Forest and Stream. 



A Weekly Journal of the Rod and Gun. 



Tsrms, $i a Year. 10 Cts. a Copy. I 

 Srs Months. $2. j 



NEW YORK, APRIL 20, 1882. 



( vol. XVTH.— No. IS. 



I Nos. 39 & 40 Park Row, New York. 



correspondence: 



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CONTENTS. 



Editorial. 



"PotHunters." 



The Forestry Congress. 



Selection of Military Arms. 

 The Sportsman Tourist. 



Longfellow's Last Poem. 



Familiar Letters. 



A Homily on the Grouse. 



Things in General. 

 Natural History. 



Something about Buzzards. 



Cincinnati Zoological Society. 



Canada Winter Birds. 



The Madstone. 



Annisquam Laboratory. 

 Game Bao and Gun. 



Easy Reading Lessons, 



Geese and Ducks in California. 



Caribou Hunting in Canada. 



Rheumatism and Squirrels. 



Manahawkin Bay, N. J. 

 Sea and River Fishing. 



The Brown Fisher Maid. 



Signs. 



On the Potomac. 



Black Bass and English Anglers. 



American Fishenltural Associa- 

 tion. 



Ska and River Fishing. 



Bull Trout and Pompano. 



"J. R., Jr.," Rises to Explain. 

 The Kennel. 



The New York Dog Show. 



The Sheffield (Eng.j Dog Show. 



The Pure Irish Setter. 



Bench Show Derby. 



Boston Dog Show. 



Kennel Notes. 

 Rifle and Trap Shooting. 



Selection of Military Arms. 



The Military Match. 



Programme for May at Creed- 

 Matches and Meetings. 

 Yachting and Canoeing. 



Outside Ballast. 



Deadrise in Canoes. 



Yawls in Nova Scotia. 



The Yawl Tried. 



Delaware Yachting. 



Buffalo Notes. 



A Length Rule Cheater. 



Cutters. 



The Cutter Fleet. 



Marine Glue. 

 Answers to Correspondents. 



"POT-HUNTERS." 

 ^pHEKE are pot-hunters and pot-hunters. Every right- 

 -*- minded man detests the brute who "crust-hunts" deer 

 when they are his almost helpless victims, and even their 

 hides are worthless ; who kills brooding birds and their half- 

 grown young for market or the tickling of his wolfish palate ; 

 and catches fish any way he can, the fish that are spawning 

 or guarding their fry. He is a nuisance, that should be abated 

 by any means within the law, or even by straining the law a 

 little. 



But many a reader of Forest and Stream has known, or 

 knows, a man the kindliest and most law-abiding, who, ac- 

 cording to a certain construction, would be relegated to the 

 class of pot-hunters. He never in his life shot a bird on the 

 wing, perhaps never tried, though his long single-barrel 

 fowling-piece was as certain as fate on a fox at top speed or 

 a hare bounding through the brush — if he would ever demean 

 himself enough to kill such a worthless innocent. He would 

 creep through the sedges with all the stealth of a deer-stalker 

 and get a shot at a flock of sitting ducks, and pick up his 

 half dozen, and go home satisfied. He would prowl through 

 the woods for a half day, this "prowling backwoods gun- 

 ner," as "Prank Forester" called him, as stealthily as an 

 Indian on the warpath, and get three or four shots at ruffed 

 grouse sitting or skulking, and every one of his shots meant 

 death — and when he had gathered these he had enough for a 

 " stew" (think of stewing the noble bird!), and all the sport 

 his simple soul craved. • 



He never cast a fly in his life, perhaps never saw one of 

 those queer things which are known as flies to the scientific 

 angler. "When he went fishing bis rod was a sapling, with- 

 out a reel, and he baited his hook with a worm or a grass- 

 hopper, or a "minny." Yet he caught some fish, and had a 

 deal of quiet enjoyment in doing so. When he had enough 

 for a "mess" he quit fishing, and as he lugged home his 

 string of fish he thought, with some watering of the mouth, 

 how good they would taste when the "old woman" had them 

 nicely fried. In all his wanderings in woods and fields and 

 by waters he was blessed with a deep but unexpressed love 

 of nature. He saw 



"God in the clouds and heard Him in the wind." 



Yet he was a pot-b.im.ter, But if our old friend had killed a 



hundred ducks on the wing and left half of them to rot in 

 the marshes, he would have been a "true sportsman." H he 

 had blazed away at every one of the score of ruffed grouse 

 he flushed, and peppered and maimed a dozen which he 

 never saw again, and had picked up three, he would have 

 been an ' 'honorable sportsman. " H in a perfectly scientific 

 way he had caught five times as many fish as he could make 

 use of, half of them fingerlings not heavy enough to hang 

 down on a hook, he would have been a "true disciple of 

 'Sir' Izaak." 



Verily, there be distinctions which are too nice for the 

 ordinary mind to comprehend. 



THE FORESTRY CONGRESS. 

 TF the forests of the country are destroyed, during the 

 ■*- next twenty-five years, at the rate of the last ten years, 

 there will at that time be no woodland of spontaneous 

 growth. This is a startling proposition, but we have the 

 statistics of the last census to substantiate it. The sooner 

 its truth and meaning are understood the better. After 

 years of thoughtless, wanton and improvident forest destruc- 

 tion, it is now time for the people of the several States to 

 reflect upon what has been done, and what is to be done. 



A move has been made in Ohio. A National Forestry 

 Convention will be held at Cincinnati next week, extending 

 from April 25th to the 29th. A large number of specialists 

 in forestry matters will be present, and others will contrib- 

 ute papers to be read. And it is proposed to put the more 

 important of these papers into permanent form for extended 

 circulation. 



Besides these discussions there will be some actual trse 

 planting. Next Thursday will be set apart in Ohio upon 

 recommendation of the Governor as Arbor Day, and the many 

 local Roadside Tree-planting Associations throughout the State 

 will plant trees by the roadsides and upon suitable sites for 

 groves. At Eden Park, Cincinnati, a President's Grove will 

 be set out, one tree being planted for each president of the 

 United States. The trees will be brought from historic 

 localities, and a silver spade will be used in planting them; 

 and where it is practicable, the descendants of the various 

 men in whose honor the trees are named will officiate. Then 

 there will be an Author's Grove, and also a Pioneer's Grove. 

 The citizens of the State are thoroughly interested in the 

 work, and the Forestry Convention promises to be a signifi- 

 cant and important turning point in the attitude of the 

 people on this question of woodland waste. 



It is high time that other States emulate this example of 

 Ohio, and join in a movement of which the results may be 

 transmitted as a blessing to generations to come. 



Return of the Migratory Quail. — Three years ago 

 this spring Dr. Arnold Stub, of Brooklyn, L. I., procured 

 from Mr. Tobey, of Boston, one hundred migratory quail, 

 which he afterward turned over to the Lehigh County Sports- 

 man's Association, of Allentown, Pa These birds, it is said, 

 have returned each succeeding spring to the region where 

 they were liberated, and have been seen there so often that 

 there can be no mistake about their being the imported bird. 

 It is further said that Mr. Eli Serger, of Copley, Pa., and 

 Mr. Simon Mayer, of Mayersville, both found nests last June, 

 and saw the old birds about them. It is encouraging to hear 

 this news, and we trust that there are other localities, as yet 

 unknown, where the birds are prospering. 



A Pretty Kettle op Fish! — This exclamation is often 

 used to denote an accident of small account, or a non-serious 

 one, as: "That is a pretty kettle of fish you've made of it!" 

 *'. e., a mess, or what printers call a "pi." The word kettle is 

 really a corruption of keddle [Latin kuldlus] a kind of trap 

 or weir for taking fish. In the original, therefore, instead of 

 meaning a pot, or other culinary utensil full of fish, it really 

 signified a net full. " 



Dog Thieves at the Show.— A daily paper hints that un- 

 scrupulous dog fanciers point out to professional dog thieves 

 the particular animals at the bench show that they would 

 like. Then the thief consults the catalogue for the owner's 

 address, and presto! the thing is done. The moral is, beware 

 the dog thief. 



"Wachlnewah" supplements his note on Nevada game by 

 telling us that his name is an Indian word, meaning "little 

 machine." It was given by the Indians to our correspond- 

 ent some years ago, when he was operating a telegraph ma- 

 chine on the frontier, 



SELECTION OF MILITARY ARMS. 



TN the matter of the selection of a new rifle of a magazine 

 -L for the use of the United States Army, it would appear 

 that the authorities are adopting a wise course. The article 

 which we give elsewhere in our columns will show what is 

 going on in that direction, and how a mixed board of offi- 

 cers have been busy for some months testing and trying vari- 

 ous makes of arms. The point aimed at is not to fix upon a 

 particular model and then by issuing it generally to the 

 whole army, think that a finality has been reached. Such 

 an idea would be chimerical. The armorer of to-day finds 

 his best effort set aside by the discoveries and advances of to- 

 morrow. Armored vessels and rifled guns have gone on with 

 a see-saw sort of advance, each in turn surpassing the other, 

 until further improvement has almost been abandoned and 

 search is being made into the realm of torpedo practice for 

 harbor defence on one side, while comparatively defenceless 

 but fast cruisers are taking the place of the ponderous, un- 

 wieldy ironclads. 



The question of small arms is in precisely the same trans- 

 ition state. The favorits arm of to-day may by the next 

 season find itself laid on the shelf as an antiquated weapon, 

 fit only to be looked at in a museum. The breech-loader has 

 completely crowded out the muzzle-loader, just as fixed am- 

 munition has supplanted every other sort of loading. The 

 present endeavor is to devise a magazine rifle which shall set 

 aside the old single breech-loader. It will be done. An ad- 

 mirable arm will no doubt be chosen, only to enable the au- 

 thorities to find out that it is not adapted to the service, since 

 a mere invention will spring out having all the advantages 

 and fewer of the disadvantages of the weapon chosen. This 

 policy of adoption and discarding seems to be the best that 

 can be at present carried out. The army must have rifles, 

 and the best, too ; but while the whole question of small arms 

 advance is in such an unsettled state, it is impossible for any- 

 one to say that such and such an arm is and will remain the 

 most desirable weapon. 



The rifles of to-day, wonderfully accurate though they be, 

 are comparatively clumsy to what the arm of the future will 

 be. We are now employing the old bulky, explosive mixture 

 of sulphur, nitrate and charcoal, while the science of explo- - 

 sives has been making rapid advances. There is an opportu- 

 nity for a really valuable display of inventive power in re- 

 ducing the size and weight of our present bulky cartridges 

 without incurring any counteracting disadvantages of in- 

 creased risk or inaccuracy in their use. The device should 

 be studied in its entirety, while instead the present plan 

 seems to be to allow the cartridge to define and fix the form 

 and character of the machine by which it is made available. 



The work of the present board of officers is important, 

 not only on this side the ocean and in our own country, but 

 the decision reached will be studied in other lands and by 

 other possible purchasers than our own government. There 

 are governments to whom the question of securing the best 

 possible man-killer and peace-persuader in the way of a 

 soldier's rifle is of vastly more consequence than it is to our 

 own peaceful community. To an army doing mere police 

 duty, and with next to no prospect of any immediate calling 

 to arms, almost anything will suffice to go through the 

 manual of arms, but it would be unfair to American 

 inventive genius if the country where the best arms are 

 made and sold should not supply its home guard with them, 

 If for no other reason than to assist our rifle inventors and 

 makers, our army should have placed in its hands the very 

 latest and most approved model. It is only in this way and 

 by similar displays that we can keep our present leading 

 position in this industry. 



The coming match between American and British rifle- 

 men, armed with the modern military breech-loader, will 

 have an important bearing upon this question of arming 

 forces of men. It will become a question for military men 

 to determine whether soldiers shall be supplied with fine 

 rifles capable of doing effective work at long distances and 

 then taught to use them, or whether they shall be given a 

 magazine rifle for short range -work, but so arranged that for 

 the time being the soldier is a sort of human mitrailleuse. 

 The match will show what can be done with a service 

 weapon at ranges running up to and over half a mile. If a 

 body of such long range marksmen direct their fire against 

 an approaching force armed with short range magazine 

 rifles, the chances are that the attacking party will become 

 demoralized before they can get into a position to use their 

 own rifles. But on the other hand there are so many posi- 

 tions where rapidity of fire is of the most critical moment 

 that the search for a first-class magazine rifle ia a very fit 

 and proper one. 



