310 



FOREST AND STREAM. 



A WEEKLY JOURNAL, 



Cbvotbd to Fjkld and aquatic Sports, Practical Natural history, 

 Fish Citlttthk, tub Protection or (jamb, Preservation of forkbtb, 

 and tub Inculcation in Men and Women of a Ufalthy Interest 

 in Out-Door Kectikation and Study: 



PUBLISHED BY 



,gottn* md £trextn publishing (goMgany.. 



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NEW YORK, THURSDAY, MAY 22, 1879. 



To Correspondents. 



AU communications whatever, intended for publication, mnst be ac- 

 companied with real name of the writer as a guaranty of good faith 

 and be addressed to the Forest and Stream Publishing Company. 

 Names will not be published If o'oj ectlon be made, No anonymous com- 

 munications will be regarded. 



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 notes of ttielr movements and transactions. 



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vr Trade sopplied by American News Company. 



CALENDAR OF EVENTS FOR THE 

 COMING WEEK. 



Friday, May s3.-Troulng: Ambler Park ; Coldwater, Mich. Base 

 Ball: Springdeli) vs. Capital City, at Albany. 



Saturday, May 24— Boston Union Athletic Club Spring Meeting; 

 StateD Island Aiiileiic . club Spring Meeting; Harvard University Ath- 

 letic Club Spring Meeting. Base Ball: Springfield vs. Capital City, at 

 Albany; New Bedford vs. Manchester, at Manchester; llolyoke vs. 

 Worcester, at Worcester. 



Monday, M .y 26.— Troy Athletic Club Meeting. Base Ball ; Sprlngtleld 

 vs Albany, at Albany ; Holyoke vs. Manchester, at Manchester ; Wot- 

 ratal vs. New Bedford, at New Bedford ; Capital City vs. Utica, at 

 Utioa. 



Tuesday, May 21.— Trotting: Lynchburg, Va.; Belmont Park, Phlla. 

 Troy Club Meeting, as above. 



Wednesday, May 23.— Base Ball : Springfield vs. Albany, at Albany ; 

 TJHca vs. Holyoke, at Dolyoke. Trotting as above. 



Thursday, May 29.-Trotting as above. Base Ball: Holyoke vs. 

 Sprinfield, at Springfield; Worcester va. New Bedford, at New Bed- 

 ford. , ,,, , 



Cototesiss Afpkbciatbd.— Wc owe thanks to our gracious 

 turf contemporaries, Spirit of the Times, Turf, Field and 

 Farm and Clipper, for their very cordial endorsement and re- 

 commendation of Hallock's "Sportsman's Gazetteer," the 

 Fifth Edition of which appeared in May. It has now attained 

 a bulk of 921 pages, and is daily consulted by thousands of 

 persons who are interested in shooting, fishing, taxidermy, 

 boating, woodcraft and the line It has several fine maps, a 

 glossary, find a directory to 4,000 of the principal game re- 

 sorts of the United States. 



Btjtlbb Uniyeksitt SUMMER Thamp.— The summer ex- 

 cursions of the Butler University (Irvington, Ind.,) students 

 have been very successful in years past. This season a party 

 ■will go to Europe, sailing from this cily for Bremen, June 

 21. From Bremen they will go to Cologne, then up the 

 Rhine to Biogen, and via Strassburg or Heidelberg, toHeiden 

 in Switzerland. Through Switzerland a journey of 304 miles 

 Will he undertaken on foot. A visit will be made to Venice, 

 and after leaving Switzerland, a visit to Paris, a walk through 

 Normandy and a visit to Oxford and London. The party 

 will be limited to fifteen— naif ladies ; and the total expences, 

 about $300. The excursion will be under the management of 

 Prof. D. 8. Jordan, well known to our readers as. the author 

 of a manual of the Vertebrates, and a recognized authority on 

 American flohes. We can imagine no better way for young 

 people to improve their summer vacation. 



DO PICKEREL DESTROY TROUT? 



AFTER our readers have finished their perusal of the very 

 long but most interesting article with this caption in 

 the Department of Fish Culture this week they will entertain 

 a higher opinion of the much maligned pickerel, and a better 

 appreciation of his game qualities, which have been systemati- 

 cally belittled by comparison with other more favored and 

 popular game fish. 



There is no doubt that the pickerel (applying the term geH- 

 erlcally,)is a more toothsome fish, and capable of affording 

 more sport to (he angler than the popular notion gives him 

 credit for. It has always been fashionable in this country to 

 disparage the pickerel, and any person who may have ventured 

 at any time to say aught in his praise or to palliate some of 

 his questionable traits, either has |been voted an ignoramus, 

 or silenced at once by the hue and cry of the popular voice. 

 The boldness of our correspondent, therefore, in appearing in 

 his defence, is something really worthy of admiration. In 

 England the character of the pickerel as a game and food fish 

 stands much higher. All the books on angling devote a large 

 share to the habits of the jack, the pike, and the pickerel, and 

 the various devices employed in their culture. Even that 

 highest modern authority, Francis Francis, Esq., of the Lon- 

 don Field, gives the pike a prominent place and a full-length 

 portrait in his " Sporting Sketches," lately issued, while an- 

 cient writers have always extolled his sport-giving attributes 

 and sung his praises at high festivals and royal feasts. But a 

 pike is not a pickerel, any more than he is a muscalunge, 

 though many intelligent anglers class the smaller pike as large 

 pickerel, and are only able to determine the distinction be- 

 tween the two when the capture of an over-sized pickerel war- 

 rants them in deciding that he is a pike. Without comparing 

 here the specific characteristics of these two species of the Eso- 

 scidte (they are fully designated in " Hallock's Sportsman's 

 Gazetteer,") it is necessary to state that there are several varie- 

 ties of pickerel, which range in size from the little pond fish, 

 scarcely ever exceeding seven inches in length, to the big 

 pickerel of the lakes which sometimes reach weights of five to 

 seven pounds, though they more frequently average two and a 

 half or three. 



In discussing the relations of pickerel to trout, where both 

 kinds of fish occupy the same water, these varieties of pickerel 

 have to be separately considered. The most common of the 

 lot are the little pond pickerel which thrive in the shallow 

 warm-water mill ponds, canals, lagoons and streams of most 

 of the Eastern and Southern States, and the larger vari- 

 ety so generally found in the larger lakes of the North and 

 West, that it may be almost regarded as lacustrine. Now, 

 trout cannot live in the water inhabited by the former ; so that, 

 it matters little to the trout, so far as the first are concerned, 

 whether pickerel destroy them or not, for they would die any- 

 how. Besides being warm and shallow, the ponds arc usually 

 covered with deep mud and deposits of silt in which weeds 

 and lily pads thrive, affording lurking places for the stealthy 

 pickerel as well as shelter for shoals of minnows, and small 

 fry, upon which the pickerel almost wholly subsist. Trout 

 would never deposit spawn in such places. If they did, the 

 ova would not fructify ; and if the ova hatched out, the fry 

 would of course share the same fate with the little minnows 

 and other fingerlings ; and such as escaped would soon die 

 naturally. A pickerel pond is no place for trout. 



Sometimes diminutive trout are found in the little cool 

 water feeders of mill ponds, but they are soon exterminated 

 by urchins with pin hooks as well as by venturing upon the 

 original domain of the pickerel— not because the pickerel in- 

 trude into the clear and rapid waters of the brooks. Whcre- 

 ever the pickerel are known to occupy streams which were 

 previously the domain ot trout, they will be found only in 

 those parts which are sluggish, warm, weedy, and muddy ; 

 that is, if the character of the brooks has not been changed. 

 Generally it will be found, as in the case of the Raquette 

 River in the Adirondacks, that the water has been set back by 

 dams and devoided of Its current. 



As for the pickerel of the large clear-water lakes, with bold 

 shores and rocky bottoms, investigation will prove that they 

 invariably fiang around the shallow bights and flats where the 

 rushes and yellow lily pads grow ; while if there be trout in 

 the same water, on the other band they will seek and occupy 

 the cold and deeper portions where the pickerel seldom ven- 

 ture. Occasionally, it is true, the pickerel strike out on a sort 

 of foraging expedition and are taken several rods away from 

 the shoals; but the experienced angler will never troll or still- 

 fish in the middle waters, if he wishes to fill his basket, while 

 the pot-fisherman who puts out his set lines, always stretches 

 them from the shore of some sequestered bay, and the fish 

 which are taken fasten to the hooks near either shore, and 

 hardly ever to the middle ones. In fact, there is no more 

 danger of the pickerel going into the colder water of the 

 trouv's peculiar belonging than there is of the trout seeking 

 the tepid lounging places where the pickerel hide. Where 

 trout naturally spawn, pickerel never come. There is a re- 

 markable exemplification of this in the great river Nepigon 

 whose main channel is very deep and rooky, and its water 

 clear and cold and filled with trout, while all its tributaries 

 are warm and turbid, swarming with pike and muscalunge. 

 The demarcating line is never crossed by cither. As reason- 

 ably might we expect to find the angel fish of Bermuda in the 

 Polar Sea, or walruses in the tropics. 



With these views, fully matured from personal experience, 

 we are prepared to warmly endorse the conclusions of our ob- 

 servant correspondent, and we hope those who have hitherto 



looked upon the pickerel as a " pirate" and fresh water shark' 

 will regard him more leniently. With a growing admiration of 

 the corruscating green and gold of his lakeside livery, will 

 accrue an increasing relish for his delicious flesh. Eaters will 

 praise the flavor, while they tolerate the bones. It should bt' 

 remembered that fish in confinement will inevitably prey upon; 

 each other, even if fed to repletion, when they would not do 

 so if each variety had ample room and conditions favorable to 

 his natural life and growth. In planting fish in preserves, 

 physical conditions should first be carefully considered before 

 a choice is made of the kind of fish to be introduced. 



POSITION IN RIFLE SHOOTING. 



THE question of position in shooting on the ranges has 

 been brought very prominently before the rifle world 

 by the recent circular from the National Rifle Association, 

 asking the opinions of experts on the subject. The inquiry 

 was a restricted one, being intended only to cover the sug- 

 gested modification of the rules which would give to those 

 using military rifles the option of "any position " at ranges 

 over 200 yards. It was, in short, the choice of back or prone 

 position at the mid and long ranges for soldiers. 



The question has drawn opinion from many quarters 

 From the East and West, riflemen of skill before the butts, of 

 undoubted theoretic ability, and whose experience has been 

 long and varied, have given their views. Capt. J. H. BurnB,, 

 President of the California Rifle Association, was of opinion 

 that the present requirement of a prone position should re- 

 main in force. J. N. Frye, the President of what is beyond 

 doubt to-day the leading rifle organization of the country — 

 that having its grounds at Walnut Hill — with W. H. Jackson, 

 Captain of the present existing American team, was of opin- 

 ion that a go-as-you-please policy was the best. Mr. John 

 Johnstone, President of the Milwaukee Rifle Club, agreed to 

 this, as did Sheldon I. Kellogg, Jr., of the Oakland (Cal.) 

 Club. Capt. James E. Stetson, of New Haven, very sensibly 

 remarked that the full measure of success in the [resent style 

 of marksmanship had not been reached, and until this was the 

 fact attention Bhould be given rather to improving in our 

 present style than in searching up new methods of endeavor. 

 Col. Wingate offered the change, and preached vigorously for 

 the retention of the styles of shooting as laid down in the 

 tactics and in his manuel of practice. There were many other 

 opinions and variations of views, some proposing partial modi 

 fications of the rules now in vogue, while others were in favor 

 of a new departure ; and the Committee of the N. R. A. may 

 well be excused for their delay at making a report, if all 

 these diverse treatments are to be amalgamated. Many of the 

 writers set out -with the assumed premise that the sole object 

 of rifle practice is the raising up of a body of soldiers, and 

 that the way to make the average citizen into a proper de- 

 fender of his country by force of arms is to drill him in sol- 

 dier's duty; and then at once comes a new element to the 

 problem in determining what a soldier's duty actually may be. 

 Very naturally the easiest opinion under these circumstances 

 is to fall back into "any position," leaving it to the individu- 

 al rifleman on the range to make the answer. 



This ready mode is, after all, a postponement of the issue, 

 which must be met, and should be disposed of in such a way 

 that, future as well as present emergencies may be overcome. 

 It seems to us very simple, when once the standard to be 

 gained is reached. It is not true that the object of the range 

 is to make soldiers directly. It is rather to so familiarize the 

 average citizen with the use of arms that when he is called 

 upon to use them he wdl not be worse than useless in their 

 manipulation. A man cannot, for instance, shoot exclusively 

 at long range without becoming thereby a far better marks- 

 man at short range than the man who never fires a rifle. It 

 is idle to argue whether soldiers in action do a majority of 

 their work in ball firing from this, that or the other position. 

 Granted that any position is the rule— and, no doubt, it is 

 very near the fact— it is no reason why the rules of the rifle 

 range should be thus guided by the actual practice of the 

 battle-field. There is a vast range of general drill and piepa- 

 ration going to secure the broad ground-work of proficiency, 

 upon which a satisfactory soldiery only can be fixed. A fre- 

 quenter of the firing points, who has been compelled to do 

 bis work under certain severe restrictions, is not going to be- 

 come any the more incapable when these restrictions are 

 removed. Now, for the convenience of record, for the bet- 

 ter gauging of progress, and for the assured stability which 

 such uniformity of practice gives to any sport or pursuit, the 

 advocates and promoters of rifle practice have agreed upon 

 certain broad, simple rules, which are now known in all parts 

 and under which much headway has been made. These it is 

 now proposed to set aside in favor of greater freedom, for 

 reason that such liberty will allow better results. The rea- 

 soning is specious, since, if mere excellence of record was 

 aimed at, it could be got in a dozen different ways. 



Were all the members, say of the New York State Guard, 

 frequenting Creedmoor, thoroughly familiar with their weap- 

 ons, then some such experiments bb tnose hinted nl might he 

 tried ; but there is yet a great deal of work to be dune in 

 bringing the men up to a fair degree of proficiency. The 

 country as a whole has yet to receive its first lesson on this 

 important subject, and the rules which have held thus far, and 

 under which such excellent progress has been made, are 

 good enough for much further use. There is danger in dis- 

 turbing well fixed principles and practices, and the rifle prac- 

 tice as now carried on is well calculated to give to those en- 



