Forest and Stream. 



A Weekly Journal of the Rod and Gun. 



Terms, $4 a Year. 10 Cts. a Copt. I 

 Sex Months, 52. \ 



NEW YORK, JULY 13, 1882. 



f VOL. XVTTT.-No. 24. 



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



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CONTENTS. 



Editorial. 



Shore Bird Shooting. 



Destruction of Food Fishes. 

 The Sportsman Tourist. 



Ram hies through Newfoundland 



Camp Fire in the Great Swamp. 



Didymus Criticises Washington. 



Dr. Bug. 



June in the North Woods. 

 Natural History. 



Kansas Notes. 



The Hoop Snake. 

 Game Bag and Gun. 



Bears and Bear Stories. 



Hints on Camping Out. 



A New Mexico Story. 



Idaho Notes. 



The Wet Season and the Birds. 



Rifle and Rod in Norway. 

 Camp Fire Fliokerinqs. 

 Sea and Rivbi; Fishing. 



A Batch of Fish Stories. 



With Hackles and Gentles. 



Red Drum. 



The Fate of a Sceptic. 



Tennessee Notes. 



New Brunswick Notes. 



Heretics on the Worm or Fly. 



FlSHCULTURE. 



Shad in Arkansas. 



New Hampshire Notes. 



Southern Fishes for Northern 

 Streams. 

 The Kennel. 



Spaniel Judging at Cleveland. 



English Shows and Clubs. 



Spaniel Judging at Cleveland. 



Ttie Eastern Field Trials. 



The Chicken Trials. 



Marcus. 



Kennel Notes. 



Kennel Management. 

 Rifle and Trap Bhootes-q. 



The Battle at Weehawken. 

 Yachting and Canoeing. 



Fixtures. 



Maggie's Brilliant Performance. 



An Unfortunate Cruise. 



Racing in a Blow. 



Salem Bay Y. O— July 4. 



Keep Clear of the Main Sheet. 



Yachting on the Lakes. 



Hull Y. C.— July 8. 



Larehmont Y. C— July 4. 



The Cutter's Great Victory. 

 Answers to Correspondents. 



SHORE BIRD SHOOTING. 

 HPHE days will soon be here when it will be in order to 

 -L polish up the shotgun, to load the shells, and to look 

 over the stools and see that the hinges of the metal ones are 

 in good working order, and that they are all, wooden as 

 well as tin, provided with sticks. The season for shore bird 

 shooting will be here before long, and the enthusiastic 

 gunner, whose weapon has for months been laid aside, or 

 only used on glass balls, will be making pilgrimages to the 

 beaches and marshes along the coast, where the willets, 

 dowitchcrs, yelpers and other beach birds are wont to stop 

 and feed. Beach bird shooting is pleasant and pretty sport, 

 and serves well to keep a man's hand in practice at a season 

 when there is no other shooting to be had. It is pleasant to 

 sit upon the outer beach ar.d listen to the thundering of the 

 surf, to feel the cool salt breezes upon the cheek, to watch 

 the dancing blue waters that stretch away to the eastward 

 and speculate upon what is going on beyond them, and 

 to note all the varied and constantly changing phases of 

 marine life which successively present themselves to the 

 eye. When the flight is good there is excitement enough 

 in watching for and calling in the birds, but when it 

 slackens there is no dearth of objects to make the time pass 

 quickly and pleasantly. 



Very much of one's success in this kind of shooting de- 

 pends upon the ability to call the birds down to the gunner. 

 It often happens that a flock may pass within sight of the 

 decoys without observing them, and on such occasions a few 

 call notes will always attract their attention to their mimic 

 brethren, which they will at once seek to join. Or when a 

 flock, which have run the gauntlet of guns from Maine to 

 New Jersey, suspiciously passes by, a well-regulated and 

 persuasive call or two will often induce them to turn and 

 swing over the motionless counterfeits, so as to give the 

 shooter the opportunity of getting in botn barrels. Not in- 

 frequently some of the less suspicious varieties will return, 

 even after I hey have been shot at, and will attempt to alight 

 near- the blind. Unless, therefore, the shooter has full con- 

 fidence in his own powers of calling, he should have the 

 co-operation of some old Dayman, for many of these indi- 

 viduals have attained almost perfection in this branch of 

 their profession. It is, of course, much more satisfactory 

 to depend on one's own exertions, but to successfully imi- 



tate the notes of the different species requires an appren- 

 ticeship extending over years. 



It was our good fortune, a few years ago, to go bay bird 

 shooting with one of the most accomplished amateur sports- 

 men we have ever met, and the pleasure of seeing the 

 skill with which he would work in a flock of wary jack or 

 curlew would have amply repaid us for all the trouble and 

 time of the trip, even if we had had no shooting. 



Having your outfit arranged and bayman ready, there is one 

 other essential to the sport, without which you cannot do 

 much. You must have birds. The flight usually com- 

 mences in July, but the largest and most reliable one is in 

 August, usually from the tenth to the twentieth. Of course 

 the date at which the birds come is not a fixed one, and de- 

 pends to a great extent on the wetness or dryness of the 

 season, the meteorological conditions, and still others about 

 which we are in ignorance. An easterly storm about the 

 middle of August is likely to bring on the birds, as the say- 

 ing is. There are a host of localities along our coast, from 

 Maine down to the Carolinas, where bay bird shooting may 

 be had. Many of our readers know some favorite place to 

 which year after year they are wont to repair for a few days 

 of pleasant shooting. Many good grounds are not far dis- 

 tant from favorite seaside resorts, and the idlers on the 

 beaches can kill time and the birds at the same moment . 

 We have not space to speak at any length of the sport, but 

 for details in regard to it must refer our readers to the little 

 book which we published last year, entitled "Shore Birds." 



DESTRUCTION OF FOOD FISHES. 

 \\7"E have published accounts of the taking of valuable 

 food fish by the purse-net men, who fish for men- 

 haden from which to make oil, and of the grinding up of 

 mackerel, bluefish, drum, etc., and their conversion into oil 

 instead of food, for which they were intended. It has been 

 denied that this has been done, and the argument has been 

 used that if any fish were more valuable for food than for 

 oil it would be sent to market. This may appear to be so at 

 first, but the fish are taken, and while the steamer is looking 

 for more they pass the point when they cease to be saleable, 

 and are then thrown into the boiler. 



This is an evil which should be stopped at once. The 

 price of food is high enough now, and if fish are 'plenty let 

 us have the benefit of it, and buy our mackerel for three 

 cents a pound, instead of twelve to fifteen. The fact that 

 menhaden are scarce and the oil works are in danger of 

 standing idle is nothing to us. The oil men, having killed 

 the menhaden goose, must not be allowed to begin upon 

 another species to extract golden eggs.' Let them abide by 

 the consequences of their acts if they have killed off all the 

 menhaden, which we doubt. In their greediness, the men 

 on Long Island and elsewhere begin at the menhaden when 

 the fish first appear, and keep it up all the time they are with 

 us. They take them for manure when they are spring-poor, 

 and never let them enter the bays for the purpose of spawn- 

 ing without harassing them with nets. We have no doubt 

 that if the lish were left undisturbed until September there 

 would be as much oil made each year, after a year or two, 

 as there is now, and the fish would increase. 



Our attention has been calledjo this matter by a corres- 

 pondent who writes from Gloucester, Mass., who tells us that 

 there is great excitement at that place on account of a threat- 

 ened movement by the oil men on the schools of mackerel. 

 He says that preparations are now being made to put a 

 Tiverton, B. I., steamer into the catching, and manufactur- 

 ing into oil, of the mackerel, thus diverting them from 

 their legitimate use as food, and that the fishermen at Glou- 

 cester are indignant thereat. 



Should this move be successful and meet with no oppo- 

 sition it is not to much too expect to see the whole fleet of 

 steamers, numbering over one hundred, all engage in mackerel 

 catching for oil. This, of course, will send up the price not 

 only of this fish, but of all others, and eventually end in the 

 extinction of the mackerel and the driving of thousands of 

 men now engaged in their capture to supply the markets 

 with them, to enforced idleness. No class of men should be 

 allowed to pursue a course calculated to destroy one of our 

 most valuable sources of food merely to fill then- own pockets. 



Authority of SufebvTbqrs. — We understand that sev- 

 eral large bags of woodcock have been shot in the vicinity 

 of Bridgehampton, Long Island. The explanation offered 

 is that the supervisors have passed a special local law, mak- 

 ing the woodcock season in Bridgehampton open July 1, 

 instead of August 1, as elsewhere in the State. We do not 

 question the existence of such a local law, but the law itself 



does not amount to a row of pins. The supervisors have no 

 authority to make any such local law, and it is consequently 

 of no effect after it is made. Section 37 of the State Game 

 Law says: ' 'It shall be lawful for the Board of Supervisors 

 of any county, at their annual meeting, to make any regu- 

 lations or ordinances protecting other birds, fish, or game, 

 than those mentioned in this act; and also for the further 

 protection of such birds, fish, and game as are in this act 

 mentioned, except wild deer, and to this end to prohibit 

 hunting or fishing in particular localities or waters lying 

 within their respective counties for limited periods and dur- 

 ing certain months of the year, and to prescribe punishments 

 and penalties for the violation thereof, and adopt all ne- 

 cessary measures for the enforcement of such ordinances and 

 penalties." If the Bridgehampton supervisors think that 

 this gives them any authority to open the woodcock season 

 on July 1, they are much mistaken. 



Increase of Small Birds in the West. — In his 

 "Kansas Notes," our correspondent "A. B. B." speaks of 

 the increase of small birds in that country. The apparent 

 increase in the number and variety of small birds to be found 

 in a prairie country which has been recently planted with 

 trees has taken place all through Kansas and Nebraska 

 within our recollection, and is, due, we imagine, chiefly to 

 two causes: (1) the presence of birds of the timber, which 

 have been attracted by the suitable shelter offered by the 

 groves and the hedges, and (2) the fact that the birds of the 

 plains are much more readily seen when in the trees than 

 they are when as in a country without timber they can alight 

 only on the ground. Bearing on his subject is a note just 

 at hand from our Denver, Colorado, correspondent, "W. 

 N. B.,"who says: "As the country improves, birds are 

 becoming plentiful, and we prize them very highly. It is 

 not only for our pleasure, but to our interest to protect and 

 encourage them." 



The Poisoned Schuylkill.— Reports from Philadelphia 

 say that the fish in the Schuylkill Biver are dying in great 

 numbers and are floating. They lodge along shore and de- 

 cay and are polluting the air. Men have been seen gather- 

 ing them, but the use they put them to is not known. At 

 Reading the stench is the worst and at this point the black 

 bass are suffering. It is thought that a lack of fishways 

 prevent the fish from ascending to purer water. The Read- 

 ing Board of Health are investigating the cause of the mor- 

 tality. The president of the Pottstown Water Company 

 says that thousands of dead fish can be seen at that point, 

 and he will have the water analyzed because the people are 

 alarmed at the prospect of drinking polluted water. It is 

 thought that poisoned water from an old mine near Potts- 

 town has flown into the river. The water of this mine is 

 impregnated with sulphate of lime. 



The Hudson River Association. — This society for the 

 protection of fish and game has its headquarters at Newburg. 

 The president is Mr. John R. Wiltsie, of Newburg, one of the 

 "old school," who has shot and angled more seasons than some ' 

 of the younger members of the society have lived , and is to-day 

 a splendid example of physical vigor and perfect health. Mr. 

 Wiltsie makes annual excursions to the Thousand Islands in 

 company with Mr. Warner, of Rochester. The other officers of 

 the society are : Jas. G. Wood, Vice-President, Poughkeepsie, 

 N. Y. ; P. H. Christie, Secretary, Clove, Dutchess county, N. 

 Y. ; Thos. C. Ring, Treasurer, Newburg, N. Y. The in- 

 fluence of the association is strong, and to their intelligent 

 efforts is due a much better observance of the law then 

 formerly existed. We have received from them a neat 

 digest of the game laws printed for gratuitous distribution. 



The Minnesota State Sportsmen's Association meet 

 at Como to-day. The society will consider several important 

 subjects, namely: "First, the replacing of the chicken open 

 season to August 15. Second, the abolition of summer 

 woodcock shooting. Third, the appointment by the State of 

 game wardens for the enforcement of the game and fish laws, 

 and the advisability of the united action of the association to 

 carry out the laws." Much of the present interest in Minne- 

 sota game affairs is due to the energetic efforts of the secre- 

 tary, Mr. W. S. Timberlake. 



Capt. Chas. Bendire, formerly of Fort Walla Walla, 

 Washington Territory, is now stationed at Fort Klamath, 

 Oregon, in a region full of interest to the sportsman and 

 naturalist. Fort Klamath is situated on the edge of one of 

 the prettiest mountain valleys to be found in America ; and 

 the country is well supplied with game and fish. 



