Forest and Stream. 



A Weekly Journal of the Rod and Gun. 



NEW YORK, NOVEMBER 29, 1883. 



CORRESPONDENCE. 

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 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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CONTENTS. 



EDITORIAL. 



r ii i, ■■ ■-.!■ 



-.Marksmanship Marvels. 



A November Run. 



Yacht Racineta 1888. 



Dinks. 



■Robert Wane's Peer Shooting. 



Boston Fanev Dog Show. 



Books. 



Eastern Field Trials. 



Out of Luck. 



Robins Island Field Trials. 



The Si'ohtsman Tourist. 



Keeping Ferocious Animals. 



Life among the Blackfeet. 



"American Kennel Register. ' 



A Bird of no Feathers. 



Rifle and Trap Shooting. 



Natural History. 



Ranee and Gallery. 

 The Trap. 



Life at the Bottom ol the See 



Discoveries in Alaska. 



Gasosino, 





The Winter Camp-Fire. 



California "Quail.'' 



"Pour Parlor Cauotage." 



A Plea for a 40-00 Repeater 



The Log Book. 



That Old Boat. 



II.— A Two Days' Cruise. 



\ WeeK m Issaquena. 



The Chart Locker. 



Among the Mahogany Cutter?. 



IV.— Delaware and Raritan 



In the OI;io Bottoms 



Rivers. D. and R. and Morris 



\n..| .-redd Barn D .or. 



Canals. 



The nil: 



The Galley Fire. 



Tooting for Deer. 



i irder in Camp. 



Minnesota Duck Shooting 



Yachting. 



91 I Sifting* 



Capital Out of a Misprint. 



Philadelphia Notes 



TheFendeur Model. 



Sea and River Fishing. 



"Therefore " 



Dirg. of the Deep Sea. Trawl, 

 Pennsylvania A^.ciation. 

 Trouflngonthe Blgosb. 



Sharpie in a Squall. 



The Cabin Table in Winter. 



FlSHt I'LTl'RE. 



A Week on Great South Bav. 



Flshways in the Oswego River. 



Answers to Correspondents. 



With its compact type and in its per 

 of twenty-eight pages this journal, fui 

 amount of first-class matter relating 

 kennel, and kindred subjects, than i: 

 A merican publications put together. 



MARKSMANSHIP MAR rEL\ 

 'INHERE seems just now to be a wave of exaggeration 

 -*- passing over the shooting world, and the papers gen- 

 erally are striving to outdo each other in telling tales of won- 

 derful accomplishments with small arms. Pistols seem to 

 have the call in this fashion of fable, and the little ''pops" 

 are credited with all manner of records, often so far beyond 

 their real capability, as to be unworthy of a moment's cre- 

 dence. From the West comes a tale of a boy hunter who 

 uses but a wee pocket pistol, yet goes abroad bringing down 

 everything and anything in Ihe form of game or varmint. 

 Bear or beetle seem to fall alike before his six-grain bullets. 

 He merely picks out a channel to the center of life, finds a 

 way of cutting the heart in two, or secures a short passage 

 to the brain seat and then lets fly and the beast falls. The 

 story tellers are not particular about distances, a few hun- 

 dred yards more or less are of uo consequence, and we are 

 not quite sure but that some of the shooting is done at dead 

 of night with the moon hidden beneath clouds. 



The old yarns from the Indian story books are bad enough, 

 where Long Tom and nuizzle-loadiug shooting sticks were 

 made to send silver bullets with mathematical precision to 

 the hearts of heartless savage abductors of beautiful frontier 

 maidens, but this latter day drift is still more ridiculous in 

 its disregard of physical limitations. 



The latest form of the craze is to turn the taste for this 

 shooting silliness to advantage in theatrical advertising. One 

 famous diva is made to spend the night after returning from 

 in i stage work in shooting cats from the back fences of the 

 hotel where she may be stopping. Another uses up an en- 

 tire pack of cards, sparing the court cards, but picking off 

 the other 220 spots in regular order. These same notoriety- 

 seeking professionals have wonderful 'scapes, in which a 

 pretty little ivory-handled, gold-plated, elegantly-chased. 



magnificently-mounted, fit-in your-wutch-pocket mitrailleuse 

 is made to send a horde of ruffians away in a stampede. It 

 would not do to have one killed, because then doubling re- 

 porters would ask irreverently. "Where is the stiff';" No, 

 the artistic prevaricator and claqueur gives only such a 

 story as will not afford the least chance for the probing pen 

 of contradiction. The maxim of the advertising agent seems 

 to be that anything other than good acting, will make the 

 fortune of his charge, and so be seizes the demand for shoot- 

 ing fables, and works it, in its own vernacular "for all it is 

 worth." 



Out from the West comes now with a yearly regularity 

 some phenomenal shot, over whose shooting tit ranges of a 

 few feet the spectators in their ignorance and the writers 

 on space rates exhaust all the adjectives of our richly en- 

 dowed language. We expect they will keep on springing 

 up to issue challenges, have a wordy war, succumb to the 

 seduction of Eastern fire-water, and make way for others 

 of their sort. Protest seems useless, and we can only make 

 up our minds to bear the pest until the popular fancy turns. 



The fact is, that shooting well is an accomplishment worth 

 possessing, and therefore worth earning. It can be secured 

 only by hard work, and with any make of weapon there is a 

 limil of accuracy which cannot be surpassed. A pistol with 

 a barrel but an inch or two long, is nothing more than a 

 dangerous toy, as likely to harm as help. 



YACHT RACING IN 1888. 

 r ¥MlE season recently brought to a close has been a most 

 -*- prosperous one throughout, and wound up with events 

 which will have great weight in the choice of model for new 

 boats projected to meet a challenge from abroad for the 

 famous old piece of silverware won by the America some 

 thirty years ago. The season has also been marked by a 

 fresh departure on the part of Forest and Stream in 

 securing full reports of the chief racing events in Eastern 

 and Western waters as well as at home, an enterprise to 

 which no other publication has shown itself equal. This 

 year has also been the first to find any journal sufficiently 

 strong to close its columns to the extended notice of shifting 

 ballast races, thereby discouraging an imitation upon the 

 sport which in its evil influences is to be charged to a great 

 extent with the perpetuation of faulty conceptions and that 

 carricaturing of naval architecture which has enabled an 

 ordinary cruising cutter to overwhelm a representative light 

 displacement vessel hitherto supposed to be invincible. 



The total number of races sailed, as exhibited in the list 

 published in our issue for Nov. 15, foots up 195, including 

 one subsequent addition. To this should be added 25 races 

 among small craft of local renown only, of which details 

 w T ere too meagre to incorporate in the body of the list, making 

 altogether 220 matches sailed in six months. Of these no 

 less than 63 arc to be credited to the month of August, July 

 following next in number with 40, June occupying third 

 position with 39. and September showing exactly the same 

 activity. 



Geographically the racing waters may be divided as East- 

 ern, including all to the east from New Bedford; Metropoli 

 tan, including the Sound and regions tributary to New York; 

 Central, the Delaware and Chesapeake ; Southern, everything 

 south of Cape Henry; Western and Northern, the great 

 chain of fresh-water lakes with the St. Lawrence and Hali- 

 fax, and last, the Pacific coast, to cover all that transpired 

 in waters aceessi jle from the Pacific Ocean. The activity 

 in these districts is shown in the following summary: 



Eastern .83 races. 



Metropolitan 67 races. 



Central .5 races. 



Southern 5 races. 



W T estern and Northern 34races. 



Pacific - races. 



The East therefore still maintains its lead as the most 

 active racing center in American watets, and the lakes, and 

 the Dominion of Canada in general, put in a very respecta- 

 ble showing, destined to expand rapidly, as yachting has 

 only just taken firm root on the American shores of the fresh- 

 water seas. Only in New York waters is shifting ballast 

 still a half-hearted custom amoug small boats. Elsewhere 

 its pernicious and misleading tendencies have been recog- 

 nized, and with isolated exceptions, all matches are now or 

 dered with fixed ballast. 



In the East the Beverly Y. 0. leads off with 13 races, 

 the. Hull Y T . C. has 10 to its name, the Dorchester Y. 0, 7. 

 and the Quiucy Y. C. started six times. In the Metropolitan 

 district, the Larehmont Y. C. sailed 7 matches, all other clubs 

 only two or three straggling throughout the season. On the 

 Lakes, the Toronto Y. C. carries off the palm with 6 matches 



w-hile the Halifax squadron sailed the same number. To 

 the East and to the Beverly Y. C. belongs the credit of 

 having brought to the line the largest racing fleet ever assem- 

 bled in America or any other country. Tile match of Aug. ly 

 saw 238 boats entered, of which 173 started. Only a week 

 later the Hull Y. C. followed up with 124 entries' and 79 

 starters, all of them fixed ballast boats. The largest number 

 of starters in any one race in New York waters was collected 

 for the fall match of the Knickerbocker Y. C, the fleet 

 reaching 32, an extraordinary number for this vicinity. 

 Many of these were, however, only shifting ballast con- 

 trivances, which can hardly be classed as yachts proper, 

 Next week we will consider the table of winnings. 



ROBERT WAZLE'8 BEER SHOOTING. 

 TN the year of grace 1756, and of the reign of King 

 -*- George II. the twenty -ninth, in Brumfield parish of the 

 British colony of Virginia, one Robert Walle, a laborer, 

 thinking to make the pot boil, went out into the woods to 

 sit for deer. His aim was good, his flint-lock true. The 

 bullet sped to the mark. Robert Walle brought down his 

 game. But it was not a deer. 



The record of the shot was written out in the beautiful 

 copper-plate writing of the court clerks of the day, and filed 

 away among the papers of the Court of Culpeper county. 

 There it remained, George II. died and George III. suc- 

 ceeded to the throne. The ink had not yet paled before the 

 colony of Virginia joined with her sisters to throw off the 

 British rule Through the strife and turmoil of the seven 

 years' war the story of Robert Walle's shot was preserved 

 intact. Tho paper grew yellow with a hundred years. Vir- 

 ginia was again the theatre of war. A Massachusetts volun- 

 teer picked up the musty court record and took it to his New- 

 England home. The years went by. The men of Massa- 

 chusetts and of Virginia forgot that they had fought as 

 enemies, and joined each other to celebrate in Virginia the 

 victories of the colonies. Again the years went by. To-day, 

 while the bunting on Broadway is still flying in commemo- 

 ration of another Revolutionary event, we copy the old Cul- 

 peper colonial court record, and give to the readers of Forest 

 and Stream the story of Robert Walle's deer shooting: 



At a court held for the County of Culpeper, on Friday the 4th Day 



of June Fioli, on the Examination of Francis Walle, charged with the 



Felonious Slaying one George Roberts. 



Present: 



Francis Slaughter, William Green, 



James Pendleton. Daniel Brown & 



William Williams Gent. 



Francis Walle late of the .Parish of Brmnfteld in this County Laborer 

 being led to the Bar iu the custody of the sheriff, charged with the 

 Felonious Slaying one George Roberts late of the Parish & County 

 aforesaid and being Demanded whether he was Guilty or not Guilty 

 confessed he was Guilty, though it was an Involuntary Act, for that 

 he aceidently shot the said George Roberts, as he was sitting for Deer 

 believing him to be one, and as no one was Privy thereto, he went 

 Immediately & Informed the Father of the said Deceased what had 

 happened, and helped him Home with the Dead body, whereupon 

 John Roberts, Father of the said George Roberts, w ho was killed be- 

 ing sworn & Examined as Witness for our Lord i he King against the 

 said Prisoner. Declared he believed the Prisoners Confession to be 

 true, and no other Witness appearing against him It is therefore the 

 opinion of the Court that the said Francis Walle is Guilty of Chance 

 Medley and that he ought to be tryed for the said Fact on the sixth 

 Day of the next General Court and on his Prayer is admitted to Bail. 

 How the trial ended we have no means of determining; 

 but as Robert Walle had proved himself to be such a good 

 shot with his flint-lock at the "man target," it is not at all 

 improbable that his services were enlisted in the campaigns 

 of the Revolutiom ___ 



BOOKS. 



THE readeis of the Fobest and Stbeam are widely scat- 

 tered over the face of North America and other por- 

 tions of this terrestrial ball, and a very considerable 

 proportion of them are fortunate enough to reside in the 

 country, often at a distance from large centers of population 

 and where bookstores, or at all events, bookstores with 

 large stocks to select from, are not easily accessible. And 

 yet, almost all who take the Fokest and Stueam are read- 

 ers of books, and desire to keep up with the current litera- 

 ture of the day. Realizing this, as well as the difficulties of 

 those at a distance who may wish to purchase books of any 

 kind, we have made arrangements to furnish any books pub- 

 lished on receipt of the publishers' price, to those w T ho may 

 send to m for them. We will also subscribe for our custom- 

 ers to any magazines. We have long published a list of 

 books interesting to sportsmen, which we would forward on 

 these terms, and have now, in response to earnest and re- 

 peated solicitations, determined to broaden our field as above 

 From this date, therefore, any magazine or book 

 published will be forwarded on receiptof the publishers' price. 



