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FOREST AND STREAM. 



'March 16, 188& 



whole we are inclined to think their privations balanced by 

 their present joys. They will have to learn to dodge tele- 

 graph wires, which could hardly have existed in their day, 

 although this is mere conjecture on our part, since we came 

 to this planet at a later period. 



We extend a cordial welcome to the Swanton bats, and 

 hope that they will enjoy the nineteenth century as much as 

 they did the age which they first knew, and if they should 

 happen to come down our way this summer, they will find 

 the windows open and plenty of crackers and cheese on the 

 dish. 



ANOTHER DEATH TRAP. 

 npiME and again has Forest and Stream raised its yoice 

 -*- of warning, and innumerable have been our words of 

 caution against going to sea in beamy, light-draft vessels. 

 They are not fit for aught but duck-puddle play, and if sent 

 losea the penalty of ignorance or foolhardy recklessness is 

 sure to be paid in the end. A hideous, misshapen slab of a 

 thing called Eva, and by the unsophisticated accepted as a 

 ' -yacht" (save the mark!), has gone the way of all such rattle- 

 trap shams. One of the widest and flattest of tubs ever 

 launched in obedience to whittle-jaek inanity and hearsay 

 theory, this thing has met the fate that awaits scores of 

 other such traps as soon as they venture to poke their noses 

 outside habitually. The Eva was begotten in ignorance, 

 sailed in ignorance and ignoininiously sunk in consequence, 

 to keep company with the rapidly growing list of contempti- 

 ble endings which are disgraceful to the intelligence of 

 yacht builders in America. 



There was no need of building the Eva so flat and shallow. 

 She was not intended to navigate some specially shoal bay, 

 for, with her board down, she drew no less than twelve or 

 thirteen feet, and from her size, seventy odd tons, she should 

 have been fit to cruise around the world in perfect safety. 

 She was built as she is, in obsequious deference to the 

 romance current among most of our builders that fast 

 yachts must, in defiance of all physical laws, sail "over the 

 water," and not through it. The most casual investigation, 

 the most superficial observations in actual practice refute the 

 stupid vagaries which gave birth to such a conception as this 

 flat iron Eva, and it is nothing short of shameful to builders 

 and owners alike that they have so long been content to pass 

 from mouth to mouth a lot of mythical meaningless, point- 

 less and wholly unsubstantiated claptrap as the acme of 

 successful design, when every-day experience gives to the 

 nonsensical stuff about speed being dependent upon light 

 draft the lie direct. Yet thousands upon thousands of 

 dollars have been invested — sunk, literally sunk — and reputa- 

 tions have been lost by the score, through blindly following ig- 

 norance so gross and such palpable humbug, that words fail 

 us to express in full the scorn that should follow the clumsy 

 bucolics responsible for the curieney given to the unlikely 

 fabrications concerning the requirements for speed. Not 

 even the wildest flights of spiritualism nor the loosest nursery 

 yarns of ghosts and goblins can equal, in improbability, in 

 downright impossibility, the utter baselessness of the light 

 draft quackery to which a constantly increasing number of 

 deluded victims are being offered in sacrifice. 



The Eva was a schooner, the shabbiest kind of a slab, 

 worse than the abominable sandbag caricatures we see 

 bottom up by the score every year. She is 73ft. over all, 

 6Qft. water line, 32. 4ft, beam, and 5ft. Sin. in depth of hold, 

 with not as much as an ounce of ballast outside to preserve 

 the balance between such a light weight hull and the usual 

 towering spars, the use of which the reckless verdancy of the 

 times explicitly demands. This thing has been up and 

 down the coast several times before. Once she struck a reef- 

 ing breeze and a trifling sea, Then, in the wild antics all 

 slabs go through under such conditions, through the ceaseless 

 efforts to stand on head and tail all in one second, the jump- 

 ing-jack of a tiring tossed her skipper over the quarter like a 

 rubber ball high up into the air, and down he shot like the 

 stick of a rocket, head first into the sea to appear no more. 

 Now the "yacht" has followed suit. She was bound from 

 Norfolk via. Oci'acoke to Jacksonville, Florida, but dropped 

 herself on the Charleston bat. Fortunately all of her 

 crew, lucky dogs they were, found a passing schooner to take 

 them aboard in time. There lies this Eva thing in the sands, 

 the fish swimming in and out and the crabs poking round 

 down below among edibles and fancy drinks in the steward's 

 silent domain, reflectively wondering, no doubt, what an ass 

 mortal man can be to send such a treacherous make-believe 

 trap to sea. when, had common sense held sway-, the slab 

 would never have left the blocks her keel was first laid upon. 

 And now, how many more such productions of "the 

 talent," are there in the fleet? What yacht is to be the next, 

 the untimely close of whose career we will have to record in 

 these columns. Who are to be the next victims to the sickly 

 balderdash about ligb.1 draft and speed? Will builders learn 

 anything at all? Can we nope that the Madge has been 

 more effectual in driving into unwilling craniums the egre- 

 gious folly of their ways than till the hard knocks they have 

 received from Fohest and Stueam? 



Fur, mark our words, as we go cruising and lengthen our 

 voyages, diss > i will follow in each others' 



wake', and a frightful roll of deaths will he called at the end 

 of the season if lie-lit draft yachts persist in going i i 

 Mohawk, Sophia, Eva and others have but opened the chap- 

 ter. Let us hope with the light shed abroad by FdBE&T and 

 Stream that common sense will prevail through acquisition 



rather than that we must wait till desolated homes and lost 

 treasure at the bottom of the sea force conviction against the 

 : fep rous stupidity and hmctmble culpability of build- 

 ers grasping after the shadow of light draft instead of the 

 substance of good, safe form, wholesome weights and proper 

 balances. 



Light draft has no connection whatever with speed. 



Light draft yachts may be fast, but so are boats of the deep- 

 est draft yet attempted. 



Light draft yachts may make a passage without much ado, 

 but once let a trap meet an adverse condition of wind and 

 wave and nothing else but a miraculous intervention of 

 Providence or dumb fool's luck will bring the slab out of 

 the mess without serious harm. 



Owners of traps may secure partial safety at least by 

 plastering lead on the keels of their machines. They can 

 secure entire immunity from drowning by burning up the 

 libels upon sound design which disfigure our waters by the 

 squadron, and make so many of our yachts the butt of ridi- 

 cule among sailors and intelligent men. 



LOCAL CLUBS. 



overcome the apathy which has in the past defeated all like 

 attempts to secure national legislation on this important 

 matter. In our next issue we will present a review of the 

 buffalo legislation at Washington during the past ten years. 



THE first step toward fish and game protection is the 

 enactment of laws for that purpose. But this alone will 

 not bring about the desired result. The laws must be en- 

 forced ; which will not be done unless some one makes it his 

 business to see that they are. It is an old and true adage 

 that "what is everybody's business is nobody's business," and 

 if the enforcement of the game laws is left to individuals, in 

 ninety-nine cases out of a hundred there will be no attempt 

 made to prosecute the most flagrant violations of them; and 

 in the hundredth case, a man honestly endeavoring to bring 

 the poacher to justice, only brings upon himself the ill will 

 of all the poachers, and gets no backing from those who, if 

 it could be done without any effort on their part, would 

 rather prefer to have protection effective. 



In the States where there are not trust}' game constables 

 appointed, the only effectual means of having the laws carried 

 out is in the organized effort of the friends of protection. 

 With lamentably few exceptions, of which that of Michigan 

 is a shining example, the State associations have proved very 

 inefficient. They expend their energies on pigeon shooting 

 tournaments and around dinners, and seem to quite forget 

 the object which they are supposed to have in view. For the 

 most part, the influential members of these associations are 

 rich men, who can hire all the ground they wish for shooting 

 over, or can make journeys of hundreds of miles to where 

 game is plenty. At any rate, for one reason or another, most 

 of the State associations amount to next to nothing for game 

 and fish protection. It seems, then, as individuals can 

 do so little, and large bodies wdll do so little, that 

 the main hope of efficient protection is in the formation of 

 local clubs. Every sportsman in a township is interested in 

 the preservation of its game and fish, and has some oversight 

 of its woods and waters. There cannot be much illegal shoot- 

 ing and fishing in his neighborhood Without his knowing it, 

 and with a dozen or even a half dozen earnest men to help 

 one another, it can soon be stopped. Let it be known in a 

 township that there are a dozen residents united in the deter- 

 mination to put a stop to shooting and fishing out of season, 

 and the poachers will quit their evil deeds, or practice them 

 so seldom as to do "but little harm. The expenses of such a 

 club need not beat all burdensome. In most places a room 

 for meeting can be had rent free; the town house, a school 

 house, or the house of a member. An occasional notice in 

 the local paper setting forth the purpose of the club to prose- 

 cute all offenders will cost but little, and not much more a 

 hundred printed copies of the constitution and by-laws, one 

 for each member to keep, and a few for him to distribute 

 where they will do most good. There need be no expensive 

 shooting matches, nor annual feasts in part; for the legiti- 

 mate work of the club they might better be left out. Now 

 and then it may be thought best to hire a trusty man to watch 

 a stream or piece of woodland for a few days, but often this 

 can be done by members without any severe tax on their 

 time, each taking a day in turn. Counting everything, after 

 the club gets fairly started, the levy on each member need 

 not exceed fifty cents a year. 



Regular meetings, for the election of officers and the trans- 

 action of necessary business, need not be held more than 

 twice a year, though, of course, the oflener they are held the 

 more the interest will be kept up, and they may be made 

 interesting and instructive by essays on and discussions of 

 subjects with which the sportsman and naturalist is concerned. 

 The good work that might be accomplished by only two or 

 three such organizations in every county, is incalculable, 

 and there is hardly a towmship in the land but has at least its 

 half dozen sportsmen, or men whom, though rarely fishing or 

 hunting, grieve to see our woods and waters made desolate. 

 Lot such unite at once for the preservation of the fish and 

 game we bav* Left. 



The Destruction of Large Game. — In our Game Bag 

 and Gun columns this week will be found an important con- 

 tribution to this discussion. Its writer has had tm usual op- 

 portunities to secure accurate information on this subject by 

 personal observation In the same connection we print the 

 bill introduced at Washington by Mr. Post, and referred to 

 the Committee on Territories. It is extremely doubtful if it 

 ever comes out from that committee unless Mr, Post can 



PROPOSED DOG LAW FOR NEW YORK STATE. 

 HPHE following is the text of section first of the proposed 

 -"- new legislation concerning dogs, and for the protection 

 of sheep : 



Section 1. Every owner or keeper of a dog shall annually, 

 on or before the thirty-first day of May, cause it to be regis- 

 tered, numbered, described and licensed for one year from 

 the first day of the ensuing June, in the office of the clerk of 

 city or town wherein said clog is kept, and shall cause it to 

 wear around its neck a collar distinctly marked with its 

 owner's name and its registered number, and shall pay for 

 such license two dollars. Provision is made whereby the 

 owners of poultry, sheep or other domestic animals killed by 

 dogs can recover their value. Section 13 provides that all 

 puppies when eight weeks old shall be considered dogs. 

 This is ridiculous, and should be changed to four months at 

 least, as many puppies die soon after weaning. We presume 

 that dog owners throughout the State are perfectly willing 

 that a law of this kind should be passed, but a tax of one 

 dollar per capita would be amply sufficient to provide funds 

 for the payment of all losses that may occur, and still leave 

 a large surplus for the treasury of each county, 



The Pittsburg Bench Show was a superior exhibition 

 of fine sporting dogs, better than those which preceded it. 

 There has been, indeed, since' the inauguration of such exhi- 

 bitions, a wonderful improvement in the standard of fine 

 dogs shown on the bench in America. Competition is closer 

 than ever before, and the prize winners of a bench show now 

 are sure to be a first-class lot. One most satisfactory and en- 

 couraging sign of the times, is the fact that many of the 

 field trial winners are also coming to the front as bench show 

 winners. The breeders have very happily hit upon the 

 plan of combining bench show form with field qualities, and 

 the result is taking away all their arguments from the carp- 

 ers at bench shows and field trials. 



New York Dog Show. — Everything looks very promis- 

 ing for the New York show; entries are coming in from all 

 parts of the country. Hundreds of applications for entry 

 blanks have been received from parties who have never lie- 

 fore exhibited, showing that there is an increased interest 

 being taken in dog matters. Major J. M. Taylor, of Lex- 

 ington, Ey. , who so acceptably judged here last year, will 

 judge the Irish and Black and Tan Setters. Mr. James 

 Watson, of this city, will judge the Mastiffs, St. Bernards, 

 Berghunds, Newfoundlands, and Dachshunds. This com- 

 pletes the list of judges, and we congratulate the West- 

 minster Club upon having secured the services of so capable 

 and fair-minded gentlemen. 



Rifle Tournament.— As will be seen by reference- to our 

 rifle columns, the preliminaries of the Forest ash Stream 

 gallery rifle tournament have been arranged, and the series of 

 matches will soon be inaugurated. A comparison of the 

 scores made in the coming tournament with those recorded 

 in the last Forest and Stream competition will give an 

 interesting test of the progress made in this kind of shooting 

 in the interval which has elapsed. 



The Adirondack Park.— Ex-Gov. Alvord has submitted 

 a bill at Albany which provides that 000,000 acres of the 

 Adirondack region be set apart for a preserve, to be known 

 as the Adirondack Forest, and to be used by the public for 

 hunting and fishing purposes. 



Live Canvas Backs Wanted. — We are requested to in- 

 quire if any of our readers can tell how and when 

 more living pairs of canvas back ducks can be obtained. We 

 shall be greatly obliged to anyone who can give us the desired 

 information. 



A convention of members of the New York Shu 

 ciation for the Protection of Fish and Game met at Albany 

 yesterday. A report of the meeting will be given in our next 



issue. 



The Papers on Doo Training, which were published in 

 this paper, have been collected into book form and are ttois 

 in press, to be issued shortly. 



EASY READING LESSONS-VI. 



FOR THE LITTLE READERS OF THE FOREST AND STREAM. 



HUSH 1 Do not make a Noise. You will wake the Hunter. 

 The Day is cold, and He has been sitting long on the 

 Runway, so he has built a Fire and lias now fallen asleep. 

 How tired be must be, poor Man, after waiting so long. 

 Hark! what is that Sound? The Hunter does not hear it, He 

 is sleeping so peacefully. What is that pretty Animal with 

 Horns and a white Tad, that has come out of the Woods, and 

 now stands looking at the Hunter, so curiously! It is a Deer. 

 See how gracefully It bounds away. "What wilt the Hunter 

 say when the Dogs come up and wake him? He will discourse 

 upon the Beauties of Nature. What will the other Hunters 

 say when They learn that the Deer went past Him? They 

 will praise his Watchfulness— Oh, yes. 



