Forest and Stream. 



A Weekly Journal of the Rod and Gun. 



Terms, $1 a Year. 10 Ora a Copy. I 

 Sis Months, 83. f 



NEW YORK, MARCH 2, 18 8 2. 



j vol. xvra.— no. 5. 



( Nos. 39 & 40 Park Row, New York 



CORRESPONDENCE. 

 The Forest and Stream is the recognized medium of entertain- 

 ment, instruction and information between American sportsmen. 

 Communications upon the subjects to which its pages are devoted are 

 respectfully invited. Anonymous communications will not be re- 

 garded. No name will be published except with writer's consent. 

 The Editors are not responsible for the views of correspondents. 



SUBSCRIPTIONS 



May begin at any time. Subscription price, $4 per year ; $3 for six 

 months ; to a club of three annual subscribers, three copies for $10 ; 

 five copies for S16. Remit by registered letter, money-order, or draft, 

 payable to the Forest and Stream Publishing Company. The paper 

 may be obtained of newsdealers throughout the United States and 

 Canadas. On sale by the American Exchange, 449 Strand, W. C, 

 London, England. Subscription agents for Great Britain— Messrs. 

 Samson Low, Marston, Searle and Rivington, 188 Fleet street, London. 



AD VERTISEMENTS. 

 Advertisements of an approved character only inserted. Inside 

 pages, nonpareil type, 35 cents per line. Special rates for three, six 

 and twelve months. Reading notices 50 cents per line. Eight words 

 to the line, twelve lines to one inch. Advertisements should be sent 

 in by the Saturday previous to issue in which they are to be inserted. 

 Address all communications, 



Forest and Stream Publishing Co. 

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



CONTENTS 



Editorial. 



A Wild Fowl Cannery. 



Museums of Anns. 



^Esthetics of Angling. 

 The Sportsman Tourist. 



A Sonnet. 



Ottawa and St. Maurice Rivers. 



Game and Fish in Texas. 

 Natural History. 



Crafty Feathered Fishers. 



The Seal Islands of Alaska. 



English Widgeon in New Jersey. 

 Game Bag and Gun. 



Sporting Notes in Newfound- 

 land. 



A Record of Wing Shooting. 



Who is Responsible? 



Notes from Kentucky. 



Migratory Quail. 



A Long Island Quail Club. 



Notes on Shooting. 



Breech vs. Muzzle-Loaders. 

 Sea and River Fishing. 



With the Grayling. 



Camp Flotsam— II. 



The Value of Angling. 



Fishing at Horton's Point. 



The Ten-Pounder. 



More About Chub. 



The Eel Question. 

 Fishculture. 



Salmon Work in Maine. 



Natural Food for Ponds. 



Salmon in Scotland. 

 The Kennel. 



Grouse Dale. 



Gordon Setters. 



Laverack Pedigrees. 



Worms in Puppies. 



The New York Dog Show. 



Boston Dog Show. 



Kennel Notes. 

 Yachting and Canoeing. 



The Yawl in America. 



Yachting In San Francisco. 



The British Yawl. 



The San Francisco Yawl. 



The Clapham Yawl. 

 Rifle and Trap Shooting. 



The Wimbledon Record. 



Matches and Meetings. 

 Answers to Correspondents. 



A WILD FOWL CANNERY. 

 A N enterprise which is now being undertaken in a small 

 -£*- way in the South, but which, if not checked in time, 

 may assume alarming proportions, deserves immediate legis- 

 lative attention. Our readers will remember that not long 

 since our Sacramento, Cal., correspondent spoke of the pro- 

 posed establishment in California of a quail cannery, and we 

 have now to chronicle the fact that a man in North Carolina 

 proposes to establish a cannery for wild fowl. As yet the 

 project is in its infancy. The individual alluded to has a 

 portable oven in which he bakes the flesh of the canvas-backs, 

 redheads and brant before sealing them up for market. With 

 his batteries he secures great numbers of fowl, and it is said 

 that next season he proposes to conduct his operations on a 

 much larger scale, and that he believes "there is money in it." 

 It seems scarcely necessary to point out the atrocity of this 

 proposed scheme, nor to urge upon the citizens of North 

 Carolina and the members of clubs who own property in 

 that State the importance of using their influence with the 

 Legislature at its next session to have a bill passed prohibiting 

 the destruction of fowl for any such purpose. 



The game laws of many of the Southern States are in any- 

 thing but a satisfactory condition, and unless steps are speed- 

 ily taken to revise them, we feel sure that their citizens will 

 have cause before long to regret the neglect. It is becoming 

 the fashion now to go South in winter for the shooting, but 

 this will not continue long after the supply of game birds 

 Bhall have become sensibly diminished. In many of the 

 Southern States it is at present legal to shoot quail all through 

 the year, a practice which cannot but have the worst possible 

 effect on the supply of birds. Other varieties of game are 

 scarcely better protected. The influx of Northern and West- 

 ern men into the South in winter is certainly a good thing for 

 the sections which they visit, if for no other reason than that 

 they bring in money and stimulate trade. Of the higher and 

 still more important view of the case, the establishment of 

 pleasant acquaintanceships and of kindly feeling between 

 men of different sections of the Union, we need now say 

 nothing. We cannot urge too strongly upon our Southern 

 readers the importance of taking action upon this matter at 

 once and in earnest. It touches them far more nearly than 

 it does us, but our interest in it is not less strong than theirs. 

 Let them be wise in time. 

 When it is permitted to shoot quail, deer and turkey at all 



seasons of the year we cannot feel surprised that game grows 

 scarce, and already complaints are beginning to be heard 

 from certain sections of the South that the shooting is not 

 what it used to be. In the old ante-bellum times the hunters 

 were few compared with the whole population; but at the 

 present time almost every man and boy in the South owns a 

 firearm of some description. The havoc created by these 

 home gunners, in addition to that made by the strangers, who 

 come in after the shooting season in their own States has 

 closed, will surely tell on the supply of game in the Southern 

 States, bountiful and never failing as it may now appear to 

 be. If action is taken by the different State Legislatures in 

 time, the evil day — when game shall be as scarce in the South 

 as it is now in the North — may be indefinitely postponed; but 

 if no laws are passed, we must either see the game extermi- 

 nated or else must recommend to landholders a general post- 

 ing of their property. 



We have no doubt that the wild fowl canner above alluded 

 to will be obliged, in one way or another, to abandon his 

 scheme, even though "there is money in it. " The Legislature 

 will, undoubtedly, attend to his case very promptly; but even 

 if that body should fail to perform so plain a duty, which we 

 cannot believe possible, the local gunners will, no doubt, 

 drive him off so soon as his intentions become generally 

 known. * 



MUSEUMS OF ARMS. 

 TT would naturally be supposed that in such a country as 

 -^this where so much and such rapid progress has been made 

 in the matter of small-arm manufacture, the history of 

 the movement from the old-fashioned flint-lock of the Revo- 

 lutionary epoch to the latest breech-loader, could be read in 

 some fine museum of arms. Such, however, is not the case, 

 neither in this city nor at the seat of government in Wash- 

 ington, nor among the workshops of the East can any pre- 

 sentable display of firearms be discovered. There are col- 

 lections of military bric-a-brac, of army-junk, but nothing 

 which is of any value to one desirous of seeing the progress 

 made and the products of inventive genius in the way of 

 these smaller weapons. 



As a rule, army officers are lamentably deficient in a prac- 

 tical knowledge on this part of their duties. They are poor 

 marksmen as a general thing, and in the practical knowledge 

 of firearms of the smaller grades are woefully ignorant. 

 West Point does not boast of a collection of models or sam- 

 ples to show what there is new and what efforts have been 

 made in bringing about the present service arm, and after 

 the young lieutenant gets into service, he knows only the arm 

 that is issued to himself and his men, and in the majority of 

 instances does not seem to think it worth his while to waste 

 time, expend effort and burn powder in mere practice at the 

 target. 



In New York city the United Service Institution has a 

 museum at its rooms on Governor's Island, but it is almost 

 entirely a collection of relics of odd and quaint bits of rusty 

 accoutrements gathered up at a safe interval of time there- 

 after, upon the spot where some great battle had been fought. 

 Battle flags in tatters and scabbards that have lain under- 

 ground for many months may be very cherished mementoes 

 of important events, but they are not the subjects to take as 

 models in making new designs, nor are they of much use in 

 studying the progress of inventive art. In Washington there 

 is a collection somewhat after the same order at the Navy 

 Yard, and another gathering of similar odds and ends at the 

 War Department. Here and there a fragment may be seen 

 which is worth some study, but on the whole the articles 

 gathered are only worthy of a corner in the grand museum 

 of historical fragments which the United States of America 

 ought to possess. 



The collections of arms made by the various official exam- 

 ining boards would in themselves make a very excellent nu- 

 cleus for such a display of perfected arms, effort in inven- 

 tion, and products of the armorer's skill such as we have 

 outlined. There have been several such special commissions 

 composed of officers who have made themselves familiar with 

 the subject, and they have published reports, with very care- 

 fully drawn plates of the arms submitted for testing and their 

 several parts; still the arms themselves, to be handled and ex- 

 amined by actual manipulation, would be an invaluable ad- 

 junct to the understanding of the plates as published. 



The collection, too, would be of interest, in a general way, 

 as showing what enormous strides have been taken in secur- 

 ing at once portability and accuracy in these classes of arms. 

 To-day the United States army is not armed with the best 

 rifle in the market as it certainly should be, and it is quite as 

 certain that the majority of the members of that army, rank 

 and file included, are not aware of the fact. 



In the matter of pistol models the want is still greater for • 

 models, and the collections are bare of anything save a few 

 over-ornamented samples of holster blunderbusses, fit only to 

 produce a sensation on parade. What has been discarded, 

 and when the valuable features of our present most compact 

 and accurate revolvers came into being, it is impossible to 

 tell, save perhaps by a delving search through the records of 

 the Patent Offices here and abroad. 



With our whirligig system of office holding and vacating, 

 it may perhaps be too much to expect anything like the tech- 

 nical display of firearms of which we have spoken. It would 

 be comparatively easy now to form such a display, but every 

 year of delay diminishes the chance of getting models and 

 examples of the discarded weapons which should find place 

 on its shelves. 



ESTHETICS OF ANGLING. 

 A NGLING "hath a devil of a fascination." It was a de- 

 -£*• voted lover of its charms, who, one bright morning 

 when the wind came quartering exactly right and the ripple 

 was just high enough, shouldered basket and rod and went 

 away to his favorite pool, all forgetful of the fact that it was 

 to have been his wedding day. What consternation there 

 was, when no bridegroom appeared at the appointed hour 

 and place. What hurrying to and fro, what whisperings 

 and surmises, until some friend, understanding his laudable 

 weakness, ventured to suggest that the absentee had gone 

 a-fishing. 



The idea was scouted by those who were ignorant of the 

 enticing powers of a morning when the angler recognizes all 

 the signs as being auspicious of a plethoric basket. It was 

 with doubting hearts that they followed up the trout stream 

 until there he was, playing a fish, when the angry voice of the 

 was-to-be-groomsman brought him to a realizing sense of his 

 neglect of the one he loved. "Heaven forgive me," he cried, 

 "but wait until I land this fish and I'll explain all." 



The explanation was consistent enough, and nothing was 

 easier than a complete adjustment of the mistake. Her father 

 was a gentle angler himself, and the daughter had seen the 

 good influence that a love for the sport engendered. Like 

 the sensible woman she proved herself, she recognized the 

 fact and was willing to acknowledge that in angling she had 

 a formidable competitor for the love of her husband, and as 

 that was the only thing that could allure him from her, she 

 was content. 



Angling is replete with attractive elements, but it is a genu- 

 ine inborn love for the sport that impels its devotees to give 

 time and money that they may indulge that love. There is 

 no chance for display as there is in shooting or riding, or 

 rowing. Be one never so skillful, his skill is not known out- 

 side his craft. The expert with shotgun or rifle or oars 

 commands the applause of the crowd, while the angler, no 

 less proficient in his chosen recreation, must content himself 

 with doing his work quietly and alone. He never performs 

 for outside effect. He lias no audience to applaud him. His 

 sport is quiet and gentle, lacking in everything showy and 

 impressive to the vulgar, but he knows there is something to 

 admire and applaud in the manipulation of forty feet or more 

 of line. 



Fly fishing requires, nay, demands, one to be aesthetic in hia 

 tastes, and if he is not that he will become so in the company 

 of the genial sportsmen who are facile ■ princeps in the peaceful 

 art. The implements he uses inculcate a love for the beauti- 

 ful. They are beautiful to look upon and admirably adapted 

 to their purpose. Delicate, yet containing, when properly 

 managed, an amount of hidden strength surprising to the 

 novice. 



In the repairing and tying of his flies, he attains a nicety 

 of touch and displays a rare knowledge of color and form, 

 for he has often to experiment with a variety of allurements, 

 and the product of his study may be a fly with no parallel in 

 nature, one tied in bold defiance of entomology, yet effect- 

 ing a better result than would obtain by conforming to some 

 recognized copy. 



There are no mean animosities engendered among anglers 

 in camp. They are invariably willing to assist their brethren 

 of the rod in every way to augment their pleasure, comfort 

 and success. Scores of men go fishing who, if they gain 

 some knowledge of a hidden pool where the fish are excep- 

 tionally large and plenty, keep their discovery locked up; 

 but these men are not anglers in the true meaning of the 

 word. They occupy a place between the sportsman and the 

 pot-fisherman, with a decided leaning toward the latter. 



It is a recreation full of sweetness. It invites one to serene 

 enjoyments and contemplative repose, and the angler yields 

 to its beguiling influences. He gathers inspiration from the 

 infinity of delights with which the earth and all its surround- 



