990 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
A WEEKLY JOURNAL, 
Dfvoted to Ftiild and Aquatic Sports, Practical Natural 
History, Fish Culture, the Protection Of Game, Preserva¬ 
tion of Forests, and the Inculcation nr Men and Women of 
a Healthy Interest in Out-Door Recreation and Study : 
PUBLISHED BY 
FOREST AN1) STREAM PUBLISHING COMPANY. 
— AT— 
NO. m FULTON STREET, NEW YORK. 
[Post Office Box 2833.1 
TERMS, FOUR DOLLARS A YEAR, STRICTLY IN ADVANCE. 
Advertising Bates. 
Inside pages, nonpariel type, 25 cents per line; outside page, 40 
cents, special rates for tliree, six and twelve months. Notices In 
editorial column, SO cents per line—eight words to tho line, and 
twelve lines to one inch. 
Advertisements should be sent In by Saturday of each weeli, If 
possible. » 
All transient advertisements must be accompanied with the 
money or they will not be Inserted. 
No advertisement or business notice of an Immoral character 
will be reoeived on any terms. 
VAnv publisher inserting our prospectus as above onetime, with 
brief editorial notice calling attention thereto,and sending marked 
copy to us, will receive the Forest and Stream for one year. 
NEW YORK, THURSDAY. JANUARY 15. 1880. 
To Correspondents. 
All communications whatever, intended for publication, must he 
locompanied with real name of the writer as a guaranty of good 
faith and he addressed to Forest and Stream Publishing 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 Names will not be published if objection be made.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. 
Secretaries 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 home circle. 
•We cannot bo responsible for doreliotion of mall service if money 
re unite d to us is lost.. 
JSW Trade supplied by American News Company. 
—Our colored posters are universally acknowledged to 
be the most tasteful things of Ihe kind published. 
We have opened a special ledger account for our can¬ 
vassers and each one may be assured of credit for work 
done. The mails are bringing in responses to our liberal 
offer far beyond our most sanguine expectations. The 
increase in the number of subscriptions is extraordinary, 
scores of names coming in daily from all parts of the 
country. 
— Some of our cousins across the water are comparing 
notes on big bags of game. The man who is at the front 
so far seems to be a yacht Captain of Portsmouth, who 
scored 323 oxbirds (or stints), twenty-one stone plover and 
four gray plover, a total of 348 head. These were killed 
at 180 yards with an eight-foot gun, one and a-quarter 
bore, loaded with a wire cartridge containing eleven 
pounds B shot, one and three-quarter ounces large grain 
powder, __ 
—Bicycling is attaining tremendous popularity, and 
Boston is the true Hub of the wheel. They have a paper, 
those Boston bicyclists, all to themselves—the Bicycling 
World. Mr. Charles E. Pratt is its able editor. The sport 
already owes much to Mr. Pratt’s energetic literary work. 
He is an enthusiast, and seems to have communicated 
his spirit to a large constituency of readers and riders. 
May the Bicycling World move noiselessly on. 
LegislationNeeded in Arkansas.— “ Sam .Monroe s’' 
note that game and fish are disappearing about his home 
in Arkansas, is an emphatic commentary upon the rap¬ 
idly changing game conditions of the country. Ever 
since the publication of Col. T. B. Thorpe’s inimitable 
sketches of wild life and adventure in the Arkansas back- 
woods, the State has been regarded as a vast game pre¬ 
serve, and that even a portion of this hunter’s domain 
should have been changed into a region devoid of game 
and fish is a fact worthy of reflection. The organization 
of Arkansas game protection societies is how in order. 
Prevention of Cruelty to Animals.— At the four¬ 
teenth anniversary of the Society for the Prevention of 
Cruelty to Animals, last Thursday, it was reported that 
the aggregate number of cases which the Society had 
taken into Court and won since its establishment was 
9,809 ; 18,857 disabled animals had been discovered work¬ 
ing, and ordered out of the harness ; and in 37,600 cases 
timely interference prevented cruelty. The Society has 
branches in thirty-five States of the Union. 
THE YACHT RACING ASSOCIATION. 
W E are in receipt of many communications concern¬ 
ing the proposed Yacht Racing Association, which 
has unfortunately met with a temporary obstacle. These 
we cannot print, as no good ends would thereby he fur¬ 
thered. All of them are more or less of the same import, 
and consist of a vigorous shutting of the stable door after 
the horse has departed. 
For six weeks a person of notoriously bad reputation 
was to outward appearance in high feather with tho mem¬ 
bers of the preliminary committee, although his real 
character was suspected by more than one connected 
with the movement. The meetings were held in a pri¬ 
vate office in which the general public could not have 
asserted its rights to participation in debate, should it have 
felt inclined to do so. When an individual has not paid 
Iris dues to a club for years, he is not generally considered 
a member in good standing ; and when he assumes pow¬ 
ers never delegated to him, his conduct becomes all the 
more reprehensible, even did his past record admit of 
scrutiny, which in this case it does not. The Committee 
erred, wittingly, or unwittingly, it matters not, in failing 
to examine into the title and personality of its composi¬ 
tion. In this they were guilty of an oversight, and it is 
too late now to attempt to throw the blame thereof 
upon the public, or to lay at our doors the imputation of 
“ throwing cold water." Drawing a line between rascals 
and honest men is certainly not demanding a very exact¬ 
ing standard of morality. In driving from the circle of 
yachtsmen any common swindler or jail-bird, we deserve 
llie thanks of the community, and it is gratifying to 
know that per contra our course has received the in¬ 
dorsement of self-respecting men. We have been par¬ 
ticular upon every occasion to exempt the many worthy 
gentlemen who went into the movement honestly from 
the force of our strictures, and from them we expect in 
time to receive full acknowledgement of the disagreeable 
service performed in their behalf. The public, however, 
is not to be called to account for considering the whole 
committee more or less tarred with the same stick, and 
noting the name of a swindler prominently connected 
with the inaugural steps, it very naturally abstained from 
cooperation. There is nothing “ fastidious ” in an effort to 
prevent the preponderance of an undesirable element 
among yacht clubs, as one correspondent alleges. It was 
a want of this “ fastidiousness” which sent the Brooklyn 
Yaoht Club down stream and built up the Atlantic 
Yacht Club, in which members find protection from the 
encroachments of confidence men. 
If the intention to drive a sharper out from among us 
is “ class legislation,” as another correspondent asserts, 
it is exactly the kind of class legislation which we pro¬ 
pose to enforce through these columns, and we have yet 
to learn that the impotent squealing of tadpole sheets will 
be sufficient to counteract the effects of this determina¬ 
tion. The junior yacht clubs know full well that they 
have no stronger friend or advocate than FOREST and 
Stream, and we question very much whether they will 
view with favor, any more than the larger clubs, the at¬ 
tempts of any rascal to foist his obnoxious presence upon 
them by trick or device. 
It stands to reason that the quicker the odium of evil 
association is got rid of, the better : and in enlightening 
the Committee upon the true state of affairs, we are en¬ 
abling them to steer clear of the breakers which we dis¬ 
cerned ahead, though unperceived by those more directly 
concerned. 
Since the publication of our remarks last week, we 
have been called upon by a representative of the Com¬ 
mittee, and have been assured that prompt measures will 
be taken at the right moment to absolve the movement 
from the charges brought against it; that no person will 
be admitted, unless provided with credentials from the 
club he claims to represent; that no one will be permit¬ 
ted to turn the movement into an advertising dodge; 
and that it is proposed to make all future steps accepta¬ 
ble to the public, including the banishing from their midst 
of any individual open to the charges made in these 
columns. 
It is to be regretted that this assurance was not given 
to the public at an earlier day, in which event much of 
the harm already done could have been avoided. As our 
only cause of opposition to the success of the present 
effort arose from the presence of a bad character on the 
Committee, and as we now feel certain that he will be 
promptly sent into the Coventry so richly deserved, we 
withdraw from further opposition, and are willing to 
give aid in furthering the ends in view. Such clubs as 
may have been deterred from joining will now under¬ 
stand what led to our former remarks. Their intended 
effect having been accomplished, let the Yacht Racing 
Association receive all the support which will naturally 
flow its way, as there is no longer any reason why all 
clubs should not join and make a success of what is to 
their individual interest quite as much as it is to the 
public at large. 
Engraving a Fungus.— The common fungus found in 
the woods is susceptible of being wrought into many 
forms of artistio ornament. It is a common thing to 
make them into brackets, mounting them upon a' 1 ^! 
board and putting on a coat of varnish, Something,^ 
have never seen before is a method of engraving apicti 5 
upon the light face of the fungus, i. e., that side of' 
which is underneath as it grows upon the tree. This 
done by scratching through the light coating of the sui 
face and exposing the dark color below. The brown be 
neath this forms the dark lines, the principle being tha 
of the cameo. Dr. L. C. Nye, of Negaunee, Mich., sends 
us as a souvenir of the woods, a fungus thus prepared, 
the scene being a lordly buck with branching antlers, 
startled from his feeding and snuffing the air. This has 
been greatly admired by every one who has seen it in the 
office, and should fungi, thus worked into artistic orna¬ 
ments, be placed on sale in the sportsmen’s stores, we are 
satisfied they would meet with a ready sale. This pro¬ 
cess of fungus engraving may be familiar to many: to 
ourselves and to our friends it is as novel as it is happy. 
The Weather and the Game.— The extreme mild¬ 
ness of the weather during the past month will cause the 
winter of 1879-80 to be long remembered as an extraor¬ 
dinary season. In this part of the country we have had, 
properly speaking, no winter as yet. The oldest inhabit¬ 
ants are sadly put to it to match these weeks with the re¬ 
collections of something more unusual in the past, a.nd 
many of the weather-wise veterans of our acquain¬ 
tances confess all their former experiences outdone. 
The effect upon game is two-fold. The wild fowl have 
not migrated South in their usual numbers. Our South¬ 
ern correspondents complain that they are missing all 
their anticipated sport. Large rafts of ducks and geese 
are reported about.tlie Illinois River and on other well- 
known grounds in the Northern, Middle and Western 
States. A New Jersey correspondent reported, a week 
or two ago, a flock of geese flying over to the North ; and 
we need not remind our readers that this is a more re¬ 
liable weather sign than are the prognostications of the 
Weather Bureau. 
While the Southern sportsman is disappointed this 
winter, those at the North have reason to congratulate 
themselves that the warm weather will ensure a preser¬ 
vation of the quail, and a good stock for next season's 
crop. Two years ago the extraordinary fall of snow led 
us to call for more than usual care in the protection of 
the suffering birds. This year the case is, so far, exactly 
the reverse. 
The winter abroad is on the contrary most severe. 
On the Continent and in the British Islands the ther¬ 
mometer fell on the 10th instant down to eighteen de¬ 
grees below zero, Fahrenheit, and in Switzerland and 
South Germany the newspapers are publishing accounts 
of human beings and animals frozen to death. In France 
it is so cold as to preclude shooting, and the game is 
dying of cold and starvation, the ground being so deeply 
covered with snow or frozen so hard that they cannot 
feed. Wild bears in the forests, and hares, partridges 
and pheasants, frozen stiff, have been picked up in large 
numbers. Hunting is at a standstill both in England 
and in France. 
THE NATIONAL RIFLE ASSOCIATION. 
T HE annual meeting of the N.R.A. washeld on Tues- 
evening, and the report, which is to be found in 
another column, was presented to thelife members. The 
past year has been a quiet, but none the less a busy 
one. There have been no surging crowds at Creedmoor, 
packing the space behind the firing points to see some 
exciting contest of International teams. The “ Palma” 
has rested in its dusty place of security, and remains a 
standing challenge to the riflemen of other countries, 
They may look at it with longing eyes, but the only way 
to its possession is over the hard fought battle before the 
butts. It must be confessed that there is very little 
chance of a British team taking the Palma for some time 
to come, and if a British team cannot do it, it is pretty 
certain that no team of any other nation can bother ns. 
It may be thought that our men are sleeping, and may be 
caught napping by some foreign team coming on us 
unawares, There is no cause for alarm in this, however, 
and with the legal notice given by any challenger for the 
International Small Bore Trophy, they will find an Ameri¬ 
can team ready to meet them, with weapons, system and 
men as good as any of the preceding Amerioan teams 
have shown. Some attempt at reviving the Old time 
interest in long range practice is making by the move¬ 
ment to send a picked team of Americans to England this 
coming summer. But while their shooting will be looked 
for with interest, they carry with them no official char¬ 
acter, and their defeat or victory will not materially take 
from or add to the standing of American riflemen. 
But small bore work aside, Creedmoor has had a busy 
season of military practice, and the Forest and Stream 
in its last issue pointed out wherein this practice was im¬ 
portant. Were nothing else done at Creedmoor, the mili¬ 
tary shooting alone would justify the support given the 
range, and it is a question whether it would be a loss to 
make Creedmoor an exclusively military practice ground. 
The All-comers matches at Creedmoor during the past 
year have been many and varied, and a general interest 
