188 



FOREST AND STREAM. 



,,'Vi 



A WEEKLY JOURNAL. 



BV0TBD TO FlKLD JJW AqDATIC SrOBTS, PRACTICAL N ATUMAL HlBTORT, 

 FlSHCCLTUUK, •- ■:. PKO-KITIOH OF UAME, PRESERVATION OF FORESTS, 

 AND THK INCULCATION IN MEN AND WOMEN OF A ILEALTHY INTEREST 

 ■ N OOT-DOOB RKCBEATION AND STUDY: 



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NEW YORK, THURSDAY, OCTOBER 3, 1878. 



To Correspondents. 



AU communications whatever, intended for publication, must be ac- 

 companied with real name of the writer as a guaranty of good faith 

 and be addressed to the Forest and Stream Publishing Company. 

 Names will not be published If objection be made. No anonymous com- 

 munications will be regarded, 



We cannot promise to return rejected manuscripts. 



Secretaries of Clubs and Associations are urged to favor us with brief 

 notes of their movements and transactions. 



Nothing will be admitted to any department of the paper that may 

 not be read with propriety In the home circle. 



We cannot be responsible for dereliction of the mall service if money 

 remitted to us is lost. No person whateveb is authorized to collect 

 money for us unless he can show authentic credentials from one of the 

 undersigned. We have no Philadelphia agent. 



r*r Trade supplied by American News Company. 

 CHARLES I1A1XOCK, Editor. 



T. C. BANES, 

 Business Manager. 



S. H. TURRILL, Chicago, 



Western Manager. 



American Sporting Terbitobt.— It is the pride of the 

 Englishman that he may hunt his game the world over and 

 remain all the time on ErgUsh possessions. The territory 

 open to Americans in their own country is scarcely less in ex- 

 tent or more limited in variety. When a man has thoroughly 

 tested the sport afforded by the widely differing fields 

 to he found in this broad land of ours, from the swamps of 

 Florida to the glens of Washington Territory, he will be 

 either too satiated with the pleasure or too advanced in years 

 to carry the war into Africa or any other effete hunting region. 

 Indeed, on the contrary, we find the great hunters of Africa, 

 among them Gordon Cummings, as well as the other sports- 

 men of France and Germany and England, count the cycle of 

 their field days incomplete if they connot reckon in them some 

 weeks or months devoted to the game of America. When a 

 man considers himself an expert lion slayer it is next in order 



r him to "tackle" a grizzly. The bear may show him some 

 things not dreamed of in the lion hunter's philosophy. 



Otjb Kbnnbi, Dkpabtment.— We are glad that the Kennel 

 Department of Forest and Stee am is likely to be the gainer 

 by the recent (fo?»Mi<r of that eminently respectable paper, the 

 Countbt, -which lived to so fair an age under the management 

 of our quondam and much esteemed editor, Wni. M. Tileston, 

 Esq. This gentleman has now engaged to serve us in the 

 capacity of Kennel Editor, and will endeavor to draw his 

 lines in ihe interest of gentlemen sportsmen and fanciers of 

 dogs, as he has always done. We consider him a much de- 

 sired acquisition, for there is no department of a sportsman's 

 paper which requires so much tact, discernment, discretion 

 and intelligent knowledge of the matters which come within 

 its scope. |#| 



These October days invite us to long tramps over the hills 



and to rambles through the woods. The wise man will yield 

 to the beguiling influences of the hazy atmosphere and the 

 falling leaf, and go forth to find health for body and spirit. 



LONG ISLAND DEPLETED OF GAME. 



WHATEVER various causes may have conspired to 

 drive and keep wild fowl and bay birds from the 

 shores of Long Island, the fact that those shores are almost 

 utterly deserted at present is as patent as -it is lamentable. 

 Last week four thoroughbred gentlemen sportsmen, of whom 

 we may say ex-Gov. Dix was one, spent several days near 

 Southampton, aad scarcely saw a feather, where four years 

 ago there was an abuudance of game. Oiher trustworthy 

 parties bring like reports from various localities. We have 

 not had an opportunity to investigate causes of dearth in 

 maDy well-known resorts; and it may be that absence of 

 shore birds this fall is due to caprice more than to radical 

 causes, and that the desertion of the great bays by wild fowl 

 during the past and previous years was but incidental and 

 temporary. Of one section, however, we do have positive 

 knowledge, and we regret to say that the causes of dearth are 

 so deep-rooted and positive that no wild fowl will ever appear 

 there again until they are removed. It may be that investiga- 

 tion will result in revelations of like character elsewhere. 



Half way down toward the end of that long and picturesque 

 peninsula known by the Indian name of Montauk, and which 

 terminates the southeastern extremity of Long Island, is a 

 sheet of water called Great Pond. It is three miles long and 

 half a mile wide. Ten years ago it was out of reach of tide- 

 water, and grown up all along its edges with a luxuriant 

 morass of the sweet vegetation upon which water fowl love 

 to feed. Then two or three gunners could kill fifty geese on 

 a pleasant day during the season of their migration, and all 

 sorts of ducks were present in thousands. We knew of one 

 party of three men killing 250 broadbills in five days, and this 

 was only eight years ago. About that time, however, some 

 men who had not the fear of being ridden by the ghost of 

 Nirnrod before their eyes, cut out the passage-way between 

 the ocean and the pond, so as to allow every tide to sweep in 

 and take possession of the inland lake. Their idea was the 

 cultivation of eels. The result, of course, was that the salt 

 water killed all the sweet sedges and aquatic plants upon 

 which the wild fowl lived j and this food supply gone, the 

 honking hosts which were wont to stop and linger at their 

 repast in the reedy environs of Great Pond now only whirled 

 once or twice in disappointment above their accustomed 

 haven and then continued on their way. The gunners, there- 

 fore, like the geese, have departed, and no more does the 

 sound of the double-barrel echo along far Napeague, or vie 

 with the ever-booming surf. 



This is an unfortunate state of affairs for all parties con- 

 cerned, unless possibly we may except the wild fowl. The 

 people who live in the neighborhood no doubt obtain a small 

 profit by the increased catch of eels, for which they have pro- 

 vided so ample a harbor ; but, granting that as an eel-pot 

 Great Pond is serviceable, we are confident that as a game 

 preserve it would be more so. There was a time when large 

 numbers of sportsmen were in the habit of " going on Mon- 

 tauk " to shoot wild geese and ducks, sure of good sport there. 

 These sportsmen left money behind them, and where one 

 went ten years ago five gunners would go now, and, as a mat- 

 ter of course, the farmeis of the vicinity, transformed for the 

 nonce into hosts, would find five times as muchmoney intheir 

 pockets. Now, however, no sportsmen except plover and 

 woodcock shooters go there, for wild fowl no longer flock 

 at the pond. It would certainly be good policy for the pro- 

 prietors to sacrifice their eels, shut out the salt water, and 

 pray that the duck-weed and sweet flag make haste to grow 

 again. Then they will have an attraction to advertise worth 

 considering, and will reap a good harvest of both money and 

 gratitude. 



If the Montaukers won't take our hint, then we advise some 

 dozen or so of gentlemen interested in the sport to obtain the 

 title to the spot, which could probably be had very cheaply — 

 since, as we are informed, only $50 a year is paid by the eel 

 culturists— and restore it to its pristine condition. Two or 

 three years would suffice. The original outlay would be 

 small, and the annual expense only sufficient to pay a watch- 

 man to keep the natives from tearing down the dam and 

 making a public eel pond of it again. We honestly believe 

 that the subsequent sport and the sale of shooting privileges 

 would not only satisfy the stockholders for their investment, 

 but afford a handsome profit. 



A MISCONSTRUCTION OF SPORT. 



THE London Spectator, in a recent isBiie, descanting on 

 the death of Mr. George Payne, the Master of the Pytek- 

 ley Hunt, goes very much out of the way to decry sport in 

 general, and to throw opprobrium on the leading sporting 

 journal of the world, the London Field. The Spectator says, 

 noting the drift of popular ta te, " that every year the space 

 devoted in the political journals to sport increases, while the 

 demand for it advances, till proprietors are compelled to use 

 type which is almost too small to read, and the 'latest 

 betting ' crowds out the latest debate." * * * Also, that 

 there is "a thirst, apparent in all grades of society, lor 

 pleasure; better, no doubt, in some respects, than the pleasure 

 provided by the music hall, but at least as destructive of 

 steady devotion to work of all kinds, the Industry and the 

 self sacrifice, which have made England great." 



Persons familiar with that crabbedness of the Spectator, 

 which dictates so many articles of an acerbitous character, 

 are not at all astonished at such expressions. Between the 

 person of the late Mr. George Payne and the general subject 



the English reviewer writes about, there is by no means as 

 perfect a connection as the author of the article indicates. It 

 is true, Mr. Payne was a sportsman, as England once under- 

 stood it. Inheriting a vast fortune, he soon left his handsome 

 estates at the Derby and Epsom and Crockford's. To run 

 horses, to frequent races, to follow the hounds, to be master 

 of the greatest fox hunting club in England, was Mr. Payne's 

 chiefest ambition. Thanks to just such an intrinsically great 

 journal as is the London Field and its infiueuce, that sole 

 horsy element, which might have been the only one in the time 

 of the regency which was cared for by the sportsman, has had 

 substituted for it other and more ennobling objects. It may 

 be said, in honor of all the loading English sporting journals, 

 that tlla sports of the forest, and the stream have drawn men 

 from the race course and betting stand, and taught them how 

 to find health and recreation in more wholesome fields. These 

 journals have done more than this. Thanks to them, a man, 

 after the toil and trouble of work, has gained new life— fresh 

 pleasures in the absolute study of the animals, birds and fish 

 which the Almighty has placed on this earth. This appre- 

 ciation of all the forms of nature tempers his amusements. 

 Sporting journals of the higher class all show the elevating 

 tendency, and are no longer simple records of horse racing or 

 boxing, but have educated vast audiences to other and higher 

 aims. A crusade against sport, such as the Spectator makes, 

 shows an utter ignorance of what true sport is ; for the author 

 never could have taken the time to read what was best in 

 English journalism on the subject he treats about. If clerks 

 are devoted to athletics, what on earth can be better for them ? 

 When the brain is fagged out with poring over ledgers, the 

 body cramped, the lungs suffocated by the close air of count- 

 ing-rooms, shall not the jaded man find recreation and health 

 in the fields? It is not given to many like, perhaps, to the 

 Spectator writer, to take his horse and ride, in order to recover 

 the vim he may have lost in inditing the very article he has so 

 acrimoniously compiled. 



We may be thankful that articles of the character we have 

 commented on are so much ink and paper wasted. As long 

 as God has made man, the man will and must find recreation. 

 Mind and body seek relaxation, and the morals of the general 

 public, both in England and America, have been improved, 

 and will continue to improve if they seek even to a greater de- 

 gree, in honest ways, that recuperation of the vital energy 

 which true rational sport only can give. The whist player or 

 the racing man is not to our taste any more than to the writer 

 in the Spectator ; but the idea that the vital life of a nation is 

 impaired by reason of its fondness for athletic amusements is 

 simply absurd. The most perfect man is he who can read in 

 his study his Greek tragedy, or clearly understand a dry di- 

 gest of international law, and then, dropping the musty 

 tomes on the greensward, run bis mill, or on the lawn 

 stand hat in hand before the stumps, or on the cool river 

 handle the oars. We all must seek for that counterpoise be- 

 tween brain aud brawn, and the Spectator may snarl for years 

 to come about the coachman who said of the gentleman, 

 " He war a gentleman ! He never did nothing, and he'd such 

 lots of horses!"— and still the world will do what it can to 

 amuse itself, for amusement brings with it a better life, and 

 even the foretaste of future happiness. 



Evidently the source of the Spectator's information must 

 have been derived from "Tom and Jerry." Thackeray tells 

 in his "Roundabout Papers" how, tempted by curiosity, he 

 went to the British Museum to look over this old book of 

 Pierce Egan's. The style of writing, he was compelled to 

 own, was not pleasing ; it was even vulgar ; aud a description 

 of sports and amusements of London and of England in the 

 ancient times, hardly more than fifty years ago, were to him 

 more curious than amusing. 



MIDSUMMER JAUNTS OUT WEST. 



BY THE EDITOR. 



Ja unt the Fifth. 

 I Ashland, Wisconsin, Sept. 1878. 



Brothbb Editobs -. 



My Ashland letter should have been written aud forwarded 

 lo you six weeks ago, while yet it was midsummer; but now, 

 as I write, an early frost has touched the maples with crim- 

 son, aud the ash with yellow, and the guests who could then 

 scarcely keep cool, even in these northern latitudes, have 

 scattered to their respective homes. The friends who fished 

 with me in Fish Greek, Sioux River, Wbittelsey's Brook and 

 over at the " Rocks," on the West side of Chequamegon Bay, 

 have departed, and the few who remain here for the fall 

 shooting find a merry crackle and gemal warmth in the camp- 

 fire. 



Over the bay at Green's farm, when I was there, the deer 

 used lo run with the cattle on the meadows, and I doubt not 

 some sportsman has made good venison of them by this time. 

 All around Asuland is excellent deer shooting. The woods 

 are full of swamps, aud bears find ample shelter in the thick 

 jungle. A good bag of woodcock can be made in season at 

 the head of the bay, and mallards, teal and geese give excel- 

 lent sport throughout Ihe present month. 



I have always regretted that fashion seems to have set the 

 limit to the rural hotel season. The heats of the summer are 

 simply to be endured, but the crisp, vivifying atmosphere of 

 autumn is to be enjoyed. Those who rusticate usually expe- 

 rience about as few of the del gilts of country life 83 the at- 

 tendants on a camp meeting do of the joys of heaven. They 

 swelter through the dusts and heat of summer under the 



