^^ THE AMERICAN SPORTSMAN'S JOURNAL. 



Entered According to Act of Congress, In the year 1881, by the gorest ana Stream Publishing company, to the Offlce of the Librarian ot QongreaB, at Washington. 



Terms, »4 a. Year. 10 Cts. a Ctopy.l 

 Six months, 43. I 



NEW YORK, THURSDAY, JANUARY 26, 1882. 



/ Vol. IT— No. 26. 



\Nos. 39 andlU Parli Row, New York. 



CONTENTS. 



EDITOBIAIi :— 



We, the People : The British Challenge ; The Connecticut 



Commission ; Game Protectors 503 



Correspondence : Game Protection for the People 504 



Tbk Sportsman Toubist : — 

 Six weeks on the Headwaters of the Yellowstone ; Autobi- 

 ography of Muuch. StandweU •••• 505 



NATURAL HISTORY :— . 



Enemies of Game Hirds ; Habits of Woodpeckers ; List of 



Mammals ; Lake George 50 " 



Game Bag and Gun : — 

 The Quail Season of Virginia : With the Birds in Tennes- 

 see ; A Day's Shooting in California ; Florida Shooting ; 

 Arkansas Trappers ; Game in Oregon; A Deer Chase on 

 Lookout Mountain ; Wing-Shooting vs. Ground-Shooting: 

 My First Wild Goose : Sporting Bines ; Breech and Muz- 



~ zle ; A Premature Explosion 507 



Bea and River Fishing :— 



Halcvou Days; Southern Sea Fishes in 1675 ; An Adiron- 

 dack Preserve ; Night Bobbing for Bullheads; Cooking 

 Carp; The Fishermen's Aid to Science; A Word to 

 Anglers 611 



E'lSHOULTUBE :— ,„,„-- .,„ 



Report of the Connecticut Fish Commission 512 



The Kennel : — _ 



Training OS. Breaking— IX ; Field Trials; On Importing 



Dogs; Pittaburg Beuch Show 513 



Bifle and That Shooting :— 



The International Match 515 



Yachting and Canoeing — 



Bail Plan of Laloo ; A Thoroughbred ; Cautionary Signal ; 



Cutters in Boston 61o 



Answers to Correspondents 517 



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Address: Forest and Stream Publishing Co., 



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



the city greenhornn greedy for gore. Class legislation? 

 Tes, just as the statutes against highway robbery and murder 

 are "class legislation." 



Look at the other side. Who Tare the men most earnest 

 in the endeavor to secure that protection which nature 

 demands for the game of our fields and forests and the 

 fish of our lakes and streams? They are business and 

 professional men, tradesmen and mechanics, property 

 owners and farmers — the respectable portion of the com- 

 munity — the people. 



On the one side is respectability, thrift and worth; on the 

 other, lawlessness, shiftlessness, vagabondage. There is no 

 disputing the correctness of this classification. The lines 

 are distinctly drawn. 



Then how are we to account for this everlasting, annual 

 wrangling over game laws ; the constant tinkering of the 

 old laws, the substitution of new, and the total disregard of 

 all, both old and new ? There are several partial explana- 

 tions. One is, that the issue has not been clearly defined. 

 The people have been deceived by this false cry of "class 

 legsilation," they are blind to their own interests, their 

 apathy is deep, and from it they can be roused only by 

 the persevering eSorts of those who recognize the demands 

 of the hour. Again, it is most unfortunate, that in some 

 States the societies which, with much sounding of trumpets, 

 have appeared before the public ostensibly to accomplish 

 this very work, have proved recreant to tbeir purposes, 

 belied their professions, and worked incalculable injury to 

 the cause so compromised. How best to overcome this 

 apathy and prejudice is the difficult problem which must be 

 solved before we can have any adequate system of game pro- 

 tection. The signs of the times are not discouraging. Prog- 

 ess is the report from one State and another; for the people 

 are awaking, surely, though it may be slowly, from their 

 indifference, and the right men are guiding the movement. 



FOREST AND STREAM. 



Thursday, January 36. 



it WE, THE PEOPLE." 



AND why not ? Why shall not we, the people, demand 

 of our representatives at Boston, at Albany, at Lan- 

 sing and Springfield and San .Francisco and all other seats of 

 legislation, the due protection of our, the people's, interests, 

 by the conservation of our game and fish ? 



Laws prohibiting the destruction of game in its breeding 

 season and of fish on their spawning grounds are not for the 

 advantage of any narrow class or clique. They are for the 

 good of us, the people. 



Take this broad, tenable ground : the greatest good to the 

 greatest number. Let there be no misapprehension about it, 

 no popular misconception of the "game laws" and conse- 

 quent indifference to their importance and justice. 



The only " class legislation " in game laws is in this, that 

 such statutes are provided to protect the people from the 

 ravages of certain lawless classes, whom nothing short of 

 stringent laws stringently enforced can keep within bounds. 

 These classes, as set fonh in a communication elsewhere, 

 comprises " the wolf," the poacher slaying the whole year 

 round, the unscrupulous guide, the would-be "Nirnrod," and 

 the unprincipled hotel purveyor of game out of season. 

 Queer company here ; lawlessness makes strange bedfellows 

 —the unkempt riff-raff of the "settlement" elbows 



THE BRITISH CHALLENGE. 



THE formal terms of the match under which the British 

 marksmen would like to try conclusions at rifle shoot- 

 ing with the mhitia men of this country are now before us. 

 They propose a trying test, as severe a one as military rifles 

 may well be put to, and those who go to Wimbledon in July 

 next to uphold the credit which American riflemen have al- 

 ready gained abroad must be very proficient indeed if they 

 hope to make a good stand against the experts who throng 

 that common on the suburbs of London year after year. 

 The word has been passed throughout the ranks of the half 

 million volunteers of England and the Kingdom asking for 

 the best and most tried men. This is not a match to which 

 the National Rifle Association of Great Britain in its official 

 capacity gives little or no support, as were the long-range 

 international contests. Instead, it has its origin in a meeting 

 of the Council of that organization. The whole shooting in- 

 terest of Great Britain is backing the proposed competition, 

 and it is in fact a test of the work which has been going on 

 for a score of years past at Wimbledon and a hundred tribu- 

 tary ranges throughout the country. To be beaten would 

 require a very good excuse to escape the charge of unfaith- 

 ful stewardship on the part of these managing functionaries. 

 But apart from any thoughts upon the possible outcome of 

 the match, it is fairly now within our province to discuss the 

 conditions as they have been laid before us. vVe have here- 

 tofore pointed out our faiih in the standing position and in 

 the duty of the American Committee to insist upon some 

 shooting from a fair off-shoulder attitude at some stage of 

 the. match. That view, it seems, slruck the committee fa- 

 vorably, and the cable acceptance of the conditions does so 

 with the proviso that the 200 yards range shall be shot over 

 from a standing position. 



A curious sort of disturbing element seems to have been 

 flung into the matter by the demand for a guarantee that a 

 British team shall visit this country next year. There was 

 no call for any such demand. If the visiting team should 

 win a victory, there ought to be no need of a second invita- 

 tion to have a team of British Volunteers on our ranges in 

 1883 looking for a chance to wipe out the defeat. If our 

 team should return the defeated one, then the full measure 

 of retaliation and vindication will not be had until an Amer- 

 1 icon Militia team returns as victors from Wimbledon range. 



Many contingencies may arise between now and the proper 

 date for a match in 1883, which would make this exacted 

 guarantee to send a team and our implied guarantee to re- 

 ceive such a squad extremely inconvenient and awkward to 

 carry out. Of course there is much in the past which will 

 make this demand for something like reciprocity in the mat- 

 ter of visits appear just. We have our long-range record to 

 look back to, and a contemplation of the present status of the 

 International small-bore championship does not reflect very 

 favorably upon the vaunted British pluck. The "Palma" 

 to-day rusts in its vault because British manufacturers cannot 

 turn out a weapon accurate enough, or British marksmen or- 

 ganize a team perfect enough to capture it. Still we must 

 bear in mind that the invitation of the British Rifle Council 

 is for a single match to be shot next July. While we sin- 

 cerely hope and feel confident that it will be but the first of 

 a series of annual trials before the butts, there is nothing to 

 indicate that those who framed the invitation had any such 

 idea, and the American Committee impugn the motives of 

 their fellows across the -water when they tack on such a de- 

 mand to their acceptance of an admirably concise set of con- 

 ditions. 



Simple though they be, these conditions contain much to 

 be studied. They open up an entirely new field of effort to 

 many who thought themselves excellent military shots. The 

 long range shocting must be carefully studied, and here we 

 think that the experience gained by the long range men with 

 their finer rifles will stand in good stead. There is no reason 

 why team shooting with military rifles should not have as ex- 

 cellent an organization and the same perfection of detail 

 which marked all, and more particularly certain of our old 

 time winning teams. These match conditions carry with 

 them all the rules and regulations of the English Rifle Asso- 

 ciation, and in the matter of targets it must be borne in mind 

 that the sub-divisions are quite different from those in vogue 

 here, and this difference will be apt to give the American 

 marksmen practicing on our home targets following the 

 Creedmoor model a wrong and deceptive idea of their pro- 

 gress and ability. In rifles, too, it will be the easiest thing 

 possible to stumble over some obscure clause of those com- 

 plex Wimbledon regulations which may work considerable 

 annoyance, which is readily convertible into bad scores. 

 There is ample time now, not only to look over our own field 

 of selection, which is poor enough at best, but the opening 

 of the season for out-door practice should find us thoroughly 

 up in all the minutiae of the conditions likely to come up as 

 controlling the fight. It is especially important for our 

 American shooters to find out just where our friends, the 

 enemy, may be. It is not easy to make comparisons since 

 changing targets on the other side destroy all continuity of 

 record, while on our side we have hunted in vain to find a 

 record of twelve men at one time using military rifles over 

 the three long ranges. Still there is a sort of guide in the 

 reports of the Queen's Match at Wimbledon, and a study and 

 tabulation of these will show us how far we are behind. 

 American pluck has done much on this subject in the past. 

 The great impetus to modern rifle practice on this side the 

 Atlantic grew out of the acceptance of a challenge when 

 the accepters had neither men nor rifles to make the sem- 

 blance of a fight. We have shown what may be done in the 

 way of overcoming great obstacles in the past ; there is a 

 great one before us now. We shall be disappointed if it be 

 not in time"surmounted, but we are certain it will not be 

 overcome except with hard, well directed effort. 



THE CONNECTICUT COMMISSION. 



THE terms of two of the Fish Commissioners of Connecti 

 cut have expired, and it pleases us to learn that Dr. 

 William M. Hudson has been re-appointed by the Governor 

 to fill his own .vacancy. Dr. Hudson has been connected 

 with the fish commission of his State since its formation, 

 and has been its most active member. During this time the 

 commission has accomplished much good work and is now in 

 condition to do much more, having the experience of many 

 years to guide them. The re-appointment of Dr. Hudson is 

 for four years, dating from August 26, 1882. He will no 

 doubt, accept the burden, for his heart is in the work which 

 he has seen develop from a very small beginning to its pres- 

 ent status, with no indication of its having reached its maxi- 

 mum. In this appointment the Governor has done wisely. 



