from which place we propose at once 

 to start for the Freeze Out Mountains. Our party is here aug- 

 mented by one, Mr. Phillips, the courteous and efficient agent 

 of the U. P. road at Medicine Bow, to whose kindness we are 

 indebted for many favors. Here wo engaged a driver, wagon 

 and team of mules to transport ourselves and our camp-outfit 

 to our destination amo the hills. 

 On Tuesday mor we pulled out from the Bow. On, 



