360 
FOREST AND STREAM 
A WEEKLY JOURNAL, 
Devoted to Field and Aquatic Sports, Practical Natural History, 
“Fish Culture, the Protection of Game.Preservation of Forests, 
and the Inculcation in Men and Women of a healthy interest 
in Out door Recreation and Study : 
PUBLISHED Blc 
M ort %t m( l iUMmhing 
-AT- 
17 CHATHAM STREET, (CITY HALL SQUARE) NEW YORK. 
[Post Office Box 2832.] 
and 125 SOUTH THIRD STREET, PHILADELPHIA. 
Terms, Five Dollars a Year, Strictly in Advance. 
- 6 - 
A discount of twenty per cent, for five copies and upwards. Any person 
sending us two subscriptions and Ten Dollars will receive a copy of 
Hallock’s “ Fishing Tourist,” postage free. 
Advertising Kates. 
In regular advertising columns, nonpareil type, 121ines to the inch, 25 
cents per line. Advertisements on outside page, 40 cents per line. Reading 
notices, 50 cents per line. Advertisements in double column 25 per cent, 
extra. Where advertisements are inserted over 1 month, a discount of 
10 per cent, will be made; over three months, 20 per cent; over six 
months, 30 per cent. 
NEW YORK, THURSDAY, JULY 10, 1874. 
To Correspondents. 
All communications whatever, whether relating to business or literary 
correspondence, must be addressed to The Forest and Stream Pub¬ 
lishing Company. Personal or private letters of course excepted. 
All communications intended for publication must be accompanied with 
real name, as a guaranty of good faith. Names will not be published if 
objection be made. No anonymous contributions will be regarded. 
Articles relating to any topic within the scope of this paper are solicited. 
We cannot promise to return rejected manuscripts. 
Secretaries of Clubs and Associations are urged to favor us with brief 
notes of their movements and transactions, as it is the aim of this paper 
to become a medium of useful ana reliable information between gentle¬ 
men sportsmen from one end of the country to the other ; and they will 
'find our columns a desirable medium for advertising announcements. 
The Publishers of Forest and Stream aim to merit and secure the 
patronage and countenance of that portion of the community whose re¬ 
fined intelligence enables them to properly appreciate and enjoy all that 
is beautiful in Nature. It will pander to no depraved tastes, nor pervert 
the legitimate sports of land and water to those base uses which always 
tend to make them unpopular with the virtuous and good. No advertise¬ 
ment or business notice of an immoral character will be received on any 
terms ; and nothing will be admitted to any department o the paper that 
may not be read with propriety in tho home circle. , 
We cannot be responsible for the dereliction of the mail service, if 
money remitted to us is lost. 
Advertisements should be sent in by Saturday of each week, if possible. 
CHARLES HALLOCK, Managing Editor. 
WILLIAM C. HARRIS, Business Manager. 
CALENDAR OF EVENTS FOR THE CUR¬ 
RENT WEEK. 
Thursday, July 16th.—Monmouth Park, Long Branch, N. J.— Mystic 
Park trotting, Boston—Catskill Driving Park—College regatta at Sara- 
togo—New Dominion R. C. regatta, Toronto. 
Friday, July 17th.—Trotting, Mystic Park, Boston. 
Saturday, July 18th.—Racing at Monmouth Park, Long Branch, N. 
j —Dorchester Yacht review at Boston, and annual cruise, to continue 
several days.. 
Tuesday, July 21st.—Beacon Park trotting, Boston, Mass.—Dexter 
Park Association, Chicago. 
Wednesday, July 22d.—Annual regatta, Northwest Boating Associa¬ 
tion, Toledo, July 22d, 23d—Brooklyn Yacht Club cruise begins, to con¬ 
tinue eight days—Trotting at Beacon Park—Dexter Park Association, 
Chicago--Erie Driving Park Association, July 22d, 23d, 24th—Harrods- 
burg, Ky., Trotting Association, lasting three days. 
WHO INVENTED CROQUET? 
T HIS question lias been repeatedly asked and never 
answered authoritatively, and the probability is that it 
has been gradually developed from some rude and simple 
beginning. It was brought to this country from England, 
where it, without doubt, originated, although many have 
tried to prove a French origin from the name. It has been 
asserted that the game has grown from the old game of 
Pall Mall, in which a ball was driven through an arch or 
wicket, the strength of the stroke being the chief point of 
excellence, and that same idea seems to have been retained 
by many players of croquet who have only the one object 
of knocking every ball as far as possible. When croquet 
was first introduced into this country, the nature of the 
implements and the rules of the game rendered it a crude 
affair, compared to the game as at present enjoyed in our 
beautiful lawns by expert players. 
Since its first appearance croquet has achieved an aston¬ 
ishing degree of popularity, and while even many ad¬ 
mirers of the game have predicted its eaily decline, be¬ 
cause of its immense popularity, it has gone on increasing 
from year to year, and the Inanufactures state that a larger 
number of sets have been sold this season thus far than 
ever before. 
The love of gain and the idea that croquet would soon 
play itself out, has induced many to exercise tlieir ingenuity 
in the invention of something new to take its place, and of 
which they could control the manufacture, but thus far 
all such (efforts have seemed futile, for while year after 
year these novelties have been announced, they have one 
after another been forgotten, and still the old game has not 
only increased in the large cities and villages, but the white 
wickets and gaily painted balls and stakes dot the 
lawns throughout the rural districts. Each succeeding 
year tends to popularize this truly social game, because any 
novelty, in order to superceed this falvorite, must be very 
much superior to it. All croquet players will well remem¬ 
ber how difficult it was in the early d‘ays of the game to 
get a company of players without taking some beginners, 
who, of necessity were a hindrance to the sport, and will see 
how different it is now, when a company of comparatively 
good players can almost always he made up from any 
social gathering. Necessarily any new game is subject to 
the same difficulties experienced with croquet in its early 
years, and the added disadvantage of a well-known and 
popular game to compete with which croquet did not have. 
Hence while those who are blessed with ample room and 
funds for both, may enjoy the novelties for variety, the old 
game will remain the standard. 
The great number of miserable apologies for croquet im,- 
plernents that are offered in the trade this season has im¬ 
pressed many casual observers with the idea that this class 
of work is superceeding the better sets, but we believe that 
this is not the case, and. that while the sale of such imple¬ 
ments would seem to be detrimental to the interests of the 
game, yet, (no thanks to the manufacturers of such stuff,) 
it will work to its advantage and more universal introduc¬ 
tion. The sale of this trash is mostly to those who have 
never enjoyed the game, and it will serve to give them so 
much knowledge of it that another season, or perhaps be¬ 
fore the end of the first, they will he ready to invest a 
reasonable amount in a good serviceable set of implements 
that will afford them some pleasure. 
THE UNITED STATES FISH COMMIS¬ 
SION. 
FLASHES FROM THE “BLTJELIGHT.” 
T HE United States Fish Commission, which last season 
devoted itself to the hidden mysteries of Casco Bay, 
in Maine, this year has dropped farther south, and with 
headquarters at Noank, Connecticut, will investigate the 
habits and customs of the odd fish and curious creatures 
which find their hemes in the waters of Long Island, 
Fisher’s Island and Block Island Sound, with an occasional 
foray perhaps, when clear weather permits, on to some of 
the banks, an hundred fathoms deep, to the southward. 
Several of the party, including Professors Baird and 
Terrill, have been on the ground for a week, and have im¬ 
proved the time by investigating between tides, the nu¬ 
merous animals living on the shores, on the piles of the 
wharves, and among the eel-grass in the harbor. They have 
already secured about 200 different species. Among these 
there arc fifteen or twenty not before found on the southern 
coast of New England, and several that are quite new and 
undescribed. Among the more interesting kinds are 
Bctlanoglossus aurantiacus, a rare and curious worm, with a 
remarkably large proboscis; and Arenicola marina, a large 
annelid not before found south of Cape Cod. 
The favorite little Government steamer “Bluelight,” in 
charge of our long-time correspondent “ Piseco ,” has again 
been placed at the disposal of the Fish Commission, so that 
we are enabled to promise our readers a weekly record of 
its scientific investigations and discoveries, to be printed in 
this paper as the official organ of the American Fish Cul- 
turists’ Association. The first instalment is now on band, 
but musi be deferred until next issue, when it will he 
printed consecutively with the second. All the professors 
comprising the corps of observation will furnish notes for 
these weekly papers, and consequently the Forest and 
Stream will be looked for with increased interest. We 
shall print engravings of the most noteworthy “finds,” as 
thev are termed. 
--S$-•«<£•*- 
For Forest and Stream. 
THE NATIONAL CONVENTION. 
Hannibal, Mo., July 10, 1874. 
Editor Forest and Stream :— 
T HE call for a National Convention made at Oswego by 
the New York State Association for the Protection of 
Game, is a step in the right direction. At the same time it 
is to he feared that it may defeat the very object for which 
it was probably intended, as all are left to arrive at their 
own conclusions as to the purpose for which it was called. 
It is very much to be regretted that the meeting did riot 
adopt the circular letter issued by the New York City As¬ 
sociation, recently published in the Forest and Stream, 
for that distinctly states the purpose for which the call is 
made, and lays it before the sportsmen of the country for 
their consideration and discus~sion, both as to the feasibility 
of plan and to decide when and where the meeting should 
be held. The subject is one of national importance, and 
requires to be carefully considered, and when action is 
taken, it should he a concerted one. While no one would 
be likely to question the good intention of the gentlemen 
who issued the call and named time and place, it would 
seem to some that they had volunteered to undertake the 
carrying out of a great work without sufficiently consult¬ 
ing the sportsmen outside of the State of Hew York, for it 
is an undertaking which, to succeed, must have the united 
support of the sportsmen throughout the country. 
It would be in about as good taste for one of the New 
York clubs to hold a meeting, and decide to hold a State 
meeting, name time and place, and then invite the rest of 
the clubs in the State to attend, as for the sportsmen of 
any one State to issue such a call without conference with 
the sportsmen outside of the State. Supposing the Illinois 
Stale Association had issued such a call, the meeting to be 
held in Chicago ninety days after the call was made, how 
much attention would the sportsmen of New York have 
paid to it, even though they were interested in the results. 
The State of New York is large, and contains many wealthy 
and influential sportsmen, but it doesn’t contain a majority 
of tho sportsmen of this Union, and when they assume to 
dictate a national matter, it is very reasonable to suppose 
that there will not he the harmony and unity of purpose 
that is so much to be desired in an undertaking of this 
kind. It must take time to work up a matter of. such 
magnitude. Had the New York circular been adopted, it 
would have put the matter in good shape before the country 
The time and place would have been discussed in a friendly 
manner, time would have been given the different States to 
have prepared for the meeting, the time would very likely 
have been put off until shortly before the assembling 0 f 
Congress and the different Legislatures, and very likely 
Cincinnati or Louisville, or some more central location, 
would have been chosen, and the delegates would have 
gone fully prepared for the duties required of them; they 
would have known whether they were going to witness the 
butchery of a hundred thousand pigeons, and to discuss 
the merits of some new trap, or were going for the 
purpose of assisting to frame laws for the protection of 
game and fish, which would afford the best protection and 
obtain the greatest conformity as to open and close seasons 
in the various States of the country; for, as the State laws 
now are in various instances, an imaginary line makes a 
difference of fifteen days in the open and close seasons. 
Hoping that the matter may be fully discussed through 
the medium of the press, and in the event that the present 
call does not meet the wishes of the majority, that the call 
be withdrawn, and let the sportsmen at large decide on 
time and place. If the call was only intended to obtain an 
expression of the feelings of the sportsmen of the country, 
it will serve a very good purpose. G. W. D. 
Has our Missouri correspondent overlooked the fact that 
there are now two calls before the country for a National 
Convention to revise the game laws—one emanating from 
the New York State Association, and the other from the 
New York City Society for the Protection of Game, signed 
by Royal Phelps, Esq., President, and Hon. Robert B. 
Roosevelt, Vice President, and printed in this paper on the 
24th of June just past ?—Ed. 
A Ghastly Gift. —We of the Forest and Stream have 
gotten on prosperously and contentedly so far, hut now we 
are likely to have “ a skeleton ” in our house, as every other 
house is said to have. “ Coming events,” they say, “ cast 
their shadows before,” and unless the skeleton referred 
to in the subjoined letter is too thin to cast very much 
of a shadow, we shall soon expect the Major’s ghost of a 
promise to become a realized fact. Send it on, Major. 
We want the whole skeleton or nothing; no fractions. 
We will place it in position and adorn its bare occiput with 
the Comanche scalp that hangs in our curiosity shop. We 
quote:— 
New Smyrna, Florida, July 3d, 1874. 
Ed. Forest and Stream:— 
I have lately been excavating some Indian mounds and 
in one at my place there are several hundred skeletons, 
which with their skulls are in perfect presevation. I mil 
send you one when opportunity offers. This mound is of 
great age. No implements have been found in it thus far, 
save one of stone, and one flint arrow head. 
Truly yours, Geo. J. Alden. 
■-- 
New Portable Boats. —Extreme lightness, compact¬ 
ness and indestructibility are all requisites looked for by 
the general tourist, sportsman and trapper, in the selec¬ 
tion of a boat. The boat invented and manufactured .by 
Mr. John Hegeman of Ballston Spa, N. Y., seems to us 
to fulfil all these most desirable points. Constructed of a 
strong folding frame of hickory or ash, secured by gun 
metal fastenings, it can be quickly covered with a strong 
cotton duck canvas, which has been proved by thorough 
tests to have great strength, durability, and to be perfectly 
water proof. When not in use, the cover may he taken off, 
the frame folded up and put anywhere, as the boat takes 
up hardly any bulk. Mr. liegeman makes five different 
sizes, from 9 feet long to 13 feet, the first carrying conveni¬ 
ently one person, the latter from five to seven. The fold¬ 
ing boat being a flat bottomed one, allows it from its slight 
draught of water, to carry three people, and it will not 
draw more than an inch. Its buoyancy is further increased 
by cork fenders placed under the gunwale. Prices range 
from $75 to $117. A great many of these boats are now 
in use, and seem to have given perfect satisfaction. 
Bonds’ improved section boat, made at Cleveland, Ohio, 
one of which we. have in our office, has attracted a great 
deal of attention, and we understand that this season the 
maker has had quite large orders. 
We hear of a new boat, to be built on a kind of lattice 
steel frame, which may offer some advantages. It is repre¬ 
sented to he exceedingly light. 
The meterological record kept by Maj. Geo. J. Alden at 
New Smyrna, Yolusia county, Florida, latitude 29 deg. 2 
min., Ion. 80 deg. 4 min., shows the mean temperature for 
the month of June to be—7 A. M., 81 deg.; 2 P. M., 89.; 9 
P. M., 78 deg. Highest 94 deg.; lowest 75 deg. Amount 
of rain-fall 10f inches. 
--■«$•<> <}&--- 
—The following letter from our correspondent J. H. 
Batty, now on the Boundary Survey Expedition, will be 
read with more than ordinary interest, in view of the an¬ 
ticipated hostility of the Indians on the line of march. 
Gen. Custer’s headquarters are opposite the town of Bis¬ 
marck, now the terminus of the Northern Pacific Railroad. 
Bismarck, D. T., June 3d, 1874. 
Editor Forest and Stream :— 
I am now a little nearer my journey’s end than when I wrote you last. 
We will take a boat up the Missouri River in about two days. General 
Custer left Fort Lincoln on the morning of July 3d (to-day). There is a 
party of miners fitting out in Montana to visit the Black Hills. There 
are thousands of ducks, wiilets, god wits, avocets, Ac., breeding on the 
prairie between Brainerd and Bismarck. Our party (the Boundary Sur¬ 
vey) left Fort Buford several clays ago. Our commission, Mr. Archi¬ 
bald Campbell ancl myself, are the last to join the party. There is an 
escort awaiting our arrival at Fort Buford. Will write when I can. 
Very truly yours, Jos. II. Batty. 
P. S.—The thermometer stood at 10$ degrees to-day, It is yery feQt 
hem and has been for several days, 
