S92 



FOREST AND STREAM 



A WJEiiKJLY JOURNAL, 



^^™ ToFlHLI> ^d Aquatic Spobts, Pfactical Nattjrai, History, 

 ™ TTT ^ r II » B » ti ?e Protection of Game, Preservation op Forests, 



£f?k J5 5 INCUXCATJON IN MEN AND WOMEN OP A HEALTHY INTEREST 



m Oxtt-door Recreation and Study : 



PUBLISHED BY 



JHort&t mid gtrmq §nhli$hing %om$m$ P 



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



("Post Oppice Box 2833.1 



123 SOUTH THIRD STREET, PHILADELPHIA. 



Terms, Five Dollars a Year, Strictly In Advance. 



. — « 



A discount o f twenty-five per cent, allowed for five copies and upwards. 



— — <m *^ — 



Advertising R-atea. 



In regular advertising columns, nonpareil type, 13 lines to the inch, 2E 

 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 27, 1876. 



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 Names will not be published if 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 

 is 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 

 fcerms ; 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 HILLOCK, Editor. 



WILLI \ M C. H4RRI8. Business Afanaeer, 



MR. HALLOCK AGAIN IN THE FIELD. 



THE Editor-in-chief of this paper, accompanied by 

 Mr. W. L. Biooks, of Stamford, Connecticut, sailed 

 for Florida on Saturday last in the elegant steamer, Cham- 

 pion, of the Quintard Line, for a six weeks' cruise. They 

 stop first at Port Royal, where they will remain for a few 

 days as the guest of Mr. C. G. Kendall, who is well 

 fitted with boats, decoys, etc., and who can show them 

 the Dest of both upland and bay shooting. From there they 

 go to Charleston and then to Jacksonville, from whence 

 they will proceed to "do" the State very thoroughly, going 

 down the St. Johns and visiting Indian River and the 

 Ocklawaha, finally crossing over to Cedar Keys and taking 

 the Steamer for Havana. Mr. Hallock's canoe has gone 

 forward by the Florida Line, of which Mr. Herman 

 Gelpeke is agent, they kindly offering to take charge of it 

 and transport it to Fernandina from whence it will be 

 transhipped to Jacksonville. Our unusually open season 

 has retarded the tide of travel to Florida very materially, 

 but we have yet February to contend with, and the steam- 

 ers of both these favorite lines will undoubtedly be carry- 

 ing full complements of passengers before the season is over. 

 We hope to have some of Mr. Hallock's letters to lay be- 

 fore our readers ere long. 



The "Squire" is also absent, being in Chicago, attending 

 as one of the judges of the great Bench Show, now being 

 held in that city. By the bye, we had hoped in this issue 

 to have presented an engraving of the Michigan cup, man- 

 ufactured for us by the Meriden Brittania Co., and which 

 forms the leading prize at the Chicago Show, but the en- 

 gravers have disappointed us„ 



, — ■■<« »" ■ — 



A Change.-— Mr. S. A. Atkinson, an associate on the 

 staff of this paper since its commencement, has purchased 

 from Mr. Wm. C. Harris, an interest in the Philadelphia 

 Trade Journal, and assumed entire editorial control of that 

 paper. Mr. Atkinson is widely known as an editor and 

 practical printer and business man, and our loss can but 

 be a gain to the Trade Journal The latter is now in its 

 ninth year and is the representative paper of the manufac- 

 turing interests of Philadelphia. Under Mr. Atkinson its 

 already excellent reputation will be ably sustained. 

 — _ — ,»— i »g, ■ — — ■" . 



—To indicate how widely Forest and Stream circu- 

 lates, we may state that in four days we received appli- 

 cations for sample copies from twenty-six different States, 

 two Canadian Provinces, England prance, and Ireland, 



HEREDITARY INFLUENCES. 



THERE are probably few persons now living who have 

 paid the subject any attention, who are not in- 

 clined to contribute to the influences of inheritance many 

 more characteristics than were formerly assigned to that 

 source. Less is heard of the term ^'instinct" and more of 

 the term "hereditary." It has been seen that much of 

 that which we call intuitive in animals and men, is only 

 the same knowledge, perhaps a little exaggerated, as their 

 parents possessed; and when, as in the case of the eave 

 swallow, we know the origin of certain habits which are 

 now just as much innate in the young as others, the origin 

 of which is lost, we are inclined to consider all instinct, 

 so called, but the sum of inherited experience. The pa- 

 rent transmits to the young, not only its general form and 

 external appearance, and not only its specific mental like- 

 ness, but also those peculiarities which distinguish it as an 

 individual, and, to a less extent, those traits which it has 

 acquired during its life. Instincts are habits fixed by he- 

 redity and are unconsciously obeyed, and this rule admits 

 of few exceptions. Pointer pups taken into the field, un- 

 accompanied by older dogs, will stand with muscles 

 strained and eyes fixed at the first partridge they see. The 

 young shepherd dog shows a disposition to guard stock. 

 All spiders construct webs, yet each variety constructs its 

 web peculiar to itself. The dog not only inherits scent, 

 but also that which enables him to know a definite kind of 

 game. Certain races of Indians also inherit scent, and so do 

 negroes. Dr. James S. Bailey mentions a family of ne- 

 groes who inherited this faculty in a remarkable degree. 

 No matter how stealthily a white person approached their 

 cabin at night, their conversation would immediately be 

 hushed, and they would discover his approach by their 

 scent. 



But besides this, changes in the manner of life, habits 

 made necessary or caused by new conditions and environ- 

 ment are transmissible; and here enters that wedge of va- 

 riation which seems to have been so instrumental in pro- 

 ducing the present diversity of form among animals and 

 plants. Before the settlement of this country all the 

 swallows nested in hollow trees, in caves, and under ledges 

 of rock, as they yet do in the far West and in the remote 

 forests of the British provinces. But when farmers began 

 to till the land, and to keep cattle, and erect houses, the 

 swallows, probably at first attracted by the greater num- 

 ber of insects, seized upon the out-houses and chimneys as 

 more suitable places for building their nests, and have 

 gradually abandoned the woods in the settled parts of the 

 country altogether. Their young have not gone back to 

 the woods and caves — although some of the first genera- 

 tion may have done so— and have little by little modified 

 the shape of the nest to suit the new situation, until there 

 is a very great difference between the nests built in our 

 barns and those built by the wild birds of the same species 

 in the Rocky Mountains. 



It was long ago found out that certain advantageous 

 traits in horses and cattle could be perpetuated and aug- 

 mented, the power to make these peculiarities more lasting 

 and more prominent increasing with each generation. 

 Examples of this are numerous and known to every breed 

 er, and it is upon this faculty of inheritance, under advan- 

 tageous conditions, that Mr. Darwin hinges his doctrine 

 of evolution by natural selection. But, not only do good 

 features perpetuate themselves, but evils and deformity 

 also come under the influence of inheritance, and are the 

 surest of all to descend from generation to generation. 

 Even those deformities that arise from artifice or accident 

 are transmissible. Many Indian tribes of Peru, and some 

 of the Oregon coast, bad peculiar modes of distorting the 

 heads of their children, and now many children are born 

 with their heads out of shape in this peculiar way. Es- 

 quimaux sledge dogs and Manx cats usually have to suffer 

 the loss of their tails, and their puppies and kittens are 

 often born tailless, and in rare cases the loss of a limb in 

 men has resulted in their children having but one arm or 

 leg. Blindness, deafness, insanity, idiocy, and morbid ap- 

 petites are all inherited, and statistics abound to show the 

 extent to which this influence has tainted the human race. 



In view of these facts, which recent investigations have 

 brought to light, the study of the heredity of disease, in 

 their relation to mankind,becomes one of the deepest interest 

 and importance. To a thoughtful man, it is fearful to con- 

 sider how unwittingly men are daily sowing seeds of dis- 

 ease and infirmity in their frames, which, once rooted, can 

 never be eradicated, but which will reappear again and 

 again in one form or another. No man may contract 

 asthma, rheumatism, gout, consumption, or any disease 

 which affects his blood, through carelessness or whisky, 

 or any other form of dissipation, and plead that it hurts 

 himself alone. If he have children he surely curses them 

 with an infirm constitution, and opens an ever-broadening, 

 ever deepening channel for a new stream of misery to flow 

 through the world. Our insane and idiot and inebriate 

 asylums, our hospitals for consumptives and scrofulous 

 patients, even our prisons, are witnesses of the certainty of 

 this result. It has been said that there never now occurs— 

 no such a thing is recorded in recent times— an original 

 case of syphilitic disease. This may be too strong a state- 

 ment, for some physicians doubt its truth; but it is certain 

 that hundreds of innocent families bear in their systems 

 and faces to-day the living, loathsome marks of their re- 

 mote forefathers' vices, who are not aware of the fact and 

 cause of their suffering. Not alone does the good men do 

 live after them. The iniquities of the fathers are visited 

 upon the children even unto the third and fourth genera- 

 tion. For any one who cares for his race or his children, 

 could there be a stronger argument for leading a pure, 

 wholesome, careful life, than these facts contain? 



GAME PROTECTION. 



Massachusetts Anglers' Association —A large and 

 enthusiastic meeting of this association was held at their 

 rooms on Wednesday evening, January 12th. Dr. John 

 P. Ord way, the President, in the chair. J. V. Meigs, of 

 the Massachusetts Central Commission, made a statement to 

 the members of the intentions of the committee, and sug- 

 gested action of some sort by the association. On motion 

 of ex Gov . Talbot, a committee of three was appointed to 

 confer with the Commissioners, consisting of Gov. Thomas 

 Talbot, Weston Lewis, and Dr. E. D. Miller. The Presi- 

 dent was added to the number. The subject of lobsters 

 and trout was discussed, and a close time was arranged for 

 the latter. The President stated that there was no question 

 but the present Legislature would pass a law in comformity 

 with the laws of other States. Dr. Ord way read a letter 

 from Hon. R. B. Roosevelt, one of the New York Fish 

 Commissioners, requesting in justice to that State, that a 

 close time should be made. After the regular business was 

 transacted, the members did ample justice to an elegant 

 collation gotten up J. B. Smith, caterer. The interest in 

 this organization is constantly on the increase. 



— The Ravenna {Ohio) Bepublican Democrat deplores the 

 destruction of all small birds and game by bag-hunters 

 with their dogs and ferrets, and recommends a law sub- 

 jecting all such trespassers to a fine of $50, with confisca- 

 tion of their dogs and ferrets. One reason why the game 

 law so often proves a dead letter, it says, "is because they 

 have almost always been drawn up by those who live 

 in large cities, and passed through their influence, and 

 are consequently looked upon with distrust and suspi- 

 cion by most people, who think and believe that the sports- 

 men (so called) desire to prevent the birds and other ani- 

 mals from being killed, even by the owners of the soil, in 

 order, at certain seasons of the year, that the country 

 may be invaded by them and their friends, sallying from 

 the cities to gratify their own pleasure in the destruction 

 of the game, to the exclusion of everybody else, they hav- 

 ing the advantage of trained dogs always at hand." There 

 is no doubt that this feeling of jealously is prevalent in 

 rural districts. Time only can eradicate it, improved by a 

 judicious use of enlightening influences, and a contact and 

 mutual understanding between the denizens of town and 

 country. 



— The West Jersey Game Protective Society held its 

 quarterly meeting in Camden on Wednesday, January 

 19th. The attendance was very large; the action of the 

 committee on stocking forests and streams with game and 

 fish was highly approved. Their agent, Capt. Pierce, the 

 South Jersey fish culturist, was congratulated upon his 

 success in connection with the mattter. 



— A powerful society for the prevention of cruelty to an- 

 imals has been established in Brooklyn. Mr. George W. 

 Johnson is Superintendent and Secretary. The officers are 

 a3 follows: — President, John De Grauw; Vice Presidents; 

 John W. Hunter, Samuel McLean, James Stuart Gillen, 

 Charles W. Russel, John Greenwood, Henry E. Nesmith, 

 Augustus E. Masters; Secretary and Superintendent, Geo. 

 Will Johnson; Chairman Executive Committee, Horace 

 B. Claflin, Agents, Frank O. Clark, Charles Crissey and 

 William De Nyse, assisted by a large force of special of- 

 ficers. 



lX San Francisco, Cal., Jan. 1st, 1876. 



Editor Forest and Stream:— 



There is considerable controversy just now going on in our papers, 

 whether our numerous seals or sea lions should be destroyed or not. 

 Some contend that they are terrific devourers of our fish, and are de- 

 stroying our fisheries; others, while they admit that they feed much on 

 fish, insist that their destruction of them is vastly overrated, and that 

 tbey eat more of the Crustacea and other kinds of ocean production. 

 For my own part. I consider that these animals do certainly live upon a 

 large amount of fish food, and thereby considerably diminish our fish 

 supplies; but lam decidedly of opinion that the many Chinese fisher- 

 men, by tbe use of nets permanently fastened to their many stakes 

 driven into the bottom of our bay in all directions, and these nets with 

 meshes almost as fine as a mosquito bar, effect an infinitely greater 

 amount of mischief, and it is a great wonder that they should have been 

 permitted to ply their business in the extirpation of small fish, and even 

 their very spawn, so long as thev have. They send hundreds of tons of 

 these small fry made into a kind of paste, to China. However, I trust 

 their time of reckoning is nearly at hand. Tnis nefarious proceeding of 

 wholesale slaughter is about to be put a stop to. The public is being 

 now aroused, and a pablic meeting of cur Italian and other fishermen, 

 and some of our best citizens, has been held, and resolutions, have been 

 passed with instructions to our legislators at Sacramento to make an en- 

 actment to forbid the use of any nets whatever with meshes small 

 enough to hold and destroy the young fish of our waters, and to disal- 

 low the use of stakes, which actually impede, in many parts of the bay, 

 the navigation of boats and vessels. 



Whether c*ir Legislature will repeal the existing laws, which preserves 

 the sea lions at the mouth of our harbor, I do not know; but I am one 

 of the advocates for a large portion of them, at least, being put hors du 

 combat I am informed that the repeal of that law has parsed the Sen- 

 ate but what will be the fate of the law to repeal in the other depart- 

 ment of the legislative body I cannot yet tell. I only trust that so great 

 an evil as the injury to our fisheries and angling sport as is now going 

 on, will, in all justice, be remedied as speedily as possible. Let us have 

 vour sympathies, and we should be very glad to have the bentflt of your 

 opinion, and that of some of your numerous readers and correspon- 

 dents, as to the capacity and rapacity of seals for fish food ■ 



E. «J. .HOOPER. 



We were once engaged for three months in fishing on the 

 Labrador coast, from the Strait of Belle Isle to latitude 

 55° during which time we found the seals to be very de- 

 structive to salmon fisheries, but not to that degree as 

 prevent the fishing being remunerative. They mutilated 

 more than they ate. 



^/ Cambridge, Mass., Jan. 15th, 1876. 



Editor Forest and Stream:— .* fe - 



Every year we are told that the Fish Commissioners of Calif omla 

 have placed in the Sacramento and other streams so many thousand as 

 the case may be, of salmon or *>ther fry, with a view to the replenishing 



