212 



FOREST AND 'STREAM. 



THOUGHTS ON EDUCATION.— V. 



A WEEKLY JOURNAL, 



t>8V0TKD TO PlgLD AST>AO,rATiaSFOETB, PRACTICAL NATOT:iJ.fllSTOBV, 



Fie a CrLTintB, Tiii PnOTKCTKWor GtfcB.PREBEKVATioK of Forests, 



<JJ1) CUE ISCITLOATION LUMEN AND WOlOffl l» i ELBALTHY 



ik Outdoor Hr.raiBATion axd Studt : 



PUBLISHED B1 



gar est md ^treaty gublishina jgompasig 



NO. 103 FOLTON STREET, NEW YORK. 

 [Post OmnoK Box 2832.1 



i Year, Htrietly Id A«v*di 



off for Clubs of Three o 



Advertising Katea. 



InFide pages, nonpareil type, 25 cents per lini 



•»» Am' publisher inserting o 

 brief editorial notice cilltus attc 

 to n«. will receiVs the Femes* a 



r prospectns as above om 

 :ion thereto, and sending n 

 ) Stbkam for one year. 



NEW Yi)KK, THURSDAY, MAY 10, 1877. 



To Correspondents. 



all commnntcationa whatever, whether relating 

 sorrespoudeuce, must be addressed to Thb Fobbbt 

 oisaiNo Ookpant. Personal or private letters of 



All communications intended lor publication moi 

 tail name, as a guaranty of good faith. 



literary 

 D Stream Prre- 

 : excepted, 

 be accompanied with 

 1 not be published if 

 injection be made. Mo anonymous contributions will be. regaraed. 

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

 vVe cannot promise to return rejected manuscripis. 

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

 no es of their movements and transactions, as it is the aim of this paper 

 1 3 become a medium of useful and reliable information between gentle- 

 m .n sporarneu fro t, one end of the country to the other ; and they will 

 Ind our columns a .^esirable medium for advertisioir announcements. 



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

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

 gonceennbles them to properly appreciate and enjoy all that 

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

 the legitimate sports of land and water to those base nscs whicn always 

 tend to make them unpopular with the virtuous aud good. No advertise- 

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

 terms : and nothing will br admitted to any department of tho paper that 

 msy not. be read with propriety in the home circle 



We cannot be responsible for the dereliction of the mail service, if 

 mouey remitted to us 16 lost 



Advertisement* should he sent in by Saturday of each week, if possible. 

 &g- Trade supplied by American News Company. 

 CICAIII.IO HALXOCK. Editor. 

 T. C. BANKS, BudnesS Manager. S. H. TOR elLL, Western Manager. 



NOTICE^ 



This paper is now issued from its office at 103 Ful- 

 tou street, New York. We. trust that our friends will 

 overlook any apparent shortcomings, on account of the 

 confusion attending removal to its new quarters 



IT is a mista 

 that, the bo 

 ball, but kno- 

 maud n stretch 

 the beat of all I 



nppr 



ON THE AVAR PATH. 



i ; intent Promised. — Our space is so much, crowded 

 this week that we cannot do justice to our readers and con- 

 tributors. We shall enlarge to twenty-four pages next week, 

 and subsequently to additional pages as occasion may 

 require. 



\Ve B ie fjleafl&3 a see that Seydel & Co. 's Pocket or 

 "Ashantee" hammocks, so highly spoken of in the columns 

 of the British Army and Navy Gazelle, are being introduced 

 into this country by the ".gents, Messrs. BloCoy & Co. ""We 

 call the attention of our readers to their advertisement. 



. *>» 



—The Missouri Legislature has passed a law by whicb all 

 able-bodied male, persons between twelve and sixty years of 

 age are to be drafted for two days in each week during the 

 spring months of the year to light grasshoppers. 



<■— 



State Kjgots is Oyster Beds. — In the case of McCreay, 

 vs. the. State of, Virginia (error to the Virginia Court of Ap- 

 peals), the United .States Supreme Court has decided as fol- 

 lows: 

 The Slate of Virginia can prohibit the citizens of other 

 I from planting oysters in tide-water within her juris- 

 Jietip] vhil permittrnc her own people to do so. The 

 ownership of the tide-waters aud their beds is that of the 

 people of the State in their united sovereignty, subject to 

 tie- paramount right of navigation, the regulation of which, 

 I,, i :peet to foreign and inter-State commerce, has been 

 granted to tie United States. There has, however, been no 

 s ,i,.li grant oJ to .-. •- 1 ovi r th 3 fisheries. These remain under 

 .,.'...,:, .,-•.. t ... which has consequently 

 the right in r- - ,.p,--.priai. its fide-waters and 



tteir 1 >tol sdrjyrt people oa a common for taking 



mi I ting lish so far as it maybe done without ob- 



jtrue liou. Such an appropriation is in . i • .-i 



..I , - ... .i ilation of the use of the people of 



their comrnrm property. This right of the people i i 

 State comes not from their citizenship alone, but ftum their 

 citizenship and property combined. It is, in fact, a prop- 

 ne'ht, and not a mere privilege or immunity of Citozen- 



36 that playtime is lost time, or 

 ily a dunce who is quick at base- 

 re not arithmetic. The child who can eom- 

 of conn try over which to roam at 'will is in 

 chools for one. of lender years. No faculty is 

 :ry one strengthened. Who ever knew such a 



,.:t how many eggs were in the nest he found in 



the hedgerow, or miss his way in returning to it? Who 

 - i ii FW such a girl forget the bank where the daisies 

 grev- in loveliest profusion? Or who ever heard of either 

 mistaking the. cry of the whip-poor-will for the croak of the 

 raven ? We have no intention of suggesting pretty ruTal 

 pictures for tho sake of diversity. We ask questions, the 

 answers to which involve very pertinent facts, and which 

 enable us to bring forward the statement that, in the every^- 

 day lessons of out-door country life there is material enough 

 for the cultivation of the memory and of the general intelli- 

 gence. Every day and every hour are. adding to a child's 

 knowledge of natural history, while all the time it is brought 

 into closest contact with agencies inexplicable in their op- 

 eration, but of the purest kind. One can find children with 

 a perfect fund of information as to the habits of animals and 

 (he nature of plants, which was entirely "picked up,'' as we 

 say, and for not one iota ofwhich are they indebted to "por- 

 ing over miserable books." This, it may be said, is not 

 history, geography, grammar or arithmetic; no, but it is the 

 best possible foundation for such studies, as they are 

 generally understood, and, in another and more correct 

 sense, it includes most of them. 



The fact is, and this is the point which we wish to reach, 

 and upon which we would lay most stress, teaching in its 

 present too prevalent method deals too much in abstrac- 

 tions. The result is that the memory alone is appealed to 

 and real intelligence deadened. Take history as an example. 

 Its facts are presented consecutively, that is to say, a certain 

 President was elected in a certain year, served his tune, and 

 in course of time was gathered to his fathers: but events 

 have no logical seqnem-e. The mind of the youthful recipi- 

 ent of such information is immature, and cannot reason upon 

 the facts presented to it, which are, however, impressed upon 

 the tablets of memory until erased by time or displaced by 

 something more attractive. Grammar furnishes another 

 illustration. The art of reading, writing, and speaking a 

 language correctly deals with rules and other matters far 

 above a child's intelligent comprehension, and the acquisi- 

 tion of a knowledge of it resolves itself, therefore, into a 

 mere exercise of memory. We have known a boy who was 

 able to repeat the first three books of Euclid, and win a 

 prize for his intimate acquaintance with them: but if the 

 figure were presented upside down, the problem remained 

 to him a problem still, and insoluble. His reasoning powers 

 were never called into operation at all, and his unaided 

 memory bore all the strain. The truths dealt with in all 

 these branches are too abstract for the youthful intellect, 

 stimulate it no doubt for a season, but having no permanent 

 hold upon the intelligence, disappear in course of time, and 

 in most cases long before the intellect has reached a sufficient 

 maturity to enable it to reason upon and digest them. 



The mind of youth must, therefore, be. appealed to in 

 some other way, and several expedients have been resorted 

 to. Objects have been made use of instead of abstractions 

 in imparting instruction, and, so far as we are aware, with 

 the most beneficial results. The Kindergarten system has 

 been adopted by many of the States, and is a vast improve- 

 ment upon that .which preceded it. In Canada object-teach- 

 ing has been carried to a very high point of excellence. In 

 natural history the lessons are drawn directly from nature 

 instead of books and charts. An exhibit in the Ontario Ed- 

 ucation Department at the Centennial Exhibition revealed 

 i I perfection of the system. Let its take botany 

 first; cabinets were shown containing the raw and manufac- 

 tured material, from which the child can be gradually 

 brought to understand tho nature and uses of the plant ex- 

 amined. Supposing the object to be wheat, specimens of 

 llie n.-il. bran, flour, biscuit, niaccaroni, straw, straw plait, 

 straw paper; etc., properly classified and shown, and are 

 not only useful to teach young children the importance of 

 common things, but impart auseful lesson in botany. These 

 cabinets contain on the average 300 specimens, illustrative 

 of the animal, vegetable and mineral kingdoms. The 

 models for teaching physiology and -anatomy are superb. 

 More information can be gained of the true position and the 

 formation of the organs of circulation and respiration, the 

 necessity of cleanliness, the importance of attention to the 

 teeth, etc., by studying these models for a few hours than 

 ained from books in years of close study. The 

 system of teaching chemistry is equal to the others. The 

 science is so simplified that little, children can perform ex- 

 periments. There is a laboratory for boys and girls, con- 

 taining chemicals and apparatus to perforin over 120 experi- 

 ments in chemistry, manufacture:-;, domestic economy, phy- 

 siology, etc. Students' laboratories are supplied I 

 with a book to perform 200 experiments. The laboratories 

 for teachers and Normal School students contain all the 

 chemicals and apparatus to perform the ordinary experi- 

 ments with the metalloids as found m elementary books on 

 clifmiiRtxv We need hardly expataate upon the evident 

 -.- ,f| lissys --.. rlheoBL 

 I ,,, ,..,'■■, ;■ | side issues involved in this branch of 



,,,.' ,,i, -'..a .,,..],.:--- :i reform .em in the order of studies, 

 upon, and we «111 now state in 

 .r conclusions so far, that if it 

 child something tangible in 

 ... ■ ■ . !. him a 

 i it, to appeal to 

 3insti :d of directly, then we 

 country the precedence 



which v, ,-- cannot 



the briefest possible terms o 

 be preferable to po 



;., • if an ■'■,.■ I ■■-. - 



THE following extracts from a private letter, recently re- 

 ceived by one of the editors of Forest and Stream, 

 will lie interesting to such of our readers as are familiar with 

 Ufe on the plains and amid the mountains of the West. 

 The writer is one of those true men with whose friendship 

 we have been honored in our trans-Missouri wanderings, 

 and by whose side we have hunted and been hunted, traveled, 

 slept, and starved, over much of the territory between the 

 Ptocky Mountains and tho Missouri River. Such men are 

 not to be found every day, and one learns to know them 

 thoroughly only when thrown in constant and close com- 

 panionship with them in a country where a man's life de- 

 pends on his coolness, his courage, and his skill with the 

 rifle. Their numbers are yearly growing smaller, and wo 

 have had recently to mourn more than one cut off untimely. 

 One of tho bravest and best, a noble gentleman, though 

 clad in the rough garb of a mountaineer, now sleeps in an 

 uncared-for grave amid the yellow bluffs and desert soli- 

 tudes of the Little Horn. Dear Charley, we "shall not look 

 upon his like again." 



The writer of the letter from which we make these ex- 

 cerpts has, with his brother, been throughout the winter in 

 command of a large body of Indian scouts with Gen. Crook 

 in the Powder River country. To many of our readers the 

 modest story of brave deeds, toilsome marches, and dreadful 

 suffering from cokl will convey no particular idea of hard- 

 ship, but the few who, like ourselves, have riassod through a 

 seasoning of a somewhat similar character, will appreciate 

 and admire. The writer, under date of 14th February, says : 

 We left hereon the 11th of October, and marched slowly north to tho 

 Running Water; got there on the 20th, and ;laid in camp until tho even- 

 ing of the 22d, wheu a courier brought as orders to move at onco to 

 Bed Olond Agency, twenty- ft ve miles distant. We started at six o'clock 

 in tho evening and went to Bed Cloud, and then P. and I took forty 

 ofonr men and started for Red Olond Village, which was rorty miles 

 distant. We overtook Gen. M., who had gone on ahead of in*, and got 

 to the village at daylight next morning. We captured the whole outfit 

 and brought them up to the Agency, getting tbero before dark, having 

 tidden one hundred aud five miles in less than twenty-four hours, with- 

 out having anything to eat aud no sleep. That was pretty good, 

 wnan't it? 



Well, we went out on the expedition with Ban. Crook. We had one 

 Bght with the Cheyennes on the head of Powder River, and although 

 we got their whole village and destroyed everything tbey had, we 

 didn't get much tlie best ol them in lighting. I tell you, they are the 

 bravest people I ever saw. 1 don't think there were more than three 

 hundred warriors In the village, and wo had about one thousand men, 

 aud wore fighting them all day, yet did not succeed iu driving them 

 more than half a mile from the village, We killed twenty-flve, and lost 

 8lX men killed and sevonteeu wounded. Dull Knife, the chief of the 

 band.' had three of bis sous killed, aud I have a small piece of scalp 

 from the head of ono of them. 1 wasn't inore than a thousand miles 

 from where he fell either, but 1 didn't take biB. scalp— had one of tho 

 boys do that part of it for me. I will send it to you If youwant it. 



I will tell you how it was: P. and I lod the charge against the camp, 

 aud just at the edge of the village was a little clump of willows, which 

 we had to pass. This Indian, DuU Knife's eon.Tiadruu into the hushes, 

 and as I was coming straight toward him ho jumped out tn front of 

 me, about twenty steps away, and raised his gun (an old muzzle-loader). 

 I dropped my ruins and swung the "old long nine" around, and we 

 both cut loose. Ho loll, aud I passed on. Some time after P. aud I hap- 

 pened around that way again, and I took a look at him. The shot had 

 entered his right breast and come out under his let t shoulder. Now, 

 when I fired, he way in front, and a little to my right, so that I had to 

 twist in the saddle somewhat to shoot. Of course everybody was shoot- 

 ing, and somebody else may have killed him, hut 1 tried all tho same. 

 !■'. was out of luck this timo, for 1 don't think he killed a single one 

 during the fight, but for cool bravery he beatB suythiug that you ever 



saw. Why, G , at one time, we were under such hot fire that 



even our scouts wanted to ruu, and to tell yon tho truth, I felt sort o' 

 that way myself; hut F. just straightened himself up on the old black 



horse and said, very quietly: "The first c 

 kill." They didn't run. 



This was the only fight we had . We had som 

 mercury freezing, and ao on. The hunting wa 

 killed one antelope on the whole trip. Only t 

 got a shot at either. If yen can arrange to c 



o tuatr 



is, I will 



and fix it to go With 

 lighting, too. 



[Ah ! if we only could. — Ed.] 



terribly cold weather, 

 Very poor, and I only 

 w two deer, and didn't 

 out next summer, try 



We will have lota of fun, and I think lots of 



must be 



among schools, and for nature that among teachers. 



Swiss Valley -— The beautiful home of Mr. James Meyer, 

 Jr., was the scene on Monday, May 7th, of a Jeti chfmpetre. 

 given to his brother trout fishermen of the New York Sports- 

 man's Association for the protection of Fish and Game, and 

 his friends of the South Side Sportsman's Club of Long 

 Island. 



Swiss Valley is situated about midway between Pelharn 

 Manor and Pelhamville, in Westchester County. A coach 

 conveyed the visitors from the railroad station, and the 

 heartiest welcome awaited them at the home of the host. 

 The New York Z&nessoys: 



-•The grounds were gay with handsome tents and vari- 

 colored Sags, while over the Swiss cottage of the host flut- 

 tered the ensign of his native Switzerland. The lake lay 

 calm under the afternoon sun, only broken by the ripple 

 made when the deftly east fly of the angler touched its 

 surface, or by the sudden dash of some luckless trout whoBe 

 hunger'or curiosity had overcome its discretion. A pretty 

 brook feeds the lake, which, narrowing at the opposite ex- 

 treme, passes under a rustic bridge and loses itself in a 

 slender stream among the rocks. The grounds have evi 

 dently been laid out with care, and tho view from the knoll 

 above" the lake is one of great beauty. 



"After luncheon the late arrivals go down to the water-side, 

 and after a careful and conscientious examination of each 

 fisher's creel, chuff' the unsuccessful men without, mercy. 

 In tho meanwhile, as the sun goes down, the lish break 

 oftener, and some of the anglers are. doing fair wo 

 casionally some lucky nam lands two fish at a time and his 

 success meets with greal applause. 



•••Catch all you can,' shouts Mr. Meyer from I 

 above the lake, where the marquee is pitehed. 'we want 'em 

 to fry, vou know.' 



o'clock a general order is issued to cease fishing 

 line and to adjourn to refreshments. An ex- 

 amination of the catches of each gentleman reveals the fact 

 that Mr. Wakeman Holberton, the artist, leads the list with 

 36; Mr. J. Bevmvold eOmej nest with 33, while Henry N. 



