Forest and Stream. 



A Weekly Journal of the Rod and Gun. 



NEW YORK, JANUARY 17, 188 4. 



CORRESPONDENCE. 

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 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. 



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Address all communications, 



Forest and Stream Publishing Co. 

 Nos. SO and 40 Parr Row. New York Cnr. 



Yellowstone Park Matters. 



Trial by Jury. 



The Adirondacks. 



The Michigan Association. 



European Forest Schools. 



Afier Caribou. 



The Flickerings. 

 The Sportsman Tourist. 



Life Among the Blackfeet.-vin 



Winter Shooting in Northern 

 California. -ii. 

 Natural History. 



A Fog Rainbow. 



Note* on the Raccoon. 

 Game Bag am Hob. 



Huntiag and Trapping Grizzly. 



Game and Forests m the Park. 



The U. S. Government Defied. 



The Quail of Virginia. 



Winter Shooting Grounds. 



The Choice of Hunting Rifles. 



Rebounding Locks. 



•in' I . . i! i ■■ i .in :.-,- 



Shooting with the Pistol. 

 Snow Geese on the Delaware. 

 Notes from Michigan. . 

 A Duck Hunt in Texas. 

 The Cimcr Club, 

 , ,. ,.■ • .„■ ■ 

 Sea and River Fishing. 

 Troutiug on the Bigosh. 

 Tarpon and Ravnllia. 

 To Holeb Falls. 

 A Trouting Reminiscence. 



Sea and River Fishino. 



Fiscal i r. ii'- :-... i ' ',' 

 FlSHCULTCRE. 



Report of the Fish Commission. 

 American Fishcultural Associ- 

 ation. 

 Hefting of the Fish Commis- 

 sioners. 

 The Kennel. 

 A Connecticut Coon Hunt. 

 A Massachusetts Blue Law. 

 Kennel Management. 

 Kennel Notes. 

 Rifle and Trap Shooting. 

 The Dude Target. 

 Range and Gallery. 

 The Trap. 

 Canoeing. 

 Amateur Canoe BuilJing.— in. 

 L ike George C, C. 

 The Galley Fire. 

 Camp Kit-; and Cookery. 

 Boston Baked Beans. 

 The Log Book. 

 Canoe Cruise in the Adiron- 

 dacks. 

 Yachting 

 Saved by Draft and Low Weight 

 Generil Adoption of Outside 



Ballast.. 

 A Small Cruising Sharpie. 

 A Romancing Report. 

 Daisy. 



Schooners in 1883. 

 Answers to Correspondents. 



With its compact type and in its permanently enlarged form 

 of tiventy-eight pages this journal f urn ishe-s each weeic a larger 

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

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

 American publications put together. 



YELLOWSTONE PARK MATTERS. 



THE curious state of things existing in the Yellowstone 

 National Park, as shown by the Washington dispatches 

 printed in another eolumu, is rather startling. The United 

 States Government is defied, and the remarkable statement 

 is made by the Secretary of the Interior that he has no 

 power to enforce the regulations which he has made, and 

 which he has ordered the Superintendent to see carried out. 

 There is clearly a bitter quarrel among the individuals 

 within the Park, the Superintendent standing ou one side, 

 while opposed to him is the representative of the Improve- 

 ment Company. Eachaccusesthcotherofdoingcertain thin s 

 that should not have been done, and many names are called. 



The Superintendent reports that the Improvement Com- 

 pany have seized upon the Park; that his fences are torn 

 down by its employes; that the public lands are used to 

 pasture its stock, so that during the winter that belonging 

 to the Government must be removed from the region or else 

 starve to death; that the large game is being killed for the 

 benefit of the Company. lie also alleges that the represen- 

 tative of the Company has opanly boasted that he will have 

 him (the Superintendent) removed. 



A special agent sent out bj the Secretary, reports that the 

 Superintendent does not carry out his instructions, and that 

 his assistants are, many of them, remiss in performing their 

 duties, and incompetent; that game is being destroyed for 

 thcllotel Company without let or hindrance by the Superiu 

 tendent, and that no piotection is afforded to the forests 

 or the natural curiosities of the region. 



To this the Superintendent replies in [effect that the 



Secretary's orders are not obeyed because be has no means 

 of enforcing them, and that the simple issue of orders with- 

 out the power to carry them out is useless. 



It is quite apparent that matters in the Yellowstone Park 

 arc in a very unsatisfactory condition. As to what the real 

 mentions or desires of the Supeirntendent may be, we know 

 nothing, but assuming that he desires to do his duty, it is 

 evident that it is impossible under the present state of affairs 

 for him to properly protect the reservation. 



In the existing unsettled condition of tie law in regard to 

 the Park, there is but one thing to be done to protect it. 

 United States troops are needed there to carry out the orders 

 given by the Secretary of the Interior to his subordinates. 

 There subordinates are at present without any backing what- 

 ever except the moral force of their titles. 



A year ago we requested .the Secretary to call on the War 

 Department for troops to protect the Park. The need* for 

 this protection now is more urgent than ever before. An 

 effort has been made to care for the Park, and this effort has 

 proved wholly abortive. The Government is now the laugh- 

 ing stock of the Improverteut Company and the skin-hunters 

 and trespassers. Speedy and energetic action will be needed 

 in the spring to make these people understand that the Sec- 

 retary of the Interior means what he says, and has the power 

 to enforce his orders. Until some legislation bearing on the 

 civil government of the Park shall have determined the proper 

 legal means by which the violators of laws and rules shall be 

 punished, there is no means of preventing these violations 

 except by the use of troops. 



The friends of the Park, and these are the people at large, 

 would rejoice to see some vigorous measures taken by the 

 Secretary of the Interior in behalf of their pleasure ground. 

 Now that the Park has become so easily accessible, some- 

 thing must be done, and that soon. 



put up, it is the business of people to know that they are 

 iherc, and the presence of this word "knowingly" in the 

 ?ime law renders it of no effect whatever. Moreover, l he 

 leaving of the amount of the fine to be fixed by the jury is 

 ill -wrong. The statute should fix the penalty and the jury 

 should have no discretion in the matter whatever. It is but 

 a year or two, since a man— a clergyman, God save the 

 mark— was prosecuted by a land-holder of Suffolk county for 

 trespass, and killing woodcock in June. The jury awarded 

 the complainant six cents damages. We believe that the 

 town of Southampton had the honor of producing this 

 remarkable body. 



Attempts made by land-holders to preserve the game are 

 made still more discouraging by a statutory provision to the 

 effect that, in any suit in a justice's court, if the defendant 

 shall make a tender of any sum to the plaintiff, and the latter 

 shall refuse it, the plaintiff shall be responsible for all costs 

 in the case above the amount recovered, unless be recover 

 more than the amount of the tender (Code of Civil Proceed- 

 ings, Chap. XIX., 2,893). In the Sayville case the defend- 

 ant filed an offer to allow the complainant to take judg- 

 ment against him for $3 and C03ts, which offer was refused. 



THE ADIRONDACK'S. 



\ BILL was introduced at Albany last Tuesday by Senator 



\ 



Lansing, which provides for the protection of the 



Adirondack forests by the establishment of a State Park, to 

 be fenced in and put in charge of a superintendent. The 

 extent of the territory to be included in this park comprises 

 1.700,000 acres. Of this land the State now owns 750,000, 

 or less than one-half. The bill (as reported in the press dis- 

 patches) provides that the State shall assume immediate 

 active contro 1 " f f,in forest larv? 



TRIAL BY JURY 



A CASE was recently tried before ' I 

 of the Peace of Patchogue, Buf 

 which shows very clearly how utterly futi : 

 at protection under the present game law. 

 At Sayville, L. I., Mr. E. R. Wilbur ow, 

 acres, on which he has from time to time 

 These are never shot at, and, as they ai 

 cared for, have become very tame, breedi 

 mediately about the house, and manifesting nui Dha i 

 fear of man. On the farm, in conspicuous positions along 

 the boundary fences, are seven signs worded according to the 

 statute, forbidding trespass. 



On the 20th day of last November one Sims Murdock was 

 seen to cross the fence separating Mr. Wilbur's property 

 from that adjoining. He had a gun in his hand and a dog 

 with him, and in a few moments fired one barrel and then 

 another. The owner approached him and found that he hail 

 in his hand a quail still warm and bleeding. Complaint 

 was made against him for trespass under the game law. 

 The trespass and the killing of the bird were admitted, and 

 the only defense was that the defendant did not know 

 to whom the land bjlonged or that it was posted. 

 On trial, a clear case was made out against Murdock. In 

 his defense he swore that he had lived six years at Sayville: 

 that he lived within one mile of the plaintiff, and that he 

 followed the bay for a living; that he did not know who owned 

 the property, and that he had never seen the signs on the 

 laud. He further swore that he knew the boundaries of all 

 the adjoining pieces of land, mentioning their owners' names 

 and showing general familiarity with the place and the peo- 

 ple. A highly intelligent jury of his peers condemned him to 

 pay the plaintiff twenty-five cents damages. 



Murdock's admission that he had lived at Sayville for six 

 years, and that he was a bayman and fisherman, makes it 

 impossible to believe that he could have failed to know the 

 Wilbur place, or could have been ignorant of the existence of 

 the sign boards. One of these was within a few feet of the 

 place where he crossed the boundary fence, and in plain 

 sight. The plea of the "defendant's lawyer was the usual 

 country lawyer's spread eagle bunoomba about the oppression 

 of the poor man by the rich. 



The result of this case is to open all the preserves on Long 

 Island to the poacher, who will very willinglypay a quarter 

 of a dollar a piece for birds. At Islip the South Side Club has 

 large preserves on which many quail have been turned out. 

 How will they enjoy seemg their birds killed off by whom 

 ever may take it into his head to go shooting on their laud. 



The trouble in this and all similar eases lies in the way in 

 which the statute is framed. It reads; 'Any person who 

 shall knowingly trespass, etc." After the signs have been 



I ■'< ■ "■ 



6 proposition to assume 



State control of those lands shall terminate in a huge job; 

 and again we urge that such a fear is not based on good 

 grounds. The forests ought to be saved, even at great (but 

 not exorbitant) cost, and in this day and generation most 

 surely the a. an with the big pocket to fill ought not to stand 

 in the way. 



A WARNING FOR VIRGINIA. 

 "pHE concluding sentence of a communication on "The 

 -*- Quail of Virginia," printed on another page, is tfjis: 

 "Ignorance and selfishness is fast destroying a most royal 

 hunting ground." We commend that statement to the con- 

 sideration of the people of Virginia, conceraing whose 

 game grounds it is written. Woeful is that ignorance which 

 ill not foresee the game extermination that must come; and 

 stubborn is that selfishness which obstinately goes on "hog- 

 ging" the fast-diminishing supplies of nature. 



Are there not in the great State of Virginia a sufficient 

 number of sportsmen, with eyes that can see beyond their 

 guu muzzles, to combine for united effort and action? What 

 is everybody's business is always nobody's business; an as- 

 sociation of the right men ought to be founded in Virginia 

 to make it their particular business to put a stop to the in- 

 discriminate and improvident game killing by heme and 

 foreign shooters. 



Desirable Game Grocnds are very rapidly passing into 

 the hands of clubs. Is this to be deplored? If so, what is 

 the remedy? As the birtl snarero say. "What are you going 

 to do about it?" We should be pleased to have Ihe views 

 of any thoughtful man who appreciates this movement, aDd 

 what it means. 



The Way of Newspaper Offices.— This bit of copy 

 for the printer is written on the blank side of an anonymous 

 letter from a man in Morchester. Mass., who wants lo know 

 something about air-guns. We receive all sorts of anony- 

 mous communications from all sorts of people, and tiny all 

 go the same way— to the waste basket, or are utilized in 

 some other equally profitable manner. We expect to receive 

 many more such unsigned letters, and this note is written 

 not to prevent people sending them in, but only to explain 

 to the writers why they never hear anything from them. 



