24 



FOREST AND STREAM. 



fAuaOST 13, 1880. 



It was half a century or more later that Roger Ascham 

 published his "Toxophilus,"' a book to archers what the 

 " Pyssliyngo" is to augUrs. 11 is somewhat curious at 

 this day to read of the -worthy "rea<ier to Queen Ehza- 

 heth and her secretarie for the Latin tongue " as dis- 

 tinguished for his cliisaical attainments and muoli given 

 to play and cock-fighting. Latin professorship chairs 

 and cockpits is an association altogether too bizarre for 

 the tastes of the present, but it was not so then, and 

 of the two books which Ascham wrote, the " Scholarca '• 

 and the " Toxophilus ; or, .Schole of Shooting," the lat- 

 ter won for him the most (U:stinction, and to it lie aj>- 

 pears to have owed his ctuireh preferment, for he says: 

 '•I once wrote a little booke of .Shewtynge, which King 

 Henry, her (Queen El i/.;ibeth's) noble father did so well 

 like and allow, that he gave me a living lor it." 



Less known than either of these two books, but none 

 the less quaint and charming to the del ver in ancient sport- 

 ing lore, is the treatise " On Englislie DoKges," liy John 

 Caius, |iutilislied in 1576, and the fiist book on dogs ever 

 printed in the English language. Conrad Gcsner, tlie 

 preface to the -well disposed reader tells us, "a man, 

 ■while he lived, of uncomparable knowledge and manyfold 

 experience, being neuer satisfied -ivith the sweeto sappe 

 of vnderstanding," requested Jolin Caius, "a profound 

 Clarke and rauenousdeuourerof ]earning,"towriteashort 

 treatise of such dogs "as were engendered within the 

 borders of England." To the accomplishment of this 

 taskj we are assured, Caius spared no study, witlidrew 

 himself from no labor, repined at no pains, torsook no 

 travails, refused no endeavor, pretermitted no opportu- 

 nity or circumstance ; and his friend adds ; " Tlie sundry 

 isortes of Englislie dogges lie discuuereth so euidenlly, 

 their natures he rippethvp so apparently, their manners 

 lie openeth so manifestly, their qualities he declareth so 

 sldllfully, their proportions lie painteth out so perfectly, 

 their colours lie describeth so artificially, and knytteth 

 all these in such shortnesse and breuity, that the mouth 

 of th' adversary must needes confesse and giue sentence 

 that commendation ought to bee his rewarde, and praise 

 his deserued pension," This is liigli praise, and if to our 

 modern ears it sounds bombastic, we must remember 

 that it was written in an age when such hyperbole was 

 much in vogue, and we may well heed the apologetic re- 

 marks of the translator : " As for sucli as shall snarr and 

 suatch at the Englishe abrydgement and teare the Trans- 

 latour, being absent, with the teeth of spyhtfull enuy, I 

 conclude in breuity there eloquence is but currishe, if I 

 seme in their meat with wrong sawce, ascribe it not to 

 vnskilfulnesse in coquery, but to ignorance in their diet." 



A copy of this old work is preserved in the British Mu- 

 seum; this Mr. Hugh Dalziel carefully copied, and an 

 edition has been recently published in England, preserv- 

 ing the exact original line for line, and error for error. 

 Looking through its pages we have found so much pleas- 

 ure in the homely diction, the antique instruction and the 

 charming simplicity of the text, that we have thought it 

 ■well worthy of a place in our columns, whereby, it may 

 be, we shall help to erect for the author "themonument of 

 immortality" which his translator three hundred years 

 ago bespoke for him. 



^ ANGLERS AND A NGLING- 



* 'l-j*OETUNE," says Machiavella, "likes an ardent 

 X^ wooer and turns the cold shoulder to one who de- 

 lays." "AH is fair in love and war." In angling all is 

 not fair, but activity, early rising, stealthy approaclies 

 and delicate casts come under the head of legitimate 

 jneaus of capture. The fisli admire determined efforts, 

 and reward them as fortune rewards the ardent wooer, yet 

 let there be no unseemly haste, bustle or anxiety about 

 your movement, but be very quiet and apparently un- 

 concerned, for by those tokens you manifest the instincts 

 of the gentleman, and better, the gentle angler himself. 



The most successful anglers are the men who are fre- 

 quently called slow-coaches, but their slow and careful 

 movements are not incompatilde with Machiavella's for- 

 tune hunters ; the quick, ner%ous, impetuous men who 

 act before thinking, rarely make good anglers. Their lines 

 are too frequently caught in branches overhead, or their 

 hooks fasten to some submerged snags, accidents which 

 will happen to any one, but the slow-coach has the ad- 

 vantage in his method of extricating himself from the 

 situation. One may periiaps indulge in a variety of 

 Hulphurous ejaculations which fiigliten tlie fisli, while a 

 few illtimed twitches fasten Ids tarklemore securely, and 

 the natural consequence follow s— he loses his liooks as 

 ■well aa his head. Slow-coach, when he gets into trouble, 

 calmly surveys the situation, goes to work the right way, 

 and in a few seconds haa conquered the predicament and 

 resumed his hsiiirig, while the other fellow has 'waded 

 ashore to niiair tlie damage he has sustained. 



A qui'or rompouiid is the angler— a bundle of contradic- 

 tions ! Ul i:> the antipodes of himself. He delights in 

 the protection ol Ood's creatures. He is a cruel deceiver, 

 uslag the finest and most delicateimplements in the care- 

 fullest manner, unrelenting in the attainment of his ob- 

 ject; but he is also kind-hearted, quiet, patient, gentle, 

 ■with a cheerfnl word and a helping hand wherever it is 

 deserved and needed. He handles the fisli with womanly 



tenderness, but their struggles awaken no sympathy. See 

 how skillfully he manages his tackle; not a kink in Une 

 or leader, but perfect harmony from reel to stretcher fiy; 

 the tip of the rod never for an instant losing the feel of 

 the line.wdiich doubles and turns so gracefully, describing 

 all tlie curves of beauty and never interfering with itself. 

 How lightly, with perhaps the faintest spilash, with "a 

 sound so line that nothing lies twixt it and silence," does 

 he j)lao0 his feathery counterfeits on the water, the leader 

 smooth and straight as a newly made candle. 



Placing the ilies gently and noiselessly as fall the snow 

 flakes, may indicate the acme of fly casting, but if they 

 land like a drop of water, with the softest plash, they 

 will not frigliten tlie fish, and you will catch as many as 

 the angler who preaciies snow flakes and thistle-down. 

 One can be more careless ^\liile fishing American waters 

 — though carelessness in an angler is always inexcusable 

 — than if he were angling in most of the trout streams of 

 Great Britain. Our trout have not all as yet learned 

 that curiosity sometimes leads to certain death, and it Is 

 this ability to capture them so comparative^' easy that 

 in many cases makes the American angler the inferior 

 of his English and Irish brethren in all the minutiiB at- 

 tendant upon the gentle art. Had we been schooled as 

 carefully us our transatlantic friends,we would not have 

 sometimes to wonder at our ill-luck. Indifference to mi- 

 nutiaj will counteract many admirable qualities, for the 

 trout is himself an admirable sportsman in certain 

 waters and seasons, and at times attains the highest pin- 

 nacle of sagacity. 



Om- best rod makers turn out work equal, if not supe- 

 rior, in every respect to that of any foreign makers. Our 

 flies are perfect in strength and Ijeauty, and the variety 

 is infinite. Every winged insect, from the creation of 

 the world to the millennium, and perhaps earlier and 

 later, is imitated close enough to deceive even the origi- 

 nals. 



Year by year our anglers are improving their methods 

 and implements, as the trout are growing wiser and wiser, 

 until now it requires, on the more frequented streams, 

 the utmost skill and delicacy to capture so wary a general, 

 one so well versed in all the expedients that experience 

 and natural cunning bring to him in his search for the 

 morning and evening meal. There he is a sentient be- 

 ing, cunning as lago and thoroughly uj) to the "tricks 

 that are vain," Mtll.^rd. 



BAY SNIPE SHOOTING. 



* 



II.— LOCAilTtES. 



" Seek'at tliou the plaaby In-ink 

 Of weedj- lake, or marge of river wid 



Or wliere tile roelilng billows rise and i 

 On the chared ocean side ? " 



ink 



WHO can tell of the Iiabits of our wild fowl and 

 aquatic birds as well as the men who, day in and 

 day out, in cold and heat, and in all kinds of weather, 

 follow shooting for a livelihood ? Unfortunately I'or the 

 jiublic, tliese men cannot, for the most part, spare the 

 time to dot down their experience. Indeed, but few of 

 them can write, and what if recorded would be of real 

 value to the shooting world, is lost. The educated sports- 

 man is rarely of assistance in this matter, for he, as a 

 general thing, leaves everything to his bayman, and with 

 a profound ignorance as to the habits of the birds, learns 

 little and remembers but little, after a week's sliooting, 

 save the number and quality of the fowl brought to bag 

 during his holiday, If he has had good shooting, he is 

 generally liberal to the caterer to his sport ; but for the 

 life of him he cannot tell why the stools weie set to wind- 

 ward, or why he had better or worse sliooting than the 

 guns in the other " rigs." Our experience has taught 

 us that too often the purely scientific man knows even 

 less, and that many works on ornithology abound in ab- 

 surd inaccuracies, which lead to " confusion worse con- 

 founded." True, the scientists toll us die measurements 

 and weight, and the coloring and shading of each bird, 

 but often these descriptions are of the faded i^lumage of 

 the dead specimen, and not of the live fowl. When col- 

 ored plates are intioduced into their w^orks, they are 

 often so unlike the bird they are intended to represent 

 that if it were not tor the name underneath it would be 

 impossible to identify them. In fact, we have seen sev- 

 eral which resemble Egyptian hieroglyphics more than 

 birds that have been seen to fly. It is from works of 

 this kind that almost ail our sporting book writers draw 

 for their material, and not from real experience : hence 

 errors and traditions are handed down to us, and contin- 

 ued ignorance is the result. 



From the Bay of Fundy in the North, to the Florida 

 Reefs in the South, there are miles of the Atlantic coast 

 shielded by long sand bars and shoals, which, at every 

 ebbing tide, abound with every variety of arpiatic food. 

 At one time or another throughout the year each locality 

 is visited for a short or long period liy the bay snipe. 

 Leaving tlie .South early in the spring, they seem drawn 

 by some magnetic influence toward the Korth, passing 

 this vicinity in May, the date being regulated according 

 to an early or late season. Once in their home in the far 

 North, they speedily set about nesting and the rearmg of 

 their young. Tlus is soon accomplished, and then their 



return flight begins, the old birds preceding, followed by 

 the young several weeks later. Bat it is a mistaken idea, to 

 suppose that all the varieties of bay snipe seek the North 

 to pursue their matrimonial inclinations. Several kinds, 

 and especially the wiUet and some of the plover, breed 

 to the south of New York. It is during the summer 

 flight that the bay snipe run the gantlet of the thou- 

 sand stands that dot the coast from Maine to Eastern 

 Virginia. We shall not attempt to specify each locality, 

 particularly those that are remote, but simply ntention 

 the pilaces that are eas\- of access and well known to the 

 sportsmen of this vicinity. 



Beginning at the north, we follow to the south the lino 

 of coast of those States on the Atlantic seaboard, uieii- 

 tioning the names of the counties-of eaoli in thdi- geo- 

 graphical order, ami tlie places where more or less shoot- 

 ing can be liad at (liis season. Of course, the shooting 

 begins first at tlie North, but the rapidity with which the 

 birds make their flight causes the flrst guns to be echoed 

 along the coast, even to the far South, in quick succes. 

 sion. 



LIST Of PL.^CES WIIEKE BAY SNIPE ARK SHOT 



Mmhe— Washington County.— The Island of Grand 

 Menan. The island and bars along the entire coast of 

 Hancock, AValdo, Knox, Lincoln, Sagadahock, Cumber- 

 land and York counties. 



New Hampshire — Rockingham County. — Rye Beach 

 and Hampton. 



Massachusetts— E.vse.i: Coimitj.—'Pium Island, Ips- 

 wich, Cape Ann, Glouc^sti i, JS-verly, Marblehead, Sa- 

 lem and Lynn. Norfolk Co (in (^.—Randolph and Co- 

 basset. Plymouth County. — Marshfield, Duxbury, Clark's 

 Island, Plymouth and Manomet Point. JBariistuble 

 County.— B&ndwioh, Chatham, Queshnet, Wood's Hole, 

 and at almost all the towns along the coast, on Cape 

 Cod and Buzzard's bays, and the ocean side. Brixtol 

 County. — South Darthmouth and Quaiisett. 



Rhode IshkrsD^Neii-jvrt Counl;/. — At all the islands. 

 \ya)iliingion County. — Point Judith, Block Island, Bris- 

 tol, Peacedale and Watch Hill, 



Long Island.— S»i?'o;fc County.— Fisher's Island, Plum 

 Island, Ram Island Shoals, Orient Point, Montaok Point, 

 Bridgehampton, Southampton, Shiiinecock Bay, Mori- 

 ches and Great South Bry, and, indeed, all along the 

 south shore. 



Staten Island— iJ/c/iMiond Cotiw/j/.— Great-Salt Kills. 



New Jeusey— Monmouth. County.— 'Ma.nUqmin Inlet. 

 Ocean County. — Squan Beach, Barnegat Bay and Long 

 Beach. Burlington County. — Tuckerton. .1 tlanlic County. 

 — Brigantine Beach, Absecom and Somer's Point, C'«jJe 

 May County. — Peck's Beach, Townsend Inlet and Learn- 

 ing Beach. 



Delawake — Sussex County. — ^Lewes, Rehoboth Bay, 

 Indian River and Long Neclc. 



Mahtlakd— Worcenter Cownt^.— Hammock Point, Ber- 

 lin and Sinepuxet Beach. 



YraoiNiA — -4ccomac County. — Chincoteagae Islanfl, 

 Wallop's Beach, Gargathy Inlet. Assawman Island, Ma- 

 tomkin. Cedar Island, Burton's Bay, Trout Channel, Lit- 

 tle Matchipongo Inlet, Revel's Island and Matulikin. 

 Norttiampton County.— Hog Island, Sand Sho.il, Great 

 Machiiiorigo Inlet, Cobb's Island and Smith's Island. 



THE ANTHRACITE. 



AS far as we have been able to learn, the Messrs. 

 Herreshoir have not yet received any response to 

 their last letter for Major Goo. Deane, Secretary of the 

 Perkins' Engine Comiiaiiy, for tlie first communication 

 of the Secretary can hardly Ije regarded in a serious light 

 in view of the outspoken blunder therein made. As it has 

 now been clearly pointed out to the agents of the Per- 

 kins boiler that the grounds upon which they declined 

 the very fair and reasonable challenge of the Leila are 

 not tenable, but conflict with the simplest truths of en- 

 gineering science, it becomes all the more their duty to 

 explain to the satisfaction of the public One of two 

 things : either why the Anthracite dared not meet the 

 coil boilers in a test of economy, or else, upon what 

 grounds the remarkable statements of Major Deane are 

 to be justified. It would be snap judgment to assume 

 that no satisfactory explanation will be i'orthcon^ung, 

 and consequently we prefer waiting another week to 

 hear from tlie proper som-ce. We are inclined to thuik 

 that, in Ids fii-st answer, Major Deane was acting upon 

 the advice tendered by incompetent and unworthy 

 counsel, and that he was induced to frame his answer in 

 a hurry, whereas, upon second thought, he would not 

 care to indorse statements which he now knows must 

 have raised a smile among the profession, It is hardly 

 to be supposed that a gentleman, representing such large 

 interests as the Perkins Engine Company, should not be ac- 

 t^uainted with the commonest of problems an engineer has 

 to meet ; nor does it seem likely that one who has shown 

 such wonderful astuteness in obtaining a vast amount of 

 free advertismg for an old resurrected apparatus, fully 

 known these last ten years to the profession in America, 

 should really be in total darkness concerning the line of 

 business he represents. For these reasons, we prefer be, . 

 lieving that, a stnmger ii^ a strange land, the baleful in 



