62 



FOREST AND STREAM. 



[Feb. fl, 1884. 



INTERNATIONAL MATCH CONDITIONS. 

 TT is pretty certain now that there will be no international 

 -*• rifle match during the present season. The old feud 

 between the Amateur Rifle Club of this city and the small- 

 bore men of Ireland seems to have died away. The Palma 

 emblem of tne small-bore long-range championship rests rust- 

 i ngly in the rooms of the Military Service Institution at 

 Governor's Island, and with the defeat in July last of an 

 American team at Wimbledon ended the scries of two 

 matches which the British Association had so cleverly ar- 

 ranged to catch the Americans on their weak point of long- 

 range military shooting. There is, therefore, no match now 

 on the slate, and there are no notes of preparation on either 

 side the Atlantic. Thus far not a single official letter has 

 passed on the subject of a match in 1884. 



During the visit of Col. Howard to England last year there 

 was some talk of a match in the following season. The 

 American team captain had, however, no authority to make 

 any arrangements for a contest beyond the one which he was 

 sent over to conduct, and this fact was known generally. 

 The English riflemen, elated by their success in downing the 

 Americans, talked much of following up their victory by 

 giving the Americans another lesson, and we believe that a 

 sum of money toward the expenses of the team was either 

 collected or guaranteed. The British Council, in whom alone 

 the power exists to bind the Association, did nothing, nor 

 did the American Directors take any step in the matter. 



The seeming apathy of the Americans was in part due to 

 the fact that there, was a change of directors by the election 

 of January, when the annual meeting of the Association was 

 held, and the outgoing directors did not care to do anything 

 which might bind the incoming board or leave them a legacy 

 of work in the shape of a match. The new directors have 

 not thus far thought it wise to taUe any steps toward start- 

 ing a competition, and so the matter lies quiescent at a time 

 when a brisk pushing of preparation would be the rule if 

 there is to be a meeting of the British and American teams 

 in 1884. 



There is much diversity of opinion as to the expediency of 

 having a match in any such frequency as to require the 

 crossing of the Atlantic by a team each year. Some of the 

 younger and more enthusiastic spirits are in favor of a fight 

 with each recurring season, but the older heads among the 

 managers are shaken cautiously, and the question asked 

 why it is necessary to make the international match an 

 annual occurrence. Each match entails a great deal of 

 work and responsibility upon a few, and it is not always 

 easy to raise the considerable sums of money needed equally, 

 whether the competition is held on our own or foreign soil. 

 There is no liberal fund from which to draw, no Govern- 

 ment appropriation to be depended upon, and those who can 

 shoot well, and whom it is pioper to send to the front as 

 representative marksmen, are not always able to pay their 

 own way in addition to the loss of time which must be al- 

 lowed in each individual case. 



Apart from the financial aspect, it is doubtful whether 

 there is much gain in the way of increased knowledge of 

 firearms by having annual meetings. A defeat to be profit- 

 able needs to be studied. If the arms used were found in- 

 ferior it would seem to be a sensible thing to take an off-year 

 for the purpose of private practice and improvement, and 

 even Jor the men it may be found necessary to devote a 

 season to careful drill and record-making on the home 

 ranges before a formal match is entered upon. There is no 

 sensible reason why a match should not be made a biennial 

 or even a tiiennial matter. There is no time lost, tbe 

 science of small arms shooting goes on advancing just the 

 same, and then a renewed zest is given the competitions 

 when they do come off. Rifle manufacturers and those in- 

 terested in the gate money which comes in connection with 

 the matches, may seek to bring about annual gatherings and 

 stir up the popular interest which comes with each interna- 

 tional contest, but even these individuals may find that they 

 have killed the goose which laid the golden egg if they push 

 matters too far or too rapidly. 



Just at present America may, with a good grace, seek to 

 introduce the idea of matches at longer intervals. We have 

 been defeated and naturally feel anxious for sueh return 

 matches as shall enable us to demonstrate the fact that our 

 present make of long-range military arms are fully equal to 

 those of English make. That is the general conviction here, 

 and with anything short of that execrable and super English 

 weather which met the American team at Wimbledon in 

 July, we think that the chances are more than even for a 

 victory to our team. Under these circumstances our man- 

 agers may very properly make such advances and suggest 

 such steps to our English friends as shall give us a match of 

 importance under certain definite conditions and occurring 

 not more often than once in two years, and which shall then 

 be regarded as the championship match in the style of 

 shooting covered by the rules of the competition. Such a 

 match we should be glad to see inaugurated, but against 

 this aunual infliction of spasmodic contests we wish a relief. 



?he jtyorfattinn ^ouri^t 



Cheap Quail. — Quail is a favorite dish on New York 

 bills of fare. Landladies of boarding houses serve quail for 

 dinner because it is cheap. Dishonestly sold contraband 

 quail is not so expensive as honestly bred barn yard capon. 

 The game protector in this city is not smart enough to stop 

 this unlawful game traffic. 



THE LAND OF THE GOU-GOU. 



A TRTJE TALE. 

 "And from out the heavy fog gradually appeared the figure of a 

 woman of beautiful form and majestic appearance, with long, flow, 

 ing drapery extending Indefinitely back into the dense sea mist. 

 From her girdle hung a bag, and, stretching out her arms, she seized 

 the rapacious fishermen, and, depositing them therein, slowly faded 

 from view. And they told us it was the Gou-gou who frequented 

 those coasts." — Legend of the Micmacs. 



THE shores of the Gulf of St. Lawrence offer a great 

 variety of scenery and maay interesting geological 

 formations. In parts bold, so bold in fact that in many 

 places the common cables of the fishermen are unable to 

 reach bottom close under the shore, and backed by high 

 mountains; in other parts low with long sandy points run- 

 ning out into the sea, and with outlying banks, of sand, 

 affording breeding grounds for the cod, haddock and hake 

 which love the clear cold waters and the abundant food of 

 this region. 



Centuries ago, ages before the hardy and adventurous 

 fishermen from the channel islands had found their way to 

 these waters, off one of the outermost points of the main- 

 land, old ocean, under the influence of the wintry winds 

 from the east, began throwing up a sandbank, which by 

 slow accretions rose above the surface. Here a sparse vege- 

 tation sprang up, probably of the coarser beach grasses, and 

 this, in the course of years, by growth and decay, formed a 

 soil capable of nourishing some of tbe hardier scrubs sown 

 by the winds from the mainland or deposited by the birds 

 in their southern flights from the bleak barrens of Labrador. 

 These again by their death furnished new life to still other 

 plants, till finally the bare sandbank became covered with a 

 vegetation, not luxuriant to be sure, but sufficient to change 

 the yellow mat of sand into a green carpet ; and eventually, by 

 some of the many mysterious ways which nature adopts for 

 such processes, trees sprang up in some places and covered 

 large tracts with a forest of white and yellow birch, spruce 

 and fir. In other parts, and those moie directly exposed to 

 the fierce gales of those latitudes, any extended growth of 

 trees was impossible, and the annual deposits of each year 

 only served to raise the island higher by a layer of peat, and 

 the best efforts of nature only succeeded in planting here 

 and there a few junipers which, exposed to the full force of 

 the ocean blasts, were unable to attain more than a stunted 

 and gnarled growth. The intervening spaces were, how- 

 ever, tilled with abundance of scrubs and moss, whortle- 

 berry, blackberry, and a few other varieties of low bushes; 

 the black bankberries, bake apples, upland cranberries; the 

 dry, crisp gray moss so common in the haunts of the caribou, 

 and which, more than any other one thing, is characteristic 

 of the so-called caribou barrens of the Eastern States and 

 Provinces; and finally the wet, green moss, such a favorite 

 with the trout fisherman for filling his creel and thus keep- 

 ing his fish fresh. 



As the height of the island increased, a natural system of 

 drainage was established, tbe loftier portions of the peat 

 sank under the weight of snow and rain, and toward these 

 low spots tbe drainage of the surrounding plain naturally 

 gravitated till the water rose above the sun ace of vegetation 

 with the result of destroying it, and thus increasing the depth 

 of the pool, while at the same time the recurring seasons 

 raised tbe general surface higher and higher, and increased 

 the amount of refuse water, and the soft spot of peat at first 

 converted into a bog-hole, became slowly a pond of consider- 

 able depth. Many of these pouds thus formed over the bar- 

 rens at slightly variable heights by the laws of gravitation, 

 sought communication with each other, and the trickling 

 water wearing away the soil, established brooks or rather 

 ditches, often through three or four ponds before the water 

 finally reached its level. Some of these ponds, from their 

 proximity to the sea, started their drainage in that direction 

 with the result of forming brooks of perpetual flowing water. 

 Again, in some of the larger ponds, a new factor appeared, 

 for, exposed as they were to the winds from every direction, 

 and with low banks affording no shelter, the action of their 

 waves was sufficient often to tear away or at least undermine 

 the banks, thus enlarging the water surface, and each in- 

 crease in size still further favored the process of growth till 

 in several places large lakes were formed. 



The dry moss and the resinous scrubs furnished favorable 

 tinder for a conflagration, and after man appeared upon the 

 scene, fire began to play a not unimportant part in tbe devel- 

 opment of our island, tilling the peat with a layer of ashes 

 which increased its solidity and enriched its soil, and to this 

 agent, probably, more than anything else, is due the rich 

 gtowth of berries of all kinds. 



But while old gray-bearded Neptune was diligently shovel- 

 ing the sand into a heap to get it out of water, even his long 

 arms were insufficient to land each tridentf ul directly on top 

 of the previous one, or it may be Boreas was loafing about 

 and chaffing him, for, toward the sea, certain irregularities 

 in the deposit existed, and when some of the fresh-water 

 lakes began to drain toward the eea the water accumulated in 

 some of the depressions just within the outer beach, forming 

 again lakes of considerable size till their waters, rising more 

 and more, found a path over the ridge and kissed the ocean. 

 A short time now sufficed to wash away the soft sea sand 

 and establish a brook, and at the next full moon the spring 

 tide took up the work of excavation in the opposite direction, 

 and the large fresh-water pond became brackish and began 

 to rise and iall with the outer tides. A new soil thus intro- 

 duced brought anew and different vegetation, and the brack- 

 ish bay became filled with the succulent eel-grass in many 

 places, while the action of the waves outside sent iu with 

 each high tide an abundance of sand which, being pre- 

 cipitated in the still water of the bay, formed in places low 

 and bare sandbars and kept the depth of the whole bay 

 shallow. . 



Imagine then an island composed of six to eight feet ot 

 peat resting on a sandbank with sloping sandy snores, the 

 bighest point not more than fifteen feet above high water. 

 Several square miles of this covered with a dense forest com- 

 posed largely ol evergreens {Abies and Larax), but with a fair 

 sprinkling ol birches, the remainder of the island covered 

 with a growth of low scrubs and vines and moss, and dotted 

 with ponds of from six inches to as many feet in depth m 

 every direction, the size of the ponds varying from a couple 

 of rods to a mile in diameter; tuey number nearly two hun- 

 dred. Their surfaces often covered with tbe leaves of the 

 pond lily, then- banks usually linediwith the rich green moss 

 raised but a few inches above the level of the water, and 



almwt all of them having one or two small clumps of dwarf 

 hackmatacks only a few feet high, and twisted by the winds 

 into every conceivable shape. Add to this, miles upon 

 miles of blueberries, whortleberries, bankberries, bake- 

 ipples, cranberries, and occasionally, blackberries. Remem- 

 ber the shallow T bays of brackish water one to two miles in 

 diameter filled with young short eel grass, the sandbars 

 barely covered at high tide, the isolated situation, and is 

 there any doubt whatTyou will find there? What better place 

 can the dusky duck find to rear her brood than the thick 

 cluster of bushes on the edge of that little pond, whence as 

 the wandering instinct is developed, they may find easy 

 access to the next and larger pond through the connecting 

 brook. As September approaches, can you not hear the 

 cooing of that flock of dough-birds among the blueberries, 

 and their whistle as they rise from sheer exuberance of 

 spirits to circle about and again alight? Do you not notice 

 the louder whistle of the jacks occasionally with the others? 

 Would you not expect that the golden plover in leading its 

 young from the northern wilderness would find such a spot 

 a congenial halting place? As you approach that pond with 

 the mossy banks, can you not see a flock of teal preening 

 themselves in the bright sun, and while you are gazing at 

 them are you startled or not aty the loud ongchk from the 

 old goose at the head of her clutch who, recognizing while 

 still in mid-air, all the elements of an anserian paradise, 

 young eel-grass, fresh water and convenient sandbars, 

 announces her determination, not, however, without consid- 

 able discussion on the part of the youngsters, of staying till 

 cold weather? 



Here formerly the caribou in large numbers ranged freely 

 over the whole4island, cutting the moss into deep, narrow 

 and meandering paths as they followed each other in single 

 file from one pond to another, and many of the paths over 

 the. barrens, now used by the few inhabitants, are asserted 

 to be the original caribou trails. The animals themselves 

 disappeared from the island, from eighty to one hundred 

 years ago. On the sandy shores of the island in former 

 days the walrus was accustomed to land, and must have 

 afforded noble and successful sport to the hunters of those 

 times, for large heaps of then; bones were still in existence, 

 and seen some sixty years ago, rapidly being ;buried by the 

 accumulating soil. At the present time these evidences of a 

 fauna long since extinct are lost to view, and their place of 

 burial even is unknown; tradition merely asserting that it 

 was somewhere in the dense forest. On the open and quak- 

 ing bogs tbe Canada geese formerly built their nests and 

 reared their young, content with this bleak and desolate 

 plain without pursuing their further journey toward the 

 Arctic circle, and there they were annually slaughtered in 

 large numbers by the Micmacs with simple clubs during 

 their moulting season till, after one raid, more determined 

 than usual, goose patience became exhausted and the whole 

 colony migrated, and has never returned for breeding pur- 

 poses, although the Indians have long since given up fre- 

 quenting the island, and the knowledge of its topography is 

 rapidly becoming a mere tradition of the tribe. Here, some 

 two centuries or more ago, Charles, afterward the Sainted, 

 one of the many enthusiastic Jesuits so intimately and 

 honorably connected with the early history of Canada, is 

 known to have established a mission, which implies a con- 

 siderable number of inhabitants, but all traces of them and 

 their works have so completely disappeared that no tradition 

 even exists of the seat of their settlement. Early in the 

 present century a few families of Scotch and Erench settled 

 in some of the less exposed situations, and their descendants 

 still remain, combining the occupation of farming, fishing, 

 shooting and, ais opportunity occurred, honest wrecking; a 

 hardy, hospitable race, many of them with the intelligence 

 which is begotten of intimate association with the wild 

 aspects of nature, and especially with the ocean, and all of 

 them with what we are given to calling thriftlessness, an 

 outward expression of the inward despair produced by the 

 continual contention with the elements. 



Here for many years a friend and myself have found a 

 resting place when on our annual pilgrimage from the heat 

 and worry and rush of the city, till we have got to love the 

 bleak barrens, the roaring sea and the howling winds. 

 Every nook and corner is known to us; there is scarcely a 

 pond' at which we have not shot ducks or geese, a sandbar 

 upon which we have not grounded our canoe, a gully or 

 brook which we have not explored. On the hanks of one 

 of the salt-water bays stands a group of about a dozen hack- 

 matacks which have attained the unusual height of twenty 

 feet, a veritable oasis in a desert of whortleberry bushes and 

 moss. Among the trees runs a small brook of clear, fresh 

 water, taking its head from a couple of small ponds a few 

 rods back in the moss, having worked for itself a channel 

 into the peat some five feet deep. Beneath these evergreens 

 we have for many years pitched our tents as the summer 

 approaches its end, ourselves and our faithful French canoe- 

 men, who have piloted us up and down many a noble stream 

 in other portions of the Provinces when we were casting the 

 fly for salmon and trout. 



Our youthful enthusiasm is somewhat abated; the cold, 

 gray dawn has lost much of its early charm, and several 

 hours in the bushes wet with dew before breakfast has 

 ceased to have their old fascination. I fear we should be called 

 but lazy sportsmen. 



"Forty times o'er let Michaelmas pass, 

 Grizzling bair the brain doth clear; 

 Then you know a boy is an ass. 

 Then you know the worth of a lass, 

 CtaGe you have come to forty year." 



A bright day, with the ever changing light and shade on 

 the barrens, the views on the mountains twenty miles away 

 over the sea, the ripple or the surf of the ocean, the wonder* 

 ful cloud effects, these, with a very moderate amount of 

 sport, constitute our true enjoyment, and we could justly say 

 with the Duke in "As you Like it :" 



"Who would ambition shun 



And loves to live i' the sun, 



Seeking the bread he eats, 



Content with what he gets, 



Come hither, come hither, come hither. 



Here shall be find no enemy 



But winter and rough weather." 



The pursuit of the game possesses all the elements of true 

 sport, an intimate knowledge of the habits of the birds, a 

 study of the wind, weather and tides, familiarity with the 

 country, the use of dogs for retrieving, a quick eye, a steady 

 hand and a hard shot. 



The dusky ducks breed upon the island in large numbers; 

 all other game visits it only in the course of migrations north 

 and south, One of the earliest to arrive in the latter part of 



