1010, 
FOREST AND STREAM 
Devoted to Field and Aquatic Sports, Practical Natural 
History, Fish Culture, the Protection op Game, Preserva¬ 
tion op Forests, and the Inculcation in Men and Women op 
A Healthy Interest in Out-Door Recreation and Study : 
PUBLISHED BY 
FOREST AND STREAM PUBLISHING COMPANY. 
—AT— 
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NEW YORK, THURSDAY, JANUARY 22, 1880. 
To Correspondents. 
All communications whatever, intendedforpubiieation, must be 
lecompanied with real name of the writer as a guaranty of good 
faith and tie addressed to Forest and Stream Publisuinq Com¬ 
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Secretaries of Clubs and Associations are urged to favor us wtih 
brief notes of their movements and transactions. 
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E3V Trade supplied by American News Company. 
A High Compliment.— It is always pleasant io bear 
nice things about oneself, and compliments become doubly 
valuable when they are paid by one whose judgment is 
undoubted and whose sincerity is unimpeachable. It is 
therefore with much pride that we quote a remark in the 
last Bulletin of the Nuttall Ornithological Club from the 
pen of Prof. J. A. Allen, of Cambridge, whose standing 
in the very-first rank of American scientific men is so well 
known to our readers. He says :— 
“ Journals devoted to field and aquatic sports, to prac¬ 
tical natural liistory, and the preservation of game, are 
frequently chosen by excellent field naturalists as their 
mediums of publication, and in this respect none is more 
prominent than that deservedly popular newspaper, For¬ 
est and Stream, which in tone and literary standing is 
a model of its class. 1 ’ 
Praise from such a source is praise indeed. We shall 
study more than ever to deserve such kindly words. 
— An Austrian savant, who has been prosecuting lin¬ 
guistic researches in South America, has discovered 
among the Indians of Peru and Bolivia languages which 
exhibit the most astounding affinities with the Semitic 
languages, and by a series of other equally “surprising 
revelations'’ the learned doctor concludes that the high 
plains of those countries must have been the cradle of the 
human race. That is to say, that Adam was a Peruvian 
and shot his game with a blow pipe and poisoned arrow. 
We fear that the Austrian gentleman left his compass in 
Europe. _ ^ ^ ^ ^ _ 
—The Maine country has been fully described from time 
to time in these columns. The Forest and Stream lit¬ 
erature upon the subject is by no means inconsiderable ; 
and it will be further augmented by a pleasing addition 
when Mr. Steele’s papers, now in course of publication, 
appear in illustrated book form under the title of 
•‘Canoe and Camera."—Those of our readers who may 
remember the extended sketch, “Fishing in Oregon,” 
published some time ago, will welcome another equally 
interesting paper from the same pen to-day.—The mar¬ 
kets just now are filled with the products of tlio South, 
and catching the spirit of the season, we provide this 
week a supply of good things from the the same source. 
We shall supplement these descriptions of Southern 
sport with a further installment next week. There is 
always a dash about field days at the South. Scores of 
contributors who have penned their descriptions for the 
Forest and Stream have been very successful in trans¬ 
ferring this dash and action [o the printed page, 
FISH FOOD AS A POISON. 
T HE poisoning of dogs by salmon food, mentioned 
by an Oregon correspondent in another column, is 
one of the phenomena of the poisoning properties of 
fish as food. No branch of the whole range of toxi¬ 
cology is more curious than this of fish poison; its 
principles and laws are little understood by laymen 
and have baffled the most intelligent investigation of 
experts. 
Not only do certain fishes possess tins toxic property 
at all seasons and with all who partake of them, but 
there are also numerous other fishes which appear to act 
as poisons only at certain periods, and not at others, or 
upon certain individuals and not upon others. Whether 
the malady ensues from the condition of the fish diet 
itself or from the condition of the person eating it, is 
also an undetermined point. As we should naturally 
expect, curious superstitions and misconceptions have 
attended such phenomenal results ; among them we 
suspect should be classed the moonlight belief so 
fully set forth in the Forest and Stream some months 
ago. Here the sickness which followed the consump¬ 
tion of the fish may have been induced by a partic¬ 
ular morbid element of tbe fish itself, or by an idiosyn- 
cracy of those who partook of it. There are allied 
phenomena in other branches of toxicology. One 
man walks with impunity through the poison ivy, 
thrusts it aside with his hands, and allows it to brush 
against his face; another receives the virus by simply 
coming into close proximity to tbe vine. Here it is 
very evident that one individual is more susceptible of 
poisou than another. The fact that one man of a ship’s 
crew who eats fish from the same dish with his fel¬ 
lows and is seized with temble spasms of pain while 
they are unharmed, is an analogy to the ivy poison. 
In the Annales d'Hygiene Publique, the report of the 
Inspector General of Chinese Customs is quoted as statmg 
that fish poisoning is among the maladies which afflict 
Europeans resident in Japan. The author mentions 
salmon as the moEt common toxic fish of Japanese waters, 
tbe effects of eating it when out of season being such as 
follow the eating of tainted meat. Tlie same danger at¬ 
tends the leatxiio (bonito) and the maguro, although fatal 
results rarely follow; the worst symptoms, as they are the 
most inexplicable, being a severe conjestion of the brain 
and face and serious nervous derangements. Another cu¬ 
rious condition has been observed with regard to one of 
these poisonous species, the J.ethrinus nrnnbo, which is 
that it can be eaten with impunity until it attains a 
length of five or five and a half inches, after which it be¬ 
comes poisonous, The most daugerous of the Japanese 
poisonous fishes belong to the order Plectognathns, and 
are of the genus Tetrodon or swell fish, known in Japan 
as fugu. So well recognized are their dangerous effects, 
that their sale at certain seasons is prohibited by law, 
Tbe symptoms following them are at first violent head¬ 
ache and nausea, quickly followed by extreme muscular 
weakness, and a simultaneous falling of the pulse, respi¬ 
ration and temperature, all denoting the very energetic 
action of the poison upon the nervous centres and the 
pneumogastric. Another circumstance noted by two 
physicians, who have recorded sixteen cases of poisoning 
by this fish, was that the victim had in every case eaten 
the eggs of the fish. The liver just after the spawning 
season is considered in Japan to be the most fatal part. 
In the oases reported from the Cape of Good Hope death 
ensued within seventeen minutes after the victim had 
eaten of the liver of the f ugu. 
Fishes of different genera all over the globe possess 
poisonous properties more or less definitely determined 
and commonly recognized. Pappenheim gives a list of 
more than forty such species, including the mackerels, 
perches, pikes, herrings, congers, and barbels. The im¬ 
portance of this subject is such that it deserves the most 
careful investigation. With the attention which is now 
devoted to all branches of ichthyology and kindred stud¬ 
ies, we may reasonably look for the attainment of a more 
definite understanding of the poisonous properties of 
fishes. 
SHOULD TH E GUN BE TAXED? 
G AME protective legislation is no new thing in 
America. We published the other day a Con¬ 
necticut law enacted in 1868, and to-day we give a Cana¬ 
dian statute of the last century. The game law which 
gives full satisfaction, and against whioli the offenders 
are as promptly and as generally punished as the offend¬ 
ers against other laws, has however yet to be found. We 
have been discussing different phases of game legislation 
for tbe past seven years in these columns, and from time 
to time we have noted a step in advance. The laws are 
better to-day than they were ten years ago ; public senti¬ 
ment is more favorable to protection than it was then. 
The leaven has been slowly working. We are not de- 
spondent of the future. 
In another column a thoughtful writer suggests that a 
county tax be imposed upon every non-resident who 
comes into the county to kill game. Any suggestion 
which is designed to forward the attainment of an effi¬ 
cient system of game protection, is worthy of fcofli 
tion; and we now deBire not so much to express ’an e spo 
rnatum on thiB subject, as to obtain the views of thoBa? 
who have been in the thick of the fight against lawless 
game extermination. 
To insure^protection it is hot enough to pass laws. One 
law defied cannot be enforced by the enactment of 
another ; nor the second by a third. Many of our States 
have twice as much legislation upon the subject as they 
ought to have, and with not one-tenth of the actual ex¬ 
ecution of the laws called for. We have long ago found 
out that protection is not to be secured by fixing close 
and open seasons, and prescribing penalties for their in¬ 
fringement. Special officials must be appointed to en¬ 
force the statutes, bring offenders to justice, and inflict 
the penalties. We believe that those Associations which 
have advocated the appointment by the States of special 
county game constables, have hit upon the only true 
method of satisfactorily protecting the game. Experi¬ 
ence has also shown that such constables must have as¬ 
signed to them a territory outside of their own neighbor¬ 
hood, where personal considerations can have no influ¬ 
ence in deterring them from a discharge of their duties. 
And it stands to reason that no man will take very ener¬ 
getic steps in this business unless he be paid enough to- 
make it worth his while. Any adequate system of game 
protection must necessarily be attended with considera¬ 
ble expense. Where are the funds to come from? It 
is self-evident that the constables must be appointed 
by the State, that they may be clothed with unim¬ 
peachable authority, may be, in turn,-responsible to 
the State for the discharge of their work, and may 
not hold office subject to the whim of the county 
citizens. It follows that they should be paid by the 
State ; and for this purpose a fund ought to be appropri¬ 
ated sufficient to meet all due demands. Game protec¬ 
tive associations may accomplish much by voluntary 
contributions ; our most determined societies are yearly 
devoting less money to State shoots and more to State 
protection ; but the fund proper must come from the 
State. For the provision of such a game law fund is 
urged the imposition of a tax upon guns. It is the old 
and approved principle that those who dance must pay 
the fiddler. The collection of only a nominal tax upon 
every gun in the State of Massachusetts, or of New 
York, or of Michigan, would furnish the means of em¬ 
ploying in each of those States a corps of efficient and 
fearless men to see that the laws were carried out: 
it would he sufficient to pay the salaries of constables, 
the fees of counsel and the prosecution of the consta¬ 
bles themselves when they shirked their work or put 
hush-money into their pockets. Enforcing the game 
laws is now nobody’s business, and they are not en¬ 
forced. If a community of sportsmen were taxed to- 
secure their enforcement, every one of the men thus, 
taxed, would make it his business to see where his 
money went to. Another advantage gained would be 
the rescue of game legislation from a clique of inter¬ 
ested parties and putting it into the hands of men who 
would see that when a close season is fixed, it is the 
one prescribed by nature and common sense. If the 
law is to be enforced and men know that it is to be 
enforced, they will take pains to see that it is right. 
The result will he salutary all around. They have 
come to this in other countries; we must eventually 
come to it in the United States. We shall be wise if 
we come to it before our game has so nearly disap¬ 
peared that game constables and taxes shall be of no 
avail. 
YACHT RACI NG NOT DECLINING. 
W ITH the advent Of the winter months the usual 
crop of critics appears as a matter of course to 
bewail in sundry contemporaries the “ decline of yacht¬ 
ing,’’ We have before had occasion to call the attention 
of hasty reviewers of the amateur class, who have no 
statistics at hand, that yacht racing cannot under any 
conditions be taken as an index of the pulse of the pub¬ 
lic. Because the entries for any one match or even for 
racing throughout the year may sensibly decline, ther 
are not necessarily any just grounds for jumping to ne 
conclusion that the sport is suffering from want of pop¬ 
ular favor. On the contrary, the number of entries is 
o-overned to such a degree by secondary and special con¬ 
siderations that they cannot be treated in connection 
with yachting as a pastime generally. The New York 
Y. C. had only a moderate entry for its annual matches 
last year, yet the cruise of the club brought together the 
largest fleet and tonnage ever under tbe command of a 
flag officer. But apart from this, yacht racing is no more 
declining than yachting itself, as the following statistics 
will serve to show. We may add that never before was 
the prospect of this sport in all its hearings brighter 
than at.present. A very large number of new craft are 
being built, and most of them of fair tonnage. The ab¬ 
sence of the vulgar ostentation and frivolous display in 
the way of “ big” schooners, and the noisy splurge of 
advertising which once characterized our yachting' has 
fortunately disappeared, but this must not be confounded 
with a lack of popularity. It indicates rather that rac- 
