Forest and Stream 



A Weekly Journal of the Rod and Gun. 



NEW YORK, JULY S, 1883. 



CORRESPONDENCE. 



The Forest and Stream is the recognized medium of entertain- 

 ment, instruction and information between American sportsmen. 

 Communications upon the subjects to which its pages.are devoted are 

 respectfully invited. Anonymous communications will not be re- 

 garded. No name will be published except with writer's! consent. 

 The Editors are not responsible for the views of correspondents. 



SUBSCRIPTIONS 



May begin at any time. Subscription price, $4 per year ; $2 for six 

 months; to a club of three annua subscribers, three copies for S10; 

 Ave copies for $16. Remit by registered letter, money-order, or draft, 

 payable to the Forest and Stream Publishing Company. The paper 

 may bo obtained of newsdealers throughout the United States and 

 Canadas. On sale by the American Exchange, 449 Strand, W, C, 

 London, England. Subscription agents for Great Britain— Messrs. 

 Samson Low, Marston, Searle and. Rivington, 188 Fleet street, London. 



AD YERTISEMENTS. 



Only advertisements of an approved character inserted. Inside 

 pages, nonpareil type, ■& cents per line. Special rates for three, six 

 and twelve months. Reading notices $1.00 per line. Eight words 

 to the line, twelve lines to one inch. Advertisements should be sent 

 in by the Saturday previous To issue in v.Taelt they are to be inserted. 



Transient advertisements must invariably be accompanied by the 

 money or they will not be inserted. 



Address all communications, 



Forest and Stream Publishing Co. 

 Nos. 33 and 40 Pare Row. New Tonic City. 



CONTENTS. 



Editorial. 



The Absurdity of the Fourth. 



Bench Shows. 

 The Sportsman Tourist. 



The Black Hills of Wyoming. 



"OleLawjer." 



The Doctor and the "Grizzly." 

 Natural History. 



The Swamp Robin. 



A Peril of the Sea. 

 Game Bag and Gun. 



"Wild Boar Hunting in Jamaica. 



"Didvmus'' Recants. 



Kynoeh Shell* 



Mu; 



;. Brc 



Small Fry. 

 Blooming Or 

 Fismcuuture. 

 California Sa 



e Park. 



ion Bred iu Cap- 



Fishcultural As- 



The Aineric 

 sociation. 

 The fflsberies Exhi Iti 



Habits of the Black-Headed 

 Minnow. 

 The Kennel. 

 Dogs at the New York Show. 

 A Wonderful Dog. 

 National American Beagle Club. 



3 Trap Shooting. 



A Trip on the Trent. 

 The Twin Cauoes. 

 Sails for Cauoes. 



LVlipse Y. C. 

 Eastern Y. C. 

 Tim..' Limits. 

 Gleam's Win. 

 Winning by Fluke. 

 Cormtluan Matches, 

 Wenonah as a School Mistress. 

 Seen from the Owner's Stand- 

 point. 

 Answers to Correspondents. 



THE ABSURDITY OF THE FOURTH. 

 TUST about this season, over a good section of the coun- 

 *-* try, hundreds of thousands of very patriotic and very 

 foolish persons are inviting death by the firearm method. 

 Somewhere at some time some one reached the absurd con- 

 clusion that the correct way of celebrating the holiday of 

 our National Independence was to raise as much noise as 

 possible. Unluckily his view has been adopted by the 

 millions of his fellow-citizens, and now year after year there 

 is a repetition of the catalogue of deaths and manglings. 



There is something so utterly ridiculous in using a fire- 

 arm entirely for the noise which accompanies its going off, 

 that it is surprising no concerted effort has been made by 

 the arm manufacturing companies to discourage this appli- 

 cation of their wares. In place of doing this, however, 

 and for the sake of the profit which follows the sale of the 

 pesky little things, we see several large concerns giving up 

 their time and labor in large measure to turning out thous- 

 ands upon thousands of contrivances which have the name 

 and appearance of firearms, but which in the essential 

 points of accuracy and safety are utterly unworthy of the 

 name. 



There is a clear, sharp defining line between a pistol pro- 

 per, one which has a value as an arm of precision, and these 

 cheap little counterfeits. And there is ample room for the 

 operation of a salutary law which should come in to repress 

 the making and vending of the dangerous toys. 



There are plenty of noise-provoking contrivances which 

 may be manufactured to meet the wishes of those who insist 

 upon expressing their feelings by means of a racket, but 

 there is no reason why so excellent a thing as a firearm 

 should be debased into such flimsy pretences as we 

 see hawked at every street corner. It would indeed be an 

 important item in our strength as a commonwealth if every 

 American citizen were familiar with firearms, had a just ap- 

 preciation of their powers and their dangers, but there is a 

 right and wrong way of securing that excellent result, and 

 one of the worst ways is to put a make-shift of a weapon 

 into the hands of every boy who can beg, borrow or Bteal 

 the dime or two necessary to secure the toy, 



BENCH SHOWS 

 n^HE bench shows that have been held this year have 

 -"- been uniformly successful both in the number and qual- 

 ity of the animals exhibited, and also from a pecuniary 

 standpoint. This shows a healthy state of affairs, and 

 should encourage all who have an interest in the welfare 

 and improvement of man's best friend to renewed efforts in 

 speeding on the good work until every lover of the dog 

 throughout the length and breadth of the land shall become 

 possessed of the knowledge that will enable him to intelli- 

 gently pass upon the merits and demerits of his favorite 

 breed. 



That the bench show litis beer, s, great educator of the 

 public in this respect, no one who has been a regular attend- 

 ant can deny. That still greater good will be accomplished 

 in the future we have every reason to believe. Although 

 the bench show is comparatively of recent introduction in 

 this country, it has already become a permanent institution, 

 and we trust that the day is not far distant that will see not 

 only our larger shows greatly increased in number, but that 

 in every city, village and hamlet in the land, we shall see 

 local shows where friend and neighbor will meet in friendly 

 rivalry, to decide upon the respective merits of their favor- 

 ites. 



This plan is extensively practiced in England, and con- 

 tributes in no small degree to the success of the larger 

 shows, both in the increased number of entries, and in the 

 improved quality of the animals exhibited. The owner of 

 the village champion, ambitious for higher honors, "seeks 

 other worlds to conquor," and sends his favorite to a larger 

 meeting, and so continues until he encounters defeat or 

 achieves a well won victory that brings to him not only 

 fame and honor, but pounds, shillings and pence as well. 

 That this plan is eminently practicable and feasible it 

 needs no argument to prove, nor of necessity need it en- 

 tail a dollar of expense upon its promoters, at, least so 

 far as the smaller shows are concerned, as the honor of 

 owning the "best of his kind" in the vicinity should be 

 ample recompense for the small amount of trouble entailed. 

 We trust that our readers will give this subject the careful 

 consideration its importance demands, and that we shall 

 soon be called upon to chronicle the inauguration of a series 

 of local shows all over the country, that iu a short time will 

 accomplish the mueh-to-be-desired result, the filling of the 

 benches at our important shows with representatives of the 

 best of their breed from all sections of the country, 



The Tot Pistol is doomed; State laws and city ordi- 

 nances have been enacted for the suppression of the pestif- 

 erous agent of death, and parents and police are united to 

 squelch the nuisance. This is all aa it should be; the sooner 

 the sham pistol is banished the better for the thumbs and 

 eyes of the patriotic small boy. But it is very foolish for 

 parents to indulge, as they often do, in an insane horror of 

 all firearms. A boy ought to be taught to handle a shotgun 

 or a rifle just, as soon as he is old enough and strong enough 

 to do so. He will be all the more manly for it. Gunpowder 

 smoke is healthier than cigerette smoke, and the associations 

 and influences of the one are better than those of the other. 



The Suneish— In a paper read before the Fishcultural 

 Association and printed elsewhere, Mr. Fred Mather recom- 

 mends the destruction of the sunfish. From any such 

 proposition the Fokest and Stream most emphatically 

 dissents. The suufish was our earliest friend among the 

 fishes; we hooked him long before our vaulting ambition 

 dreamed of trout or bass, and when salmon was a term un- 

 known to our vocabulary. The fishculturists may wage 

 their campaign against the sunfish, but they will find little 

 sympathy in their nefarious efforts outside of their own fry- 

 intent circle. 



The Clay Pigeons were "slaughtered'' yesterday beyond 

 count. This target is growing in favor, having very largely 

 supplanted glass balls, over which it possesses many very 

 decided merits. We understand that the enterprising Ligows- 

 ky firm are about to perfact the manufacture of a cheaper 

 trap, so that the five-trap style of shooting will be within 

 the means of all. This is by far the most beautiful form of 

 practice with the "birds," and promises to be very popular. 



Send in the Names. — We should be glad to receive 

 from our readers all over the country the names of their 

 friends who may be interested in any of the departments of 

 outdoor recreation of which the Foiiest and Stream 

 treats, and who do not now take the paper. 



Salmon in the Merrimac— We learn from Mr. Samuel 

 Webber, late Fish Commissioner of New Hampshire, that 

 the salmon have at last made their appearance in the Mcrri- 

 mae River at Manchester, and one "guessed" at from eight 

 pounds to ten pounds has actually Iteen seen passing the 

 Fishway at Amoskeag Falls. This proves Ihe prediction 

 which, it will be remembered, Mr. Webber made, that we 

 should see a score of smaller fish, from the plant of 1879, 

 this year. The, season is later by two weeks than last year, 

 but the salmon are on their way up now. Ten were seen iu 

 one day in the fishway at LawreWCC, Mass. What is of 

 more especial interest to sportsmen, however, is the fact that 

 a salmon weighing ten and a half pounds was taken last 

 week in the Merrimac, at Concord, with the artificial fly in 

 a legitimate manner. We have always believed that one 

 was taken three years since by a bass fisher, but owing to 

 the fact that the prohibitory law was then in force, we could 

 never prove the fact; but Ibis catch of last week proves 

 that the salmon bred from Penobscot stock will take the 

 fly in the Merrimac. We note the following change in the 

 New Hampshire Fish Commission, viz., the appointment 

 of Elbot B. Hodge, of Plymouth, Superintendent of the 

 Hatchery, as Fish Commissioner, in place of A. H. Powers, 

 resigned. The Commission now stands: Colonel George 

 Riddle, Manchester, Chairman; E. B. Hodge, Plymouth, 

 Superintendent of Hatchery ; Luther Hayes, South Milton, 



The "American Kennel Register." — The anxiety with 

 which the monthly issue of the Reguler is looked for by its 

 already large circle of readers, is a fair measure of the high 

 esteem in which it is held by file owners of well-bred dogs. 

 We regret, however, to see a tendency among those who 

 have animals to be registered to hold back their entries until 

 the last moment, and then just at the first of the month to 

 send in their blanks in a lump. This course, while apparently 

 serving no good purpose for anyone, puts the publishers of 

 the Register to serious inconvenience, and has in one or two 

 cases caused a delay of several days in the issue of the peri- 

 odical. Whether the tardiness in sending in entries has any 

 real reason or not, we cannot allow it te interfere with the 

 date of issue of the Register. To examine the pedigrees, 

 correct the mistakes which the owners make, and* prepare 

 the material for the printer, involves much labor and time. 



Occasionally we receive questions from correspondents 

 who ask us to decide for them wagers, and sometimes decisions 

 are requested in games of cards. In the past we have good- 

 naturedly answered some inquiries of this description, but 

 as they are entirely out of our line, we shall no longer do 

 so. The Forest and Stream does not hold stakes nor de- 

 cide bets, nor does it profess to be an authority on games of 

 chance. There are many journals which give attention to 

 these matters, however, and we recommend those of our 

 readers, who may be unable to decide such questions in any 

 other way, to apply to them. Questions pertaining to 

 matters within our own scope will, as they have always 

 done, receive attention, but those which have to do with 

 betting or cards will seek the seclusion which a waste basket 

 grants. 



Amateur Photographic Exchange. — The amateur pho- 

 tographic outfits are now in general use by sportsmen, and 

 large numbers of picturesque views are secured by them on 

 pleasure tours. We have been greatly entertained in exam- 

 ining many such pictures which have been sent to this office 

 from our friends. They tire delightful suggestions of the 

 pleasures of camp and cruise. It litis been suggested that an 

 exchange of such views would be welcome to many amateur 

 photographers, who might thus add to their own collections 

 the pictures of others, We think the suggestion au admir- 

 able one. 



Americans Must Look to Europe for "sporting novel 

 ties." The latest is a kangaroo hunt, provided for the 

 huntsmen of Vienna by an Englishman, who has transported 

 to the Prater thirty of the Australian marsupials. We learn 

 from our esteemed contemporary, the Allf/emciiw Spurt ZlI- 

 tuwj, of that city, that great expectations have beet raised 

 among the "Viennese, who are eagerly awaiting the chase of 

 the novel game. 



The First Boyhood Exploit with rod or gun is always 

 a theme of pleasant recollection. The pages of Forest and 

 Stream contain many accounts by the graybeards of their 

 first successful hunt or fish long ago. "It seems but ye- - 

 terday that I caught my first tront," said Henry Ward 

 Beecher the other evening, upon the celebration of his seven- 

 tieth birthday. 



