FOREST AND STREAMS 





A WEEKLY JOURNAL, 

 Devoted to Field and Aquatic Sports, Practical Natural History, 



Flgfl OtTLTURE, THE PROTECTION OF GAME, PrESRVATION OF FORESTS, 



and tup Inculcation in Men and Women op a healthy interest 

 in out-ed'jr recreation and study : 



PUBLISHED BY 



Sorwt Mitl Mtrcuni §ublish'mq §0tnym\v t 



103 FULTON STREET, NEW YOEK 



Terms, Five Dollars a Year, Strictly in Advance. 



— 



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

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

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



* — __ 



AJvertising Kates. 

 ~In regular advertising columns, 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 35 per cent, 

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

 10 per cent, will be made; over three months, 20 per cent; over sis 

 mouths, 30 per cent. 



NEW YORK, THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 5, 1874. 



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 Names will not be published if 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. 

 fc_ 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 with ■ ,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 

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

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

 lind 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 

 tend 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 o 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. 



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



CHARLES HALLOCK, 



Managing Editor. 



THE INTERNATIONAL RIFLE MATCH. 



LETTER PROM MR. A. B. LEKCH, OF THE IRISH TEAM — THE 

 IRISH CHALLENGE TO THE NATIONAL RIFLE ASSOCIATION. 



AT the annual meeting of the Amateur Rifle Club, in 

 December last, the President, Col. George W. Win- 

 gate, was directed to address Mr. A. B. Leech, of Dublin, 

 in regard to the challenge to American riflemen, pub- 

 lished in the Herald, and accordingly wrote to Mr. 

 Leech, requesting the particulars in regard to which 

 the proposed match was designed to be carried out, and 

 stating that it was the desire of* the Amateur Club, not so 

 much on behalf of themselves as on behalf of the riflemen 

 of America, that a competition of this description should 

 be had sometime during the fall at Creedmoor, at which 

 American riflemen using American weapons should con- 

 tend against an Irish team. In reply to this communica- 

 tion the following letter has been received: — 



Dublin, No. 110 Grafton Street, ) 



Thursday, 10th January, 1874. [■ 



Irtsh Rifle Association. ) 



Dear Sir.— I have had Ihe honor of receiving your let- 

 ter of the 20th nit., which I have submitted to friends who 

 are co-operating with me, and I am authorized to say that 

 a formal programme on the basis of Ihe challenge already 

 before you of the proposed International Rifle Match will 

 be shortly prepared, which I will be happv to submit for 

 approval of your association. In deference to your sug- 

 gestion I will, if possible, waive the 1,100 yards range, al- 

 though to do so will, I fear, detract somewhat from the 

 great" interest of the match. 



When I addressed the challenge to the American nation, 

 through the columns of the Mew York Herald, I was not 

 aware that you had a National Rifle Association, which 

 you will please accept as my apology for not having ad- 

 dressed it in the first instance. I am authorized to say that 

 my friends are highly gratified at the flattering terms in 

 which you write. I have always considered that we can- 

 not know too much of one another, and that whichever side 

 wins in this great trial of skill and judgment, we will have 

 an agreeable opportunity of improving the acquaintance, 

 if not securing the friendship, of those we may have the 

 honor and pleasure of being for a time associated with in 

 your great country. Pray accept my thanks for your cour- 

 tesy. I have the honor to remain your very faithful 



Arthur B. Leech. 



Geo. W. Wingate, Esq., Secretary National Rifle Associa- 

 tion of America, 



From reading Mr. Leech's most courteous letter, it 

 would seem that Mr. Leech speaks of the communication 

 addressed to him by Col. Wingate, as if it were written by 

 him as Secretary of the National Rifle Association. This,, we 



think, is an error. The letter, to which Mr. Leech refers, 

 was written by Colonel Wingate on behalf of the Amateur 

 Rifle Club, in pursuance of a resolution passed at its an- 

 nual meeting in December last, (published in the Forest 

 and Stream of November 27th,) at which meeting Colonel 

 Wingate, as its President, was directed to address Mr. 

 Leech in regard to his challenge to "American riflemen," 

 which originally appeared in the Herald, the National Rifle 

 Association having taken no action in the matter. 



In taking this step the Amateur Rifle Club did not by 

 any means claim that in their members were included the 

 best shots in America. On the contrary, it is their present 

 intention, as soon as a definite programme is determined 

 on, to publish a request soliciting the co-operation of marks- 

 men throughout America, in order to secure a "team" fit to 

 construct against the "Irish Eight," such "team" to be 

 selected from the best shots that can be obtained, whether 

 members of the Amateur Rifle Club or not. 



It will be recollected that competitors — (under Mr. 

 Leech's challenge)— must be native born Americans, and 

 using rifles of American manufacture, weighing not over 

 ten pounds, with a trigger pull of not less than three 

 pounds, any sights being allowed but telescopic, the dis- 

 tances being 800, 900 and 1,000 yards. The original chal- 

 lenge contemplated a match at 1,100 yards, also; but this 

 was objected to, as our range at Creedmoor is limited to 

 1,000 yards. 



From the great interest that has been manifested in this 

 challenge throughout the whole country, there can be but 

 little question but that a match can be made that will be 

 National in ah respects. Such a contest must bring to- 

 gether at Creedmoor during the fall a team' of representa- 

 tive men who will, we trust, sustain the traditional reputa- 

 tion of America as being the home of the rifleman. 

 . .*♦*, 



SEVENTH REPORT OF THE COMMIS- 

 SION ERS OF FISHERIES OF THE STATE 



y OF MAINE. ^ 



F the reports of the Commissioners of the States of Penn- 

 sylvania and New Jersey, conscientiously written by 

 the proper officers, give a truthful but rather desponding 

 aspect of affairs, expatiating fully on the wasteful and care- 

 less acts of the fishermen, and tacitly expressing a certain 

 want of appreciation from the community in whose midst 

 their labors are carried on, it is pleasant, when the reviewer 

 concludes the examination of the Maine Report, to find 

 that in this State much of the success the Commissioners 

 have met with has been due to the increased interest taken 

 by the people at large in the efforts of the State and Gov- 

 ernment to restore the former productiveness of the streams 

 and lakes of Maine. 



Messrs. E. M. Stilwell and Henry O. Stanley, the Fish- 

 ery Commissioners of Maine, possess, it is true, certain ad- 

 vantages. In the first place they are not only admirable as 

 to the theory of pisciculture, combining with it a sound 

 knowledge of ichtl^ology, but what is a great desideratum, 

 these gentlemen, being thoroughly acquainted with the use 

 of all the devices employed for the capture of the trout and 

 salmon, in a word consummate anglers, have evidently 

 brought their skill into play. Something, in introducing 

 novel measures into a community, depends more or less 

 upon the personnel of the functionaries, and in the present 

 instance, there is no doubt but that Messrs. Stillwell and 

 Stanley have, by their presence and eloquence, done a 

 great deal to teach people not only the usefulness but 

 the necessity of their calling, and have thus gained the aid 

 and confidence of the people in the State. We have fre- 

 quently thought that it would be a great adjunct to the 

 success of State measures tending to the preservation of 

 fish if a series of simple monographs of the most element- 

 ary character were published and distributed gratuitously, 

 describing fish with an illustration or so, and explaining 

 the objects of the Fish Commissioners, and giving the 

 figures, showing how the country was getting impoverished 

 through want of the simplest care, and how it-might be en- 

 riched by the slightest modicum of common sense. We 

 believe that some thousands of loose sheets of this char- 

 acter, written in a popular and lively style, would reach 

 home, and prepare the ground most thoroughly for the 

 future works of the Commissioners. In Maine there appears 

 a disposition on the part of mill owners, using water from 

 streams capable of producing and rearing fish, not to throw 

 unnecessary impediments in the way of the Commissioners, 

 but rather to aid them. We note then, with pleasure, that 

 owing to the prompt energy of the Cabot Manufacturing 

 Company, a substantial stone fish way has been erected on 

 the Kennebec, near Brunswick, and that other manufactur- 

 ing companies have agreed to do the same work. In fact, 

 from all the sites on the noble Kennebec and Penobscot, 

 similar aid is promised, and already, in a great many cases, 

 such fish ways been constructed, so that not only 

 salmon, but the shad and alewives now have a chance of 

 entering the rivers of Maine. Of course the refuse from 

 cotton and paper mills is aserious detriment, as it pollutes 

 the streams, but the Commissioners hope that some mea- 

 sures may be provided to keep this poison out of the rivers 

 during the breeding season or that of the migration of fish. 

 The information given to us in the report in regard to 

 salmon is more than satisfactory. In Maine salmon have 

 made their appearance in localities where they had been 

 long considered as extinct. Salmon have been seen and 

 captured last year as far up the Penobscot as Pleasant 

 River. At Vanceboro', Mr. Stanley himself caught a 

 salmon, and the Commissioners are well satisfied that a 

 large number of salmon have succeeded in reaching the 

 souths of the Penobscot and have spawned there. As far up 



even as Chesuncook Lake — and even beyond it, smolt were 

 taken in the second year. In the East Branch, last sum- 

 mer, as far as Grand Falls, yearling salmon were found, 

 specimens of which were sent to Professor Baird, of the 

 Smithsonian Institution. Now just here would come m 

 most usefully the information in the way of easy instruc- 

 tion which we have advanced — the distribution of some 

 primary lessons about lish adapted to the use of ignorant 

 people. About Grand Falls, the people were catching the 

 young salmon and calling them trout. Perhaps the term 

 ignorant is rather too strong a one, for it is not eveiy in- 

 dividual, though he be educated, who can nicely discrimi- 

 nate between the various forms of that protean fish Ihe 

 salmon, whether he be as a parr, a smolt or a grilse. 



The advent of the salmon so far inland, the Commission- 

 ers think, is due to the fact of there being good efficient 

 wardens on the rivers, and quite as much because of the 

 friendly sympathy and co operation of mill owners, who 

 have aided in keeping the fish-ways clear, and mostly be- 

 cause of an improved date, of public opinion and an increased 

 interest the people generally have taken in these subjects. 



Between Bangor and Oldtown, last year, a number of 

 fine salmon were captured; whole number up to July 23d, 

 1,984, with an average weight of 16 pounds. Total weight, 

 33,198, worth $5,504. About the biggest fish weighed 32 

 pounds. On the Kennebec the accounts of the ,salmon arc 

 quite as reassuring, an increase in quantity and quality of 

 fish having been noted. Barring some slight accidents to 

 the salmon spawn, the hatching has been fairly good at the 

 Bucksport Salmon Works, and some 300,000 salmon fry 

 were divided between the waters of the Penobscot and 

 Androscoggin Rivers. It is again pleasant to notice that 

 railroad corporations have given the Commissioners their 

 aid in distributing the small fish. Nothing can be more to 

 the interests of railroads than to encourage in every way 

 the movements of the Fish Commissioners. A good ang- 

 ling ground induces travel, and with care from small begin- 

 nings the salmon fisheries may undoubtedly in time assume 

 a commercial aspect. Another incident worth recording 

 is, that the Honorable W. H. Yenning, Inspector of Fish- 

 eries of New Brunswick and Nova Scotia, and Mr. Deputy 

 Curran, have given material aid to the labors of our Maine 

 Commissioners. 



The Commissioners, quite wisely, we think, have 

 been chary of the indiscriminate permission to be allowed 

 to all parties to take the spawn of landlocked salmon, and 

 while desirous of aiding other States and the public all 

 they can, they cannot entertain, for a moment, the idea 

 that the fisheries are to be destroyed by unprincipled or 

 ignorant people. A proposition was made to the United 

 States Commissioners of Fisheries, and to the Commis- 

 sioners of the New England States, to found an establish- 

 ment for the propagation of fish at Sebec Lake similar to 

 the one at Bucksport, and in August last it was decided, 

 after a careful examination, that one should be made at 

 Sebec, and everything is now in order for future work. 

 Of course Maine, from her noble rivers and lakes, having 

 within herself all- the most choice places for salmon 

 nurseries in the United States, must be the most conspicuous 

 of the fish-raising States, and from thence fish-stock, we 

 trust, will be had in plent}^. 



Consignments of the ova of California salmon have been 

 received through Mr. Stone, a gift from Prof. Baird, and 

 the fish will be placed in some lake or stream running into 

 the Penobscot. 



In the supplimentary report of Mr Charles G. Atkins, 

 who has in charge the Bucksport Salmon Breeding Works, 

 a most practical and simple exhibit is made how the salmon 

 are stripped and the ova are treated, and in the paper can 

 be found how the cost of ova has been reduced from $44 

 per thousand in 18G9 to not more than $3.40 this last year. 

 This establishment now ranks in its appointments, as in its 

 productions, among the first in the world Last December 

 two millions and a quarter of eggs laid in the hatching 

 troughs, and when put to their capacity they will ccntain 

 over 4,000,000. 



It is only this year that a thorough series of experiments 

 in shad hatching were inaugurated, 100,000 young shad 

 having been produced, and it is hoped that their introduc- 

 tion into the Kennebec, and about the same quantity into 

 the Penobscot, will be attended with the best results. 



The Commissioners write in the most sensible way in re- 

 gard to the question of fish as food, as capable of provisioning 

 a large portion of the State, and refer to the waste of ani- 

 mal life in Maine as a sufficient lesson of how improvident 

 man is, and they state that "no good law, however popular, 

 can ever, be enforced without the sympathy and aid and 

 interest of the whole people, and that the masses must assist 

 or our laws will never be obeyed." They believe in the 

 necessity of protection for both fur and fin, and ask the 

 legislature to constitute Commissioners of Fisheries and 

 Game. A most scathing rebuke can be found in the report, 

 directed not to the lazy vagabonds, who, too indolent to 

 work, exist by catching fish at improper times and when 

 half grown, but written for the edification of those un- 

 sportsmanlike people, far worse than pot hunters, who, 

 when in a trout stream, keep on fishing until they have left 

 not a fish in the stream. "Sir," said a guide, describing 

 the soulless conduct of one of these parties, "at one time 

 we buried more than 200 lbs. of trout that they had killed; 

 they would have killed the last trout in the river if they 

 had known where to find it." Of course no legislation can 

 meet offences of this character, called by the indignant 

 Commissioners "a shameless abuse of the hospitality of 

 the State." The remedy lies in newspapers publishing the 

 names of all such vulgar people capable of such malfeasance 



