484 



Jb'OW^T A'ND bi-kiilAfflT 1 



|*J 



Beaglos.— W K Bico, Pittsfleld, MaBB, 1st, Julep, bitch ; 2d, 

 Mint, dog. 



Collies— let, John Hobart Warren, Troy, N Y, Colin, QncBn'a 

 Eeuuel, Ilalmoral ; 2d, aame owner. Dare ; Vho, same owner, 

 Duncan; H c, Oneida Community, Lulu, 9% tno. 



Coach Bogs.— 1st, Geo, Alien, Tcoy, N V, Fannie ; 2d, same 

 owner, Cap(. 



Grovhoonds.— 1st, M E Fillev, Laneingburgh, N Y, Fannia, 

 2 yra. 



Mastiffs, -lat, Win F Morgan, N Y. King Olaf. 



Yorkshire Terriers. -Miss 4 ft Burden, Troy, N Y, Tattera, 5 

 yra, imp, 



Scotch Terriers,— 1st, JohTTTr Hoolay, Troy, N Y, Fly, 5 yrs, 

 imp. 



Italian Greyhounds.— 1st, D Denison, Greenbnsh, N Y. Ino. 



Pets.— F P Aikon, Greenbusb, N Y, Pauline ; 2d, Thomas Knight, 

 Troy, N Y, Chinese dog. 



Specials.— For best brace of setters, without regard to Beit, 

 nickel plated couple and paii collars, awarded to James T Walker's 

 black and Ian setters, Dash and Black Peas. 



For Setter Bitchee, any Breed— 1st premium, nickel collar; 2d 

 premium, whistle. — 1st. A A Sampson's Nora; 2d, James T 

 Walker's Black Bess. 



THE MINNESOTA FIELD TRIALS. 



« sir. davidson bkabd fbom again. 



Editob Forest and Struam: 



Id reply to Mr. VVhit.tord's attack upon me in a Chicago 

 paper of Jan. 4tb, which 1 have been longing for, I will 

 commence with the beginning of the field trials. The judges 

 appointed by the Minnesota Kenaef Club were, Mr. Butler, 

 Mr. Mulliben and myself. Mr. Butler being unwell when re- 

 quirod toactj a substitute was necessary to fill the vacancy. 

 A prominent sportsman of Sauk Centre was selected to take 

 the position, who declined to act, when Mr. Whitford, who 

 with Mr. Morgan had been quartered on the grounds pre- 

 served lor the Held trials with their dogs for a day or two pre- 

 vious, was suggested by Mr. Sandboru and finally selected to 

 fill the vaeauey caused by the absence of Mr. Butler. It was 

 well known at the time that he and Mr. Morgan had been 

 shooting together, and that Mr. Morgan had an entry iu the 

 nursery stakes; but 1 heard no objections made to that, neither 

 to my having been shooting with a prominent St. Pauls sports- 

 man previous to this, who also had an entry in the nursery 

 stakes, which was equally well known. I merely mention this 

 to show the difference between shooting with one person 

 and with another in the eyes of a certain editor, who made so 

 much fuss over my having been shooting with Mr. Whitman. 

 The complaint came of course after Mr. Whitman's bitch had 

 won a place, greatly to the mortification of said editor. 

 There was no quarreling with the judges in figuring up the 

 scores iu the misery stakes. The first quarrel that took place 

 between Mr. Whitford and myself was m relation to the back- 

 ing of Mr. Sandfiorn's dog Dan iu the puppy stakes, of which 

 1 will state the facts. Dan had run out his score with the ex- 

 ception of backing, and was put down to back Snap, who was 

 one of the first that ran in the champion stakes ; he refused to 

 back and went deliberately in before Snap and flushed the 

 bird. When he did so, Mr. Saudborn remarked to me that he 

 Hardly expected he would back, and the dog was ordered up. 

 Daisy was then down, worked by Mr. VVaddingtou, and a 

 bird having flushed a short distance oil' in the nubble from 

 Where we stood, Mr. Saudborn said to Mr. Waddiugtou, that 

 by going over there'might be mute birds, and that fie would 

 get a point for his bitch. Mr. Wadclinglon went over, when 

 his bitch made a staunch point ; on being told to put up the 

 bird noue could be found, and she got a false point, When 

 Daisy had gone on, Mr. Whitford who was a little to my right 

 said, give Plan a back. I ar.ked turn when he backed, as I had 

 not seen him do so, he replied that 1 ought to have seen him, 

 and that he had backed now. I then said 1 had heard Mr. 

 Bandborn told to take up his dog when he refused to back 

 Snap, and that I had not heard him told to put him down 

 again for a second trial. He then replied that it did not mat- 

 ter whether I had or not, he was told to put him down and 

 that he had backed. I answered by saying that having seen 

 him refuse to back it wus only right and proper in justice to 

 other dogs running that 1 should see him back, and that if he 

 (Whitford,) was going to judge the field trials alone that Mr. 

 Mulliken and my sell migut as well go home. On inquiring 

 of Mr. Mulliken, who was near by, he also had neither seen 

 him back nor heard him again ordered down, and learned 

 that he and Mr. Saudborn had a rnisuuilersiauuing about the 

 dog previous to this, when Sandborn threatened withdrawing 

 him. These are the circumstances under which Dan got his 

 back, and I resolved then to withdraw from the position of 

 judge, as the ring was evidently at work. On mentioning my 

 intentions to a lovv with dogs there they insisted upon my con- 

 tinuing to act, and nothing l urtber occurred unpleasant until the 

 trouble about .Nellie, which Mr. Mulliken iu his letter to Forest 

 and Steeam ko accurately describes. In that controversy 

 1 went to the wagon determmed to have nothing further to 

 do with the field trials, as to question anything about a dog 

 of Mr. Sandborn's with Whiuoid present was certain cause 

 of a quarrel; and only for being reminded that two dogs alone 

 remained to be run atter those down, 1 would not have acted 

 any longer as judge. Another little circumstance in justice 

 to a bitcn which ran, 1 will here notice. Alter the contro- 

 versy about Nellie Mr. Dilly's bitch, Countess Royal, was 

 down and had established a point and held it a long time, 

 when Mr. Whitford, accompanied by Mr. Eowe, went to him, 

 and Whitford said : " Ditly, 1 can't allow you a point for 

 this." Mr. Dlllv asked him what was the reason he could 

 not. Whitford said, ••Your bitch was not down." Mr. 

 Dilly replied that he had not been ordered to take her up and 

 that he considered her down. Mr. Whitford then said it 

 made no difference, Sandboru's was not down (Saudborn at this 

 lime had voluntarily called his to heel), and that if he had got 

 it flush under the circumstances he would not have given it to 

 him, and now he would not give him a point. Mr. Policy's 

 reply to this was, that it seemed somewhat strange to him, 

 iuid that he could not understand what Sanborn's dog had to 

 do with the running ot his. Mr. Mulliken and myself were 

 in distinct hearing of this conversation, and in plain view of 

 the bitch when pointing. In thinking the matter over we de- 

 cided to say nothing then, she being one of the last down and 

 a fresh quarrel the prospective result, and intended bringing 

 the matter up at the close of her score, but Mr. Dilly with- 

 drew her before running out her score, and she got no credit 

 for an excellent point. It is a significant fact that Mr. Whit- 

 ford was suggested by Mr. Saudborn to fill the vacancy caused 

 by the absence of Mr. Butler, and that all the quarreling at 

 the Minnesota Field Trials, and controversy since, has been in 

 regard ro Mr. Sanborn's dogs, it is also lull of significance 

 that Mr. Whitman is the only man who has ever run dogs iu a 

 field trial with whom it was improper for a judge to go shoot- 

 ing previous to the trials, in the eyes of a certain editor, who 



at other trials has used his influence to advantage, and whose 

 extreme intimacy with Mr. Whitford during the Minnesota 

 Field Trials had a very ominous look. I shirk no responsi- 

 bility as to Tempest's having gotten second place in the nur- 

 sery stakes at the Minnesota Field Trials, for by Mr. Mulli- 

 ken's score and my own she was justly entitled to it, let Mr. 

 Wbitford's scores have been one or a dozen. He can find 

 nothing over my signature in Fokkst and Stream stating 

 that I copied from his score in the nursery stakes. I stated 

 inFoBBST and Stream that the sci.res iu the nursery stakes 

 were taken from Whitford's score, and do so now, and again 

 State I can prove it. It might be interesting to Whitford to 

 know the opinion of an expert us to the handwriting of the 

 mutilated score Ire speaks of, and n postal curd signed (J. H. 

 Whitford, in which he states that he was willing to divide the 

 second prize in the nursery stakes between Tempest and 

 Jennie, and therefore append it. And another little interest- 

 ing matter to look over, th it the many readers of Fokkst and 

 Stbeam and the Chicago paper, " which is sure to copy it," 

 may judge for themselves which is the shirker, and whether 

 he will be as willing to give his gratitude to Forest and 

 Stream for showing up fraud as he was to the Chicago paper 

 for stating a volume of malicious and Unprecedented false- 

 hoods. John Davidson. 

 Monroe, Jan. 3, 1879. 



APPENDIX. 



I, the undersigned, hereby certify that I have seen and ex- 

 amined a letter of Chas. Lincoln to John Davidson, dated De- 

 troit, Oct. 29, 1378, in which he states, in relation to the 

 above contest, that he received the papers in the nursery 

 stakes from Whitford. I have also examined a " scale of 

 points" of the nursery stakes in Davidson's possession, and 

 compared the handwriting with a postal card to Davidson, 

 dated Pembroke, Ky., Nov. 14, 1878, and signed C. B. Whit- 

 ford, and have no hesitstion in saying that the handwriting in 

 the two are the same ; and further, that I he " scale" has some 

 erasures, and the " net total " is incorrectly summed up; that 

 when property added it gives Tempest 43i and Jennie i'A. I 

 further certify that I have been an attorney at law for twenty 

 years, and consider myself a good judge of handwriting. 



Monroe, Mich., Jan. 5, 1879, Elam Willabd. 



Jilt — Editor Forest and Stream: Some weeks back I 

 made mention of my bitch Jilt as being pure Laverack. I 

 wish now to correct this. She has soine Gildersleeve blood 

 in her, which, however, in no way detracts from her vulue. 

 She was sired by Pedigree (pure Laverack), imported by 

 Charles Wescott in 1876. Her dam was Orphina, sired by 

 the celebrated Bride of the Border, whico, as is well known, 

 was pure Laverack. Orpbiua's dam was Nellie, out of Bess 

 and Bruce. A. F. Hekton, Coatesville, Pa. 



— Mr. Jas. H- Clark's Princess Draco (Bob Roy-Livy) 

 whelped, Jan. 5, 1879, ten puppies— six dogs and four bitches 

 — by L. Adams' Champion Drake, late winner at the Nash- 

 ville Field Trial. The owner retains a brace for himself, as 

 names of which he claims Princess Draco 11. and Drake II. 



—The St. Louis Kennel Club has purchased from Mr. II, J. 

 L. Price the pointer bitches Zeal and Lizzie, full sisters to his 

 celebrated Bow-Bell and half sister to their Bow. Zeal Is in 

 whelp to her sire, Bang. 



— Mr. J. W. Packer, of Philadelphia, claims the following 

 names: For his black and white dog puppy, Chester; for 

 black and white ticked bitch puppy, Daisy Bell out of hi3 

 Queen by Levering's Harry. 



fax md 



FISH IN SEASOfTlN. JANUARY. 



SOUTHERN WATEH3. 



Pompano, Trachii,ctu eeQToltovuQ Grouper, Epinephelpwi nigritus. 



Drum (two species). Family Sots- Trout (ulucK baos), Centrorpriatie 



md<e. atraritts. 



Kiugiisli, Mentkirrua mbuUmu, Stiiped Bass, or Rockush, Itoccus 



Sea Bass. Scieenopa oceltoluv. lineatus. 



Sheepahead, Archoaargvs probata- Tailoriisli, Pomatomut mltatrix. 



iicephalus. Black Baas, Mwrvptenta aattnmdcsi 



apper, LvXjanuHhlackfordu, JUpaUidus. 



Fws in JIabket— Retail Prices.— Bass, 20 cantB; smelts, 10; 

 blueflsh,12%; salmon, 25; mackerel, 20; shad, iu; weaknah, 12 ; 

 white perch, 15; green turtle, 18; froatfiah, 6 ; halibut, IS; had- 

 dock, 6; codfish, 6; blackball, 12>£ ; flounders, 8; sea bass, 15 ; 

 eels, 18; lobsters, 10; eeallopB, il.00 per gallon; whitefiah, 18 ; 

 pickerel, 15; salmon trout, 16; black bass, 15 ; red-snapper, 12*^ ; 

 smoked haddock, 10; hard crabs, $3 per 100. 



HOW TROUT TAKE THE FLY. 



WE have been reading the characteristic sketch of a day's 

 sport in the South of Ireland, written by our candid cor- 

 respondent, "T. E. L.," for a late issue, and cannot forbear 

 the reflection how far we of America, or at least the majority 

 of us, are behind our trans-Atlantic friends in those piscatory 

 arts and artifices taught by the good Walton and Madame 

 Behner four hundred years ago I We are told by the relator 

 that the shuffling tactics and common-place methods of our 

 Rangeley and Schoodic school of angling will not answer for 

 the bright streams of the Emerald Isle } that it is " absolutely 

 necessary to keep as far as possible from the bank and throw 

 the line with such lightness that only the leader will fall on 

 the water," and that old resident anglers will fill their creels 

 ith wary two-pound fish while strangers can scarcely tempt 

 an unsophisticatedflngerliDg. We are impressed by the con- 

 viction that the inherent or transmitted intelligence of the 

 trout of the Scone (and other such rivers) are as far beyond 

 and out of the range of the puerile approaches of neophytes 

 as the belles of St. James are above the limp rag doll imita- 

 tions sold in the shops. The trout of the bright waters of 

 Ireland are not in the habit of rising, like the hand-fed fish 

 of preserves, to every leaf, dry case, or chance bit of rubbish 

 which drops on the surface. They don't dodge when a bull- 

 frog plumps into the drink, imagining it the splash of a footfall 

 or a Btone thrown in. Tremulous shadows on the shore, and 

 the arrow-like nights of birds athwart the streams cause no 



apprehension ; but long shafts of shade suddenly projected 

 over the banks are premonitory finger-points, indeed ; while 

 tie zigzag of a clumsy line in mid air drives them to their 

 holes like the play of a lightning flash against the clouds. 

 Their intuitive perception has become so developed as to ren- 

 der curiosity a superfluous instinct ; and therefore the ma- 

 noeuvres of the tyro have no positive interest to them. They 

 merely lie perdu and passive until tlu farce of fishing is over, 

 and then proceed to habitual pursuit of bona-fide insects— not 

 of humbugs. Sometimes they frolic aimlessly in mid stream 

 and turn somorsaulfs, just as the huge sturgeons and dolphins 

 do when at play: often they amuse themselves by jumping 

 at tired or disabled flies which dip and flutter above the sur- 

 face. Juicy larva; which drop from projecting branches aloDg 

 the margin are accepted morccaus instantly snapped and swal- 

 lowed, while the uncertain flight of a clumsy beetle or butter- 

 fly across the broad mid-channel affords opportunities for 

 acrobatic practice seldom left unimproved. One of our cor- 

 respondents has described this action by a diagram below, 

 which contains more of the poetry of motion than is usually 

 fouud in such simple hard set lines. Entomologists will con- 

 firm the artifice of dashing spray after flying insects to knock 

 them down within their reach, when they will hesitate to in- 

 dorse the bat-and-ball theory of striking a fly into the mouth 

 by a tip of the tail. 



We love io picture these summer scenes of purling, gently 

 flowing streams of still waters running deep, into whose dark 

 eddying pools, close by the shore, scraggy trees protrnde their 

 bare and withered roots, that the water may lave them. 

 Tussocks of rank grass have slipped down from the abraded 

 bank, and on the long filaments which sway in the current 

 great dragon flies poise with outstretched wings of steel-blue 

 gossamer. The big trout which are watching beneath the 

 roots seldom molest them, provident, perhaps, of future sup- 

 plies of more luscious larva; when the neuropter shall launch 

 her egg-bout. But let an ambitious field-mouse attempt to 

 cross the stream, or a top-heavy beetle tumble in, how like a 

 shaft from a bow string will the trout dart straight for the 

 prize, seize it, and with a triumphal flirt of the tail, like the 

 waving of a victorious battle-flag, dive for the bottom— not 

 once only, should he miss it, but twice, thrice, yea, many 

 times, until the hapless creature is drawn beneath the surface, 

 drowned, torn piece-meal and gobbled up I No time lost 

 then in useless leaping and by-playing with the tail ; for what 

 occasion is there to toy and dally with the game ? Just so he 

 takes the artificial fly which is skillfully trailed upon the sur- 

 face. But often he is so positive of the deception that he re- 

 fuses to be enticed and lies motionless in the stream, until, 

 seeing the lure lift itself naturally off the surface when the 

 angler withdraws his line for a fresh cast, he reasons, " By 

 Jupiter! that was reality, after all !" and, starting in swift 

 pursuit, he leaps, dashes water after the object and employs 

 all the strategy which nature has taught him. If successful 

 in hooking himself, the angler congratulates himself for 

 adroitness instead of blessing his good luck and discounting 

 the stupidity of the fish. 



We are writing now in the interest of really good anglers 

 who know how to manipulate a fly; who dare attempt the 

 wide, smoothly-flowing, sunny stream, where every incautious 

 movement is a death-blow to success ; who can lay out a 

 delicate cast of flies so evenly and lightly that the fish them- 

 selves can scarcely see them fall, the 1 transparent gut lengths 

 touching the distant water first, and the taut, tapering line 

 settling gently afterward, to be lifted by the pliant rod-tip, 

 leaving scarcely a trace of the feathery ripple which follows 

 its motion. Of such character, we are told, is much of the 

 angling, and of such the quality of anglers, in most of the 

 waters of Great Britain. In times past we have marvelled at 

 the dimintitiveness of the trout flies and the fineness of the 

 gut snoods which the resident professionals there use. This 

 article has no reference to salmon fishing, for its primary ob 

 ject is to define the flight of insects and show " how trout 

 take the fly." But alas! how many self -esteemed experts 

 there are who are wofully ignorant of both I They betray 

 their deficiencies in their written views and opinions. 

 They actually believe that, having delivered an in- 

 terminable length of line, vi et armis, their full share of 

 the business has been accomplished, no matter in what predi- 

 cament of tangled coil and thundering splash the line may 

 fall. The belly of the line falls first, and the cast of flies fol- 

 lows "all in a heap." One writer has argued that, in the ad- 

 justment of droppers, no specified length of snood was required 

 because the sag of the line invariably kept all the flies sub- 

 merged! Just so: but Irish anglers don't cast after that 

 fashion in the Scone. Another art our American anglers seem 

 not to have learned, viz., that it is " absolutely necessary to 

 keep as far as possible from the bank." Our candid corres- 

 pondent, to whom wo have referred at the beginning of this 

 article, admits that "our rather nonchalant manner of fishing 

 light do very well in the wilds of Maine, but it was evi- 

 dently not the ticket in this old-fashioned country " (Ireland). 

 The great drawback hitherto to American proficiency has been, 

 that our anglers have usually frequented the rapid broken 

 water of our narrow, turgid mountain streams, where the play 

 of the current has given life and motion to their artificial flics, 

 and a multitude of unsophisticated fish has granted success 

 to their " rather nonchalant method of fishing." The neces- 

 sity of fine fishing has not been discovered. In this fact, too, 

 lies the secret of their ignorance of the natural history of in- 

 sects and of "how trout take the fly." We 'hope more of 

 them will follow the example of our Rangeley friend, and 



