88 



FOREST AND STREAM 





b^J 



A WEEKLY JOURNAL, 



Devoted to Field and Aquatic Sports, Practical Natural History, 

 fl"" ^^ttjre, the protectiok op game, preservation of forests, 

 ajpd the inculcation in men and women of a healthy interest 

 IN Out-door Recreation and Study : 



PUBLISHED BY 



17 CHATHAM STREET, (CITY HALL SQUARE) NEW YORK, 



TPost Office Box 2832.1 



127 SOUTH THIRD STREET, PHILADELPHIA. 



, + 



Terms, Five Dollars a Year, Strictly in Advance. 



— ♦ ■ 



A discount of twenty per cent, allowed for five copies and upwards. 



Advertising Kates. 



In regular advertising columns, nonpareil type, 12 lines to the inch, 25 

 Cents per line. Advertisements on outside page, 40 cents per line. Reading 

 notices, 50 cents per line. Advertisements in double column 25 per cent, 

 extra. Where advertisements are inserted over 1 month, a discount of 

 10 per cent, will be made; over three months, 20 per cent; over six 

 jnonths, 30 per cent. 



NEW YORK, THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 16, 1875. 



To Correspondents. 



All communications whatever, whether relating to business or literary 

 correspondence, must be addressed to The Forest and Stream Pub- 

 lishing Company. Personal or private letters of course excepted. 



All communications intended for publication must be accompanied with 

 real name, as a guaranty of good faith. Names will not be published if 

 objection be made. No anonymous contributions will be regarded. 



Articles relating to any topic Within the scope of this paper are solicited. 



We cannot promise to return rejected manuscripts. 



Secretaries of Clubs and Associations are urged to favor us with brief,, 

 notes of their movements and transactions, as it is the aim of this paper 

 to become a medium of useful and reliable information between gentle- 

 men sportsmen from one end of the country to the other ; and they will 

 find our columns a desirable medium for advertising announcements. 



The Publishers of Forest and Stream aim to merit and secure the 

 patronage and countenance of that portion of the community whose re- 

 fined intelligence enables them to properly appreciate and enjoy all that 

 s beautiful in Nature. It will pander to no depraved tastes, nor pervert 

 the legitimate sports of land and water to those base uses which always 

 tend to make them unpopular with the virtuous and good. No advertise- 

 ment or business notice of an immoral character will be received on any 

 terms ; and nothing will be admitted to any department of the paper that 

 may not be read with propriety in the home circle. 



We cannot be responsible for the dereliction of the mail service, if 

 money remitted to us is lost. 



Advertisements should be sent in by Saturday of each week, if possible. 



CHARLES HALLOCIi, Editor. 



WILLIAM C. HARRIS. Business Alanager. 



CALENDAR OF EVENTS FOR THE COM- 

 ING WEEK. 



Thursday, September 16th— Trotting at Kingston, N. Y./ Pittsburgh, 

 Pa ; East Saginaw, Mich.; Cleveland, Ohio; Dixon, 111.; Myslic Park, 

 Boston, and Baltimore, Md. Rifle— Contest for Luther Badge at Creed- 

 moor Cricket— International Tournament, British Officers vs. Cana- 

 dians at Philadelphia. Base hnli-Hnrtford vs. Chicago at Chicago; 

 Athletic vs. Mutual at Brooklyn; Philadelphia vs. Expert at Harris- 

 burg, Pa. 



Friday, September 17th.— Trotting at East Saginaw,. Mich..; Cleve- 

 land, Ohio; Dixon. 111. ; Nashua, la.; Plattsburg. Vt.; Norristown, I'a.; 

 Penu Yan, Chatham, N. V., Westfield, Mass.; Baltimore, Bangor, Me. ; 

 Mystic Park, Boston. Cricket— International Tournament, Philadelphia 

 vs. British Officers at Philadelphia. Base ball— Athletic vs. Atlantic at 

 Brooklyn; Peabody vs. Doerr at Burlington, N. J. ; Astor vs. Red Hook 

 at Brooklyn . 



Saturday, September 18th,— Trotting at Mystic Park, Boston; Lock- 

 port, N. Y. Rowing— Schuylkill Navy Regatta, Philadelphia. Rifle- 

 Franklin Rifle Club meeting, Hartford, Conn. Cricket— International 

 Tournament, Philadelphia vs. British Officers at Philadelphia. Base 

 ball— Atretic vs. Mutual at Brooklyn, Philadelphia vs. Cincinnati at 

 Cincinnati; Hartford vs. Chicago at Chicago; Peabody vs. Shi be at 

 Philadelphia; Harlem vs. iEtna at Brooklyn; Staten Island vs. Hoboken 

 at Hoboken; Flyaways vs. Concord at Brooklyn; ^Etna vs. Alert at 



Monday, September SOth.-Racing at Louisville, Ky. Trotting at 

 Qumcy lil Cricket— International Tournament, All Comers vs. Phil- 

 adelphia at Philadelphia. Base ball-A. H. Cain vs. Defiance at Phil- 

 adelphia; Peabody vs. Camden at Camden, N.J. 



Tttt-sday, September 21st.— Racing at Louisville, Ky. Trotting at 

 Framington, Mass. ; Burlington. Chester, Vt. ; Waterloo, N. Y. ; Pough- 

 keepsie, N. Y.; Burlington, la.; Beacon Park, Boston; Tiskilwa, 111.; 

 AmblerPark, Pa. ; Cynthiaua, Ky . ; Tiffin, Ohio . Rowing— O'Neil and 

 Engelhardt, Saratoga Lake; Regatta of Williamsburg' Yacht Club. 

 Cricket— International Tournament, All Comers vs. Philadelphia at 

 Philadelphia. Base ball— Peabody vs . Quickstep at Wilmington, Del.; 

 Olympic vs. Hoboken at Paterson, N. J.; Flyaway vs. Alaska at Brook- 

 lyn; Keystone vs. Doerr at Philadelphia. 



Wednesday, September 22d.— Racmg at Louisville, Ky. Trotting 

 as above on Tuesday, and at Indianapolis, Ind.; Meriden, Conn.; Cuba, 

 N. Y.; Columbus, Delphos, Ohio: Watkins, N. Y. 



The Dogs of England. — We would call the attention 

 of our readers to the advertisement in another column of 

 a fine selection of pictures of the most celebrated sporting 

 dogs of Great Britian, including representatives from the 

 kennel of T. H. Murchison, Esq., Rev. T. C. Macdona, E. 

 J. L. Price, Esq., Lord Lurgan, and others. A portion of 

 the pictures are colored in water colors, in exact imitation 

 of the original; all are taken from life, and the collection 

 altogether is most unique and well worthy of examina- 

 tion. It can be seen at this office. 



: «*-**«■ ■ 



yf e have been f avored with a call from Mr. Tuerck, 



of the Chicago Field, who came to this city on business for 

 that journal. He represents the Field as being in a vigor- 

 our condition. We wish it success. 



GAME PROTECTION. 



ALL through this Fall and coming Winter, in view of 

 the thorough investigations now being made by 

 powerful associations of qualified and competent men, to 

 determine what improvement in our game laws can be de- 

 vised, we shall make Game Protection a subject for especial 

 study and discussion; and we herewith invite the members 

 of duly constituted protective bodies or any qualified per- 

 son, to advance through our columns such opinions, backed 

 by natural data, as shall assist in determining habits of 

 species and fixing suitable laws to govern fence times. It 

 will be our especial purpose to collate all such papers as 

 may facilitate the labors of committees, and members of 

 committees may themselves deem it advantageous to com- 

 municate with each other through our journal, that they 

 may thereby compare those notes that will be eventually 

 submitted in a called session. We trust that our leading 

 naturalists who have pledged their services to the revision 

 of our game laws, will feel the importance of eo operating 

 in this manner. It will materially lighten their labors, and 

 assist to an intelligent comprehension of the subject in all 

 its parts and their reciprocal relations. 



Following this plan of action, we print herewith an in- 

 telligent paper from the pen of Hon. Wm. O. Collins, of 

 Ohio, on Close Time for Woodcock, one of the most dif- 

 ficult subjects to handle in the whole category; also some 

 short communications of a kindred character: — 



Editor Forest and Stream: — 



Many of your correspondents are still harping upon Summer wood- 

 cock shooting, and most of them seem to be correct from their own 

 standpoint, but as "circumstances alter cases" I am tempted to give a 

 view from our outlook in Southern Ohio. About fifteen years ago I had 

 occasion to make an official report on the protection of birds and game 

 in Ohio, in which the woodcock is spoken of as follows:— 



"The woodcock (,6'colopax minor) is a choice game bird, but it was 

 strangelv treated in the Jaw of 1857, which forbade the killing before the 

 15th of September. It breeds in vast numbers in the State, and espe- 

 cially in the wetter portions of the great fiat extending from the coun- 

 ties of Brown and Clermont, on the Ohio River, to Lake Erie and the 

 Michigan line. In the swampy forests of this section it is abundant in 

 breeding time, but not long afterward. It arrives from the South about 

 the 1st of March, pairs immediately, makes its nest upon the ground, 

 hatches about April or May, and its young are generally two-thirds 

 grown and tit for the table by the 1st of July. Pew are killed on these 

 grounds where they are produced in such numbers, as they subsist upon 

 worms ami insects obtained from a moist, soil, and so soon" as the Sum- 

 mer sun dries up these vast flats so that they candot penetrate the ground 

 with their long bills they change their feeding ground, getting into 

 marshes and wet places, and at length occupy chiefly the valleys of the 

 larger streams where the tall corn and rank weeds and bushes afford a 

 shelter, and the rich soft mud abounds in the insects which they love 

 Here they are sheltered from observation and pursuit;, and no one would 

 be aware of their presence unless he came directly upon them, or heard 

 the whistle of their wings in the dusk of the evening or the morning as 

 they move from one feeding ground to another. Early in the Fall the 

 woodcock moves southerly to hi * Winter quarters, though single birds 

 are sometimes found as late as November; a few will remain during the 

 whole season along spring branches and other moist places in the vicin- 

 ity of their breeding grounds, and there are some extensive marshes in 

 the State where they are found in considerable numbers, but the great 

 part have left their early quaners for inaccessible haunts long before the 

 present law allows them to be shot. Lying quietly m unfrequented 

 places, rarely taking wing by day unless disturbed— and feeding and 

 migrating by night— changing their grounds suddenly for others far dis- 

 tant, they are in little danger from the sportsmen in Ohio. Their kill- 

 ing after the 4tl/ of July will not endanger a tithe of the number bred in 

 the State. If their numbers decrease at all it will not be from the gun, 

 but he opening up, ditching and drying out of our wet lands, where 

 only they can subsist." 



I still think these views substantially correct, and that in this locality 

 their killing should be permitted after the 4th of July, for otherwise we 

 should not get one in a hundred of the thousands we raise. The richest 

 lands in Ohio, except the alluvial deposits in the valleys of streams, are 

 the level wet lands once heavily timbered, but now being rapidly cleared 

 and drained, and, of course, unfit for woodcock breeding. Where 

 swampy forests are left they still remain. A year ago last March I saw 

 perhaps a dozen or fifteen in going half a mile through some land of this 

 description. They would fly but a few rods and drop again, and were 

 evidently nesting. By the middle of July not one rould be found on the 

 same ground. It was a very dry season, the moisture had all evaporated, 

 and they had gone elsewhere. The present Summer has been remark- 

 ably wet, about ten inches of rain falling in the month of July, and they 

 hare remained, but are scattered over so much ground, and vegetation 

 is so rank that it is useless to hunt them. In 1849 duty required me to 

 be often with a surveying corps on a railroad line, about twenty-five 

 miles of which ran through a fiat wet forest. In the months of April 

 and May we often saw a dozen broods a day— cunning little black things 

 that the mother would pick up in her claws and flutter away with. In 

 August the ground was dry and hard, and they had disappeared. It 

 must be remembered that in the milder climate of Southern Ohio wood- 

 cock begin to breed probably two weeks earlier than in New York or 

 New England; that there ate no large permanent ponds or marshes, and 

 that along the watercourses the immense growth of corn, from ten to 

 fifteen feet in height by August, with weeds in neglected portions nearly 

 as tall, furnish an almost perfect protection, so that our woodcock shoot- 

 ing amounts to little at best. Nor would Eastern sportsmen be benefited 

 by any Ohio law, however stringent. Men in this country, as a general 

 rule, migrate by parallels of latitude, birds of passage by lines of longi- 

 tude, though aquatic birds will deflect to follow the seaboard or large 

 rivers or other water lines. Our woodcock Winter in the swamps of the 

 Gulf and the Lower Mississippi, where few are killed by legitimate sport- 

 ing, but many are ignominiously slaughtered in night fire-hunting, often 

 by darkies with clubs and sticks. 



A different rule as to time might suit the lake counties, but the Con- 

 stitution of Ohio requires all laws to be general in their operation, and 

 game laws must be the same in Cuyahoga as in Hamilton county, how- 

 ever unsuitable. We prefer large fat Fall birds for the gun or the grid- 

 iron, but if they cannot be had give us a chance for a few of the two- 

 thirds grown Summer ones, as you do the prairie sportsmen for August 

 and September grouse, when only they lie well before the dog. 



Veteran. 



Belle Fonte, Nottoway County, Va., September, 1875. 

 Editor Forest and Stream.— 



It is an axiom among anglers and sportsmen who have traveled, that 

 if the game and fish of this country, (the whole of it, I mean,) are killed 

 legitimately in the shooting and fishing seasons there are not enough 

 flies, nor even angle worms made and grown, nor powder or shot manu- 

 factured to extinguish the game and fish in our forests and our streams. 

 As far as this county is concerned I have many friends who uphold me 

 and am now preparing, with the aid of other resident sportsmen, local 

 by-laws, etc., so as to establish a "close season" club. In the county 

 of Brunswick I believe the editor of the Advocate, Warner Lewis, of 

 Lawrenceville, a gentleman and a sportsman, has already established a 

 similar association. In Richmond, you are aware, there exists a large 

 and influential body of gentlemen sportsmen, who also have a club. In 

 Norfolk there is the Game Protective Association, and I am in- 

 formed by Mr. W. G. Taylor, that, they, with the co-operation of the 

 peopie of Virginia, propose to lay a simple, honest, practical bill before 

 the Legislature next session. If the game and fish are even fairly pro- 

 tected, nature having been so bountiful, there will be an abundanee for 



all. Some of the people here, I am ashamed to say, have been ki 

 wild turkey poults weighing one pound a piece, when on, say Novembe^ 

 10th, these same poults, left to themselves, would weigh six or seve* 

 pounds; also deer, does and fawns, when they are scarcely able to ^ 

 tect themselves from nature's annoyances. The ruthless hand of aan 

 must needs step in and slaughter these suckling babes; for what? .for 

 rum: and then boast of how many deer they killed. Wonderful! and Bo 

 I might go on to the end of the chapter. For heaven's sake don't send 

 that murdering "Jack Lamp" down here, for I predict the State that it 

 enters will cease to protect the game. Is not this fact carried out on 

 Cape Cod, where I used fifteen years ago to shoot the golden and 

 black plover, the sickle bill, the marlin, and other beautiful bay birds 

 The pot-hunting "Jack Lamp" and fire arrived one fine day, which was 

 worked with such assiduity for eighteen months that it destroyed the 

 means of livelihood of over one hundred families. I sincerely trust ihat 

 every association and club in the Union will pass a resolution to the ef- 

 fect that any member using this "murderous implement" will be in- 

 stantly expelled, except it can positively be shown that he was procurina 

 food for camp, and so make once again the quail, woodcock, ruffed 

 grouse, and- the noble wild turkey a food element for the people f this 

 country. ^ 



Mr. Murray Insetting a disgraceful example, and instead of protecting 

 game he is slaughtering worse than the pot hunter, because he knows 

 better and can afford to purchase that murderous implement, "the Jack." 

 We shall soon be able now to hunt and fish without the rod and gun. 

 There is a large sum of money to be made by supplying the public with 

 fish torpedoes, which can be manufactured for little or nothing. Then 

 one can walk along the lovely trout streams of the country and kill all 

 the fish he requires. They have already started "the Jack," and so it is 

 fairly launched on its atrocious headway. Oh! that, I had the power of 

 a Webster or the tongue of a Clay to render this Mr, Murray immortal 

 by his soulless cervisade. My humble pen is of so little avail that I 

 leave the matter in your abler hands. Youra truly, 



Jko.M. Tayum;. 



The Secretary of the Peterboro Game Protective Society, 

 Ontario, 'Canada, writes September 8th:— 



"Oiir Game Protective Society has had two special guards on the hack 

 waters for some weeks watching the poachers, and in this immediate 

 locality it has stopped a great deal of illegal hunting. We have many 

 enemies yet who we hope will some day make serviceable members, as 

 they get to see that carrying out the law is to benefit them more than 

 any others. 11 



The Hudson River Association, whose headquarters are 

 properly in Newburgh, but whose officers and executive 

 committee are located not only in Orange county, but in 

 Dutchess, Greene, Putnam and Columbia counties, have, 

 during the last year, distributed over one thousand copies 

 of the game laws of the State between Newburgh and the 

 Adirondack region, and through the their various officers 

 are on the lookout for infringements of the laws in every 

 quarter. It may not be generally known that any individ- 

 ual citizen has the power to cause a suit to be instituted 

 against any and all offenders, and the object of sportsmen's 

 clubs, is to some extent, to enable gentlemen to bring of- 

 fenders to justice without incurring unpleasant personal 

 responsibility or notoriety, which many dislike, though 

 they may fully realize the grossness of the offences com- 

 mitted against the game laws. Not very long since the 

 Hudson River Association discovered, in an out of the way 

 place in the Adirondack wilderness, an old reprobate by 

 name of Hoxie, a store-keeper and postmaster, who em- 

 ployed forty trappers, to whom he paid forty cents per 

 pound for dressed trout,, and twelve cents for venison, 

 and in one season shipped over seven tons of trout, and 

 innumerable deer. The association 'went for him,' and 

 got out an order of arrest, but he had meanwhile left for 

 parts unknown, afraid to face the majesty of the law. 



Yonkers has done her duty in the matter of oystermen, 

 and no dredger or raker of oysters has been seen south of 

 Hastings or north of the New York line since June last. 

 Now the Yonkers club propose to keep the river clean of 

 gas tar. The laws strictly prohibits gass companies from . 

 running their refuse into the river under a penalty of fifty 

 dollars daily. Let all citizens interested seud information 

 to the Secretary of the club of any facts in their possession, 

 and judging from the energy exhibited in the past, the 

 club will do its level best in the future for the preservation 

 of fish in our noble river. 



A Game Protective Association is formed in Chester, 

 Delaware. Officers for the ensuing year: — President, Y. 

 S. Walter; Secretary, John S. Kerlin; Treasuer, Wm. C. 

 Gray. The association offers a reward of ten dollars for 

 the conviction of every offender against the law. 



The Norristown Fish Association offers a reward of five 

 dollars for the arrest and conviction of any person found 

 fishing with nets or seines, or in any other manner prohib- 

 ited by law, in the river Schuylkill within the limits of 

 Montgomery county. 



The Monroe County Sportsmen's Club have voted $100 

 to Game Constable Brown for his assiduity and zeal in the 

 cause of preserving game and the enforcement of the game 

 laws. 



A Sportsmen's Club was started last week in Jersey 

 City Heights, N. J., for the protection and propagation of 

 game and the improving of sporting dogs. Richard von 

 Schmiedeberg was elected President; C. F. Thompkins, 

 Vice-President; F. V. Lengerke, Secretary. This club has 

 adopted the rules and regulations of the Philadelphia 

 Sportsmen's Club, with a few alterations, and from the 

 well known respectability, skill and energy of the gentle- 

 mon appointed as officers, we are convinced that the game 

 laws in that section of the State will be promptly enforced 

 against all transgressors. 



— In the late match between the Parthian Junior Rifle 

 Club, of Hudson, and the Saratoga Club, particulars of 

 which are given elsewhere, the score of the Junior club, 

 545 points out of a possible 600, at 500 yards, is the best 

 score on record at this distance. 



^♦♦♦^ 



— Two fourteen inch shells thrown by the British i* 1 

 the bombardment of Stonington, Conn. , August 10, 1S14, 

 have just been brought up by steam dredges, and one oi 

 thf ni is still unexploded. 



