FOREST AND STREAM. 



439 



[paon b&B own ('.ii,'i;]-si..N! i 

 SPORTING CLUBS AND SPORTSMEN 

 OF RUSSIA. 



St. Petersburg, Dec. 3, 1877. 

 Editor Forest and Stream and Ron and Gun: 



Sir— One of the features of St. Petersburg is the sports- 

 man's club. These exist in great numbers. Hares ami foxes 

 are found in abundance within twenty miles ; elk, wolves, 

 and bear within thirty miles. For this city is not the natural 

 product of a thickly peopled couutry, but it was founded on 

 a marsh, and built up by forced labor and forced residence, at 

 immense expense, iu order that Peter the Great might have 

 an eye into Europe. The Petersburgher, too, needs exercise 

 badly, for he rarely walks, and never rides on horseback. 

 These clubs are expensive luxuries, for besides the anuual 

 dues, which are not small, no member can spend a day at the 

 "chasse" without its costing him from eight to eighteen 

 roubles— $4 to $9— according to the distance of the club- 

 house from the city, the nearest being the most expensive. 



Simday is the favorite day for the " chasse," though it fre- 

 quently takes place on other holidays, mostly saints' days, of 

 which there are about eighty in the Russian calendar, making, 

 with the Sundays, about one-third of the year holiday, when 

 all labor is suspended. How can a poor country grow rich 

 at this rate ? 



Every Saturday afternoon the trains take large numbers of 

 sportsmen into the country. They are dropped at the stations 

 along the roads, principally along the rail to Moscow, and 

 thence into Finland, at distances varying from ten to thirty 

 miles from the city. The club-house is lighted and warm, 

 and a good dinner, provided by the steward, to be preceded 

 by the inevitable " zacasska." Why the Russians insist upon 

 eating a preliminary dinner just before the regular meal I 

 have never been able to understand. No people do it but the 

 Russians and Swedes. They say it increases the appetite. 

 My experience is that it takes it away. In a side room, or at 

 the further end of the dining-room, you find spread out on a 

 separate table, caviare, cheese, pieces of salt fish, salmon and 

 herring, anchovies, bologna sausage, etc., etc., all to be washed 

 down by a glass of kimmel, or kimmel and bitters, cognac, or 

 wodka. Wodka is the Russian brandy, the poorer quality 

 being made from potatoes, the better from wheat and rye. 

 Five or ten minutes' devotion to these, and you have dined 

 pretty well, whereupon you are expected to sit down and con- 

 sume your regular dinner of many courses. 



After dinner follows a rubber of whist, with low stakes, for 

 though the Russians have the name of playing high at the 

 public gambling tables of Europe, and there are of course 

 some lugh players at St. Petersburg, yet as a rule they play 

 low. The play a_t the clubs is by no means as high as in Lon- 

 don or Paris. 



It was my good fortune to be invited by a friend to attend 

 one of these parties. We took the Finland train at six o'clock 

 in the evening, and at halt-past six reached our station. 

 There carriages awaited us, and we drove to the club-house, 

 some ten minutes off. The house is like a small hotel, 

 with a large dining-room, a small-sitting room, and many 

 small bed-rooms opening upon the passage, all heated by the 

 Russian stove, a mass of bricks and cement, retaining the 

 heat long after the fire is extinguished. There is an impres- 

 sion in other countries that this heat is disagreeable, and even 

 unhealthy, but I have not found it so. I believe that it is be- 

 cause these stoves are always heated with wood. 



Seven o'clock found us seated at dinner in a dining-room 

 hung with sporting pictures, heads of elk, and stuffed caper- 

 cailzies, the king of Russian birds. The most striking pic- 

 ture was a large oil painting, representing a wolf attacking a 

 peasant. This was an actual event, but is a very rare one. 

 In packs, wolves, when hungry, will attack anything, but 

 scarcely ever when single. In this case the beast got the 

 worst of it, for the peasant had been chopping brush wood, 

 and was armed with his broad-bladed hatchet. After dinner 

 we had our whist, the game being the same as with us, but 

 the counting complicated and curious, the principal pecu- 

 liarity being, that the honors contribute nothing to winning or 

 losing the game, while they do contribute largely to the 

 amount of the stakes, being counted in the number of points 

 won or lost, when the game has been decided by the tricks. 



At six o'clock the next morning a bugle rang through the 

 hall, and we were all soon about. At half-past six a substan- 

 tial breakfast was ready, with excellent coffee, and at seven 

 we were en route, each man in his private cart, without 

 springs, drawn by one of those intelligent, tough, |spirited 

 little Finland ponies. 



We had to drive twelve verstes— eight miles— through 

 water and fearful ruts ; and the dorsal column suffered in 

 consequence. There is nothing like the Russian boot for a 

 tramp through mud and water. It comes up to, or near, the 

 knee, as you prefer, and a strap fastens it tight to the calf to 

 prevent the water from penetrating between the boot and the 

 leg. It is really waterproof, light, warm and soft, and you 

 may walk on it for miles without fatigue ; neither is it dear 

 for eight dollars will purchase a pair that will last for years. 

 There is another capital Russian institution for cold weather 

 or for exposed stands when hunting— a sheepskin coat. The 

 Russian peasant Avears it universally. For sportsmen they 

 are made of finer and softer wool, and embroidered fancifully 

 with colors. They are perfectly waterproof. They are warm, 

 with the wool inside, and reminds one forcibly of the deer- 

 skin coats worn by our trappers on the plains. 

 As we approached the scene of action we overtook a num- 



ber of men, women and children hurryi i road, 



ao had got up long before daylight 

 : the ground. They are paid fifty topecks— twenty^ 

 rive cent ork. Not long ago they followed 



the example of their betters in western lands and struck for 

 fifty cents. But the sportsmen were firm. They said that 

 the hunts always took place on holidays, and that the beaters 

 enjoyed the sport quite as much as the sportsmen. Plenty of 

 beaters were found willing to come from distant villages f or 

 the old wages, and so our strikers surrendered at discretion. 



Arrived at our first stand, wo were posted along a wood- 

 road, some fifty yards apart. We numbered fourteen guns 

 and about forty beaters. They told me that the guns were 

 too many for the beaters. There should be at least five beat- 

 ers to each gun ; five are better. The chief huntsman, dis- 

 tinguished by a red cap and a bugle, after he had stationed us 

 at our different posts, disappeared in the woods followed by 

 his motly crowd. There was perfect silence for half an hour, 

 when a bugle note was heard, and in an instant all the horrid 

 noises that human ingenuity can suggest filled the woods and 

 gradually approached us. But while the noises did, the 

 game did not. One solitary white hare crossed the road and 

 was blazed at by my left-hand neighbor. I gave her one bar- 

 rel, but made a beautiful miss. Then we changed guns and 

 tried it again; but the weather was fearfully against us. 

 The woods were full of water, and it began to rain. In the 

 short days of November w T e had time for but five beats, the re- 

 sult of the whole being twelve hares and one capercailzie, 

 less than one head of game to a gun. 



The white hare is a beautif id animal, quite as large as the 

 English hare, and three or four times as large as a rabbit. 

 Nature has provided the poor brute with an admirable de- 

 fence. In summer it is brown and is with difficulty distin- 

 guished from the ground. In winter it is white, and it is 

 almost impossible to distinguish it from the snow— in fact 

 the sportsmen do not attempt to shoot it when the snow is 

 on the ground. The white hare does not take to rapid flight 

 like its English sister, but hides itself in the hollow-s and hops 

 quietly along behind bushes, trying to save itself by conceal- 

 ment rather than rapid flight. 



The capercailzie, cock of the woods, or titirlca, as the Rus- 

 sians call him, is a beautiful bird, weighing about twelve 

 pounds. The plumage of the cock is very brilliant. Al- 

 though not exactly like that of the cock-pheasant, it bears 

 more resemblance to it than to any bird I can name. He lives 

 almost exclusively upon a wood berry, resembling our winter- 

 green, and his flesh derives a very pleasant flavor from it. In 

 the spring he is stalked with great success. The wicked 

 sportsman takes advantage of his gallantry to his mate. He 

 sits upon a branch and calls her. For a minute or two his 

 note is a simple chuck, then follows a prolonged note, impos- 

 sible to produce in writing, but something like a hiss. While 

 uttering this he puffs out his throat, shuts his eyes, closes his 

 ears, and remains literally blind and deaf. During this in- 

 stant of time the wily sportsman runs in on him. He has 

 time for three or four steps, but must then stand like a rock. 

 The bird seems to take no notice of a stationary object. 

 Again the poor, anxious cock calls to the wife of his bosom, 

 and again the fell destroyer approaches, till, finally, a well 

 directed shot tumbles him from his perch, and he sings no 

 more. The widow remarries. 



There is one thing which is never neglected on these sport- 

 ing occasions in Russia— the supply of the inner man. A 

 cart had followed us all that distance, loaded with cold meats, 

 cheese, caviare, and beer and claret. A table was spread in 

 the opening in the woods, boards rigged up for seats, and full 

 justice done to the provisions. A very dark drive, in which 

 we were obliged to trust more to the sagacity of our ponies 

 than to the skill of our drivers, landed us all safely at the 

 club-house. A comfortable dinner, followed by some charm- 

 ing songs by the Belgian Minister, who is a member of the 

 club, brought us to teu o'clock, when we were whirled away 

 in troikas (three-horse caleches) to the city, and the club- 

 house remained silent and empty, till another holiday hunt 

 gathers its members and their guests within its hospitable 

 walls. "\y\ ^y_ 



GAME PROTECTION. 



New Jeeset.— The citizens of Ocean and Bttrlingtori 

 Counties held a mass meeting at Barnegat the 3d inst., at 

 which it was resolved that to prevent the total extinction of 

 the fishing a law should be passed prohibiting all fishing with 

 fykes, pounds, seines, from Jan. 1st to Oct. 1st, for a period 

 of three or five years. Committees were appointed to confer 

 with the representatives of other counties. We hope to see 

 determined action and good results. 



Pottsville Game Protective Association— The Potts- 

 villc Lame Protective Association have just received their 

 first invoice of five quail. The total number shipped was 

 one hundred and eighty-six ; the loss by transportation, twen- 

 ty-four; the loss since date of receipt (Dec. 31, 1877), sixteen. 

 The association numbers eighteen members, and have leased 

 the shooting right of some three thousand acres of the best 

 land in our county. This has been found, after one year's 

 trial, co work satisfactorily. The Association thinks sua >usly 

 of enlarging their grounds, and arc purchasing and preserv- 

 ing quad for the purpose of stocking the same. The officers 

 of the Association are : Col. J. M. YVetherill, Pres.; J. Durn- 

 heller, Vice-Pres.; Major H. S. Thompson, Secy and Treas. 



When abb QuatlPbojjeblte " ra Season ?"— It is a strange 

 inconsistency in the game laws which permits us to shoot 

 quail in Delaware until Feb. 15th, while in the adjoining 

 State of Pennsylvania we are prohibited after Dec. lotk In 

 Maryland the close season begins Feb. 1st. 



;THE COUNTRY, 

 A weekly journal of sixteen pages, devoted to the Kennel, 

 Shooting, Fishing, Fos Hunting, Archery and other outdoor- 

 sports. Has also departments treating of Natural 03 

 The Garden and Poultry, Pigeons and Pets. Edited by Wm. 

 M. Tileston, late associate editor of Forest and Stream. 

 Subscription price, $3 per year. Specimen copies free. Ad- 

 dress, "The Country Pup.usnmi Ass'n," 



33 Murray street, New York.— [Ado, 



TEAM SHOOTING. 



FOR THE " FOREST AND STREAM AND ROD AND GUN" MEDAL. 



Under the following conditions this journal proposes pre- 

 senting to the best team, members to belong to some 

 regularly organized association, a gold medal : 

 Shooting to take place January 23, 1878, at Union Hill 



Schutzen Park. 



RULES AND REGULATIONS. 



Each team to consist of twelve men; ten shots per man. 



Shooting, off -hand; distance, 200 yards, any rifle; open to all 

 clubs or associations. 



No person allowed to compete in a team unless he is an 

 active member of the club for ninety days. 



Practice from 10 A. it. to 1 v. m. 



Team shooting to commence at 1 p. m. Targets to be 

 drawn for by each captain of each team. 



Entrance fee, $6 for each team. 



Ring targets to be used, three-quarter inch rings. 



After deducting the expenses for the markers, the balance 

 will be divided to the second and third highest teams. 



Shooting to be governed by the Schutzen Bund rules. 



All teams can enter for the competition at the Forks v and 

 Stream and Rod and Gun office, 111 Fulton street, city 

 on or before January 20, 1878. 



Captains of teams entered will constitute the committee. 



We are pleased to state that the following teams will par- 

 ticipate in the match for the Forest and Stream and Rod 

 and Gun gold medal: A team from the Jersey Schutzen 

 Corps, one from the New York Schutzen Corps, one from the 

 Independent New York Schutzen Corps, and the team of the 

 Zettler Rifle Club. It is likely that from six to eight teams 

 will compete. Mr. John Raschen has kindly consented to act 

 as shooting master. 



SIXTH ANNUAL REPORT OF THE 

 NATIONAL RIFLE ASSOCIATION OF 

 AMERICA. 



New York, January 8, 1878. 

 Mr. President and Gentlemen of fhe National Rifle Associa- 

 tion : 



The sixth annual report of the Secretary embraces the year 

 1877. 



The reorganization of the Board of Directors took place at 

 a s jl ec . lal mce ting of the Board, held Tuesday, January 9, 

 1877, immediately after the adjournment of the fifth annual 

 meeting of the association, with the following gentlemen as 

 members : 



Messrs. Stanton, Wingate, John Ward, Judd, Fulton San- 

 ford, McMahon, Beebe, Story, Casey, Holland, Scott, Gilder- 

 sleeve and Schermerhorn, together with Gens. Townsend 

 Woodward, Knox, Shaler, Dakin, Carr and Husted as ev- 

 officio members. 



The result of the balloting for officers and members of the 

 Executive Committee was as follows : 



Mr. N. P. Stanton elected President, viae Gen. Shaler- Col G W 

 Wingate elected Vice-President, vice Gen. Woodward- Mr 

 G. S. Schermerhorn, Jr., re-elected Secretary ; Gen. D D 

 Wyho, elected Treasurer, -vice Gen. McMahon ; Gens. Shaler 

 and Dakin, and Col. Gildersleeve wore elected to serve with 

 the ofheers as members of the Executive Committee. 



At the regular meeting of the Board of Directors, held 

 February 6, 1877, Gen. D. D. Wylie having been appointed 

 Commissary General and Chief of Ordnance of the State of 

 New York, vice Gen. K. Knox, thus becoming a director cx- 

 offlrao, resigned Iris directorship by election, and nominated 

 Gen. W. G. Ward to the vacancy thus created, who was 

 unanimously elected. 



_ The directors retiring January, 1878, by reason of expira- 

 tion of term are Mr. D. W. Judd, Major Hy. Fulton, Lieut. - 

 ? 0L o ^- H - baivford Gen. M. T. McMahon {resigned October 

 i, 1877), Col. John Ward, who w T as elected January 1876 

 for two years to fill vacancy, and Gen. W. G. Ward elected 

 as previously stated, to fill vacancy for the year. There are 

 therefore, six vacancies to be filled at this time. 



During the year past the terms for which the following 

 named gentlemen were elected honorary members expired 

 viz. : ' 



Mr. James Gordon Bennett, March 3, 1877 ; Major Arthur B 

 Leech, October 6, 1877 ; Col. Hy. G. Shaw, December 1, 1877'. 

 Mr. E. A. Buck, editor of the Spirit of the Times, was 

 elected an Honorary Director of the Association for the full 

 term of three years at a meeting of the Board of Directora 

 held Sept. G, 1877, in recognition of his munificence in do- 

 nating $1,000 in gold as prizes in the Spirit of the Times lon°- 

 range match. 



At the first regular meeting of the Board, held February 6 



the President announced the Standing Committees for theveat 



as follows : J 



Executive Committee- -N. P, Stanton, President; Col. G W 



Wingate, Vice-President; Geo. S. Schermerhorn. Jr., Secretary 



Gen. D. D. Wylie, Treasurer, ex-oifieio members. Gen Uei" 



Shaler, Gen. Thos. S. Daldu, Col. H. A. Gildersleeve, ejected! 



Range Committee— Col. G. W. Wingate, Chairman - Cant J G 



Story, Col. Geo. D. Scotr, ' 



C<»wmte-Hon.D.W. Judd, Chairman; Lieut. • Col. K 

 H. Sanford, Gen. W. G. Ward. 



_ And in accordance with a resolution adopted at this meet- 

 ing— 



Prize iGomnim-Q61. J. Ward, Chairman; Capt. W. C. Caaey 



Major Jos. Holland. " 



There have been forty-Seven new life members durim- the 



past year, of whom forty-one have paid the usual fee, f ur 



had the position conferred by vote of the Board without ex 



them, and two were offered and won as prizes during 



the late fall meeting. D 



A falling off is to be noted in the L u.iniber of annual mem- 



