Forest and Stream. 



A Weekly Journal of the Rod and Gun. 



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

 Six Months, $2. ( 



NEW YORK, MARCH 13, 1884. 



J VOL. XXlI.-No. 7 



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



CORRESPONDENCE. 

 The Forest and Stream is the recognized medium of entertain- 

 ment, instruction and information between American sportsmen. 

 Communications upon the subjects to which its pages are devoted are 

 respectfully invited. Anonymous communications will not be re- 

 garded. No name will be published except with writer's consent. 

 The Editors are not responsible for the views of correspondents. 



SUBSCRIPTIONS 

 May begin at any time. Subscription price, $4 per year ; $2 for six 

 months; to a club of three annual subsoribers, three copies for $10; 

 five copies for $16. Remit by registered letter, money-order, or draft, 

 payable to the Forest and Stream Pablishing Company. Tbe paper 

 may be obtained of newsdealers throughout the United States and 

 Canadas. On sale by the American Exchange, 449 Strand, W. C, 

 London, England. Subscription agents for Great Britain— Messrs. 

 Samson Low, Marston, Searle and Rivington, 188 Fleet street, London. 



AD VERTISEMENTS. 



Only advertisements of an approved character inserted. Inside 

 pages, nonpareil type, 26 cents per line. Special rates for three, six 

 and twelve months. Reading notices $1.00 per line. Eight words 

 to the line, twelve lines to one inch. Advertisements should be sent 

 in by the Saturday previous to issue in which they are to be inserted. 



Transient advertisements must invariably be accompanied by the 

 money or they will not be inserted. 



Address all communications, 



Forest and Stream Publishing Co. 

 Nos. 39 and 40 Park Row. New York City. 



CONTENTS. 



Editorial. 



Yellowstone Park Matters. 



An Adirondack Bill. 

 The Sportsman Tourist. 



Life among the Blackfeet.-xm. 



Down the Yukon on a Raft.— vn. 

 Natural History. 



The Deer of the Ottawa Valley. 



Seals in the Upper St. Lawrence. 



Bird Notes. 

 Game Bag and Gun. 



The Yellowstone Park Bill. 



The Performance of Shotguns. 



The Choice of Hunting Rifles. 



A Taxidermist's Tiew of It. 



Do Thou Likewise. 



Philadelphia Notes. 

 Camp-Fire Flickerings. 

 Sea and River Fishing. 



The Best Color for Leaders. 



The Dowel Pin in Flv-Rods. 



The Fish Question in Maine. 



Fishing in Cardenas Bay. 



The Length of Flv-Rods". 



Sturgeon Fishing. 



FlSHCULTURE. 



Draining and the Flood, 

 The Kennel. 

 Experience with Dogs. 

 Fox Hunting on Oil Creek. 

 The Dachshund. 

 Mange and Canker. 

 Cincinnati Dog Show. 

 Mr. D. C Sanborn. 



The Kennel. 



Setters and Pointers at Cin- 

 cinnati. 



N. A, K. C. Derby. 



Basket <or Foot) Beagles. 



The New Haven Show. 



Kennel Management. 

 Rifle and Trap Shooting. 



Rifle Points. 



Range and Gallerv. 



The Trap. 



Boston Gun Club. 

 Canoeing. 



Chicago C. C. 



Amateur Canoe Building.— x. 



American Canoe Association 

 Dues. 



The Lake George C. C. 



New York C. C. 



The Gallev Fire. 

 Milk Toast— Cooking Fish. 



A Few Hints on Camping. 

 A Fungus Smudge. 

 Yachting. 



The New Hera. 



"The Buckeye." 



Some General Remarks. 



The Bugbear of Draft. 



New England Yacht Racing 

 Association. 



All in Due Time. 



EtTu, Brute: 



Hints to Local Committees. 

 Answers to Correspondents. 



With its compact type and in its permanently enlarged form 

 of twenty-eight pages this journal furnishes each weetc 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. 



YELLOWSTONE PARK MATTERS. 



^NATOR VEST'S bill for the protection of the National 

 ^ Park has passed the Senate. Just what the bill is may 

 be seen by referring to its text, which is printed in another 

 column. 



An amendment offered by Senator McMillan, of Minne- 

 sota, and agreed to, alLhough opposed by Senators Vest and 

 Harrison, provides that "possession, within the said Park, 

 uf the dead bodies or any part thereof, of any of the animals 

 or birds hereinbefore mentioned, shall be prima facie evi- 

 dence that the person or persons having the same are guilty 

 of violating this act." This amendment goes a long way 

 toward nullifying the section forbidding the killing of wild 

 animals, since men who may kill game within the Park, and 

 can transport it beyond its borders before being detected, 

 cannot then be interfered with. The change is thus an un- 

 fortunate one. 



On the whole, the bill, as passed, is a vast improvement on 

 the laws we have hitherto had in relation to the Park. 

 While the area of the reservation is increased only two-fifths, 

 instead of being more than doubled, as we had hoped would 

 be tbe case, the enlargement is sufficient to greatly enhance its 

 value to the people, and to include many natural features which 

 properly belong to such a national reservation. Aside from 

 the conservation of these natural beauties, which will attract 

 the tourists of all countries, the fact that the Park is to be 

 treated as a preserve for the indigenous wild animals of our 

 western territory, must be a source of congratulation to all 

 intelligent people. To naturalists of all nations this will be 

 welcome news, and it will equally rejoice all sportsmen. 



It is to be hoped that the Senate bill may be passed by the 

 House. 



Assuming that the bill is to become a law, the question of 

 its enforcement is the next one which will present itself to 

 those who are interested in the Park. We have before 

 alluded to the deplorable inefficiency of the attempts at pro- 

 tection last summer, and to the fact that the Superintendent 

 and his assistants, while they were authorized and ordered 

 by the Secretary of the Interior to perform certain acts, were 

 not furnished with the means for carrying out their instruc- 

 tions. They were at first turned loose in the Park without 

 horses, quarters or subsistence, and ordered — less than a 

 dozen of them— to protect it, to arrest those who might 

 break down the craters of the geysers, who might destroy 

 the timber, or who might kill the game. They— a few inex- 

 perienced Eastern men— we're to pursue on foot, and to cap- 

 ture, the mounted skin hunters. But, after they had per- 

 formed this impossible task, what were they to dp with 

 those whom they had arrested? These matters have now 

 been changed. The men have quarters, horses and rations. 

 Their year's work in the Park cannot have failed to teach 

 them something. Next summer, if they are the right kind 

 of men, they will be of some use. Last year they were per- 

 fectly raw and unaccustomed to Western life, and so could 

 not have been expected to accomplish much. 



A careful study of Secretary Teller's response to the Senate 

 resolution calling for copies of all papers and correspondence 

 relating to the Yellowstone National Park since the last 

 session of Congress, indicates that public opinion has not 

 been altogether just to the Superintendent of the Park. He 

 has been accused of neglecting his duty, of failing to put a 

 stop to several illegal practices within the Park, and even of 

 permitting his subordinates to traffic in specimens. Some 

 of these accusations appear to have been made hastily and 

 on insufficient evidence, as well as on the assumption that 

 Major Conger had the power to enforce tbe regulations laid 

 down by the Secretary of the Interior. The report of the 

 special agent of the Interior Department attacks the Super- 

 intendent's administration of the Park very savagely, and 

 shows that hunting has gone on openly and in bold defiance 

 of the regulations. We do not find that the Superintendent 

 has reported such violations of the law to the Department, 

 and this he certainly should have done, even if it were not 

 in his power to put a stop to them. Instead of receiving 

 any reports of violations of the regulations, the Secretaiy 

 of the Interior has several times had occasion to call the 

 attention of the Superintendent to failures to comply with 

 the law within the Park, a state of things which, under the 

 circumstances, seems sufficiently absurd. 



This neglect on the part of Major Conger finds some ex- 

 cuse in the fact that he has been hampered throughout by 

 the knowledge of his inability to enforce the regulations 

 established for the government of the Park, by the willing- 

 ness of a large proportion of those within its limits to vio- 

 late the law, and by the continuous hostility of the Yellow- 

 stone Park Improvement Company. This corporation, true 

 to its traditions, has, during the past summer, seized in the 

 most high-handed fashion everything belonging to the Gov- 

 ernment on which it could lay its hands. The Superintend- 

 ent writes under date of Nov. 6, 1883: 



"They help themselves indiscriminately to whatever tbey may 

 want inside or outside of the Government inclosures without refer- 

 ence to any other interest than their own. They have cut and manu- 

 factured nearly all of the timber available for building purposes 

 anywhere near this place [Mammoth Hot Springs] to build their 

 great hotel and their numerous other buildings here. They have 

 overrun the Park with their herds of horses and cattle; have wil- 

 fully and purposely broken down and destroyed the fences around 

 the Government pastures, which I have taken great pains to repair 

 and keep in order so as to enable us to keep the Government 

 stock here without expense. Mr. Hobart has been heard to say 

 that he would tear down the fences as often as I would put 

 them up : that he would show me he had a right to do as he pleased 

 here. The pastures, as a consequence, are eaten entirely bare of 

 everything that an animal can subsist upon, and now I am compelled 

 to take the stock all out of the Park to winter, or import feed for 

 them here at heavy cost. They have several hundred head of cattle, 

 besides a large number of horses; consequently they require and 

 monopolize all the hay within twenty miles of here. And this is not 

 all. Mr. Hobart has obstructed me in every way in his power ever 

 since he has been here. He kept me from getting possession of Mc- 

 Cartney's cabin, where I wanted to quarter some of my assistants, 

 for more than a month, by telling the man whom I had ordered to 

 vacate not to mind me but to stay there and that he would see him 

 through, as I would not be here long anyway. Hobart has boasted 

 in my hearing of his influence with you, and that he had frequent 

 letters from you; and he told one of my assistants that you had 

 promised him that I should not visit Washington this winter, and he 

 also said that the reason you would not write to me was that you was 

 not going to have my letters paraded before Congress. Not only this, 

 but he has lost no opportunity all the summer, at his hotel, openly, 

 before the thousands of people tkat have been there, and wherever 

 he has been, to abuse and belittle me to every person that he could 



command the attention of, as I have been informed and believe. This 

 company is now in financial disgraae all over the country. They have 

 transferred their cattle and horses to Mrs. MeGowan. notwithstand- 

 ing which, creditors have levied attachments on them, and this is 

 the situation here to-day." 



From all this it is apparent that the Superintendent's 

 position has Dot been a very comfortable one during the 

 past year. 



Special Agent Smith has touched one of the roots of the 

 evils that have been so apparent when he alludes to the fact 

 that the assistants ought to be frontiersmen, and the Super- 

 intendent, in making excuses for his assistants, rather naively 

 and pathetically says of them : "I must beg you to remem- 

 ber tiat they are all strangers to this section of the country, 

 and that a number of them are quite young and inexpe- 

 rienced; and I think some allowance should be made on that 

 account, not only on their account, but mine as well." Not 

 a particle of allowance on that account, Mr. Conger. If 

 you appoint men who are strangers to the country, who are 

 young and inexperienced, the responsibility can rest on no 

 other shoulders but your own. We warned you last year 

 against doing just this thing. There were plenty of good 

 men to be had in Montana, Wyoming and Idaho — men who 

 would have been willing and able to do their duty faithfully 

 and well by the Government that employed them. Such 

 men should have been appointed, and if they had been, 

 their efficiency would have spared you a great deal of trouble 

 and annoyance. 



There are now before Congress at least two bills incor- 

 porating railroads t$> run through the National Park. If 

 these bills, or any like them, are passed, and any railroads 

 are laid into the Park, the good work that has been accom- 

 lished by Senator Vest and others will all be undone. We call 

 attention to Mi - . Hague's letter, in another column, which gives 

 some of the many good reasons why no such permission 

 should be given. The subject is one that could be enlarged 

 on indefinitely, but it is hoped that Congress may be trusted 

 to act wiselv in this matter. 



AN .ADIRONDACK BILL. 



C^OR the present year the prospects for preserving the 

 J- Adirondack forests appear dark. The lumbermen, 

 aided by the lobby, have won over to their side so large a 

 number of the Assembly that the good bills have been put 

 one side, and a cunningly devised and carefully worded sub- 

 stitute, presented by Mr. Boynton, have taken their place. 

 This bill, as originally framed, offered but little hope of 

 protection to the sources of our great river, but after its 

 introduction, Mr. Boynton gravely rose and began to offer 

 amendments to it. The way being thus opened, every other 

 Assemblyman proceeded to offer his little amendment, 

 Thus followed the old scene, which has so often been wit- 

 nessed by those who have followed the course of the game 

 laws in the various Legislatures of our States Each member 

 desired to have his section exempted from the provisions of 

 the bill. Some went further and intelligently (?) argued 

 that this was a vile scheme of monopoly by which the suf- 

 fering lumbermen of the northern counties were to be robbed 

 for the benefit of the aristocrats of the southern portion 

 of the State. The fhampion speech, however, was made by 

 an Assemblyman whose name we do not give because it 

 does not seem possible that he can have been correctly 

 reported. The daily papers quote him as saying: "The 

 Hudson Rives is an arm of the sea, subject to tides, and 

 there will be plenty of water upon which to float the 

 commerce of the State if not a drop of water flows into it 

 from the Adirondack region." He went further, and 

 declared that the river would be far more navigable if all 

 the upper streams emptying into the Hudson were dried up. 

 These streams brought down vast amounts of refuse and 

 dirt, rendering dredging necessary every year. He declared 

 that the Chamber of Commerce bill was a grand scheme in 

 the interest of individuals, and was backed by an eager and 

 unscrupulous lobby, which invaded even the rooms of 

 members of the Legislature. He denied that any additional 

 legislation was needed. 



It seems inconceivable that any civilized man of the pres- 

 ent day should make statements such as these. A boy 

 ten years old would know better. The Assemblyman 

 referred to may perhaps be acting up to his own ideas of 

 what is right in opposing the preservation of the Adiron 

 dacks, but why he should be willing to publish his stupendous 

 ignorance to the people of New York State, it is really hard 

 to see. Mr. Littlejohn, of Oswego, shares with the gentleman 

 quoted above the very questionable glory of uttering about 

 the Hudson River, ihe veriest nonsense, knowing it to be 

 nonsense. But then, from what is known of Mr! Littlejohn's 



