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THE AMERICAN SPORTSMAN^S JOURNAL. 



CEntered According to Act ot Congress, la tue year tSSl, by the Forest and Stream PubUslilng Company, In the Offlce of the Lltprartan of Congress, at Washington.] 



'rerms, *4 a Yei 

 Six ITTo's, 82. 



IT. 10 CIS. a. Copy.l 

 I'lu-ee Mo'M, *1. J 



NEW YORK, THURSDAY, JANUARY 20, 1881. 



CONTENTS. 



Editokial ; — 



The Kefrigerator Act ; The WiHcongin Association ; The 

 HatflheiT at Northville ; The Shinneoock Bay Death Trap; 



The Intemationsl Match 483 



The vSpoktsman Tourist :— 



The Log of the Favorite, No. 2 ; The Old " Spirit" Coterie. 484 

 Natcb.u, Histoby:— 



Protection of Song and Insectivorons Birds ; In the PhUa- 

 delphi.i Zoo : The Mountain Quail ; Water Bug ; Black 

 and Or.iy So|uirrels ; A Pale Dove ; Winter Birds : Weight 



of Bind; laiJed Deer ; Early Kingfisher. 485 



Fish Ccltuee :— 



The Central Fish Cultural Society : Eeport of the Texas 

 Commission : Sending Young Eggs Perfectly Dry ; The 

 ("onit-al System of Hatching ; Where Do Blueflsh Spawn? 



A Prize I'or Fishculturists ; Lime for Ponds 486 



8ea JlSd Rn'ER Pishikg :— 



The Mortality of the Gulf Fishes 487 



Game Bag and Gun :— 



The Refrigerator Amendment : WiBconsin Sportsmen's As- 

 sociation ; HighholdB, Squirrels and Woodcock ; A Day's 

 Deer Hunting in Canada : Game in Nova Scotia ; Florida 

 Quail Shooting : Notes from Ontario ; Save the Birds; Es- 

 sex Gun Club ; Long Island Game ; Swan Captured in 

 Washington ; The Butler Association ; Notes : Shooting 



Matches ,. 487 



Thi: Kenkel r— 



The Cocker Club ; The English Pointer ; The Pittsbm-g 

 Bench Show ; Dogs that Treed Game ; Eastern Field 

 Trials Club : Field Trials Criticism ; Leonberg Dogs; Ken- 

 nel Management; Kennel Notes 490 



The Rifle ;— 



Range and Gallerj- 498 



Yachiino and Canoeiso :— 

 The S. S. Yosemite 498 



FOREST AND STREAM. 



NEW YORK, THURSDAY, JANUARY 20, 1881. 



THE REFRIGERATOR AMENDMENT. 



ri~lHE proposal to sell game all the year around in the New 

 JL York markets has aroused the indignation and alarm of 

 sportsmen throughout the State. We are in receipt of pri- 

 vate letters upon the subject which show that the view of 

 the case advanced by the Fokkst and Stream last week is 

 that view which appeals to the most experienced sportsmen 

 of the land, ft e publish in another column communications 

 from gentlemen who understand thoroughly what such a law 

 means, and we have on hand other letters of like tenor 

 which will be printed next week. 



Of the evil effects of such a system there is but one 

 opinion, and that a very decided one, that the effects of the 

 open game market would be ruinous to our game. We trust 

 that the public sentiment, which is so unmistakably in oppo- 

 sition to the proposed amendments, may be sufficient to de- 

 ter the promotors of the bill from presenting it. 



The International Match. — It must be regarded only 

 as a misfortune if the invitation of the British riflemen for 

 a long-range match at Wimbledon during the coming sum- 

 mer be allowed to drop into neglect. At any rate, those 

 sending the kindly note for a contest are entitled to some- 

 thing more than a hazy intimation that we find it "inexpe- 

 dient " to send over a team. There is too much appeai-ance 

 of studied avoidance of a square issue in the use of such in- 

 definite phrases If we cannot afford to send over a team, 

 then let that be said fairly and openly. If the point is made 

 that the Pitlma represents the championship of the world at 

 long-range team work and that we will stubbornly refuse to 

 acknowledge that any other match is to be thought of so long 

 as this remains in the way, then the issue is a plain one, and 

 there will be no difficulty in getting an expression of opinion 

 that the Pal ma has been a stumbling-block from the start 

 and seems destined to become the greatest incubus ever laid 

 on American rifle practice. Let the new Executive Com- 

 mittee of the N. R. A. take the matter in hand regarding the 

 vote of the life members only as a suggestion and at least give 

 a fair, open, American reason for aueaktng away from the 

 only match ever offered us by the only other National Rifle 

 Association in the world. 



The ■Michigan State Spobtmbn's Association will meet 

 at Lansing, January 25. 



THE HATCHERY AT NORTHVILLE, 

 MICHIGAN. 



WE recently visited the hatchery station of the U. S. 

 Fish Commission at Northville, Mich., where the 

 whitefish (Coreganus) are being so extensively hatched for 

 distribution in the lakes and to such other parts a.s is deemed 

 necessary. The Superintendent, Mr. Frank N. Clark, showed 

 us over the establishment, and we were much pleased with it. 

 It is situated on a slope across the road from Mr. Clark's 

 house, and the roof of the hatchery is no higher than the road ; 

 the building is a single story frame, with side windows, and 

 is eighty feet in length by thirty wide ; in one end is the 

 office and a workshop, while thejfilters and ice room are in the 

 rear. 



The question which agitated flshcuUm-ists some years ago 

 concerning the hatching of the whitefish in spring water, 

 thereby bringing them out earlier tlian in the colder waters 

 of their native lakes, still has its partisans, and Mr. Clark has 

 hit a medium course. By making a cooling pond and carry- 

 ing tite water from the spring to the further end of it in a 

 shallow trough exposed to the air, and then further exposing 

 it in the pond he gets the temperature down as low as is pos- 

 sible in the coldest weather, using ice if wanner, and so re- 

 tards the hatching until toward spring. Mr. Clark has been 

 bred a fishculturist, his father, the late Nelson W. Clark, be- 

 ing one of the pioneers in the business, and his success with 

 the shad and whitefish has been uniformly good. 



The hatchery is equipped with five troughs, each fifty feet 

 long and a foot wide, divided into thirty-two compartments, 

 seventeen inches long, filled with the " Clark hatching box." 

 Each of these compartments contains seven trays capable of 

 holding 10,000 eggs each. Besides this there are sixty 

 " Cliase hatching jars," six inches in diameter, sixteen and a 

 half inches deep, with a metal lop two and a half inches 

 high, capable of holding 125,000 eggs each, making the ca- 

 pacity of the house 35,000,000 eggs, which can be increased, 

 if necessary. At the time of our visit, December 17, there 

 were only 13,000,000 eggs in the hatchery on account of the 

 storms and bad weather which prevailed during tlie time 

 when the fish were spawning, many eggs having been frozen, 

 it having been a most disastrous season for the fish culturists 

 generally who attempted to gather the eggs of the whitefish. 

 Our readers are familiar with both the " Clark box" and the 

 "Chase jar," and so we will not enter into an explanation of 

 them. It was curious to note the different appearance of the 

 eggs from Lake Erie from those of Lake Huron, the former 

 appearing light colored and the latter a decided yellow ; and 

 Mr. Clark says that the fish differ, those from Lake Huron 

 having black fins and a black back, while the Lake Erie 

 fish have pale fins and a greenish back, and he claims that 

 their heads are shaped differently. He keeps these eggs sep- 

 arate and will plant each in its own locality, for it is said 

 that the Lake Huron fish does not sell as high in New York 

 market as the other. The Lake Huron eggs are taken at 

 Alpena, Thunder Bay; they are transported to the 

 hatchery in flannel trays. In the practical work- 

 ing of a large hatchery the "self pickers" require as- 

 sistance, as many good eggs will pass out of the gate with 

 the bad ones, and a siphon of glass is used to remove most 

 of the dead: but this also picks up some good ones, and so 

 they are put into a jar by themselves for future picking when 

 the bad ones get worse and can be more readily separated; 

 still it is an improvement on the old-fashioned picking with 

 nippers which is very tedious. The jars are arranged on 

 the sides of these troughs which are placed over each other, 

 the top one supplying the top tier of jars wliich empty into 

 the second trough which suplies the lower jars, which in turn 

 empty into the bottom trough. White fish eggs mea.siire, ac- 

 cording to Mr. Clark, eight to an inch, and 36,000 to a quart. 

 Retarding the development by ice is a favorite experiment 

 with the superintendent, and we saw his refrigerator filled 

 with eggs where the thermometer stood at .31 deg. Fahr., as it 

 had done for the last twenty days, and the eggs were quite 

 icy on the outside, often being surrounded by a film of ice, 

 which had made on their surfaces without the egg itself be- 

 ing frozen, owing to the circulation of the blood developing 

 heat enough to resist a temperature no lower than that. The 

 eggs lay upon canton flannel trays in a double box well pack- 

 ed with fine ice. His father had a bos of this kind patented 



and the son has improved but not patented it, he having con- 

 cluded that fishcultural patents ai-e not good. He thinks he 

 can keep the eggs for six months and then batch them; the 

 only care he gives them is to see that the trays arc kept damp. 

 The house is also used for the breeding of salmon and 

 trout, many thousand quinnat-salmon being hatched and dis- 

 tributed here as well as a few of those Western brook trout 

 (Salmo iridea), which have so many common names that we 

 cannot select one, and so we are waiting for some one in 

 authority to choose one for us, for we will not call them 

 "California trout " for the reason that we object to the same 

 name for the salmon ; it is not its name in its own home, and 

 there are a half dozen .salmons and trouts in that State. The 

 yomig iridea in the ponds are lively and healthy, and may be 

 kept for breeders ; they were hatched on the 17lh of last May, 

 and belong to the U. S. Pish Commission, as do also a few 

 adults Other ponds contain yearling qnitmat salmon and a 

 few brook, trout and altogether the establishment is in good 

 shape and excellent working condition. 



THE SHINNECOCK BAY E>EATH-TRAP. 



OUR readers will remember that this beautiful bay on the 

 south side of Long Island was closed by a storm which 

 filled the inlet with sand about the middle of September, and 

 that we cried aloud to have it opened, so that the millions of 

 j'Otmg fish which had been bred in its waters might go forth 

 on their migrations and return to breed, instead of perishing 

 in their prison and polluting its waters so that breeding fish 

 would not enter it next season. Many other papers took up 

 the cry, and those in authority made a stir as if they would 

 do something, but afterward agreed among themselves that 

 this something should be postponed until their fall plowing 

 was completed and the fish had a chance to die. The blue- 

 fish, weak-fish and other migratory species died, obstinately 

 refusing to wait the leisurely motions of their jailors, and 

 thus by their foolish prejudices against being frozen, in 

 water which was becoming fresher than suited their palates, 

 deprived the people of Long Island and New York not only 

 of the amount of food which they would have grown to, but 

 also of a crop of young fish which might have descended 

 from them. Perhaps the Commissioners appointed to locate 

 the inlet, after seeing the perverseness of these fish, became 

 indignant and refused to dig. If so their dignity prevented 

 them from plowing up the sand to let the sea- water in, and 

 so the fishes let their sands of life run out. 



It was Mr. William N. Lane who proposed to make a lane 

 to the ocean at bis own expense, if allowed, whereby the fish 

 could travel from the Good Ground of the Island to the better 

 ground of the Atlantic, but this offer was not accepted by 

 the Commissioners, who may have had good grounds for de- 

 clining an offer which brought them in no fees; and so things 

 ran along until some three weeks ago old Boreas bored a 

 hole through the beach in the western part of the bay and 

 let in some sea-water, but too late to save the fish, which 

 were in a bad pickle already. 



Mr. Lane writes us that this inlet is in good running order, 

 and is the best one they have had for years, being over one 

 himdred yards wide and a good depth from bay to sea, and 

 all that now remains to be wished is that the flow may be 

 great enough to purify the bay before the arrival of the spawn- 

 ing fish now absent in warmer waters. 



The Wiboossin State Association has undertaken a 

 most laudable work, and none too soon, in its endeavor to 

 check the steady diminution of the game and fish in that 

 State. The meeting of the Society at Milwaukee, of which 

 a report will be found elsewhere, brought together a company 

 of eai-uest men whose discussions and transactions showed 

 that they appreciated the importance of the stated objects of 

 their organization. If the same spirit pervades the subse- 

 quent meetings of the Association Wisconsin game wUl he 

 cared for. 



Among the laws which the game committee of the Society 

 proposed was one restraining the exportation of venison. 

 This provision we hope to see presented to the Legislature 

 and passed; for this is the only possible way of checking an 

 export trade in game which, unless stopped in some such 

 way, must inevitably deplete the Wisconsin forests once and 

 forever. 



