Forest and Stream. 



A Weekly Journal of the Rod and Gun. 



Terms, $4 a Year. 10 Cts. a Copy. \ 

 Six Months, $2. | 



NEW YORK, MAY 2 5, 1882. 



I VOL. XYTH.-No. 17. 



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



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CONTENTS. 



Editorial. 



A Sign of the Times. 



Match Preparations. 



Eorestand Stream Fables, No. 3. 

 Camp Fire Flickerings. 

 The Sportsman Tourist. 



A Swamp Hunter. 



Cheap Trip to the Adirondacks. 



Major Joseph Verity. 

 Natural History. 



Are their Deed Good or Evil? 



The Music of Nature. 

 Game Baq and Gun. 



Hunting Experiences. 



Colorado state Association. 



"The Charmed White Deer." 



The Huffed Grouse Again. 



New York Game Law. 



Wet Weather at Cobb's Island. 



Shooting Nesting Pigeons. 

 Sea and River Fishing. 



Bass Fishing on the St. Marks. 



"Catting." 



Riparian Rights. 



Sea and River Fishino. 

 The Rangeley Lakes. 



FlSHCULTURE. 



American Fishcultural Associa- 

 tion. 



Notes on Oyster Culture. 



Report of the New Hampshire 

 Commission. 

 TtiK Kennel. 



The Dog. 



Foreman. 



Gordon Setters. 



Kennel Notes. 

 Rifle iSD Trap Shooting. 



A Rifle Wanted. 



Matches and Meetings. 

 Yachting and Canoeing. 



The Fifteen-Tonners of Great 

 Britain. 



Maggie, Fifteen Tons. 



lave Starts. 



"Olsen's." 



All in the Make. 

 Answers to Correspondents. 



Our Readers mil confer a favor by sending us the names 

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

 of the Forest and Stream, but who would presumably be 

 interested in the paper. 



A SIGN OF THE TIMES. 

 ~YVrJS, were last week officially informed of the purchase by 

 ' ' the Kitty Hawk Club of the Van Slyck property in 

 Currituck county, North Carolina. Mrs. Van Slyck's has 

 been for so many years a resort for Northern sportsmen, that it 

 is probably as well known among those who enjoy fowl shoot- 

 ing as any locality of the kind in the country. Attempts 

 have been made in the past to secure these grounds for the 

 Use of several well-known shooting clubs, but without success, 

 for the property has been held at a price which was almost 

 prohibitory. The Kitty Hawk Club, however, have now 

 succeeded in securing it, and by this purchase have added 

 much to the value of their already extensive preserves in 

 North Carolina. The estate consists of a considerable 

 number of islands, points and marshes, on which the canvas- 

 back, redhead, goose and snipe shooting is excellent, to- 

 gether with a thousand acres of arable upland, plentifully 

 Stocked with quail. The buildings on the property are in 

 excellent condition, and will probably be used for the present 

 as club headquarters. 



To many of our readers who have been accustomed to 

 make at least one yearly pilgrimage to Van Slyck's, the 

 sale of this property will be unpleasant news, for when 

 one has become accustomed to visiting a shooting place 

 for a number of seasons, it is hard to be obliged to change 

 one's habits, and to have to loo"k up new resorts. Van 

 Slyck's, however, after having for years enjoyed the repu- 

 tation of beiug one of the very best places for fowl on the 

 Atlantic coast, the show shooting ground to which for- 

 eigners were taken, is now closed to the general pub- 

 lic, who must therefore turn elsewhere for their shooting. 

 We cannot but feel and express a sincere sympathy for 

 those who, by the sale of this famous resort, are thus evicted, 

 as it were ; turned away from a spot which has for them so 

 many pleasurable associations, and forced to abandon the 

 well-remembered points and islands, scenes of so many happy 

 days' sport, 



Our supply of game is each year diminishing, because our 

 Jaws for its protection are imperfect, are not properly en- 



forced, and because of the foolish and wanton over-shooting 

 which takes place at all points which are at all accessible. 

 This diminution goes on in a constantly increasing ratio, and 

 hence the shooting grounds which can be easily reached are 

 rapidly being swept bare of birds. This results not less 

 from constant pursuit than from their being killed in great 

 numbers. For fowl are not slow to learn that localities 

 where there is no peace for them even on their feeding 

 grounds must be at once deserted. The knowledge of a 

 good shooting locality, however well guarded, soon spreads, 

 and an area that could accommodate ten shooters is parceled 

 out among a hundred. But there are certain localities where 

 all the conditions of life are favorable to the existence of 

 the birds, places where food is abundant, depth of water 

 favorable, and climatic conditions just what are needed. 

 Such localities may be termed the natural winter resort of 

 the birds, and to such they cling. Hither in countless mul- 

 titudes they have flocked in the autumn for ages past, and 

 here, with thinned ranks, they still gather at the approach 

 of winter. Such places, properly protected, could be made, 

 as of old, to swarm with fowl. Now that this is coming to 

 be understood, the natural resorts of birds are passing into 

 the control of people who are determined to protect them. 



The public shooting grounds are thus every year becoming 

 more and more contracted. People are beginning to realize 

 the fact that the days of fowl shooting will at some time not 

 very distant come to an end, that the increase in the number 

 of those who use the gun, the improvement in arms, the new 

 regions being constantly made accessible by railroads, the 

 continuance of spring shooting, are destroying birds faster 

 than nature can supply the loss. Those who delight in shoot- 

 ing appreciate that a general protective law cannot, in the 

 present state of public sentiment, accomplish for the game 

 the results desired, unless it is backed by private effort and 

 private means, and so we hear every day of the forming of 

 shooting clubs, the purchase or perpetual leasing of desirable 

 grounds, and the stringent and efficient protection of such 

 properties. How many organizations of this description there 

 are in this country it would be hard to say, but it is certain 

 that their number is constantly on the increase. A time will 

 come, and we do not regard it as in the very distant future, 

 when all the available shooting properties on the Atlantic 

 coast will be taken up by private organizations; and when 

 that is done, the interesting question will arise as to what the 

 general sportsman, the non-club member, is to do for his 

 shooting. It is perfectly clear that we cannot, with any color 

 of justice, complain of a man because he desires to preserve 

 the shooting on his own property for himself or his friends. 

 No cry of "monopoly" or "aristocrat" will appeal to the hard 

 common sense of the American people. The shooting clubs 

 have been forced in self-defense to take this action, have 

 been obliged to purchase and preserve land by the in- 

 creasing scarcity of game, and we all know to what that must 

 be attributed. You cannot eat your cake and have it, too. 

 It cannot be doubted that a wise system of game laws 

 thoroughly enforced and backed by a public sentiment, 

 which would induce each man who shoots to restrain his 

 desire to kill, and to limit himself to a certain number of days' 

 shooting each season, would do much to increase the supply 

 of game, but it is idle to hope for any result of this kind 

 under the existing condition of things. 



We may prepare ourselves, therefore, to see the fowl and 

 shore shooting gradually taken up, and when that unhappy 

 end is accomplished, it will be in order for us, like the in- 

 genious correspondent who a week or two since spoke of 

 "beating his dogs and his fishing tackle into plowshares, " 

 to fashion— well, say our gunning skiffs and rubber boots 

 into pruning hooks, and devote ourselves on dry land to the 

 pursuit of the ferocious sparrow and the hunting of the 

 night-disturbing grimalkin. 



Nesting Pigeons. — A correspondent asks why it is im- 

 proper to kill wild pigeons in their breeding season. It is 

 proper, and, in fact, just the right thing to do, if it be ex- 

 pedient to carry on the work of exterminating these birds. 

 The practices and principles advocated by "Backwoodsman" 

 are just those which are responsible for the scarcitj r of the 

 pigeons he complains of. Pennsylvania is not the only 

 State where wild pigeons were formerly abundant in the 

 fall, and where none are now to be found at that season. 

 The simple reason for this is that the birds have been for 

 years harassed and killed by wholesale in the spring of the 

 year. It is contrary to the teachings of nature and common 

 sense to systematically kill any kind of game in its breeding 

 season. H stock growers should adopt in their business the 

 principles advocated by spring pigeon shooters, they would 

 go into swift and sure bankruptcy— the whole kit of them. 



MATCH PREPARATIONS. 

 'T^IME is passing on rapidly and we are, at the end of May, 

 -*- without much showing of the American strength in the 

 matter of the International Match. It may be that there is a 

 quantity of practice going on in various quiet corners here 

 and there over the country, but as 1,000-yard ranges are few 

 and far between, we do not give much credence to the stories 

 of preparations in a dozen or more States. On the other 

 side there is an abundance of time for preparation, and besides 

 they have the advantage of the great Wimbledon meeting, 

 where a choice can be made in a few days of as strong a 

 team as Great Britain is likely to produce. 



So far as the National Rifle Association has any official 

 information there is next to nothing going on in the way of 

 getting ready to meet the coming visitors. There is an 

 abundance of "private correspondence" flitting back and 

 forth until it would appear that every insignificant letter of 

 inquiry which is sent to the association becomes at once 

 a personal note. The fact remains, however, that our pro- 

 gress is not at all marked. The talk of the guns that were 

 building to do such great work at 1,000 yards seems to have 

 had an outcome only in the bursting of one of the altered 

 weapons in the hands of a contestant at Creedmoor. The best 

 score yet made in the preliminary match at Creedmoor was 

 by a rifle which was used in a similar way before the first 

 International Irish-American Match. 



It may be that there is a holding back in certain quarters 

 to see what the chance of victory is, and What opportunity 

 there is of securing a place on the team before aspirations in 

 that direction are acknowledged. Such caution is foolish, 

 since the best men are to go upon the team, and the best can 

 only be singled out after the comparative tests in simultane- 

 ous practice. It had been better in some respects if the home 

 or central association had kept itself better posted as to the 

 doings of the men who may be eligible to places on the team. 

 A report from California would be interesting at this time as 

 to what Captain Burns and his men are to do in relation to 

 the match. Massachusetts seems to be holding aloof, while 

 Captain Stetson ought to be at the work of preparation down 

 in Connecticut. New Jersey and "Pennsylvania have excel- 

 lent ranges, readily accessible, and there is no reason why they 

 should not have the placing of some members on the team. 



It is about time that something in the way of reports of 

 progress made should begin to come in. We want to see the 

 team a representative one, and not made up from among a 

 limited number of regiments which make Creedmoor their 

 place of practice. 



The Otsego Lake Clause. — The citizens of Coopers- 

 town, New York, have spent much time and money in an 

 effort to restock Otsego Lake with choice fish. There is 

 every reason to believe that these efforts will in a short time be 

 rewarded with a brilliant success, provided the lake can be 

 protected from the ravages of a few selfish men. The people 

 of Cooperstown are almost unanimous in their determination 

 to give the lake this necessary immunity from gill-nets. If 

 a vote of the town should be taken to-day, not fifty out of 

 the 1,100 would vote in favor of the use of gill-nets in the 

 lake at any season. Yet one E. W. Thayer, a hotel proprie- 

 tor at Otsego Lake, falsely represented to the Sportsmen's 

 Convention at Albany, last March, that the Cooperstown 

 people wanted the privilege of putting gill-nets into their 

 lake in July and August. By his dishonest representations 

 he induced the framers of the proposed new law to insert a 

 clause permitting this use of gill-nets in Otsego Lake. He 

 did this because he wants to serve fish to his hotel guests. It 

 was pure hoggishness on his part, and in direct opposition to 

 the public interest. The people of Cooperstown are very 

 indignant at the thought that by this clause in the proposed 

 law the State of New York shall legislate away their rights 

 to satisfy the outrageous demands of this hotel proprietor. 

 It is to be hoped, now that the facts are known, that this 

 injustice may not be done to the people of Cooperstown and 

 Otsego county. Another clause of the proposed game law 

 permits the shooting of ruffed grouse in Otsego county in 

 August, a time when it is forbidden in every other part of 

 the State. This clause was also introduced because of the 

 false representations of the same party that such was the 

 desire of the sportsmen of that county. On the contrary, 

 not a single sportsman there indorses the measure. They 

 are all opposed to it. It was proposed by Thayer solely in 

 the interests of himself and his pot-hunters. To make it the 

 law would be gross injustice to the reputable citizens of 

 Otsego county. 



Dr. J. A. Henshall has just returned from a five months' 

 sojourn in Florida, 



