THE AMERICAN SPORTSMAN^S JOURNAL. 



'j^i^rrEntPro/l A'WOTrtln? (o Act of Oongivss, la the : 



IS7S, 117 t.hn ^0IV'^^ and Stvcam PiitJUslilii!? Coinpauy, la the Office ot the Librarian of Congress, n.t Washington.] 



NEW YORK, THURSDAY, DECEMBER 9, !880. 



■V, ?few Yorlt. 



CONTENTS. 



E1.1 



i i 0111 the Field Triola ; Tho Dittmars' Abracadabra ; 

 [1 li Complete Angler ; 'Jho Eiistem Field Triala 363 



> I! ISM AN Toubist:— 

 Ni i 1 s ou Deer Huntiug in Canada 865 



Xa'i I i;aIj HistobT:— 



Our Waterfowl ; Snakes : The Nuttall Bulletin ; A Black Kab- 

 bit ; English Sparrowa m Canada ; The Naturaliat's Direc- 

 i,.!y....: 865 



■vroBB:— . 



in Carp in Canada ; Fertile Hybrids ; Eggs forDlstrl- 



■jn; Fiah Not«3 from Maine; Growth ol: Carp; Caua- 



i M Fjsh Oultore 396 



Bea and Rivee Fisbino :— 



Oouoerning Bobbers ; Tho Illegal Fishermen ; The Beaver- 

 ■ itOl Club foe 1880 ; The Death Trap in Bhinnecook Bay : 

 ' Oneida Lake Poachers 367 



Game Bao asb Qus : — 



Sportsmen and Land-owners ; Guns, Powder and Shot ; A 

 I Duck ^^hoot on the Kankakee ; Ducking in a Snow Storm ; 

 Olii- Pn, i.,,i,..|n:,ir, Letter ? How Thoj Do It IQ Ai'kansas ; 

 ] )i i ■ - i-isippi ; Squirrel Shooting ; An After 

 lli-i ilia llant ; Shooting frona Trees ; Oal- 

 liui- :(ii>ni Notes and Obuorvations ; Shoot- 

 i M ,j,i,i;lj,„ _ 368 



; Cnstern Field Trials; The Caro of Dogs; A Plucky 

 ; . i longo ; Training of Deer Honnds ; GmTout Dog >Sto- 

 : JCenuel Notes - 371 



■ I i-LE : — 

 • and Gallery ; Schuetzen Wotes 375 



I N'O AND OANOErSG : — 



I'lfcliistoric Yachts ; Yachting News; Detroit Oanoo Club. .. 377 



Pu))i.isireas' Dbpabtmbnt. 377 



^ns"rO GORBESEONDE-NTS 378 



Ouir< - 



thit /'' 



to M// 



ti} jveisn Wedn-mdays, 

 leir com/mumcntio-M so 



,, rgirVf^i fim'U c/iU th«<Metvtion ofygitirfiHends 



si) Stkeajt. Weshail belut/ppy 



pa/per to aiii/ culdreasev whlnh 



TiTE nwii who tlu'nk» that he cam. afford to pay thfi farmer'^ 

 ■ho!l ni/>rtjm- quml Hian IH hoy !« pnio! mj the bft^gaije-m<t,ttfrs 

 is incited to netid A'x addnvs io iJiis (?/."<>. 



Wb mast beg the indulgence, of numerous contributors 

 wli'iso communications are deferred this week. 



Back from tkb FiaiiD Trials.— A portion of the return- 

 in? Uiroog of sportsmen who had been interested witnesses 

 atluR Eastern Field Trials, passed through thi.s city on Mod- 

 ilay, and we V-.ad the pleasme of seeing many at this office 

 duiiDg tliat and the following days. Among those who 

 cnlkd were Co'. Jaaics Gordon, (Pious Jeemsl, Dr. Raw- 

 lings Young (GUiyon), Mr. J. 0. Higgin?, Mr. J. O. Donner, 

 Mr" T. &!ndatOD, Sir. Theo. Predmorc, Mr. Trtilman, Mr. 

 E. .1. Martin and Mr. G. W. Bjsefoid. 



It is about this time of the year that the Americnn bear 

 vauuleth himself in all his prinoilive immensity and blood- 

 Gurdlitig ferociousness. Our couDtry '^xchsngea teem with 

 hair-rnising accounts of the t:r;o r.-rs and howling 



struggles of man and beast. : '"■ i:ibie oirl liear, 



who makes his appearance in I' :- , . . i after yenr, with 

 all tho lOgularily of the revolving planets ; and along with 

 him in this year of grace, 1880, comes the same unhappy 

 "settler" to die again for tho fortieth time his lingering 

 death in the embrace of the monster. He is dead again ; but 

 we shall look for him, .iust the same, nestyear. He and the 

 bear are as fixed in tlie newspaper world for all time to come 

 as is UntM Majar in the heavens. 



And, by the way, what about that family out in Iowa who 

 are eaten up every winter by the wolves ? Is it not. almost 

 time to hear from them again ? 



THE DITTMARS' ABRACADABRA. 



THERE came Into our hands some time ago a printed cir- 

 cular, i.^sued by the jiresent Dittmar Powder Manu- 

 facturing Company, sotting forth as a reason for the stop- 

 page of their " sporting powder" mill the alleged sickness of 

 Carl Dittmar. The circular letter further alleged that the 

 failure of tlie company to make any more "sporting powder" 

 was not due to the effect of our publication of tlie true 

 nature of our compoimd, but that, on tlie coutravy, the pub- 

 lications of the FoKBST AND Stbeam articles had rather 

 helped their busine.«a. Within the past week tho Dittmars 

 have published what they state to be extracts from a seventy- 

 flve page pamphlet prepared in reply to these Forest and 

 Stream statements, which had helped them so substan- 

 tially. The Dittmar Powder Manuf actming Company (No. 

 2) is not altogether consistent. 



The Dittmars preface their pamphlet by assuring the 

 public that they did not themselves write the Eoeest 

 AND Strbam's article. The simple fact that the Forecst and 

 Stkeam's article contained the exact truth about the "Dittmar 

 sporting powder" is sufficient proof thai it was not written 

 by the manufacturers of that explosive. 



The pamphlet which the Dittmars have been two montlis 

 and a linlf in preparing is, as we supposed it would be, 

 mainly an abusivfi suVick upoii the Forest axd Stream. Had 

 the DittiQJU-s been conscious that the truth was on their side 

 they would not have tried to bury tho pof.der beneath the 

 gutter refuse and muck of thei'- ribaldry. We insist, and the 

 public insists, that the "Dittmar sporting powder" manufac- 

 turers must not attempt thus to evade tho facts adduced by 

 the PoEiisT axd Stream. 



Stripped of its personality, the Dittmar's "reply" is this : 



1. Tiiat the truth was published by us in consequence of 

 the withdrawal of their advertisement. We simply repeat 

 what we said before respecting tbe wilhdraw.il of that ad- 

 vertisement, namely, that " nfttr thi-ii- atjenl had hen hi- 

 fornied tlini wj wore niout io pvMtKh the resulU of our in- 

 vetUgation, the Dittmar Powder Manufacturing Company, 

 upon the trumped up pretext that our refusal to publish what 

 we th'!:i ■'■ : '- ^- ': ii>i"i"T letter proffered by them was un- 

 fair, ji 'ir advertisement." The Ditt- 

 mars ; 1 the article because they with- 

 drew th'.' ;iaverliH( inent. We aiflrm our belief that tliey 

 withdrew the advertisement because we had told them that 

 we were about to publish the article. This is a matter con- 

 cerning which the public mny draw its own conclusions. 

 Right motive or wrong motive, the facts adduced respecting 

 the powder remain. The Dittmars may " publicly charge" 

 until the crack of doom ; the facts are not tiUered thereby. 



2. That the truth was published by us in the interest of 

 other powder conctirns. This is unqualifiedly false. The ex- 

 position of the powder, except such portions of it as were 

 then credited to otliers, was \rriiten entirely, every paragraph, 

 sentence and word of it, by the editor of this paper, andinthe 

 interest solely of the sporting public and for its protection. 



The Forest and Strbam insists upon the right to expose 

 any and every fraud and swmdle, which endangers the per- 

 sonal 8;ifety of its patrons, and to gather its information from 

 every available som'ce. In investigating the "Dittmar Sport- 

 ing Powder " we pursued this course, and we did not stop 

 until we had inquired if Mr. Dittmar's sworn testimony 

 concerning his sporting powder tallied with the letters v,Tit- 

 ten by him to forwai-d its sale. We consulted the records. 

 We found that they did not so tally. We published them. 

 Hin/-' jWce faoAj'^jji/Oi, which means, literally, "hence the.se 

 tears ;" freely translated it means hence Casl Dittmar's "sick- 

 noss." 



S. They quibble on the patent specifications we published. 

 By referring to the notice on the backs of the "Dittmar 

 sporting powder " cans it will be found that the patent there 

 called for is the one published bj- us. The reissue of the 

 same patent does not affect the case at all. That those, who 

 are interested in following the present Dittmar Powder Jlan- 

 ufacturing Company in their crayfish movements, may satisfy 

 themselves that Mr. Dittmar's patent was correctly presented 

 they may .^end to tlie Patent Ofiice at Washington and pro- 

 cure all of his patents upon payment of a fee of twenty-five 

 cents for each one. The numbers are 98,854, 99,069, 99,070, 

 145,403; reissues, 5,759 and 6,645 and No. 179,688. More- 



over, if Mr. Carl Dittmar will send us a copy of a patent and 

 accompany it with a sworn affidavit that it is the patent un- 

 der wliich his powder ia made, we will publish it, and the 

 affidavit with it. 



4. Professor Morton's report. We have not the patience 

 to follow tho, writers of the pamphlet through the tortuous 

 course of self-contradiction here, where in one sentence they 

 deny that the Morton powder was " sporting powder," and 

 in the next affirm it ; and then go backwaid and forward 

 again. For example in one sentence it is : 



"The alleged Dittmar powder proeented him [Prof. Morton], 

 O-nd which we claim to have been nothing more nor less than Dna- 

 Un, a blasting powder generally called Dittmar powder." 



Then : 



" Snffica it to say that no nitro-sngar, etc., not even in infinitely 

 small proportion has for many yeajg been used in the production 

 of Dittmar sporting powder." 



And again, forgetting what thej' have said, further on they 

 aftrm : 



"Now, aa far as the nitro-stfljch and nitro-sagar mentioned in 

 that deposition are concerned, they beyond c.'ivil, are purely deto- 

 ualiug powders, and as tnch highly beneficial to a blasting com- 

 pound, but, although science owe.4 tbt prriduction of such nitro 

 bodies on a commercial and practical scsle to the inveution of Mr. 

 Dittojar, we have nothing to do with them here bucmise, nx Prof. 

 Aforlfiii. stales, Ihey p. e., nitro-sngar and uitro-starch] am present 

 in the sportinij jKi"xkr in such small quantity that they do not ef- 

 fect the ebara.cter of the material." 



'I'lut is to say-and after ten weeks in which to say it — the 

 powderreferredtoby Prof. Morion is in one breath "blast- 

 ing powder" and in the next "sporting powder." "No nitro- 

 sugar, etc., used, not even in infinitely small proportions," 

 and then "they are present." The Dittmars deny that Prof. 

 Morton referred to sporting powder and then thej' acknowl- 

 edge it ; they deny the nitro-sugar and then admit it ; in " 

 .?luii t, in one of these statements the writers of this Ditt- 

 mar pumphlet are guilty of falsehood. 



Their pamphlet sorely needs editing The concerted efforts 

 of all the editors in New York could not prove the safety of 

 the "Dittmar sporting powder," but the youngest and most 

 inexperienced editor in the laud, if be -'.-ere ■rifpn ten yreeks 

 in which to do it, could have doctored uij this panipiilet so 

 that its successive assertions should not have directly or by 

 implication proved themselves false. 



We advise the Dittn-iars to take another ten weeks and fab- 

 ricate, if they can, a rejoinder, of which pne-half shall not be 

 a contradiction of the other half ; a rejoinder, in short, which 

 shall contain a decent proportion of truth. 



The report of Prof. Morton referred explicitly andsolely to 

 Dittmar sporting powder, whieli ii^d been received by us in 

 person from the pu Powder Manufacturing 



Company, and by us (' : I os received, to him. 



Had the Dittmars ein. _ .. . _. . k;, honest doubt about this 

 they raight have written to Prof. Morton. His reply would 

 have satisfied them. 



Office of tub Forest a>-d Stbeam Publishing CoMPAKy, | 

 New Yobk, Deo. 7, 1880. f 

 Prof. Henry Mobtos : 



Dear Su-— The FoK5.=T r ' :! : -r of Sept. 23, 1880, contained 

 a report written by yen i Hurler. Jfriv we auk you to 



stateexijlieitly whethci "■ M" -^ >, movt referred only to "Ditt- 

 mar sporting powder," sarupleo of ■iviii.'h in sealed cans were fur- 

 nished to you by ourselvet;. Truly yours, 



FORKST AKD StkEAJI PcBUSKIMi OOMPASY. 



Stevens Institote of TF;oHiroi.ooY, i 

 HoBOKEK, S. J., Dec. 8, 1880. ' 

 Erliior Forenf. and Stream : 



The powder examined by me and reported upon to you aa Ditt- 

 mar powder was contamed iu a sealed can labelled " Dittmar's New 

 Sporting Powder." 



The paper seal was intact and was broken by me. 



My report -was therefore founded upon tho material sold by the 

 Dittmar Company as sporting powder. 



On the reverse side of the can were directions about the use of 

 the powder in shot-gunB, Truly yours, 



Henry Morton. 



If the Dittmars wUl furnish iis a sworn affidavit that this 

 powder, which they delivered to us in sealed cans, was blast- 

 ing powder, and not sporting powder, we will with pleasure 

 publish that affidavit also in our next issue. 



As to the influence of the nitro-starch and nitro-sugar con- 

 tained in the sporting powder, we advanced no opinion. We 



i 



