^^^/^^m^^p^mmfi^mmmmmmmrr' 



^P 



can. however, sail just as last as the speed of 

 the wind, ami cannot, except ill the lightest airs, sail any 

 For it will take but a very light breeze indeed, to 

 overcome the friction of the runners, and as subsequent im- 

 pulses go to increase momentum, the yacht's speed must of 

 necessity rise until it reaches that of the wind itself. This is, 

 of course, on the supposition that the canvas does not leak. 

 She can sail slower than the wind only when the momentum 

 generated is not great enough to overcome the drag of fric- 

 tion j for then the excess of friction will have to be provided 

 for by a certain portion of the wind force which is thereby 

 lost to the production of speed. 



Conclusion.— Fmm the above it will be gathered that ice- 

 yacht sailing differs materially from the handling of an ordi- 

 nary boat. The ice-yacht's sail can be trimmed only in two 

 ways— they must be kept flat aft or squared away. No mean 

 position for the boom is to be permitted, and these are the 

 reasons why, as many of our readers may recall to mind, they 

 have never seen an ice-yacht with their mainsails over the 

 quarter. 



With the wind abeam, or forward of the beam, the ice- 

 yacht invariably sails faster than the wind, except in airs too 

 light to create momentum greater than the friction. With the 

 wind abaft the beam, or dead aft, the ice-yacht can sail no 

 faster than, but must sail just as fast as, the wind, subject to 

 the same exception as when on the wind. 



1 — « « 



Whenever we print a recipe, as for instance, against rust, 

 the very next week a half dozen " constant readers" ingenu- 

 ously ask if we know of a good rust preventive 1 The stated 

 querist who has been wont to ask if there is " any good shoot- 

 ing within an hour of New York" has gone West, with a 

 bumble-bee in full chase. 



> ■>. — 



Homosasba Heard Feom.— We have just received a letter 

 from Maj. Alfred P. Jones, of Homosassa, that delightful re- 

 sort in the Gulf of Mexico, where seventeen varieties of the 

 citrus family grow, where the fig trees cover an area of sixty 

 feet each in diameter, and deer, fish, and feathered game are ob- 

 tained iu satisfying abundance. Mr. Jones says he has had 

 his usual number of guests throughout the present winter, 

 some of whom will stay on until May. 



But this is not all. Mr. Jones has also sent us his fifth an- 

 nual gift of grape fruit and oranges— three boxes, in which he 

 was joined by Theo. Gordon, a well known fruit dealer of 

 Cedar Keys. Never have we eaten more delicious fruit. The 

 oranges are as solid as marmalade, very sweet and very satis- 

 fying. We hope these gentlemen will continue to prosper and 

 their trees always bear good fruit in great abundance. 



GAME PROTECTION. 

 NEW PROTECTION FOR QUAIL. 



THE destruction of quail in a large portion of the country 

 has been so universal this winter that immediate legis- 

 lation for their protection is imperatively demanded. As this 

 has been a year of exceptional hardship for them, so the coin- 

 ing season should be one of exceptional security and freedom 

 from destruction. We have already suggested to our readers 

 the voluntary self-denial of sport which will bring with it its 

 own reward of increased opportunities hereafter ; and we now 

 heartily join with our valued correspondent, Professor Charles 

 Linden, of Buffalo, N. T., in urging upon game clubs the 

 necessity of some special legislation in thiB matter. Sports- 

 men may be influenced by intelligent motives and forego 

 theii days in the field. For them no special laws are needed. 

 But, as has often been urged, the man who is thinning out 

 the game, who knows no moderation, who relentlessly follows 

 with dog and gun the last lingering, solitary bird, and who 

 defies the laws of nature always and the laws of man when he 

 dares, is not the sportsman but the market hunter. For him 

 it behooves the game societies of every State covered by the 

 great snow falls to secure the enactment of special temporary 

 laws prohibiting the killing of quail, having them in posses- 

 sion, buying, selling or transporting. Now is the time for 

 action. If anything is to be done, let it be done at once. 



We are glad to see non-sporting papers devoting their at- 

 tention to the subject. It is an instructive commentary upon 

 the extent of the sporting interest that such influential papers 

 as the Cincinnati Comimrcial have taken the pains to collect 

 from their widely scattered correspondents reports concern- 

 ing the fate of the birds. It augurs well for game protection 

 when its advocacy is not confined to sportsmen's papers. W r e 

 have already reminded our brothers of the pen that they can 

 be of vast power here as in any other cause, and it is gratify- 

 ing to see them respond. Professor Linden writes : 



A recent visit to Central Ohio, where I spent; my Christmas 

 vacation in quail hunting, has afforded opportunities to me 

 to offer a few suggestions which may be of some value tothe 

 more efficient protection of this choice game bird. A late 

 communication in Fobest and Stream enjoins sportsmen to 

 follow the laudable example set after the rigorous winter of 

 1853, when quail banting was virtually abandoned during 

 the following season by a sort of a mutually observed agree- 

 ment between all parties concerned. This had, as stated, 

 the good effect of increasing the broods, and birds were as 

 abundant as ever the year after. Times, however, have unfor- 

 tunately altered since, and the high price offered in great 

 markets like New York has developed corresponding de- 

 structive agencies. It is no longer the sportsman proper who 

 inflicts the greatest damage, but the professional hunters 

 aud trappers who are stimulated in their propensities by the 

 perambulating purveyor of all kinds of game, which he ships 

 off wholesale to the Eastern markets, whence they find by 

 means of improved facilities their way to great caldrons of 



the. European cities. There are, however, ways and means 

 Open still by which efficient steps could be taken to check 

 their threatening extirpation, and if these were enforced in the 

 States or counties where they are most abundant enough 

 might be left to afford tine sport at least. 



The shipment of all birds from such districts should be 

 rigorously prohibited by local laws, which could be easily 

 passed and lie in operation for a specified length of time. 

 The amateur sportsman himself should not be privileged, but 

 be made to conform to them by not being allowed to carry 

 away with him any more than what may bo considered a fair 

 yet limited amount of game, determined by the length of his 

 visit. 



There are now on the statutes of several States fixed pro- 

 vision? prohibiting rigorously the trapping of birds, but these 

 are but B dead tetter, and hardly ever enforced. Thousands 

 of trapped birds from Ohio, for instance, have been exposed 

 for sale this winter m the Buffalo market at merely nominal 

 figures on account of the excess of supply to consumption, 

 and express companies forward such consignments with per- 

 fect disregard to all laws, the same as any other legitimate 

 articles. If the express agents stationed along the points 

 of leading railroad lines could be made responsible for in- 

 fringement upon them by accepting and forwarding these con- 

 traband goods, it would unquestionably exercise a salutary 

 effect upon this present reckless traffic. Finally, measures 

 could be set, afoot to prohibit transatlantic shipment, blocking 

 up thereby the most exhaustive drain of all upon the game 

 birds on this contineut. 



From my observations I have become convinced that a 

 minimum of birds are killed in Ohio by residents and visiting 

 sportsmen, bulthat the recently developed professional mar- 

 ket hunter is the great enemy. These men, as I had occasiou 

 to notice, are provided with as good outfits of breech-loaders 

 and well-trained, experienced dogs as anybody would wish 

 for, aud their exact knowledge of the grounds tliey hunt over 

 every day during the open season renders them familiar with 

 every possible retreat, of the birds. Neither are they embar- 

 rassed to dispose of their gains, as any country store will pay 

 ready cash for them, which is returned in full with accruing 

 interest by either stationary or perambulating agents of east- 

 ern wholesale dealers. Quail will be, of course, very scarce 

 next fall, but their very scarcity will tend to raise their -price 

 and act as a powerful stimulant to the vampires, who will 

 realize a higher profit from their sale than by treble the 

 amount during the past year, when they were sold in Buffalo 

 at; the unprecedented rate of one dollar per dozen. 



A general organized movement alone, extending throughout 

 the great game producing States of the West, could lessen 

 the immense damage inflicted upon poor Bob White by the 

 heavy snows which inay be said to cover even now the whole 

 vast belt of our Middle States to beyond the Mississippi 

 River. Such a movement might be set on foot perhaps by 

 means of a carefully prepared circular mailed to every game 

 club of recognized standing, whereby legislative bodies of the 

 different sections of the country might be petitioned or influ- 

 enced to crown the good work by .the stamp of legal, effec- 

 tive enactments. 



Thb Massachusetts Game Law. — The Massachusetts 

 Game Law, which is in a very unsatisfactory condition, is 

 now undergoing a process of revision. A committee of the 

 Legislature who have the matter in charge, have had sub- 

 mitted to them a number of bills, some of which are palpably 

 inefficient and calculated rather to defeat the desired ends 

 than to secure any correction of existing evils. The provisions 

 contained in some of these bills to allow trapping upon one's 

 own land is directly opposed to the cause of protection. 

 New Hampshire has only recently abolished the section of 

 her law allowing it. Connecticut and Rhode Island will soon 

 take the same course, simply because experience has demon- 

 strated the terrible destructiveness of the practice. Confining 

 the snaring to the owner's property does not help the matter. 

 There is a loop-hole here for the pot-hunters ; and it is a well 

 established fact that a pot-hunter, like a prowling cat, will go 

 through a very small hole. For a State which does not now 

 allow it, to legalize it is simply a step in the wrong direc- 

 ion. Why should Massachusetts take this backward step ? 



Another provision which is not only wrong so far as the 

 game interests of the Commonwealth itself are concerned, but 

 which, in its relation to other States, is thoroughly unjust, 

 allows the buying and selling of quail and pinnated grouse 

 until June 1, provided they are killed outside of Massachu- 

 setts. We have already commented severely upon this section 

 of the proposed bill, and here repeat our belief that it is 

 monstrous. It is, in effect, paying a reward for the violation 

 of the laws of sister States. The close season for these birds 

 elsewhere begins with the 1st of January and thelst of Febraury. 

 The Massachusetts marketmen therefore offer a premium to 

 the pot-hunters and unscrupulous poachers of the Eastern 

 States to violate their own laws, - trap their prey and ship it 

 through to the Boston market. If no other motive influences 

 the law-makers, the simple one of inter-State courtesy and 

 justice should he sufficient to induce the rejection of this so- 

 called game law. We take pleasure in indorsing the bill 

 presented by the Massachusetts Fish and Game Protective 

 Association, believing it to be, of all those submitted, 

 the one best designed to accomplish its purposes. We would 

 prefer, however, to have more uniformity,if possible, in dates 

 of close seasons. It fixes the close seasoos as follows i Wood- 

 cock, Jan. 1 to August 1 ; partridge, Jan. 1 to Sept. 1 ; 

 quail, Jan. 1 to Oct. 15: wildducks, May 1 to Sept. 1 ; plover 

 Jan. 1 to July 15 ; deer, until Jan. 1, 1880, and from Dec. to 

 Oct. 1 after that. Snaring is prohibited wholly, as it should 

 be. We hope to record the passages of this act, and to 

 see it intelligently and stringently enforced. A bad law is 

 possibly no worse than no law at all, but a good law is better. 



One Phase oi- the Trespass Law.— Mr. Beth Green writes 

 that he has received many letters from correspondents desirous 

 of restocking the streams of their sections, calling attention to 

 a very serious difficulty against which they have to contend. 

 One of these letters reads ; 



There is so much dissatisfaction in regard to some parts of 



the game law as it now is, that we cannot, get an appropria- 

 tion for the purpose of stocking our Btteams. The first season 

 wo raised money by subscription, stocked the strearas.and par- 

 ties owning land along the streams, a majority of them, would 

 not pay anything toward it, but went on and put up signs on 

 their own land prohibiting fishing; so they gel, the benefit, 

 while those, who do not own the 'land furnish the funds. 

 Now it seems to me that this part of the game law is wrong. 

 I think if streams are stocked by the public they should be 

 free to the public. 



The trouble alluded to is one which must adjust itself in its 

 own way in particular cases. The laws of trespass are none 

 too strict nor too rigorously enforced. They cannot be made 

 more lax. If one man is so fortunate as to own the whole 

 of the property through which a stream flows, and if he has 

 a trait of the dog in tho manger in his composition, the pub. 

 lie will act wisely in not stocking his stream. Such an in- 

 stance, however, we conceive to be the exception ; iu most 

 cases wisdom suggests nnd secures a compromise. 



New York Association- for thb Protection of Fish and 

 Game.— At the monthly meeting of the Association, held last 

 Monday evening, the Secretary and Treasurer, Mr. Thomas 

 N. Outhbert, reported that he had deposited $500, making 

 the reserve fund in all $5,000. Mr. Whitehead, from the 

 Committee on Game Laws, reported that he was preparing a 

 uniform law, to be submitted to the Legislature, the provis- 

 ions of which would make the close season for prairie chicken, 

 ruffed grouse, quail and deer commence on Feb. 1. Dr. 

 Greene and Mr. Meyer thought if measures were taken at all 

 to amend the game laws they should be energetic. The mar- 

 kets of New York during the month of February were glutted 

 with quail and grouse which were utterly unfit for food, and 

 ought not to be exhibited for sale. Mr. Whitehead said that 

 inasmuch as a great deal of the venison coming to this market 

 was from Minnesota, where it was killed in season, but did 

 not arrive for some weeks after, owing to the difficulty of 

 transit, it- would be only just to allow thirty days after the 

 season here had closed to dispose of it, Mr. Meyer said he 

 would be perfectly satisfied to accept the proposition as far as 

 venison was concerned, but thought the law in relation to the 

 sale of birds should confine the period to Jan. 15, Ex-Sena- 

 tor Luddington and Mr. Chas. Hallock favored Mr. Meyer's 

 views. Mr. Fleiss thought the law in relation to fish was in 

 need of amendment. At present ihe law was such that 

 poachers could escape punishment unless a dead fish were 

 found in their possession, no matter how many live fish they 

 may have. Senator Wagslaff announced that the Senate had 

 appointed a Committee on Game Laws, consisting of Senators 

 Oakley, Sessions, Turner, Marvin and himself. He hoped 

 Mr. Whitehead would frame a bill codifying tne game laws 

 in such a manner as to make them satisfactory to sportsmen 

 in all parts of the State, and he would guarantee that it should 

 have prompt attention. Mr. Charles Hallock thought that 

 one good way to aid in enforcing the game laws would be to 

 enforce the trespass laws. This would make every farmer a 

 special constable, and bring him into harmony with the vari- 

 ous associations for the protection of game, Mr. Whitehead 

 moved, as the sense of the association, that the season for 

 the sale of all kinds of game and venison should close on Feb. 

 1. The motion was adopted. Mr. Munn thought the law 

 should be amended so as to prevent the shooting of woodcock 

 on Long Island in July. The date for the commencement of 

 the shooting of quail and partridges was fixed for Oct. 15, 

 with the additional provision that woodcock he shot during 

 the month of July, then close, and open again with the 

 shooting of other game birds in October. These suggestions 

 will be submitted to the Committee on Game Laws. On mo- 

 tion of Mr. Munn, it was ordered that a resume of the game 

 laws be printed and posted conspicuously in every post office 

 throughout the State. 



Ononda&a Counts FraSiJia Club.— The Onondaga County 



Fishing Club of Syracuse has been most active in the enforce- 

 ment of the protective laws. The county officers have recog- 

 nized the value of their labors by a recent appropriation to 

 further the work. 



Pinnated Grouse for New Zealand.— Abilene Kas.,Jan. 

 31. — Ethkir Forest and Stream ; It will doubtless interest the 

 readers of your paper to know that, on Jan. 12, F. P. Baker, 

 of Topeka, shipped twenty-eight live prairie chickens toNew 

 Zealand. Over a year ago he received a letter from a gentle- 

 man in San Francisco saying he was agent for a British colony 

 in New Zealand, and he was getting fish, birds, etc., of the 

 American Continent, to ship there for the purpose of acclima- 

 tion and propagation, and wanted some prairie chickens. 

 Owing to the fact that we had little or no snow last winter, 

 the birds could not be trapped, when the snow came this win- 

 ter tho sons of Hon. John Brown, of Auburn, were engaged 

 to trap a lot, and after considerable trouble succeeded in 

 getting thirty-two chickens. Four of these died before ship- 

 ment. The twenty-eight were put into a cage with four com- 

 partments, seven in each. They go by rail to San Francisco, 

 then by steamer to New Zealand. It i3 to be hoped that they 

 may reach there safely, aud grow and multiply in their new 

 home. Dibiqo. 



Michigan Deer Hunting.— Commenting upon the article 

 on this subject published two weeks ago in these columns, 

 our correspondent, Prof. H. B. Roney, of East Saginaw, 

 Michigan, suggests very pertinently that in deducing any ar- 

 guments for or against the use of dogs from the statistics of a 

 deer hunt, we must record not only the amount of game se- 

 cured, but also the number engaged in the sport, the time, 

 etc. He adds ; 



Thus it was with the Battle Creek party referred to, which 

 was double tha size of ordinary hunting parties. The com- 

 pany consisted of twenty men, who spent five weeks of the 

 most delightful weather of the fall in camp— their first and 

 only hunt for the year. W r hieh is worse— to take one long 

 hunt, or two or three shorter ones ? The party did not lose a 

 pound of meat by spoiling, but utilized it all, sending the 

 majority homo to their families and friends from time to 

 time, and every man had to work over seven days to get a 

 deer. It is not the gentlemen Bportsmen of the State, with 

 their bounds, that are killing off the deer, but the market- 

 hunters, nearly every one of whom are still-hunters, and the 

 killing for hides, which is entirely done by still-hunters. 

 There are more deer killed in Michigan yearly by pleasure 

 hunting parties from other States than by similar parties 

 who reside in Michigan, and not less than 10,500 deer were 

 Bhipped out of this State to outside markets last year, while 



