Forest and Stream 



A Weekly Journal of the Rod and Gun. 



NEW YORK, MAY 3, 18 8 S. 



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CONTENTS. 



trliniie C 



ndiii. 



lata. 



9 Question. 

 N Tourist. 

 et Sport.— t. 



• Adirondack Guide System, 

 ian Folk-Lore. 

 arian Eights. 

 AnglerVXook. 



RAL HlSTORT. 



es on the St.ekrish. 

 ing Finis of Nebraska. 

 hlbition of American Taxi- 

 ermists. 



;iveh Fishing. 



ishing, 



1 Pole. 



iperior Fishing Grounds. 



g Fish. 



in British Columbia. 



ass Habits. 



for the Delaware and 



irk'Fire Dogs. 



rid Colors of Setters. 



;uakes 



The Sunday Eii 



Kei 



Eift.: 



el Ma. 

 jTr 



Black Bass' in New Hampshire 



33ritisli Musketry Instruction 



Bange and Gallery. 



The Trap. 



The Illinois Trap-Shooting Bill. 



The Ohio Pigeon Shooting Case. 



Y.OT.T ee: .\:-:d CANOEING 



"The Fendeur in the East." 

 The Bating of Yachts by Sail 

 Area and Length. 

 Answers to COBtuaa 



With its compact type and in its permanently enlarged forn 



./ .■' . .■ ... ■ : .. - ■_ -i . ,.■',■ .-' v .. , i ■ .■ .■ -. //,;" --iOV.riii.il furnishes each v.-cijeo tarye 

 amount of first-class matter relating to angling, shooting, th 

 kennel, anel iciiulrrel subjects, than is contained in all other 

 American publications put tor/ether. 



INDEFINITE CONDITIONS. 



IN the management of the British interests in tiio Inter- 

 national match Maj. Seriven has replaced Maj. Waller as 

 secretary of the special committee having charge of the 

 mailer. With this change come intimations of a possibility 

 of misunderstanding as to the exact terms of the match, and 

 it is particularly unfortunate that in all the cloud of cor- 

 respondence which has been going on back and forth for 

 some time past between the two associations, no one 

 should have taken the simple precaution of writing out the 

 conditions of the match, and by an exchange of copies fix 

 definitely the basis upon which the contest was to be fought. 

 In the pettiest medal match the exact conditions under 

 Which each contestant shoots his string of shots is carefully 

 laid down, but when an important match like the Inter- 

 national contest is brought up, there are a lot of compli- 

 mentary generalities, and when a practical point in shoot- 

 ing is touched, the fact conies out that these hazy rules and 

 regulations which are supposed to govern the match may 

 mean anything or nothing, 



In 1882 there were concessions on both sides. When the 

 British team men reached here they found the Americans 

 wilh pistol grip rifles, having sights which, while they were 

 not fine enough to he styled match sights, were a great re- 

 move from a military todel. The conditions of the match 

 had been doubly at fjwlt in failing to bar out what should 

 not be allowed, and in omitting to specify, exactly and be- 

 youd question, what was to be permitted in the match. 

 There had not been enough oi knowledge on each side of 

 what the other side was doing in the way of improving the 

 military rifle. The British arms came as revelations to the 

 A nierieon marksmen, and only the presumption which ignor- 

 ance inspires could have led the Americans to hope for a 

 victory under the circumstances, 



It is an open question whether a victory was ever 

 really expected or worked for. It is pretty certain that 

 .somothma very close to an assurance of winning had to be 



held out to induce the British team to cross the ocean. 

 Among the other pleasantries proffered the visitors was a 

 well-arranged opportunity of breaking the line of American 

 ictories before the butts. The previous contests had been 

 managed by the riflemen. The men who shot the match had 

 control of the preliminaries, and did not go into the battle 

 with anything like the ovcrw he lining handicap which 

 weighted down the gallant twelve, who fought the match of 

 September, 1882, With the end of that match came a de- 

 mand that some chance be left open for a victory which 

 Americans might hope to win if they worked for it in 1883. 

 Changes in the rear and front sights were asked for, and also 

 a modification as to the date of enlistment of men who might 

 lake part in the match. 



Headers of the Forest AHD Stkkam are familiar with the 

 application of the American Board of Directors for a modi- 

 fication of the conditions and the reply of the British Com- 

 mittee. Secretary Seabury, for the American riflemen, 

 asked for "the use of the wind-gauge," and Sir Henry Hal- 

 ford suggested "that the wind-gauge on the back sight, 

 which is likely to be adopted by our regular army, be permit- 

 ted hereafter in all military breech-loader matches at Wimble- 

 don. "' Now comes up a cloud of doubt as to the interpreta- 

 tion of what a wind-gauge really is. Shall it be an accu- 

 rate]}' graduated sight capable of the finest scalings, or 

 shall it be some sort of a sliding cross-bar which is set with 

 a push over and held only by the friction of the parts? The 

 British council have been great sticklers for what they term 

 a '•service" arm, which means generally, when it is defined, 

 a weapon which in some way has lound favor in the eyes of 

 the British army or volunteers. While the council were 

 preparing the conditions of the match of 1882 it meant a 

 rifle with a fixed rear sight so far as any lateral motion was 

 concerned, though for years before the New York State 

 model arm, and the arms sent out from the Springfield 

 Armory, bore rear sights which could be shifted for wind by 

 the turn of a screw. The same board which declared the 

 thin barley-corn front sight of the American rifle did not 

 come within their notion of a service arm, are ready to ac- 

 cept a rear wind-gauge which is nothing more than a bar 

 held to the uprights by the pressure of a spring. 



Suppose such an arm should fall on the ground, the heavy 

 iron front sight would possibly get battered, while the unsta- 

 ble wind-gauge would be pretty certain to slip out of posi- 

 tion, whereas the Ihin steel foresight of the American arm 

 would stand any amount of ill-usage, while the rear sight 

 once set by a turn of the screw remains so until changed by 

 the hand of the rifleman. 



The fact is I hat the service arm of the future is to be some- 

 thing far nearer the match rifle than the snap-shooting 

 weapons which have formerly made such noise in the hands 

 of troops. At present there is no fixed standard. Surely the 

 arms used at the last match will not be placed under that 

 heading, for they were mere target appliances made to pro- 

 voke bullseyes over certain known ranges, fitted with ammu- 

 nition which would not bear the rough transport of an 

 active campaign, and in many minor respects far different 

 from what an experienced army officer would select to put 

 into the hands of the general run of soldiers. The use of 

 suchashiftiug term as "service arm" is sufficient to keep the 

 conditions of any match in an unsettled state, for the service 

 arm of to-day may be the discarded arm of to-morrow. 



tier in which they received a person who claimed their 

 game between the shooting and the retrieving of it. 



Anglers, as a class, have the reputation of being more 

 gentle than other people, whether so or not the Census 

 Bureau has no definite information, but we think we may 

 possibly know a score or so of the contemplative fraternity 

 who would not be so lost in their contemplation that they 

 would not feel their blood flow faster at the sight of a man 

 taking a three-pounder off their line, and, if near to him, 

 something might drop, perhaps the fish alone, perhaps more 

 than the fish. 



The Engineer asks, "Was it theft?" This we cannot 

 answer. The man might have only borrowed the fish for 

 scientific purposes, such as to learn how long it would take 

 to boil it, or to find out what sauce was best with it. It 

 might have been a fish that stole a hook from him last sum- 

 mer and he only wished to see if the hook was there yet, or 

 it might have been a fish that had been taking off his young 

 ducks; we cannot say. All these things would have to be 

 fairly presented before a correct decision could be an ived at. 



We notice the absence of a most important element in this 

 case. We have only the bare fact that one man cut a hole 

 in the iec and put in a hook, no line being mentioned, and 

 that a passer by noticed a bite on the hook and pulled in a 

 fish and drove rapidly off. The person who reported the 

 case probably saw it from a distance through a telescope, 

 for there is no record of any conversation. The failure to 

 give the remarks of the fisherman is fatal to a correct un- 

 derstanding of the case. His views might have been ex- 

 pressed iu few words, or at length, but what he said on that 

 important occasion lias been lost. We should have been 

 pleased to have heard him sum up. What did the fisherman 

 sav? 



A MOMENTOUS QUESTION 



LAST March the Litchfield, Conn., Enqnirer published 

 the following: 



We hear a curious law point discussed. A man was driving across 

 our lake recently, near where some holes had been cut and Ui 

 fixed by a fisherman. He noticed that there was a bite at one of the 

 hooks, sprang out, pulled in a three and a half pound fish, Hung it 

 into his sleigh, aud was off before the fisherman could reach him 

 Was it a theft; or, in other words, to whom did that flsh belong? It 

 seems probable, that it belonged to the man who pulled it out, for the 

 rule about game— fish, flesh, or fowl— is that it belongs to whoever 

 actually gets possession of it, and to no one till in his actual posses- 

 sion. Pretty sharp practice, though. 



The way in which the case is put renders it doubtful 

 to whom the fish legally belongs. Legal right is often the 

 reverse of moral right. If the fish legally belonged to the 

 traveler in the sleigh who pulled it out, then a bird killed by 

 a sportsman but not yet picked up w ill belong to the one 

 who may grab it first, even though the shooter has advanced to 

 it and is bending over to reach it. We know of many men who 

 while not qualified to administer law, would substitute jus- 

 tice in the case of a man trying to claim their game which, 

 according to the code, has not yet been reduced to possession 

 by being placed in the bag. We probably know a thousand 

 such men, and it would be worth a journey to see the man- 



GUIDES AND TOURISTS. 



THE relation of his experiences in the Adirondacks by 

 "Piseco" is timely. He bewails the decadence of 

 morals and manners among a certain class of guides, and 

 the existence of a most pernicious system whereby the 

 "hotel guides" bleed the unfortunate tourist w'ho falls" into 

 their clutches. "Piseco" is undeniably right in his cen- 

 sures of this class of so-called guides. 



It is equally true that the particular class of Adirondack 

 tourists who support these "hotel guides" is a very different- 

 class from that of the old-time tourists, who could appreci- 

 ate a genuine guide's services. It must be remembered that 

 the majority of visitors to the Adirondacks are not sports- 

 men, in any good or bad sense of the term. Most of them are 

 mere pleasure-seekers with no aspirations to anything other 

 than id! ing away their time in the beaten round of summer hotel 

 life. If the old guides have degenerated , or been superseded by 

 a new class of designing flunkies, no one is more to blame for 

 this than the summer tourist who has created the change. 

 The greenhorn, who rigs himself out in buckskin toggery, 

 with a feather flying in his scalp lock, does not want one 

 of the genuine old-time, guides, nor would one of those 

 honest woodsmen care to serve him. The cockney gener- 

 ally has more money than brains, and dispenses the first 

 liberally to conceal his lack of the second. He wants to be put 

 on to the spring holes and to have his fish hooked and "hauled 

 in" for him. aud for this he is content to pay whatever the 

 attendant may ask. 



There is another class of men who visit the Adirondacks. 

 They hire all the guides in a district, pay them four or five 

 times as much as their services are actually worth, and often 

 add liberal presents. Mr. II. Polhemus, of Brooklyn, is re- 

 puted to have given one of his guides $121)0 as a gratuity. 

 These men employ a big force, pay big w T ages, secure a big 

 slaughter, and have the satisfaction of a big brag. No 

 wonder "Piseco" claims that the guides are demoralized. 

 They are but human after all, and the same rule must hold 

 good iu the woods that obtains elsewhere; men who are paid 

 extravagantly by rich men will not do the same work for 

 other men for honest wages. 



There are yet, however, as out correspondent is careful 

 to say, many good guides iu the Adirondacks. We have 

 found that the Brown's Tract men are, as a rule, intelligent 

 and trustworthy. They are alive to the necessity of proper 

 game and fish protection and propagation. They are com- 

 ing to understand that when the deer and trout go, their 

 own occupation must go, too; and so they refuse the demands 

 of the cockneys to be led to game out of season. The 

 Brown's Tract guides have lately clubbed together, and have 

 sent one of their number, John L. Brinkerhoff, down to the 

 Cold Spring hatchery for land-locked salmon with which to 

 stock Fulton Chain. The Brown Tract region is more diffi* 

 cult of access than some of the other Adirondack resorts, 



