

Forest and Stream. 



A Weekly Journal of the Rod and Gun. 



Terms, $4 a Yeas. 10 Cts. a Copy. | 

 8rx Months, 83. 



NEW YORK, JUNE 1, 1882. 



I VOL. XVUI.— No. 18. 



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



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CONTENTS. 



Editorial. 



The Prairie Chicken Trials. 



Shad Fry for the Hudson. 



An Important Maine Decision. 

 THE SPOKT8MAN Toorist. 



The "Pis-Kan" of tne Blackf eet. 



A Preface and a True Story. 



Spring Greetings. 

 Camp Fire Flickering. 1 ?. 

 Natural History. 



Mockers. 



Dispersal of Fresh-water Shells. 

 Game Hag and Gcn. 



Brant Shooting at Cape Cod. 



Field Sports in Nebraska. 



Baking a Bird in Clay. 

 Sea and River Fishing. 



Fish in Season in June. 



Trouting Around Lake Megantic 



Are Fresh Water Mussels Edible ? 



A Fishy Coincidence. 



Fisn for Colorado Anglers. 



Notes from the Kangoieys. 



Statistics of Maine i'isheries. 



Trouting ui Michigan. 



FlSHCULTUBfi. 



American Fishcultural Associa- 

 tion. 



Fishculture. 



Notes on Oyster Culture. 



Report of the Maine Commission 



Fisnculture in Ohio. 



Fishculture in Michigan. 



A Book on the Carp. 

 The Kennel. 



The Dog. 



Roll. 



Souther Johnny's Death. 



English National Field Trials. 



Kennel Management. 

 Rifle and Trap Shooting. 



Creedmoor June Programme. 



Norton's Breech-loading Arms. 



Pistol Ammunition. 



Pennsylvania. 



That Last Badge Shoot. 



Some Recent Gallery Scores. 



Matches and Meetings. 

 Yachting and Canoeing. 



Centerboards for Canoes. 



The Sweep of Reform. 



Pearls. 



"Olsen's." 



Sailing Regulations of the Amer- 

 ican Canoe Association. 

 Answers to Correspondents. 



It is the difference between the two styles of shooting 

 that gives a part of interest to the forthcoming trials at 

 Fairmont. 



It is to be hoped that all parts of the country may be well 

 represented, and that the meeting at Fairmont may be so 

 successful that it will be accepted as the inauguration of a 

 series of annual field trials on prairie chickens. 



TEE PRAIRIE CHICKEN TRIALS. 

 'T^HE field trials on prairie chickens, to be held at Fair- 

 -*- mont, Minn., next September, are attracting very gen- 

 eral attention among owners of sporting dogs. An interest- 

 ing meeting is anticipated. 



Prairie chickens are the most abundant and important 

 variety of game in many parts of the West, and chicken 

 shooting is, in consequence, the principal sport. The dog of 

 the chicken country must of necessity be trailed with refer- 

 ence to this particular game. There is a difference in the 

 character of the work generally required of a dog in prairie 

 chicken shooting. Quail take to cover; and under certain 

 conditions of quail shooting, circumscribed range and careful 

 working are necessary. One ot the distinguishing character- 

 istics of grouse shooting, on the contrary, is that it is all open 

 work, save in the cornfields, from which may the fates de- 

 liver us. These two kinds of shooting are so different that a 

 first-class dog on quail may prove to be deficient when newly 

 put out on the chicken grounds, and a cog that has always 

 been hunted on chickens may not do good work when intro- 

 duced to quail. The ideal dog is, of course, an animal so 

 trained as to be adapted equally to quail and chicken shoot- 

 ing. It is possible to so train a dog accustomed to Eastern 

 shooting that after very short practice on the prairie he will 

 give as much satisfaction as other dogs that have been 

 worked all their lives exclusively on the "Western game. As 

 a rule, however, the Eastern dog is handicapped when first 

 put into competition with the Western dog on the chicken 

 grounds; and the latter is handicapped in like manner when 

 first put out in Eastern quail covers. 



But a really good dog, no matter on what game he may 

 have been trained, so that his training has been right, when 

 put down to work on new game, will soon adapt himself to 

 the situation and put his best foot forward. A duffer in 

 either kind of work will generally show himself a duffer in 

 the other. Good nose is required in all shooting; it is essen- 

 tial in prairie chicken work, for the dog must often catch a 

 very faint scent. When a dog is ranging rapidly across the 

 wind, the slight odor may be borne down wind to him from 

 a covey of chickens some distance away, and if the dog 

 fails to perceive this, the chances are that on the turn he may 

 either plunge into the covey or else go to the windward of 



SHAD FRY FOR THE HUDSON. 

 /^VN the 26th of May the United States Fish Commissioner, 

 ^-^ Prof. Baird, forwarded a car containing one million 

 shad for the Hudson at Albany. The New York Commission 

 has heretofore hatched and turned out annually a supply of 

 young shad for this river, but this year the appropriation is 

 nearly exhausted and they are husbanding their resources in 

 order to distribute the rainbow and brook trout. 



There had been several requests sent to Prof. Baird for 

 shad fry for this river by many who did not wish the season 

 to pass without some attempt being made to replenish the 

 Hudson with this, the most important of its fresh water 

 fishes, but he steadfastly declined until a formal and urgent 

 request was made by Hon. Frank Hiscock, of the House of 

 Representatives, who presented an application from six of 

 the State Senators of New York. He then decided to send 

 a carload. 



The car was an ordinary express car and contained fifty 

 milk cans, each having 20,000 fry, with extra cans for water 

 and ice. It was in charge of Mr. Newton Simmons,- and 

 was met in New York by a gentleman connected with the 

 commission, who accompanied him to Albany by request of 

 Mr. Blackford, of the New York Commission. 



At Jersey City the car was transferred by boat to Harlem, 

 and thence to the Grand Central Depot, New York. Ar- 

 riving at Albany at 9 P. M., it was decided to remain until 

 morning, and a hose was attached to a hydrant and the fry 

 made comfortable thereby. In the morning a small tug 

 took the party half way to Troy, and the deposit was made. 



The fish were hatched in the old Armory building, Wash- 

 ington, and their arrival at Albany was telegraphed to Hon. 

 D. McCarthy, Senator of the 25th District, N. Y. , who was 

 greatly interested in the deposit. 



Pigeon Tournaments.— The tournament of the Illinois 

 State Sportsmen's Association was held at the Driving Park 

 grounds, Chicago, last Tuesday and Wednesday. The Illi- 

 nois tournament, open to the world, will be shot to-day, to- 

 morrow and Saturday. The tournament of the Iowa State 

 Sportsmen's Association will be held at Cedar Rapids June 

 6, 7, 8 and 9. The tournament of the New York State As- 

 sociation for the Protection of Fish and Game will be held 

 at Niagara Falls June 12 to 17, inclusive. The Missouri 

 State Sportsmen's Association tournament will be held at 

 Sedalia June 13, 14 and 15. The Southern Illinois Sports- 

 men's Association tournament is set down for June 16 and 

 17, at Mt. Vernon ; that of the Texas State Sportsmen's As- 

 sociation for June 20 to 25, inclusive, at Austin. The Cen- 

 tral Illinois Sportsmen's Association presents an exception to 

 the general rule of shooting wild pigeons captured on their 

 nesting grounds, the tournament of this society being ap- 

 pointed for September 12 to 15, inclusive, at Jerseyville. 

 Denver, Col. , is to have a big pigeon tournament some time 

 during the mining exposition there in August and Septem- 

 ber. Then there will be the Kentucky, Nebraska and Kan- 

 sas tournaments, with New Jersey yet to be heard from. 

 Taking these shoots all together, there will be many hundreds 

 of men who will get "a crack at the birds," A glass ball 

 shooting tournament, open to all, will be held at Lakeside 

 Park, Syracuse, N. Y. , June 6, 7 and 8. The Massachusetts 

 Glass Ball Association tournament will be held in the vicinity 

 of Boston in June. 



The Nebraska Association. — The address of Hon. B. E. 

 B. Kennedy before the meeting of the Nebraska State Sports- 

 men's Association, at Omaha last week, is well worth a care- 

 ful reading. There is much sound logic in the paper, and it 

 reflects credit upon the society. The Nebraska sportsmen 

 are doing good work, and are making the influence of their 

 association felt throughout the State. Mr. Kennedy's ad- 

 dress shows that the officers of the association have an intel- 

 ligent appreciation of what the society is for. There is im- 

 portant work to be done by each State sportsmen's association 

 in America, work which properly belongs to it, because the 

 association can accomplish it and there is no one else to do 

 it. Each association deserves credit, and will receive it from 

 the great body of sportsmen, in proportion as it does not 

 shirk its duties nor fritter away its opportunities, 



AN IMPORTANT MAINE DECISION. 



TN our issue of June 23, 1881, were contained the particu- 

 -Mars of a law suit, brought in Piscataquis county, Me. 

 Briefly repeated the history of the case is this : Mr. Wm. E. 

 Barrows, a citizen of Connecticut, having acquired by pur- 

 chase all of the land around and enclosing a body of water 

 known as Grindstone Pond, near Monson, Me., posted notices 

 forbidding any person fishing in the pond. Several parties 

 persisted in so doing, and among them was a young man 

 named John M. McDermott, who fished there after the for- 

 biddal of Barrows during the summer of 1880. Barrows 

 brought action of trespass. The pond contains more than 

 ten acres, and it is a natural pond. The land was a part of 

 the public domain of the commonwealth of Massachusetts 

 prior to A. D., 1647, and all of the land around this pond is 

 common, with no fences or enclosure of any kind. The 

 Supreme Court of Massachusetts has decided in several 

 instances that a natural pond of more than ten acres is free 

 to the public for fishing and fowling, by virtue of the Colony 

 ordinance of 1641 and the amendment to said ordinance of 

 1647. The Supreme Court of Maine has held that the ordi- 

 nance of 1641 is the common law of Maine, and the counsel 

 for McDermott claimed that if this is so it follows that the 

 amendment is also the common law of that State. By the 

 amendment of 1647, large and important lights were con- 

 ferred upon the people, for by it was granted the right of 

 passage over all lands lying in common adjacent to natural 

 ponds of more than ten acres, providing they did not pass 

 over any man's cornfield or meadow. These were the ques- 

 tions involved in the case: 



1. Are natural ponds of more than ten acres free to the 

 public for fishing and fowling? 



2. If so, are the public allowed free passage on foot over 

 adjoining lands where no annual crops are growing? 



As this was the first time that these identical questions had 

 arisen in the courts of Maine, the decision of the Court was 

 looked for with some eagerness, for if Grindstone Pond could 

 be closed up and monopolized then there are thousands of 

 others in northern and eastern Maine which may be shut up 

 in the same manner. 



The decision of the Supreme Court has just been rendered 

 of which the rescript is as follows : 



The colonial ordinance of 1641, more particularly defined In 1647, and 

 declaring among other things a common right of free fishing and 

 fowling on great ponds of more than ten acres in extent, lying in com- 

 mon, has been so long and so u nif ormly accepted and acted upon in 

 this State that it constitutes in all its parts a portion of the common 

 law of the whole State, without regard to the question whether it was 

 ever extended by legislative authority to localities not embraced with- 

 in the precincts of the Colony of Massachusetts Bay. 



It is not here and now a question for the Court whether it shall be 

 adopted with such modifications as might seem desirable under the 

 change of circumstances that has occurred since its original passage. 

 It was long since adopted , and so declared in judicial decisions, and the 

 Court can now only construe, administer and apply it until the Legis- 

 lature sees fit to change it. 



No change affecting the rights of the parties in this suit has hitherto 

 been made in this State. The, plaintiff's posted prohibitions are with- 

 out avail so long as he did nothing else to give him an exclusive right 

 under R. S., Chap. 40, s. s. 51-53, inclusive. The defendant had the 

 right to go to the pond on foot through uninclosed woodland belong- 

 ing to the plaintiff and to take fish there; but he must exercise his 

 privilege as conferred by the ordinance and see that he trespasses on 

 no man's corn or meadow tillage or grass land. The case finds that a 

 two-acre piece of land on the border of the pond had been cleared 

 and cultivated. In the absence of proof that it had reverted to a 

 state of nature, this affords a just inference that it should be classed 

 with the lands denominated meadow in the ordinance, and the naked 

 fact that no grass was actually cut upon it in 1880 does not rebut the 

 inference. The defendant passed over and through this piece, and 

 thereby committed a trespass. 



Judgment for plaintiff for $1 damage. 



Lebroke <fc Parsons, attorneys for plaintiff; J. F. Sprague 

 and H. Hudson, attorneys for defendants. 



Every important point made by the counsel for defendants 

 in their briefs, as stated in our issue of June 23, was fully 

 sustained by the court. The decision is one of the most 

 important ever rendered in Maine in favor of sportsmen, for 

 now it is forever settled that in absence of any prohibitory 

 statute all ponds in that State of more than ten acres are free 

 to all, and the fact that persons have a legal right to cross 

 and re-cros3 all uncultivated lands around these ponds is also 

 well established. It is needless to add that as public senti- 

 ment is to-day in Maine it would be impossible for land 

 owners to secure the passage of any law adverse to this 

 decision and giving them power to monopolize lakes and 

 ponds. 



It should be added that great credit is due counsel for 

 defendant, since without hope of any pecuniary reward from 

 their client they fought this case through for the sake of 

 maintaining the rights of the public in the matter involved, 



