Forest and Stream. 



A Weekly Journal of the Rod and Gun. 



NEW YORK, OCTOBER 28, 1883. 



CORRESPONDENCE. 



Thk Forest and Stream is the recognized medium of entertain- 

 ment, instruction and information between American sportsmen. 

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 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. 



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Forest and Stream Publishing Co, 

 Nob. SO and 40 Park Row. New York City. 



The Sorrow; ot Sportsmen. 

 Quail Shooting. 

 The Sportsman Tourist. 

 A Story of the Old Hunter' 



Home. 

 Shooting in Sweden, 



The Kennel. 



The St. John Dog Show . 

 j Sport in the Old Dominion. 

 The Kennel Hospital. 

 Tailless Braque of the liourbou- 



Kennel Notes 



Hunting Reminiscences of Al- ] Rifle and Trap Shooting. 



giers. 



Lake Koshkonong. 

 Two Days. 

 Side Hunts. 



i ,:.iiia Notes. 



Hooks on a Minnow Oaug. 

 Fishccltdre. 

 Conference of Fish C'oinmis- 



Be;, cli Shows and Judging. 

 Shooting Ruffed (Irotise o 



Cockers. 

 Consistency. 



__ National Sportsman's Assoe'n. 



3taten Island. 

 American Canoe Association. 

 Improvements in Canoes. 



The Fruits of Victor} . 

 Concerning Open Boats. 

 Sharpies in the West. 

 1 i i-e of the I 'i icket. 

 Concerning Sharpies. 

 Shrinking Up. 



Ti e i'ean > '! e 



The Bedouin and Grade. 



v. I .;■ .; ::,:■ i ,- u,-: ■„, 

 The Carmita Cutters. 

 Underrigged. 



A Yachtsman on a Coaster. 

 Answers to Correspondents. 



(Ill All, SHOOTING. 

 r pHliRE is no oilier same bird upon this continent that is 

 J- so widely distributed as the quail, nor none that is 

 bo persistently sought by the hunter. In all the vast expanse 

 of country inhabited by these birds, there is scarcely a lover 

 of field sports, who practices shooting on the wing, but 

 spends in their pursuit a portion at least of the time devoted 

 by him to pleasure, while many who-dwell in portions of 

 the country not inhabited by them, annually make a pil- 

 grimage to more favored climes where they can enjoy this 

 fascinating sport. 



Notwithstanding the constant pursuit by this vast army 

 of sportsmen, and the thinning of their ranks by the hurt- 

 ling lead, our little, friends bravely hold their own, and un- 

 less the deep snows and chilling' blasts of winter overpower 

 them, each returning season finds their numbers undimin- 

 ished, and our pleasant sport is sure. 



Until frosts have destroyed the vegetation there is more of 

 hard work than sport in their pursuit. Even in localities 

 where they are abundant it is very rare that, early in the 

 season, enough can be found to afford the most indefatigable 

 hunter a fair amount of sport. This, in part, is owing to 

 their wandering habits, which iu late summer and early 

 autumn appear to be in full force, leading them into open 

 ground and the most unlikely looking places that can be 

 found. Very fleet of foot are they, and as they scurry over 

 the parched ground, keenest nose cannot trace their course. 

 nor ripest judgment locate their hiding place, and it is gen- 

 erally the case at this season of the year that a find is more 

 the result of accident than a display of skill. 



When the foliage has disappeared from the trees and the 

 glasses have become brown, the birds seem, in a measure, 

 t0 lose their love for long journeys, and may generally be 

 found near their favorite feeding grounds. It is then that 

 (he hunter may enjoy to the full the pleasures of this do 



lightful sport. With buoyant footstep he beats the brown 

 stubble and explores the secret nook upon the hillside. With 

 long-drawn inspiration he breathes the pure, crisp air of the 

 bright autumnal days, renewing the vigor of his frame and 

 restoring the faculties of his mind with deep draughts from 

 the well-spring of Nature, which proves for him a veritable 

 "fountain of youth." 



So much has been written regarding the habits of the quail 

 and the manner in which to hunt them, that it would seem 

 superfluous to offer any advice as to the method of their 

 capture, but as mtiuy of our readers will make their debut 

 upon the stubbles the present season, we add a few words of 

 instruction that we trust will not come amiss. It is very 

 important that the new beginner should have a steady and 

 reliable dog, one that has had .considerable experience in 

 hunting the game sought. Such a dog, if intelligently fol- 

 lowed, will impart to the tyro much more of knowledge 

 than he can ever learn from the most elaborate treatise 

 upon the subject. Quail are early risers, and in pleas- 

 ant weather, if the hunter follows their example, he 

 will find them upon their feeding grounds, and 

 his morning hours should be spent upon the stubbles. 

 Always enter the field from the leeward side, in order that 

 your dog may have the benefit of the wind. When he makes 

 his point do not be in a hurry, but calmly and deliberately 

 walk in front, of him and flush the birds. Steady now, and 

 do not lose your head, but take plenty of time to cover your 

 bird and coolly pull the trigger and bring him down. Do 

 not attempt to use the second barrel until you can score a 

 clean kill with flic first and feel that you are master of the 

 situation. Should the miss of the birds and the excitement, 

 of the moment prove too much for your nerves, you will find 

 it to your advantage to draw the shot from a few 

 of your shells and try the birds with blank cart- 

 ridges until you can hold dead on every time. It 

 is wonderful what a steadying iufluence that will have 

 upon the most excitable nerves. As soon as you have de_ 

 livered your shot, carefully watch the bevy and do ot take 

 your eyes from them until the last glimmer of their wings is 

 lost to view, for one of the most important points to be ob- 

 served in shooting is to correctly mark down your birds. 

 Do not be iu a hurry about following up your birds, particu- 

 larly if they appear to be scattered, as by waiting a little the 

 scent will have time to rise, thus giving your dog a much 

 better chance to locate them. During the middle of the day 

 the birds will generally be found along the fences and 

 hedges, or in the brush or brier patches and the borders of 

 woods adjoining their feeding grounds; toward night they 

 again visit the stubbles or patches of weeds for their supper. 



A light gun and light charges will afford as much more 

 pleasure and be just as effective as a heavy weapon or charges 

 that cause an unpleasant recoil. A twelve gauge cylinder 

 bore of about seven pounds weight, is as heavy a gun as we 

 Would advise for quail shooting. The proper load for such 

 a gun is three drams of good powder with three-quarters of 

 an ounce of No. 10 shot for the first barrel and a scant 

 ounce of No. 8 for the second. We know of many shooters 

 who use lighter guns of smaller bore with proportionately 

 smaller charges, who are very r successful in bringing their 

 birds to bag. 



Quail on toast is conceded by all to be a "dish to set before 

 a king," and by no one is the delicacy better relished than by 

 the invalid just recovering from a protracted illness. Bear 

 this in mind when, with ruddy cheeks and bounding poise; 

 you return from your pleasant trip, laden with the spoils of 

 the chase, and with the timely gift of a brace or two of the 

 beautiful birds make glad the hearts of the suffering ones, 

 and sweeter will be your dreams and keener your enjoj r ment 

 when again you take a turn among the quail. 



Animal Life in the Newspapers. — The average ex- 

 change editor is an incipient, half-Hedged showman. His 

 shears seize with the greatest ayidity upon a six-legged 

 rooster or a cat without any eyes. The "animal stories" 

 column of the daily and weekly' paper is generally a farrago 

 of bosh. The more absurd the alleged doings of a horse or 

 a monkey, so much the more surely is it published for the 

 delectation of readers. Now the story is a cat feeding a 

 goldfish, the next day a pickerel pining away with grief at 

 the death of its child mistress, and to-morrow it will be a dog 

 with three tails and no bark. Even the local editor finds it 

 difficult to record village happenings without now and then 

 being betrayed into spiuning fairy tales. The Canton. New 

 York, sportsmen had a side-hunt for squirrels the other 

 day. and the local paper gravely announced that one of the 

 gunners had killed 604 squirrels, and another 385, 



THE SORROWS OF SPORTSMEN. 



£~VEN so happy a man as is he who disports himself with 

 rod and gun has his vexations and sorrows, as has the 

 unhappier and less favored mortal whose pleasure lies in 

 walks outside of quiet woods and afar from pleasant waters. 

 Of the sportsman's vexations may be mentioned many per- 

 taining to things inanimate and animate; as of the first, 

 kinking lines, ill-working reels, uon exploding caps and 

 primers, sticking shells, un-sticking wads, and no end of 

 such perverse belongings to the angler's and gunner's outfit, 

 as well as those which come in his Way, as twigs, logs, bogs, 

 cold water under foot and pouring from over head, to 

 switch, tangle, trip, bemire and soak him. Of animate 

 things, how will all the insects of the air and earth combine 

 to torture him, and how will the very objects of his pursuit 

 forsake all the laws and rules laid down by nature and cus- 

 tom, and thwart his skillfulest endeavors to possess them. 



But all these are nothing to the vexation and sorrow 

 wrought unto his soul by his brother man. There are those 

 counted honest in ordinary affairs of life who will poach in 

 close times and rob their honester fellows of that, which 

 enriches not them and makes these others poor indeed — in 

 the loss of time and satisfaction of reasonable desires. And 

 there are also law-makers who put pig's heads on their 

 shoulders when they come to making laws for the protection 

 of fish and game, though they bear the levelest of brains 

 when matters of valuation and taxation are concerned. 



And yet these are vexations of the spirit which one happy 

 day of sport may lift, as north wind and sunshine the fog 

 from the landscape. But when he, who has not been by his 

 favorite stream since the year-ago summer when birds and 

 fields welcomed him with song and holiday attire, now finds 

 the banks laid bare by the axe, and the stream turned away 

 by some scientific agriculturist who hates willows and 

 crooked waterways; when he, who has not visited copse 

 and wood with dog and gun since last year's leaves were 

 gaudy' or sere, goes, out to-day to find the alders he had come 

 to think his own only brush heaps and clusters of stubby 

 stumps; his worshiped hemlocks and pines, his lithe birches 

 and wide-spread beeches, and bee-inviting dogwoods, only 

 saw logs and piles of cord wood lying in state among looped 

 branches and fluffly plumes of fire weed, his heart grows sick 

 with a climbing sorrow that, will not, down. How suddenly 

 has his goodly heritage passed from him. A 'year ago he 

 had more good of it than the one who held the deed of the 

 land, though he got naught tangible therefrom but a half- 

 filled creel or a few brace of birds. Yet how full was fed his 

 starved spirit that so long had craved the blessed food that 

 Nature gave to those who love her. 



The worst of it is, that if he prays, or curses, or weeps, 

 he cannot change it. By-and-by over this waste may be 

 heard the "lovely laughter of the wind-swept wheat" and 

 the hum of bees, come here to gather sweets from clover, 

 but never again will brood over it the solemn quiet of the 

 old woods, nor grouse cleave the shadows of .great trees, nor 

 woodcock thrid the mazes of the brake, nor trout swim in 

 the shade of the willows. This is the heaviest grief that 

 comes to the man who uses rod and gun, or to him who 

 hunts without a gun. Yet some good may come of it, for 

 thereby he may learn to pity his red brother, who loved all 

 these things and suffered greater loss in their passing from 

 him. 



Cotton and Trout.— The waterpower of New England 

 is dwindling, shrinking, lessening, evaporating, vanishing. 

 One by one the streams are drying up, leaving in place of 

 flowing waters a dismal bed of stones, a hard pathway of 

 rocky desolation. The mill dams are going, too. The cot- 

 ton market fluctuates with the rise and fall of the water in 

 Massachusetts and Connecticut streams. The mill owners 

 must have something more stable than water Steam is more 

 stable than water. This is no paradox. The steam engine 

 is supplanting the mill-race. The cotton manufacturers see 

 their way out of the ruin wrought by forest destruction. 

 But what is the angler to do'; If the big streams go, it is 

 certain that the little ones go first. The steam engine cannot 

 help the trout and black bass fishing, it is not ridiculous 

 to talk of cotton mills and trout reels in the same connection. 

 One is work and the other play? "The play of our elders," 

 said the wise St. Augustine, "they call business." 



There is a Vast Distinction between a "sporting man" 

 and a sportsman, and between a "sporting" paper and a 

 sportsman's paper. 



Correspondents are BbbpJBCtftji,^ KEQtTjSgTCEB to 

 write on '»"< sidb of Via pcc$ 



