Forest and Stream 



A Weekly Journal of the Rod and Gun. 



NEW YORK, JUNE 28, 1883. 



CORRESPONDENCE. 

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Forest and Stream Publishing Co. 

 Nos. 89 ami 40 Park Row. New York Cm-. 



Editorial. 



The Screw Wind-Gauge. 



English Angling Tournament. 



The Greeley Rescue Expedition, 

 The Sportsman Tourist. 



The March of Common Sense. 

 ■i l; n ., ■■ iff.: , .i r ■■■ 1 1 1 ■ 1 1 ■ ■ 



Once More Florida. 

 Natural History. 



Morniug In Countrv and City. 



Edible Crabs of United States. 

 Game Bag and Gun. 



A Hunt on Grand River. 



My First Woodcock. 



Various Topics. 



Incidents of a Jersey Quail Hunt 



Hunting Rifle Sights. 



Sensible Virginians. 



Lei t-Haiicled Shooting. 



Kynoch Shells. 

 Sea'and River Fishing. 



.1 . ' '.■ :: 1; ... i : el.':, 



The Ichthvophagoi Bine. 



Black Bass Fishing. 



The English Tournament. 



Angling at Pleasant Pond. 



Trouting Near Calais. 



FlSHCULTURE. 



"Misdirected Fishculture." 



The Kennel. 

 The English Beagle Standard. 

 Do Dogs Reason? 



Some Staunch Points. 



Champions. 



Hue. 



Dogs at, the New York Show. 



t'j'i I .> t : ■ ■'...! ;.j i. : : i K.< 



Kennel Notes. 

 Rifle and Trap Shooting. 

 Range and Gallery. 

 The Trap. 



Ma:-.' ,'.i.-!i sci.f V It "v 1 )!'.' i. 



Canoeing. 

 A Trip on the Trent. 

 Commodore or Captain f 



I;.iv;l So. , ill V!':,i,.f-. 



Yachtlnq. 



Oshkosh Y. C. 



Seawanhaka Corinthian Y O. 



Atlantic Y. C. 



New York Y. O. 



Jersey City Y. C. 

 1 c-r Y. C. 



Hidl Y. C. 



Tin; Steamer Pilgrim. 



Steam Launch Machinery. 

 Answers i '" 



Withits compact type and in its permmiently enlarged form 

 of twenty-eight pages this journal furnishes each tveeic 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. 



THE SOBEW WIND-GAUGE. 

 TT seems that the worst anticipations of the gentlemen of 

 -*- the American team are to be realized, and that there is 

 to be no chance for the men using the screw wind-gauge to 

 shoot over the ranges during the Wimbledon meeting as 

 contestants in the several M. B. L. matches. 



The Council of the National Rifle Association of Great 

 Britain has had the matter under consideration, and in a 

 letter written by Sir Henry St. John Halford, he acts as the 

 mouthpiece of his associates. The letter bears the appear- 

 ance of an apology for the action of the Council, and an 

 apology certainly is needed. It has been decided not to 

 alter the old "Wimbledon rule, -which declares that a rear 

 sight set by a screw is not a military sight, and that those of 

 the American rifles having that attachment are to be barred 

 out from the many Wimbledon matches. 



The Volunteer Service Gazette has ably seconded the efforts 

 of a large body of the English shooters who wish to see the 

 antiquated rule abolished, and urge that this permission be 

 now given the American team, in order to show at once a 

 gentlemanly courtesy to a visiting body, and, also to show 

 such unpractical apologists as the council members that a 

 screw wind-gauge is not only an excellent range device, but 

 may be made so simple as to be serviceable in the field. 

 Our esteemed contemporary has taken a wide view of the 

 situation, looking at it from the American as well as the 

 English standpoint, and very properly refuses to be con- 

 vinced by the letter of Sir Henry Halford, which is not only 

 misleading in its review of the history of this wind-gauge 

 discussion, but erroneous in the conclusions which it draws. 



The screw wind-gauge to-day is not a mere range device 

 to secure higher scores. It is in use on the Springfield rifles 

 now coming from the armory in Massachusetts, and in con- 



tradiction to the opinion of the British N. B. A. Council 

 that it is "an addition to a rifle which they do not consider 

 practicable for a military arm on service," may be brought 

 the opinion of marksmen here that in any form of carbine 

 or rille the screw may be and is made so ready of adjust- 

 ment that it is not one whit behind the slide in rapidity of 

 manipulation, while it is far more exact and reliable. 



Sir Henry, in his somewhat remarkable letter says: "There 

 will be no difficulty in their unshipping their screw adjust- 

 ment, so that their rifles will come under our rules for our 

 M. B. L. competitions, leaving their sights precisely like 

 ours. They, as well as I, believe that the screw adjustment 

 gives a certain advantage to those using them, as the slide 

 can be moved more certainly by it, and with greater accur- 

 acy, and I have no doubt they will gain by it in the match as 

 we shall not use it. We have jdelded this advantage to tliem 

 at their earnest solicitation, because we beat them last year, 

 and not because we think it a matter of no importance; but 

 we do not think they would be justified in putting our own 

 men at a further disadvange in the All-Comers' matches, 

 for it is our duty to see that they are fairly dealt by." 



It is indeed a display of more than usual conservatism that 

 the British riflemen, having conceded to the Americans the use 

 of a screw wind-gauge, should not adopt the same themselves. 

 It is the coming improvement which must be made in any 

 military rifle which hopes to hold its own. It is nonsense to 

 suppose that the old open sight, even when given a pretense 

 of improvement by any such clumsy arrangement as a sliding 

 sight bar, is to continue in use when such important modifi- 

 cations and improvements are made in other parts and fea- 

 tures of the rifle. Sir Henry ought to know this, and any 

 skirmish match, such as the Duryea match at Creedmoor 

 last year, where the men fired at random distances while in 

 advance and retreat up and down the range, ought to con- 

 vince the veteran marksman that the competitor using the 

 screw-gauge is not at all handicapped as against the one 

 using a slide-gauge. This is as near a semblance of real 

 warfare as we can get, and it ought to settle the question as 

 far as it can be determined by range experiments. 



Sir Henry reverts to his favorite match rifle, and bewails 

 the improvements made in small-bore weapons, as they have 

 made the highest possible so easily attainable that there is no 

 longer much competition when a marksmen of judgmeut, 

 armed with one of these latest weapons of precision, enters a 

 match. 



If the object is to keep in a liberal factor of uncertainty, 

 then let the bow and arrow be revived for match purposes, 

 and the match rifle laid aside as too mathamatically correct. 



While not for a moment wishing to reduce the M. B. L. 

 to a mere target tickler instead of a service weapon, we re- 

 spectfully urge that the screw-gauge has been proven fit 

 for field work, and that while the improvement is sure to 

 come, there is no better time than the present to introduce 

 it upon the Wimbledon range. 



THE GREELEY RESCUE EXPEDITION. 

 'TMIE expedition for the relief of Lieutenant Greeley is to 

 ■*- leave New Foundland early next month. The rescu- 

 ing party is to consist mainly of officers and enlisted mea of 

 the United States Army, and the only members who are 

 familiar with Arctic life are throe "hard ice men" to be 

 taken from St. Johns. The steamship Proteus has been 

 chartered for the occasion, and the orders to the expedition 

 direct that every effort shall be made to reach Lieutenant 

 Greeley by ship, but if this cannot be done, the winter is to 

 be passed at Life Boat, Cove or Littleton Island. After the 

 winter has set in, attempts will be made to proceed north- 

 ward by means of sledges. The instructions announce that 

 the provisions of the Greeley party will be exhausted this 

 autumn, although at the time of its departure and subse- 

 quently, it was stated that it was victualled for three years. 



Two naturalists, Messrs. H. G. Dresel and A. A. Acker- 

 man, accompany the expedition on board the United States 

 steamer Yantic, which goes as a tender to the Proteus. 

 Both gentlemen are ensigns in the navy, and have for the 

 past eight months been acting as assistants in the United 

 States National Museum at Washington, Mr. Dresel work 

 ing on fishes, and Mr. Ackerman on mineralogy. Their 

 equipment is mainly for the collection of marine fish and in- 

 vertebrates. 



It seems unfortunate, in view of the probable diffi- 

 culty of reaching the Greeley party, that a selection had 

 not been made of men better qualified for the work than 

 the present party appear to be. If the views set forth in 

 these columns as to the personnel of Arctic expeditions had 

 been adopted, we cannot but think that this relief party 

 would set out with much brighter prospects of success 



THE ENGLISH ANGLING TOURNAMENT. 

 TN another column we give a full account of the last tour- 

 -■- nament at the Welsh Harp. Prom our report it will be 

 seen that Mr. Reuben Wood gave a good account of him- 

 self, casting eighty-two and a half feet in the trout, contest, 

 and one hundred and eight in the salmon casting, taking 

 both first prizes. 



We had hoped to see accouuts of this contest in the daily 

 papers of New York the morning after it occurred, but so 

 far they have not had a word of this international match, 

 although we. know that the secretary of the National Rod 

 and Reel Association informed the agent of the New York 

 Associated Press on the 9th that the contest would come off 

 two days afterward. Had it been a base ball match or a 

 game of marbles, or other interesting event, we would have 

 seen it flashed across by cable in quick time. It really seems 

 as if the great dailies are not aware of the interest taken by 

 the angling public in these events, nor of the extent at that 

 public. The fact that anglers are quiet gentlemen seems to 

 hide the other fact that they are numerous. 



It has been said that these tournaments are useless as tests 

 of angling skill. This may be so, to some extent, but they 

 are very useful in exhibiting excellence in all that they 

 claim to do, which is in casting the fly, not in the capture 

 of fish. It is barely possible that, a man might learn to cast 

 a fly who never saw a fish taken, and would therefore be 

 ignorant of fishing. We have never heard of such a man, 

 and do not believe he exists. The tournament is an excel- 

 lent school for those who wish to learn the art of fly-cpsting, 

 which is a most beautiful one, and the time will come when 

 our daily papers may even rank it as high as a dog fight and 

 give the details. 



The Fishing Gazette Tournament, just held near London, 

 was more fortunate in the matter of weather than last year, 

 and it seems to have gone off smoothly, and to the satisfac- 

 tion of all. Certainly it went to the satisfaction of Mr. 

 Wood and the American delegation, and from a perusal of 

 our correspondence on the subject it appears that the com- 

 petitors were pleased also. The only complaint that "Uncle 

 Reuben" has made is in a private letter to one of the Forest 

 and Stbeam staff, where he says that they nearly kill hint 

 with kindness over there, and that if he should eat and 

 drink all that he is invited to, he would either have to be 

 hooped or burst. 



We hope to"see some of our English anglers on this side 

 of the water next October at the tournament of the National 

 Rod and Reel' Association. We can assure them of a cor- 

 dial reception af 1 good time. 



RACING WEEN. 

 ' I\tLrJ fact that a very large number of the most important 

 J- yacht races about New York have taken place within the 

 past week, obliges us to devote much more space than usual 

 to this sport. It is in some respects unfortunate that so 

 many of the important regattas come together, but there 

 are other, and perhaps equally good, reasons why .Tunc is 

 above all others the month for racing. It is important that 

 Forest and Stream, which is the yachtsman's journal of 

 America, should give to its readers accouuts of these races 

 which shall be more intelligent, than the hastily written re- 

 ports in the daily papers, and at the same time be something 

 more than a mere record of courses and times; and for this 

 reason we have, treated these important events very fully. 

 It may be said, however, that occasions like the present 

 only come once or twice a year, and that wc are not often 

 obliged to allow any one department to so far overrun its 

 usual limits. 



The widespread and rapidly increasing popularity of 

 yachting is of comparatively recent giowth, and is in part 

 attributable to the interest which is now taken in canoeing, 

 for the canoe is often the primer of the yachtsman. The 

 canoeist who has cruised for two or three years and has thus 

 learned something of the delights of a life on the water, 

 feels an ambition to own a larger vessel, and is likely to 

 become a Corinthian and obtain a single-handed cutler, and 

 from this his development is rapid and only limited by the 

 depth of his pocket. We rejoice to see the sport taking the 

 high rank it, does, for it is one which cultivates some of the 

 highest qualities of both mind and body. 



High Point Quail.— Advices from nigh Point, N. C, 

 give us the pleasing intelligence that quail have done won- 

 derfully well there during the past winter, and promise to 

 be extremely abundant during the coming seasou. A part 

 of this abundance is attributed to the uon-shipping act of 

 that State. 



