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THE AMERICAN SPORTSMAN^S JOURNAL. 



IBiiterea Accoi-ding to Act at Congivss, In the Tear ISTS, tiy tUe Forest add Sti-eam PuTjlIsWng Company, In the Offloe of the Llhrartan of Congi-ess, at WashlugtorLj 



Xcrins. ftl a Vcar. 10 Cts. 5^ Copr.\ 



SixMo's, S2. Three Mo'.*, S.1. | 



NEW YORK, THURSDAY, OCTOBER 28, I880. 



CONTENTS. 



ik for Evoiy Sportsman ; Prof. Mayer's Expei-iment« ; 

 ; F:uJ to Keply ; Good Words in Harper's 243 



! 'RTSMAN TOCEIST : — 



A i ramp After Trout in Colorado; Panama— The Place of 

 jluny Fishes 244 



NATun.^L HisTOKV :— 



^'"- ' 'ii* -tiui! <>\' Sluirka SwaUo«iug their Young; The Mol- 

 :r.:-. ■-: ; t .javtuliil-i: l('a»cination : Ancient Hunting Grounds 

 ':•, i..i;i.,ii,iis. ; Pappaljottu 245 



1 I _ It i:;iiih;.B Pish Oommlssiou : The Fishway Question in 



]u;ri. : lish Cultui'e in France , ' 246 



Sea AMD RiTER Fishing ^- 



That Six and a Quarter Pound Baas ; Do Fish Have Fits ? 

 \Ia-ika Salmon • Silver Bass • Grabs in Base , How to Dress 

 Bla<k lUbs An Eleven-Pound Trout Salmo Wilmoti : 

 Hle,al ribluHo' btopped Size of Black Bass ; The Largest 



Halibut 247 



Gom Ba« vm> Grv — 



' I ^ 1 1 " 1 C pp-p Hunting m the Stubble Fields : 

 ilii 1 l|li ill Jli higiu \ote« Maine Camping 

 iml I t L hie j) Dittmir bporting Powder; 

 " u I ' I 1 1 rhi 111,] th Maine Woods: Cai'e- 

 ' if '111 < I f uu V Hint to Farmers ; Virginia ; 

 ' 1 ti 1 1 \ t llliu H ■\Ii hi-an Duck Shooting ■ 

 V lit Id h \ Diitv on Mild Pice Tennessee ; Laiie 

 I lie L J life Island Aasooiatijn Mew Hunting Ground : 

 I t,B Shooting Matches 247 



J-Fl J\LNNEL — 



" t it ^li < I- illl g Club : Long 



\, ,^ , A Long Chase ; 



^^' 'I <i mi Foreign Ex- 



'"" " 1 I ' uncnt Dog Stories; 



Kennel Aoti. 252 



IhE lilPLE :— 



Range and Gallery 2.')4 



YxcHTisa AND CANoras& :— 

 Tlie Year's Booord ; Steam Catamarans: The .American 

 Oauoe Association , 255 



AjROHBEY : — 



Privat« Practice Clulj ; Highland Pork 256 



ASSWEHS TO ColtKESPONBENTS 257 



PtmLisHEEa' Departjiknt 257 



FOREST AND STREAM. 



N15W YORK, THURSDAY, OCTOBER 28, 1880. 



«♦ The FoKEST A:^^) Stream goes to presi' We<himl<ty!<. 

 fJorrespniidenU are ri'qiK'.imi to maU thfir a'nninihhxition.H m 

 that tluy inay mid, m biJVi-f that day. 



A Book fob Etkbt Sportsman.— We cannot too highly 

 commend to the attention of all those rendors of this paper, 

 who (or "which," if you please; have no tliorough knowledge 

 of explosive compounds, the purchase iind reading of Prof. J. 

 P. Cooke'.s "The New Cliemirttiy," (Ap|.letO!i It Co., New 

 York, f 2 ; or .-.ent post-paid by us f.:.r tViO same price). We 

 happen lo Itiifiw thai many of niirstibsriiiitrs, amoiigthem the 

 Pirc JMarshal of the city of >Tpw York, have upon our former 

 recQinmciidatioii, read tb.j book with interest and profit. It 

 is an aduiii-ably clear prtsentation of principles with which 

 every man who uses a gun should be famUiar. 



Prof. aiAVEB's 'ExrzRmKyrs.- ~^V(, take much pleasm-e in 

 publishing to-day the first and (111I3 cr.nert rejiort of Professor 

 Mayer's experimeuts to detoniiine ibe volocity of shot. A 

 gar-bled report was published by a Ension paper, and ha.9been 

 Oxlensivelycopiea,absiinl lyi-ocraitljieal hlunders and all, and 

 many crilieipms have been ojlered respecting staienients that 

 Prof. .Alay PI- \\ a* alleged to have made, when in reality he had 

 never said aiiyliiiiig of the kind. The Pokkbt add Stream 

 has renei\ed the article directly from its author's own hands, 

 and the proof.s have been submitted to him. 



We need not dwell upon the practical value of these e.xperi- 

 meiits, nor to llie. thoroughly able manner in wJiich they were 

 conducted. The article deserves and -will receive careful 

 sludv. 



—The number of correspondenta who contributed to our 

 columns last week, including, also, those whose inquiries 

 were answered, aggregated a total of more than 120, and rep- 

 resented twouty-aii different Slates and Territories. 



THEY FAIL TO REPLY. 



THERE was received at this office, September 29, tlie fol- 

 lowing communication: 



New Yokk, Sept. 29, 1880. 

 To THE Editoe of Fobest and Stkeami 



Your article in the last number of your paper has been called to 

 our attention, and upon porsumg it, we find that you propose in 

 your i«3ue of this week to pubUsh a fm-ther exhibit of matter of 

 alleged afahation, as a sequel to the interesting contribution to the 

 literature concerning the Dittmar Sjiorting powder, which appeared 

 in your issue above quoted. 



We suppose that a sense of iiisecmlty impelled you to intimate in 

 the article that the columns of yom' paper, which theretofore (as 

 you say) were open to us for explanations, would be henceforward 

 closed, but being nevertheless convinced that, notwitbstandiagyour 

 enmity to our company, for reasons which we shall at length here- 

 after explain, you wfll not defy public opinion by permitthig an in- 

 vention of great public utiUty to be libelled and defamed in your 

 issne, without giving us an opportvmity to reply. 



We shall reserve our answer to both your article and to 3Ir. Squu'es' 

 letter, until the full extent of yom- charges are made known as 

 promised. We desire however in order to avoid all misconceijtions 

 to unqualifiedly deny in advance of our extended answer, each and 

 every statement in substauce made in the article above referred" to 

 derogatory to the Dittmar Sporting powder. 



Very respectfully yom-s, 



DiTXMAB POWDEB MfO. Co, 



This letter could be onlj' one of two things. It was either 

 what it purported to be, a noticegiven us in good faith by the 

 Dittmar Powder Manufacturing Company (No. 3) that they 

 had a genuine extended reply which they were really about 

 to send 'to us, or else, having no such reply and being in 

 desperate straits, they put forth this flat denial hoping that it 

 might produce whatever efliect attaches to bravado and 

 bluff. 



We accepted the more charitable of the fwo admissible 

 constructions ; and awaited the promised reply. 



The occasion certainly called for an immediate and explicit 

 answer from the manufacturers of the "Dittmar Sporting 

 Powder." The "full extent of om- charges" respecting that 

 compound, as published September 23 and supplemented the 

 week following by ' ' a further exhibit" of most decided and im- 

 mistakable " affiliation," were of the gravest possible nature. 

 They directly affected the public estimation of the jjowder, and 

 unless contradicted at once, must, as the event has proved, 

 seriously injure the sale of that product. The business inter- 

 ests of the Dittmar company were at stake. To preserve 

 llmse interests a satisfactory and immediate reply was im- 

 peratively demanded. Under such circumstances it is in- 

 credible that, if anything could be adduced by them to dis- 

 prove or offset our statements, it should be withheld from 

 the public a single day. 



We have waited five weeks. TUe " extended answer" has 

 not come. 



Instead of furnishing within this time any reply at all, 

 the Dittmar Powder Manufactm-iug Company (No. 2) have, 

 at so late a date as October 22, published theu- letter of Sep- 

 tember 39, prefacing it in a New York paper -with the re- 

 markable explanation that it had been sent to 

 "the Editor of Forest anu Stkea5i us a preliminary answer to the 

 hodge-podge hteratm-e on Dittmar powder pubhshed in their col- 

 umns, which is the outgrowth of spite, revenge and ignorance, and 

 int-euded to scare all those readers which* [sic] have no thorough 

 knowledge of different cxjjlosi\ e compotnids." 



We submit that a fidl monlli was sufficient time for a 

 more adequate answer to "the hodge-podge literature" whicli 

 was " the outgrowth of ignorance." 



With the exception of this exhibition of pitiable bravado, 

 the Dittmar Powder Manufacturing Company (No. 2) have 

 given to the public not one single syllable of reply to the 

 facts and logic presented by the Fokest and Stream. Their 

 silence can be construed only as the unwilling confession thaj, 

 they have absolutely nothing to say. 



The letter of Spinemljer 20, we are forced to conclude, was 

 not sent to us in good faitli as a notice of a forthcoming ex- 

 plicit reply. It was bluff. 



As such, it was a fitting sequel to the long story of previous 



"• Each of these communicationa contninB the best of internal 

 evidence to conclusively prove that it waa wi-itten in haste, if not 

 in a passion. Upon no other theory can we account for a failure to 

 emerge from the mazes of the second sentence of the Sept 29 let- 

 tar ; nor for the extraordinary use here of the neuter pronoun. 



denial and evasion already recounted by us, and as such it 

 certainly calls for no extended consideration here. 



We do not wish to prolong the discussion of the " Dittmar 

 Sporting Powder ;" the Fobest and Stbeaji is not warranted 

 in taxing the patience of its readers by dwelling upon dead 

 issues. 



In closing the subject we submit the following propositions, 

 made -with all possible brevity and clearness : 



1. The question of the safety of tlie nitro-cellulose explosive 

 compound styled "Dittmar Sporting Powder," is one which 

 directly concerns the life of every man who may be induced 

 by the representations of its manufacttu-ers to use it. That 

 each man so concerned may draw his own conclusions it is 

 necessary that he should have the facts in the case, and all the 

 facts. 



2. The F0EE8T AKD Steeaji haa presented the facts. The 

 public, from Maine to Mexico, has from these facts drawnits 

 conclusions. The evidence has been submitted. The verdict 

 ba.s been passed. 



3. Wholesale denials, unsupported by facia, cannot alter that 

 verdict. 



4. One of " the statements in substance * ■* derogatory 

 to the Dittmar Sporting Powder," was that of Mr. Carl 

 Dittmar himself, and was made vmder oath. Something more 

 than the unqualified denial of the Dittmar Powder Manufac- 

 turing Company (No. 3) will be required to induce the public 

 to believe that Mr. Carl Dittmar under oath perjured himself. 



5. We did not say, nor intimate, that our columns would - 

 be henceforward closed to reasonable explanations from the 

 Dittmar company. We reserve the right at all times to de- 

 cide what shall, and what shall not he printed in the For- 

 est AND Stream, and we will never kuowinglj" permit auj'- 

 thing to appear in these col uuins which is intended to deceive 

 om- readers or to conceal from them the truth. 



6. The editor of this paper has never had the slightest ac- 

 quaintance, good, bad nor indifferent, with any one of the 

 present manufacturers of the " Dittmar Sporting Powder. " 

 In wj'iting and publishing the articles on the powder he dis- 

 tinctly disclaims having been influenced by any other motive 

 than a determined resolution to get to the bottom of the sub- 

 ject, and then to publish the truth, fully, clearly and wichout 

 fear. The charge that any one of these articles, or anj^ single 

 sentence in them, was inspired by "enmity" is ridiculously 

 and maliciously false. 



7. If an invention has heen libelled and the libel can be 

 proved there are certain well-recognized and approved courses 

 of action whereby redress maybe had for injury sustained. 



Good Words in Hakper's. — The November Hariwr'f con- 

 tains a very readable along-tbe-shorc article, entitled " Saline 

 Types," which treats of people and things about which little is 

 Icnown by the general reader. It winds up with a few telling 

 sentences on the rapid destruction and driving away of the 

 water-fowl of the south shore of Long Island, and nrges that 

 steps be taken to protect these birds. The importance of 

 some such action is becoming each year more pressing, iind 

 thoughtfiU sportsDten should turn their attention to this 

 subject before it is too late. 



Jn a revision of the New Yorls game laws, such as is pro- 

 posed by 3Ir. Crook, provisions protecting ducks and geese 

 on their feeding-gi-ounds and limiting the shooting to certain 

 days of the week would, we think, receive the approval of 

 most far-seeing men. Harper's s;iys : 



All along the Atlantic Coast the modem sportsman has intro- 

 duced -vicious methods. He is rather a persecutor than a hunter of 

 wild fowl. His decoys lure the bird Ijy day, uud they are Uf-ed to 

 such an extent that the duck and wild gooso witli diiheuity rind a 

 "sanctuan-." At night the persecutor pursues his illegitimate 

 spoi-t under cover of darkness. "Blinds" also are resorted to in 

 the dayhght. In consequence of this devastation (in dotiancc of . 

 the game laws) the wild fowl is fast disappearuig. 



A WoHD TO OuK Readers. — Every reader of the Foeest 

 AND SteEjUI is requested to send us the names and adre-sses 

 of such of his friends as iu-e interested in field sports, but who 

 are not among our subscribers. To all such we will send free 

 specimen copies. 



The Game Law. — ^We hope that all who are interested in 

 the New York Game Law will give the digest published in 

 our columns last week their immediate attention, and commu- 

 nicate any suggestions they may have to offer to Mr. Crook. 



