THE AMERICAN SPORTSMAN'S JOURNAL. 



Entered According to Act of Congress, la the year issi, by Ilia F0i 1 S9t and StrCiUii t'ubUsliiu;' Company, In the omce of the Librarian of .Congress, at Washington.; 



NEW YORK, THURSDAY, JUNE 23, 1881. 



CONTENTS. 



Editorial s — 



Our Fishes ; An Important Tout Case ; The Little Hellbend- 

 er's Appeal ; Notes 103 



The Sportsman Tourist ■ — 



FiBhing and Shooting in Newfoundland . 404 



Natural Histori: — 



The Antlers cf Deer ; The Swimming Powers of Serpents ; 

 The Philadelphia Zoo; Notes 405 



Game Bag and Gun : — 



The New Jersey Society ; The State Sportsmen's Conven- 

 tion ; New York tlame Law : The Game Birds of Long 

 Island : What Are Yon Going to Do About It ? Mr. Crook 

 to Mr. Bergh ; Western Pennsylvania 406 



Sea and River Fishing : — 



Game Fishes in West Virginia; Wanted— Some Angle 

 Worms; The Fly-Casting Tournament; Stone Luggers; 

 Trouting at Tim Pond ; Credit ; Notes , 409 



Fish Culture :— 



Keport of Michigan Commission ; Fish Culture in Connecti- 

 cut ; Father of Fishculture in America ; Shaw's Fishway. 411 



The Kennel :— 



The New York Dog Ordinance ; The Philadelphia Dog 

 Pound ; The Boston Dog Law ; How to Nurse Sick Dogs ; 



Kennel Notes 411 



Rifle and Trap Shooting :— 



Range and Gallery 413 



Poetry— 



The Hunter'B Camp at Night 414 



Yachting and Canoeing :— 



Reports of Regattas and Yachting News ,.'. 414 



Answers to Correspondents 417 



TO CORRESPONDENTS. 



The Forkst and Stream Is the recognized medium o£ entertainment, 

 Instruction and information between American sportsmen. 



Communications upon the subjects to which Its pages are devoted 

 are Invited from every part of the country. ' 



Anonymous communications will not be regarded. No correspond- 

 ent's mum- win be iv.iliUsheci '=xc-.';il with his eorisen;. 



The Editors cannot be held responsible for the views of correspond- 

 ents. 



All communications of whatever nature should be addressed to the 

 Forest and Stream Publishing Company, Nos. 39 and 40 Park Row, 

 New York. 



FOREST AND STREAM. 



XUiursday, Tune 23. 



OUR FISHES. 



[Head by Fred Mather before the New York State Association for 

 the Protection of Fish and Game.j 



AFTER all thut has been said on the necessity of increas- 

 ing and preserving our fishes, in the past ten years, it 

 would seem as though there was little left, to say upon these 

 subjects. There would be no need of saying more now if all 

 that has been written bad been acted upon, but the facts are 

 that the people at large have very indefinite ideas upon the 

 subject beyond Ihe increasing scarcity of fish which, rightly 

 or wrongly, they usually a'tribule to the sewage of cities or 

 the increase of steamboats, which they Ihink scare them away 

 from their baunls. The latter cause I do nut believe in. 

 The Hudson River, at New York c ; ty, is continually pounded 

 by steamboat paddles night and day in evfry direction, atd 

 oae of the most timid of fish, the shad, pass up in great 

 numbeis. Ordinary hou=e sewage is not bad for fish, neither 

 is decaying animal matter, and where sewage contains no 

 coal-tar, or other product of petroleum, lime, dye-stuff or 

 chemical refuse, it is not injurious to aquatic life. 



The causes of decrease must be looked for in our increasing 

 populat ion which demands more food, and the consequent 

 iucrease of the number and efficiency of means of capture ; 

 the destruction of the food on which fishes live, by various 

 means; the pollution of their spawning grounds aod other 

 causes consequent on the interference of man in the domain 

 f nature. Our trout streams areimsde impassable by dams, 

 their gravelly spawning beds are covered with sawdust, and 

 our salt water bays are over-fished. The remedy for 

 these things is propagation and protection, which should go 

 hand in hand. The New York Pish Commission propagates 

 but does not, and perhaps can not, protect, and the people at 



large do not see the necessity of protection. A few sports- 

 men's clubs protect, as far as it is in their power to do, but 

 the public look with indifference on it as mere selfishness on 

 their part, when in reality it is a measure of public good ; as 

 much so as if the wheat crop could be increased, and on this 

 groticd the sportsmen must present the case to the people and 

 to the Legislature if they would arouse a sentiment in behalf 

 of protection. Appeal to them for fish prolcction as a meas- 

 ure of political economy, which it really is, and when there 

 are plenty of fishes for food we can enjoy the wetting of our 

 lines. Some rivers in Great Britain are good saltr.ou streams 

 in the midst of a swarming population, and Ihis is maintained 

 by protection alone, for their attempts at fish culture are on 

 the most limited scale. Some may say that the laws which 

 accomplish this are oppressive and that they deny to 

 the poor man his rights of free fishing. To this T 

 would answer, that in our centres of population, free fishing 

 means no fishing. There is such a thing as too much free- 

 dom. We see this when we fin 1 boys of twelve to sixteen 

 years of age roaming the fields with guns killing every robin, 

 yellow bird and other thing I hat lives. We see it when we 

 find bands of poachers armed to resist the officers of the law, 

 who are protecting the fish in their spawning season. The 

 splendid work of the New York Fish Commission should be 

 supplemented by protection of the' fish during spawning lime, 

 and by facilities to enable them to surmount dams which in- 

 terfere with their ascent to the upper waters where the insect 

 life furnishes food for their young. We are suffering from 

 the inheritance of ideas which were formed when our country 

 waB new, aod the forests and streams contained wiial was 

 thought au inexhaustable supply of food. Then no restric- 

 tions were necessary upon the rifle and the net. Nature 

 provided an abundance. Now the demand for food has 

 nearly exhausted the supply from our forests, and sadly di- 

 minished the products of our streams. Art has stepped in to 

 supply the latter, and amid the doubts aud jeers of the 

 fishermen the Connecticut River was stocked with salmon, 

 after being barren of that fish for nearly fifty years. The 

 planting was kept up for several seasons, and last year many 

 salmon were taken. Connecticut River salmon were quoted 

 regularly in New York market and sold at the high price of 

 one dollar per pound. The fishculturists rejoiced. This 

 year one salmon was caught, only one ; the last of his race — 

 the Uncas of the ealars. The greed of gain had captured the 

 tribe and left but one fish to I ell the tale. They were taken 

 while obeying the instinct to perpetuate their species and 

 died in attempting to reach their spawning beds. The fijh- 

 culturists have ceased in their labors of re-establishing the 

 salmon iu the Connecticut, but their labors have not been in 

 vain. They have proved that sU amboats and sewage have 

 uot destroyed the salmon-bearing qualities of the river and 

 that is a triumph. The people did not protect the first crop 

 and the seed was lost. 



The Hudson has never been a salmon river. It is not too 

 far South for salmon for they have lived in the Delaware. 

 Its faults are mechanical entirely. Given a practical fishway 

 at Cahoes, Glen's Falls and at other obstructions, protect the 

 fish, and the Fish Commission can make the Huds< >n a sal- 

 mon stream. The few "stray" salmon taken in theriver since 

 a few straggling lots have been deposited in the upper waters 

 prove that the temperature is not too high nor the sewers too 

 foul for them. But the Fish Commission see the hopeless- 

 ness of stocking the Hudson with salmon at present. In the 

 future when our people are educated up to the standard of 

 united action on all points j of common interest this may be 

 done. 



I have only hinted at the poacher. He is thoroughly im' 

 bued with the principles of freedom. He believes that all 

 fur, fin aud feather should be free as the air we breathe, and 

 be lives up to his belief. The rights of the community he 

 does not censider, but loudly declaims of his individual rights 

 and of the " monopoly" of certain waters set apart for pri- 

 vate uses. This man needs educating. He needs to learn 

 that the one who forestalls the opening of the trout season by 

 a single day is a thief, who is stealing from the common fund 

 of the people of the State as much as one who puts his baud 

 into the Slate treasury. Those not directly interested in this 

 question look too leniently on the misdeeds of the poacher 

 who is in fact a feloD, and should be so severely dealt with 

 that he would learn to recognize the fact that a theft from 



the public is as great as a theft from an individual. One ob- 

 stacle in the way of his education to this point is that many 

 honorable aud respectable men in every community look up- 

 on poaching as a venial sin. I claim that it is theft, and that 

 the man who lakes trout or venison out of season, except to 

 supply his uecessities when beyond civilization, is a thief. 



Lately, while gathering the statistics of the fisheries of 

 Long Island for the fishery census under direction of Profs. 

 Baird and Goode, I have had opportunities to get the views of 

 men on Long Island which has the unenviable name of the 

 "home of the poacher," on this question. Said a very re- 

 spectable oysterman to me iu reply to a question, "No sir; 

 we do not consider the stealing of oysters from a private bed 

 as criminal an act as taking potatoes from afield. It is true 

 as you say, both are planted, aud to rob one is taking the re- 

 sults of a man's time, capital and labor, but somehow our 

 people don't seem to look at it so. They don't consider that 

 a man has the same right to property covered by water that 

 he has to land, and while a man would be forever disgraced 

 if convicted of stealing potatoes he would be regarded as suf- 

 ficiently punished if fined ten dollars for taking oysters from 

 a privste bed. He would not be looked on exactly as a 

 thief." This answer in my opinion needs no comment. 



Gentlemen of the New York Sportsmen's Association ! 

 You have a broad field before you for good work which will 

 not only elevate the people among whom it is accomplished, 

 but will ejevate and ennoble yourselves. You can help to 

 educate the people that sportsmanship is not to merely to 

 shoot a gun or throw a fly well, but that it includes the first 

 principles of gentility, the regard for the rights of others, 

 without which no man can be either a gentleman or a sports- 

 man. 



AN IMPOTANT TEST CASE. 



THE RIGHT TO FISH IN MAINE WATHBS. 



A LAW-SUIT, important to the sportsmen's fraternity, is 

 now pending in the Supreme Judicial Court in Pisca- 

 taquis County, Me. It was to have been argued before the 

 full bench at the low term of the Eastern District for Maine, 

 the third Tuesday of the present month. Of the result we 

 are not yet informed. 



The history of the case is this : Among the most attractive 

 little ponds within six miles of Monson village is one known 

 as "Grindstone Pond," which for many years has abounded 

 with very fine spotted trout, weighing from one to two pounds. 

 Some two years ago a Mr. Wm. E. Barrows, a gentleman of 

 wealth and affluence, residing in the distant State of Con- 

 necticut, purchased all the land around and inclosing this 

 sheet of water. The pond contains more than ten acres, and 

 it is a natural pond. The land was a part of the public do- 

 main of the commonwealth of Massachusetts prior to A. D., 

 1047, aud all of the land around this poudis in common, with 

 no fences or inclosure of any kind. 



Mr. Barrows about one year ago posted notices forbidding 

 any persons fishing on "Grindstone." Several parties per- 

 sisted in so doing, and among them was a young man named 

 John M. McDermott, who fished there after the forbiddal of 

 Barrows during the summer of 1880. Barrows commenced an 

 action of trespass, and the case of Barrows m. McDermott is 

 the one referred to above, and is very interesting to lawyers as 

 well as important to the public generally for if this pond can 

 be closed up and monopolized then there are thousands of 

 others in northern and eastern Maine which may be shut up 

 in the same manner. 



The Supreme Court of Mass., have decided in several 

 instances that a natural pond of more than ten acres is free 

 to the public for fishing and fowling, by virtue of the Colony 

 ordinance of 1641 and the amendment to said ordinance of 

 1047. The Supreme Court of Maine has held that the or- 

 dinance of 1641 is the common law of Maine, and the counsel 

 for McDermott claim that if this is so it follows that the 

 amendment is also the common law of this State. By the 

 amendment of 1G47, large and important rights were con- 

 ferred upon the people, for by it was grauted the right of 

 passage over all lands lying in common adjacent to natural 

 ponds of more than ten acres, providing they did not pass 

 over any man's corn-field or meadow. 



These are the questions involved in the case : 



1. Are natural ponds of more than ten acres free to the 

 public for fishing and fowling ? 



