5T7TT 
FOREST AND STREAM 
'V/ 
A WEEKLY JOURNAL, 
Devoted to Fitild and Aqdatio Sports, Practical Natural 
Histort, Pish Cultube, the Protection of Game, Preserva¬ 
tion OF FORESTS, AND THE INCULCATION IN MEN AND WOMEN OF 
A Healthy Interest in Out-Door Hecreation and Study : 
PUBLISHED BY 
FOREST AND STREAM PUBLISHING COMPANY. 
—AT— 
NO. Ill FULTON STREET, NEW YORK. 
[Post Office Box 2832,1 
TERMS, FOUR DOLLARS A YEAR, STRICTLY IN ADVANCE. 
Advertising Rates. 
Inside pages, nonpariel type, 25 oents per line; outside page, 40 
cents. Special rates for three, six and twelve months. Notices in 
editorial column, 50 cents per line—eight words to the line, and 
twelve lines to one inch. 
Advertisements should bo sent in by Saturday of each week, if 
possible. 
All transient advertisements must be aocompanied with the 
money or they will not be inserted. 
,Noadvertisement or business notice of an immoral character 
Will be received on any terms. 
*«*Any publisher inserting our prospectus as above one time, with 
***AJiy puuLisaer inserting our prospectus asoDove one nine, w im 
Met editorial notice calling at ten tion thereto,and sending marked 
copy to us, will receive the Forest and Stream for one year. 
NEW YORK, THURSDAY, JANUARY 8, 1880. 
To Correspondents. 
All communications whatever, intendedfor publication, must be 
accompanied with real name of the writer as a guaranty of good 
faith and he addressed to Forest and Stream Publishino Com¬ 
pany. Names will not be published if objection be made. Anony¬ 
mous communications will not be regarded. 
We cannot promise to return'rejected manuscripts. 
Seciv.ii ties of Clubs and Associations are urged to favor us wtih 
brief notes of their movements and transactions. 
Nothing will be admitted to any department of the paper that 
may not be read with propriety in the borne circle. 
• We oinuot be responsible for dereliction of mailservioo if money 
re mits I to us is lost. 
SS® - ' Trade supplied by American News Company. 
Cuvier Club. —The Cuvier Club, of Cincinnati, Ohio, 
held its sixth annual reception January 1st, when the 
club members and their friends met and reviewed the 
field days of the year. The Cuvier's receptions are 
always pleasant. 
A Word to Correspondents.— We trust that the nu¬ 
merous friends of the Forest and Stream; whose names 
are upon our list of contributors will understand that no 
disruption of their relations to the paper has been made 
by ourselves ; and we indulge the hope that they may 
not themselves elect to discontinue their kindly offices. 
A newspaper has much of the character of an individual. 
New friends are sought and valued, hut the old ones are 
none the less cherished. The Forest and Stream looks 
constantly ahead and aspires to greater and constantly 
growing excellence in the future; but it is not unmind¬ 
ful of its past nor of the friends who have done so 
much to make it tho journal it is to-day. Our leaders 
will still see the familiar signatures to news notes and 
sketches of travel, and no one will welcome these more 
than ourselves. 
—We publish to-day the last paper of the Nepigon 
aeries. The information contained in these six letters is 
of an exhaustive nature and we cannot too strongly urge 
their value as a guide for tourists to that region.—We 
shall next week give the first of a series of articles 
describing a canoe trip of two hundred miles down the 
East .Branch of the Penobscot.—The description of the 
trip up the Upper Saguenay is the first of that country 
which ha 3 ever been published. This American Conti¬ 
nent is broad enough to furnish freBh material for racy 
reconteurs for a century to come. 
—Our letters for the last fortnight have been filled with 
Christmas and New Year greetings. It is very pleasant 
thus to know that at the gatherings of various clubs and 
associations the Forest and Stream has not been forgot¬ 
ten. The mail one morning brought one of Marcus 
Ward’s handsomely illuminated holiday cards, which the 
sender put in as his “Fish Swallowing Fish’’ contribu¬ 
tion. The deBign was a water scene ; a duck seizing the 
bait of an angler, and the huge fish beneath in turn seiz¬ 
ing the duck. Is it possible that the famous London de¬ 
signer has seen our fish stories in time to catch the idea ? 
The legend on the card runs : 
Tho’ friends attract you t’other way, 
We'll look for you on Christmas day. 
DIRECTORY TO GAME AND FISH 
RESORTS. 
A MOST important portion of the work of the For¬ 
est and Stream has been done in discovering and 
making known to its readers the game resources of differ¬ 
ent sections of the country. We have constitute)! our¬ 
selves a bureau of information for the benefit of the pub¬ 
lic, giving specific instructions when and where 
to go. Such information we have always striven to 
make as trustworthy as our sources of knowledge would 
admit. Some years ago, by a system of circular letters, 
we gathered a vast supply of local information from 
every State in the Union. Since then there have been 
material changes in the stock of fish and game in many 
sections, as well as improvements in the facilities of 
travel, accommodations provided for tourists, etc. 
We, therefore, feel the necessity of revising our present 
knowledge, and to that end have opened a Forest and 
Stream Game and Fish Directory, which is designed to 
serve as a medium of communication between sportsmen 
tourists. Into this Directory it is proposed to gather all 
available information of this character which may be of 
service to our readers. We earnestly invite the coopera¬ 
tion of those who have knowledge of sporting grounds, 
and are inclined to make the same known to others. We 
ask no one to reveal the one particular spot of which he 
alone knowB, and which he would not see invaded by 
the foot of the stranger. There are scores and scores of 
favorite streams full of trout, and stretches of woodland 
where the birds fly and the deer bound, whose location is 
jealously guarded from season to season by one or two. 
The way thither we should not care to know ; more than 
this, we warn our friends not to tell us of them. But on the 
other hand, there are numberless hunting grounds where 
Ihe game is abundant enough to afford sport for all who 
come, and streams which are in no danger of heingflshed 
out. To make these known is our mission, to accomplish 
which we shall not hesitate to call upon our readers, cor¬ 
respondents and friends. With their aid the Forest 
and Stream Game and Fish Director}' may be made so 
complete that no one need Btay at home because he is at 
a loss where to go, and a sportsman setting out on a busi¬ 
ness or recreation tour to a distant State may know 
whether or not to take along his rod or gun. To insure 
trustworthiness, we shall, in very case where it is practi¬ 
cable, require the name of some resident to whom in¬ 
quiries may be addressed, and who will, therefore, be per¬ 
sonally responsible for the iifformation given. 
In our Game Bag and Gun column we have designated 
just what is desired. The particulars asked for may' be 
compressed into the limits of a postal card, and we shall 
look for ready responses from every county, town, ham¬ 
let, post, camp and lodge in the United States and 
Canadas. 
FAILURE OF THE Y. R. A. 
O WING to the lack of representation and want of co¬ 
operation of the more influential clubs, the pro¬ 
posed National Yacht Racing Association has fallen 
through. This was to have been foreseen, as the com¬ 
position of the committee having the preliminary ar¬ 
rangements in charge was in some respects not such as 
to meet with approval. The many estimable gentlemen 
who lent their names and time to the movement cer¬ 
tainly deserve and have our sympathies. It was their 
misfortune that, unknown to them, the very initial steps 
should have been allowed to pass largely Into the hands 
of a notorious confidence operator, whose association 
with any such undertaking is quite enough to debar the 
most praiseworthy object from general public support. 
That the formation of a Yacht Racing Association is 
something devoutedly to he wished for, all the leading 
clubs are ready to admit; but however much they may 
desire to bring about its accomplishment, their support, 
under the circumstances, was out of the question. The 
fair name of American yachtsmen is not to he traded 
upon nor made a lever by a common “ rounder " for the 
furtherance of his own small ends. 
“ It is an ill wind that blows nobody good,” and the 
failure of the Y. R. A. is not without its compensating 
benefit. A most effectual set-back has been given to an 
individual and his crew who have made a great deal more 
noise than either their capacity or standing in public 
opinion would entitle them to. Yachtsmen are not yet 
prepared to link their good name with the unsavory repu¬ 
tation of a scouse-kettle hero and his hawsepipe follow¬ 
ing, and in their refusal to countenance the machina¬ 
tions of a fellow in bad odor have given a decided voice to 
opinions long entertained. 
We believe that the junior yacht clubs will likewise 
learn to distinguishbetween reputable journalism—which 
has their interests at heart quite as much as those of the 
larger dubs—and the catch-penny sheets, no sooner floated 
than exhibiting an unhealthy leaning towards the odor¬ 
iferous precincts of the Sheriff's office. 
As the miscarriage of the first effort does not in any 
way imply the lack of necessity for a Yacht Racing As¬ 
sociation, it is to be hoped that the gentlemen who u tif, ! 
been identified with the first move will not lose heiU ^ 
hut will once more set to work, the better prepared \ -tic * 
the experience already gained. Personal application 
members of the leading clubs will be much more effeo- w 0 * 
tual than putting one’s trust in minor sheets without •, V 
reputation or circulation, and a combined effort in which ^ 
the large clubs are well represented will of course be pre¬ 
ferable to any other plan of organization. I 
MILITIA RIFLE PRACTICE IN 1879. 
T HE report of the General Inspector of Rifle Practice 
for the State of New York, published in synopsis 
under our rifle department, will be instructive and should 
be suggestive reading to the officers of militia in every 
other State of the Union. The years are very few since 
the National Guard of this Empire State began to know 
the rifles with which they were provided. From mere 
dummy weapons they have really become arms of offence 
and defence. From being almost an aggregate of help¬ 
lessness, the 17,000 armed citizens of the State have been 
moulded into a formidable force of skilled shots, able to 
make themselves felt in a deadly fashion should any mis¬ 
fortune of war dr riot ever call upon them to exert their 
powers. We have made wondrous strides of progress, 
for we started from nothing, yet there is a great aggre¬ 
gate in that fourth class of “ men who have not visited 
the range,” who are what the whole of the National 
Guard of the State was a decade ago. They are valueless 
except to count at parade. They are dead wood_on the 
tree and should be lopped off. It shows a very had state 
of discipline when two of the city regiments, with an ag¬ 
gregate muster rollof 1,318, have to return 846 men as never 
having obeyed the orders to practice upon the ranges. 
There are bright examples of proficiency to light up this 
dismal end of the picture, and to the separate companies 
all over the State much praise is due for the care 
which they have shown in making themselves competent 
to use the rifles they have sworn to carry. The Seventh 
Regiment heads the list of metropolitan organizations, 
and a showing of nearly half its nominal strength as 
marksmen conveys in an indirect but none the less posi¬ 
tive manner, what a power such an organization would 
be when drawn up in an effective position and ordered 
to send a volley of lead at a turbulent mob. It means an 
instant quelling of that riot by the wiping out of a good 
percentage of that particular mob. 
The Teport is instructive to the general rifle shooter by 
the data it presents as to the demerits of a .50 calibre 
compared with a .45 or .44 calibre weapon. The State 
of New York possesses a good weapon in a hundred 
points, but with one overpowering objection. First and 
foremost, a rifle must shoot well, and this the New York 
State model rifle does not when brought into comparison 
with other military rifles. The fact that it ia of simple 
mechanism, easily kept in repair, easily bandied, safe, 
and cheap, are minor considerations, and weigh but little 
against this one fatal objection. 
To officers of the National Guard in other States the 
practice of the New York guardsmen has been In the 
nature of a pioneer movement. The whole National 
Guard system in this country is in a wretched state of 
neglect. There are skeleton organizations in several of 
the States, but iu the majority of the commonwealth* 
there is only a cold, barren ignoring of the whole ques¬ 
tion of the protection of the citizen by the citizen. What 
can be done New York State has shown, and in view of 
this showing, as detailed by General Wingate, the oft- 
heard assertions that National Guardsmen cannot be 
brought to a high state of efficiency as marksmen, are 
disproven by facts and figures. What New York can do 
other States can do, and in many cases they have the ad¬ 
vantage of this great urban State. Them are facts in 
this last report which might be taken as the basis of 
action by some wise legislator in each of a score of Assem¬ 
blies and Senates. Tiiey mean that New York, by the 
expenditure of a few thousands of dollars annually, is in 
a position to protect herself against the loss of the mil¬ 
lions which riot violence let loose for a few brief hours 
may cause to her treasury. 
To General Wingate, who makes the last of his reports 
as an official of the National Guard, sufficient credit can¬ 
not be given for what he has done in behalf of an enlarged 
system of rifle practice, Often blundering and forced in a 
large degree to feel his way along, he has had for a dozen 
years past one determined object in view, and its accom¬ 
plishment is very largely seen in this report for 1879. 
He has been styled the Father of American Rifle Practice, 
and well deserves the title. To him more than to any 
other man in America is due the credit for whatever 
America has gained of credit in this line of sport. The 
spirit was there ; the ability needed only a guiding hand; 
but it was Captain Wingate, of the Twenty-second Regi¬ 
ment, who began the work ; Colonel Wingate who ap¬ 
plied the match which started the brilliant, flame of our 
international small-bore contest; and General Wingate 
who leaves for his successors a perfected system of rifle 
practice for the troops of this State. 
