Forest and Stream. 



A Weekly Journal of the Rod and Gun. 



Teems, $4 a Tear. 10 Cts. a 

 Sec Months, $2. 



NEW YORK, OCTOBER 11, 1883. 



CORRESPONDENCE. 



The Forest and Stream is ttie recognized medium of entertain- 

 ment, instruction and information between American sportsmen. 

 Communications upon the subjects to which its pages are devoted are 

 respectfully Invited. Anonymous communications will not be re- 

 garded. No name will be published except with writer's consent. 

 The Editors are not responsible for the views of correspondents. 



SUBSCRIPTIONS 

 May begin at any time. Subscription price, $4 per year ; $2 for six 

 months; to a club of three annua subscribers, three copies for $10; 

 five copies for $10. Remit by registered letter, money-order, or draft, 

 payable to the Forest and Stream Publishing Company. The paper 

 may be obtained of newsdealers throughout the United States and 

 Canadas. On sale by the American Exchange, 449 Strand, W. C, 

 ■London, England. Subscription agents for Great Britain— Messrs. 

 Samson Low, Marston, Searle and Eivington, 188 Fleet street, London. 

 AD ^ T ER TISEMENTS. 



Only advertisements of an approved character inserted. Inside 

 pages, nonpareil type, 25 cents per line. Special rates for three, six 

 and twelve months. Reading notices $1.00 per line. Eight words 

 to the line, twelve lines to one inch. Advertisements should be sent 

 in by the Saturday previous to issue in which they are to he inserted. 



Transient advertisements must invariably be accompanied by the 

 money or they will not be inserted. 



Address all communications, 



Forest and Stream Publishing Co. 

 Nos. 39 and 40 Park Row, New York City. 



El„. 



The Angling Tournament. 



Regular Army Scores. 



A Bit of History. 



An Expensive Adjective. 

 The Sportsman Tourist. 



Squirrel Shooting. 

 Natural Historv. 



"The Birds of Maine." 



Experience with (Snakes. 

 Game Bag and Gun. 



Prole- i hi: I Hen and Game. 



A Spring Day on the Prairie. 



Whistling Wings. 



Trajectories of Sporting Rifles. 



The Buei-oi rh''-OYuro.ssK\yamp 



"Hard Luck." 



Sealing in Alas 

 The Wild Bull! 



The 



Phil; 



I'uba. 

 r c Valley. 

 ill Elk. 



Sea and River Fishing. 



Reelfoot Lake. 



The Angling Tournament. 



My First Adirondack Trip. 



In the Berkshire Hills. 



The Tarpon Again. 



Big Bass. 



St. Louis Sittings. 

 Ftshcultube. 



.Missouri. 



Staten Island Carp. 



Carp in Maryland. 

 TheKf.nnf.l. 



The Philadelphia Kennel Club. 



Robins Island Field Trials. 



The Kennel. 

 The London Dog Show. 



■." siejr, ;.>e> ; : , .;,( J ,v 



■'. L ■ .1 1 . ■ i-.. ']l:i- -rest 



Kennel Notes. 

 Rifle and Trap Shooting. 

 Range and Gallery. 

 The Trap. 

 NewJerBey Gun Club. 



■■'.",,,■, ,.,;,_.,. ];,,;■; I J i i; 



Canoeing. 



Knickerbocker C. C. 



A New Folding Boat. 



Tin' i.'.u..:/':..,!! ; amp. 



"Swinging 'Round the Circle." 

 Yachting. 



Narrow Beam in a Heavy Gale. 



Cruise of the Floyd in Delaware 

 Bay. 



Harlem Y. C. 



''Therefore." 



Launch of the Cutter Ileen. 



Kn;e!,-er'rjoeI;'-i- Y. C 



Yachts Without Keels. 



The British Cracks. 



The Erie Canal. 



The Caprice. 



With the Greatest of Pleasure. 



The carmita. 



Light Draft in Rough Weather. 



Confession is Good for the Soul. 



AN EXPENSIVE ADJECTIVE. 

 \ CORRESPONDENT, a professor in a New England 

 -£*- college, remarks: "Allow me to say here, what I have 

 often thought of saying before, that I have read your jour- 

 nal the last four years with ever increasing interest. It is 

 the best sporting (I hate that, word) paper in the world." 



We appreciate quite fully our correspondent's dislike of 

 the term "sporting." It has an equivocal meaning; it is in 

 bad odor. The expression as used to-day is very compre- 

 hensive. The "sporting news" of the daily paper includes 

 reports of prize fights, dog fights, pool-room quotations, and 

 the doings and misdoings of gamblers, blacklegs, bunco 

 ateerers and thieves. There is no reason to marvel that a 

 gentleman of respectable standing in a staid New England 

 town should shrink from being known as a "sporting man." 

 The odium of "sporting" has troubled many others, because 

 the recreations of shooting and angling have been in popular 

 parlance classed under that same head. 



Our correspondent is, however, needlessly annoyed by the 

 improper use of the word iu the connection in which it is 

 employed in his letter. We beg to assure him and every 

 one else that the Forest! and Stream is not a "sporting 

 paper." Its publishers and editors make no claim that it is. 

 Some of the vilest sheets indecently exposed on the news- 

 stands do make that claim; and for all that we kuow they 

 are perfectly justified in so doing. One of these sheets has 

 recently been suppressed in some of the Southern States, 

 much to the credit of the authorities, The whole obscene 

 brood ought to be exterminated. 



Our dislike of the word "sporting" is not a whim nor an 

 idle sentiment. It has a substantial basis. The adjective 

 has been to us an expensive one. It has cost us much iu 

 two ways. The first item in the count against it is the reve- 

 nue it has cut off and now cuts oil". Scores and hundreds of 

 people who do not now read the Forest asd Stream would 

 become subscribers if they had not misunderstood the true 



character of the journal by confounding it with the "sporting 

 papers." 



We have been fighting that popular error for years ; and 

 we shall probably be obliged to keep up the right for a very 

 long time to come. The second item in the account is the 

 considerable sum put into advertising that the Forest and 

 Stream is not a "sporting paper." We believe in advertis- 

 ing, and do not in the least begrudge the sums expended to 

 let the world know what kind of a paper we are making: 

 we do complain of the necessity of constantly reiterating 

 what kind of a paper we are not making. 



There is a vast distinction between a "sporting paper" and 

 a "sportsman's paper." 



A BIT OF HISTORY. 



"VTO section of our country shows so much change during 

 ■*■* recent years as the Far West. The old emigrant trail has 

 given place to the railroad ; the lodge pole trail to the wagon 

 road. Where once the buffalo roamed, cattle now feed; 

 herds of sheep dot the plains occupied but yesterday by the 

 antelope. The savage has made room for the settler. A 

 region once without inhabitants is peopled. 



In a country where such rapid changes are taking place, 

 where old things arc constantly supplanted by new, where 

 the energy and push of the people are ever turning things 

 upside down, history suffers. Traditions of the past survive 

 but a little while. They are not written down, and are soon 

 forgotten, or, if remembered, their details are lost, their 

 incidents lose their sharpness. Let us rescue one of these 

 tales from oblivion. 



About the year 1846 an emigrant train, while passing 

 through the Rocky Mountains, was attacked by Arapahoe 

 Indians and all its members slain. The story of the de- 

 struction of these travelers came to the knowledge of some 

 trappers in the employ of the American and Northwest Fur 

 Companies, and these men determined to take vengeance on 

 the Indians. Some months later, thirty trappers were camped 

 in the Freeze-Out Hills, near the Little Medicine Bow River, 

 in what is now Wyoming Territory. One day toward even- 

 ing a party of Indians were seen approaching the point of 

 Freeze-Out Mountain. They went into camp there, and 

 after watching them for awhile, the trappers determined that 

 they were Arapahoes. The day of retribution had come. 



After dark the trappers stole quietly down the mountain 

 side, and concealed themselves among the rocks, completely 

 surrounding the fifteen lodges of the Indians. In the early 

 morning the camp began to manifest signs of life. The first 

 Indian that showed himself was shot down, and at once the 

 lodges poured forth their inmates. As fast as they ap- 

 pealed they fell before the galling fire of the while men, 

 and in a short time not one Indian was left alive. Then, 

 emerging from their cover, the trappers proceeded to kill 

 every living thing in the camp. After this, satisfied with 

 their revenge, they took their departure. 



We recently visited this battle ground, and, seated in the 

 midst of the old Indian camp, listened to the history of the 

 massacre. The ground is still strewn with bones and frag- 

 ments of bones, which tell the tale of the universal death 

 which overtook the camp. Most of these bones are fragile, 

 after au exposure to the weather for nearly forty years, but 

 a few human skulls, and the long bones of the forearm, are 

 still to be seen. Horse and dog skulls are present in consid- 

 erable numbers, and old tepee poles are abundant. 



A little search showed other objects of interest. An old 

 flint lock rifle was found, half buried in the ground, and a 

 bowie-knife of ancient pattern — a true "Louisiana tooth 

 pick"— ; whose handle had yielded to the weather, but 

 on whose hard blade the rust had made scarcely 

 any impression. The edge of this knife was whetted 

 in true Indian fashion, round on one side and flat 

 on the other. There was found also an old "T. Gray" 

 axe, such as were made by thousands early in the present 

 century for the Northwest Fur Company, and by them used 

 in trading with the Indians. Its gray weather-beaten handle 

 was still in the socket, its extremity pierced with the hole 

 for the buckskin thong by which it was once hung to the 

 saddle of the warrior who owned it. A number of other 

 relics were found; scrapers made of the antlers of the elk 

 with blades of iron neatly fitted into their bcut edges, remains 

 of pack saddles, a piece of wood carved in imitation of the 

 horu of the white man's saddle, a lead spoon, a clasp knife, 

 open, a few bullets, a number of sheet-iron arrow points, 

 and others of stone. 



Three Arapahoe skulls were secured which would bear 

 transportation, though one of these was very fragile. The 

 lower jaws had disappeared and the teeth had dropped from 



their sockets. One of the skulls, evidently that of a warrior, 

 bore the marks of some still more ancient combat. Immedi- 

 ately over the external opening of the ear, and along the 

 superior Jine of union between the right parietal and tempo* 

 ral bones is an indentation deep and wide enough to contain 

 a man's thumb. This depression was evidently caused by a 

 blow, and the appearance of the bone shows that although 

 this blow was sufficiently violent to cause the skull to bulge 

 inward half an inch or more at the point referred to, the 

 man recovered from its effects. The shape of these skulls is 

 very curious, and quite unlike that of the ordinary Caucasian 

 cranium. 



Our search of the battle-ground was hurried, and when it 

 was over we packed our trophies upon one of the ponies, and 

 mounting, rode slowly away from the historic spot. 



REGULAR ARMY SCORES. 

 r pHE reports of the fall practice in rifle shooting by the 

 -*- various picked teams of the. regular army, are very en- 

 couraging. The men are doing capital work, and show that 

 the ability to hit what is aimed at is becoming common 

 among the men of the various posts. The percentages of the 

 selected teams are very high, and if rivalry is allowed to ex- 

 ert a proper force in the many company and department 

 ranges of the country, there need be little fear that the 

 whole army will not develop into a fine body of shooting ex- 

 perts. 



The system of the general selection of the best marksmen 

 each year for special honors, seems to be a good one, and 

 with the proper distinctions drawn between the efforts of the 

 officers and men, proper discipline may be preserved, and 

 the best results in a shooting way reached. It is not yet 

 certain that the best work of the army rifle has been reached. 

 We believe that there is a certain percentage which may be 

 put down as the working capacity of an arm. It differs in 

 various weapons, and is pretty well known in some of the 

 State model rifles which have been extensively used. In the 

 regular army this figure will ultimately be accurately deter- 

 mined, and then only in rare and expeptional instances will 

 the rate be exceeded. 



The statistics of army practice are readily collected, and, 

 with the facilities for range practice at most, if not all, of 

 the posts, there is no reason why there should not be a gen- 

 eral steady advance all along the line. No part of the force 

 should be allowed to lag, and, scattered as it is into many 

 posts, the regular army might do much in stirring up a feel- 

 ing in favor of rifle practice among those outside the profes- 

 sion of arms. The soldier and the civilian might cultivate 

 a valuable acquaintance if they met frequently before the 

 targets, and somewhat of the prejudice, against the regular 

 military service on the part of the unthinking public would 

 gradually disappear. 



TEE ANGLING TOURNAMENT. 

 H^HE second annual angling tournament will be held on 

 ■*- Harlem Mere, in Central Park, this city, next Tuesday 

 and Wednesday. The ground is the same that was used last 

 year, and may be reached from the 116th street station of 

 the Sixth and Ninth avenues Elevated Railway, or from the 

 106th street station of the Third avenue road. Hacks will 

 be in waiting at each station, fare to the grounds ten cents. 

 We publish the prize lists and other details in our Sea and 

 River Fishing columns. The prizes are numerous and sub- 

 stantial; much interest has been manifested by anglers, and 

 it is anticipated that the tournament this year will be as 

 pleasant as was the initial meeting. There is no admission 

 fee, the public is invited. 



Salt- Water Grayling.— Mr. Charles Hull Botsford has 

 composed and copyrighted, and published in the Manhattan, 

 a "Song of the Atalanta." The Atalanta is Mr. Jay Gould's 

 steam yacht. Mr. Botsford sings: 

 We follow, we follow 



The gull and the grayling, 

 Now lost in the hollow 

 Of ocean, now sailing. 

 Which, we take it, implies either that the owner of the 

 Atalanta contemplates a yacht cruise up the Jordan River, 

 of Michigan, or that Mr. Botsford has discovered a species 

 of salt-water grayling. In this case his service to Bcience is 

 unquestionably as important as his contribution to the field 

 of poesy, 



Bio Bass. — A report appears to be current in Canada that 

 the Forest and Stream has offered a prize of §50 for a 

 bass of a certain weight. This report is erroneous and 

 without foundation. Why should we offer a prize for a 

 heavy bass? A big fish, like virtue, is its own reward. 



