72 



FOREST AND STREAM. 



THE CENTENNIAL AQUARIUM. 



A VV £U£uk±.L.Y JOURNAL, 

 Devoted to Field and Aquatic Sports, Practical Natural History, 



^ISHOaLTURE, THE PROTECTION OF GAME, PRESERVATION OE FORESTS, 



ai,d the Inculcation in Men and Women of a healthy interest 



M« UUX-DOOR BeCREATION AND STUDY : 



PUBLISHED BY 



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



[Post Office Box 2832.] 



» 



Terms, Four Dollar a Year, Strictly in Advance. 



Twenty-five per cent, off for Clubs of Three or more, 



i ^ i » . . .. i i 



Advertising Bates. 



Inside pages, nonpariel type, 20 cents per line: outside page, 30 cents. 

 Special rates for three, six, and twelve mouths. Notices in editorial 

 columns, 50 cents per line. 



NEW YORK, THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 7, 1876. 



To Correspondents. 



All communications whatever, whether relating to Dusiness or literary 

 Correspondence, mnst be addressed to The Forest and Stream Pub- 

 lishing Company. Personal or private letters of conrse 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 Names will not be published if 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 regaraed. 



Articles relating to any topic within Che 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 

 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 ns is lost. 



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

 CHARLES HALLOCK, 



Editor and Business Manager. 



CALENDAR OF EVENTS FOR THE COM- 



, ING WEEK. 



Thursday, Sept. 7.— Central New York Fair, Utica, N. Y. Yacht- 

 ing: at College Point, L. I.; Royal Canadian Yacht Club Regatta at 

 Toronto. Trotting: Dubuque, la.; Davenport, la.-, Penn Yan, N. Y.; 

 Springfield, Mass.; Macomb. 111.; Montgomery City, Mo. Rifle: Pop- 

 penhusen Badge, Match and Long-range practice at Creedmoor. Base 

 Ball: Mutual of New York vs. Volunteer, at Poughkeepsie; Alpha of 

 S. I. vs. Montgomery of N, Y., at Brooklyn; Mutual of New York vs. 

 Volunteer, at Poughkeepsie; Rhode Island vs. Louisville, at Providence, 

 R. I. ; Chicago vs. St. Louis, at Brooklyn. 



Friday, Sept. 8.— Central New York Fair. Royal Canadian Yacht 

 Club Regatta at Toronto. Trotting as above except at Penn Yan, N. Y. 

 Rifle: Long-range practice at Creedmoor. Base Ball: Monticello vs. 

 Press, at Jersey City; Enterprise vs. Resolute of Elizabeth, at Jersey 

 City; Star of Syracuse vs. Cricket, at Binghamton N. Y.; Mutual vs. 

 Chicago, at Brooklyn, E. D.; Boston vs. Louisville, at Boston; 

 Hartford vs. Cincinnati, at Hartford; Athletic vs. St. Louis at Phila- 

 delphia . 



Saturday, Sept. 9.— Trotting: As on Friday. Rifle: Seventh regi- 

 ment Diamond badge and Shells matches at Creedmoor. Cricket: St. 

 George vs. Staten Islands at Hoboken, N. J. Base ball: Contest vs. Athlet- 

 ics, of East N. Y. .at Prospect Park, Brooklyn; Enterprise vs.New York, at 

 Jersey City; Arlington vs. Resolute, at Stapleton Flats, S. I. ; Mutual vs. 

 Heboken. at Jersey City : Witokavs. Crescent, at Brooklyn; Staten Island 

 vs. Olympic, at Staten Isjand; Osceola vs. Nameless, at Brooklyn; Winona 

 vs. Hudson, at Brooklyn; Mutual vs. Chicago, at Brooklyn, E. D.: 

 Boston vs. Louisville, at Boston; Hartford vs. Cincinnati, at Hartford; 

 Athletics vs. St. Louis, at Philadelphia. 



Monday, Sept. 11.— Regatta Boston Yacht Club. Base ball: Eliza- 

 beth vs. Our Boys, at Elizabeth, N. I. 



Tuesday, Sept. 12.— Rifle: Centennial ^matches and fourth annual 

 prize meeting National Rifle Association at Creedmoor. Trotting: 

 Point Breeze Park, Philadelphia; Mystic Park, Boston; Peoria, 111 ; 

 Albany, N. Y.; Cleveland, Ohio; Syracuse, N. Y. Base ball: Mutual 

 vs. Louisville, at Brooklyn, E. D.; Boston vs. St. Louis, at Boston; 

 Hartford vs. Chicago, at Hartford; Athletic vs. Cincinnati, at Phila- 

 delphia. 



flgp" The subscription price of Forest and Stream has 

 been reduced to $4. Twenty-five per cent, off for Clubs 

 of Three or more. 



The Audubon Club.— We beg lo tender our sincere 

 thanks to the members of the Audubon Club, of Chicago, 

 for the many kind attentions extended to our representative 

 during the recent National Convention in that city. The 

 pleasure enjoyed in the society of these gentlemen will 

 long be remembered, and, when possible, reciprocated. 

 We tender them all the courtesies of our office when they 

 visit New York. 



—Any gentleman having a general shooting ground, 

 shore and upland, to lease pr sell, is referred to the adver- 

 tisement elsewhere, 



THE Centennial Aquarium, which it was announced 

 with something of a nourish would be a prominent 

 attraction of the Exhibition at Philadelphia, has proved 

 worse than a failure. It is a failure per se; and worse than 

 a failure, because the parties into whose charge it was 

 placed had every facility and requisite for making it what 

 it ought to have been, and what they promised it should be. 

 Sgln the latter part of June we visited the Agricultural 

 Hall to inspect what we had promised ourselves would 

 prove a source of delight, and to our surprise and chagrin 

 found nearly all the tanks untenanted, and the Aquarium 

 Superintendent, Mr. Fred Mather, who had set his heart 

 upon having a rare show, standing like Napoleon at St. 

 Helena, in mournful attitude and brass-mounted uniform, 

 bewailing the culmination of a series of catastrophes 

 which could never be repaired, and which placed his gold- 

 en dream of success forever beyond his reach. What was 

 the matter? Why nothing had gone right from the first- 

 Some fish had died intransitu and some from neglect after 

 they had reached the tanks; his requisitions, which re- 

 quired a prompt compliance that red tape could never fill, 

 had met with habitual delay; and now, to cap the climax 

 of his woes, that very morniug the pumping engine had 

 failed, and left the fish to gasp for their requiste supply of 

 sea water. He had rescued what he could and hurried 

 them to the central fountains, and all that remained were 

 a few turtles and an unfortunate "Hellbender!" "Hell- 

 bender" is what Mather called it— a sort of slimy hermaph- 

 rodite, half leech, half lizard, with a large square mouth 

 like a catfish; and when Fred in his affliction attempted to 

 fondle it, the vile thing actually bit him! The look of 

 pity more than of anger that the injured Superintendent 

 dropped on him was too much for our sympathizing heart, 

 and we hastily withdrew to Machinery Hall to drown our 

 reflections in the crash and hum of material forces. 



A few days ago a thin, spare figure, clad in gray, glided 

 into our office and deposited a mildewed card upon our 

 desk. It was printed, "Fred Mather; Superintendent Cen- 

 tennial Aquarium;" but across the face of it were written 

 in black the words " Newer more." More ominous than the 

 utterances of the "Raven!" We looked up furtively, just 

 as Poe's fellow did at the chamber door. It was Mather' 

 but it was not the Mather of early Centennial days. The 

 gilt buttons had gone as the sunshine fades behind the 

 leaden cloud. The expression of his face looked like 

 Macbeth's when he groaned "Thoucans't nob say Jdiditl" 

 By that token we realized all. We comprehended the sit- 

 uation instantly. All was lost, and the Grand Centennial 

 Aquarium was a grand tetotal failure! It was all up with 

 it. We had hoped that the perseverence of our friend 

 would have wrought success, despite all obstacles, but the 

 shadow had fallen at last. "I am going back," he said, 

 "to my native heath. I want to see my mother, I could 

 —alas!— I could have stood it all; but that ungrateful 

 ; hell-bender !' It was the unkindest cut of all." 



With this utterance he vanished and left us to reflect 

 upon the uncertainty of Centennial Commissions, and the 

 indifference and maladministration of some from whom 

 great things were expected. The Centennial Aquarium is 

 not a fait accompli, but we may congratulate the public 

 that, however dark it may look on this side of the Atlan- 

 tic, on the other they have a Brighton. 



.«»«- • 



GREENWOOD LAKE OUR FUTURE RE- 

 GATTA GROUND. 



THE Greenwood Lake Sportsman's Club is the "livest" 

 association that our attention has ever been directed 

 to. Organized primarily to protect the bass fishing in the 

 beautiful lake in Orange county where it makes its head- 

 quarters, it has drawn to it by a natural attraction the sev- 

 eral railroad and hotel interests that center there, and en- 

 listed in its behalf the active services and cooperation of 

 all concerned . Old sportsmen to whom Greenwood Lake 

 has been chosen and familiar hunting and fishing ground 

 for SO years, are pleased with the easy access thereto which 

 the recently completed Montclair arid Greenwood Lake 

 Railroad affords, and while they may deprecate the open- 

 ing of their hitherto exclusive resort to the public, they 

 feel that the protective restrictions thrown over the terri- 

 tory will not only preserve it, but make it even more 

 fruitful in game to be shot at and fish to be angled for. 

 Wherefore, not only they but their sons, now grown to 

 full estate, lend helpful aid to the enterprise, and old Peter 

 Cooper, Abram S. Hewitt, and Peter Gilsey's sons and 

 sons-in-law, and all the large holders of wilderness lands 

 that border on the lake have joined the club. The officers 

 of the railroad have swelled the long list of honorable 

 names, and the Brandons, mine host Waterstone of old 

 fame, the proprietor of the Windermere, and the other 

 hotel keepers have joined, and Mr. Brandon has offered a site 

 for the new Club House, which is to cost $12,000, a sum 

 quite munificent in itself, but which any one of fifty of 

 the wealthiest of the club members could spare from his 

 individual exchequer. So that, from small beginnings the 

 Greenwood Lake Club has suddenly assumed a potential 

 growth, and promises to afford to those living within a 

 hundred miles of the lake one of the most attractive re- 

 sorts in the country. Six years ago a few gentlemen who 

 formed the nucleus of the club put black bass into the 

 lake, and they now take great quantities with hook and 

 line, that run up to three pounds in weight and over. 

 There are woodcock and ruffed grouse over the hills in 

 considerable 'quantity, and a few ducks jn the fall, which 



may be multiplied by inducements to tarry, in the shape 

 of wild rice sown at advantageous points. With the facil- 

 ities and atti actions named the conveyances and hotels 

 have been run to their fullest capacity ever since the rail- 

 road was opened on the 1st of July. Hundreds of the res- 

 idents along the line who had been cut off from the lake 

 by an intervening wilderness tract 12 miles across, and had 

 never seen it, now embrace the opportunity to pay it fre- 

 quent visits; picnic parties ramble by hundreds, and visi- 

 tors from the city are numerous. Everyone seems happy 

 and enthusiastic, and everybody— railroads, hotels, and all 

 —are making money. To go up into that section is like 

 sliding out from financial darkness and distress into the 

 light and activity of flush times. 



Our especial object, however, in writing this article, was 

 not to give a general sketch of the place and its belong, 

 ings. As we began to say, the Club was primarily organ- 

 ized to protect the fish in the lake and enjoy the fishing- 

 but among the numerous added attractions since then, that 

 of boating is perhaps even the greatest. There is a very 

 fine passenger steamboat that runs from the railroad ter- 

 minus to all points on the lake (which is eight miles long 

 and we forgot to say, christened by Frank Forester, with 

 its beautiful name;) there are two little steam excursion 

 yachts, and quite a number of rowboats, duckboats, shells 

 and canoes belonging to club members, besides skiffs innu- 

 merable to let. It has been ascertained by constant tests 

 that Greenwood Lake is one of the finest sheets of water 

 in the country for rowing. Inclosed by hills that are al- 

 most mountainous, it is not subject to serious flaws of 

 wind to lump and roughen the water. It offers the finest 

 four- mile straightaway course we have; and with the con- 

 ditions we have mentioned— its easy access from New 

 York by rail of only 40 miles ; its seven large and well-kept 

 hotels, with one to be enlarged and another to be added 

 next season; its club of well organized, wealthy and influ- 

 ential members, with a commodious club house; its steam- 

 ers, already on the lake, for regatta uses — we may safely 

 predict that it will be eventually selected as the favorite 

 Regatta Course for all regattas to be rowed within 100 miles 

 of New York. This prediction is not a random shot at 

 hap-hazard chances. All that is needed is for the Club to 

 induce the officers of our rowing clubs to visit the place, 

 and we would respectfully suggest that it would prove a 

 good investment if the Club would arrange for a regatta on 

 the lake on some balmy October day, when the air is still 

 and the leaves are golden, and give free transportation to 

 the shells and boats of all clubs signifying their willing- 

 ness to enter. This would bring all the boat clubs to- 

 gether in one grand reunion, and at once establish the lake 

 in favor as a rowing curriculum. It will be seen by ref- 

 erence to our boating column that the Club has already 

 invited the Yale and London Rowing Clubs to a joust on 

 its waters this month, and offered the magnificent prize of 

 a $500 cup to the winner. Yale has accepted, and we 

 trustthat the acquiescence of the London Club will assure 

 the event and tstablish Greenwood Lake henceforth as the 

 chosen Regatta Ground for New England and the Middle 



States. 



+++- — — 



CULTIVATING WILD RICE TO ATTRACT 



FOWL. 



IT is a fact generally conceded that, all things being equal, 

 birds will be found in greatest abundance and regularity 

 where they best can obtain their favorite food. It thus 

 happens that many birds have been largely influenced in 

 habits by civilization, and the changes which the presence 

 of man. has occasioned in their native haunts. Travelers 

 in the almost illimitable wilds of northern Asia say that 

 they feel sure they are approaching the vicinity of settle- 

 ments when they begin to see birds in the bushes, for the 

 few in the wilderness gather about such places. John 

 Burroughs, when he went into the far Adirondacks for 

 birds, was disappointed and only secured them near the 

 towns. We ourselves have noticed the same thing in the 

 Rocky Mountains, and in the Canadian forests. The birds 

 do not seek the company of man for sympathy alone, but 

 because his operations and his cattle let in the sunlight, 

 and induce increased quantities of insects, and protection 

 from hawks and owls. With the game-birds, however, 

 although attracted in a somewhat similar way and degree 

 the result is usually different, and the constant pursuit of 

 them is likely to soon produce extermination or extreme 

 scarcity. This is especially the case with the water-fowl, 

 whose breeding haunts once disturbed are not likely to be 

 continued or re-established. In some places, however, cir- 

 cumstances are so favorable ihat despite an annual fusi- 

 lade from hunters for a century or more, the geese, ducks, 

 rails, and gallinules, have come back year after year, and 

 still return in large numbers to breed, or to feed on their 

 vernal and autumnal flights. Instances of such well-kept 

 shooting grounds are the lakes of Minnesota and Wiscon- 

 sin, the extensive marshes along Lake Erie from Sandusky 

 to Detroit,— particularly at Monroe,— and the reedy swamps 

 of Canada. In all these the shore, and in many cases the 

 whole surface, is choked with a dense growth of tall reeds 

 of the Zizania aquatica, known as wild rice, Indian rice 

 and water oats, which last comes nearer the botanical truth. 

 Upon the ripened seeds, and perhaps, succulent young 

 shoots of this reed the water-fowl all feed with great avidity; 

 and also find where it grows an abundance of other vegeta- 

 ble food, and many small insects, larvae and mollusks highly 

 to their taste. 



It would therefore seem to be an experiment worth try- 

 mg to introduce into qui lakes a»d sluggiife $mffl # er . fi 



