— — 



■toeem AM> SIMAM?' 



of that hill ; and ouce, when the McGregors came raging up 

 the glen like red devils as they are, mony of their best war- 

 riors fell at the farthest entry' o' the pass, every man o' i.lu-m 

 wi' a hole in his breast and its fellow at his back." 



Whilst thus speaking he had taken the longest arrow out of 

 the Bheef, and stood playing it in his hand, seemingly ready 

 to give it to the first of his visitors who should bend the bow. 

 The three McGregors were tall, muscular and in the prime of 

 manhood. The young chief first took up the bow, and after 

 examining its unbending strength laid all his might into it. 

 He strained till the blood rushed to his face and his temples 

 throbbed almost to bursting, but in vain ; the string remained 

 alack as at first. Evan and his associate were alike unsuccess- 

 ful ; as well might they have striven to root up the gnarled 

 oak of their native mountains. 



" There's not a man," exclaimed the chief of the McGregors, 

 chagrined at the absence of the man he sought, and his own 

 and his clansmen's vain efforts—" there's not a man in your 

 clan can bend that bow ; and if Calum Dhu where here he 

 should not long—" Biting his lip he suppressed the rest of 

 the sentence, for the third McGregor gave liim a glance of 

 caution. 



" Hu!" said the old man, still playing with the long arrow. 

 without seeming to observe the latter part of this speech, " if 

 Calum was here he would bend it as easily as ye wad bend 

 that rush ; and gin ony of the McGregors were in 

 wad drive this lang arrow through them as easily as ye wad 

 drive your dirk through my old plaid. More, I say ; the 

 feather wad come out at the other side wet with their heart's 

 bluid, nnd sometimes even the man behind is wounded if they 

 are any way thick in their battle. I once saw a pair o' them 

 stretched on the heather pinned together with one of Calum's 

 yard-long shafts." 



This was spoken with the apparent simplicity and com- 

 posure of one talking to friends and careless of foes. Still, 

 closer attention would have discerned a checkered shade of 

 pleasure and triumph cross his countenance as McGregor's 

 lip quivered and the scowl of anger descended upon his brow 

 at the tale of his kinsmen's destruction by the aim of their 

 direst foe. 



"He must be a brave warrior," at length observed the young 

 chief, compressing his breath and looking with anger and as- 

 tonishment at the cool, tenacious old man. "I should like to 

 see this Calum Dhu." 



" Ye may soon enough ; and gin ye were a McGregor, feel 

 him, too. But why is the man gluuching and gloaming thus ? 

 Gin ye were Black" John himsel' ye could na lookmair deevil- 

 i°h like. And what are ye fldging at, man ?" he continued, 

 addressing the third McGregor, who had marked the anger of 

 his lord, and gradually moved nearer the old tormentor with 

 his right hand below the left breast of his plaid, probably 

 grasping his dirk ready for the signal of vengeance. The 

 faith of the Gael is deeper than " to hear is to obey," the slav- 

 ish obedience of the East : his is to anticipate and perform. 

 To know and to accomplish, or to die, is the stern devoted- 

 neas of the North. 



The old man kept his keen gray eye fixed upon him whilst 

 he continued in the same unsuspecting tone : " But is there 

 ony word of the McGregors coming over the hills ? Calum 

 wad like to try a shot at Black John, their chief ; he wonders 

 could he pass an arrow through his great hardy bulk as readily 

 as he sends them through his clansmen's silly bodies. John 

 has a son, too, he wad like to try his craft on, who has the 

 name of a brave warrior — 1 forget his name. Calum likes to 

 strike at noble deer, though he is forced sometimes to kill 

 that which is little worth. But I'm fearful he o'errates his 

 own strength. I think his arrow would only stick weel in 

 Black John, but — " 



" Dotard, peace?" roared the McGregor till the glen re- 

 echoed with his voice ; his brow darkening like midnight . 

 " Peace! or I'll cut that sacrilegious tongue out of your head, 

 and, nailing it to your door, show Calum Dhu you have had 

 visitors in his absence, and make him bleBS his stars he saw 

 them not." 



A dark flash of suspicion crossed his mind as he gazed at 

 the individual he was addressing, who quailed not at his 

 frowns. But it vanished as the imperturbable old man re- 

 sumed his discourse. 



"Ha, oh! ye are no a McGregor; and tho' ye were, ye 

 surely wadna mind the like o 1 me ! But anent bending this 

 bow," striking it with the long arrow which he still held in 

 his hand. " There's just a knack in it ; and your young un- 

 taught strength is useless, as ye dinna ken the gait o't. I 

 learned it frae Calum, but I'm sworn never to tell it to a 

 stranger, and there is mony a man in the clan 1 ken naething 

 about. But as ye seem anxious to see this bow bent I'll no 

 disappoint ye. Rin up to yon gray stone — stand there ,- it 

 will no be as if ye were near me when I'm doing it, but it 

 will be just the same to you, for ye can see weel enough. 

 When the string is on the bow ye may come down, an' ye 

 like it, and try a flight. It's a capital bow, an' that ye'l) fin'." 



A promise is sacred with the Gael. As the Colquhoun was 

 under one, they did not insist on his exhibiting his art while 

 they were by ; ' nevertheless, curious to see the sturdy bow 

 hent— a feat of which the best warrior of their clan would 

 have been proud — and perhaps thinking Calum Dhu would 

 arrive in the interval, they walked away in the direction 

 pointed out. Unsuspicious of treachery, as the old man ap- 

 peared ignorant of their names, and could not be supposed 

 capable of sending an arrow so far, the McGregors thought 

 not of looking back until close to the gray rock. Then, turn- 

 ing round, they saw him suddenly bend the stubborn yew 

 and fix an arrow upon the string. In an instant he drew 

 strongly to his very ear, and the feathered shaft of a cloth 

 yard length was fiercely launched in air. 



' ' Mao Alp— hooch ! ' ' exclaimed the dying youth instinctively 

 endeavoring to raise the McGregor war cry, and clapping his 

 hand on his breast as he fell. 



" Ha !" cried Calum Dhu, for it was he himself, "clap your 

 hand behin' ; the arm shot, which never sent arrow that came 

 out where it went in," a rhyme he used in battle when his foes 

 fell fast as he could nock arrows upon the bow-string. 



The first impulse of the two remaining McGregors was to 

 rush down and cut to atoms the slayer of their beloved young 

 chief ; but seeing him fix another arrow to that bow, the 

 terrible powers of which they had just witnessed, and fearing 

 they rnieht be prevented from carrying to the old chieftain the 

 news of" his son's death, they started over the hill like roes. 

 Flight availed not— a speedy messenger was after them, for a 

 second arrow sent by the same powerful and unerring arm 

 transfixed Evan's shoulder just as he descended out of sight. 

 To catch him it must have grazed the bent that grew on the 

 hill-top, as naught but his shoulder could be seen from 

 where Calum Due stood. 



On flew the other McGregor, with little abatement of speed, 

 till he reached his chieftain with the bloody tidings of his 

 Bon's death. 



ty shall they rue it," burst from 

 01 Black John, anil a party, bi - 

 vengeance of mountain warriors, were soon far on the way of 

 fierce retaliation. Calum Dhu in the meantime had nut re- 

 mained inactive. Knowing, from the escape of one of his 

 three foes, a battle must quickly ensue, he culled as many 

 clansmen as he could, and, with his terrible bow, calmly 

 awaited the onset. The McGregors concealed not their com- 

 ing. Loudly and fiercely their pipes flung their notes of war- 

 like defiance on the gale, and far and wide, mountain, cliff 

 and glen, echoed to the martial strains. The foes met, and 

 long and desperate was the conflict which ensued. No warriors 

 of that age could withstand the hurricane onset of the bold 

 McGregors, the tide of battle flowed full in their favor, while 

 Black John, raving through the field like a chafed lion, 

 shoulcd in a voice of thunder, heard far above the clash, 

 groans, and yells of the unyielding combatants for the mur- 

 derer of 1 1 13 son. None defied him— to none was afforded 

 time, for he cut down, in his headlong rage, every focman he 

 encountered, until but few remained on whom he could wreak 

 his vengoauce or exercise his great strength. Gazing round 

 the field, he at length spied an old man seated on a fern bank, 

 while his hands grasped the bloody stump of his leg, which 

 had been stricken off. He beckoned the grim chief to come 

 nearer, audlllack John rushed forward, brandishing 

 sword, and still crying in a voice which startled the yet re- 

 maining birds from the mountaiu cliffs,, "Where was his 

 son's murderer ?" 



"Shake the leg out of that brogue," said the old man, speak- 

 ing with difficulty, and squeezing his bloody stump with both 

 hands in all the energy of pain. " Go bring me a drink of 

 water i'rao yon burn, and I'll show you Calum Dhu, for he is 

 yet in the field, and lives. Rin, for my heart burns and faints." 

 The McGregor, without uttering a word, shook the leg out 

 of the brogue, and hastened to do his fpemau's bidding. But, 

 while he stooped to dip in the blood-stained brogue," Mac- 

 Alp-hooch !" faintly broke from his lips, and he splashed life- 

 less into the stream, which in a moment ran thick with blood. 



" Ha !" cried Calum Dhu, for it was he again, "clap your 

 hand behin' ! that's the last arrow shot by the arm which 

 ne'er sent those which came out where they went in." 



Base Ball Championship. — The following clubs have 

 entered for the championship of the National Base Ball Asso- 

 ciation, the entries for which closed here last night : The 

 Dticas, of Utica j Albany s, of Albany ; Capitol' City, of 

 Albany ; Springfield, of Springfield ; Holyoke, of Holyoke ; 

 Worcester, of Worcester ; New Bedford, of New Bedford ; 

 Manchester, of Manchester, and National, of Washington. 

 The Defiance Club, of Philadelphia, has been admitted to 

 membership in the association. 



Psninsut-ae Cricket Club.— The Peninsular Cricket Club, 

 of Detroit, Mich., has elected for the ensuing year : Presi- 

 dent, George E. Hand ; Vice-President, Joseph Taylor > Cor- 

 responding Secretary, 0. B. Calvert ; Treasurer, T. Calvert ; 

 Managing Committee— J. W. Waterman, C. Hinchman, Fred 

 Bamford, R. B. Ridgeley, H. Crawford, Phil Uridge, Wm. 

 White ; Match Committee— Ford D. C. Hinchman, U. Arm- 

 strong, Frank C. Irvine. The club now has more than one 

 hundred members, and the prospects for a lively cricketing 

 season in Detroit aro very flattering. Several Canadian clubs 

 will visit Detroit, and like courtesies are expected from a 

 team from either New York or Philadelphia. A professional 

 team from England, under the management of the celebrated 

 cricketer, Richard Daft, will also pay their respects to the 

 Peninsulars. 



States Island Athletic Oh?b.— The annual meeting of 

 the Staten Island Athletic Club was held at the rooms of the 

 Neptune Rowing Club, West New Brighton, 8. I., Wednes- 

 day evening, March 12. There was a large attendance. The 

 reports from the Treasurer, Captain, and Board of Manage- 

 ment, showed the club to be in a flourishing condition. The 

 election of officers resulted as follows : President, Wm. E. 

 Soutter ; Vice-President, David J. H. Wilcox ; Recording 

 Secretary, Henry W. J. Telfair ; Treasurer, Wm. A. Collins, 

 Jr ; Corresponding Secretary, liobert P. G. Bucklin ; Oapt., 

 Oliver J. Johnson ; First Lieutenant, Clarence M. Johnson ; 

 Second Lieutenant, Frank G. Janssen; Trustees, F. L. Rode- 

 wnld, Jno. W. Edwards, Thos. Chute, H. A. Caesar, A. L. 

 Faris, and Jno. H. Rimmer. 



New Youk Laobossb Cr.uu.— The annual meeting of the 

 New York: Lacrosse Chili was held at Delmonico's on Friday 

 evening. There was a large attendance of members and 

 much interest manifested in the proceedings. A new con- 

 stitution was framed and several additions made to the roll of 

 membership. The following officers were elected : President, 

 Hermann Oclrichs ; Secretary, A, P. Montant; Treasurer, 

 William Patteson ; Captain, IS. C.La Montague : First Lieu- 

 tenant, F. E. Randall ; Second Lieutenant, Herbert Inman. 

 The members will commence practice at an eatly day. 



—The New York Athletic Club will hold a meeting at their 

 grounds, Molt Haven, Saturday, April 19. The events to be 

 contested are runs of 130 yards, 800 yards and 600 yards, and 

 a walk of two miles, open to nil amateurs. Gold and silver 

 medals will be given in each race. Entries close on April 13. 

 C. A. Mahony, Secretary, post oflice box 3,101. 



— The Tally-Ho will be driven as a public coach between 

 the Hotel Brunswick, this city, and Pelkarn Bridge, during 

 the coming season. Col. Delancey Kane has purchased his 

 coaching horses, and will soon give notice of the time- 

 table, etc. 



— The San Francisco Olympic Club recently gave its nine- 

 teenth annual exhibition at the Grand Opera House, that city. 

 Tho occasion was one of a most pleasan t reception Of the friends 

 of Hie athletes. The entertainment consisted of acrobatic 

 feats, boxing, dumb bells, exercises, etc. 



Illinois.— Highland Park, March 15.—JBditor Forest and 

 Stream : A few members of the Highland Park Archery Club 

 hud an in-door contest a few evenings since in Central Hall, 

 in the presence of a fine audience. The range was short, 

 being only twenty yards ; but the target was only a one-foot 

 one, number of arrows, ninety per man. The following scores 

 were made : 



1*1 90 arrows. Ed SO arrows. 3d 3(1 arrows. Total. 

 Hits. Soore. Hits. Score. Hits. Bcore. B 

 WHDGray u lis is ei is 38 



FT flail 57 3 4S 15 f,a BS IK4 



M B Weston 13 47 12 +1 is 60 41 1st 



EUBeebe 7 37 12 45 10 U 29 129 



OWKyie in 32 4 is 14 64 28 108 



CG Hammond 12 60 9 81 s aa 29 103 



IB Green T 53 8 2S 8 4)1 



J McDonald, Jr 3 7 8 11 7 81 13 39 



—Salem, Mass., has a bicycle club with the fol- 

 lowing officers: A. L. Huntingdon, President; J. H. Soutb- 

 wick, Vice-President; C. A. Buxton. Secretary; A. J. Phil- 

 brick, Treasurer; F. M. Paine. Captain. 



%tw §ubHi[H tiatip. 



The 



mt of that 



lal girt of tho 



SroBTixa Sketches— With Fen and Pencil,— By Francis 

 Francis and A. W. Cooper ; . 348 Strand, London.— 



This is one of the most engaging volumes of sporting incidents 

 which it has over been our good fortuuo to read and posai 

 author ia the venerable editor of the Piscatori 

 incomparable sportsman's journal, the Londt 

 verging toward sixty years, we beliovo, and tli 

 gilt-edged, greon-liveiied, illnminated, copy of the book 

 fore us under review, ooming from the veteran sportsman to tho 

 editor of Fobest axd Steeam, enhances its charms all the more, 

 and kindles to itswarmeat blaze the sympathies which oementgood- 

 fellowahip and make the brotherhood km. 



A few weeks ago wo printed in Forest akd BtbsAm an editoria 

 critioism of the illustrated sporting literature of magazines, in which 

 we deplored the fact that our beat periodicals, which pay tho highea 

 prices for contributions, are ao often marred by crude descriptions 

 and worse pictures of hunting and fishing adventures by incompetent 

 writers and artiata, whose gross and glaring inaccuracies are only 

 rivalled by their manifest ignorance of the commoneat facta of nat- 

 ural history and the methods and tactics of the field. It ia too pain- 

 fully obviona to the initiated sportsman that, under the investiture 

 of well-turned sentences and Faultless diction, the maiden adven- 

 tures of tyroe aro too often palmed off upon the reader as the ex- 

 periences of veterans. Even when the reoitala are those of cul- 

 tured sportsmen, the illustrations, instead of helping the narra- 

 tive, only eerve to make it ridiculous. Every well-lnl'ormed 

 sportsman knows how sadly even the heat pictures fad to reach 

 the soul of field sporta; and no author oan venture to undertake 

 to portray with pencil and pen atrokea the glorious subjeota of 

 nature without tho exercise of the moat painstaking effort, based 

 upon the consciousness of a thorough familiarity with the matters 

 he treats of. Mr. Francis has borne ample testimony to the truth 

 at these asaertiona, when he affirms in tho preface to his •' Sport- 

 ing Sketches," that he has postponed for man;/ year* the publica- 

 tion of the very work in review because he could not find an artist 

 equal to the taak of illustrating it ! Says hep " Many a shooting 

 and fishing picture have I seen published, in which the artist had 

 not the alighteat acquaintance with the subject he had undertaken, 

 and wherein the details had been furnished entirely by his irnagi 

 nation." That he has at last succeeded in his search, and in the 

 realisation of hia purpose, should be tho cause of sincere congratu- 

 lation. Certainly Mr. Cooper, the artist, has done fud justice to 

 the intelligent text of the author. The llluBtrationB are true to 

 life and nature, and vested with a reality which aatisfioa and re 

 freshes, becauae they repreaent so faithfully what home sports- 

 men are faniUiar with and what strangers desire to aee and know. 

 The portraits of tho fish and birds ; the cover in which the birds 

 aro found, the dreaa of the sportsmen, the garb of the gilhea and 

 keepers, the outfits and accoutrements, the poaes of thB dramatis 

 personal, the varying attitudes of the doga according to situa- 

 tion, and all the natural and artificial surrounding?, are detailed 

 with an accuracy and homogeneouBnesa of parts and position 

 in the drama, whioh beara the stamp of honest truth in eyerv out- 

 line. There are twelve of these illuatratione in all, full page" land- 

 scapes, each accompanying a sketch of sport by field and river. 

 Six of them are devoted to Partridge, Woodcock, Pheasant, Babbit, 

 Grouse, and Snipe shooting, and the other sis to Trout, Pike, 

 Koach, Salmon, Grayling, and Pnnt fishing. There are suggestive 

 tail pieces to each chapter. 



The narrativea are evidently the production of ono whose whole 

 soul is in his pastime. It ib pleasant and exhilarating to hear him 

 talk. He ramblea on in a careleBs rollicking fashion, very charac- 

 teristic of hia buoyant nature— ouoyant even in a full grown man 

 well xiast maturity ; discoursing now of thia trait of man or dog. 

 and anon of some quondam shooting or fishing incident ; intro- 

 ducing real character sketohea of his different [attendants with 

 their quaint vernacular, and of the gentry of the country ; pausing 

 betimes to describe (ho dressing of an artificial fly, or to take a nip 

 or a bite from his lunch bag ; and bo absorbed in what ia passing, 

 that he seems to bo talking directly to the reader in hia odd, nat- 

 ural way, while the reader in turn becomes ao engaged and en- 

 chanted with hia new acquaintances that he almost imagines him- 

 self upon the ground and one of tho party. It ia pleasant to ob- 

 serve his enthuBiam and the joy of anticipation which beama all 

 over his radiant face as he ia about starling out for a jaunt to the 

 covers orpoola. Listen to his ohin-maaic at the opening of the 

 chapter on Salmon Fishing ! He proceeds : 



" It is Btrange how the very mention of Balmou fishing makes 

 one prick up one's eara, and how the thought of it sends a sort of 

 thrill through pulses grown old and torpid, and how oven when 

 one is declining into tho vale of years the prospect of a week's 

 good flailing in a well-stocked, kindly SispoBitioued river, sets 



B bounding and Bpaliling with delightful uu 

 We get into the train with a choice companion for the long journey 

 north or west. We. chirrup and no sing ; very little makes 08 laugh, 

 and jokes which would have been regarded at any other time an 

 very email beer are now most excellent fooling. ' Ha ! ha ! Ho ! 

 ho! Cackle, cacklo!' We're (he boy; Pe 10 tibiae while 



the thundering cannons roar. 'Dash it all) I feel twenty years 

 younger. 1 'By jingo' I feel thirty years younger. I feel — I 

 feel— jolly thiraty, old feUow-don't'you? Here's hoalthtoman 

 and death to fish 1 Ha! real Jamieson that! 1 so by degrees we 

 sober down into the usual fisherman's talk.'' Elc. 



There's a man to go a-fishing with ! No chance for megrims or 

 mollygruba in hia party ! 



The author's story of the dog Bock, who howled and ran home 

 to his kennel, after live clean misses on snipe, ia very funny. 

 The whole book is full of amusing incidents which, if wo were to 

 give in detachments, would mar Ihe continuity of the narrative. 

 The only way for those of our readers to do who are interested in 

 English field sports, ia to send to the Field office for a copy of the 

 '■ Sporting Sketches . " They will be instructed as well as amused 

 The whole spotting fraternity ia placed under obligations to Mr 

 Francis for hie opportune publication. 



—Ira A. Paine is engaged to travel with Tony Pastor th 

 eoming season, and has made a big hit. 



