MinoS 8, 1883.] 



FOREST AND STREAM. 



107 



Rochester has such a fall, she Deed not apprehend any such 

 fate us befell the capitals of Greece ami Italy. 



The advantages of this place for a shooting ground have 

 long beeS appreciated. It was formerly the range on which 

 the "celebrated Billinghurst rifles wei'e tested before being 

 sent out to challenge" the world for accuracy, ami 

 the repute of this "city a? a mauufacturius- center. Ages 

 before the sound of a fifle was heard in the Genesee Valley 

 there were shooters on this flat, for th'ej have left cviilence 

 of their existence in numerous flint arrow-heads, of which f 

 had a finely chipped specimen picked up on the field a few 

 years ago. 



The region appears to possess for wildfowl some of the 

 attractions ascribed by Tom Moore to the Skelig Islands in 

 the county "Wexford, "Ireland. 



Islets, so freshly fair, 



Thut never hath bird came ulgli tberu, 

 But from his course through air 



He hath been won down by them. 



The place is only a short distance from the middle of the 

 city and surrounded by dwellings and manufactories, but 

 the river flows beside it and its water seems to attract the 

 feathered tribe as a magnet does a needle. 



I remember one occasion on which a flock of Canada 

 geese, going south, lost their way or became demoralized in 

 crossing the river at this spot, and after fly inc. wildly about 

 (lie mills swooped down in the river and seemed to' collect 

 their scattered senses from contact with its water, for in a 

 short time they arose and went off honking, leaving, how- 

 ever, une of their number behind to testify to the skill of 

 Rochester wildfowlers. When the weather is very cold a 

 few winter ducks come into the rapids. 1 shot one of them 

 from the west bauk of the river one very cold day some 

 time ago. and it fell on the ice on the east side, 1 was loot 

 ing for a safe place to cross, when two men with guns 

 rushed down the bank and made for the bird. As one of 

 them picked it up the ice broke under him. and he was im- 

 mersed to the shoulders — a clear case of poetic justice.. 

 One day last fall as a party of us were shooting glass balls 

 a plover dropped down suddenly on Hie edge of the river. 

 The traps were deserted instantly, and the bird paid forfeit 

 with its life for having thus ventured into the lion's mouth. 

 At a recent ball shoot of the club tlie sport was varied by 

 the presence of merganser amid the floating ice, and it too 

 was brought to pot. Mms. 



Rochester, N. Y. 



SENATORIAL OPINIONS ON THEPARK. 

 V\/~E give below the remarks made by Senator Ingalls, of 

 It Kansas, during the course of the discussion of those 

 amendments to the sundry Civil Bill which relate to the 

 Yellowstone National Hark. These sentiments do uot re- 

 quire much comment from us. and we leave our readers to 

 form their own opinion of them. The reply of Senator 

 Vest is worth reading, because it shows so intelligent an 

 appreciation of the needs, present and future, of the Ameri- 

 can people. Let our readers compere the two speeches; 

 MR. ISOALLS. 



The best thing that, the Government could do with Hit 

 Yellowstone National Park is to survey it and sell it as other 

 public lands are sold. I have no doubt there are great curi- 

 osities, spouting geysers, crimson cliffs, and inaccessible 

 mountain summits' within that domain: but these features 

 are not peculiar to that portion of the country. 1 know of 

 no greater reason why the Government should exercise ex- 

 clusive dominion over that hundred miles square than why 

 it should assume to exercise control over Pike's Park or the 

 Garden of the Gods or the Palls of Niagara or the Missis- 

 sippi River, or any other of the great natural features of 

 this continent. 



It is getting to be a good deal of an incubus, and it is very 

 rapidly assuming troublesome and elephantine proportions. 

 We are already engaged in a very good-sized wrangle and 

 quarrel with certain persons assuming the proprietorship by 

 way of unauthorized leases, as alleged by the Secretary of 

 the'luterior, Teu thousand dollars has already been spent 

 in laying out roads that nobody uses. Last year wo ap- 

 pointed a superintendent at an expense of $2,000, and this 

 year the appropriations are sUO.000. There is to be a corps 

 'of assistants to stay there summer and winter to look after 

 the spouting geysers; to see that patent medicines are not 

 advertised on the cliffs: Ilia! timber is not cut down, and 

 that the noble game is not excluded from those preserves. 

 If this thing continues and the engineers of the Government 

 are to lay out a system of roads and bridges, it will not be 

 five year's before it will take a million dollars a year to run 

 that Park. 



I do not understand myself what the necessity is tor the 

 Government entering into the show business in the Yellow- 

 stone. National Park. I should be. very glad myself to 

 see an amendment to this bill to authorize that portion of 

 the public domain to be surveyed and soid. leaving it to 

 private enterprise, which is the surest guarantee for proper 

 protection for such objects of care as the great natural < furios- 

 ities inthatregion. I believe I hey would be safer thai way, and 

 that the. interest of the public would be hetter preserved that 

 way, and we should have easier and better and surer access 

 and less encroaching demands upon the Treasury of the 

 United States. 



5IR. VEST. 



I do not think that this is exactly the time to discuss the 

 question that the Senator from Kansas has brought to the 

 attention of the Senate. I was not a member of the Senate 

 when the dedicatory act was passed 1 believe, if I am not 

 mistaken, that the Senator from Kansas was. That was 

 the. time that he ought to have made the speech that he has 

 delivered here to-night. 



lam very frank to say, however, that I thoroughly in- 

 dorse the purpose for which the act of 1872 was enacted. 



1 believe that this Park 

 The Senator speaks of c 

 ing it. This mountai 

 value unless it he for n 

 have not yet been disci 



the Ar 



Mican people. 

 ing it. or sell- 

 ulely without 



•ered. 



•egion, 

 iappet 



purposes, am 

 If the Benati 

 thinks that the noble game that inhabit that 

 ate fast being exterminated, should utterly dit , . 

 this contiuent, »hen lie should destroy this Parti. The last 

 hope of the preservation of the bison. "the buffalo, the moose 

 and the elk upon the continent of Morth America exists in 

 the preservation of that Park, and to such an extent that it 

 will he a great preserve. 



The Senator speaks as if this was some proposition »«/ r/e/c- 

 rix, unknown before. France has such a park, Germany lias 

 such a park, England has her royal parks, and why should 



not America have hei republican park, free to the people of 

 . with these great curiosities that exist nowhere 

 else? 



Mr. President, the great cruse of this age and of the 

 American people is its materialistic tendencies. Money, 

 money. ''<<■. is the cry everywhere, until our 



people are held np already to the world as noted for nothing 

 except the aeqilisil ion of money at the expense of all esthetic 

 taste and of all love of nature audits great mysteries and 

 wonders. 



I am UOt ashamed to say that I shall vote tfj pe pi " 

 ate this Park to the American people. lam not ashamed 

 to sav that I think its existence answers a gt'eaf purpose 

 in OUT national lite. There should be to a nation that will 

 have a hundred million or a hundred and fifty million peo- 

 ple, a park like this as a great breathing-place for the 

 national lubgS, as a place to which every American citizen 

 can resort instead of spending his money amid the Alps of 

 Europe or wandering on the Eastern contiuent in search of 

 the wonders of nature. This is the great wonderland of the 

 world; and if Senators will take the pains to devote but an 

 hour to reading as 1 have done lately the account in plain, 

 unvarnished phrase, from men who have no artistic taste 

 hut who love nature, the description of the great Wonders 

 that exist here, I shall uot be afraid that speeches like those 

 Of the Senator from Kansas will find suffrages in the Sen- 

 ate. 



But the question now before us is whether we shall keep 

 this Park free from vandalism:' If the Senator hereafter 

 proposes to survey it and cut it up and sell it, 1 shall be per- 

 fectly willing to discuss that question. 



GUINEA FOWL AS GAME. 



Hih'tor Pbrwtand Stream* 



I have seen the guinea fowl lie in flocks amoug wheat 

 stubble in the field's as closely as quail, not flushing until 

 almost stepped on. They are'kept around farm houses lila 

 chickens, but unlike them do not stay in the yard, but run 

 around the woods all day, only coming back for their morn- 

 ing and evening meals. They roost in the trees at night, 

 and in fact a^c'" almost wild. 'When wanted for the table 

 they are generally hunted up in the woods and killed with 

 a shotgun. They fly fast for a heavy bird — very much like 

 a prairie chicken'. Instead of flying in a bunch they string 

 out in a line like geese or ducks'. When flushed they utter 

 their peculiar note several limes very sharply until they are 

 well on the wing, and again as they settle. If the shooter 

 can get on a line with the direction of their flight, he ought 

 to get several at a shot, as they are strung out so. 



Cast fall, while on a quail-shooting trip in the country. I 

 was asked at a farmhouse to kill some "guineas, " as they 

 i .'■::■: called, fur dinner. They had been noticed sometime 

 before feeding in a large field on the edge of some woods; 

 the field was covered with high grass, so they could not lie 

 seen. Keeping close to my dog,' iu a little while he began 

 to give signs that they were near, and pretty soon pointed. 

 Aa I came up the "guineas" rose with a 'terrible cry di- 

 rectly away from me for the nearest piece of woods. They 

 Were all in a line, and as I tired the first barrel seven fell, 

 and three came down to my second. This was more than 

 half the flock. The rest I let go as 1 had already more than 

 I wanted. Some of them were only wounded and had to be 

 retrieved, but for a double shot I think this one was very 

 successful, as 1 had never before killed more than one at a 

 time. If the guinea fowl is allowed to run wild and hunted a 

 little. I see no reason why it should not make a very good 

 game bird, Its flesh tastes'a good deal like one anyhow.' A law 

 for shooting them should be made very strict because they 

 would sell foT a food price, and on that account would be 

 very much hunted for the market. Clakrv, 



THE RECEPTION OF THE "SCREED.' 



"Nov Ye 



i Screed" to your 



SOME weeks ago I . ... 

 office, which was fairly rendered and might well be 

 calculated to provoke returns. It was written hastily, not 

 thoughtlessly, and from the. shoulder. A little briery 

 maybe; but. "in 1he main, well right. 



The returns have been encouraging. 1 do not stand alone 

 by long odds. The "screed" has brought me dozens of let- 

 ters, some of them six to eight pages in extent, all flattering 

 and commendatory. The letters hear evidence of sports- 

 manship, fair play and culture. The adverse criticisms 

 have been light. "Meat-Hawk" enters ainild protest against 

 being thought a fool because he lias several dogs that cost 

 him "over $100 each. I did not say that; but 1 can't help 

 thinking of the old adage, "A fool and his money," etc, 

 The fair cost of raising and training a good business hunter. 

 setter, pointer or hound never ought to be more than $23. 

 I have owned, raised and trained hunting dogs for more 

 than fifty years. The highest price I ever got for" a dog was 

 §30. This was for a pointer that stood a snipe, in a. raw 

 March wind, for thirty minutes by the watch, without a 

 perceptible bitch or uneasy movement. I thought iiim well 

 sold. 



The hound has bothered me most. I can train and break 

 three pointers, setters or cockers more easily than one eager 

 hound. 1 have trained and broken the fiercest, and gamiest 

 hounds. But, alas, when they were trained to voice and 

 whistle, their vim and elaat were gone. They became 

 "ridge dogs." They listened for signals and ran short 

 races. They ran we'll for a little while and came back. 



•Meat-Hawk" thinks I might call the man a fool who 

 paid $500 for an oil painting when he could buy a chrorno 

 for live cents. I dare say 1 should. I know something of 

 this painting business. I think I can name a parvenu of 

 .New York who paid not $500, but §4, 000 for an oil painting 

 by an "old master," the same having been painted in Rome 

 by a sharp young artist of Cincinnati and duly manipulated 

 by a shrewd Jew dealer in Vienna. In 1870 I was shown 

 ill New York a paintinsr of two ragpickers for which $8,000 

 was paid by the ~ 



lars for the 

 worth more tl 

 Recently 1 

 thatapaintinj 

 for $8,000, 

 fishing rig, v> 

 bring "to the 

 will copy til 



i the 



. who would not have given six dol- 

 ls a "counterfeit presentment" then 



1 a paragraph iu a New York daily stating 

 g on a canvas eight, inches bv six had been sold 

 And I will bet my entire outfit, hunting and 

 nth canoe, hatchet, and knapsack, that 1 can 

 ion:, a young American painter who, for $100, 

 I pietui'e 80 perfectly that not one man in ten 

 can tell the difference between copy and original. Wherein 

 is its value? And I do uot "go back" on art or artists. 

 Grand, humorous old Hogarth with your • 'Prospective," 

 "March Of the Guards" and "Election Scene," to me you 

 are, like Burns, a constant source of consolation, 1 cannot 



afford the originals, but the copies are good enough. "When 

 the mountain streams are frozen and the norland winds are 

 out" I gel my little array of art to the front and amui ft 



for inspection and admiration. First, the Damascus foarr< Is 



of the shotgun. The intricate and beautiful pattern is just 



as fine to me as a good oil painting. Then* card' 



and baas flies by the beat makers; next a few of Prang's 

 best chromes; one or two oil paintings: my best rod; photos 



of friends, etc. One of the painting's represents a I ' 



tree of perfect pyramidal form. Right in front 

 Write Stand three hemlocks, perfect as nature made them, 

 all pyramidal in form and the growth of thirty years Xow, 

 test fhem by the naked eye or microscope, The painting is 

 the daub of a plasterer The work of nature stands the test 

 from minutest twig and leaf to the root— more and more 

 beautiful the more fully it is developed, 



As to the five-cent cliromo ("Me ll lo riot see 



it. But the last Prang chromo, I indorse. Lean ' ' 



wife and children the benefit of a good picture 

 price. They enjoy, and see it. "Tuuxis" pays bis re- 

 Bpccte, and 'thinks 'l had Inner draw it a little finer— take 

 the bow and arrow insti ad of the old mn/zle-loader. He-is 

 well right. The suggestion is good. Xow. let us have a 

 law something like this: "From and after the first day of 

 April. 18S3.it shall be unlawful for am person to kill or 

 have in possession any deer or part of a deer, killed by any 

 device save only bj the DOW and arrow. Pen- lty, $1,000 or 

 imprisonment for' 1,000 days, Ml collections of money to 

 be paid to the informer on' whose testimony conviction is 

 attained, " 



Pass such a law and enforce it. Extend it to 

 and animal now recognized , 'is game. I dare sav tie. tld 

 vote for it, with a chance. It, would develop a good deal of 



muscle and skill in archery, and some die' 



slain. It is not so very long ago that they were killed in no 

 other way. 



As to the covert sneer at the old mil/ ' i lot ■ I ' -"• 

 stale a few- provable tacts. "Ben Gitcbell," "Joel Culver," 

 "Old Poster," "Jim Locke. ""Jim Steele," "Kpk Steele," 

 and "Old Man Young," each killed from 1,000 to 3,000 deer 

 with a single-barreled whole-stocked flint-locked, long-bar- 

 reled Lancaster rifle. Is that enough? Or would it have 

 been better that they had the modern breech-loader? 



"Capt. Dorsal Fin" gives me a lift. My dorsal tin is worn 

 flat by toting the knapsack. But here's my dexter i-'sil 

 Let him cut me off somewhere iu the Adiroudacks if he can, 

 and dare. 



A word as to the Yellowstone Park business. Ton, Sen- 

 ator Vest and the best intellect of the fount ry uavi p Ml 

 the matter heavily and earnestly. All have spoken well and 

 heartily. Cuihoiw! MTr. Bufus Batch, «M gm '"-..are 

 going right along as though nothing had happened to dis- 

 turb then- serene plans. Are they going to beat ? 



NeSSMI. Iv 



WsLLsnono. Pa., Feb, 5SS. 



SUMMER SHOOTING. 



! Fo 



id 



TUEAJt, and others of 

 I all laws permitting 

 . ;n forever privileges 

 I enjoyed, and which 



IT is proposed by t 

 the shooting fri 

 summer shooting, and thu 

 which many of us have e 



our fatbers enjoyed befon 



There was a custom in Athens of old. whenever a law was 

 about to he repealed, to appoint an advocate, to plead its 

 cause as that of a defendant. 



My object in this article is to call for the advocate who 

 will "make au effective plea for summer shooting, before; 

 this terrible resolution shall be consummated. 



"Nothing is settled till it is settled right." and how- shall 

 we get at the merits of a ease unless we hear "the other 

 side." 



While waiting for the advocate 1 beg to submit a few 

 thoughts to the reader. 



leu hav: nctieed that if h.t.i be arme- shall 1 say fashirn- 

 able— to denounce summer shooting. A few editors of the. 

 sporting press and book-makers ha ■, ■ ■ i a la v. .rd along. 

 "no summer shooting," and certain self-appointed guardians 

 of shooting interests in various parts of the country have 

 caught it up and re^eohoed it after them, till at lei 



fancied to be "the thing" to cry down and sneer at any who 

 favor the old wavs in this matter. You have noticed also 

 the supercilious and lordly way in which Iheei ppi on 

 deign to touch the srbjeet, assuming, as thej do. that the 

 question has been derided on ils merits, and that all who 

 differ from them are disloyal to He guild -are indeed 

 "masked pot-hunters," could ihcv be uncove ed 



Well, sarcasm won't always accomplish its end, Hwou 

 suiil. "Cervantes laughed Spain's chivalry away," but the 



poet's success lay iu "the ripeness of tile tisnos" "ei eil e 



than In his matchless sarcasm. In order to clear the way 

 for our Conclusions, let us put down the things on which we 

 are all agreed: 



1. Grime laws are dependent for their execution on the 

 sporting public, on the men who use the rod and liui, No 

 game constable can succeed so long as these are indifferent, 

 or hostile. 



8. These laws must represent the aveiage sentiment and 

 convictions of the Shooting public They must be free from 

 the suspicion of having been framed in the interests oi a 

 class. They must be just, and aim a! "the i ,, , 

 lie greatest number." 



3. They must vary in variou- Slates according to climate 

 and topography. Uniformity is impos-ilue. 



1- They must be trained si Cl III J ■'■■>■■ I 'till 



grown birds alone ate lawful game, and the fawn 



brought to maturity. The rights of the farmers must be 

 respected. 



There is no hetter way, perhaps, fo get at the a \ i 

 turnout of the sporting fraternity on this question of summer 



shooting than by an examination of the game la' la 



country-, 



I have been looking at these laws with a view 10 

 cation, and with the following results: Oi th< 

 States and Territories of the United States— 



15 permit quail shooting iu summer, viz., 9 

 o iu August, and 1 in July. 



•J4 permit woodcock shooting iu summer, vi/.. 13 in July, 

 including New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Delaw tl Llli 

 nois; 7 in August.' including Massachusetts, Mew York. 

 New Hampshire. M! : '_. 

 Maine. Vermont. Rhode I 



23 permit ruffed gri ■ ' ting iu summer vi; i in 

 June, 7 in August. 15 in September, including 

 Massaebusriis. Rhode island, Vermont, Ohio, M : 



HI permit deer shooting in summer. \iz. I in 



July, 7 in August, incJuSiuj Midi gall 



