Forest and Stream. 



A Weekly Journal of the Rod and Gun. 



NEW YORK, APRiL 26, 1883. 



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CONTENTS. 



EDrroRiAi. 



The Boy and the Gun. 



Success of Fishculture. 

 The Sportsman Tourist. 



A Reminiscence. 



Among the Bonin Islands. 



An Olcl Hunter's Home. 

 Natural History. 



Tame Alligators. 



The Birds of iliine. 



The Study of Nature. 

 Game Bag and Sum. 



Some Liars I Have Known . 



The Grail v Compromise Bill. 



Illinois Game Notes. 



Davy Crockett's Rifle. 

 Sea and Ktver Fishing. 



The Secrets of Salmon Growth. 



The Pike-Perch Takes the Fly. 



Fishing Through the Ice. 



Route to the Nepigon. 



Spirit. Lake, Iowa. 

 ^Angliug for Whitefish. 



Fishculture. 



Fishculture in New Zealand. 

 The Eennel. 



New lork Bench Show. 



New York Fire Bogs. 



"American Kennel Register.' 



Kennel Notes. 



Kennel Management. 

 Rifle and Trap Shooting. 



Hunting Rifles. 



The Brown Rifle. 



Creed moor. 

 l )'..-as v; :>.■,.■, ii I i-.te':ers 



Range and Gallery. 



The Trap. 

 Yachting and Canoeing. 



The Dome-Deck Quick-Transit 

 Ship. 



Making Ready for the Tug of 

 War. 



The Schooner Y'aekt Grayling. 



The Boys' Seagoing Boat. 

 Answers to Correspondents. 



SUCCESS OF FISHCULTURE. 

 NOTWITHSTANDING there are frequent reports of tin 

 -*-" successes of fishculture in the pages of Forest and 

 Stream; the reports of the United States Fish Commission; 

 the State commissions; the successes of the Deutsche 

 Fiscberei Verein, the Societe d'Acclimatation, of Paris, and 

 in Holland, and other countries, there is still an occasional 

 skeptic. A Russian professor, A. J. Malmgren, has made a 

 report to the Bussian Government, in which he discourages 

 the breeding of fish in Finland, because, as he alleges, the 

 artificial breeding of fish, especially in the United States and 

 Canada, has proved a failure. There is an adage that one 

 must go away from home to hear the news, and it strikes us 

 that the adage is true in this case. Where can the learned 

 professor have obtained his information concerning the 

 status of fishculture in the United States and Canada? 



The only fish that has failed to appear, after streams have 

 been liberally stocked with it, is the California salmon 

 (Oncorlujnehiis quumat), when transplanted to the East. In 

 its native habitat this fish has been steadily kept in the 

 rivers by artificial propagation, notwithstanding the enorm- 

 ous drain of the canning industry, which threatened to ex- 

 haust the supply. Had there been no propagation on the 

 McCloud River, the canneries of the Sacramento would have 

 exhausted the supply long ago. 



The salmon of the Atlantic (Salmo salar) which at the 

 settlement of the country inhabited all the rivers as far 

 south as the Housatonic River, in Connecticut, were exter- 

 minated by the early settlers before the adoption of fish pro- 

 tection in America, and have been restored to some of the 

 streams. A few saimon were loft in Maine, and from these' 

 the eggs were taken, and they are now plenty in the Penob- 

 scot and are becoming so in the Merrimac River. The most 

 thorough proof of the influence of fishculture was shown in 

 the restocking of tbe Connecticut River with salmon. There 

 had not been one of these fish taken in it for twenty-five 

 years, and many persons argued that the conditions had 

 been so changed by dams, sewerage and impurities from 

 paper mills, etc., that salmon could not now live in it. The 

 U. S. Fish Commission, in connection with the Commis- 

 sioners of the New England States, thought it worth a trial, 

 and for two or three years they planted salmon in the head- 

 waters. Three years afterward salmon appeared in the 

 river, only a dozen or so, but enough to show that some had 

 lived. The fourth year large numbers were sent to market 



by the fishermen at the mouth of the river, who had pound 

 nets arranged so as to stop every fish. Two years later, 

 when the plantings were exhausted, no more salmon were 

 taken. The State of Connecticut would not prohibit her 

 fishermen from capturing all of them at the mouth of the 

 river before they could spawn, and the States lying to the 

 north declined to expend more money for the purpose un- 

 less Ihe fish could have a chance to ascend the stream. But 

 the trial was a grand success, as it proved that the river is 

 still fit for salmon, and that with fair play fishculture can 

 again restore the Connecticut to its former productiveness. 



Other instances might be cited, but we will merely refer 

 to the success of the culture of laud-locked salmon in the 

 Adirondack^, where it was unknown before; in California 

 of the shad, which was a stranger to Western waters; the 

 wonderful growth of carp in America since its introduction 

 a few years ago ; and the keeping up of the stock of shad in 

 the Hudson, in spite of increased fishing. The work referred 

 to has all been done by the States and the general Govern- 

 ment; in fact, it could not well be done by private means, 

 and the work in the United States, so far from diminishing, 

 is increasing each year. 



To write this seems to us to be needless work. It is known 

 to till who pay attention to this matter, and we regard it as 

 being verymuch like an argument to prove thattwo and two 

 make four. Reaping without sowing must eventually exter- 

 minate the corn, and the planting of fish bears the same 

 relation to future yields as the planting of corn does to the 

 harvest. If the planting is intelligently done, and the 

 necessary conditions of soil and water are properly secured, 

 there will only remain the chances of accident or enemies of 

 the young crop to contend with in order to secure a harvest. 



We commend this to Prof. Malmgren, ana hope that, in 

 all fairness, he will embody it in his next report to his gov- 

 ernment, in order that Finland may not be too far behind 

 in a knowledge of what is being done in foreign lands. 



THE BOY AND THE O UN. 

 r PHE boy, bless his heart, is closer to nature than the 

 man. He is a savage in civilized attire; he steals and 

 lies without a blush of shame, persecutes and domineers, 

 and delights in noise and destruction, and will do and dare 

 anything to satisfy his untamed cravings. To make an 

 uproar and kill something nothing quite so well serves him 

 as gunpowder, and for its employment nothing serves him 

 so well as the gun. 



Boys have grown particular of these later years, as have 

 the grown-up savages on the frontier, and must have breech- 

 loaders and "cartridges"; but when we graybeards were 

 boys any tube of iron with a lock and stock was a prize. 

 No matter how it missed fire, kicked or scattered, when it 

 did go off you felt it as well as heard it, and it. would some- 

 times kill a chipmunk or a robin, and so frighten a wood- 

 chuck that after one shotted salute from it he would keep his 

 hole for half a day. What a big Injun was the boy who 

 owned or had borrowed such a gun, and how all the other 

 boys gathered about him to watch the mysterious process of 

 loading. What a wise fellow was this to know that he 

 must first put in the powder, and how much of it, and on 

 top of it a wad of tow or wasp-nest or newspaper, and then 

 the death-dealing pellets of precious shot poured out of a 

 vial, and then more wadding. Then came the grand final 

 art of priming. It was thrilling to see him place a G. D. cap 

 between his teeth while he covered the box and returned it 

 to his pocket, then cock the piece and put the cap on to 

 the nipple. What if his thumb should slip from the striker 

 as he eased it downl Sometimes it did, and then what a 

 delightful scare if nothing worse; what shame for the 

 unskillful engineer amid the jeers of the envious, gunless 

 crowd. 



But nowadays, alas, almost any boy may have a gun, and 

 only he is enviable who has the best. Well, if he will only 

 use his dangerous toy as he should, let him have it, for the 

 sporting instinct is strong in the young savage. And who 

 for pure love of it is such a naturalist? Is it not he who 

 notes the first comers of spring, meets the chipmunk and 

 the woodchuck at their thresholds when they first come 

 forth from their winter sleep; finds the. earliest birds' nests, 

 and knows where the squirrels breed? The sportsman who 

 enjoys his sport- most is he who loves nature best; and who 

 of all the guild enjoys his day with the gun with greater 

 zest than the boy? 



Yes, let the boy have his gun, a sound, well-made one, 

 but teach him how to use it— carefully, temperately, 

 humanely. Always as if it were loaded, never out of season, 

 nor too often in season, and never for mere love of slaughter. 



THE ALBANY BILLS. 

 \ MONG the game bills introduced at Albany the three 

 ■**- most prominent are the Townscnd, the O'Connor and 

 the Grady, this last being another form of the second. The 

 Townsend and O'Connor bills were introduced into the 

 Assembly; the Townsend bill was favorably reported by 

 the Committee on Game Laws, passed by the Committee of 

 the Whole and sent, to the Senate. Here the Committee 

 substituted for it. the Grady bill, being under another name 

 the O'Connor bill which had been defeated in the Assembly. 

 These bills have already been adverted to in our col- 

 umns and their respective merits noted. The Townsend 

 bill is the only one of the lot deserving support. Its framers 

 had solely in view the protection of game, which is the 

 legitimate aim of a game bill. This is more 

 than can be said of the Grady bill. A fourth bill, 

 known as the Grady compromise bill, is a modification 

 of the original Grady bill, and has been adopted as a substi- 

 tute for it in the Senate. The "compromise" is on the crow 

 and turkey principle. "You take the crow and give me 

 the turkey ; or, I'll take the turkey and you can have the 

 crow." A choice bit of the "turkey" is an open market for 

 woodcock from July 1 to February 1; another piece is the 

 practical immunity from inquisitive detectives with .search 

 warrants; a third morsel is the sign-board proclamation 

 scheme. In the rush which is always the order of the day 

 at the close of the session, it is important that friends of game 

 protection in the Legislature, should closely watch the pro- 

 ceedings to see that the Townsend bill is not forgotten nor 

 the Grady bill put through. The law is better as it stands 

 than it would be if amended as Mr. Grady proposes. 



The Canoe Meet. — As has been announced in our 

 Canoeing columns, the next meet of the American Canoe 

 Association will be held at Stoney Lake, near Peterboro'. 

 Canada, August 10 to 24. A large representation of Ameri- 

 can and Canadian canoeists is expected, and the meet 

 promises to be in every way a success. The route to Stoney 

 Lake is to Lakefield via Peterboro' from Port Hope or 

 Belleville' which points may be reached from the east 

 or west by the Grand Trunk Railway. Port Hope 

 is also reached by steamer from Rochester, N. Y.„ 

 and Canadian ports. From Stoney Lake, after the 

 meet, many delightful routes will be open to the canoe- 

 ists, one of these being the Otonabee River, Rice Lake, 

 and Trent River to the Bay of Quinte, and thence to the 

 Thousand Islands. Provisions may be obtained at Peterboro' 

 or Lakefield. Arrangements will be made to have all sup- 

 plies required forwarded to the camp. Milk, butter, pota- 

 toes, eggs, etc., can be obtained from settlers in the vicinity. 

 Fish are abundant in the lake. Maskinonge are caught, by 

 trolling. Spoon and other trolling bails of all kinds are used. 

 Black bass may be caught by trolling or by still-fishing. In 

 the latter case frogs, crawfish, grasshoppers or fat pork 

 being used, and occasionally artificial flies. 



Tiie Usual Muddle.— With the approach of the time 

 set for the meeting of the American and British teams comes 

 the rush of explanatory letters, and there is now a possibil- 

 ity of a hitch in the arrangements over the wind-gauge 

 question. According to a cablegram from Londou on Mon- 

 day last, the British Rifle Association refuse to allow the 

 American regulations,giving the use of the wind-gauge. It was 

 thought that the correspondence which was opened by the 

 American managers immediately after the conclusion of the 

 last, match had cleared away all possible misunderstandings, 

 but now a fresh cloud arises, which may require an ex- 

 penditure of pen and paper before it is dissipated. It is to 

 be hoped that the cablegram only reflects a slight error in the 

 reading of the correspondence, and not a determination on 

 the part of the British authorities to go back to the anti- 

 quated regulations of the last match. 



The Michigan Legislature has been overwhelmed with 

 all sorts of proposed game law amendments this year, and as 

 one w a y out of the muddle a consolidation of all the bills 

 has been effected. The result, if the bill becomes a law, will 

 be a good one. Chief among the changes is a provision 

 which throws upon the possessor of game out of season the 

 burden of proof that it was legally killed. This is an import- 

 ant point. 



The Early Bird Principle is presumed to be a com- 

 mendable one. In these days of competition and rivalry, 

 enterprise carries the day. So, at least, believe certain 

 Essex county, N. J., gunners, who have "opened the hall" 

 and are now bagging woodcock, if this is not enterprise 

 it is b.oggishhess. 



