THE AMERICAN SPORTSMAN'S JOURNAL. 



Entered According to Act of Congress, to the year issi, by the Forest and Stream Publishing company, to the Office or the Librarian of [Congress, at Washington.! 



'■'or ins, »4 a Year. 10 Cts. a. Copy.l 

 Six Mo's, »•}. Three Mo's, SI. ) 



NEW YORK, THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER I, 1881. U. 39 £2^& & w , ^ «. 



CONTENTS. 



Emtobiaa : — 

 Esto Perpetna ; Ye Oyster Arriveth ; Interviewing a Sen- 

 sible Trout ; The English Sparrow's Obituary ; Blood 

 Poisoning from Fish ; A Romance of Beal Lire 83 



The Sportsman Toubibt :— 



" Ole Wheeler;" An Invalid in the Field; Podgers Dis- 



courseth 84, 



Natural Hisiobs: — 

 Chrather's Literature and Horphography of Fishes ; The 



Rattlesnake and the Copperhead 86 



Game Bag and Gun :— 

 The Lake Hopateong Excursion ; Are They Monopolies ? 

 Indiana Game Law ; Notes from Hollidaysb'urg ; The Wild 

 Turkey Call ; An Iowa Game Centre ; Famous Fox-Hunt- 

 ers ; Trajectory Curves of Sporting Bifles 89 



8ea and River Fishing :— 

 "The King Fisher of the Northwost ;" Fishing in Lake 

 Champlain ; Albany Beef, ~. 92 



FlSHCtrtTDUB :— 



The McCloud River Hatchery ; A Quinnat Salmon in Green- 

 wood Lake ; New York Fishway Law 92 



The Kennbi. : — 



Measurement of Prize Winners ; Bearing Puopies ; An 



Eastern Coursing Club ; The Chesapeake Bay Dog 93 



Rifle and Trap Shooting :— 

 CaiTying Concealed Weapons: Range and Gallery; The 



Trap 95 



Yachting and Canoeing : 



British Yacht Measurement ; The Smallest Yacht in 

 America ; Beverly Y. C. ; N. Y. C. C. ; Decline of the 

 Centreboard ; Lloyd's Register ; Coming Round 96 



ANSWERS TO CORRESPONDENTS 95 



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Thursday, September i. 



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CotntsiNG. — A correspondent BUggestB in another column 

 that the Eastern owners of greyhounds hold a meeting dur- 

 ing the coming autumn and test the qualities of their dogs. 

 There is no reason why such a meeting should not be in- 

 augurated as the sport of eoursing is one of the most beauti- 

 ful and interesting known in the long list of sports that have 

 been transplanted from England to this country. A meeting 

 of this kind under proper management could be made es- 

 pecially attractive, not only to sportsmen but to ladies. In 

 England the meets are always largely attended by the fair 

 ones, and as we write we can see the hills of Shinnecock and 

 Montauk (admirable places for conducting the course) 

 crowned by the gaily dressed charmers watching the speed- 

 ing and turning ot the fleet ones. Greyhounds have for 

 many centuries back been the favorites of the women of 

 England. They have appeared in many old family portraits 

 by the side of the beauties of the house, and only a few years 

 ago the Queen ordered that Master McGrath should be 

 brought up to "Windsor for her inspection. We should like 

 to Bee the suggestion of our correspondent put into shape, 

 and if the large hare of New York 8tate should not be found 

 game enough it would be an easy matter to import some of 

 his English cousins to test the metal of our dogs. 



ESTO PERPETUA. 



TN Westminster Abbey is a stone on which is inscribed : 



-L "Sacred to the Eternal Memory of ." The rest 



is obliterated by time's effacing fingers, and the stone stands 

 in mockery of the puny efforts of transient man to fix his 

 name indelibly as a record that he has lived. What a sermon 

 on the perishable things of this earth is on this stone ! 



The Egyptians embalmed their dead that they might be 

 preserved " to all eternity." A stranger has invaded their 

 land. Some of their remains so carefully embalmed and 

 affectionately laid away in spices are now in dime museums, 

 others have been taken to England and ground for fertilizers, 

 literally returning to dust, while now artists have discovered 

 that "mummies" make the finest pigment! 



The London Truth s&ys: "A gentleman, passing through 

 Long Acre the other day, peeped into a little shop and started 

 suddenly at the sight of several dead bodies. They had been 

 dead for over 2,000 years— they were mummies. Where did 

 they come from ? From Thebes. Are more coming ? Yes; 

 plenty. There appears to be a regular business going on in 

 mummies between Thebes and Long Acre. The mummies 

 are brought over enveloped in their rich bituminous covering, 

 and — horiesco refer ens — ground up, bones, cases, coverings, 

 bitumen, and all! What for? Why, for paint. There 

 seems to be no burnt sienna like ground mummy. The 

 artists are willing to pay high prices for this mummy paint. 

 Our Academy walls may he limned with the dust of the 

 Ptolemies." 



We are not going to preach a sermon on this, it is a little 

 out of our line, but it will afford thought for those who think, 

 and might suggest that a "precession of the equinoxes" 

 could sweep from the earth all traces that the human race 

 had ever inhabited it. Sic transit would be rapid transit, and 

 gloria, rnundi would need regenerating. Verily, Macauley's 

 New Zealander may yet stand upon London bridge and muse 

 on the ancient race who built it, or New York become a 

 polar sea which explorers will perish in reaching, if the earth 

 should be re-inhabited. 



Y E OYSTER ARRIVETH. 



TD Y the time that this is before our readers the oyster will 

 -D be in its glory. Its four months' holiday is past and 

 its partner, the clam, which has filled its place during the 

 interval, is now relieved from the burden of furnishing 

 " raws " and falls back to its position in the soup and in the 

 roast. • 



The fact that transplanted oysters are good all summer is 

 taken advantage of by wicked oystermen to advocate their 

 use in the months whose names do not contain the necessary 

 R. They have even suborned New York editors to keep 

 stating the fact and urging the people to eat them in the 

 tabooed season, that their trade may continue the year 

 round. There is no denying that there are certain facts which 

 are obnoxious and which should be suppressed when they 

 come in contact with a prejudice which is better than the 

 fact, and the prejudice against oysters in the R-less months 

 is one that should be encouraged for two reasons. The first 

 is, that after abstaining for four months the oyster-eater en- 

 ters upon the season with a fresh appetite and makes up for 

 lost time, and so the wicked oysterman really sells as many 

 of the mollusks in eight months as he would in twelve. The 

 second reason is, that during the forbidden time the deli- 

 cious " Little Neck clam " opens the banquet and furnishes 

 the daily or evening lunch, and so really has a season of its 

 own, without which its excellencies might never be known to 

 many ; and there are those who prefer the young and tender 

 clam to the oyster. 



To show that we practice our faith in this matter we will 

 relate an incident which happened yesterday, the last day of 

 August. We entered our favorite restaurant and, stepping 

 up so the oyster counter, ordered a "Little Neck raw." 

 There were piles of oysters on the counter and we asked the 

 conchologist who opens the bivalves if many oysters had been 

 called for during the past month. " Oh, yes, sir," replied the 

 oyster surgeon, "the people eats 'em just the same ; that's all 

 humbug about their not being good in months wot ain't got 

 no R." It was evident that this bivalve shucker was in 

 league with the wicked dealers and oystermen, and was try- 

 ing to break down the wholesome prejudice, so, remember- 



ing how Col. John Hay tells "The Pledge at Spunky 

 Point," we expressed to the student of molluscus science our 

 abiding faith that no oyster was good until after the hands 

 of the clock had marked one minute past midnight on the 

 last of August, and that, like the hero of Hay's poem, 

 we should sit up and and watch for it that night. "Jes' 

 like watchin' the old year out and the new year in," re- 

 marked the malacostracolosist, with a smile at our credul- 

 ous simplicity, as we handed him a " quarter" and bade him 

 good morning. 



. — .». . 



INTERVIEWING A SENSIBLE TROUT' 



fTIHERE is a prize within the boundaries of that quiet 

 -*- pool, for, "quivering with almost the tremor of life," 

 the leader with its flies had scarcely touched its surface when, 

 quicker than lubricated lightning, one of those golden-tinted 

 princes took hold and sped away, turning the reel fast as the 

 indicator on a gas-meter goes round. The prophet Baalam 

 was not more surprised when his ass spoke to him than was 

 this trout, when in the simplicity of his innocence he rose so 

 greedily only to discover that the Montreal fly was "a mock- 

 ery, a delusion and a snare. " 



His madness that he had become the victim of trickery 

 rendered him desperate. A bundle of nerves under galvanic 

 action could not have been more restless. Physical pain 

 had nothing to do with his erratic movements after the hook 

 had been fastened in his jaws. He was angry at the unpro- 

 voked trick that had been played upon him. It was anger 

 unjustifiable, for no fish that can augment the sum total of 

 human happiness and help replenish human larders by being 

 caught can reasonably expect any sympathy in his self-im- 

 posed insanity. If he is so unreasonable as to consider him- 

 self a martyr, very well ; but let him emulate the examples 

 of John Huss and Konarski and other models and suffer his 

 martyrdom in silence. 



Hold on I hold onl — that would not afford the angler so 

 much sport ; so plunge ahead, old fellow, and welcome to 

 your freedom, if you can gain it — even at the loss of my line 

 and leader. If we had the faintest suspicion that we were 

 causing you needless pain we would whip out our knife in- 

 stanter, cut the line, and promise never to repeat the trick 

 that enticed you into your present predicament, for it were 

 downright cruelty to punish you for your thinking you could 

 make a good square meal off a few feathers and a fish-hook. 

 But honestly, old fellow, don't you enjoy it ? 



" Not a bit of it. I know the afterclap. This is glorious 

 fun slashing around in this pool, but it is the toasting you 

 will give me at your shanty that I do not like. You had bet- 

 ter believe we know what comes of our being landed." 



"Then why don't you leave my flies alone ?" 



"You put them on the water in bo artistic a manner that I 

 thought they were only such food as Nature provided forus, 

 and was deceived into taking what I thought was mine by 

 right." 



"You would talk and flatter us into letting you go." 

 , "It's the truth I'm telling you. I would scorn to earn my 

 exemption from your broiler at the sacrifice of truth." 



"Does the hook hurt ?" 



"Not a particle. There is nothing jollier in our watery 

 kingdom than being yanked about on the end of a good, 

 springy rod, if the man at the butt end of it understands the 

 correct manner of manipulating it. It is just the kind of 

 circus we enjoy." 



"Why, then, are you fighting so desperately?" 



"It's your deuced frying-pan." 



"Never mind the frying-pan. Don't borrow trouble. Just 

 as soon as you have finished your frolic and we have landed 

 you we promise on honor to put you out of misery by sever- 

 ing your vertebrate column." 



"All right ! Proceed with the exhibition. I see you un- 

 derstand our case exactly and it is a real pleasure to be 

 caught by you, and yet you would little blame me if I man- 

 aged to give you the slip." 



"None whatever. A good gamy fellow like you, who 

 earns his freedom after a desperate fight, is heartily welcome 

 to it." 



It is a real pleasure to talk with so sensible a trout. He 

 honestly admits that, properly hooked, he suffers no pain, and 

 if on being landed he receives a quieting and soothing crack 

 of the neck that sends him in a twinkling to trouty's heaven 



