Forest and Stream. 



A Weekly Journal of the Rod and Gun. 



Termb. $4 A Tear. 10 Ctb. a Copy, i 

 Six Mouths, $3. 



NEW YORK, MAY 11, 18 82. 



j VOL. XVIII. -No. 15. 



"| Nos. 39 & 40 Park Row, New York. 



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CONTENTS. 



Editorial. 



A Bit of Political Economy. 



A Michigan Method. 



The Very Latest. 



Does Game Protection Pay? 

 The Sportsman Tourist. 



Duck Floating on the Bigby. 



The Texas Blue Cat. 



The Guide's Story. 

 Natural History. 



Cardinal Redbird Winters in New 

 York. 



The Winter in New Brunswick. 



Drumming of Spruce Partridge. 

 Game Bag and Gun. 



Jim Crow on a Runway. 



Selling Snow Buntings for Reed 

 Birds. 



The Seven Years' War. 



Outrage on the Innocents. 

 : Camping Out. 



The Charmed White Deer. 



Big Game Destruction. 

 Sea and River Fishing. 



To Palemon. 



West Virginia's Showing. 



The London Fishery Exhibition. 



Sea and River Fishing. 



Shad Nets of the Connecticut. 



Stirling up Trout. 



Shad in Morocco. 



Tennessee Fish Notes. 

 Fishculture. 



American Fishcultural Associa- 

 tion. 



Hatching Striped Bass, Stur- 

 geon, and Trout. 



Carp near Pittsburg. 

 The Kennel. 



Distemper. 



Pertinent Remarks about Dogs. 



The Cleveland Bench Show. 



The Boston Bench Show. 

 Rifle and Trap Shooting. 



N. Y. State Military Practice. 



International Match. 



Short and Mid-Range Targets. 



Creedmoor. 



Matches and Meetings. 

 Yachting and Canoeing. 



Maggie's Record. 



A Modified Cutter. 



Paints and Spar Composition. 

 Answers to Correspondents. 



tion, held March 8th, Hon. Cyrus W. Higby, of Jackson, 

 a well-known worker in the cause of game protection, was 

 engaged to fill the office named above for the current year. 

 We are advised by Mr. Wm. B. Mershon, Secretary of the 

 Association, that an effort will be made to start Mr. Higby 

 on his important mission immediately, and to that end all 

 Michigan sportsmen and the sportsmen who repair to Mich- 

 igan from other States are invited to contribute to meet the 

 necessary expenses. 



This undertaking of the Michigan Society will be recog- 

 nized by those who have had practical experience in such 

 matters as most wise and commendable. The one great 

 obstacle in the way of making our game laws respected is the 

 far-reaching misapprehension of their spirit and intent by the 

 great mass of the people. 



So long as the dweller in the town and the dweller in the 

 country are alike ignorant of what and why these laws are, 

 so long will the best statute ever framed be practically a 

 dead letter. And, on the other hand, just so soon as the 

 people can be made, to understand that the game laws are for 

 the public good — in the widest and truest sense — then will 

 they respect and obey them. To explain to the people of 

 Michigan, to the farmers, land owners, lumbermen and 

 pioneers, that the protection of game and fish is for the bene- 

 fit of all, this is the important task undertaken by the Michi- 

 gan Association, through their delegate, Mr. Higby. We 

 shall watch the progress of his work with great interest; and 

 we commend other societies in other States to watch closely 

 too, with a view to imitating it if it shall prove successful, 

 as we believe it will. 



Mr. Higby might find an effective tract in the discussion, 

 "Does Game Protection Pay?" on another page of the pre- 

 sent issue of this journal. 



Our Readers mil confer a favor by sending us the names 

 of such of their friends as are not now among the subscribers 

 of tlie Forest and Stream, but w7w would presumably be 

 interested in the paper. 



A BIT OF POLITICAL ECONOMY. 



THERE are some chapters of political economy not in- 

 cluded in the text books. One of these is printed in the 

 Forest and Stream to-day. Mr. Lucius L. Hubbard has 

 taken some pains to gather facts and figures showing just 

 what game protection in Maine means when computed in 

 dollars and cents. There is nothing sentimental nor hy- 

 pothetical in Mr. Hubbard's paper; it is a plain statement of 

 facts and figures, based on the actual experiences of the 

 writer and a number of his friends. The facts detailed and 

 the conclusions deduced from them show most conclusively 

 the economic value of proper game protection in Maine. 

 What is true of Maine is likewise true of the game regions 

 of other States to which sportsmen tourists resort, and Mr. 

 Hubbard's paper will be found a very valuable document 

 wherever the campaign is waged against the prevailing 

 ignorance, stupidity and improvidence which permit the 

 extermination of the game supply. 



A MICHIGAN METHOD. 



THE members of the Michigan Sportsmen's Association 

 appear to have come to the conclusion that the present 

 game laws of that State, although not altogether perfect, 

 will answer every purpose for which they are intended, 

 provided only that they can be enforced. At the last meet- 

 ing President Holmes very wisely suggested that the efforts 

 of the Association should be directed toward securing the 

 needed enforcement of the law ; and after some discussion 

 of the subject it was decided to engage a suitable man "to 

 act as Game Warden and Missionary, to spend his time in 

 enlightening the people as to the objects and benefits of 

 Game and Fish Protection, to form Game Protection Clubs, 

 and secure obedience to the Game Laws by moral suasion 

 where he can, and prosecute offenders to the full extent of 

 the law where he must." The auxiliary clubs of the society 

 were taxed for a fund to sustain the effort, and contribu- 

 tions from clubs and individuals invited. 

 At a meeting of the executive committee of the Associa- 



THE YERY LATEST 



THIS is an age of progress. In the arts and the sciences 

 discoveries are being made each day which are more 

 and more astonishing. We cross the ocean in s even days, 

 the continent in the same space; we talk in our ordinary 

 tones to people miles away, or listen to words that have been 

 stored up in a little box for a week or a year. The man 

 who uses the rod or the gun finds that the implements of the 

 chase are constantly improving, but he sees, too, that with 

 this improvement the objects on which these impliments are 

 to be used are becoming so much more scarce as practically 

 to neutralize the advantages which might be expected to 

 follow from the use of superior weapons. 



So we hear on all sides grumbling about the scarcity of 

 game. People seem to feel that they are personally aggrieved 

 because there are not now as many woodcock, snipe and ruffed 

 grouse in our covers as in bygone years, while the few old- 

 time hunters that are still to be found on the plains along 

 the line of the railroad, talk sadly of former days of game 

 plenty, when it used to be necessary to get up in the night 

 and drive the buffalo away from the camp, when the deer 

 could be jumped from every ravine, or found in the brush 

 along every stream, when it was not an unusual thing for 

 a band of antelope to walk up within fifty steps of the 

 wagon in the gray of the morning, to see what the unusual 

 object was. 



There are still some localities where game is reasonably 

 abundant in the West, and where a man who "understands 

 himself," or even a tenderfoot, if he will submit himself 

 wholly to his guide, may kill game enough to satisfy him, 

 even if he be the veriest butcher that ever whetted a knife. 

 Up to within a few years the valley of the Yellowstone 

 River has been a magnificent hunting ground. Many 

 varieties of large game abounded there, and, as it was always 

 rather a bad Indian country, there was not enough hunting 

 done by white men to very greatly reduce the supply. The 

 progress of the Northern Pacific Railroad, however, has 

 changed all this. The Indians have been run out and the w h ite. 

 men have had a chance to do what they could toward kill- 

 ing off the game. The consequence is that a man must 

 spend more time in the field and undergo a bit more of 

 roughing it now than formerly, if he comes back with 

 trophies of the chase. To one class of sportsmen, it is true, 

 it matters little whether game be abundant or not. They 

 can give just as big an account of their prowess when they 

 come home. Much has been said about the facility with 

 which the sportsman draws on his imagination for the facts 

 (sic) and the details of his experience, and it is believed by 

 many that this species of the genus homo is, if the truth be 



does away with the necessity of any untruths on the part of 

 individuals who go to Montana for the purpose of hunting 

 big game. The prospectus of the "Yellowstone Valley 

 Hunting Club, " which lies before us, offers very exceptional 

 advantages to the tyro who desires to have some basis of fact 

 on which to found the boasts that he will make on his return 

 to the East. The object of this club is to systematize game 

 slaughter in the Yellowstone Valley "for the benefit of tour- 

 ists and the world at large." It proposes to arrange matters 

 so that the intending hunters can "at once proceed to the 

 field, the habitation of that particular class of game as best 

 suits their tastes and convenience; whereon they can best 

 enjoy themselves, and gain the object of their visit without 

 dissatisfaction or delay"!!! We are told that the active 

 members of the club include "the most famous scouts, 

 hunters and marksmen of the present day," and that each 

 active member is expected to inform the secretary of any 

 considerable amount of game that he may know of, the kind 

 and amount, and all details connected therewith. "The 

 secretary will then mail such information to each member 

 —thus, if there is a herd of buffalo approaching from one 

 direction, a band of elk known to be lurking in another, 

 black-tail deer plenty on one range, or red deer unusually 

 numerous on a certain stream, then in a short time each 

 member has correct and full information in regard to game 

 all over this vast hunting ground, and parties of any number 

 can, under direction of the club and its scouts, approach and 

 capture the game without loss of time or needless labor and 

 expense. At each fall hunt the active members will take the 

 field with a full supply of everything needful for as many 

 visitors as may signify their desire to join." Everything, 

 from guide down to gun and ammunition, will be furnished 

 by the club— at a price— and the visiting member will be just 

 taken in and cared for by the boys. 



And how much do our readers suppose is the initiation fee 

 to this prince of "sportsmen's clubs?" Only $2. Any one 

 may become a member by sending this trifling amount to the 

 secretary, and this payment will entitle him to all the bene- 

 fits "arising therefrom," whatever that may mean. You see 

 it is not going to be aristocratic, this club; it is broad enough 

 to contain the whole male population of the Union at $2 

 apiece. Any one may belong. Think well of it, you who have 

 never killed anything bigger than a red squirrel or a rabbit . 

 Could $2 be better invested? Think well of it, you mighty 

 Nimrods from over the sea, making your annual pilgrimages 

 westward only to become the dupes of Buckskin Jo and 

 Rattlesnake Ben. Think of enjoying the advantages of the 

 combined skill and experience of "the most famous scouts, 

 hunters and marksmen of the present day" — and all for $2. 

 Can you resist it? 



HUNTING MADE EASY. 

 The Lesson of Prairie and Mountain. 

 the complete frontiersman 

 game killing and indian fighting. 

 Bi 12 Easy Lessons. 

 Practical Instruction. 

 Price, $2. 

 H the game should last more than one season we presume 

 that the philanthropic Yellowstone humanitarians, having 

 reaped a goodly harvest of crisp $2 bills, will be in a financial 

 condition to add some very desirable latest improvements to 

 their self-denying scheme for the amelioration of the sports- 

 man's lot and the benefit of tourists and the world at large. 

 For instance, by an adoption of the burglar alarm system — 

 with which they are presumably familiar — they might inter- 

 sect all the ravines, plateaus and hills in the Yellowstone 

 Valley with wires, all converging to the "club room," so that 

 every time a brute stirred anywhere in the territory covered 

 by the club, an alarm would be given, and the exact where- 

 abouts of the game shown by the indicator in the club room. 

 A. large stock of game might also be corralled in substantial 

 enclosures, where the timid tourist could pump away with his 

 repeating rifle, having, so to speak, a dead sure thing of it. 

 Or the animal might be roped and tied to a post and then 

 slaughtered by proxy. In this case the "sportsman" could 

 advance, and, without soiling his kid gloves or disarranging 

 his necktie, touch the rifle which is held, aimed and fired by 

 an active member, thus sparing our tenderfoot friend the 

 shock of the recoil. Thus the ' 'sportsman" could kill his 

 game on the same principle as that by which the Prince of 

 Wales, when he lays a corner stone, touches the block with a 

 silver trowel. 



In fact the brain reels as it contemplates all the advantages 

 which this club offers. There is only one thing against it, 

 and this is that its life will be so short. The game will last 

 just about one year. The title of the club should beehanged 



told, little better than a liar. 



A plan, however, has been elaborated by some Western and we recommend for its new style The l ellowstone Valley 

 genius (or rather by a concatenation of several geniuses) which 1 Game Exterminating Club. 



