342 



FOREST AND STREAM. 



AS to its being unfair to sell Laveracks, let those I have sold them to 

 complain if they don't like it. Not Mr. Laverack, X am, and always 

 have been, a great admirer of Laverack setters; if I like another breed 

 more, it is not because I like the Laveracks less, but the others better. 

 In this I am corroborated by the only man in America in a position to 

 judge between the two sorts; the only man who owns first-rate imported 

 dogs of each breed, Mr. L. H. Smith, of Strathroy. He has Victress, 

 who Mr. Laverack has of ten advised Mr. Llewellin to buy, and he also 

 has Dart, Leicester, and Paris, of the Field Trial Breed, 



G. T. Tbasdale-Buckbll. 



--;*: .-- 



PLURALITY OF SIRES. 



- December, 1875. 



Editor Forest and Stream:— 



The possibility of a plurality of sires has already been discussed at 

 some length in your columns, and I will not re-open the subject, but for 

 the very positive assertion of one of your correspondents that 

 such a thing cannot be, and that there is a decided variation between the 

 pups of any litter; this is due to throwing back; that the first dog to 

 which the bitch is bred gets all the whelps of that litter, etc. Your 

 correspondent would do well to write more modestly, or else get better 

 posted, since every man who has had any experience in breeding knows 

 well that superfetation is not only possible, but certain, if the two con- 

 nections occur within a reasonable time. The best medical authorities 

 of the world cite cases where this has occurred in animals and the human 

 family, and any man can satisfy himself, if he will experiment, select- 

 ing for his sire dogs of such marked differences, both from each other 

 and from the bitch, that the pups got by each may be easily recognized. 

 I have seen several undeniable cases of superfetation, and unintention- 

 ally had two cases of it in my own kennel. In 1860 I owned a very fine 

 black setter bitch. She came from a stock that for twelve years had 

 thrown only black or black and white whelps. This bitch I bred to her 

 own brother, belonging to a friend of mine. When he brought the dog 

 to my kennel he had with him a white Pomeranian dog belonging to his 

 wife. Just before leaving, this dog was missing, and we found him in 

 the very act of connection with the bitch. From this litter came six 

 pups— four all black setters, and two veritable Pomeranians, one pure 

 white, and one white with a black head. Every mark of the Pomeranian 

 sire— his size, shape of head, ears, even the cut of his tail, was faith- 

 fully reproduced in these two. This was no case of throwing back; for 

 the stock had been owned by my friend and myself for twelve years, and 

 in all that time the bitch had been carefully bred, and no variation from 

 the true line had appeared in even a single instance. One of these non- 

 descripts died before leaving the dam; the other, the white one with 

 black head, was alive when I last heard from my friend, some seven 

 years since. In the second instance an imported pointer bitch, which had 

 thrown a number of fine litters, all free from marks of impure blood, 

 was bred to a fine pointer dog, owned in my neighborhood. I owned at 

 the time a blue skye terrier, very heavily haired, and a strongly marked 

 dog in all respects. This dog escaped from my yard and went to the 

 barn where the pointer bitch was kept, where some boys put them to- 

 gether. The litter consisted of three good-looking pointers and one 

 nondescript, blue in color, haired so that his eyes could scarcely be 

 seen; a long body and short legs— in fact a skye in all but size, which 

 was somewhat too large. I kept this dog three years, till he was killed 

 by a colt. During his life I showed him to a numbei of persons who 

 knew the bitch and the dog, to which, besides my own, she was bred, 

 and all recognized this as a true case of superfetation. 1 could name a 

 number of other instances as strongly marked as these, but will not, 

 simply because they are the very ones in which I have had an owner- 

 ship; but I will say that, so certain am I of the possibiliiy of this 

 dual conception, that I would agrte to demonstrate it in nine cases out 

 of ten, where the connections followed close upon each other. I say 

 this because I don't pretend to assign any time to which this impregna- 

 tion is possible or impossible, and I prefer to confine my assertions 

 within the limits of what I believe certain. Arnold Burgess. 



Boston, Mass., December 30th, 1875. 

 Editor Forest and Stream:— 



Dog advertisements in our sporting journals always have a certain 

 charm for me, notwithstanding an experience of some thirty years has 

 proved many of them to be but shadowy illusions. But Waaaell has re- 

 vived my waning faith, by sending me, in answer to an order, a brace of 

 superb pointer whelps, three months old, by Old Phil, out of Queen, a 

 Dream bitch. Good blood, surely, and these handsome pups would do 

 honor to the kennel of even the great and invincible White house, and 

 certainly reflects great credit upon Mr. Waddell's stock. For the ben- 

 efit of my brother sportsmen who may meditate purchasing, I wish to 

 express my sense of the very handsome manner in which Mr. Wad dell 

 has treated me, as also my high opinion of his breed of pointers. Noth- 

 ing can be finer than these whelp3. I believe I can the more gracefully 

 say this, as there is not the slightest taint of puffery about it, but only 

 simple justice to Mr. Waddell, to whom I am an entire stranger— but he 

 did not take me in. My only knowledge of him arises from the 

 fact that he had the good sense to advertise in Forest and Stream. 

 He has used me like a gentleman, and I wish him the success his fair 

 dealing deserves. Under Grip. 

 , — •«**- 



FOOD FOR LARGE KENNELS. 



• Pompret Centre, Conn., December 24th, 1875. 

 Editor Forest and Stream:— 



As I proposed, I now give you my experience in feeding dogs, with 

 the result, I do not claim that some other mode is not equally as good, or 

 perhaps better, than mine, yet the health and thrift of the majority of my 

 kennel will compare favorably with any within my knowledge. 



To gentlemen keeping only one or two dogs, the scraps from his own 

 table will generally furnish a sufficiency of the best of food to keep 

 them in as good condition as any one can possibly have, and this with- 

 out any seeming cost or extra outlay. But when we come to multiply 

 In numbers, some substitute is needed to take the place of the refuse of 

 the dining table, on account of the insufficiency of the amount re- 

 quired. In years past, in my younger days, I was taught to believe that 

 Indian meal made into hasty pudding, and served with sweet milk was 

 the proper thing to take the place of the refuse from the table, until ex- 

 perience taught me better. This experience cost me the loss of many a 

 fine dog that a proper mode of feeding would have prevented. In those 

 days my dogs were constantly getting sick, and scarcely a season passed 

 without the loss of several, not only with the distemper, but dropsy. 

 Palsy and blain were of frequent occurrence, and frequently terminated 

 fatally. I then practiced feeding three times per day. They conse- 

 quently often got cloyed, and were seldom thrifty in appearance. I ac- 

 cordingly came to the conclusion that Indian meal without animal 

 food to counteract its tendency to produce costiveness was alone the 

 cause of nine-tenths of the ills that afflicted my kennel. Canned meat 

 is the most relished, and consequently the most natural food for dogs, 

 and a certain amount of animal food is, in my opinion, absolutely neces- 

 sary to secure the health of the canine race. I also found that, thongh 

 a certain amount of milk was beneficial, too much milk combined with 

 cooked Indian meal alone tended to irritate the bowels and often in- 

 jured the coatings and produced dysentery in many cases. 



Now, the question arose, What could I obtain as a substitute without 

 incurring too much expense. It occurred to me that scraps would sup- 

 ply this want, consequently I gave them a trial, with the best results. 

 Both pork and beef scraps are good, mixed in proper quantities in In- 

 dian meal pudding. But scraps fed alone relax the towels too much. 

 One part scraps to four parts meal, well cooked in hasty pudding 

 form, constitute one of the most healthy diets, and this, with an occa- 

 sional addition of sweet milk, for young, growing puppies, is all that is 

 necessary, if properly fed, to insure both health and thrift. I would 



further say that, although I often see salt recommended to season food 

 for dogs, I never use it, believing it has a tendency to generate mange 

 and other diseases of the skin. I feed grown dogs that are unworked but 

 once per day, but growing puppies and hard worked dogs I feed twice. 



I prefer beef scraps to pork, especially in the warm season of the year, 

 as there is less fatty and more lean matter, and they are generally better 

 relished by the dog. Those that are ground are most convenient to buy. 

 They are then ready for use without the labor required to reduce the 

 whole cakes to a proper form for use. During the Winter months I buy 

 and kill maimed and worn-out horses, and carcasses of cattle that die 

 from accident or disease, and feed some of the meat occasionally to the 

 dogs. Dogs kept in this way not only remain in a good healthy state, 

 but often, if not restricted, get too fat. My dogs are kept chained to 

 separate kennels in the open air, eachsme having only a warm nest of 

 clean straw, with a daily supply of fresh water. Since I have adopted 

 this mode of feeding I seldom have a sick dog. For the last ten years 

 I have not had a case of distemper, palsy, dropsy, or mange requiring 

 the least care or medical treatment. I breed my own dogs, and never 

 use a mangy or diseased dog or bitch to breed from, nor would I allow a 

 mangy dog yard room, however valuable he might otherwise be. 



Young puppies, as soon as they are old enough to lap milk, I feed lib- 

 erally with the scrap and Indian meal pudding, adding what warm milk, 

 just from the cow, they will con sume without cloying. Many are of the 

 opinion that new milk, unless it has been previously been boiled, gener- 

 ates pin worms; but my experience is to the contrary— that its tendency 

 is to expel them. I have never lost a dog by this kind of worm, and I 

 generally raise from two to three litters per year. I let my young pups 

 run loose until from four to five months old, and by this means get them 

 used to domestic fowls and accustomed to outside people. My kennel 

 now numbers sixteen setters, from five and one-half months to six years 

 old, and one St. Bsrnard, all in good health and fine condition, and all 

 reared and grown in this manner. Yours, Ethan Allin. 



ha and Oliver 



FISH IN SEASON IN JANUARY. 



♦ 



SOUTHERN WATERS. 



Pompano, Trachynotus carohnus. Grouper, Epinephelpus nigritus. 

 Drum (two species.) Family Scion- Trout (black bass,) Centropristis 



mace. atrarius. 



Kinghsh, Menticirrus nebulosus. Striped Bass or Rockfish, Roccm 

 bea Bass, Scicenops ocellatus. lineatus. 



Sheepshead, Avchosargus probata- Tatlorflsh, PomaUmns saltatrix 



cephalus. Black bass, Micropterus salmotdesi 



Snapper, Lutjanus caxus. M. nigricans. 



[Under the head of " Game and Fish in Season" we can only specify in 

 general, terms the several varieties, because the laws of States wry so much 

 that were we to altemot to particularize we could do' no less than publish 

 those entire sections that relate to the Mnds of game in Question. This 

 would require a great amount of our space. In designating game toe are 

 guided by the laws of nature, upon which all legislation is founded, and 

 our readers ivould do well to provide themselves with the laws of their re- 

 spscave States for constant reference. Otherwise, our attempts to assist 

 them will only create confusion J\ 



Fish in Market.— The supply of fish during the past 

 week has been unusually liberal, the mild weather per 

 mitting active operations on the part of the fishermen. A 

 large number of codfish have been caught off the Fire 

 Island beach, close in shore, the fishermen using long set 

 lines, baited with the sea clam found on the surf beach. 

 Shad continue to be unusually cheap and abundant for the 

 season. Our quotations vary but little from those of last 

 week, and are as follows : Striped bass, 20 cents per pound ; 

 smelts, 15 cents; bluefish, 12 cents; salmon, frozen, 50 

 cents; mackerel, 20 cents each; shad 50 cents each; white 

 perch, 15 cents per pound; Spanish mackerel, 40 cents; 

 frost fish, 8 cents; halibut, 20 cents; haddock, 8 cents; 

 codfish, 10 cents; blackfish 12i cents; flounders, 12 cents;' 

 eels, 18 cents; sheepshead, 25 cents: whitefish, 18 cents'; 

 pickerel, 18 cents; perch (yellow), 12| cents; salmon trout,' 

 18 cents; black bass, 15 cents; green turtle, 20 cents; ter- 

 rapin, $12 per dozen; scollops, $1 per gallon; soft clams, 

 35 to 60 cents per 100; hard shell crabs, 50 cents per dozen; 

 soft shell crabs, 75 cents; pompano, $1 per pound. 



—Large catches of "Christmas fish" (flounders), have 

 been made along the shores of the inlets at Danversport, 

 Mass., the past week. Two persons took eighteen dozen 

 at one run of the tide, and all have been well rewarded. 

 At this particular season the flounders run close to the 

 shore, and are readily taken with a dip net having red flan- 

 nel fastened in the meshes near the bottom. 



—Messrs. C. H. Read, of the Hoffman House, and Dr. 

 Geo. H. Glenney, caught 34 fine pickerel through the ice 

 on Lake Giles at Blooming Grove Park, last week. The 

 Club House is open ail the year round. 



—The latest news from Eastport, Maine, reports the 

 Winter fishing there almost entirely a failure. Over sixty 

 vessels are there, but none have a cargo. There are no 

 herring between that port and Back Bay. 



—It seems to be certain, from absolute statistics shown, 

 that the Canadian fishermen, so far from having suffered 

 under the Fisheries Treaty, have been largely benefitted by 

 its workings. The profit is on their side; the Yankees 

 have the worst of the bargain. 



—That veteran angler, Geo. Dawson, Esq., of the Al- 

 bany Journal, than whom few ever whipped a trout stream 

 more deftly, has been discoursing charmingly in a few brief 

 chapters upon his last Summer's vacation, passed beside 

 that famous Canadian salmon river, the Caspapedia. Dis- 

 coursing as yeterans do who have grown old in the ser- 

 vice which early engaged their heart and enthusiasm, he 

 holds out his hands toward the great father of anglers 

 conscious that the lapse of years is carrying him on toward 

 the time that bounds the "land of ailments and decrepi- 

 tude," and exultantly says: "It is the glory of the exhila- 

 rating art that its devotees never grow old. The muscles 

 may relax and the beloved rod become a burthen, but the 

 fire of enthusiasm kindled in youth is never extinguished." 



Of the pursuit of angling he avers : "There is nothing 

 so invigorating as the pure air of the mountains; nothing 

 so soothing, after the toil and worry and fret of business 

 as the silence of the woods; nothing so pervading in its 

 mellowing influence upon nerve aud brain and spirits as 

 the pleasant murmurs of the flowing river; nothing so 



health-giving as the aroma of nature's grand forest labora- 

 tory; and nothing so exhilarating as the rise and swirl and 

 rush of trout or salmon." 



It is satisfying tc hear such testimony from so- great a 

 witness. It should stir the desires of those who have never 

 experienced a longing for such pure and unadulterated 

 beneficence: "Angling scatters no seeds from which the 

 nettle of remorse may grow to sting the conscience or 

 drive sunshine from the heart; but like the unclouded 

 friendship of youth, it leaves only joyous memories," It 

 is true enough that the pleasure of angling does not lie in 

 the mere catching of fish. "Half the -pleasure and^ncrve- 

 of camp life," he says, "depends upon where you pitch 

 your tent. "Whoever has imbibed the gentle and poetic 

 spirit of the old masters must have pleasant surroundings 

 or they soon weary of the sport. To enjoy the pastime in 

 full measure there must be . rapid and cascade, rock and 

 mountain, forest and flower,- song-bird and murmuring 

 waters. The rise and strike and play of a mammoth trout 

 or salmon is to the angler what the stir and bustle and 

 push of commerce is to the man £>f business. They give 

 buoyancy to the spirits, elasticity to the step, aotivity to 

 the brain, and a quick er flow of the life-currents of the 

 whole system. But this season of busy activity finds de- 

 lightful relief in the quiet repose of a pleasant home. The 

 tug and swirl and lusty play of a twenty-pound salmon 

 thrills the nerves like an electric current, makes every 

 muscle tingle with ecstacy, and sends the blood coursing 

 through the body as if each particular vein was the high- 

 way of an aurora borealis. But even in the midst of the 

 fierce struggle his eye takes in the scenic beauties with 

 which he is encompassed. He sees the deep pool encircled 

 by the white foam of the swift moving walers; the ponder- 

 ous boulders which rise like water-giants all around him; 

 the foaming rapid whose approach is as smooth as glass, 

 and which reflects back the sun's rays like a polished mir- 

 ror; the luxuriant foliage which fringe the* stream and 

 which is re-produced in even righer hues by the transpa- 

 rent water into which it casts its refreshing 'shadows; and 

 the cloud-capped hills which are around him 'as the mount- 

 ains are round about Jerusalem.' " 



w — Capt. 1ST. W. Beckwith, who is pretty well known 'as 

 a story teller by this time, contributes the following inci- 

 dent for our Angler's column. It tells how Billy Smith 

 ketched it for going a-fishing on Sunday: — 



"B-b-b-billy, S-a-sa-mith was, as he nsed to say himself, the 'cuc-cuc- 

 enc-ussidest s-s-s-t-t-t-ntterer between the t-t-to hoo-h-h h-oceans." How- 

 ever, his defective speech is less the subject of consideration herein than 

 a certain angliug feat of his In boyhood's happy hour. It was on a cer- 

 tain calm and holy Sabbath, when the village bellCeVs were summoning 

 to the sweet hour of per-rayer, that Billy Smith, instead of going rever- 

 entially to Sabbath school, went off a-fishing. Now, Billy was the son 

 of a godly man—a good, pious deacon, too, which enhances Billy's enor- 

 mity beyond measure. He cribbed the old man's chalk line, attached 

 thereto a trout hook, stolen the day before from Tommy Jones (who al- 

 ways went to Sunday school), crammed the pocKets of his go-to-meetin' 

 pants with nasty, muddy angle worms and odoriferous sow bugs, ske- 

 daddled over the back ferice, levanted up the pasture, whooping like an 

 Injun— and all to go a-troutin' on that holy day, like the unregenerate 

 boy he was. Let no reflections be made upon the memory of Billy's pa- 

 rient, pious reader. As deacons do, he has tried his level best to bring 

 •that boy up' in the way he should go— and this was the result! But then 

 the old man's name was also Billy, and he stuttered, t-t-t-t-too. Deacon 

 Billiam. went to meetin'. There he discovered that Billiam, Jr., was not 

 amidst the congregation. Then he instituted an inquiry; which elicited 

 the fact that his hopeful progeny had'nt been to Sunday school, either. 

 Then the deacon swore 



' — as deacons do, 

 With an "I do vum," and an "I tell yeou," * 

 that he'd make it lively for Billy when he did come to time, by which 

 the reader will infer— as the culprit himself might have done could he 

 have heard his wrathful sire— that the best thing for him, under the cir- 

 cumstances, would be not to come to time. But he, all unconscious, 

 pursued the even tenor of his way along the brook side, and did'nt even 

 tumble in once, let alone getting drowned, as he should have done, to 

 point the moral and adorn the tale of the Rev. Brimstone Blueblazes' 

 next contribution to the literature of the Sunday school. But such is 

 the way of the transgressor. No, not a darn tumble did Billy turn. He 

 did'nt so much as tangle that solitary hook in his trousers, or have a 

 'judgment' of any sort fall upon him that was worth the expense. But 

 he just dived into the bushes, yanked out an alder rod, slapped the old 

 chalk line on to the end of it, rove a squirmer along the hook, and went to 

 snaking out the trout at a rate unparalelled since the days of Izaak Wal- 

 ton. Such luck as that graceless young reprobate met with! Six mortal 

 hours of steady killing punished him for his sin. At the end of that 

 time, tired, splashed, muddy, hungry, and happy he desisted from far- 

 ther sport, and reckoning up his catch, found that he had taken no less 

 than twelve dozmxed spotted beauties. Then Billy shouldered his string 

 and trudged homeward, trusting for a continuation of his good luck to 

 slip into the house unobserved, and get behind marm before dad knew 

 anything about it. But it was not so to be. 'Dad' was on the watch for 

 the Sabbath violator, and as he stole miching up the back lane, rose sud- 

 denly before him, armed with a rod of a different complexion. 'Woo- 

 oo-oo-illyum!' thundered the outraged deacon, 'cue- cue-come here! I'll 

 larn ye t'go a tuttererutterer-r-r-outin' on a Suttin-uttin-n-n-unday. 

 H-h-heow many did ye kek-kek-etch, hey?' 'Tut-tut- welve didid-ozen, 

 didid-addy.' 'Twelve dozen ! Gee whiniger! that's a smart boy! Go in, 

 my son, and tell yer mar ter cook ye some fur yer s-snittin-itten-nitteU" 

 titten-n-n-n-npper.' " N. W. Beckwith. 



Needle Points. — Here is some gratifying testimony for 

 Seth Green's fish-hooks : — 



Englewood, N. J., January 1st, 1876. 

 Editor Forest and Stream;— 



Uncle Seth Green is not far wrong about needle hooks. In times past 

 I used them frequently for taking goldfish for the home aquarium, and 

 rarely missed a fish with one after he once bit; besides, the fish thus 

 taken thrived much better than when caught with a barbed hook, as it 

 inflicted a much slighter wound, and the fish were taken off with little 

 or no handling. I have also taken perch in some of our Longlsland 

 ponds in a similar manner, and with much success. I prepared my 

 needles by burning over a lighted paper, when they were easily bent the 

 required shape. G. M. Fairchild, Jr. 



^4^- ■ 



Doings of the Fishing Fleet. —During the past week 

 there have been ten arrivals of the fleet— five from La Have 

 Bank, three from Western Bank, and two from Newfound- 

 land, with salt herring. The receipts are 135,000 pounds 

 of codfish and 49,000 pounds cf halibut. The latter were 

 sold at 15i and lOi cents for white and gvB.j.—Cape Ann 

 Advertiser, December SQtJi. 



