Forest and Stream 



A Weekly Journal of the Rod and Gun. 



Terms, $4 a Year. 10 Cts. a Copt. 1 

 Six Months, $2. J 



NEW YOivK, Jt^ortUARY 21, 1884. 



I VOL. XXlI.-No. 4. 



'l Nos. 39 & 40 Park Row, New York. 



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CONTENTS. 



IjDlTORTAt.. 



Dog Tax and Game Law. 



The Fight in New England. 



International Match Conditions. 



Uniform Game Laws. 



Death of Reuben Wood. 

 The Sportsman Tourist. 



The Land of the Oou-Gou. 



Between the Lakes. — V. 



Down the Youkon on a Raf t.-vi. 



Life Among the Blackfeet.— xn. 



Adirondack Forest Waste. 

 Natural History. 



Horns of the Female Caribou. 



Ophidiana, or Snake Gossip. 



The English Sparrow. 

 Game Bag and Gun. 



'The Choice of Hunting Rifles. 



Law Against Spring Shooting. 



Uniform New England Laws. 



The Performance of Shotguns. 

 Camp-Fire Flickerings. 

 Sea and River Fishing. 



Trouting on tne Bigosh. 



Luck with the Longnoses. 



Angling for Charity. 



The Dowel Pin in Fly-rods. 



The Chronicle of the" "Cbmpleac 

 Angler." 

 Fishculturb. 



The Menhaden Question. 

 The Kennel. 



Almost a Double. 



The Kennel. 

 The Dog Tax and the Game Laws 

 Beagles for Fox Hunting. 

 The Clumber Spaniel. 

 The Cincinnati Bench Show. 

 The Pointing Instinct 

 Fox Hunting on Cape Cod in 1884 

 The Beagle Club. 

 Cleveland Dog Show. 

 Kennel Management. 

 Kennel Notes. 

 Rifle and Trap Shooting. 

 Some Rifle Queries. 

 Range and Gallery. 

 The Trap. 



The Clay -Pigeon Tournament. 

 Canoeing. 

 I Amateur Canoe Building.— vn. 

 i Club Notes. 

 The Log Book. 

 Down the Mississippi. 

 I Canoe or Sneakbox. 

 I Large or Small Canoes. 

 Yachting. 

 Fixtures. 

 The Daisy. 

 Small Yachts. ' 

 New England Yachting Associ- 

 ation. 

 Sharpie Rudders. 

 Around Lake Ontario in the 

 Katie Gray. 

 Answers to Correspondents. 



With its compact type and in its permanently enlarged form 

 of twenty-eight pages this journal furnishes each weefc a larger 

 amount of first-class matter relating to angling, shooting, the 

 kennel, and kindred subjects, than is contained in all other 

 American publications put together. 



UNIFORM CAME LAWS. 



THIS is a very old topic. Possibly it may be eo»sidered 

 hackneyed. To suggest anything new in relation to 

 it is quite impossible. We are assured, however, that the 

 subject is not one to be put aside and lost sight of. It has 

 been often discussed. It ought to be discussed more. We 

 are making progress in the field of game legislation. The 

 country is too large for a uniform game law applying to its 

 entire extent. To talk of a national law, prescribing the 

 same season for Maine and Florida, is folly. But it is highly 

 desirable, and we have faith to believe that it may some time 

 be entirely practicable, to secure uniform laws for contigu- 

 ous States which lie in the same isothermal belts. Such 

 laws would be based en the soundest common sense. 



The one obstacle in the way of securing such a system is 

 the wide and almost hopelessly irreconcilable differenoes of 

 opinion prevailing among sportsmen respecting the proper 

 seasons for killing and not killing game. In each individual 

 State this diversity of sentiment is strongly marked, and s© 

 aggressive that it stands in the way of enacting laws that 

 would secure the greatest good to the greatest number. 



There is one point, however, upon which all might agree : 

 That is the season for marketing game. Tf the sportsmen «f 

 New York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania cannot agree upon 

 an uniform open season for game killing they might agree 

 upon the date when game selling should be stopped by law. 

 This agreement might extend further than this. Why 

 should not Massachusetts and New York and Pennsylvania 

 regulate their game-selling seasons by an uniform law, which 

 should have contol of the game of these three States and the 

 game of the West as well ? Why should not. the game 



market regulations of Illinois be identical with those of 

 Michigan, Wisconsin and Minnesota? 



The right way to secure such laws is to unite for action, A 

 national association for such a purpose has been tried. It 

 was too big. It fell to pieces. If another one be organized 

 that too will fall to pieces. What is heeded is the associa- 

 tion together of a restricted number of States. Such a 

 meeting was held in Boston the other day. The New Eng- 

 land States were represented. The interests of the several 

 sections were identical. A law was drafted, which will be 

 presented to the legislatures of the several States. A uni- 

 form law for New England will be a great step in advance. 



FOOLISHNESS IN THE WOODS. 

 Tj^OKEST lands. The lumbermen's ax». One tree cut" 

 •-*- for lumber. Twenty others destroyed in getting the 

 one out. The ground littered up with brush. Fire. Deso- 

 lation. That is the way our forests *in this country have 

 gone and are going. And that is the way they will go unless 

 some wise and sufficient action be taken to call a halt in the 

 work of destruction. The New York Legislature is asked 

 to provide a remedy for the vandalism of Adirondack forest 

 destroyers. The welfare of the whole nation is directly 

 concerned in this issue. The members of the Senate and 

 Assembly at Albany cannot afford to shirk the responsibility 

 of providing some measure to avert the calamities which will 

 most surely follow if the present system of forest waste is 

 persisted in. 



THE FIOHT IN NEW ENGLAND. 



4 SPECIAL meeting of the Boston Produce Exchange 

 ■£*- was called on Monday, and resolutions were passed 

 protesting against the proposed alterations in the game laws 

 of Massachusetts. A committee of five was appointed to 

 take measures to protect the interests of the marketmen as 

 against the ideas of those who would so adjust the present 

 statutes as to prevent the possession and exposure for sale of 

 game and game birds when out of seas»n in this and other 

 States. The present law permits the sale of frozen quail, 

 prairie chickens and deer after the close time in that and 

 the other New England States, as well as the West. What 

 has been the result? Simply that the Boston market has 

 become noted as the dumping ground of game out of season. 

 It is the shutting off in this traffic which the Boston market- 

 men fear, and it is here that the fight will begin, for "there 

 is going to be a fight." The marketmen resolved to oppose 

 "any change in the law by all proper means," which means 

 to raise thousands of dollars and employ able counsel to 

 fight their case before the Legislature now in session. 



The marketmen say that it is a fight between kid-gloved 

 sportsmen and business men ; that a great business interest 

 will be sacrificed, if the proposed game law passes, to the 

 whims of an association of dandy sportsmen — meaning the 

 Massachusetts Fish and Game Protective Association — "a 

 crowd of swell-front and swallow-tail wine guzzlers, who 

 want all the game protected by law for their own private 

 shootiug." Such is about the size the Boston marketmen 

 give the question of uniform game laws throughout New 

 England, as proposed by the late convention of Fish and 

 Game Commissioners from six New England States lately 

 held in that city. 



But these marketmen have counted without their host 

 this time. They suppose that they are crossing swords with 

 the Massachusetts Fish and Game Association only, as on 

 former occasions, when, in fact, they have got to fight a 

 strongly-planted, fast-growing public sentiment, engrafted 

 all over New England, for the better protection of the little 

 there is left of fish and game. Perhaps they do not know, or 

 at least would like to hide the fact, that their miserable traffic 

 in game out of season has caused the true laborers for game 

 protection more trouble than anything under the sun. Maine 

 has been obliged to frame a non-exportation law to keep her 

 fish and game out of the Boston market, even in close time. 

 More than 1,500 deer went from^that State last year to the 

 Boston market — this year hardly fifty. But there are chances 

 that the non-exportation law may be lost at the next session 

 of its biennial Legislature in 1885, because of its non-popu- 

 larity with market-hunters. This general law of close time 

 and shutting of the Boston market to fish and game after 

 close time will shut the doors to market-hunting just as 

 firmly. The Boston markctmeu see it. They see the end of 

 grouse from Maine, purchased at 20 cents a piece and sold 

 in close time at $2 per pair; the end of deer bought at 5 cents 

 per pound and sold out after close time in saddles at 200 per 



cent, profit. This is "kid glove" against "businessman." 



No matter how long the game lasts; there is more money 

 in it for the marketman unprotected than protected. 



"Kid gloves," Mr. Marketman, cover up too many claws 

 for you this time. You have had your share. You have 

 daunted frozen quail, prairie chickens and deer in the face 

 of honest game protection till all New England is awakened 

 and each State proposes to put a universal game law upon 

 her statute books; and no back tracks will be taken to 

 please fifty game dealers in Boston. "Kid gloves," as you 

 call them, include some of the best business and professional 

 men in Massachusetts, and such men as Augustus Hem- 

 mingway, Darius Forbes, Governor Robinson and Senator 

 Bruce are backing up honest and earnest fish and game pro- 

 tection with their money and their influence. Such protec- 

 tion is the belief and nearest the hearts of the prime movers 

 for the suppression of an open market for game In Boston, 

 out of season everywhere else. 



DEATH OF REUBEN WOOD. 

 r phe very sudden death of Mr. Reuben Wood on Saturday 

 -*- last was a shock to his many friends. He dropped dead 

 of heart disease. 



Widely known and as widely respected for his sterling 

 honesty and simplicity, he was always the center of a party 

 of anglers at the tournaments at which he had taken more 

 prizes for his beautiful fly-casting than any other man. Mr. 

 Wood was born in Greenbush, Rensselear county, N. Y., in 

 1822, and was therefore sixty -two years old. At an early age 

 he moved to Syracuse, where he has since lived and been in 

 business. He was a trustee of the First Baptist Church. He 

 was president of the Onondaga Fishing Association, and a 

 member of the Sumner Corps. He leaves a wife, and the 

 children who survive him are Mis. C. C. Francis, of Pitts- 

 field, Mass.; George B. Wood, of Syracuse; Charles W. 

 Wood, who is attending Williams College, and Miss Mabel 

 L. Wood. 



We have personally known Mr. Wood for over forty -five 

 years, and both as schoolboy and man he bore the same open 

 hearted, sympathetic disposition which has made him 

 respected wherever he was known. Always enthusiastic on 

 angling, he was particularly fond of trips to the Adirondacks, 

 where he could enjoy wilderness life, and a short time ago he 

 told us of his intended trip to Meacham Lake next May. Last 

 year Mr. Wood was one of the staff of the American Com- 

 mission to the International Fisheries Exhibition at London, 

 in charge of the display of angling implements, and made 

 many friends on the other side. His singularly open char- 

 acter and cheerfulness brought him friends everywhere, and 

 "Uncle Reub.," as he was familiarly known, was very 

 popular among all classes. Many willj[miss his kindly face 

 at the tournaments and on the streams. 



THE DOWEL QUESTION. 

 ^HE utility of dowels on the ferrules of fishing rods forms 

 -*- the subject of a very able article in another column, by 

 Mr. Henry P. Wells. This is one of the live questions which 

 should be fully and fairly discussed from both sides. That 

 there is another side may be inferred from the fact that 

 most rod makers use the dowels; and we would be glad to 

 have those who believe in their utility give reasons for the 

 faith that is in them. Mr. Wells insists that the dowel must 

 go; that it is a relict of an old method of making jointed rods 

 which once had a reason for existence, but that its day of 

 usefulness is past and that it is now not only useless, but in- 

 jurious to the strength of a rod. We commend the article 

 by Mr. Wells to the careful consideration of both anglers and 

 rod makers. 



DOG TAX AND GAME LAW. 

 TN another column will be found a communication in 

 -*- which the writer proposes that the income derived from 

 the tax on dogs should be devoted to the execution of the 

 game laws. This is a very sensible suggestion. The plan 

 includes the rigid enforcement of the dog law, and the col- 

 lection of the dog tax. That means the weeding out (or 

 drowning out) of the worthless cms ; that, in turn, means 

 that the sheep killers will be decimated. The sheep will not 

 suffer; the sheep owner will have no claim for damages. 

 The dog tax fund can then be utilized for game protection. 

 Why should it not be? 



No. 86.— The authorship of No. 86 has been determined. 

 The several claimants who are busy writing postal cards and 

 requesting that we forward the prize without delay, may 

 therefore cease from their labors. 



