Forest and Stream 



A Weekly Journal of the Rod and Gun. 



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NEW YORK, JUNE IB, 1882. 



( VOL. XVTII.— No. 20. 



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



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CONTENTS. 



Editorial. 



New York Fish Commission. \T 



Several Doors Closed. 



Pluck. *, 



New Jersey Fish Commission. \ 



Fable: The Foolish Fish. 

 The Sportsman Tourist. 



Rambles through Newfoundland 



Camps of the Kingfishers. 

 Natural History. 



Philadelphia Zoological Garden. 



Flight of Warblers: 

 Camp Fire Flickerlngs. 

 Game Bao and Gun. 



Camp Life in North Carolina. 



The Charmed White Deer. 



Memphians Afield. 



The Boy of 80 Years Ago. 



Large Game in the Southwest. 



The Saginaw Marsh. 

 Sea and River. Fishing. 



Camp Flotsam. 



Down by the Dam. 



Sea and River Fishing. 



The Ichthyophagous Dines. 



Rainbow and other Pacific Trout 

 Fishculture. 



Trout Culture. 

 The Kennel. 



The Cleveland Bench Show. 



History of the Dog. 



Mr. Leach's Brock. 



Mr. Donner's Bessie. 



The Chicken Trials. 

 Rifle and Trap Shooting. 



New York State Association. 



The Canadian Wimbledon. 



Matches and Meetings. 

 Yachting and Canoeing. 



Lloyd's Register for '82. 



Gem and a Lesson. 



Quaker City Yacht Club. 



Length Measurement Misleads. 



Outside Ballast. 



Outside Ballast a Success. 

 Answers to Correspondents. 



THE NEW YORK FISH COMMISSION. 

 TN another column will be found the views of Commis- 

 si sioner Blackford on trout culture by the State. We 

 have long thought that this matter should bo left in private 

 hands, for the brook trout is essentially a sporting fish, and, 

 though eaten in small quantities, does not take rank among 

 the sources of food for the people to any extent. Per- 

 haps it was well to try to increase them for a few years, but 

 now. when there is only a small amount of money Jcft to 

 work with, it seems suicidal to neglect the shad lisheries and 

 continue the trout, distribution. We areglad to see that Mr. 

 Blackford takes this stand, for there are too many private 

 trout breeders in the State who will supply all the young 

 stock needed. 



If it be asked why such a state of affairs exists when one 

 of the Commissioners speaks so plainly against, it, the ex- 

 planation is easy. Mr. Blackford is one of four Commis- 

 sioners and is in a minority. It has been the habit of the 

 New York Fish Commission to accept, the decisions of the 

 superintendent, instead of giving to the superintendent 

 orders which he was to carry out. Thus the Commission 

 appears to have been run by the superintendent, and not the 

 superintendent by the Commission. The Hudson River 

 would have been badly off for a crop of shad three years 

 hence if the United States Fish Commission had not yielded 

 to the request of several State Senators, and sent the million 

 of fry recorded by us a 1'ew weeks ago. Prof. Bain] sent 

 Mr. Blackford a second lot on the 10th, which were for- 

 warded to Albany and deposited below Greenbush. 



It is certainly time that the State stopped the brook trout 

 business and expended the people's money for the purposes 

 of increasing the food supply of the people, which is tire 

 ostensible object of the Commission, and the one that they 

 go before the Legislal tire with when they want an appro- 

 priation. 



The present Governor so entirely disapproved of the 

 methods of the Commission as to veto the appropriation last 

 year, and the bill for this year is now in his hands for con- 

 sideration. The Governor's veto, we speak now by the card, 

 was not on the ground of a wanl of faith in the utility of 

 risheulture, but solely on the ground that the appropriation 

 was not as fully utilized for t lie public good as seemed to 

 him desirable. 



Wanted.— More eelectric light on the eel question. Ad- 



I :ym Notus, 



SEVERAL DOORS CLOSED. 

 ^pHE Newman bill, to amend the game law of New York, 

 -*- has been killed. The old law will remain in force. 

 The hack door of that hotel at Otsego Lake will remain 

 closed; several other doors of much the same character have 

 been shut as well, and we should exceedingly regret ever to 

 see them opened. 



Now that the Newman bill is dead, there is no call to 

 discuss further its merits and demerits. We took some 

 pains, at the proper time, to explain what some of its ob- 

 noxious clauses meant. The bill was the Newman bill of 

 1881, amended by the Albany convention of last March, and 

 subsequently by a committee appointed at that meeting. 

 The revisers did not succeed in eliminating from it all of its 

 objectionable features; and they incorporated in it certain 

 provisions which provoked opposition so soon as their true 

 nature was exposed. As sent to Albany, the Newman bill 

 was complex — in parts obscure — and in some essential points 

 unintelligible. It was disgraced by clauses which served 

 the interests of individual greed, while being wholly inimical 

 to the spirit of right game legislation, and grossly unjust to 

 the community and to sportsmen. 



The reason for this appears to have been that while the 

 great majority of the gentlemen present at the Albany con- 

 vention were honest enough themselves, they failed to per- 

 ceive that some other "delegates" were there to manipulate 

 the convention for their own mercenary ends. Each man 

 was presumed to represent the best interests of his own 

 section, and there -was manifested a general willingness to 

 grant the wishes of individual delegates without scrutinizing 

 carefully enough the wisdom of their demands or their own 

 honesty of purpose in making them. The convention pre- 

 sumed too much upon the potency of that esprit da carps, 

 which is more or less rightly fancied to exist among sports- 

 men, hut which in this particular instance did not prove to 

 be very strong. 



The plain truth is that some of the prominent workers in 

 this annual game law tinkering are not inspired by any great 

 desire to have the provisions for the protection of game and 

 flsh made more perfect. Their motives are wholly selfish. 

 Their rant about protecting the game interests of the State 

 is all humbug. They simply want to put money into their 

 own pockets at the expense of the public, and they care 

 not a rap about anything else. The only imperfection in the 

 game law for them is where it interferes with their own 

 business, or that of men whom they are paid to serve. The 

 present law is much better than any substitute they would pro- 

 vide. They will bear watching, and when it comes to game 

 legislation in this State again, as it probably will next spring, we 

 caution the shooting and angling public to examine carefully 

 the amendments proposed and to inquire into the motives 

 ana aims of those who propose them. And it is well enough 

 to remember that it is sometimes much easier to keep a door 

 shut tHan to shut it, again after it has been opened. 



PLUCK. 

 'T^HE annals of outdoor sports furnish many notable in- 

 -*- stances of extraordinary pluck on the part of individ- 

 uals whose physical infirmity would appear to wholly 

 debar them from such pastimes. In our issue of September 

 1, 1881, was given an account of some famous English fox- 

 hunters. Among them was the Rev. Edward Stokes, a 

 blind man. He rode with the best of them, being attended 

 by a groom, who rang a bell whenever they approached a 

 fence or hedge, and the two went over together. This was 

 not the only instance given of blind huntsmen. An equally 

 remarkable case was that of an extraordinary character, one 

 Thomas Roberts. This personage was born without; arms 

 below his elbows, and without legs below his knees. Yet, 

 in spite of this fragmentary character of bis limits, Roberts, 

 with the aid of a vast amount of pluck and a small pro- 

 tuberance on one arm which enabled him to hold the bridle- 

 rein, was a skillful rider, and followed the chase all his 

 life. What may or may not be thought still more remark- 

 able about this individual is the fact that he thrice entered 

 into the holy bonds of matrimony. 



In our own country there are many examples of crippled 

 men whose penchant for sporting or fishing has encouraged 

 them to persevere in the pursuit of these sports. It is pos- 

 sible for a one-armed man to acquire great skill with the 

 shotgun. We have in mind a Western sportsman, known to 

 many of the readers of this journal, who has but one arm, 

 the right one. He uses a light gun, which he "breaks" over 

 his left shoulder, letting it. rest there while he slips in the 

 shell. Then by a dexterous jerk the gun is closed, brought 

 to position, discharged and the game killed— all in quicker 



time than his two-armed shooting companion can accom- 

 plish the same thing. 



Occasionally there comes to the Forest and Stream 

 office a gentleman, who is an expert with rod, gun, paddle 

 and pen. Some years ago he lost a leg, but this did not 

 deter him from indulging his taste for shooting, Equipped 

 with a crutch, which has been fitted with a broad flat base, 

 and carrying a light gun, our friend makes his way over 

 the snipe marshes, and hags his birds, too. Naturally he 

 finds canoeing the most enjoyable recreation, and has cruised 

 on mam r of the American and Canadian waters. In another 

 column our entertaining correspondent, "Kingfisher, " gives 

 an' account of the angling methods of one of his camp 

 companions, who practices the gentle art under what would 

 appear to be serious disqualifications. 



Instances of pluck similar to those mentioned may have 

 come within the. notice of most readers of this journal. 



THE NEW JERSEY FISH COMMISSION. 



NOTWITHSTANDING the fact that the Legislature of 

 - 1 -" New Jersey has made no appropriation for fishculture. 

 the Commissioners keep up their interest in it. They re- 

 cently made their annual excursion down the Delaware River 

 with a few invited guests on a steamer, at the personal ex- 

 pense of Major E. J. Anderson, of the Commission. It is 

 very evident that this gentleman does not mean to abandon 

 the cause as the Legislature has done, and his public spirit 

 ought to shame them into doing something for fishculttue 

 next year. They have never voted much money in New 

 Jersey for fishculture, and yet much has been accomplished 

 through the activity of her Commissioners, who have given 

 their time and attention to the wants of the people. 



New Jersey is so situated that it has but one good shad 

 river, or, rather, half of one, for it shares the Delaware with 

 Pennsylvania; but the amount of food which comes into the 

 State from this river alone, if we take into account all kinds 

 of fish, is enormous, and its loss would be severely felt. The 

 other rivers produce considerable food, especially the Rari 

 tan, Passaic and Hackensack; and might be made to pro- 

 duce more. It seems a late day to argue the question of 

 fishculture, and if the members of the New Jersey Legisla- 

 ture do not know that whatever produces any one item of 

 food, tends to cheapen all others, they are probably too old 

 to learn, and the best thing for the State would be to put. 

 some new men in their places. We imagine that the per- 

 nicious idea of personal legislation lies at the bottom of this 

 question, and if a member happens to live in a county having 

 no streams to stock, he possibly takes no interest in it be- 

 cause he supposes that his constituents do not, care about, it. 

 and his re-election depends upon their approval of his course. 

 Instead of entertaining broad views of the welfare of his 

 State, he looks only to his own county. 



New Jersey has a large interest in the sea fisheries, and 

 u nder an enlightened system of fishculture could, with the 

 assistance of the United States Fish Commission, profitably 

 expend $20,000 per year in increasing the supply of food 

 which, whether consumed at home or sent to New York, re- 

 turns its full value to the fishermen of the State. The gent le 

 men who are serving as Fish Commissioners, do so without 

 pecuniary reward, being actuated merely by a desire to do 

 good, and for all this they receive occasional abuse. One 

 of them is the State Comptroller, Major Anderson, another 

 Dr. Benjamin Howell, who owns, as his ancestors since the 

 time of William Penn have owned, the fisheries just below 

 Philadelphia on the Jersey shore, and the third is Mr. Theo- 

 dore Morford. of Sussex county. There are also fish 

 wardens in various localities, generally unpaid enthusiast^ 

 like the Commissioners, and in the hands of these several 

 gentlemen with a few T assistants the New Jersey fishing inte- 

 rests. have been fostered for a decade or more. 



The inspection of the Delaware River shad fisheries in- 

 cluded a trip from Trenton down to Gloucester, stopping at 

 the principal nets and shad grounds, and interviewing the 

 fishermen. The day was rainy, but this did not dampen 

 the ardor of the Commissioners or their guests. They 

 learned that the yield was not as good this year as usual, 

 on account of the cold backward spring, but the fishermen 

 all predict a big run as soon as the temperature rise; and 

 they attributed the good catches of the last few years to the 

 hatching operations of the Commission. As a consequence 

 of the scarcity offish, prices have ruled high, and the fisher- 

 men are making as much money as if they were taking 

 more fish, except at the fisheries at Howell's Cove, where 

 they have contracted their catch to the freezing company at 

 Philadelphia at, $14 per hundred for the season, 



After seeing the big net at Gloucester hauled, and i ; 



