Forest and Stream. 



A Weekly Journal of the Rod and Gun. 



;, $4 a Tear. 10 Ors. a Copy, i 

 Six Months, $2. f 



NEW YORK, APRIL 27, 1882. 



I VOL. XVIH.— No. 13. 



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



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CONTENTS. 



Editorial. 



Protecting the Rail. 



Charles Robert Darwin. 



The New fork Dog Show. 



The Iohthyopl gi. 



Forest and Stream Fables. 

 The Sportsman Tourist. 



Hulka-wewah. 



Pennsylvania Resorts. 

 Natbbai. History. 



How the Opossum Breeds. 



Two New Thrushes. 



A Regimental Pet Antelope. 

 Hame Bag and Gun. 



Memories of a Florida Trip. 



Connecticut Rail Lm. 



That Great Maine Bear Hunt, 



Philadelphia Notes. 

 Sea and River Fishing. 



Walton's "Compleat Angler." 



Netting Black Bass in Florida. 



Pompano and Cavalli. 



A Last Year's Salmon. 



Black Bass and English Anglers. 



Fish culture. 



American Fisheultural Associa- 

 tion. 



Habits and Growth of Carp. 



The Rainbow Trout, 



The Tile Fish. 



Fishery Exhibition in London. 

 The Kennel. 



The New York Dog Show. 



Kennel Notes. 

 RIFLE and That Shooting. 



\ or,' >.: : ! ■.., ,;. n . 



Matches and Meetings. 

 Yachting and Canoeing. 



Reform the Fishing Fleet. 



The Very First Yawl in America. 



In Re Yawls. 



Type in Canoes. 



Kinks in Yawls. 



An Inland Cruiser. 



Read Again. 



New York Yacht Club. 



Ah Experiment Worth Making. 

 Answers to Correspondents. 



PROTECTING THE RAIL. 

 HPHE Nutmeg State is to the fore again with an addition to 

 -*- her game laws, which has long been needed. It was five 

 years ago that the game law was so altered that neither wood- 

 cock, quail nor ruffed grouse could be shot prior to October 

 1st, and we have repeatedly called attention to the fact that 

 for the four succeeding years the fall cock shooting was bet- 

 ter in Connecticut than for years before. It was not so good 

 last year, but only because of the terrible drought, which 

 made it impossible for the birds to rind food in the accus- 

 tomed spots, and obliged them to pass on to other and 

 moister States. The non-export law, to which we called at- 

 tention last week, will, if it can he enforced, be productive 

 of great good. Connecticut has always, been famous for its 

 "patridge" covers, and while the law may bear a little 

 hardly on those of us who have been accustomed to shoot 

 within her boundaries, quuQTV/m. pai'i sutnus, still, if it will pre- 

 vent the extensive snaring and shipment of these superb 

 birds to New York and other extra State markets, we do not 

 think that those whose pleasures are curtailed by the act 

 will be disposed to grumble. This law will, it is hoped, soon 

 receive the approving signature of the Governor. A. bill for 

 the protection of rail has long been needed in Connecticut, 

 for it has been the custom in many localities to go on to the 

 meadows in August, and before the migration has begun 

 kill off the young birds reared there. The young thus de- 

 stroyed are thin, and many of them scarcely full grown, and 

 the old ones are only just beginning to recuperate after the 

 fatigues of rearing (heir broods. Moreover, the weather is 

 so warm that birds, if killed in considerable numbers, are 

 extremely likely to spoil before any use can be made of them. 

 It is much better to pospone the opening- of the season until the 

 grass is ripe, and the bifis, b\ Ceding on if- auctions grain, 

 havebecomelatandstrongof wing, if rail can ever be consid- 

 ered strong flyers. The excellent features of Connecticut's game 

 laws we believe, to be due. in a great measure, to the efforts 

 of Dr. Alsop. of Middlctown, Conn., who for 1 he. last two 

 years has been the Senate Chairman of the Committee <m 

 Agriculture, and who is the president of the Middlesex 

 County Association, of which favorable mention has been 

 made in these columns. 



The Connecticut rail taw may well be adopted in other 

 States, so far as to protect the birds on their breeding grounds. 

 They should be treated as are other birds in this respect 



CHARLES ROBEBT DABWIN. 



THE greatest naturalist of the nineteenth century is dead. 

 Charles R Darwin died at his residence, Down House, 

 near Orpington, on Wednesday, April 19. The third of a 

 line of men eminent for their attainments, he was born at 

 Shrewsbury, England, Feb. 12, 1809, and his early educa- 

 tion was received at the public schools of that town. He 

 entered the university of Edinburgh at the age of sixteen, 

 and after spending two years there, went to Cambridge and 

 graduated from Christ's College, of that university, in 1831. 



From very early boyhood he had manifested a strong predi- 

 lection for the study of natural history, and his enthusiasm and 

 attainments were such that it is not surprising that within 

 a few months after graduation he was selected as the 

 naturalist of the Beagle Exploring Expedition. This expe- 

 dition, which was under the command of Captain Fitzroy, 

 had for its object the exploration of portions of South 

 America and the circumnavigation of the globe. It sailed 

 Dec. 27, 1831, and was gone nearly five years, reaching Eng- 

 land on its return Oct. 2, 1836. Shortly after his return 

 appeared "The Voyage of a Naturalist," and this was fol- 

 lowed by "A Journal of Researches into the Geology and 

 Natural History of the Various Countries visited by H. M. S. 

 Beagle." In 1840-43 appeared "The Zoology of the Voyage 

 of H. M. S. Beagle, " which was published by the British 

 government and was edited by Mr. Darwin. From this time 

 on until his death he was untiringly engaged in scientific 

 investigations. His contributions to our knowledge of 

 biology have been so numerous that a list of them cannot 

 well be given. 



His most important work was his "Origin of Species," 

 published in 1859. Although the theory of evolution was 

 not new, it had never been enunciated so clearly nor sup- 

 ported by so much and so forcible evidence as Mr. Darwin 

 now produced. But that natural selection, by means of 

 the survival of the fittest, is a prime factor in the accomplish- 

 ment of the processes of evolution, was new. To the genius 

 of Darwin and to that of Wallace, who independently 

 worked out the same conclusions and published them at the 

 same time, we owe the explanation of the doctrine of evolu- 

 tion as accepted to-day almost without modification by the 

 scientific world. 



In 1862 he published an important work on "The Fertili- 

 zation of Orchids," and in 1867 appeared his "Variation of 

 Plants and Animals under Domestication." "The Descent 

 of Man and Selection in Relation to Sex," (1871) gave rise to 

 more popular interest and discussion than the "Origin of 

 Species," although only applying to the human race the prin- 

 ciples laid down in that volume. His more recent works 

 are, in the order of their appearance, "The Expression of the 

 Emotions in Man and Animals," "The Power of Movement 

 in Plants," (1880), and his monograph on Earthworms, pub- 

 lished last, year. In addition to these works lie has con- 

 tributed to various journals, proceedings of scientific socie- 

 ties and the like, a vast number of special papers, observa- 

 tions, notes and memoranda, all of them of great value to 

 science. 



Tt is a very common error to imagine, that evolution and 

 Darwinism are synonomous terms. The doctrine of Evolu- 

 tion supposes descent with modification. It assumes ' 'that 

 every living thing is evolved from a particle of matter in 

 which no trace of the distinctive characters of the adult 

 form of that living thing is discernible." The doctrine of 

 Natural Selection, as Darwinism has come to be called, is a 

 reasonable, natural and logical explanation of the methods 

 by means of which evolution takes place. 



Air. Darwin's great service to science consisted in this, that 

 he showed that the two prime factors in the process of evo- 

 lution are (1) the universal tendency in all living things to 

 vary, and (2) the influence of the surrounding conditions 

 upon the existing forms of life, and those which are subse- 

 quently produced from them. 



The tendency to vary is readily established by observation 

 on the living creatures which we see about, as, and we all 

 know that any breed of domestic animals can. in the course 

 of comparatively few years, be so modified as to be markedly 

 different from its parent form. No living creature, is ex- 

 actly fikeany of its fellows; the daughter is not precisely 

 like her mother, nor the son like his father, nor is the stand 

 of wheal grown from a single seed exactly similar to the 

 stand which gave origin to this seed. Notwithstanding this 

 variation, there is a constant tendency among all living 

 things to transmit to their descendants the characteristics of 

 the parents. Thus tin- distinctive characters of a species are 

 likely to lie transmitted, and also the individual variations of 

 parents. Suppose, now. that, some slight variation takes place 

 i in any animal which gives it an advantage over the others of 



its kind, by means of which it can get more food, can more 

 easily escape from its enemies, can scent its prey at a greater 

 distance, or can secure for its mate the best and strongest 

 females of its kind. The animal which has this particular 

 character which gives it this slight advantage over its fellows, 

 will be likely to live longer and to produce a larger num- 

 ber of offspring than those which lack it, and which are, 

 therefore, less well nourished, more likely to succumb to the 

 attacks of enemies, less fitted for securing their prey, or 

 obliged to be satisfied with weakly mates. Having produced 

 a greater number of offspring, there is a stronger probability 

 that in some of these, this advantageous variation will be 

 produced, perhaps more markedly, thus giving to the 

 descendants further advantage over their fellows. 



This process might go on indefinitely, and in time a spe- 

 cies be evolved, in which what had been at first the. trifling 

 variation, has now become the distinctive character of thy 

 new form. At the same time the old form might remain un- 

 changed, and have sent off other shoots in different and quite 

 opposite directions, so that the differences between these two 

 side branches might be so great as to make it appear that 

 they were not at all, or, at most, only very distantly, related. 

 Should it happen that from any cause the parent stock and 

 some of the intermediate branches were to become extinct, 

 having left no trace of their existence, we would just have such 

 a state of things as now exists upon the earth. That is, we 

 would see a number of species, many of which are in ap- 

 pearance so unlike their nearest relations, that no one but a 

 naturalist would ever think it possible that there existed be- 

 tween them any relationship whatever. 



The conditions of the environment of any species act pow- 

 erfully upon it either in modifying it, or in preventing its 

 modification. Huxley has said : " If the surrounding con- 

 ditions are such that the parent form is more competent to 

 deal with them and flourish in them, than the derived forms, 

 then, in the struggle for existence, the parent form will main- 

 tain itself, and the derived forms will be exterminated. But 

 if, on the contrary, the conditions are such as to be more 

 favorable to a derived than to the parent form, the parent 

 form will be extirpated and the derived form will take its 

 place. In the first case, there will be no progression, no 

 change, of structure through any imaginable series of ages ; 

 in the second place, there will be modification and change of 

 form." Such are very briefly the two salient features of the 

 law of Natural Selection. 



Dr. Darwin was buried yesterday, April 26, in Westmin- 

 ster Abbey, in close proximity to the tomb of Sir Isaac Newton. 



THE DOG SHOW. 

 ]VTEW YORK'S Annual Dog Show, which took place last 

 -"- ^ week, was a success. The full reports given elsewhere 

 show that while the number of dogs entered was not far 

 from that exhibited last year, the animals entered were bet 

 ter than ever before. This steady increment of improve- 

 ment in quality is the most encouraging feature of our 

 shows, and is the test of the good accomplished by them. 

 There appears to have been but little grumbling at the 

 decision of the judges, strangely little when we consider i 

 circumstances of the case. 



Nothing is more difficult than for the owner of a dog to 

 view it with unprejudiced eyes and to impartially compare 

 it with another. The average man finds it impossible to 

 separate the physical from the mental qualities of the animal. 

 He thinks of his dog as his friend and companion, in whose 

 society he delights— a being only less dear to him than are 

 his human friends. Just as every mother proverbially thinks 

 her own baby the most beautiful child on earth, so does the 

 owner of a dog, be it good, bad or indifferent, feel more or 

 less strongly that for him it is "the best dog in the world." 

 And so, when this man stands outside the judging ring where 

 his animal is being critically compared with others, and re- 

 members all that his canine friend has been and is to him, he 

 cannot understand why the judge too should not regard his 

 favorite with like partial eyes. This is the exhibitors posi- 

 tion. 



The judge, on the contrary, sees this dog and each one 

 of all the competitors with a lot of others ; knows nothing 

 of its intelligence, its t.ractability or its affection. To him it 

 is one of a crowd, in none of whom he has any special per- 

 sonal interest. 



When it is considered how almost universal is this feeling 

 of partiality on the part of the owners of the animals ex- 

 hibited in the bench shows, it seems remarkable, not that 

 there is always some expression of dissatisfaction at the de- 

 cisions of the judges, but that there should not be more. 



It is interesting to note, in comparing the present exhibi- 



