Forest and Stream. 



A Weekly Journal of the Rod and Gun. ' 



NEW YORK, MAY 24, 1883. 



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CONTENTS. 



EtUTOIUAl,. 



The Selection ot the Team, 



Fishtail ture. 

 The Sportsman TontiST. 



Quiet Sport.— rv. 



Dave's Medical Experience. 



NATTTIAL HlSTORT. 



Notes on the Birds of Alabatn 

 Ohio ecological Society. 

 fiAME Bid and Gra. 



Nates of I'loi ! !■■:,, k-:, |:.i-:-i 



lu Northern California. 

 I liven Sound Deer Shooting. 

 Hunting Rifle Sights. 

 A Duck Boat. 

 Sea and River Fishing. 

 An Evening's Reflections. 



Thr 



i 3Sht 



Angle-i 

 Pennsylvania. 



Milton Three Ponds. 



MuskoIvH Lakes. 



Pickerel m New Brunswick. 



FlSflcCI.TURE. 



The Fisheries Exhibition, 

 Trout in Michigan. 



The Kennel. 



Canine Tenacity of Life. 



Tracheotome in a Dog. 



The Cor, Ion Standard. 



With the Beagles. 



Johnny and the Axe. 



The Eastern Field Trials Club. 



Kennel Notes. 

 Rifle and Trap Shooting. 



The Team Chosen. 



Muzzle vs. Breech-Loaders. 



Range and Gallerv. 



The Trap. 

 Yachting. 



Tbe Old, Old Story Again. 



The Grayling. 



That Twister. 



Batthyany. 



Corkscrew Yachting. 



Raritan Y. c. 

 Canoeing. 



The Dot. 



Canoe Spars. 



Varnishing Bright Boats. 



A Word to Canoeists. 

 Answers to Correspondents. 



With its compact type and in its permanently enlarged form 



of twenty-eight pages this journal furnishes each week a larger 

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

 kennel, and kindred subjects, than is contained in all other 

 American publications put together. 



FISHCULTURE. 



"OVER since fishculturc was undertaken in this country 

 -*^ there have been doubters as to its utility. Notwith- 

 standing the successes recorded and the great benefits that 

 hare beet) derived from it, these skeptics refuse to be con- 

 vinced. A few days ago wc heard a man say that shad in 

 the Hudson would now be more plenty if none had ever 

 been hatched there. His argument was, that if the fish 

 were left alone they would spawn more freely and the un- 

 ripe ones captured would ripen and cast their spawn. He 

 was unaware that the eggs taken were from fish which 

 would have gone to market and was really so much saved, 

 and that of eggs cast in the natural manner not one in a 

 thousand hatched. 



The same thing has been said about the salmon and the 

 trout. The latest thing that we have noticed is a statement 

 from a professed fishculturist, which has been widely copied, 

 and as it pretends to come, from a ''United States Fish Com- 

 missioner," it seems to have the stamp of authority. Tlie 

 itegl in question we have seen in the Cape. Ann Advi rtiscr 

 and the Belfast, Me., Republican Journal, both papers de- 

 voting much space to fish matters. It says: 



United States Fish Commissioner M. P. Pierce is not a believer in 

 fishculture. He says the Delaware and all the large streams north 

 of it emptying into the Atlantic were natural salmon streams at the 

 time the country was settled, but the clearing off of the forests and 

 tilling of the land has rendered the waters warm and muddy, wherea 

 when frequented by the salmoD they were clear and cold. The 

 same is true of the trout streams. To attempt to restock the 

 streams with these fish at a great outlay of money is a mistake. The 

 labor and expenditure are almost a total loss." 



In the first place, Mr. Peirce is not a commissioner of 

 fisheries, either of the United States or of any State. He has 

 made some carp ponds and has taken an interest in fishcul- 

 ture to the extent of making speeches before the legislatures 

 of Pennsylvania and New Jersey, in which he has opposed 

 any appropriation being made for the use of the Commis- 

 sioners, Why he has done this is best known to himself, 



although the Commissioners of those States impute selfish 

 motives to him. 



His statement thai the Delaware, and streams north of it, 

 were salmon streams is also wrong. No stream south of the 

 rivers of Connecticut contained salmon at the discovery of 

 the country; but the Delaware was stocked with a lew 

 salmon some years ago, and a few fish have since been taken 

 in it. enough to show that with liberal stocking it can be 

 made to produce salmon. 



There is one tiling that is certain. Fishculture has too 

 many grand successes to point to in America to fear being 

 discontinued because a few skeptics or disappointed men 

 throw stones at it. The moon is a grand success, and con- 

 tinues to shine, no matter how much barking is done at it. 



TEE SELECTION OF TEE TEAM. 

 npiIE theme of all talk in rifle circles and among the out- 

 -*- side public as well is the action of the directors of 

 the National Rifle Association in shutting N . M. Farrow 

 from the roll of members of the team of 1883. There is 

 much to be said, pro and con, in regard to the act, but after 

 all the bald fact remains that one of the best marksman in 

 America, if not the very best all-round shooter we have, 

 has been shut out from a chance of adding his strength to 

 the team, and only because some of those in power have 

 personal spites which they wish to work out in this petty 

 fashion. 



The facts of the case are simple, and all the muddle of 

 explanation which may be thrown about them will not 

 change the general impression that a gross act of injustice 

 has been done, and the American motto of fair play and the 

 best man to the front set at naught. Mr. Farrow has been 

 lor years a member of the Newport Artillery, an organiza- 

 tion of the Rhode Island militia. He competed a year ago 

 at Creedmoor for a place on the team of last year, ami at 

 other matches under the control of these same directors has 

 appeared in the uniform of his corps and won prizes. It is 

 nonsense then to claim that he was not well known to Ibe 

 Creedmoor officials us a National Guardsman. Yet he was 

 shut out from lending his valuable aid to retrieve the defeat 

 of 1880 on the flimsy pretext that the directors had not been 

 made officially aware of the fact that he was a member of 

 the citizen soldiery. 



The clause under a twisting of which the directors shut 

 off Mr. Farrow is No. 10 of the "Regulations for the Selec- 

 tion and Government of the American Team," which says: 



10. Each person entering for the competition at Creedmoor shall be 

 required to produce a certificate from the Adjutant-General of his 

 State, stating that he is and has been since January 1, 1883, a member 

 in good standing of its uniformed National Guard or militia, and is a 

 proper person to represent his State on a team. 



Was Mr. Farrow required to produce any such docu- 

 ment'! No. Instead, this very matter was brought up at 

 the first conference of the embryo team and the committee, 

 held at the club house on the range on the morning of May 

 14. The fact was then noted that not only Mr. Farrow but 

 several others of the shooters had neglected to provide them- 

 selves with such papers, and then and there, with the full 

 knowledge and consent of the committee, this requirement 

 was waived. Had the committee felt inclined to insist upon 

 the. display of a certificate, then was the time and that the 

 place, before a shot had been fired. But no. Here was instead 

 a capital chance of playing a sharp trick and profiting by their 

 own questionable device. Mr. Farrow was lulled to the 

 belief that such a palpable, useless precaution was not to be 

 enforced, and « hen a week's good work had been put in, 

 giving Mr. Farrow the best average of any man in the two 

 dozen picked shots competing, when it became more than 

 ever evident that he was really needed on the team, then it 

 was that the little technicality dodge popped out from 

 behind the fence, and Mr. Farrow became aware of the fact 

 that he was the victim of something very much akin to a 

 conspiracy. 



There is talk of securing harmony on the team by the re- 

 jection of Mr. Farrow, and it is undoubtedly true that that 

 gentleman in the past has figured in many disputed cases 

 over the interpretation of match rules. He has also a very 

 inconvenient way of looking a gift horse in the mouth, and 

 this is an unpardonable offense to a company of managers, 

 whose five-dollar trinkets appear as twenty-five-dollar tro- 

 phies on the shooting prize list. In many similar ways, Mr. 

 Farrow has incurred the lively displeasure of many of Ihe 

 rifle magnates, and for this he has been punished when the 

 opportunity offered, though it does appear a great deal like 

 spiting the face by cutting the nose off. It has never yet 

 been shown that Mr. Farrow has ever done anything which 

 was contrary to gentlemanly conduct, and an exercise of mi 



American independent course of action. He has pushed his 

 way to the very front rank as a marksman by hard and in- 

 telligent work. He is to-day thoroughly conversant with 

 the theory and practice of rifle shooting, and his omission 

 from the team is a real loss. There was nothing to show I hat 

 he was not actuated by the best and mo*t patriotic motives 

 in giving his time and effort to win a place. There is no 

 reason either to fear that he would not have made a good 

 working member of the team, but with some old scores to 

 settle and a chance to strike down a man who might have 

 carried a particular rifle to the front, he has been sacrificed, 

 and the squad of riflemen go abroad, uot; as a representative 

 team chosen by a fair and open selection according to merit, 

 but instead a few riflemen who find favor in the eyes of 

 men placed in positions of trust. 



There is a very bad air about the whole matter, and its 

 tendency will be to check newcomers from taking an 

 interest in range practice. Merit, it would seem, is not to be 

 recognized, and it. is as much a fault, it would seem, to shool 

 too well, as it is to shoot too poorly, The rejection of the 

 best shot in America from a place on the team may be 

 looked upon with favor by some of the English shots. It 

 certainly is a step toward giving the British team another 

 victory. A year ago it was pretty well understood that the 

 visitors were to win, and some of the private letters sent 

 over by the English managers before the match, would be 

 very interesting reading in this connection. But it certainly 

 cannot he the plan of our so-called American managers to 

 throw another match into the hands of the Wimbledon ex- 

 perts. 



It remains to be seen whether the other members of the 

 team will retain their places on a body from which one 

 of their companions has been so rudely pushed. There 

 surely ought to be sufficient regard for fait and honest en- 

 deavor to see to it that a snub, and a very emphatic one, is 

 given to such a contemptible little pettifogging tie 

 which cut Mr. Farrow from his hard-won place in the first 

 eight of the American team. No rifleman can in Hie future 

 tell what trap may he sprung upon him after he has done 

 all the work before the butts which may be required, and a 

 more flimsy curtain to hide behind than the one chosen by 

 the majority of the committee on this international match, 

 it w T ould be difficult to imagine. 



There is fault on both sides of the controversy, hut no petty 

 failings on the part of an individual can be for a single in- 

 stant regarded as offsetting the worse than blunder com- 

 mitted by the directors in their star-chamber proceedings. 



Fishing on Sunday.-— Mr. Benjamin Yaugk-in Abbott, 

 who was secretary of the Commissioners on the Code, ard 

 who drafted the Sunday sections, is quoted by the Observer 

 assaying: "Section 265, on sports, is substantially a tran- 

 script of a law which is fifty years old. The effect of sec- 

 tion 959 of the code does not seem to me to have been suf- 

 ficiently considered. It really restricts all punishments for 

 violation of either of the following sections, to eases suf- 

 ficiently aggravated to be pronounced by a judge and jury 

 'serious interruptions of the public repose and of religious 

 liberty.' " If Mr. Abbott is correctly reported these may be 

 accepted as the principles upon which the framers of the 

 law intended it to be construed. It will be seen that consid- 

 erable latitude is allowed to those who choose to "be quiet, 

 and go a-angling." They may fish, but must not make a 

 noise about it and so disturb "the public repose." This 

 reading of the statute, we take it, would not forbid fly-fish- 

 ing, for the lure which falls upon the water lightly as a 

 feather would not disturb this repose; but concerning bait 

 and line fishing there might be a very nice splitting of hairs, 

 and we are prone to think that the man who chugs his bait 

 into the stream would be ruled out. Again it is clearly 

 not permissible to pursue the fugitive herring over the hills, 

 with horse and hound and hunting horn, as at Newport, nor 

 to follow with hue and cry the ancient whitefish, as in certain 

 sections of Canada. Perhaps there was just such a law 

 when the "Compleat Angler" was written, and it was to 

 those who thought themselves oppressed by it that Walton 

 left his parting injunction, "Study to be quiet." 



The Ideal View of the New York and Brooklyn bridge, 

 which is opened to day, would show a tangled skein of fish 

 ing lines dangling down into the turbid waters of the East 

 River, with multitudinous monsters ascending. Yvc have 

 seen no statement from the bridge trustees respecting the 

 future angling privileges on the structure. It will now be 

 in order to petition the authorities for permission to flsh 

 from the bridge. The only drawback to this scheme is the 

 fact that there are uo fish to be caught. 



