IP) 

 THE AMERICAN SPORTSMAN'S JOURNAL. 



Entered According to Act ot congress, to the year 1881, by the Forest and stream Publishing company, to the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington. 



NEW YORK, THURSDAY, DECEMBER 29, 1881. 



/ Vol. 17-No. 22. 



|Nos. 39 and 40 ParJi How, New Vorte 



CONTENTS. 



Editorial :— 

 The Clone of the Year ; Forum, Field and Flood ; Bye-Ways 

 of the Northwest 423 



The Sportsman Toubibt : — 

 Cruise of " the Nipper" — III ; A Night Baoe againt Death ; 

 Willow Grouse Shooting in Newfoundland ; Sport as Brain 

 Food ; The Seven Ponds Again 425 



NATUBAL H.ISTOBX:— 



The Poison Ivy ; Enemies of Game Birds ; A Queer Fox ; 



Weights of Squirrels 428 



Game Bao and Gun :— 



The A. B. C. of Wing Shooting : The Hurtling Grouse ; 

 Loading for Game ; Florida Winter Notea ; An Arkansas 

 Game Country; Lord Dunraven and the Nova Seotia 

 Game Laws ; The Pot-Hunting Son of Ham ; New Year in 



the Woods ; State Pigeon Tournaments 429 



Sea and Bivee Fishing .— 



The South Side Sportsmen's Club ; Angling Notes from 

 Canada ; Tennessee Fish Notes ; Fishing Products atBer- 

 liu ; Maine WhitefiBh Take the Hook : A Fish in an Ovster 

 Shell ; Effects of Moonlight on Fish j Night Fishing. 432 



FlSHOOXTOBE :— 



The Gold Orfe 



The Kennel : — 



Training vs. Breaking ; The Clumber Spaniel ; Notes and 

 News j The Lowell Bench Show ; The Birmingham Show. 438 

 Yachting and C-ANOKINO : — 



Measurement 437 



Akswebs to Correspondents 437 



Bifle and Trap Shoottno :— 438 



TO CORRESPONDENTS. 



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The Editors cannot be held responsible for the views ot correspond- 



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Address: Forest and Stream Publishing Co., 



Nos. 39 and 40 Park Row, New York City. 



FOREST AND STREAM. 



Thursday, December 29. 



THE CLOSE OF THE YEAR. 



WITH the first day of January comes the close game 

 season in most of the Northern and Western States. 

 It need not mean, however, a cessation of sport by those 

 whose circumstances will permit them to follow the birds to 

 the South. Our game columns from time to time describe 

 rare hunting gtounds beneath the Southern sky. The Amer- 

 ican hunting territory is so wide and varied that a sportsman 

 may, and without shooting the nesting birds, follow the 

 pleasures of the field all the year through. 



The Bhooting during 1881 has not been of the best. Several 

 causes transpired to lessen the game supply ; the unusual 

 severity of the winter of 1880-81 decimated the birds in sev- 

 eral States ; other localities were affected by the summer's 

 drought ; and the extraordinary open weather of the present 

 season has precluded fine sport with the ducks. The year 

 has witnessed a great pigeon shooling tournament, which in 

 magnitude will probably never be equaled in the future. 

 There has also been wrought a notable change of sentiment 

 regarding the propriety of such wholesale pigeon slaughters 

 by ostensible game-protective societies ; and in this respect 

 it may be said that in 1881 the cause of true manly sports- 

 manship has made a decided advance. 



To the angler the past year has, in most parts of the 

 country, been an average one. The Southern sei coast angler 

 always has a good season, and a great variety of fishes to 

 choose from. The Northern salt water fisher is more depend- 

 ent upon the migration of his f avorities, and some of them 



were late in coming last spring. The bluefish did not appear 

 until late, and it was feared that there would be none. In 

 August they came more plentifully, and in September blue- 

 fishing was good along the coast of New Jersey, Long Island 

 and Massachusetts. Other salt water specieB were rare, and 

 sheepshead scarce. A few minor inventions in tackle have 

 appeared, and the usual crop of new reels. In fresh water 

 the season has not been good, but as in most places the fish- 

 ing is gradually growing poorer, year by year, perhaps it 

 was as good as could be expected. The Adirondacks are 

 being skinned by the trout-hog, and the grayling are nearly 

 numbered with the past. The progressive flshculturist has 

 noted several discoveries, the most notable being the hatch- 

 ing of the Spanish mackerel ; and fishculture has spread 

 over new terrritory, and some fish commissions have been 

 created in States which heretofore have not had such useful 

 officers. In the States where fishculture is older, the rav- 

 ages of the poacher have been partly compensated for 

 by an increase of fish for this free American to kill out of 

 season. But for the work of the flshculturist he would 

 long ago have poached the last one. Altogether it has been 

 a fair year for the angler. 



In the matter of Natural History events the year has 

 not been without interest. Ornithologists have to thank 

 Mr. Robert Ridge way for his new check list of North 

 American birds, which is the most important contribution 

 recently made to the subject. A number of additions have 

 been made to the North American avifauna. The first 

 volume of New England Bird Life has made its appearauce. 

 Among the papers published in these columns Mr. Hap- 

 good's essay on the Migration and Range of the Limicolee is 

 especially noteworthy, as being a suggestive discussion of 

 the intricate problem. The march of science duriDg the 

 year 1881 has not been retarded by any lack of earnest work- 

 ers, nor by any lack of diligence and enthusiasm on their 

 part. 



There have been an unusual number of important events 

 in the kennel world. The bench shows and field trials have 

 been more numerous than In any previous year, and also 

 more decidedly successful. The performances of the com- 

 peting dogs have been of a high character, and the meetings 

 have been noticeably free from the trickery and jockeying 

 which has in former years marred some such occasions. 



The year in rifle shooting circles has been a busy one, 

 though we have had no great international match to dazzle 

 the general public with its show and hubbub. The year 

 opened with Creedmoor, the parent range of the country, 

 free of debt, and the Association in possession of an estab- 

 lishment and plant that it would require $60,000 to replace. 

 In the country at large there has been an abundance of 

 target practice. Our files will show records of shooting from 

 Albany, San Francisco, Milwaukee, Boston, New Orleans, 

 New Bedford, Newport, Washington, Chicago, Baltimore, 

 Cincinnati, Pittsburgh, Cleveland, and many other points. 

 Several of the State Rifle Associations have done gopd work in 

 carrying out annual meetings. The fall meeting at Creed- 

 moor brought together a good company of contestants, with 

 scores in some instances beating the record in the standing 

 matches. In small-arm shooting the pistol tournament of 

 the past winter in this city was a great success ; but some- 

 what of a rebuff was met when the off-hand shooters found 

 themselves unable to meet the challenge of John Rigby, of 

 Dublin, on his own terms. The year closes with a good 

 prospect of a military shooting by our American Guardsmen 

 at Wimbledon next year. There is no good reason why a 

 strong team should not go over next July, and add another 

 to the series of American triumphs with the rifle. The year 

 1881 has not shown any retrogression. The score list of the 

 year will show that the riflemen of the country have not lost 

 their cunniDg. 



The year has been especially fruitful in yachting. Not 

 only have we had an international match for the old honored 

 trophy won by the schooner "America" in 1851 from a 

 British fleet, but, through the visit of the cutter Madge, we 

 have been taught some most valuable lessons in the science 

 of building aud the art of sailing. These lessons, it is true, 

 will bear fruit in the future rather than at once. Tet their 

 import is none the less worth chronicling now as belonging 

 to the season just closed. Great strides have been made in 

 the knowledge of the principles governing naval design, and 



much old fogyism and many musty misapprehensions have 

 passed away. The peculiar antipathy to wholesome depth, 

 keels and low ballast, as well as handy rigs, which has so 

 long characterized our yacht builders, now bids fair to give 

 way to a more intelligent understanding of the whole prob- 

 lem. In the future safe, seaworthy boats, with sailor-like 

 rigs, seem destined to displace the dang erous oversparred 

 light draughts of earlier days. In congratulating the sailing 

 public upon the turn of the tide, now fairly set in, favoring 

 1he able ship in preference to the machine, Fokest and 

 Stbbam may justly claim to have contributed in no mean 

 share toward bringing about the healthy reform. 



This is not a season for review only. Anticipation paints 

 pleasant pictures of pleasures to be realized in the months of 

 the coming year. May the fields and streams of 1882 be of 

 pleasantness and peace. 



FORUM, FIELD AND FLOOD. 



YITE find in the last number of the Hour an appreciative 

 * ' sketch of Hon. John E. Develin, of this city, a gen- 

 tleman who has won distinction at the bar and in legislative 

 halls. He is also well known to members of the craft as an 

 expert and enthusiastic follower of field sports. "While 

 leading a busy professional and political life," says the 

 sketch, " Mr. Develin has found time to indulge the love of 

 field sports inherited from his father. He is a true sports- 

 man, ready at any moment to shoulder gun or rod and start 

 for the woods, the prairies or the streams. There is some- 

 thing remarkable about the rapidity and facility with which 

 he merges from musty law books and complicated authori- 

 ties to plunge into the midst of his favorite sports ; or chains 

 up his setter and throws aside his birds to resume the study 

 of intricate legal problems with which he is soon to 

 puzzle a court or astonish a jury." Mr. Develin has also 

 rendered valuable service to the cause of game pro'ection ; 

 several of the wisest provisions of the law were originated 

 by him and carried through the Legislature largely by his 

 personal influence and exertions. For his labors in this field 

 credit and honor are due him from the great body of sports- 

 men who have been benefited thereby. 



Our esteemed and evidently well-meaning but mistaken 

 contemporary thinks to add to its praises of Mr. Develin by 

 depreciating the present standard of Americansportsmanship, 

 that by the contrast his may appear the more creditable. 

 "Between gamblers, cockney huntsmen, glass ball breakers, 

 and gentlemen riders," says the Hour, " American sports- 

 manship has reached a low ebb, at least in this part of the 

 country." All of which is simple nonsense. The truth is, 

 that never before in the history of this country, or of any 

 other country for that matter, has the standard of sportsman- 

 ship been so high as at the present time. Never have the 

 legitimate field sports of rod and gun be»n accorded greater 

 dignity than now, nor has the ideal sportsman's character 

 ever been nobler and worthier. That man must be willfully 

 blind who fails to recognize the vast and radical difference 

 which to-day distinguishes the great host of American sports- 

 men from the "gambling fraternity." The sportsman who 

 seeks his recreation in the field and along the stream knows 

 aslitt'e of pool-rooms, faro-dens and sawdust walking-match 

 swindles, and has as little sympathy for them, as the gam- 

 bler knows and feels for sunshine, forest aisles and purling 

 brook. And the public — which in some things is wiser even 

 than newspaper editors — is fast coming to find this out. 

 The public is ready to accord the manly sportsmanship of the 

 day its due ; indeed, it has already done so. Instead of being 

 at a low ebb, the tide of sportsmanship is at that flood which is 

 leading on to fortune.* The Hour could have turned a neate 

 compliment for the subject of its remark, had it said, as with 

 propriety it might have done, that the tone of sportsmanship 

 is at present exceptionally high, and that among the worthiest 

 exponents of its spirit and practice, Mr. Develin holds a dis- 

 tinguished rank. 



By the way, now that the Hour has employed Ihe term 

 "true sportsman," will it rise and explain what it under- 

 stands the expression to mean ? Meanwhile, we refer our 

 contemporary and our readers to the admirable picture of 

 " The Ideal Sportsman" given elsewhere. 



