148 



FOREST AND STREAM. 



A WEEKLY JOURNAL, 



Oi^oted to Field akd Aquatic Spokts, Pbaotioai, Natural Histoby, 



ITPH^Cu-LTUBE, THB PROTECTION OF GAiE.l'REBERVATIOK OFFOBWTR, 

 AlfD TBB ISCTfLO.vriOH EH XeJI AND WOJLKN OF A HEALTHY INTER] 



IS Oct-doou Kecbeation and Study : 



PUBLISHED BY 



Sorest mi &trexa[ publishing f&omgmig. 



IT CHATHAM STREET, (CITY HALL SQUARE) NEW YORK, 

 [Post Office Box 2882.1 



f"«M, Four Dollara a. Year, Strictly In Asrane*. 



Twenty-five per cent, oil for Clubs. of Three or more 



Advertising Rate* 



Inside pages, nonpareil type, 20 cents per line; outside page, 30 cents. 

 Special rates for three, six, and twelve months. Notices in editorial 

 columns, 40 cents per line. 



%* Any publisher inserting our prospectus as above one time, with 

 brief editorial notice ciHim,* atr.enl.Hin therein, and sending marked copy 

 to us, will receive the Forest and -Stream l'or one year. 



NEW YORK, THURSDAY, APRIL 12, 1877. 



To Correspondents. 



All commnnlcaaons whatever, whether relating to onalness or literary 

 correspondence, must be addressed to The Forest and Stream Pub 

 lishtns Comfant. Personal or private letters of course excepted. 



Ail communications intended for publication must be accompanied with 

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 Names will not be published If 

 objection be made. No anonymous contributions will be regaroed. 



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



We cannot promise to return rejected manuscripts. 



Secretaries of Clubs and Associations are urged to favor ns 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 the country to the other ; and they will 

 and our columns a desirable medium for advertising announcements. 



The Publishers of Forest and Stream aim to merit and secure the 

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

 fined intelligence enables them 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 unpopular with the virtuous and good. No advertise- 

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

 terms ; and 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 the dereliction of the mail service, if 

 money remitted to us is lost. 



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



US'" Trade supplied by American News Company. 

 I'H.VBLKB HALLO! K, 



Editor and Business Manager. 



DON'T YOU FORGET IT. 



— On the 1st of May nest the office of Forest and Steeam 



will be removed hack to its original quarters, 103 Fulton 



Street. 



-*<«- 



Fishing Rights on Non-Tidal Rivers. — Id the Canadian 

 Pailifimeiit this question is at present under discussion. The 

 result will be looked for with general interest in that country 

 and this. The question'arose on the motion of Mr. Palmer for 

 an order of the House for a return of leases of right to fish 

 in the tidal waters of New Brunswick. He claimed that Iho 

 proprietors of riparian rights had to be protected from any in- 

 novation, as it would tend to destroy or injure those rights. 

 Whenever a person had a right of soil in a river where the 

 tide does not flow, he had an exclusive right to that property 

 just as if it were an ordinary piece of property. He held 

 that the Dominion had no fright to interfere with that right. 

 lie cited the act to prove that it was not contemplated to 

 interfere with that right. He held, that if the power given to 

 the Government did give them control over fish in sea and in. 

 land waters, still it did not give them any privileges of inter- 

 fering with private rights. But it was not even clear to his 

 mind that they had the power to deal with the fisheries of our 

 tidal waters. He did not complain that any wrong had ensued, 

 but he desired to have an important question settled. 



Hon. Sir. Smith said he hoped that an action now pending 

 in the courts would result in some decision being arrived at 

 on the subject. 



OoAghtng. — Colonel Delaneey Kane commences his regular 

 coaching season on the route between the city and Pelham 

 on May 1st. The. coach has been entirely refitted, and named 

 the "Tally -Ho." The start will be as before, from the Bruns- 

 wick, and the route will he the same as last year. Seats are 

 now booked in advance for the whole of May. Saturday, 

 May 20th, has been fixed for the annual parade of the Coach- 

 ing Club. 



■♦»♦ 



(Jttnr.Y fob SciEHHSlB. — What is the difference between a 

 muunteo and nien-nt-ea.se ? 



THOUGHTS ON EDUCATION.— TV. 



— I'eupleiutemliug going to the seashore the Coming season, or poing 

 tumid go to the Halsey House, advertised in another col- 

 umn, whore they will be sure '. i 1,1, . tobiae that will suit 



the most fastidious, and Jirst-clasB guests. Send to him for a circular 

 -Alv. 



AND now with regard to the physical part of the problem, 

 and proceeding in the same way by adducing examples, 

 is there no lund of a connection between the Bound, healthy, 

 eloquent productions of the peD of Kit North, anil ft _ 



physique and lion-like appearance of the Scotch prof essor '? 

 Wilson alternated his lectures on moral philosophy and his 

 editorial labors on "Maga" with fishing and shooting ex- 

 cursions, and in his "Recreations" has given us some of the 

 most joyous and healthful literature in the language. They 

 are the work of a man full of exuberant life and infectious 

 hilarity, who could play a salmon with the same skill with 

 which he could enforce the principles of philosophy. We 

 do not say that the same qualities are invariably associated. 

 Mind sometimes fairly triumphs ovor its fleshly temple, as in 

 the case of Hood, who could joke and exercise his wit when 

 in sickness and pain, for the ruling passion is found strong 

 even in death. But, by way of explanation, let us tako the 

 instances supplied by Keats and Henry Kirke White. It is 

 said that Keats died of the Quarterly. To be lashed by a 

 reviewer is sometimes a credit, sometimes a disgrace, ac- 

 cording to the character of the castigator; to be killed by one 

 is to demonstrate the possession of a morbid sensitiveness 

 never allied with a healthy physique or moral force. It 

 would be hard to find anything noble or elevating in the 

 picture of a poet wriggling on the point of a pen; rather 

 commend us to the sturdy manliness which led Byron to 

 pour forth his famous satire in reply to the taunts in the 

 "Edinburgh." "Poor Keats," is the usual pitying way in 

 which wo speak of the talented author of "Endymion," and 

 "poor Keats" he will remain to the end of the chapter. His 

 moral character or stamina must have been weak, but to let 

 his life ooze out through the wound made by the deadliest 

 goose quill ever wielded must further be held to bespeak a 

 decided lack of the blood, bone, nerve, and sound diges- 

 tion, which a more complete education would have given 

 him. White, again, simply read himself to death. He, one 

 of the most promising of England's literati, chose to 

 neglect every rule for keeping body and soul together, and 

 so they parted company, and all the labors of his maturity 

 were lost to the world. There are men enough like him to- 

 day, who will persist in attempting to solve the problem as 

 to how a lamp can be kept burning without oil. We will 

 merely hint at their folly in exaggerating the importance of 

 bruin over body, ana state the fact that they are demon- 

 strating the unsoundness of their education. We might 

 ptlt it in the light of a duty they owe themselves and the 

 community to which they belong, to have some regard for 

 their bodily health, but we prefer to lay the burden of duty 

 upon their teachers, and thus we arrive at the true system of 

 education. 



In the first place, there are in some odd nooks and corners 

 of this world institutions called "infant schools," every one 

 of which ought summarily to be put down. They answer 

 no purpose ever heard of under heaven, except to keep the 

 children of the poor out of mischief while their mothers are 

 at work*, and that object is attained at what is surely a 

 fearful expense, if the brains of the little ones are to be 

 Toused and stimulated to unnatural activity, and their limlis 

 and health crippled. Wiry not call them nurseries, and not 

 schools, if such be their use, and then the agonizing spec- 

 tacle might consistently be abolished of seeing children 

 struggling to emit sounds, to which they are incapable of 

 attaching any sense, and to which their unruly — in the sense 

 of being unformed or incapable — tongues refuse to give in- 

 telligible utterance J 



To speak of the more general system now in force, a law 

 should, if necessary, be passed to supply a legislative sub- 

 stitute for the common-sense lacking in the community, 

 making ten or twelve the minimum age for admission sis a 

 scholar at any public school. The first objection to this 

 mode of treating the case is, that the government is called 

 upon to interfere arbitrarily in the affairs of citizens. But 

 education has, in many places, been removed from the cate- 

 gory of things to be left to private judgment and individual 

 discretion. Compulsory education has its advocates every- 

 where, and there are many sound and just reasons why it 

 should be made a subject l'or legislative supervision. K it 

 can be justified in this respect, it becomes at once obvious 

 that the lesser hardship of conforming to a prescribed 

 method ought to be met by no demurrer. Ignorance has 

 always been the first to raise a barrier to enliyL stent. 

 The people who have-received no education cannot have any 

 just conception of the benefits it confers; and in the same 

 way, those who have suffered no evil consequences in their 

 own persons, at least tangibly, from a certain system, are 

 the last to recognize its prejudicial elements. In both sets 

 of circumstances it is only reasonable that superior knowl- 

 edge should base a directive power. 



The main opposition, however, will be found to arise from 

 the preconceived and erroneous notions entertained by most 

 people of the means of acquiring education — to use a cur- 

 rent but dubious phraseology — and of the possibilities in- 

 volved in the problem the process presents. They argue, 

 that if a youth requires a certain amount of intellectual 

 capital, the sooner he is set about accumulating it and the 

 harder he is pushed in piling it up, the sooner he will be 

 ready for that work in the world in which it is be turned to 

 account. Suppose, for a moment, we look at the parallel 

 ph\ aical problem. You wish to make your son a bargee or a 

 COal-hoa^er? Do you suppose that if you e\> ' 

 iinisr.l • snifieieully iro ttl infancy up, you can turn out a 



Ml; Sveloped man at fourteen? One plight A* ' " : ■ 



[,,.■• ii , ,' ii .i certain amount of food to carry a man 



■ ' he can eat it all in one month, and live on 



the fruits of Ins masticating and digesting industry during 



the other eleven, always supposing that he survive.-, the 



month of feasting; and so the fact remains, that beyond a 

 certain point intellectual cultivation oannnt lie forced. Uw 

 brain should be led on to discharge its functions in the 

 health and strength of. a vigorous maturity, and when in 



early years nature's limit is passed, there is the immediate 

 danger of an impending sudden collapse from the over 

 tension, and the certainty of future but early and rapid 

 decay. Too heavy a call upon the Drain when it a 

 may produce in response the deceptive flash of pret 

 but in the after years no harvest is reaped corresponding 

 with the early promise: the lamp sheds but a glimmering 

 and sickly light when it should be burning at its brightest, 



What could have been, more pernicious and foolish than 

 giving a public school-boy such a subject as "The Cen- 

 tennial Exposition— Its [nfluence on the Future of Our 

 Country" to wrestle with, in order to gain a len-i Teller 

 essay prize, or asking a school-girl's views in the form of an 

 essay upon "The most Important Branch of Fee in 



cation?" We need not go into the side issues of. teaching 

 the young dishonesty, by compelling them for honor's sake 

 to beg, borrow, and steal ideas and language, but let ns 

 look at the honest essayist without pity if we can. His 

 subject is one that men with trained intellects and experi- 

 ence might cope with, but to the boy it offers noth- 

 ing upon which either his reading or his experience enables 

 him to seize. Ho tugs and strains at the tough problem, 

 looks at it on every side and in every light conceivable to 

 him, but it remains where it was at first—above Me boi rpi 

 hension. Why not force him to break his back in attempt- 

 ing to turnover a house? The physical and intellectual 

 tasks are exactly parallel. 



We have already hinted at schools and teachers other than 

 those practically recognized by the educational faculty of 

 our day. In the tender years of childhood and early youth 

 as much freedom from restraint as "is consistent with the 

 most liberal kind of discipline is the first rerpiisite. Nature 

 should be helped, not thwarted; and she, the mighty and 

 prolific mother, should be the first teacher— the child's 

 parents the next. The earliest educators, we repeat, should 

 be nature and mothers; the first schools, the country and 

 the nursery. 



A GREAT WORK PROMISED. 



AT last we are to have a complete and reliable History nf 

 ,', American Mcumtals; and that, too, a history which 

 shall include not merely bare and dry scientific facte and 

 details, but also the story of the lives and habits of the nu- 

 merous and varied forms of mammalian life in which our 

 country abounds, many of which, alas ! are fast passing away 

 for ever. In order to secure the greatest possible amount of 

 information, and this from as many different localiiie- ; ,s 

 possible, Dr. Coues, who promises us this greatly needed 

 work, has issued a circular addressed to the medieid officers 

 of the army, setting forth what is proposed for the work 

 and what is desired of observers. Tnis circular we append, 

 in the belief that many of our readers may be able and 

 willing to furnish matter Of interest, which we feel sure 

 will be gladly received and acknowledged. To spoak of Dr. 

 Coues' especial fitness for the labor he has undertaken is of 

 course needless. Those who are familiar with his Key to 



portent ohapter on mammals contributed by himself* and 

 Dr. Yarrow to the recently publish the Zoology 



of Lieut. Wheeler's Survey, will decide for themselves Hint 

 the work could not have been entrusted to more competent 

 hands. While Dr. Coues is nothing if not scientific, he 

 possesses a grace and beauty of diction and a vein of 

 poetic fervor, when treating of his favorite sol ijects, which will_ 

 make the Life Histories of our Mammals delightful reading 

 to every cultivated mind. The circular, which, by the way, 

 is strongly indorsed by the Surgeon-General, is as follows: 

 Office of the U.S. Zooi-ooical isd Gkogiiai'Iiic.u. Sri:vi;r, I 

 ■TABBISOTO.-i. It C, Mirch 13. 1HG7. 

 To Ike Medicul Officers of Uk Arm.,. , 



Medical ofllcors of the army »nil oIIhtb «rbo may bo interested in thu 

 matter arc respectfully and warni-stl.v invited to oo-opamts wilb the un- 

 dersigned in tho preparation of a work entitled, '"History of North 



The plan of tho work may bo 

 n Mammals according to tho 



». Thogeographlcal distribution of the species— au iuiportantmnttor, 

 coueernlna which much remains to be learned. 



6. Tho "life-hiBtoriea" Of the species, or .in account, as full and i:«m- 

 pU>tc ns it can he made, of their habit*. This is also a umllor requiring 



of the work will bo maintained, 



othf?r technical porno 

 geographical distribu 



whom enjoy unusual facilities for acquiring a knowledge of this Rtlb- 



. s,- individual experiences in many cases represent afuncl 



ot informatl :: ,ped, may 



"l :inini::i» run lie thorcrughhj u.,rl.t-,i 

 : very ninny ilig- ■■ 



■iv this end it is desirable thai lists should be prepared of thu various 



Ml Ml. . 11 



Hcarcitv.li <i ;o,.i-'-:n;o.. .- and disappear ai uatuM ,, ,; 



. ,. 

 of Biuui reports, Irow various stations 

 ..... 

 ■ as already preparm 



nvgeou-Uon- 



