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FOREST AND STREAM. 



A WEEKLY JOURNAL, 



Devoted to Field and Aquatic Sports, Practical Natural History, 

 Fish Culture, the Protection of Game, Preservation of Forbbi S, 

 and the Inculcation in Men and Women of a Healthy Interest 

 in Out-Door Recreation and Study : 



PUBLISHED BY 



forest md Mtnanj guhUsshing §otngat{$. 



—AT— 



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NEW YORK, THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 8, 1877. 



To Correspondents. 



Ail communications whatever, intended for publication, must be ac- 

 companied with real name of the writer as a guaranty of good faith, 

 and be addressed to the Forest and Stream Publishing Company. 

 Names will not be published if objection be made. No anonymous con 

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 notes of their movements and transactions. 



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13B~ Trade supplied by American News Company. 

 CHARLES nALLOCK, Editor. 



SHALL THE CENTENNIAL RIFLE 

 MATCH BE ABANDONED? 



T. C. BANKS, 

 Business Manager. 



S. H. TDRRILL, Chicago, 



Western Manager. 



— We had the pleasure last week of a call from Profs. 

 Baird and Gill, of the Smithsonian Institution ; Commander 

 L. A. Beardslee, of the United States Navy, and Major Fer- 

 guson. 



Missouri, Kansas and Texas.— The Great Southwest, a 

 journal published by Jas. D. Brown, Esq., in the interest of 

 the M. K. and T. railroad, copies a page of information from 

 " Hallock's Gazetteer," respecting the game to be found along 

 its line. Nine counties are included. We have enjoyed 

 some fine hunting through this domain. For quail and 

 piairie fowl it can hardly be excelled. 



» — .♦»— . . — 



Stealing an Elephant. —We all know how sad a persoD 

 that proverbial gentleman was who found "an elephant on 

 his hands." We are aware also that the misery was not of 

 his own making; the creature was given to him. This is why 

 a sympathetic world sheds tears over his misfortunes. But 

 what tears have we to mingle with the remorseful overflow thai 

 would be certain t'o attend the possession of an elephant that 

 was stolen ? We cannot conceive of a f oolhardiness which 

 would tempt Divine Providence by stealing au elephant, and 

 yet the crime has actually been committed. Only last Thurs- 

 day four men endeavored to spirit away one of the perform- 

 ing elephants of the London Circus, now exhibiting at Gil- 

 more's Garden, in Twenty-seventh 'street. Shades of all the 

 Pachydermata, defend us ! » 



— . — »~— . 



Eknest Mobkis. — This young naturalist, whose South 

 American explorations have deservedly attracted much atten- 

 tion among scientific bodies, and Mr. E. P. Rand, the well- 

 known botanist of Boston, sailed from this city last Friday 

 on the ship Jacob E. Ridgeway, for Brazil. It is their inten- 

 tion to make an extended tour of exploration of the valley of 

 the Amazon and its southern branches. The pluck displayed 

 by Mr. Morris in his previous expedition, and the success 

 which crowned his efforts in the face of seemingly un surmount- 

 able obstacles, lead us to anticipate from his present tour 

 valuable results. His many friends will learn with pleasure 

 that the expedition is undertaken under the most favorabl 

 circumstances ; and the young explorer returns to his work 

 bearing with him the sympathy and well wishes of many 

 newly found friends. 



'"piIE question which is agitating the rifle world at the 

 J- present time is, what shall become of the Centennial 

 trophy ? 



The National Rifle Association have expended some $1,500 

 on this elaborate and characteristic prize, and it has certainly 

 been offered by them as a prize to the riflemen of the world 

 as a true emblem of the championship. In fact, everwhere, it 

 is the acquisition of this great trophy toward which all rifle- 

 men aspire. 



On the first occasion it was contested for by teams from Ire- 

 land, Scotland, Canada, Australia and America, and on the 

 second occasion by a joint team, representing Great Britain 

 and Ireland against America. On both occasions the Ameri- 

 cans were victorious and we now hold the trophy, and 

 with it the championship of the world. The English 

 portion of the unsuccessful competitors in the last match 

 now insist that no other team should hereafter be al- 

 lowed to compete for the trophy, except a single one 

 representing Great Britain and Ireland. They are per- 

 fectly willing that Canada, Australia and other colonies should 

 send separate teams, but they positively refuse to allow either 

 Ireland or Scotland to do so, in which, by the way, they seem 

 to concede their position to be untenable. The National Rifle 

 'Association had met this difficulty in a proper spirit by de- 

 claring that if these countries can agree among themselves to 

 have a joint team, it would be received. If separate teams are 

 sent they will also be welcome. The N. R. A. have even 

 gone so far as to say "that a joint team will be received, even 

 if Ireland or Scotland should send a separate one." This, 

 certainly, is liberal to the last degree. 



It is plain that the chances of America winning are less if a 

 number of teams are in the field than where there is but one, 

 and it rests with our adversaries to decide for themselves what 

 they will do. But this is not satisfactory, apparently, because 

 it looks as if the majority of the Irish members of the team 

 would decline becoming members of a joint team. It is, 

 therefore, now proposed to organize an entirely independent 

 match, which shall be open alone to teams from Great Britain 

 and Ireland. This is simply a plan to do indirectly what it, 

 has been found cannot be done directly. Its practical effect 

 would be to abolish the match for the Centennial Trophy, and 

 to cause perpetual heart-burnings and bickerings between rifle- 

 men at home as well as abroad. 



The American people will not be prone to forget that Ireland 

 was the first country that organized the system of international 

 rifle matches, or that American riflemen visiting that country 

 were welcomed as the friends of the nation, and received hos- 

 pitality and honors never before extended to any private in- 

 dividuals. It does not seem likely, then, that American rifle- 

 men will consent, under any circumstances, to the organization 

 of an international rifle match, in which Ireland will be shut 

 out from the opportunity to compete, providing she desires to 

 do so. 



There are other difficulties connected with the proposed com- 

 petition. Either this new match is to be greater than that 

 for the Centennial trophy, or it is not. If it is, the latter will 

 soon degenerate into a small affair, and foreign teams will not 

 trouble themselves to engage in it. If it is not, it can hardly 

 be of sufficient importance to justify either Ameiica or Great 

 Britain participating in it. . As a matter of course it is to be 

 a match for the championship ; yet how will it determine that 

 question ? If America sends a team to Wimbledon to shoot 

 at the meet of the English N. R. A. in July next, and America 

 is defeated, the English will claim the championship. If the 

 American team wins the match for the Centennial trophy, to 

 be shot in America in September, America will claim the 

 championship. Who is to decide between them ? 



America now is the champion. She has provided an annual 

 contest in which the validity of that title of champion can be 

 determined. Why should she now now lay aside all this ad- 

 vantage, and organize another match, not to suit herself, but 

 her unsuccessful competitors ? 



NATURAL HISTORY AND GEOGRAPHY. 



SOMETHING very curious is the effect natural history 

 seems to be having on the localizing, as it were, of lands 

 or continents, which have long ago disappeared. To make 

 this matter plain, suppose we assume an imaginary case. Take 

 an island much nearer to Africa than to Asia, and say that on 

 this island certain forms of mammals are discovered which 

 are identical with those in Asia, and of which none exist in 

 Africa. Now, although the island may be closer to Africa 

 than to Asia, the probabilities are that at some far distant 

 time there was a continuity of land, or at least a range of 

 islands extending between Asia and the present island. It- 

 would be difficult otherwise to explain the presence of such 

 forms. Of course to a certain extent this is theoretical, but. 

 still when deep sea explorations show that between certain 

 points the bed of the ocean is higher, it maybe supposed that 

 in past ages some gradual depression took place, and that 

 what is an isolated island now is nothing more than the 

 highest portion of a continent or of some lofty island, which 

 alone has kept above the surface of the waters. To bring 

 now a case in point. Zoological considerations, together with 

 the fauna of Madagascar, approach much closer to the 

 tjpes than to the African ones. But Madagascar is much 

 nearer to Africa than to Asia. In a recent work on the birds 

 of Madagascar, that distinguished ornithologist, Dr. Hartlaub, 



points out this assimilation of types to the Asiatic ones. 

 Magadascar is then supposed to have been either once united 

 with India, or to have formed the extreme western island of 

 an archipelago, which once stretched out far to the eastward. 

 It is even thought necessary to give these lost lands a name, 

 and that of " Lemuria " is proposed. A very pretty idea of a 

 similar character was agitated some time ago in regard to the 

 strange habits of the Lemming, a little rodent, which at times 

 is the pest of Norway. Now the lemming seems to have a 

 positive instinct at certain seasons of the year to march direct- 

 ly in a northwestern course. Nothing will stop him ; neither 

 the Jakes nor fiords of Scandinavia. Millions are droAvned in 

 the rivers, still they drive blindly i n toward one duection. 

 Arriving at the brink of the ocean, this dots not stop these 

 little creatures. In they plunge and all perish. Now conn s 

 in a very ingenious supposition. A learned natural historian 

 argues as follows : The original lemmings had implanted in 

 them the instinct of migration, and in former ages were in the 

 habit, during certain seasons, of seeking some land far to the 

 westward of Norway. In this distant country either the lem- 

 mings found food or the conveniences for rearing their young. 

 It is this same instinct, ever perpetuated, that impels their 

 descendants to follow out the same course. The final desti- 

 nation of the primitive lemming might have been Iceland, 

 perhaps Greenland. The theory then is that in former ages 

 the present northwest coast of Europe was joined either by 

 Greenland or by some land to Iceland, and that submergence 

 has separated to-day the Old from the New World. 



VACATION RAMBLES IN MICHIGAN, 

 WISCONSIN AND MINNESOTA.— No. 4. 



By the Editor. 



November 8, 1877. 

 Fellow Editors; 



I am convinced that your printer believes that "what, is 

 worth doing at all, is worth doing well ;" for I find in my let- 

 ter of Nov. 1st, line 31st, that he has cooked my goose " arti- 

 ficially." I did Wish to have it done artistically; but per- 

 haps it makes little difference to the goose now. (By the 

 way, that goose was a duck). 



Other changes from my original manuscript are more 

 serious. For instance, T intended that my directions to sports- 

 men visiting northern Michigan should be so explicit that none 

 should go astray who followed them ; yet, when I write 

 "northeast," the printer sends them toward the equator, and 

 when I write "southwest," he directs them toward the north 

 pole ! Now, if any readers of my letter should become lost 

 during their rambles and die in the woods, you can imagine 

 whose funeral the surviving relatives will contract for next. 

 Meanwhile, the derelict printer will live on to play havoc with 

 the types and tamper with the "devil," whose services he 

 continually, courts! I am now better able to appreciate the 

 indignation of such of your correspondents as complain that 

 their sentences have been mangled and their meaning distorted 

 in transit from the quill-driver to the press. Before, I could 

 hardly realize the burden of distress they occasionally throw 

 at our feet. Verily, it is hard to see "the rain fall upon the 

 unjust as well as the just"— unless there comes a shower as 

 abundant and discriminating as tlrat which drove Noah into 

 the ark for safety. Then there is comfort for those under 

 cover. 



Wimporte! Let us back to Petoskey, on the Michigan 

 shore, where the quiet summer sea reflects the unclouded blue 

 of the sky above it. The glow of the morning sun is on its 

 bosom and flashes into the eye with a Winding gleam. There 

 is no ripple on the surface, and one can look down through 

 its translucent depths and see great rocks on the bottom, and 

 big Mackinaw trout swimming twenty feet below. If we are 

 out in a boat on the bay and look in toward the land, we jer- 

 ceive that the village of Petoskey occupies a series of pic- 

 turesque undulations that spread out on either hand and rise 

 to the rear in the form of an amphitheatre. A lofty lime- 

 stone cliff flanks the town on the east. Its top is crowned 

 with trees, among which are discovered the tents of many va- 

 cation tourists who are camping out. Behind them rises an 

 over-topping eminence, dotted with pretentious villas of 

 wealthy residents. From the verge of this cliff the outlook is 

 superb. Opposite, and five miles distant, is the ridge of hills 

 that line the opposite side of the Little Traverse Bay. These 

 sweep round in a symmetrical curve to the head of the bay 

 two milts to our right, and then follow the hither shore unlil 

 they rise and terminate in the cliff on which we stand. 



All along in that direction, as far as sight can reach, we can 

 trace the white line of 6he pebbly shore limned against the 

 green of the hills; and then from the base of our cliff it con- 

 tinues in a sweep of two miles or more lb the left in the form 

 of a crescent, and ends Id a wooded point. Tree-covered hills 

 slope gently back and upward fiom the beach, and pretty cot- 

 tages peep out from among their branches.^ The principal 

 part of the town lies in the bowl of the amphitheatre, from 

 which a practicable road U ads through a ravine to the lonp 

 pier which projects from the hollow of the crescent into the 

 bay. This p.er gives additional cl aructer aid life to the 

 scenery. Not far from the road Bear River debouch' e 

 sparkling wafers How out Of Bear Lake a few miles inland, 

 where Mr. Hughart, the president of the Grand Eapi 

 Indiana Railroad, lias his family shooting-box. There e.re 

 trout in the river, bat a small mill located just where the river 

 flows into the la'.:c has driveu them from the vicinity of Pe- 

 toskey, where they were numerous five years ago. Both mill 

 and dam are Bufferinj ct, and we may remark, by 



