FOREST AND STREAM. 



329 



instinct. "When such animals get accustomed to the sound 

 of the voice, it is indeed a great pleasure and instructive 

 recreation to shoot over them. The case of the English 

 Champion Pointer "Belle," is an exception to the above 

 rules of excellence and beauty combined, as she is acknow- 

 ledged even by her opponents, who differ with Mr. Price 

 as to strain, breeding and training, to be the handsomest 

 and best working dog they ever saw, having a chest and 

 neck like a Flanders mare. We know of one pointer more 

 especially, who is extremely ungainly looking; his color is 

 like dirty brick dust and yellow ; his head is poorly put on, 

 with a fairly well-shaped and strong-scenting nose; but his 

 hind quarters show form of action, and working powers in 

 the field, especially when drawing on game, which is un- 

 surpassed by any animal that has come under our notice. 

 We are firmly impressed that this dog would give "Belle" 

 a very severe trial if the points for "Drawing" in the la^e 

 field trials in England were raised to 10 points and ' 'Break- 

 ing" reduced to 15 points. We feel assured that this homely 

 looking dog would beat with ease on these particular 

 points the justly celebrated English pointer. The great 

 desideratum in the purchasing of these animals 3 , which is 

 devoutly to be wished by all true sportsmen, is the grand 

 combination of form,beauty and symmetry; and above all, a 

 staunch, steady, energetic animal. Give us the imported 

 Red Irish setter, crossed with many American bred dogs 

 we could mention, the puppies of which, when well trained 

 on the silent system, we believe would excel in fair open 

 field trial any dogs that the world could produce. 



■*■»» 



THE WAR DEPARTMENT AND RIFLE 

 PRACTICE. 



would while away the tedium of many a soldier's irksome 

 hour, and inculcate a love for their profession, and thus do 

 away with that indifference and consequent desertion which 

 seems now to be the bane of the regular service. Nay, 

 more, the self-reliance acquired by the soldier in the reg- 

 ular service on the rifle range might often save his own life 

 and allow him to triumph over his foe. 



•+*+' 



THE AMERICAN CENTENNIAL. 



IT is most especially to be hoped that the rifle movement 

 so successfully inaugurated by the National Rifle Asso- 

 ciation will have the widest development. Now that the 

 winter prevents rifle practice, it behooves the numerous 

 National Guard organizations throughout the country to 

 talk over and discuss their plans for having ranges of their 

 own, or to affiliate with the National Rifle Association. 

 There is no reason why, with the excellent material they 

 have in the west, at Chicago or St. Louis, that one or both 

 of these cities should not have ranges constructed after the 

 model of Creedmoor for the use of their soldiers and 

 sportsmen. We can assure them that the managers of the 

 National Rifle Association would give them all the help and 

 advice in their power. We even entertain the hope that 

 the inauguration of a range in the west will not be far dis- 

 tant. 



This question has been on our minds for some time. 

 Why are not some steps taken to make the National Rifle 

 Association a national institution? The rank and file of 

 the United States army want instruction in rifle practice 

 quite as much as the National Guard, if not even more. 

 Why cannot Congress authorize the offering of prizes, on 

 behalf of the United States, to be given to each regiment 

 in the regular army, with a certain amount of prizes to be 

 distributed annually to the best regiments or their teams in 

 the militia of the different States, together with a valu- 

 able prize to be shot for at Creedmoor once every year, the 

 contestants being the best shots, taken from among the 

 regulars and the militia of the United States? 



This would be simply following an example which has 

 been found abroad to be of the utmost value. The Queen's 

 prize at Wimbledon places the regulars and the volunteers 

 together on the rifle range, and brings together two thou- 

 sand of the best marksmen that can be found in England 

 t or the colonies. What good reason can there be why a 

 similar prize cannot be offered by the War Department of 

 the United States? Although we may be in a period when 

 people are clamorous that all Government expenses must 

 be retrenched, the expenses for such an undertaking would 

 amount to little or nothing. 



Of the use of such practice it is hardly necessary for us 

 to state the great advantages to be derived from it. Let us 

 take our late trouble with Cuba as an example. Had there 

 been war with Spain, an immediate call would have been 

 on the militia for the defense of our coast. How much 

 more secure we would have felt had we been assured that 

 all our volunteers were skilful with their weapons. As to 

 regulars, the Modoc campaign might never have occurred, 

 or would certainly have have had a more rapid and less 

 • sanguine termination, had our regular troops been better 

 acquainted with their rifles. It was a contest between sav- 

 ages who knew how to use their guns and regulars who had 

 no practice with their rifles. 



We believe that most of the officers of the United States 

 army think with us as to the necessity of their men apply- 

 ing themselves more thoroughly with the use of their wea- 

 pons, and at least for the present we can hardly imagine a 

 better method, or one better calculated to engender brisk 

 rivalry than to pit the National Guard against the regulars 

 on the rifle range. 



General Ord, who seems to most fully appreciate the 

 value of the rifle practice, and who has always given every 

 encouragement to Creedmoor, in one of his orders to his 

 troops instructed them "to use the Government timber in 

 making targets," and added this most pithy sentence, "that 

 it was cheaper by far to use up the wood in this way than in 

 making coffins." 



If the use of a rifle range has already worked wonders 

 among our own National Guard, developing an esprit de 

 corps and stimulating the men to excel— rifle practice re- 

 lieving them somewhat from the monotony of the drill — 

 what might not intelligent rifle practice, fostered by Gov- 

 ernment aid, do for the privates in the regular service? It 



AS 1873 passes away, and '74 commences its career, but 

 two years and a half intervene between to-day and 

 the great American Industrial Exhibition to be held on 

 July the 4th, 1876, at Philadelphia, The time then for the 

 preparation of this enterprise of untold granduer and mag- 

 nitude will be but short. If the ways and means to be 

 found, some $10,000,000, require a certain period of time, 

 the huge extent of buildings to be erected, to cover some 

 thirty-five to forty acres of ground, even if they were to be 

 commenced to-day must take fully two years to complete. 

 The permanent building is to cost alone somewhere be- 

 tween two and three millions of dollars, and the machinery, 

 horticultural and agricultural halls, $500,000 each. The Cen- 

 tennial Board of Finance who have heretofore confined 

 their operations to Pennsylvania, have had already $3,500,- 

 000 subscribed. 



"The event to be commemorated," as was stated by Mr. 

 McKean, one of the Philadelphia Board of Finance, "is the 

 grandest in the political history of the world." The expo- 

 sition will show the progress made in art, agriculture and 

 manufacture during the first one hundred years of our 

 national life. If Pennsvlvania is supposed to be the manu- 

 facturing State, New York has more manufactories than 

 the Keystone State. It is then not impossible to sup- 

 pose, that from her proximity to Philadelphia, New York 

 alone will require more space than was occupied by all 

 France and England at the late Viennese exhibition. 



We sincerely trust that the expression of sympathy, not 

 given by words but by action on the part of the City and 

 State of New York, and from all other sections of the 

 country will be the best disavowal of all ideas of local 

 rivalry, and that there will be a recognition of this most 

 noble endeavor to perpetuate the memory of our Independ- 

 ence in its fullest and broadest sense. From abroad, the 

 prospects are of the most encouraging character. The 

 great German, Prince Bismarck, has recommended the ac- 

 ceptance of the invitation and has advised the- appointment 

 of a commissioner for each state of the German Empire, 

 and that a resident Plenipotentiary be sent to Philadel- 

 phia to reside there until the close of the exhibition. France 

 and Belgium have shown, too, a friendly alacrity in decid- 

 ing to participate in the exhibition. Even far off China 

 and Japan will send their wonderful goods, and a grand 

 Turkish Bazaar rivalling that of Constantinople is promised. 



Amid this forthcoming avalanche of goods and chat- 

 tels, the work of all the brains and genius of a civiliz- 

 ed world, though we may be driven to madness amid 

 this chaos of wonderful things, we too of the Forest ajstd 

 Stream, must take a large interest. Where will we find but 

 in this coming Centennial a collection of all the sporting 

 attributes, the guns and fishing implements of the world? 

 A large and spacious quarter of the exhibition devoted to 

 this purpose alone would excite untold curiosity, and 

 afford a wonderful amount of instruction. 



The whole scheme is a colossal one, and the Centennial 

 no doubt will be made worthy of the great event it cele- 

 brates. 



-**♦- 



The United States Commissioner of Fish and Fisheries 

 . has lately received through the agency of Messrs. Middle- 

 ton, Carman & Co., the well known fish dealers of Fulton 

 market, very fine specimens, in perfect condition, of the 

 English turbot, brill, and sole, wmich have been carefully 

 cast in plaster and added to the collection of casts of food 

 fishes and deposited by the commissioners in the National 

 Museum at Washington. 



This collection, which we had the pleasure of examining 

 a short time ago, while visiting Washington, is one of ex- 

 treme interest and importance, and is altogether unique in 

 its character, embracing already some three hundred speci- 

 mens, of various sizes, from the smallest up to fish that 

 weighed originally 750 pounds. 



The fish are cast on slabs and framed. They are painted 

 in oil by an accomplished artist, so as to seem an almost 

 exact reproduction of the original fish as just taken from 

 the water. Among the specimens shown to us are the 

 California and Maine salmon of both sexes and of various 

 stages of growth and condition, numerous sharks, skates, 

 rays, flat fish, herring, shad, mackerel, etc. 



We would advise any of our readers who may happen to 

 be in Washington not to omit calling at the Smithsonian 

 Institution to inspect this beautiful collection, or such por- 

 tion of it as is on exhibition. 



-*♦♦■ 



— The veteran angler and author, Thaddeus Norris, Esq., 

 of Philadelphia, well known to every lover of the ' 'gentle 

 art" through his "American Angler's Book," has been 

 spending a few days in Washington as the guest of Mr. 

 Wilkinson, of K street, who gave him on the 23d inst. a 

 little complimentary dinner, at which were present the fol- 

 lowing friends of the rod and the fish, viz. : Prof. Gill, of 

 the Smithsonian Institution, Mr. Miller, Deputy U. S. 

 Commissioner of Fisheries; Dr. Frank Reilly, of_ the Bu- 

 reau of Marine Hospitals; Dr. Yarrow, Surgeon Naturalist 

 of the Wheeler expedition, and Judge Thacher, Assistant 

 Commissioner of Patents. Charles Hallock, of New York, 

 editor of the Forest and Stream, who was an invited 

 guest, was hurried off to Philadelphia by business a day or 

 two previous. 



M# ar frits M mB ff ram 3M m ^ 



♦ 



WHAT! Has a regular challenge, in all its accepted 

 forms, been absolutely thrown out by the English 

 House of Commons to the august House of Lords, the for 

 mer to contest with the latter in a steeple chase? Land 

 and Water distinctly states that the challenge (so they un 

 derstand) has been given or will be given by an Honorable 

 member of the House of Commons, who represents one of 

 the midland counties of England. If the English Parlia 

 ment makes the Derby a dies non, why should they not be 

 willing to devote another day to a regular stiff cross-country 

 race. Certainly such an event would attract more atten- 

 tion than even one of their most stirring debates. Lords 

 and Commons as contestants in pigaon matches and rifle 

 shooting, though not distinctly stated as sporting rivalities 

 between the two branches of her Majesty's government, 

 have been quite common. If such a steeple chase should 

 take place among the younger members of the House, we 

 are inclined to think the Lords would carry off the honors. 

 If the English nobleman who sits by prerogative of birth in 

 the House of Lords, is passably haw-haw, and makes but 

 poor and indifferent speeches, all the talent of England* 

 being in the lower House, very probably in field sports the 

 Lords are the superior of the Commons. A hunting and 

 cours ing prestige belongs to the Lords, and did we wager 

 on sporting events, we would give, odds in favor of the 

 House of Nobs. Fancy such a proposition as the above 

 emanating from an American source! Think of it, ye 

 grave members of the Senate, or ye more boisterous ones 

 of the House of Representatives! A challenge, en regie, 

 between Messrs. Blaine, Dawes and Bingham and Conklin 

 on one side, and Messrs. Butler, Sumner, Schurz and 

 Thurman on the other, to mount horses and to ride five 

 miles out at full speed, over ditches, plowed fields, artifi- 

 cial and natural obstacles. How elegantly Mr. S. S. Cox 

 and Mr. Fernando Wood would act as starters, and then 

 for judges we might have Messrs. Edmunds and Morton. 

 Alas, we are afraid that no matter how carefully every pre- 

 liminary of the Washington steeple chase would be ar- 

 ranged, it would after all take a decided political bias, and 

 that the steeple chasers,' the flyers, and the representative 

 jocks, instead of each one sporting his respective colors, 

 and trying to win for the fun of the thing, would all be 

 marshalled under two sets, the Republicans and the Demo 

 crats, and that the best rider on the best horse would make 

 the winning post the stepping stone to some Presidency in 

 the future. There is however a good strong and healthy 

 tendency towards field sports in both our Houses which we 

 trust in time will be better developed, and it is exactly 

 to this element that the Forest and Stream looks for aid 

 and support in those measures for the preservation of our 

 forests and the founding of public parks which we so 

 strenuously urge. 



— The question of deer vs. sheep in Scotland seems to 

 have been most carefully investigated by the recent Game 

 Laws Committee, and the conclusion arrived at was that 

 deer can live and furnish food where sheep cannot even 

 exist. It was shown to the committee that on a certain 

 grazing farm, 2,000 head of deer could be kept, which 

 might carry 6,000 sheep, but that the former would yield 

 38,640 pounds of venison every year, while the quantity of 

 mutton furnishad would be less, while the expense of keep- 

 ing the deer was nothing, whereas the sheep had to be fed 

 during the winter. Of course all arguments in favor of 

 having deer on Scotch ground would not hold for a mo- 

 ment if the land could be tilled and planted, but it seems 

 to be quite conclusively demonstrated that in most of the 

 cases where land has been given up to the deer that it was 

 soil of the most worthless chaiacter and unfit for cultiva- 

 tion. 



— The great coming event in England in coursing is the 

 Waterloo cup, and so far no less than sixty-four entries 

 have been msde. It may be a long time before such a grey 

 hound as Lord Lurgan's Master McGrath will be found, 

 and all English coursing devotees regret the retirement of 

 Lord Lurgan from the field in consequence of his ill health. 

 To have bred and owned in a lifetime one such wonderful 

 dog as Master McGrath is honor enough. 



— The London Field has a most clever correspondent who 

 writes of chamois stalking in the Tyrol. The huntsman 

 was among the Tyrolese Alps, and pluckily follows a cha- 

 mois down a precipice. The Meld correspondent being be- 

 lated, passes a night in the piercing cold winds, some 9,000 

 feet above the sea, and barely escapes freezing to death. 

 Of course this is one of the chances of this arduous chase. 

 It is the conclusion which quite interests us. The chamois 

 hunter says: "Eight hours afterwards I was safely shel- 

 tered in my country inn at Schwaz. Leaving by the night 

 express, I sat, sixty hours later, before a comfortable fire in 

 my lodgings in London, and nobody could have imagined 

 that three nights previous I passed twelve hours, which at 

 that time seemed to me an eternity, high up in^the Tyrol- 

 ean Alps." Most pleasantly written is this, and one can 

 imagine the writer to the Field seated cosily, in slippers 

 and dressing gown, in his own snug quarters, may be meer- 

 chaum in mouth, scarcely able to realize himself in this 

 rapid locomotive era of ours, how, in so short a time the 

 transition was made between the dreary Alps and his own 

 comfortable quarters. Of course one may tire of pointing 

 out the wonderful means we have now at our command of 

 running from place to place over the world. Here seated 

 in our editorial rooms we can leave in a train in just twenty 

 minutes and in seven hours' travel from 103 Fulton street 



