Forest and Stream. 



a Weekly Journal of the Rod and Gun. 



Terms, $i a Year. 10 Cts. a Copy. 1 

 Six Months, S2. j 



NEW YORK, AUGUST 23, 1883. 



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CONTENTS. 



Editorial. 

 Pinnated Grouse Shooting. 

 Rod and Keel Makers. 



IV, i 11:; .WIV , in < mm ; ri , I i/: ; .'is 



Allies. 



The Popularity of Yachting. 



Connecticut Woodcock. 



An Advertising Dodge. 

 The Smiutsman Tourist 



-': - ::■ i- I'l I 



Tne Cruise oi tue Sairt Gamp. 

 Natural Historv. 



Notes on the Black Racer. 

 Game Bag and gun. 



The Game Laws. 



Shore Birds off Cape Charles. 



An Unvarnished Tale. 



Farmers and SportsmeD. 



Elk Hunting in the Kockies. 



Some Game Shots. 



New Jersey Shore Bird Shooting 



Deer and Wolves. 



A New Recoil Fad. 



Ne- .• Yoi k Game Protectors. 

 Camp Fire Flickerings. 

 Sea and Kiver Fishing. 



Rochester- Angling Chat. 



Detroit Notes. 



BlackBass Fishing on the Caster 



Trout and Moccasin . 



Fishculthbe. 



The Wisconsin Commission. 



Carp. 

 The Kennel. 



'-j.merii:an Kennel Register." 



Montreal Dog Show. 



Tue spi-ingneld Dog Show. 



The Loudon Dog Show. 



Dogs and Critics. 



Status of the Bulldog. 



Kennel Notes. 



Kennel Management. 

 Rifle and Thai Shooting. 



Muzzle vs. Breech. 



Range and Gullery. 



Tne Trap. 



A New England Association. 



Central Illinois. 

 Canoeing. 



i 'ahoeJng on the Mokelumue. 



AU-eheiiv Canoe Club. 



The A. C. A. Meet. 

 Yachting 



Racing Colossal. 



Improved Launch Engine. 



In Port. 



Royal Nova Scotia Y. C. 



Aloug Shore Cruising. 



Pantaloon at the Races. 



ANSWERS TO COKUESPONOENTS. 



With its compact type and in its permanently enlarged form 

 of twenty-eight pages this journal furnishes each ween a larger 

 amount of fust-class matter relating to angling, shooting, the 

 kennel, and kindred subject*;, than is contained in all other 

 American publications put together. 



the blame rests upon the shoulders of the gentlemen sports- 

 men, those whose every instinct should cause them to pro- 

 tect instead of destroy. Is the man who fancies that be 

 must take his vacation in midsummer, and demands of the 

 Legislature that he have permission to follow his favorite 

 sport, blameless in the matter? Is the sportsman who takes 

 his gun and murders the callow brood because, forsooth, 

 some one else will get them if he stays his hand, the man to 

 "cast the first stone"? Is the man who sits with folded 

 hands and allows the lawless pc acher to break the protective 

 laws with impunity the one to boast that his hands are free 

 from the bit od of the innocents? 



That sunimei shooting is mainly the cause of the disap- 

 pearance of the woodcock we firmly believe. Of course the 

 greatly increased number of those who shoot has some- 

 l hing to do with it, but not to the extent that many claim. 

 The law of Connecticut regarding summer shooting is the 

 jest that we have, and we hope that the time is not far dis- 

 tant that will see the same provisions upon the statute books 

 of other States. 



CONNECTICUT WOODCOCK. 



WITH each recurring August comes a v. ail from Con- 

 necticut regarding the scarcity of that much perse- 

 cuted and nearly extinct bird, the woodcock. There is no 

 question that the complaint is well-founded. The birds are 

 few. Many are the verdant hill-ides, once their chosen re- 

 sort, where their querulous whistle is heard no longer, and 

 many are the inviting alder copses now forsaken. The de- 

 pletion of the birds is not confined to Connecticut; it is the 

 ,ru)e in all localities where the inexcusably short-sighted 

 practice of unseasonable shooting has wrought its sure and 

 fatal result. 



There was a time when even in Connecticut the brown 

 beauties were something more tangible than a tradition; 

 these were the halcyon days, when "by the merry brookside 

 and in every ferny dell" the sweet music of their silken 

 wings was not a dim recollection. Twenty years ago wood- 

 cock were plenty ; we know whereof we write, for at that 

 time there was hardly a cover in the State east of the river 

 that was not well known to us; and in many of 

 them it was nothing unusual to find a dozen or more plump, 

 well-fed birds. For nearly a score of years pre\ ious to this 

 the locality we mention had been our "happy hunting 

 grounds," and at no time during the period did we fail to 

 find in their season the same plenty, nor in all those years 

 had we noticed any diminution of their numbers from year 

 to year. Until within the pa-t twenty years there had been 

 in this locality scarcely a bird killed until the proper season, 

 but learning that there was a demand m midsummer for the 

 birds, first one antl then another commenced the "slaughter 

 of the innocents," and soon, with constantly iucreasmg num- 

 bers joining in ibis r. ienlless pursuit, the mo=t secret retreat 

 of the beauU'.ul bird will be as desolate as the desert sands. 

 The market-shooter is not alone to blame for the desola- 

 tion that abounds. Indeed, by far the heaviest portion of 



TEE POPULARITY OF YACHTING-. 

 C*OR a long time past the New York public has looked 

 *- on in amazement at the wonderful life and spirit ex- 

 hibited by yachting in small boats in Eastern waters. Sur- 

 rounded as we are by a vast population of millions within 

 easy reach of sheltered stretches, small boats, which appeal 

 to the needs and purses of the masses, should naturally find 

 the center of their interests here in the great commercial 

 metropolis. It is the truth, however, that yachting in small 

 boats in this neighborhood pales before the vast gatherings 

 which have recently been witnessed in the waters contin 

 gent to Boston. The Marblehead races last Saturday drew 

 together some three hundred yachts of modest tonnage, 

 nearly all under (50 ft., and the majority under 35 ft., but 

 thorough yachts in build and fittings for ali that. Nexi 

 Saturday promises to see an equally great fleet collected off 

 Nantasket Beach, and a hundred and fifty sail ready 

 to take the signal from the judges for a friendly con 

 test of seamanship and speed. It is almost impos- 

 sible to collect more than a dozen small cabin 

 yachts at a time in New York waters, and then the 

 collection is an odd assortment of more or less dilapidated 

 examples of the genus "death trap." Why does such an 

 unnatural state of affairs exist? We believe it to be due to 

 the tolerance of shifting ballast among reputable clubs. As 

 long as this evil is allowed to continue, the generally worth- 

 less, dangerous and expensive sailing machines, known as 

 "open boats," flourish at a premi in to the exclusion ol 

 worthier examples of nautical architecture, costing less than 

 half as much to build and commission, and affording a vast 

 deal more sport, sailing and racing of a legitimate sort. The 

 public is driven off by the contemplation of the outlay and 

 danger and meager satisfaction the possession of an "open 

 boat" machine offers, instead of being enticed through the 

 comfort, safety, cruising abilities and legitimate racing on 

 small money, which they would not be slow to discover and 

 appreciate in small, uncapsizable yachts with the appurte- 

 nances necessary to regular life afloat. Racing with shift- 

 ing ballast means a racing of the crews, and for that sort of 

 thing the genual public cares not a continental. Racing 

 with fixed ballast means a racing of the boats, and that con- 

 stitutes true sport and promotes the survival of the fittest 

 form for all purposes. 



have been in a bad way. The rods had meta' reel-seats, and 

 there was no alternative but to file the reel-plate. To cut 

 into a wooden roj, which has merely reel-bands, spoils the 

 finish and offends the maker of it, if he sees it, but this 

 has been our practice in preference to filing on the reel. The 

 difficulty is that X. is indifferent whether his reels fit Y."s 

 rods or not, as long as they adjust themselves perfectly on 

 his own. and to one who has rods and reels by these makers, 

 and also reels from Z. and rods from Q., this evil is a great 

 one. 



It seems to us that this is a subject for discussion at the 

 next annual meeting of the National Rod and Reel Associa- 

 tion, and that a standard size for reel-plates might be 

 adopted if our leading manufacturers would agree to it 

 A. similar evil existed in the making of microscopes when 

 eacu maker had his own-dies, and his lenses would fit his 

 instruments but not those of another. The London Micro- 

 scopical Society took up the matter and adopted a standard 

 of size and number of threads, and now no maker can find 

 a market for a microscope which has not the "society" or 

 universal screw. 



Let us have a "staudard" reel-plate and seat to match; 

 then a gentleman with an assortment of trout rods and reels 

 will not be obliged to mar his reels with a file. It is doubt- 

 ful if our tackle makers realize the extent of this evil, for 

 an evil it certainly is when a man gets into the woods with 

 new tackle bought at different places, and finds that his 

 reel and his rod cannot be perfectly attached. 



ROD AND REEL MAKERS. 

 \\J HILE our makers of rods are continually taxing their 

 • ' brains to find new woods, glues, varnishes, and 

 other materials to make their implements lighter, stronger, 

 and quicker in action, and our reel makers are devising all 

 sorts ol combinations to eclipse all other implements of the 

 kind, there is one point that has been lost sight of by both. 

 This is uniformity in size of the reel plate and the seat. One 

 who makes both rods and reels sees that all of his reels fit in 

 the reel-seats of the rods in a perfect manner, and further 

 than this he does not seem to care. If you use his rods, he 

 argues, you should buy his reels also, for are they not the 

 best that can be made or devised? 



We own many rods and several reels, and in our opinion 

 each reel shoull fit every rod, but they did not, until we dug 

 out the reel-seats of the rods, which had no m^tal ones, and 

 tiled the plates of the reels to tit the tnital rcel-ssat-i. Liit 

 season, in going to the Adirondack--, we hurriedly bundled 

 up ti.ree rods and packed two reels in the creel, without try- 

 ing them to see if they fined. Out on a lake we essayed to 

 rig up and found that the reels did not fit, and hut f--r a 

 Bmall file, which usually accompanies the kit, we would 



PINNATED GROUSE SHOOTING. 

 t? A VORABLE reports from many sections of the ' 'chicken 

 -*- grounds" indicate one of the most prosperous seasons 

 that we have had lor a number of years. We have not been 

 called upon to chronicle any serious disaster from fire or 

 rlood during the nesting season, and nearly all reports con- 

 tain accounts of full coveys. As many of the readers of 

 .''orest axd Stream will doubtless essay their skill in the 

 capture of the "toothsome chicken," a few points will not 

 be amiss. The veteran shooter, of course, is up to all the 

 wrinkles, and needs no instruction. With the tyro, how- 

 ever, the case is different, and a few timely points may prove 

 of service. 



The best possible manner in which to enjoy chicken 

 shooting is for a party to take teams and outfit and camp 

 out. Should this plan be adopted, some one who knows the 

 ropes must be taken alone 1 , to whom all necessary arrange- 

 ments can be trusted. If this plan is not practicable or 

 desirable, heaii quarters may be chosen at the village hotel, 

 or at some farmhouse where teams can be had, as it is 

 almost indispensable that one should be used. A brace at 

 least of dogs should be taken, and if a pro.onged shoot is 

 contemplated, not less than two brace. The latter number 

 is sreatty to be preferred, as you can then run a brace to- 

 gether, and by changing them often they will always be 

 tresh. A light gun, say a seven-pound twelve-gauge, will 

 serve your purposes much better than a heavier -ne^pon; 

 and unless you have the knack of holding 'dead on" you 

 will find that a cylinder bore will afford more satisfaction 

 than a choke. Take along a change of warm clothing, as in 

 case of rain you will need it bdh for comfort antl for the 

 protection ot your health. A light rubber overcoat should 

 be taken by all means, and always carried with you. Never 

 forget to put a big jug of water in the wagon when starting 

 out, also a cake of ice if you can procure it. It is a good 

 plan to have a driver that understands marking the birds as 

 well as one who knows the country. 



Make it a rule to ask permission of the farmers fcr the 

 privilege of shooting over their grounds and y ou will avoid 

 much trouble. You will find the birds on the stubble fields 

 in ihe morning and evening, and near the sloughs or in the 

 cornfields in the middle of the day. 



Many shooters use lour or live drains of powder and an 

 ounce and a quartet or more of shot. These charges are too 

 heavy for comfort, nor are tiny necessary. We have killed 

 many hundreds of chickens using three drams of good pow- 

 der, with three-quarters of an ounce of No. 10 shot for the 

 first barrel, anu the same amount of powder with a scant 

 ounce of No. i> for the other. These charges give no recoil 

 to speak of, and, if the gun is properly held, will insure a 

 gootl account of the chickens. 



Shoot no more game than you can use, not forgetting to 

 present a few to the gentlemen who allow you the fie. dam 

 of their farms, anil while the joylu) lecollei tions of you* 

 glorious days upon the piairie are yet green, sit down and 

 tiansctibe for the readers ol FoRJioT and Ssteam an ac- 

 couut of the incidents ot your holiday, that they may share 

 with you a portion of its pleasure. 



