280 



FOREST AND STREAM. 



A WEEKLY JOURNAL, 



Devoted to Field and Aquatic Stouts, PPAoricALNATunAi.TIisToiiT, 

 Fisa Culture, the Protection or Gaii ^Preservation or Forests, 

 and the Inculcation in Men and Women op a healtht interest 



fcra Outdoor Recreation and Studi- : 



-PUBLISHED BY 



forest mid ^frcaiii ffiubtislting <$om$xty}, 



VI CHATHAM STREET. (CITY HALL SQUARE) NEW YORK, 



[l*OST Orriri; Bo 

 135 SOUTH Til I HP STKKUT. I'll I L A IlKLTMIIA. 



COBB'S UlTILDINU, DEARBORN ST., CHICAGO. 



Terini, Five Dollars a Year, Strictly In Advance. 



A discount of twenty percent, allowed Tor five copies and upwards. 



Advertising liatea. 



In regular advertising columns, nonpareil type, 12 lines to the Inch, Si 

 cents per line. Advertisements on outside page, 40 cento pet line. Reading 

 notices, 50 cents per line. Advertisements in double column 35 per cent, 

 estra. When- advertisements ore inserted over 1 mouth, a discount ol 

 10 )>er cent, will be made; over three months, 20 per cent; over sts 

 months, 30 per cent. 



NEIVYOKK, THURSDAY, DECEMBER 10, 1874. 



To Correspondents. 



All communications whatever, whether relating to business or literary 

 correspondence, must be addressed to The Forest and Stream Pub- 

 lishing Company. Personal or private letters of course excepted. 



All communications intended far publication must be accompanied with 

 real name, as a guaranty of good faith. Names will not be published if 

 objection bo made. No auouymons contributions will bo regarded. 



Articles relating to any topic witbiu the scope of this paper are solicited. 



Wo cannot promise to retnrn rejected manuscripts. 



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

 notes of their movements and transactions, as it is the aim of this paper 

 to become a medium of useful and reliable information between gentle- 

 men sportsmen from one end of tbe country to the other ; and they will 

 find our columns a desirable medium for advertising announcements. 



The Publishers of Forest and Streak aim to merit arid, senate the 

 patronage and countenance of that portion of the community whose re- 

 fined intelligence enables thein to properly appreciate and enjoy all that 

 is beautiful in Nature. It will pander to no depraved tastes, nor pervert 

 the legitimate sports of land and water to those, base uses which always 

 tend to make them nnpopular with the virtuous and good. No advertise- 

 ment or business notice of nn immoral character will be received on any 

 terms ; and nothing will be admitted to any department of the paper tliat 

 may not be read with propriety in the home circle. 



We cannot be responsible for the dereliction of tbe mall service, if 

 money remitted to us is lost. 



Advertisements should be sent in by Saturday of each week, if possible. 

 CHARIiES HALL.OCK, Managing Editor. 



WILLIAM C. HARRIS, Business Manager. 



HUNTING CLUBS. 



PERHAPS no sport known to modern days has occupied 

 so much of the attention of aristocratic sportsmen as 

 the pursuit of the hare, fox, or stag with well-bred, well- 

 traiued hounds; and even the poor peasant or drudging 

 costermonger will leave his labor to take a run with the 

 baying pack, whose musical chorus resounds through the 

 gorse, or is echoed in various tones by the heath-clad hills. 

 It has a charm for almost all classes of people that few 

 can resist; but to its devoted lover it possesses an attrac- 

 tion nearly amounting to delirium. The cry of a ringing, 

 deep-toned pack of hounds has more allurements for the 

 latter than the most delicious tones ever evolved by Verdi, 

 Gounod, Rossini, Mozart, Hayden, Beethoven, and other 

 great masters of the soothing, sensuous art, for the former 

 arouses their virile nature, which loves the break-neck dash 

 and dangers peculiar to the hunting field, besides that pe- 

 culiar and indescribable sensation produced by being first 

 in at the death, and receiving the compliments of fair 

 ladies and gallant rivals, while the latter merely tranquil- 

 izeB the senses, or aids in developing the higher social quali- 

 ties. One is the spur to manly deeds; the other the incen- 

 tive to the gracious courtesies of the drawing room, and 

 the development of certain ajsthetic qualities; hence, while 

 every virile nature responds with alacrity to the first, it 

 requires a certain amount of culture to be intelligently im- 

 pressed by the second. It is on these grounds alone that 

 we can understand why the sturdy squires of old would 

 expend thousands of pounds upon their kennels, and be- 

 come ecstatic in their descriptions of the fine tongue of a 

 well matched pack, when they would not rent a box at the 

 opera, or perhaps go fifty miles to hear the most famed 

 songstress. Any one who has ever ridden a spirited hun- 

 ter after the wild music of the hounds can readily forgive 

 these devoted lovers of the chase for their enthusiasm, and 

 sympathize with them rather than criticise their, to some 

 persons, eccentric taste. It is this love and practice of 

 physical exercise that has kept the natives of the British 

 Isles in their sturdy manhood, and has imparted to them 

 that courage which defies danger, and in fact makes them 

 court it, for they will go far afield to assault the treacher- 

 ous Ihspl in its lair, or pursue the elephant over the torrid 

 plains ol Africa. This education has brought them bless- 

 ings which ouo might not readily deduce from such pas- 

 times, for it has given them that spirit which will not brook 

 any tyrannical restraint on their liberty, and imparted those 



qualities of daring and endurance which defy all 6bsta- 

 cles, and lead them on their conquering mission whenever 

 they plant themselves among other peoples. 



In our own great land these same characteristics exist; 

 but they come to us by inheritance rather than by cultiva- 

 tion, for we have not yet devoted any attention, except in 

 few instances, to developing our physical powers, as all 

 our energies have been given up to the collection of the 

 "root of all evil." Now that our people, or a large pro- 

 portion of them, have attained a position of comfort, if 

 not of luxuriance, they are enabled to indulge in the ex- 

 hilarating, health-giving sports of their ancestors, and, by 

 practicing these, they not only make their life one of 

 healthful pleasure, but they transmit to their posterity a 

 vigor of frame which they must have if they would be 

 able to carve out a niche for themselves in this bustling, 

 crowding world. 



The ancient Greeks attained fame as athletes and horse- 

 men ere they became a nation of warriors, poets, and 

 sages, yet they did not carry bodily exercise to too great an 

 extreme, for they argued that such an action would only 

 lead to a dull and material, though vigorous race, as much 

 as the indulgence in music, painting, and the fine arts 

 alone would to an effeminate ono. It is only by the judi- 

 cious combination of both that as perfect a race as the mu- 

 tations of the world will permit can be developed. Our 

 most cultured citizens support the higher class of arts quite 

 liberally— such as music and painting — but they do not, 

 we fear, pay attention enough to their own physical edu- 

 cation. Many of them, we doubt, not, suppose that the 

 training of nerve and muscle is contrary to mental culture, 

 and opposed in every way to the acquirement of the xs- 

 thetic qualities; that it is, in fact, coarse, and therefore 

 unfit for persons of refinement. This is a most serious 

 mistake, for some of the ablest statesman, poets, artists, 

 and military strategists the world has known were accom- 

 plished in all physical exercises, and to this condition may- 

 be traced, to a certain extent, the vigor which characterized 

 them. 



To attain health, surety of eye, and presence of mind 

 when confronted by danger, we know of few pastimes so 

 excellent for this purpose as a good canter after a pack of 

 hounds. It is one which may be indulged by the most 

 fastidious member of society, so that there can be no ob- 

 jection to it on account, of plebeianism. The cost of a 

 pack of hounds is trifling compared with the pleasure it 

 gives, ami its salutary effect on health and longevity. 



If the pack was sustained by Bubseription, the sum to be 

 paid by each member of the hunting club would be quite 

 small, and to a gentleman would hardly lie worthy of con- 

 sideration, fn Canada, where money is much scarcer than 

 in this country, and where it is more difficult lo be ob- 

 tained, they support two or three hunt clubs in excellent 

 style. If Ibis can be done iu the Dominion, it certainly 

 ought lo be here, and it seems to us a matter of surprise 

 that our sporting gentlemen have not inaugurated such as- 

 sociations long ere this. With the exception of a hunt 

 club recently organized in Baltimore, Marylandj we do not 

 know of another in Ihc country; for the gathering of indi- 

 vidual bounds from their owners for an occasional run, 

 which is quite common in the South, cannot be called a 

 hunting pack in its literal sense. There is nothing to pre- 

 vent the formation of hunting clubs in this country, as we 

 have all the materials required for its success, for game, 

 horses aud money arc plentiful enough. We have also 

 advantages which they do not possess either in Prance or 

 the Britisli Isles, so that the only thing lacking to make 

 mounted hunting popular here is a few gentlemen to lead 

 in the matter. The cost of a pack of about twenty couples 

 should uot be over $6,000 per annum, including the person 

 attending to the kennel, and this certainly could be raised 

 quite readily. We hope to see clubs organized in various 

 portions of the country at an early day, and we err much 

 if they will not be well supported, and furnish more solid 

 pleasure than can be extracted from any sybaritical pursuit. 



TERRAPINS. 



PLACE a dish of cooked terrapin before a Philadel- 

 phian or a Baltimorean, and he will readily determine 

 by its flavor whether it was raised in Maryland, Virginia, 

 Georgia, or South Carolina. Their sense of taste is as deli- 

 cate and critical as that of the Chinese tea tasters, while 

 the flavor of the terrapin itself is more difficult to define 

 or to analyze than the grateful odor of the truffle. In New 

 York we scarcely appreciate the distinction, as we are not 

 educated lo it. We do not wish to decry the merits of the 

 terrapins found South of Maryland, but we know that in 

 our markets the Long Island and Chesapeake tearrapius 

 command much higher prices than their Southern con- 

 geners. To keep terrapins — to pack them — has long been 

 the dream of our various market dealers, and numerous 

 experiments have been tried to preserve them, so as to have 

 them ready for the season. The festive supper period be- 

 ing over, say about February in the Northern States, the 

 demand for this most delicate tortoise ceases. In July and 

 August they are found quite plentifully South. The prob- 

 lem is to buy them in the South, when out of season, for 

 use North, and to keep them for Winter, when the demand 

 sets in. 8eeiug a live young terrapin, scarce larger than 

 a trade dollar, swimming along uncommonly lively in an 

 aquarium the other day, we determined to trace up the 

 origin of the infant phenomenon. A gentleman purchas- 

 ing the terrapins coming from Georgia, South Carolina, 

 and even Texas, they were introduced into a preserve ar- 

 ranged for them at Long Branch. As the terrapins from 



the South arrive North just at the period of laying their 

 eggs, it was hoped that they might be hatched, and a sup- 

 ply be obtained ; but as their growth is very slow this is 

 rather a difficult matter, for a terrapin a year old will not 

 exceed two inches in length. Another obstruction to the 

 success of the enterprise is the fact that the young terra- 

 pins are often eaten by the parents the moment they ap- 

 pear. The age of the terrapin is judged from the wrinkles 

 on the shell, and by competent persons it is supposed that 

 it lakes from eight lo ten years before it attains full growth. 

 The Southern species is readily distinguished from the 

 Northern by its darker shell, and having lesa prominence 

 of knobs on the ridge of the shell. 



The only large establishment in the Northern States de- 

 voted specially to the breeding of terrapins is that belong- 

 ing lo Mr. West, at Long Branch; but how far it may be 

 successful it would be hard to decide at present. The 

 hatching of the eggs by artificial process has proved suc- 

 cessful to a certain extent, for many of the eggs are often 

 thrown away owing to a want of that kuowledge required 

 for incubating them properly. If fifty per cent, arc hatched 

 it is considered good returns; so it will be seen that a large 

 capital is required to carry the enterprise to a successful 

 issue, as a terrapin does not lay over five or six eggs, and the 

 young are assailed by many enemies, prominent among 

 which arc the crab aud some, voracious fishes. At the 

 Long Branch establishment 1,500 terrapins are now being 

 reared; but it will be a long lime before they yield any 

 financial returns, owing to the slowness of their growth. 

 They do not require any food throughout the Winter, as 

 they hide themselves away from the cold, and lie in a dor- 

 mant state until the return of warm weather. Their usual 

 food is fish, for they refuse all meat. One reason given for 

 the decrease of shell fish in our rivers, where they were 

 formerly plentiful, is that the terrapin catchers lake old 

 and young alike, and as the creatures do not commence 

 laying eggs before they are four years old it is evident that, 

 their increase is prevented by this needless slaughter. The 

 only way to prevent this idle destruction is to make a strin- 

 gent law, fining every person who sells one under six inches 

 in length. This will allow the creatures to increase, so 

 there will be little danger of a scarcity when they are 

 wanted. 



HINTS FOR SOUTHERN HUNTING. 



THE birds are now well on their way to the Sunny 

 South; our streams will soon be ice-clad aud their 

 finny denizens shut from pursuit, and the game animals in 

 the snow-covered forests will be found only by men of un- 

 usual hardihood after days and nights of exposure, but, 

 still, within easy access are bunting grounds that will never 

 be without abundant game, where free from ice, snow and 

 bitter storms the gun anil rod may be carried amid novel 

 aud pleasant scenes, and uot only our familiar Northern 

 birds be found in unfamiliar haunts, but new forms of 

 animal life be met with iu interesting variety. 



The Gulf States, with woodland in unlimited areas, with 

 broad rivers of fresh Water and estuaries without end, with 

 open sea beaches and rocky and eoial harbors, invite North- 

 ern hunters; and if perchance he meet the Southrous in 

 their homes, or at their camps, a new and genial compan- 

 ionship is assured, that once enjoyed will not fade from 

 memory, for Southern welcomes are as broad as Southern 

 fields, and as full of sunshine. 



In going far from home there is usually an inclination to 

 carrymany articles of impedimenta that are found not to 

 repay the annoyance of their care. The enthusiastic Eng- 

 lishman, Sir George Gore, invaded Florida last Winter with 

 as much luggage as filled a store house, comprised of cases 

 of every imaginable thing needful, and everything unnec- 

 cessarj% and as may be inferred, he did not go to Florida 

 and return for "One Hundred Dollars," his bill for extra 

 luggage being some three hundred dollars on a short trip, 

 and°it is doubtful if his curious assortment is all yet re- 

 moved from the Stale. 



We will not counsel those who would go with much 

 "duffel," as the guides term luggage: they will suit their 

 own abundant fancy; nor will we hint to the luxurious 

 yachtsman how to store his lockers with dainties, although, 

 pleasant memories Tecall the way it has been bountifully 

 done, but will venture on a few simple suggestions that 

 may be of some value to persons going Soulh. 



First and foremost, as to guns: For all but boat shoot- 

 ing, guns to be used under the hot sun that, even in Winter, 

 fall's "on the Southern fields with a fierce heat, should be 

 light, and of not too large bore, to economise weight of 

 ammunition. 



A rifle should be short, and one chosen that will in open- 

 ing be free from long levers that may catch in bridle reins, 

 will avoid annoyance. For alligators, the Mead explosive 

 ball is unequalled, aud its use increases very materially the 

 chances of so shocking and stunning those tenacious 

 animals, as to recover them at once. As they lie on logs, 

 and on slimy banks, they usually retain life enough to 

 wriggle into the water, when they sink; but we have shot 

 theuTwith the Mead bullet, and saw them dash out upon 

 land and be unable to get any command of their move- 

 ments. All the talk of a ball glancing harmlessly from 

 their scales may have been 1 rue years ago, but the modern 

 rifle carries its missile through the scales and skull, and 

 penetrates any part of the animal, even at long range. 



For all but " 'gaitor," the shot gun is the convenient arm. 

 Deer are usually "jumped" and shot bounding through the 

 large leaves of low Palmetto, aud at all times one load of 

 fine shot is needed for quail, snipe and plumage birds, that 

 are constantly fluttering up' 



