Ui 



FOREST AND STREAM 



A WEEKLY JOURNAL, 



Bejoted to Field and Aquatic Sports, Ppactical Natural History, 

 JJr^^TjTflnraB, the Protection or Game, Preservation of Forests, 

 aitd the Inculcation in Men and Women of a healthy interest 

 in Out-door Recreation and Study : 



PUBLISHED BY 



■forest md §trmt{ ffnblishmg §0tn$ztfg, 



AT— — 



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



TPost Office Box 2832.] 

 137 SOUTH THIRD STREET, PHILADELPHIA. 



Terms, Fire Dollars a Year, Strictly in Advance. 



— ♦ — • — 

 A, discount of twenty-five percent, allowed for five copies and upwards. 



i -SH.-SP- 



Advertising Rates. 



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 

 months, 30 per cent. 



NEW YORK, THURSDAY, JANUARY 6, 1876. 



To Correspondents. 



AH 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 Names will not be published if 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 

 termB ; 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 H ALLOCK, Editor. 



WILLIAM C. HARRIS, Business Manager. 



FLORIDA 



CURIOSITIES. 



WHEN the traveler to Florida returns with what ap- 

 pears to be one of his own incisors, handsomely 

 mounted in gold, dangling at his watch chain, and informs 

 his admiring auditors, with a sportsman's nonchalance, 

 that it is only the tooth of a big alligator "I killed on 

 Indian River," his hearers can have no conception of the 

 amount of business transacted in these and like curiosities 

 and souvenirs; and the mighty hunter may be getting 

 credit for a prowess, the trophy of which first caught his 

 admiring gaze in Damon Greenleaf s "Free Museum of 

 Curiosities" or Gilbert's jewelry store, both at Jackson- 

 ville. It is estimated, says the Florida Agriculturist, that 

 at least one hundred thousand dollars is invested yearly by 

 visitors to Florida incuriosities of every description . Next 

 to alligator's teeth, sea-beans are in demand. These, 

 when polished, are made into charms, lockels, sleeve but- 

 tons and ear-rings, mounted in gold, and form very attrac- 

 tive ornaments. These beans grow in the West Indies, 

 and being washed into the sea by freshets, are afterwards 

 thrown up by the Gulf Stream on the Florida coast. The 

 new comer, however, can always be indicated by the pos- 

 session of an orange wood cane; these are made, usually, 

 from the roots of the wild orange tree, although the lemon 

 and other trees are sometimes used, and they are frequently 

 very handsomely carved. Feather flowers are also made 

 to a considerable extent, the variety of birds of gay plu- 

 made being so large as to furnish an almost endless supply. 

 Fish scale work is also done, and some shell work, al- 

 though most of the latter is imported from Nassau. At 

 St. Augustine and Fernandina a large business is done in 

 palmetto work, hats, baskets, napkin-rings, etc., being 

 made of it. 



Some of the stores will remind the visitor of Niagara 

 Falls, although we are thankful to say that the extortions 

 of that favored spot have not yet traveled so far south; 

 when they do, may the alligators retire to the deepest re- 

 cesses of the swamps, and the sea cease to throw its beans 

 upon the Florida sands; may the palmetto wither ere the 

 knife of the basket maker can reach their stacks, and may 

 all the beautiful birds fly away to some undiscovered land 

 where they may keep their feathers for their own adorn- 

 ment. 



i «-*»> ; 



— Gentlemen purposing to exhibit dogs at the Chicago 

 Bench Show, and desiring premium lists, can procure them 

 at this office. 



CALIPASH AND CALIPEE. 



THE ait of preserving edibles by air-tight canning has 

 reached a point which almost entitles it to be ranked 

 among the sciences. It is very natural, therefore, that to 

 California, in whose interest the great advances in the can- 

 ning business were first made, should furnish us with the 

 latter delicacy, which is by this means brought within the 

 reach of the weary traveler in the desert or off the Cape, 

 as well as the gourmand who takes his turtle at Delmonico's. 

 In fact, it occurs to us that the solid comfort, almost bless- 

 ings, we now enjoy through the increased cuisine facilities 

 afforded by the canning process are not sufficiently ac- 

 knowledged or appreciated. To be sure, steam has short- 

 ened sea voyages, but even now a large proportion of the 

 vegetables served to the passengers are first canned. We 

 read of the horrors of scurvy in the old days when Jack 

 had nothing perhaps for months at a time but salt beef and 

 pork; now an occasional allowance of vegetables spares 

 him this curse, and in the cabin there is scarcely a delicacy 

 with which the skipper cannot regale himself. 



On the west coast of Mexico experiments have been re- 

 peatedly made in canning the green turtle which there- 

 abouts abound, and after many failures we now learn that 

 success has at length been achieved and the first lot of 200 

 dozen cans has been received at San Francisco from 

 Guayamas. The Gulf of California is well known as a 

 great resort for turtles, and their flavor is said to be quite 

 equal to those taken in the Gulf of Mexico or in the West 

 Indies. It is said that Guayamas can alone furnish 200 tons 

 of the meat annually, and that already received in San 

 Francisco is reported to be excellent. Alluding to the sub- 

 ject the Alta- California says: — 



"The cans so far used weigh, when full, two and a half 

 pounds. The meat is boiled in its own abundant juice, 

 without the addition of any water, and the can, when 

 opened cold, is found to be filled with meat inclosed in 

 jelly. The meat is thoroughly cooked and slightly salted 

 and spiced before the can is sealed, so that it can be eaten 

 without further preparation. The green turtle of the west- 

 ern coast of Mexico is called Gahuma in Spanish. Now 

 that the art of canning is understood in Guaymas, we 

 may expect to receive also canned lobster, cuttlefish (Gala- 

 mares), rock cod, totoba— a fish like a rock cod — and other 

 delicacies caught in the Gulf of California." 



We wonder that this experiment has never been tried on 

 our coast. The eastern shore of Florida, as well as the 

 Gulf, furnishes an abundant supply. Many of those re- 

 ceived here, that have been shipped alive, are dead on ar- 

 rival, and the very mention of turtle as an article of ordinary 

 diet conjures up visions of extravagance, to say nothing 

 of subsequent aldermanic proportions. Then, again, to 

 prepare a turtle for cooking is a piece of work beyond the 

 ability of the average cook, an objection that would be ob- 

 viated could it be purchased in cans. Let us have cheap 

 turtle, and who knows what effect it might have in restor- 

 ing a condition of political honesty. 



■ •*-*-•» 



GAME PROTECTION. 



Importing English Hares and Rabbits. 



♦ . 



Rutland, Vt., December 24th, 1875. 

 Editor Forest and Stream: — 



Allow me to throw out, throw your paper, a suggestion: would it not 

 be well worth the trial to import the English hare? The habits of this 

 animal are, in many things unlike tho^e of our mountain hares, which 

 turn white in the Winter. The range of the English hare is very wide— 

 from Italy away to Denmark, if my memory serves me. There is hardly 

 a State in the Union in which it would not do well. It lives upon the 

 rudest fare; it thrives well iu forest as well as in cultivated fields; the 

 food it would consume in our country is not worth reckoning; it affords 

 fine sport, either with dog or gun; it weighs from seven to nine pounds, 

 and its flesh is most excellent for the table; it breeds rapidly, though 

 not as fast as the rabbit does; it is not so easy a prey to the foxes or 

 hawas, as our coney and mountain hare; and unlike the coney, it does 

 not run to earth; it does not stick to covert as our hare does, but runs 

 free and wild, like a fox almost; it is more easily followed; it has more 

 speed than the fox, but less bottom; it may be shot over setter and 

 pointers. The cost of importing them would be small; whether they 

 carry well I do not know; they could hardly be turned out at any place 

 in the country amiss, and it would take but few colonies and a few years 

 for them to have a fixed place in our game list. 



Would not the English rabbit be, too, an acquisition. This animal 

 can be carried to any distance. Its fecundity is as proverbial as is its 

 value for food. What do you think about it Mr. Editor? 



A Traveler. 



We once thought so well of our correspondent's sugges- 

 tion that, as an officer of the Blooming Grove Park Asso- 

 ciation some years ago, we attempted the introduction of 

 these species into the Association's territory. Some twenty 

 pairs were shipped from England in 1872, but only a single 

 individual arrived alive, and the attempt has not been since 

 renewed. With ordinary care no risk need attend their 

 transportation. Of late, however, we have regarded the 

 propagation of hares and rabbits with some apprehension. 

 In our early life we devoted many years to rabbit culture, 

 and then learned, at some pecuniary cost how destructive 

 they were to orchards and garden patches, and how diffi- 

 cult it was to eradicate them when once established. Lately 

 we have remarked the devastations in Nevada, of rabbits 

 or hares, where they are regarded with about the same 

 consideration as the grasshoppers are, owing to their ex- 

 treme abundance and boldness. So, also in parts of Ken- 

 tucky. The destruction they cause annually seems almost 

 incredible, and astonishing. Instances of their depreda- 

 tions are given in the local papers. Certainly, it does not 

 seem necessary to go to the trouble and expense of import- 

 ing, since we have a superabundance within our. own 

 limits. 



— The Eochester Express commends constable Brown 

 for his efforts, in large part at his own expense, during the 

 past year in causing the arrest and conviction of a large 



number of violators of the game law in Monroe county. 

 Last week Mr. Brown served summons upon ten different 

 parties for fishing with nets in the Bay. The Express says 

 that "the wagon loads of fish almost daily brought into 

 Rockester show conclusively that nets are being drawn 

 almost every night, causing the destruction of thousands 

 of fish which happen to be unseasonable. 



Altcona, Penn., December 30th, 1875. 

 Editor Forest and Stream:— 



Being well aware of your interest in the preservation and increase of 

 game in our country, I would ask leave to call your atteution, or more 

 properly the Sportsmens Club of Pittsburgh, Ihrough your columns, to 

 the fact, that there is an effort being made to prolong: the game laws' of 

 Pennsylvania, particularly that clause relating to deer: that no deer 

 shall be taken or killed after the 1st of December, and that petitions are 

 now being circulated, asking our Legislature to extend the time to Jan- 

 uary 1st. I think the present law the best we have ever had, and am 

 perfectly willing to give up this genuine sport, and to me, my greatest 

 enjoyment, on the 1st of December, anl could I, or did I have the power 

 would have or make the law read November 1st for at least five years to 

 come, to allow this noble animal to propagate and populate our forests. 

 An amendment to our State law, making it a penalty for running deer 

 with dogs, would meet the approbation of many sportsmen, who hunt 

 not for the market, but for the pleasure it affords. Hoping the Sports- 

 men's Club of Pittsburgh will take a note of this, and use^their influence 

 to defeat any amendment of the kind. Sportsman. 



Where restrictive measures of an extraordinary character 

 are required to enable barren districts to recuperate, most any 

 sacrifice of pleasure or convenience may be submitted to. In 

 New Jersey there is a five year fence season for pinnated 

 grouse; on Long Island a total prohibition of deer shoot- 

 ing excepting for the first fifteen days in November, and 

 recently a five years close season for quail ; in Nova Scotia 

 a three years total prohibition of moose killing; and like 

 restrictions in other localities. If a temporary prohibition 

 of deer killing is needed in Pennsylvania, to cover, say 

 two or three years, an act to that effect could probably be 

 gotten through the Legislature; but unless its provisions 

 are made to apply to the whole State, it will be found 

 practicably inoperative. 



AEditor Forest and Stream:— 



As many of your subscribers are members of The West Jersey Game 

 Protection Society, and no doubt would be pleased to learn what has 

 been done by the Committee on Purchase of Live Game and Pish since 

 the annual meeting of the society , held September 15th last, please give 

 the following statement a place in the columns of your paper, if possible. 

 Since the 9th of October, 830 live black bass have been obtained from 

 the upper part of the Delaware and Potomac rivers and distributed as 

 follows: — 



Lake at Malaga 80 



Lake at Hammonton ... 100 



Headwaters Great Egg Harbor 



River 40 



Cotrausey Creek 50 



Saletn Creek 50 



Alloway's Creek 49 



Cooper's Creek 50 



Mantua Creek 84 



Lake at Wenonah 25 



Headwaters Tnckahoe Paver... 51 



Maurice River 75 '. 



Woodbury Creek 46 Died in transporting and after 



Raccoon Creek 50 arrival 30 



Oldman's Creek 50| — 



Total 830 



Four hundred belonged to the State of New Jersey, and were placed 

 in the hands of the committee for distribution through Doctor Benj. P. 

 Howull, of Woodbury, one of the Commissioners of Fisheries, and were 

 let out in such streams as he directed. Much more would have been ac- 

 complished if the committee had been able to commence earlier. Great 

 credit is due to Mr. Milton P. Peirce, of Wenonah, New Jersey, for his 

 efforts in obtaining the fish and distributing them, and it was through 

 his exertions and care, that the percentage of loss wa3 so small. 



The committee have made arrangements to secure a large number of 

 live grouse and quail, which are to be kept through the season until the 

 proper time arrives in the Spring to let them out. 



Inclosed you have articles taken from several of the newspapers of 

 South Jersey, showing how the efforts of the society are regarded. 



Yours, A. Membee. 



We are convinced that the West Jersey Game Protective 

 Association is accomplishing a great deal of good. We do 

 not endorse all its measures, or rather the methods it has 

 chosen, to correct and prevent abuse, but we wish its energy 

 and efficiency could be imitated all over the country. It 

 would soon make poaching as unprofitable and unfashion- 

 able as child-stealing. The favorable testimony of the lo- 

 cal pi ess is before us. 



Valparaiso, Dad., December 29th. 1S75. 

 Editor Forest and Stream:— 



The long rainy season has effectually protected game from extermi- 

 nation. But few quail have been killed, and deer, which are quite nu- 

 merous in the Kankakee swamps, are still living in perfect safety. They 

 are absolutely out of reach. Were they to be let alone two years we 

 would hive fine shooting. The mildness of the season thus lar leads 

 me to think that birds will be abundant next year. I wish I could be 

 sure of January and February, but there's the rub. 



W. H. HOLABIRD, 



— Too much praise cannot be awarded to the Cana- 

 dians for the energy with which they are enforcing the 

 game laws across the line. We hear of arrests being made 

 in all directions and in every Province, of men who have 

 taken fish and game out of season. The wholesale arrest 

 recently of forty deer slayers at once will have a most salu- 

 tary effect on all offenders. Every proceeding of this 

 kind aids very materially the efforts of our own prosecu- 

 tors, by preventing the sale here of unseasonable game. It ; 

 shows also that the laws can be enforced if we are disposed 

 to take the matter seriously in hand. It cannot be denied 

 that there is great apathy and negligence on the part of ' 

 our clubs that have been formed avowedly for the protec- 

 tion of game— the very associations to which we look for 

 eflScient service. There is no end to the complaints we re- 

 ceive against the inaction and indifference of these clubs, < 

 One gentleman residing in Central New York, who has ^ 

 spent much time and money in individual effort to punish i{ 

 violations of the law, asserts that he applied to two of the 

 leading clubs in his section to assist him in presenting \ 

 guilty parties who had been detected in the act of spear- i 

 ing lake trout, but could get no help, except from one or ( 

 two individual members. This is a serious charge, vve , 

 cannot wonder at the continuation of abuses and the laxity \ 

 of laws, when we are made cognizant of such facts, which j 

 do not apply to one section only, but to all parts of the * 

 country, \ 



