Forest and Stream. 



A Weekly Journal of the Rod and Cun. 



NEW YORK, NOVEMBER 1, 1883. 



00ERE8P0ST3ENGS, 



The Forest and Streak is the recognized medium of entertain- 

 ment, instruction and information between American spoilsmen. 

 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. 



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Forest, and Stream Publishing Co. 

 Nos. 8B.A.ND 40 Park Row. New York City. 



Notes About Reptiles. 

 iodii \ icating Same Birds. 



! 'AMP-nni FLlf'KEniNGS. 



(Jamk Bag and Gun. 



The Light .turner Days. 

 Out, in this f'billv Dawn. 

 Among tin- Black Tails. 



The Kennel. 



N. A. Kennel Club Notes. 

 The Leonberg Dog. 



Rifle and Trap Shooting. 

 Range and Gallery. 

 The Trap. 

 Long Island Tournament 



,etter. The Hew Smvrna Y. C. 



Trout in Maine, i No Its or Ands. 



Held. A Word to our Cousins, 



hooting Boat. , A New Centerboard Cutter, 



apper. ' Why the Third Race Was Lost. 



Odi. Table Turned. 



How Others See It. 



Subterranean Trout. 



Throwing up the Sponge to a 



Tennessee Fishing Notes. 



Half-Rigged Cruising cutter. 



Ancient. Anglers. 



Netting in Greenwood Lake. 



The Late Yachting Contests. 



Sharpies in the West. 



My First Adirondack Trip. 



Did Not We Tell You So? 



FlSHOl-LTURE. 



Sharpies. 



Canadain Fisheult.m-e a Failun 



An Old-Time Racer. 



London Fisheries exhibition. 





English and A in.- i,: n ' i, ; . -. i - 





TheKenmi. 



.;.. . .... '. , i. .■ the Sloop. 



The Teeth and G urns of Dogs. 





With Us compact type and in Us permanently enlarged form 

 of twenty-eight pages this journal furnishes each u-eeica larger 

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

 kennel, and kindred subjects, than is contained in all other 

 American publications put together. 



WELL-MERITED PUNISHMENT. 



T^HE Executive Committee of the JT. R. A. has had, dur- 

 -*- ing the past week, a very unpleasant duty to perform. 

 Two marksmen have been found guilty of gross irregularity 

 in connection with their work at Creedmoor and have been 

 permanently disqualified from participation in the matches 

 at that range. Sergeant B. Blue, of the Tenth Infantry, 

 U, 8, A., and Lieutenant B. A. Skinnell, Company H, 

 Ninth Regiment, N. G. S. N. Y., were each found guilty 

 of an attempt to bribe a score keeper, and in that way 

 secure certain prizes to which they were not entitled. The 

 evidence seemed conclusive in each instance, and there was 

 really no other conclusion than the one reached by the com- 

 mittee. 



Since the fall meeting rumors have been Hying about that 

 the records were not properly kept, and in consequence a 

 doubt was cast over the entire work of the many marksmen 

 participating. There was nothing left to the managers ex. 

 cept a searching investigation and the discovery of, at least, 

 a few guilty ones. The verdicts reached show that there 

 was a basis for the cloud of doubt, and will serve to show 

 the riflemen from out of town who took part in recent, con- 

 tests at Creedmoor, that, those in control will not be willing 

 parties to any tampering with the scores. 



If the records at this or any other range are worth any- 

 thing at all, they must be kept with the utmost exactitude, 

 and the most severe punishment is well merited by any one 

 who seeks to secure an advantage over his fellows before 



the butts by bribery and corruption. There may be room for 

 debate and honest difference of opinion touching the merits 

 of various rifles, and whether this or that gun is to be placed 

 in the military or any rifle class is a fair topic of discussion, 

 but one,.' a shot is fired, the record of the value of that shot 

 is a simple question of plain clerical work about which there 

 can be no dispute. It is the first, duty of the managers of a 

 range, to see to it that correct systems of scoring are pro- 

 vided, and that no crooked work be permitted to creep in. 



We have recently had occasion to note the fact that these 

 practices of securing pencil scores in place of honestly made 

 records had made their appearance in Great Britain. Wim- 

 bledon had been invaded by the rascals, and on other ranges, 

 too, the tricksters had been noted and turned off the. shooting- 

 grounds. The managers there at once saw that tbey must 

 be above suspicion if they would retain the confidence of 

 the real marksmen, and great pains were taken in tracking 

 down the wrong-doers. For such a crime as that recently 

 perpetrated at Creedmoor to have gone unpunished, would 

 have served as the final blow to the already weakened N. 

 R. A There has been a plenty- of blundering and many 

 ridiculous and contradictory decisions, but thus far the 

 effort has been to make the record of the shooting at (reed 

 moor correspond with the facts. 



Lieut. Skinnell attempted the bribery with which he is 

 charged in connection with the State Marksman's prize, and 

 so every Guardsman of the State has an interest in seeing to 

 it that his rascality did not succeed. It would have been a 

 direct blow at the entire system of rewards for expert marks- 

 manship in this State. The State officials, in order to give 

 every chance to our city members of the Guard, have per- 

 mitted the records made in certain of the Creedmoor matches 

 to couut for the State prizes. This concession permitted men 

 to select their own time of shooting, and so avoid the visit to 

 the range in uniform, and at certain dates set down in orders. 

 In return for this kindness, and desire for accommodation on 

 the part of the military authorities, the culprit in this case 

 seeks to bribe the poorly paid score keepers, and so in a quiet 

 and surreptitious way secure a score which he felt, his incom- 

 petency to win in open shooting with the other members of 

 his command. 



The whole system of scoring is open to a sensible revision. 

 In matches where there is a fixed time for opening and 

 closing the firing, and where each of the contestants tires 

 side by side with his antagonists, there is probably little 

 room for any cheating, but in continuous matches, where the 

 firing point is often deserted by all save the scorer and a 

 single shooter, there is that privacy which opens the way 

 and creates the temptation to fraud. So far as the National 

 Guard of this city is concerned, we have before urged the 

 policy of having a shooting master as a permanent official. 

 with a range covering the distances required in orders for 

 scores of record, and then members might go at any time, 

 make their required scores if they were able, and if not, be 

 sure of getting some valuable advice and instruction. Such 

 they do not now receive. Armory practice, even in such 

 fundamental matters as holding a rifle and pulling off. seems 

 to be neglected to a large extent, and visits to the range turn 

 out to be mere trials of luck in catching or missing a passing 

 score. Many a man will testify that beyond a trifle of ex- 

 perience, which was unutilized, he has returned from the 

 range without, a whit more information on the subject of 

 accurate shooting, and with a day lost of business to regret. 

 The suggestion naturally grows out of the recent, occur- 

 rences. While we regret to record the fact that punishment 

 was needed by any shooter at Creedmoor, we are heartily 

 glad that the black sheep have beeu singled out. 



polled by evidence of man's previous presence, will be cher- 

 ished for years after. 



This evidence takes different forms at times. It may be 

 the print of a recent foot that alarms you in your character 

 of Crusoe, or the blackened log where a camp tire burned 

 years before, and these, while they suggest rh presence of 

 man at some time more or less remote, do not always indi- 

 cate the style and character of the person who has dnred to 

 intrude upon your solitude before it became your own. It 

 might have been an Indian, and in that case it does not affect 

 your peace of mind. Perhaps it was some adventurous 

 white trapper, and if so you are but little more affected. 

 But if instead of the recent, footprint or the more ancient 

 remains of a camp-fire, the abhorrent sardine box or the tin 

 covering of the pressed corned beef meets the eye, then the 

 woeful doubt, that perhaps a sportsman tourist has been be- 

 fore you rises to disturb your dreams of being the Columbus 

 of a miniature new world. Still, there -is a possibility that 

 the sardine box or the tin wrapper of the cartilaginous beef 

 may have been part of the stores of the sinewy trapper, who, 

 intent only on getting his furs, never stopped to enjoy the 

 beauties of your solitude, to fish in your streams, nor to shoot 

 in the valley which you feel to be yours by right of dis- 

 covery. The knowledge of this possibility will, after the 

 first shock is over and you have recovered from it, soon as- 

 sume the position of a wholesome fact and you will have no 

 doubt of its truth. While it may thus appear that some 

 other white man has been before you, you are still the 

 Columbus and he simply the Norseman, whose name is un- 

 known. He may have seen the spot, but who was he? A 

 semi-mythical adventurer whose very name is unknown, 

 while even your little brothers know yours! 



But, suppose that the proof of man's previous presence in 

 your new world, should take the shape of a tomato-can set 

 upon a stump and riddled with bullet holes? Your heari 

 sinks at the abominable evidence. Fellows of your own 

 stripe, have been there before you! They have had as little 

 regard for your feelings as you had for those who might, 

 visit, your last camp, where you left the same abominable 

 evidence for all to see. You think they might have had the 

 decency to throw the thing awav, if not to bury it. forgetful 

 that you left your well-riddled tomato-can upon the stump 

 near your last camp-fire, and even took pains to replace it 

 after the final bullet from your repeating rifle had knocked 

 it down. You think long upon this subject and resolve that 

 if you do practice upon the insensible tomato can in the 

 wilderness, you will see in future that the abominable evi- 

 dence of your target practice in places presumed to be "un- 

 trodden" will never be obtruded upon the vision of those 

 who are so unfortunate as to be second on the field of your 

 explorations. 



We have seen the trail from Kansas City to New Mexico, 

 when it was the only way of travel between those points, so 

 lined with sardine boxes that if the grass should ever grow 

 over the wagon road it could be accurately located by thorn, 

 W e have seen the tin coveri ngs of occasi on al d aiu ties left by the 

 frugal trappers from Hudson's Bay toPugct Sound, and have 

 beheld a label from a can of peaches lying in the bottom of 

 a small stream in Ontanagon which we thought was un- 

 known to tourists, and may have come from some Indian 

 trading post; but the riddled tomato-can ostentatiously 

 mounted upon a stump never allows any play of imagination 

 as to who left it. It shows the presence of men with more 

 ammunition than they care, to take back. It proves the pres- 

 ence of holiday tourists, and is, in fact, the abominable evi- 

 dence of target shooting in the sacred domain of solitude. 



T 



THE ABOMLNABLE EVIDENCE. 



HERE are times when one does not care to know the 

 truth, times wlicu it is positive pleasure to cherish :i 

 delusion until it seems so real that truth is not only unwel- 

 come, but is resented as a disagreeable intruder. Of course 

 there are plenty of plain matter-of-fact people who will not 

 accept this proposition, just as there are those who would 

 reject any declaration whatever. But the sportsman, being 

 a lover of the woods »nd waters, is not a matter-of-fact per- 

 son, in fact he is oftener given to mattcr-of-fancy, and not 

 unfrequently loves to visit out of the way spots where he 

 can imagine himself a discoverer of a bit of nature unknown 

 to any of his race. In his far away trips for fish or game, 

 he often comes upon some stream in which he is certain no 

 angler has over wet his line, or upon a valley whose sides he 

 is confident never echoed to the discharge of a gun before 

 his own had broken the silence. This feeling gives him a 

 sense of proprietorship in the spot which, if not rudely dis- 



President or Editor?— Mr. Dana, of the San, and 

 other journalists, have been discussing whether it is better to 

 be President of the United States or editor of a paper. They 

 all agree that the editor is the bigger man of the two. The 

 President has one advantage that we lei ve not seen noted. 

 He can go fishing. An editor can not. The governors of 

 States make pilgrimages to Washington to present the 

 Executive with costly fishing rods. Governor Proctor Knott, 

 of Kentucky, who is a good deal of a sportsman himself, 

 carried to President Arthur, the other day, a handsome rod. 

 presented by some Kentucky gentlemen, to match the silver 

 reel that the Louisville anglers gave Mr. Arthur last summer. 



There is a Vast Distinction between a "sporting man" 

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

 sportsman's paper. 



GoKKKSeONDENTS ABE RESPECTFULLY HbKjI.KSTED I" 



lerite i,n one side of the paper only. 



