264 



FOREST AND STREAM. 



{.Max 5, 188i 



much to increase the food resources of the Slate as -well as 

 to educate the men of the lower counties, who were so much 

 opposed to all restricting laws, to the knowledge that the 

 commission was working for the interest of the fishermen, as 

 well as for tho public in general. The fishermen now very 

 generally observe the law which compels a close time from 

 Saturday midnight to Monday morning, which is six hours 

 longer than the Pennsylvania law, which allows fishing at 

 midnight of Saturday. 



An ichthyological student on board interested the company 

 In the dissection of a young sturgeon. The fish was a young 

 "sharp mm," Acij/rjixh- (uyr/ihw/nM, called "inamoose," by 

 the fishermen who claim that they do not grow to be over a 

 foot in length. The ichthycus said that in later life the nose 

 lost the extreme sharpness of youth, and that it did grow 

 large. He also dived into the secrets of its digestion, and 

 showed .how its mouth was capable of extension and of suck- 

 ing up infusorial mud j how the barbels beneath the nose felt 

 of Jthe bottom near the mouth _wb.ich._the eyescould not see 

 on account of the nasal projection ; how its stomach contain- 

 ed straws, grasses and minute worms and snails ; and how 

 the digestible portions were used and the great . mtealii.o, 

 filled to repletion, carried away the refuse, and then went 

 into the vertebral structure and showed how the back bone 

 ran into the upper lobe of the tail like the old ganoid fel- 

 lows. 



And the sturgeon died. 



An artist, of Frank Leslies Illustrated Newspaper accom- 

 panied the party and sketched points of interest for publica- 

 tion. 



THE LAST ACT IN THE AQUARIUM. 



/~\Nthe 26th of April the New York Aquarium presented 

 W a sorrowful spectacle to those who had known it in its 

 days of grandeur. The great tanks were torn down, and 

 piles of brick and mortar only remained to mark their loca- 

 tion. The large slabs of inch-thick plate glass were re- 

 moved, and stood on edge in the hall-way. The pipes, 

 puusps and table-tanks were set apart, and an auctioneer was 

 just knocking down 1 he great stuffed Anaconda as we en- 

 tered. Next he offered a lot of statuary of life and heoric 

 size, including the Venus of Milo, the Dancing Pawn and 

 the Laocoou, which were bought by Mr George Bunnell, of 

 museum fame. A small Octopus, which had once been in 

 alcohol, a big pile of chairs, a stuffed Sloth and the table- 

 tanks went to as many different bidders, the dime museums 

 getting their share. 



About one thousand square feet of plate glass one inch 

 thick, in plates five feet high by two and one-half feet wide, 

 were bought, after a spirited competition, by Mr. K. G. 

 Blackford, of Fulton Market, who also b night the smaller 

 plates, some of the table-tanks and all the waodcuts belong- 

 ing to the Aquarium, which had been used to illustrate the 

 catalogues, etc. An acquaintance asked Sir. Blackford if he 

 was goingAo build an aquarium. "No," said ho, " but it is 

 handy stuff to have in the house." The cat roamed about 

 disconsolate She was not sold. We would have purchased 

 her if the crier had put her up. We have some stock in her 

 in the shape of a valuable mocking-bird, which she ate in 

 1879, and would like to own her for a half minute. Half of 

 a brick lay on the floor within convenient reach, but pussy 

 kept in front of the glass, and thus vanished another of life's 

 opportunities. 



The giant " devil fish " goes to Europe. It is fearfully di- 

 lapidated. Two seasons on the road with a circus has de- 

 moralized it. The bumpkins believing it. a fraud (which it 

 was not) ofleu broke the glass and cut pieces from its tenta- 

 cles. 



Parewell "The Great New York Aquarium." An oppor- 

 tunity to establish a good institution which would have paid 

 a moderate rate upon the investment has come to grief 

 through mismanagement. The greed of present gain per- 

 mitted all kinds of shows to invade it, and the class which 

 once supported it in good style left it. There is still a chance 

 for a meritorious, prudently managed aquarium in New York 

 to illustrate the wonders of the vasty deep. 



THE ICHTHYOPHAGOUS WILL DINE. 



THE invitations are out. The monsters are being caught, 

 and the bonntanU of the famous Ichthyophagous Club, 

 of New York, are preparing to astonish their stomachs with 

 new problems in ichtbyophagy. The committee have letters 

 out for untried dishes, such as " hellbenders" (called " alli- 

 gators" in Western Pennsylvania), beaver tails, the protons, 

 or lizard, of the Great Lakes, sea-robins, toad-fish, etc. We 

 wish that our readers living where such Ihings are plenty 

 would communicate with us, and then send us some of these 

 things. Soft-shelled turtles from the West would be accept- 

 able as an unusual thing here. 



The club is a social institution ; and, while it enjoys itself 

 gieatly on these occasions, when wit flows at the suggestion 

 of the strange viands, it is really a philanthropic society and 

 has doue good in teaching the people of New York to eat the 

 d tpis d skate. This fish was not eaten, simply because our 

 graudfahers did not eat if, ; and this is the only reason why 

 ufenj other things are proscribed. Skates are eaten in Europe, 

 but tons upon tons were daily thrown away by our coast fisher- 

 men without reason, until the Ichthyophagous Club ate them, 

 chronicled the fact that these adventur- 



ous spirits not only declared that they were good, but that not 

 a man was lost in the charge upon prejudice. Not even n pang 

 under the waistcoat of the hungriest of the Ichthyophagi was 

 felt after the insertion of skate beneath its ample folds. And 

 the coroner was disappointed. 



This year Mr. John H. Starin does the honors and offers 

 his hotel and steamer to take these ichthyic crusaders to Glen 

 Island. It is even whispered that the President and Vice- 

 President of the United States will be present to see what 

 virtues may be hidden under the forbidden exteriors of cer- 

 tain fishes now despised only because they are not handsome. 

 New members arc welcomed by the club and will be instruct- 

 ed how to take the wrinkles out of their stomachs by the elder 

 brethren, without money and without price. No dues sic 

 claimed ; the purchaseof a ticket invests the new member with 

 all the privileges and rights ; and if he is a little weak on the 

 question of tackling an alligator steak Or the limb of a lizard 

 made in a ragout with bat's wings, he cau always order a 

 fillet of sole or of beef, and trust to time and the example 

 of the case-hardened ones about him to bring his rebellious 

 stomach to the serafch. 



At the dinner of last year the man who consumed the vast 

 quantity of razor-clams carried oil' the honors gastronomic. 

 He still lives and will feel his mouth water, even in retro- 

 spection, as he reads this. 



The following is the invitation : 



New York, May 1, 1881. 



Hear Sir— The tramnrppaAaons Ci.cn will give its Annual Din- 

 ner ftt Glen Island on Friday, May 27, at fi:30 v. nr. 



The objects of the Club are to reveal to gourmets' the unsus- 

 pected excellence of many neglected varieties of fish food, and to 

 make manifest to tho people at large tho still untried capacity of 

 sea, lake and nvor to yield the materials of human nourishment. 

 There will be submitted to the Club inuneroos kinds of Huh and 

 molluBkB, specially provided for the occasion, which are not com- 

 monly oaten, in addition to some of the usual accompaniments of 

 Rueli a feast. The dinner, though partially experimental, will 

 include enough familiar components to satisfy the least adventur- 

 ous tasto. 



Tickets Five Dollars each, to be had of the Treasurer, Mr. E. U 

 Ulaekford, Pulton Market J0H5 Fooiu>, President. 



Eugene O. Blackford, 1 



Harriet Phillips, r Committee of Arrangements. 



Fred Mather, ) 



A steamer will be provided to convey the parly to the 

 island, without charge, of which due notice of the lime of 



sailing of which will bo given. 



Orm Piphs.— "With the opening of the present week the 

 contests which have been going on for four months past in two 

 of the most prominent of the Boston galleries, for (he pos- 

 session of the elegant pipes offered by tho Forest and 

 Stream, came to a finish. The prizes were worthy of a 

 special effort, and so keenly have the marksmen pushed each 

 other that one of the trophies was taken with a perfect score, 

 while the other is but a trifle short, of it. The meerschaums 

 represent the best workmanship of P. J. Kaldenberg, known 

 throughout the country as one of the leading artificers in that 

 ma'erial, and they are well worth the $50 valuation placed 

 on each of them. We are eminently satisfied with the results 

 nf the competitions; and believe that the contests have been 

 fair and open, and that Ihc best man has won. While gallery 

 practice is pooh-poohed in some quarters and regarded as 

 child's play: such treatment merely displays the ignorance of 

 the scoffer. There has been, within the past two years, a 

 wonderful advance in the quality of our gallery arms, and 

 many who are prevented bj r circumstances or who have not 

 the inclination to visit the out-door ranges find an excellent 

 drill in the efforts of the galleries. The eye must be as 

 accurate and true, and the arm as steady to gain a place under 

 cover us to win prizes over the green sward. Besides, the 

 emulation is as keen in one place as in the other, and already 

 the makers of the .22 calibre rifles report a larger sale to 

 parties who find a cheap, healthful home amusement in pri- 

 vate Tanges. There need be no danger in such a sport, and a 

 proper knowledge of firearms would be the best preventive 

 of the many mishaps that now occur from their careless 

 handling. 



PianiNO About New York.— We have made arrange- 

 ments by which we hope to secure information which will be 

 of great value and interest to our angling friends. Our 

 plans are now so far completed that we are able to furnish 

 the names of a number of localities within one hundred 

 miles of New York where fair fishing can be had. This in- 

 formation comes from correspondents whom we believe to 

 be reliable, though of course we do not vouch for the accu- 

 racy of all the statements made. To any one, therefore, 

 who may desire fresh water fishing, such as trout, bass or 

 pickerel, we shall be pleased to supply such information as 

 wo have. This will include the name of town, the kinds of 

 fish to he had, the fare and distance from New York city, 

 the character and price of the hotel accommodations and the 

 distance from the station at which the fishing is to be found. 



No inquiries on these points will be answered through the 

 columns of Forest ami Stream, and those who desire to 

 have their questions attended to must apply personally or ac- 

 company their written inquiries with an envelope stamped 



and addressed. 



» . «■ — 



Trout Fishermen will do well to kill all the watersnakes 

 that they may see in the streams during their fishing. These 

 reptiles destroy great numbers of trout, and any one may, by 



opening one of those killed, demonstrate that they are fond 

 of the fish, and that at this season these form a very consid- • 

 erable portion of their food. Every snake killed means a 

 number of fish saved, and hence better fishing in future. 



"Tub Gum and Its Development."— Just, as we go to 

 press we are in receipt of advance sheets of this elaborate 

 work on gunnery and shooting arms, forwarded to us from 

 Mr. "W. "W. Greener, through his American agent, Mr: Henry 

 C. Squires. A hasty inspection of the volume shows it to 

 be a most noteworthy contribution to the literature of the 

 subject ; and at an early day we shall give an extended no- 

 tice of its contents. 



We Notice that the New l r ork Clipper has changed its 

 form and now appears; as a folio paper. This is a great 

 improvement and the editors and readers both must be 

 gratified at the change. Our trans-Atlantic contemporary, 

 the Illustrated Sporting and Dramatic News, comes to hand 

 with a newly adopted cover, an addition which will be ap- 

 preciated by all readers of that excellent publication. 



Darwin's New Work on the "Habits of Worms " is nearly 

 ready. We anxiously await the special chapter on augle- 

 worms, and their habit of squirming through the hole of the 

 small boy's pocket and wriggling down inside tho leg of his 

 pants. ^^^^^^^^^^^^^ 



Jpu fyortumm gaurist 



SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA AND ITS PIELD SPORTS. 



A WILD and tumbling sea of laud — a land of rolling green 

 i-A- plains, towering mountain peaks and tree-filled canyons 

 —aland of hillsides blazing with all the soft, colors of the rain- 

 bow on a background of soft, warm green — a land stocked 

 with game, where one is able 10 travel in. almost any direc- 

 tion with a buggy or saddle horse; where one may stroll be- 

 neath soft, clear skies over green sod and flowery hillsides, 

 with no mud to flounder through, no briars nor saw grass", 

 with no chilled fingers, wet feet or mosquito riddled face, 

 and in two or three hours have nil the shooting that a man 

 should desire ; where one may lie down in the cool night air 

 witli no tent but the starry blue or the glistening moonlit 

 leaves of some royal oak— a land where the winter sun rises 

 soft and clear— a land of bees, birds and rabbit-fed bachelors— 

 a bind where even the legend "No Shooting Here " carries 

 no fear to the gunner's "heart— a land where everything is 

 slow, life, death, railroads, debtors and all, and the presump- 

 tion is strongly in favor of the slowness of the gunpowder — a 

 land where earth, air and sky all combine to produce a de- 

 lightful indifference to tho flight of time— a laud where 

 nothing is certain but death, and even thai is a remote con- 

 tingency ,— this is Southern 'California as it is pictured in a 

 charming volume now before us coming from the pen of Mr. 

 T, S. Van Dyke.* 



The vast area of this great land of America is so extended, 

 its boundaries are ?o wide, that one extreme is a terra iwsog- 

 nita to the people of another section. We venture to say 

 that the average American knows more about. Constantinople 

 and the Golden Horn than he does of San Diego and its fair 

 harbor. The trans-Atlantic steamers are just now bearing 

 multitudes of summer tourists to the mountain hinds of the 

 Old World; but of all those excursionists how many know 

 that in the southwestern corner of their own country rises 

 a mountain 11,000 feet above the surrounding plains, 

 and affording a view from its summit of two hundred 

 miles? We fill our libraries and museums with memorials of 

 the extinct rnces of foreign lauds, unmindful that within the 

 limits of the United States are moss-grown walls, crumbling 

 colonnades, fretted arches, cactus-grown chnrcb tower, and 

 time-rent cloisters, each in their ruins eloquent of a faith and 

 heroism of life, about which has gathered the glamour of 

 time, and which only awaits the touch of the master-hand to 

 develop its romance and pathos. 



Mr. Van Dyke writes of an out-of-the-way corner of the 

 United States, which, by reason of the neglect of railroad 

 projectors, is to nine-tenths of the readers of this paper 

 practically as unknown as the plains of Thibet j and because 

 these pages tell us a great deal about California wo could 

 hope that the book might have it wide reading if for n<. i ther 

 purpose than to make Americans more familiar with one por- 

 tior of their own land, its natural characteristics and advan- 

 tages, its people and their ways, and the fascinating history 

 of its past. 



To the sportsman, however, the attractions of California 

 as a game country are, in a general way at lsast, well known, 

 and it is to a faithful description of the game birds 8td 

 animals that Mr. Van Dyke's book is chiefly devoted. "Flir- 

 tation Camp," we take it, is the title given to the book by tho 

 publishers. The romaucc which runs through the pages is 

 happily conceived and is sufficient, perhaps, to justify this 

 title; but, as the author explains, " it occupies far less space 

 than in many sporting works is devoted to getting the 

 hunters waked, dressed, fed, armed, 'liquored up' and into 

 the field." 



California is famed as a game country. A. book, written 

 by a competent, hand, descriptive of its game and fish and 

 the various meihods of pursuing them has long been awaited. 

 Such a book is now given us in " The Rifle, Rod and Gun in 

 California." Its author is a practical sportsman of long and 

 varied experience in hunting the game of different localities 

 in America ; and he is as good a master of the pen as of the 

 rillo. Mr. Van Dyke has long been known to the readers of 

 the Forest and Stream as a man to whom they might look 

 for plain statements of facts determined by himself rather 

 than for the parrot-rote repetition of theoretical speculations 

 advanced by others. A careful reading of his book shows us 

 that the characteristic adherence to the facts in I he case has 

 been the rule in his preparation of the volume. Lower Cali- 

 fornia and its varied charms are here pictured iu a most en- 

 ticing manner ; a volume prepared with the sole purpose of 



♦Flirtation Camp ; or, Rifle, Hod and Gun In California. A Sporting 

 Romance Bv Theouoiv s. van u.vke. New York : Fords, Howard 

 & Humeri, 1881. Frtcu, *1.60. 



