FOREST AND STREAM. 



A WEEKLY JOURNAL, 



Devoted to Field and Aquatic Sports, Practical Natural History, 

 Fish Culture, the Protection op Gasie, Presrvation of Forests, 

 and the Inculcation in Men and Women of a healthy interest 

 in Out -:c ->or Recreation and Study : 



PUBLISHED BY 



£arest mitl jf /mstff §nbUshmg $mn$m\Q, 



AT 



103 FULTON STREET, NEW YORK. 



Terms, Five Dollars a Year, Strictly in Advance. 



A discount of twenty per cent, for five copies and upwards. Any person 

 sending us two subscriptions and Ten Dollars will receive a copy of 

 Hallock's "Fishing Tourist,'" postage free. 



— + 



Al»ertistng Kates. 



In regular advertising coin inns, nonpareil type, 121ines to the inch, 25 

 cents per line. Advertisements on outside page. 40 cents per line. Reading 

 notices, 50 cents per line. Advertisements in double column 25 per cent, 

 extra. Where advertisements are inserted over 1 month, a discount of 

 10 per cent, will ba made; over three months, 20 per cent ; over six 

 months, 30 per cent. 



NEW YORK, THURSDAY, OCT. 23, 1873. 



To Correspondents. 



■ ♦ 



All communications whatever, whether relating to business or literary 

 correspondence, must be addressed to The Forest and Stream Pub- 

 lishing Company. Personal letters only, to the Manager. 



All communications intended for publication must be accompanied with 

 real name, as a guaranty of good faith. Names will not be published if 

 objection be made. No anonymous contributions will be regarded. 



Articles relating to any topic within the scope of this paper are solicited. 



We cannot promise to return rejected manuscripts. 



Ladies are especially invited to use our columns, which will be pre- 

 pared wftb ■ .Areful reference to their perusal and instruction. 



Secretaries of Clubs and Associations are urged to favor us with brief 

 notes of their movements and transactions, as it is the aim of this paper 

 to become a medium of useful and reliable information between gentle- 

 men sportsmen from one end of the country to the other ; and they will 

 Mud our columns a desirable medium for advertising announcements. 



The Publishers of Forest and Stream aim to merit and secure the 

 patronage and countenance of that portion of the community whose re- 

 fined intelligence enables them to properly appreciate and enjoy all that 

 is beautiful in Nature. It will pander to no depraved tastes, nor pervert 

 the legitimate sports of land and water to those base uses which always 

 ,,end to make them unpopular with the virtuous and good. No advertise- 

 ment or business notice of an immoral character will be received on any 

 terms ; and nothing will be admitted to any department of the paper that 

 may not be read with propriety in the home circle. 



We cannot be responsible for the dereliction of the mail service, If 

 money remitted to us is lost. 



This paper sent gratuitously to all contributors. 



Advertisements should be sent in by Saturday of each week, if possible. 



CHARLES HALLOCK, 



Managing Editor. 



Calendar of Events for the Current Week. 

 ♦ 



Friday, October 24.— Maryland Jockey Club .... Lexington Trotting 

 Horse Association, Lexington, Ky.. . .Mountain Park, Brookville, Pcnn 

 . . . .Prospect Park Antumn Meeting. 



Saturday, October 25.— Boat cIuds foot of 133d street, Harlem 



Lexington Trotting Horse Association, Ky .... Prospect Park, Autumn 

 Meeting. 



Monday, October 27.— Macon State Fair, Georgia. 



Tuesday, October 28.— Richmond State Fair, Va. . . . West Eutaw Dis- 

 trict Fair, Ala. . . .Roanoke and Tar River State Fair, Weldon, N . C 



Agricultural and Mechanical Fair, Jackson, West Tenn. 



Wednesday, October 29.— Richmond State Fair, Va....West Eutaw 



District Fair, Ala Roanoke and Tar River State Fair, Weldon, N. C. . 



Agricultural and Mechanical Fair, Jackson, West Tenn. 



Thursday, October 30.— Richmond State Fair, Va — West Eutaw 

 District Fair, Ala. . . .Roanoke and Tar River State Fair, Weldon, N.C. . . 

 Agricultural and Mechanical Fair, Jackson, West Tenn. 



REMARKABLE ROWING FEATS. 



, * 



MR. REGINALD HERBERT, a gentleman well known 

 in racing circles in Eugland, accomplished a great 

 rowing feat on, October 16th. He wagered £1,000 that he 

 would row from Maidenhead to Westminster Bridge, on 

 the river Thames, a distance of forty-seven and a half 

 miles, in twelve hours. Mr. Herbert has not rowed for 

 years, and when at school at Eton was considered only a 

 fair sculler. This will show that he had to row four miles 

 an hour. It must be borne in mind that there are eleven 

 "locks-" each lock would take five minutes to pass through 

 before he could start again, having a man stationed there 

 to open and shut them. This would make nearly an hour 

 apparently wasted; but as he could rest the five minutes it 

 would be a literal gain, which is of the utmost importance 

 in a long and tedious pull. Then take into consideration 

 refreshments, etc., which would take up half an hour of 

 the twelve hours allowed him, making altogether one hour 

 and a half to be deducted, fie won this extraordinary wager, 

 and rowed the forty-seven and a half miles in nine hours 

 (according to the telegram), leaving three liours to spare. 

 It will be seen that he rowed at the rate of a little over 

 eleven minutes to the mile. If the time lost in passing 

 through the eleven locks and other contingencies are taken 

 into consideration, the actual rowing time would be seven 

 and a half hours, or at the rate of a mile in 9 minutes, 28£ 

 seconds. 



An almost similar feat was achieved on the Hudson river 

 some years ago. Mr. J. J. Astor and Mr. Walter Langdon 

 rowed from New York city to Hyde Park dock, on the 

 Hudson river, a distance of eighty-seven miles, in seven- 

 teen hours and a half. This is as near the distance and 



i^MiiHiiHiHHaBHHl 



THE QUESTION OF IRRIGATION IN THE 

 FAR WEST. 



AT last it seems as if this vital question of irrigation is 

 no longer to be treated as one merely of scientific re- 

 search, but to be carried out in its most practical methods. 

 If the theories in regard to the advantages to be derived 

 from the planting of trees, as found in the columns of the 

 Forest and Stream are worth anything, the absolute car- 

 rying of them into effect in order to reclaim the arid wastes 

 of land in Nebraska, Colorado, Wyoming, and New Mex- 

 ico may shortly prove the soundness of our speculations. 



At Denver a convention of delegates representing most of 

 the far Western States and Territories, assembled on Octo- 

 ber 15th to consider the subject of irrigation, and to devise 

 some means "by which the great expanse of rainless country 

 between the Missouri river and the Rocky Mountains, as 

 well as on the Pacific slopes, could be brought under a sys- 

 tem of irrigation so as to make them valuable." 



This is a question fraught with interest, since it looks to 

 the regeneration of millions of acres of land. In most por- 

 tions of the country which come under the deliberation of 

 the delegates, water is scarce or if running streams are 

 found is charged with alkaline salts. How far the dig- 

 ging of artesian wells would furnish water in quantity can 

 not be determined. Copious as might be their water flow 

 it is questionable whether in many sections of the country 

 this water would not be more or less alkaline, and not 

 suited either for tree or vegetable life or for human con- 

 sumption. Then again, such artificial sources, though they 

 might be productive of sweet water, and capable of turning 

 certain spots in these arid wastes into oases, would be ex- 

 pensive of construction and limited as to quantity of wells. 

 We look upon the introduction of certain mountain streams 

 which may be found in quantity throughout this section of 

 country as of much more practical importance. But the 

 plan is so vast in its conception that even should the dele- 

 gates come to any conclusion, their efforts must be regard- 

 ed as rather of an experimental character than otherwise, 

 even did they determine to dig wells or to conduct fresh 

 streams by means of aqueducts or California flumes through 

 certain portions of the unfruitful land. One thing certain 

 is that water must be had first, and with it as a positive 

 means of preserving such water, trees must be planted. 



There is a wonderful cumulative power in tree planting. 

 The trunk starts, the branches spread, and under its shade 

 grow the grasses, all of them capable of retaining the moist- 

 ure and in turn of giving it off again. As was shown in a 

 late article of ours on "The Influence of Forests on Air and 

 Soil," the evaporation from the ground surface of a wooded 

 country was exceedingly slow, while the soil retained the 

 moisture ia a proportion twice as great as when the ground 

 was denuded. 



As to the power forests may have of creating or drawing 

 rain to a section of country, the data on this most important 

 question are by no means positive; but theory seems to 

 show that if a rain fall is not caused in their immediate 

 proximity they certainly play an important part in causing 

 rain to fall in other areas of country more or less distant. 



The plans of irrigation and tree planting must go hand in 

 hand, for one is the preserver of the other. Have all the 

 water you can bring, without trees to protect it, and the 

 evaporation from sun and wind in these sections of country 

 soon sucks them dry. As to the humus formed by the slow 

 decomposition of the leaves, grasses and mosses, consequent 

 to tree planting entering more into the subject of agricul- 

 ture, we have had little to say, save that tree planting 

 is conducive of this most useful compound. Artificial irri- 

 gation is the creative force necessary to convert these sands 

 from unproductive wastes to fruitful pasturages, but the 

 rain fall is the true constant element which we believe can 

 be made to act, not only in circumscribed areas, but 

 through large extents of this country. Of course rapid re- 

 sults are not to be looked for. It may take years before 

 any impression is made on these rainless wastes. At the 

 same time what may be the effect of simultaneous action on 

 them, we are not prepared to state. Let us hope, 

 however, that in this respect the constrictive power of 

 man may be found to about balance his destructive ener- 

 gies. To sum up this theory of wood planting, which bears 

 on its face every appearance of being true in practice, one 

 tree planted aids materially in the growth of another tree, 

 and consequently within certain limits, once the' first group 

 of trees planted, facility is given to the propagation of a 

 forest. 



We sincerely trust that with the many facts before them 

 the delegates will treat this subject of tree planting as of 

 the utmost importance, and that the result of their deliber- 

 ations will form an era in the practical portion of American 

 arboriculture, as a means of reclaiming arid lands. 



Native Salmon from the Hudson. — We have been in- 

 vited to inspect some specimens of the true salmon and 

 land-locked salmon which were hatched in the Hudson 

 river, and have been caught and put in alcohol, to be for- 

 warded to the Smithsonian Institute. The fish are in the 

 second year of their growth, and include both parr and 

 smolt. They were produced under the private enterprise 

 of gentlemen who at present wash particulars to be kept in 

 reserve, but we shall in time be able to publish full details. 

 The success thus far obtained is a gratifying promise of 



something better in future. 



■♦*♦» 



— "If George had notblowed into the muzzle of his gun," 

 sighed a rural widow, at' the funeral of her late husband, 

 last Saturday, ' 'he might have got plenty of squirrels ; it 



RIFLE SHOOTING IN CANADA. 



*■ ♦ 



WE have before us the proceedings of the Province of 

 Quebec Rifle Association for 1872, and some short 

 analysis of the same will undoubtedly be of interest. Our 

 own Annual Prize Meeting, printed in detail by us, will <ri vc 

 for the first time an opportunity of comparing the shoothv 



The number of competitors who entered for matches 

 under the rules of the Quebec Association were 1,503, bui 

 would have been much larger had it not been for the elections 

 taking place during the match week. Though the num- 

 ber of competitors is large, we believe that at Creedmoor 

 it was considerably exceeded. One thing to be noticed is 

 that throughout the whole year not a single acci ent o<- 

 curred. One feature of the matches in the Dominion is the 

 competition between the smooth bores and the breech 

 loaders, which are called Optional Rifle Matches, the Sni- 

 ders at 500 yards against the Rigby and Metford at 800 

 yards. In these matches the Sniders at 500 yards against 

 the small bores at 800 yards succeeded in taking eight out 

 of fifteen prizes. At 500 aud 600 yards against 800 and 900 

 yards for small bores, they were not so fortunrte, only four 

 prizes being won by the English Government arm. 



The Quebec range is not as good as ours at Creedmoor. 

 From some configuration of the ground, the butts bein°- on 

 a slope, the managers have erected platforms for the & 400 

 yard ranges. Platforms are always objectionable, for no mat. 

 ter how solidly they may be built, they have an effect on the 

 accuracy of the shooting. The Secretary, Lieutenant Col. 

 Fletcher comments with very proper pride on the Canadian 

 teams sent to Wimbledon, and the victories achieved by 

 them there, and also that of the four Provincial teams the 

 Quebec was the best. 



At the fourth annual prize meeting held at Quebec, with 

 191 contestants, at 200 yards, the best score was 23 in seven 

 shots, made by Trumbull of the Grand Trunk Rifles, an 

 average of 3 2-7; arm, Snider Enfield. 



At 200, 500, and 600 yards, five rounds at each distance, 

 arm, Snider Enfield, the winning score was 47, madeby.L 

 Ferguson, an average of 8 2-15. 



In the Battalion match, at 500 and 600 yards, seven shots 

 at each range, team of five, the winner was the team of the 

 Eighth Battalion, who made 176, which is a fair average. 

 The best individual score was 44, at 600 yards, seven shots. 

 Sergeant Baxter made 24; which is a very high average. 

 And in the Association match, at 500 and 600 yards, Mr. 

 Morrison, of the Victoria Rifle club, scored 34 in ten shots, 

 which is very good shooting with a Snider Enfield. 



In the Strangers' stakes, Snider's at 500, smooth bore at 

 800 yards, seven shots, Mr. Stenhouse made 26 with a Met- 

 ford, which is magnificent shooting; at 500 yards Mr. YVil 

 son made 25, which is also tall shooting. In the Ladies' 

 cup, Captain Cotton of the Ottawa Guards, at 800 and 900 

 yards, made, with at Metford, 52 in a possible 56, which is 

 a very powerful score, ami hard to equal. At 1,000 yards, 

 with a Metford, in 15 shots, Mr. Dester made 49, an average 

 of 3 4-15, which is a shade less than that made by Mr. 

 Adam at our own Sharpshooters' match, who at 1,000 yards 

 made 23 in seven shots, an average of 3 2-7. The Conso- 

 lation match was quite a good one; distance 200 and 500 

 yards, five shots at each range, the winner, Mr. Ferguson, 

 making 35, an average of 3^-. 



It would be useful to the members of our Association to 

 notice carefully the scores published by us of English and 

 Canadian matches, so that they can form an estimate of 

 their own shooting. Undoubtedly our progress will be 

 rapid, but we can only get to thorough excellence by long 

 and arduous work. Now that autumn has fairly set in, and 

 the sun has lost its glare, no better season of the year can be 

 found for rifle practice at Creedmoor, and we have no doubt 

 but that many marksmen will take advantage of it. On the 

 whole, we think from the shooting at Creedmoor, as far as 

 teams taken from the N. G. go, we are quite up to the 

 Canadian militia, though we are decidedly of the opinion 

 that as marksmen at long range there are many Canadians 

 who can beat our best men. It is always better to acknowl- 

 edge at once where we are at fault, so as to do our best to 

 remedy it. That our men had shot very little at long range 

 arises from the very natural fact that knowing little about 

 shooting at all, the range not having been in existence yet a 

 year, it was wiser for men to creep before they could 

 walk, that is to try to shoot at short range creditably before 

 attempting longer distances. For our military organiza- 

 tions some of the rapid firing as at Wimbledon, in order to 

 test the loading capacity of breech loaders and their accu • 

 racy, would be worth the future attention of the Associa- 

 tion. Thus at 200 yards five men of an English militia 

 regiment, in three minutes, using the Snider rifle, have fired 

 265 shots, making 208 hits and 57 misses; of this large num- 

 ber of shots, 7 were bull's eyes, 78 centees, and 123 outers. 



In concluding, we trust the National Rifle Association 

 will early in 1874 publish the list of the matches for the 

 year, so that when the important event does occur it may 

 draw together at Creedmoor, not only our own marksmen 

 but that also Canadian and English riflemen may partici- 

 pate in the contest, 



«♦♦♦- 



Obituary. — Notice has just been received of the death, 

 at Rome, Italy, of the venerable Peter MacMartin, of 168 

 Fifth avenue, one of the finest anglers and students of ich- 

 thyology on the catalogue of distinguished names. His age 

 was seventy and upwards. His daughters attended him at 



the time of his decease. 



*+*-$. 



—What is the difference between a good soldier and a 

 hard drinker? The one knows his colors, the other colors 

 his nose. 



