Forest and Stream. 



A Weekly Journal of the Rod and Gun. 



NEW YORK, OCTOBER 26, 1882. 



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CONTENTS. 



Eni'Hjuui.. 



The Anglers' Tournament. 



t'liruijvme the Conditions. 



Collies. 



Antimin Exhibition of Painting. 

 The Sportsman Tourist. 



"Nulmeggers" on the Ottawa. 



Below Quebec. — vi. 



Sport in New Mexico. 

 Natcr.u. Histoby. 



Character of our Native Snakes. 



Oottonmouth and Water Moc- 

 casin. 



"Byrne" on the Mud-Hen. 



The Breeding of Quail. 

 Game Bag and Gun. 



It is October! 



Philadelphia Notes. 



'<-<■ ." '.'-■ ■■:' ; v-.' ; 



TVild Rice in England. 



Bgjinter's Luck." 



California Notes. 



Hounding vs. Still Hunting. 

 Camp Fire Flickerings. 

 ea and RrvER Fishing. 



The Anglers' Tournament. 



Sea and Rivkr Fishing. 

 Camps on the Way.— in. 

 Sundav in Camp. 

 The National Rod and Reel As- 

 sociation. 

 Rangeley Trout and Salmon. 



i ( 'l:-;Ui'ULTURK. 



A New Hatcher. 



The New York Fish Commission 

 The Kbnnel. 



Rab. 



Northwestern Counties Sheep 

 Dog Trials. 



Field Trial Notes. 



The Essex County Hunt. 



Kennel Notes. 



Kennel Management. 

 Rifle and Trap Shooting. 



One "View on the Match Report. 



Matches and Meetings. 

 Yachting and Canoeing. 



Single Hand Yachts. 



What was his Answer? 



Cruising Yachts. 



A Sweeping Cutter Victory. 

 Answers^' 



Our Readers will confer a favor by sending us tlie names 

 of such of their friends as are not now among llw subscribers 

 of the Forest axd Stream, but who -would presumably be 

 hkif aled in tin: paper. 



THE ANGLERS' TOURNAMENT. 

 '"PHE tournament has passed into the history of angling 

 -*- contests as the best one ever seen. It exceeded the ex- 

 pectations of its "most sanguine friends in the wide-spread 

 interest taken in it by the brotherhood of the angle, and i( 

 culminated in the formation of a society, which will be 

 a national one, and an account of which we give else- 

 where. The tournament can be improved upon in many 

 respects. We have learned some things which will be re- 

 membered and will be of use another year. Among these 

 ■was the fact that the contests for delicacy and accuracy need 

 not lake place from the platform and delay the next contest, 

 un idea that did not occur to any one until the second day; 

 and another thing which will grow into a serious evil if not 

 eliw'kcd. is the jealously of rival makers of rods, some of 

 whom regard these coutests as merely places to test rival 

 rods instead of the merits of men. 



In future the tournaments will be put on still higher ground 

 if the proposition of the National Rod and Reel Associa- 

 tion, to buy most of their prizes and to discourage special 

 classes, is carried out, and there seems to be every assurance 

 that it will be fulfilled. The Association may consider it 

 well to accept u limited number of prizes, if freely offered, 

 J)uttue practice of soliciting them is not a good one, in the 

 ;ase of an association which can avoid it. 



One thing needs to be accomplished. Some lake in Cen- 

 tral Park should be set apart for the people to practice fly- 

 casting on, and the new organization can obtain this privi- 

 lege. There are many gentlemen who have expressed a de- 

 Bite to use the park for this purpose, and the only objection 

 5a that a hook might encounter a lady's dress when the line 

 was recovered, or a boy be hooked in the ear, as happened 

 when Mr. Ramsbottom was casting. This objection could 

 •>e overcome by the erection of a permanent stand of haud- 

 *>mc design out in the lake, where several persons might 

 practice at the same time. On such a stand a new rod 

 could be tried and selected, a matter that involves some dif- 

 feulty to the city dweller at present. 



Among the surprises at the tournament, and there were 

 several, none was greater than to see the slightly-built Mr. 



Hawes lift eighty-two feet of line with a rod weighing only 

 four and a half ouuces.and recover it until it stood at an angle 

 of thirty degrees behind him, without its ever falling 

 to the water in the back cast, and this was done with a 

 most charming rhythm. That alone was wortli going miles 

 to see, and was a lesson to many an angler of twice the age 

 of Mr. Hawes. We do not hesitate to pronounce it the 

 finest handling of a rod that we have ever seen, and we 

 thought that we had beheld all that could be done by the 

 masters of the art. To our mind there was not much deli- 

 cate casting done, although others differed from our stand- 

 ard. We would not call a cast a delicate one where the 

 line touched the water before the flies fell. We have seen 

 casts made in whicli the line made an upward curve and 

 the flies were the first to break the surface of the water, but 

 in speaking of this to some good anglers, we find that they 

 do not seem to attach the importance to it that we do. 



The casting in the champion class was also a surprise 

 where so many men beat the record, and here we must say 

 that the old records of the New York State Sportsman's 

 Association are not strictly reliable, some of them being ac- 

 knowledged to be distances guessed at. The casting of Mr. 

 Leonard, who threw ninety feet with a recovered line, and 

 only fell a foot short of Mr. Prichard's rolling cast, was also 

 astonishing, for no one supposed that all previous records 

 were to be beaten, or that Mr. Leonard would out- cast Mr. 

 Hawes on the third day. Those who missed seeing the 

 tournament can form little idea of the interest and enthusi- 

 asm which these contests awakened, an interest that bids 

 fair to be kept up for years to come and to grow until fly- 

 casting will be considered part of the education of every 

 boy who evinces a fondness for the rod which cheers but 

 never castigates. 



CHANGING THE CONDITIONS. 



THE committee in whose care the conduct of the inter- 

 national match has been committed, so far as the 

 American interests are concerned, have been casting about 

 to find an easy road to victory. They have opened their 

 campaign by begging some changes in the match conditions, 

 and certainly the proposed amendments are in the right di- 

 rection, only it is a trifle unfortunate that instead of coming 

 in their place when the conditions of the original match 

 were under discussion early in the year, they should come 

 up now as privileges begged for by the beaten team. The 

 conditions of the match were absurd from the start, and 

 were so made because the marksmen at Wimbledon had 

 gained great skill in the use of that nondescript arm known 

 as the M. B. L. on the English programmes. These mili- 

 tary breech-loaders were in small degree military, but in 

 this year, 1882, they were antiquated. The clumsy front 

 sight was insisted upon simply because it had been found 

 on the earlier military rifles, and the stiff, ungainly hind 

 sight was likewise retained because the English riflemen felt 

 sure that no set of marksmen could get as much out of the 

 contrivance as they could, It is ridiculous to permit a sol- 

 dier to arrange his rear sight for elevation and prevent him 

 fixing it at the same time for windage. The old plan of 

 pushing off the sight bar by a sort of rule of thumb is im- 

 perfection itself, but every rifleman now knows that, un- 

 less the allowance for wind is made at the same time, 

 the shooting becomes the wildest, sort of chance. The ar- 

 rangements for governing wind allowance on a military 

 rifle have been so simplified by American ingenuity that it 

 will not do for the objection to be urged that the arm is 

 made too complex. Good marksmanship is not a matter to 

 be picked up in an hour's time. There must be brains in 

 the shooter if he is to do the work demanded by our present 

 rifle matches, and the soldier of to-day must use his head 

 fully as much as his strong right arm. 



Though the British Council may object, to any changes of 

 conditions now that the double match arranged last winter 

 is but half finished, and insist upon the second part of the 

 contest under the same rules agreed upon for the first, there 

 can be no dispute as to the propriety of the recognition of 

 modem rifle-shooting such as the changes in sights imply. 



Touching the third point urged about allowing the 

 National Guard of the United States to be packed for the 

 match, this is a clear, unmistakable confession of weakness 

 on the part of the Americans, and may be more. It may 

 mean that a nice little club of gentlemen, who have thus far 

 thought it not worth their while to act as citizen soldiers, 

 will add their names to some company rosier, or be added as 

 ornamental members to some staff, and then, when the con- 

 ditions of selection appear next spring, these same gentle- 

 men will be the members of the team ready for a jaunt 

 abroad. Of course they will necessarily be good shooters, 



and there is plenly of work 'in the programme as laid out 

 above. The proposed change will, we doubt not, add 

 strength to the coming American team, and we do not know 

 that any such pretty little scheme as the foregoing is on foot; 

 still the confession of weakness should be enough to throw 

 Out this condition. The National Guard of the United 

 States can furnish a good representative team, and that is 

 what is needed. Let the rank and file of the Guard be care- 

 fully looked over without any preconceived determination 

 that the team must be made up from this or that organiza- 

 tion, and then when the men are chosen let them be made 

 into a compact working t:am with real, honest coaching, 

 not a few statuesque "motions to satisfy the public,' 1 and 

 there will be no reason to fear the result of an encounter 

 with the British shots. Such a course will be honest and 

 fair to the working bona fide members of the National 

 Guard. It will reflect American fair play and not the 

 politician's trickiness to get around a reasonable restriction. 

 A year in the National Guard is not a severe rule, but a 

 perfectly just one, and we do not believe that the committee 

 fairly represents our Guardsmen when they give the im- 

 pression that a dozen shots equal to the task of meeting the 

 Englishmen cannot be secured from the men now on the 

 rolls in almost every State of the Union. 



The proposal to go to English armories to purchase rifles 

 to place in the hands of the American team fitly follows the 

 proposition to pack the Guard to get a team. We can name 

 a dozen private gunsmiths fully equal to the task of dupli- 

 cating the English rifles and improving on tnem, while the 

 committee must be very much out in their reasoning if 

 they think that our great American armories, whose work is 

 seen in every army of the world to-day, are not able to* fur- 

 nish a weapon which will fill the conditions which the 

 British have laid upon us in this uumiiitary ''military 

 match." 



COLLIES. 



IN the Kennel department will be found an interesting 

 report of the sheep dog trials of the Northwestern Counties 

 Association, England, with a full description of the work of 

 the dogs. We would suggest to the lover of the collie in 

 this country that an association be formed under the name 

 of the American Collie Club, for the purpose of holding 

 trials and improving the breed of this intelligent and useful 

 animal. Not least among the benefits resulting from the 

 work of such an association would be the wide-spread 

 knowledge gained by the public as to the virtues and intelli- 

 gence of their favorites, and this would win for them their 

 rightful place — now usurped by the worthless cur — in the 

 heart and by the fireside of the farmer. 



It is perhaps reedless to say that Forest and Stream 

 will willingly lend its aid for the furtherance of the objects 

 of such an association, believing that much of good may be 

 accomplished by bringing more prominently to public notice 

 the many good qualities of the gallant collie. 



Mr. Hugh Dalziel, in his "Br tish Dogs," says: "There is 

 no dog that excels the collie in good looks, high intelli- 

 gence, and unswervcable loyalty to Lis master; anu to these 

 qualities does he owe his high position as a general favorite 

 with the public, while his many practical excellencies ren- 

 der him indi pensable to the shepherd." Idstone, in his 

 admirable work on the dog, says of him: "To my mind he 

 is one of the most perfect animals extant." Stonehenge 

 also speaks very highly of their intelligence. ' 'Only those, " 

 he says, "who have seen one or more of the public sheep 

 dog trials, or have privately seen these animals at their 

 usual work, can realize the amount of intelligence displayed 

 by them. " 



Innumerable anecdotes of their wonderful sagacity and 

 intelligence have from time to time appeared in print, and, 

 although many of these tales are almost incredible, we have 

 invariably found that none were so ready to avow their be- 

 lief in their truthfulness as those who know the collie best. 

 As the assistant of the shepherd and herder he stands with- 

 out a rival. As the servant of the farmer, a protector of 

 his property, and a companion for his children, he is the 

 peer of any of his kind. As a retriever for the 

 sportsman we believe him to be singularly well adapted. 

 As the pet of the parlor, his great beauty and 

 affectionate disposition, combined with his almost hu- 

 man intelligence, eminently qualify him for the place. In 

 the British Islands the collie has long been an especial fa- 

 vorite among nearly all classes, and we are pleased to no- 

 tice that within the past few years he has rapidly gained 

 in public favor in this country. We trust that the day is 

 not far distant that will see him installed in his proper 

 place among the first of canine favorites throughout the land. 



