Forest and Stream. 



A Weekly Journal of the Rod and Gun. 



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

 Six Months, $2. ( 



NEW YORK, MARCH 20, 1884. 



j VOL. XXlI.-No. 8. 



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



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Forest and Stream Publishing Co. 

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



CONTENTS. 



Editorial. 



What is the Use? 



Fishing Through the Ice. 



The Wolf Cry in Maine. 

 The Sportsman Tourist. 



Between the Lakes.— vn. 



Roping the Black-Tails. 



Lite among the Blaekfeet.— xrv. 



Major Joseph Verity. 

 Natural History. 



The Deer of the Ottawa Valley. 



Bird Notes. 



Crows. 

 Game Bag and Gun. 



Protecting Song Birds. 



The Performance of Shotguns. 



The Choice of Hunting Rifles. 



A Plea for Old-Time Crudites. 



Summer Woodcock Shooting. 



Spring Shooting at St. Clair Flats 



Another Taxidermist Speaks. 



A Hint to Flickerers. 



Proposed Massachusetts Law. 



The Old Gud. 

 Camp'-Fire Fxickerings. 

 Sea and River. Fishing. 



Fishing Rods and Dowels. 



Where is the Bigosh? 



A Domestic Trout Pond. 



Trouting on the Bigosh. 



The Dowel Question. 



How the Leader is Broken. 



Black Bass in Massachusetts. 



Fishculture. 



The Shellfish Commission of 

 Connecticut. 

 The Kennel. 



Cleveland Dog Show. 



New York Dog Show. 



Eastern Field Trials Club. 



Mr. D. C. Sanborn. 



N. A. K. C. Stud Book. 



Mastiff Temperament and Pecu- 

 liarities. 



The New Haven Dog Show. 



Kennel Management. 

 ' Kennel Notes. 

 Rifle and Trap Shooting. 



Rifles of To-day. 



Range and Gallery. 



The Trap. 

 Canoeing. 



Rondout C. C. 



Amateur Canoe Building.— xi. 



The Winter Camp-Fire. 



The Everson Canoes. 



The Chart Locker. 

 Inland Waters of Maine. 



Canoe and Sneakbox. 

 j A Few Hints on Camping. 

 Yachting. 



A Very Fast Yacht. 



Belleville Notes. 



CuiBono? 



Some Valuable Experiences. 

 Answers to Correspondents. 



PROTECTION OF PSEUDONYMS. 



A MATTER which gives some of our readers and 

 ourselves no little trouble ought to be settled now. 

 Many of the contributors to Forest and Stream prefer to 

 append to their letters and sketches initials, or pseudonyms, 

 rather than to sign their full names. The true names and 

 addresses of such writers are known only to us, and cannot 

 be disclosed by us, without, the express permission of the 

 writer. This is an unvarying rule not only of newspaper 

 offices, but of common decency as well. The names having 

 been given to us in confidence, we cannot reveal them. The 

 matter is not one in which we have any option at all. If a 

 writer signs his contribution with a pseudonym, the infer- 

 ence is that he has a reason for not wishing to be known, 

 and if he desires to conceal his identity in this way we must 

 respect his wishes. 



Every week we receive a large number of letters asking 

 for the full names and addresses of certain correspondents, 

 and the answering of such letters takes up a great amount 

 •of time. We therefore wish to say publicly, what we have 

 so many times written privately, and what we supposed was 

 known to all our readers, that the names and adresses of 

 such of our contributors as write over pseudonyms cannot 

 be given them. If any one wishes to correspond with any 

 contributor the best plan is to send a letter addressed to his 

 assumed name to this office. This letter, if accompanied by 

 the necessary postage stamps, will be forwarded by us to 

 the person addressed. This having been done, it remains 

 for the contributor to determine whether or not he desires to 

 enter into correspondence with the person addressing him. 

 We assume no responsibility in the matter. We merely 

 perform the clerical act of addressing the envelope, and see 

 that it goes to the post-office. 



If those who desire to communicate with our correspond- 

 ents will remember this and govern themselves accordingly, 

 we shall be greatly obliged to them, 



-THE WOLF CRY IN MAINE." 

 TTNDER the above caption a writer in your issue of Feb. 28 says 

 ^ "that wolves have been a thing of the past for at least thirty- 

 five years; that the cry is the sheerest nonsense in the world, and has 

 not a particle of foundation in fact;" and again, "there are no wolves 

 in Maine." Having had considerable to do with the animals of Maine 

 for the past forty years, I will state what I can prove to be facts. In 

 1853 wolves were very plenty, and for the next five years were not 

 scarce, plenty could be found within sixteen miles of Bangor in 1857 

 and 1858. They seemed to leave quite suddenly, the last I know of 

 positively being taken was killed by Frank Fairbanks in 1860 at Mun- 

 sengun. I know the wolves were not exterminated, as from the time they 

 were quite plenty till the time they disappeared, very few skins were 

 brought in. They left of their own accord, just as the caribou left 

 us. There were rumore of occasional wolves being seen from 1875 to 

 '80, but the first real proof 1 can give is that in 18S0 L bought the 

 skin of a freshly killed wolf, taken at Union River. The one who 

 brought it, said it had a mate, and they had been heard at times for 

 several years in that vicinity. The skin is in use as a mat now in 

 Bangor. From that date occasional wolves have been heard from, 

 till this year they seem to hav^ received new additions. Reliable 

 parties report seeing them on St. Croix waters. In a recent 

 trip to Chesuncoock I saw six different persons who had 

 either seen wolves, or fresh tracks. Two had seen the wolves. These 

 people were at points far apart, and did not know of what the others 

 had told. On March 5 I saw the fresh tracks of a very large one. 

 On my return, a man in every way reliable, told me of just seeing 

 the tracks of three, and where they had iust killed a deer near Cheno 

 bog. within less than twenty miles of Bangor. While I consider 

 wolves comparatively scarce, still I know thev have lately gained in 

 num bers faster than the natural increase. The Game Commissioners 

 have done a good thing in increasing the bounty. Still wolves would 

 have to be plenty for any one to think of hunting them much for a 

 bounty of $10; as that can be got for an otter, and nearly that for a 

 heaver. The writer of the article from which I have quoted says, 

 A the poachers and pot-hunters have taken up the cry of protect the 

 deer, and the wolves will follow.' - I believe he is entirely wrong 

 there, as he is in about every other statement in his article. Of 

 those who have reported about wolves to me, it so happens not one 

 is. or ever has been, a deer hunter. There is no more propriety in 

 saying that a cry about wolves has been started by the parties he 

 names, than that the Irish have started a cry of Egyptian war to an- 

 noy England, People far apart have simply told the facts of seeing 

 wolves, and immediately this writer charges it upon pot-hunters and 

 poachers. If, for a man to say he has seen a wolf, is good 

 ground for calling him a pot-hunter, poacher, crust- 

 hunter, etc , I for one think it is time that those words 

 became obsolete, as has been proposed for "speckled beauties," and 

 other words. Why the man from another State, who pays no tax 

 here, and comes in August and September and kills and wastes our 

 game, is not as much a poacher, etc., as a man who kills a deer and 

 eats it after the law expires, is a very hard thing for common people 

 to see: yet some writers always see fit to call one a gentleman and 

 the other a poacher, and are ready to charge all kinds of sins to the 

 latter without a shadow of proof, as in the present instance. Now 

 such a course as this does great harm. The greater part of our 

 hunters are in favor of game laws, and are helping to sustain them, 

 and when they are doing this, to have a thing charged to them which 

 they never thought of, and be called hard names besides, is not 

 plea sant, to say the least. Men not in the woods in winter have no 

 idea of the temptations to break the laws, and still less of how well 

 they are kept. I have this month been in two camps belonging to 

 one concern, numbering fifty men. They had moose within two 

 miles, they had snowshoes and guns, and were hauling beef overbad 

 tote roads more than seventy miles, and still had not killed a moose. 

 Can any camp of city sportsmen show a like record? And yet one of 

 these men had seen a fresh wolf track, and so is included among 

 those who have "started»tbe cry." If the gluttons who are so fond 

 of using the words poacher and pot-hunter, etc., could change places 

 with many of those whom they call by these names, they would take 

 a different view of things. If you wish to help protect the game, do 

 not call those who are trying to do the same hard names. 

 Brewer, Maine, March 1". M. Hardy. 



We presume that our correspondent scarcely intended 

 to give us credit for the statement that there were literally 

 no wolves in Maine. We think that if he will take the 

 trouble to reread our remarks carefully, he will see that 

 what we intended to say was that there are practically none. 

 To make the bald statement that there is not a single wolf 

 in a State as large as Maine, which has a frontier of more 

 than two hundred miles of forest bordering on Canada and 

 New Brunswick, is something that wc presume no man of 

 average intelligence would do. 



A celebrated mineralogist once remarked in the office of a 

 Boston assayer that "there is no gold in Massachusetts." 

 The assayer quickly raised the point that there was some in 

 the banks and some in men's pockets, though precious little 

 in his. But the mineralogist answered— claiming that the 

 assayer knew his meaning — no native gold in the soil of the 

 State. The assayer again raised exceptions to his friend's 

 statement, and offered to get a few bushels of the soil of 

 Boston even, and by close chemical analysis to obtain pure 

 gold from it. Both were right, 



There are practically no wolves in Maine, notwithstand 

 ing the tracks seen by those who "know wolf tracks," men- 

 tioned by our correspondent. They were practically exter- 

 minated years ago. Our correspondent has seen tracks that 

 were tracks, and others have seen them, and yet the only 

 actual wolf he briugs to our attention is the one killed in the 

 spring of 1881, and heralded at the time in all the. news- 



papers of the State, since which time, they have made little 

 note of wolves killed in that State. Our correspondent 

 brings us no other practical wolf, only tracks, and until he 

 sends us an authentic account of another wolf, killed in 

 Maine, we shall take no back tracks in our position on the 

 wolf question. 



We arc glad to learn, from what Mr. Hardy writes, that the 

 sentiment in Maine is now againsUkilling deer, moose, and 

 caribou out of season, and that, the practice of crusting is be- 

 coming obsolete. If this is so, it is a matter for congratula- 

 tion to the inhabitants of Maine first, and afterward to all 

 those who are interested in the protection of game. Men 

 who kill game out of season are poachers, and we are anx- 

 ious to see all violators of the law, not only in Maine but in 

 all other States, punished ; and we do not see how it can 

 make a particle of difference whether these violators are 

 natives of Maine, New York, Siberia, or New Guinea. A 

 law-breaker should be punished, no matter what his State 

 or county. The game must be protected in the olose season 

 from Maine men, Rhode Island men, South Africans, or 

 Chinamen. 



This protection is what wc are all working for, Mr. Hardy 

 as well as others, and we presume that he will assent to our 

 propositions. 



FISHING THROUGH THE ICE. 



A BILL introduced into the Legislature of New Jersey 

 f orbiding fishing through, the ice failed to pass. We 

 think this a move in the right direction, and one that might 

 be followed by several States. In the vicinity of the Great 

 Lakes winter fishing is a legitimate mode of supplying the 

 markets with many species of fish, and in Maine the smelt 

 fisheries are so prosecuted. But in the small lakes of the 

 Eastern States, where the fish are protected in order to fur- 

 nish angling, all winter fishing should be stopped. 



In winter some fish take the bait, and fishing through the 

 ice for pickerel is one mode of exterminating them, which 

 vields a greater or less supply of fish, but nothing that can 

 well be classed as sport. The fish do not fight vigorously, 

 and are ignominiously lugged in by main strength on a short 

 hand line, after hooking themselves and raising a signal, 

 warning the attendant, who often has from thirty to fifty 

 lines set. When winter locks the waters the fish should 

 have a rest, and it is only the commercial fisheries mentioned 

 which should be prosecuted at that time. All waters which 

 afford good fishing and are within easy distance of any city, 

 now attract a class of anglers which leaves with the hotels 

 and guides ten times the value of the fish caught, and there- 

 fore such lakes and streams are of more value than they 

 were a generation ago, when a fish was thought to be worth 

 more when dead than alive. 



We have fished through the ice in schoolboy days, and 

 watched the "tip-ups," while frigid feet and tingling fingers 

 made it doubtful whether we were having much fun or not, 

 but we would have no doubts on that question now . We 

 hope the New Jersey bill will come up next year and pass. 



Rifles of To-day. — In our rifle columns we offer a 

 series of articles in which the several rifles now upon the 

 market will be illustrated and described. The intention is 

 to give the readers of Forest and Stream a clear idea of 

 what is now offered in the way of breechloading rifles. By 

 means of cuts and cross sections of the breech mechanism, 

 the characteristics of each arm may be easily studied. What 

 the arms have done in the way of records; what is 

 especially claimed for them; what they cost in the various 

 models, and in general all the questions which a careful 

 purchaser would put, will be answered as far as may be, 

 leaving it to those who read to make their own comparisons. 



" Migratory Quail.— An item in the Rutland, Vt., Herald 

 of March 10, says: "A correspondent writes as from Man- 

 chester as follows: 'We have seen several flocks of Mr. Ev- 

 erts' quail, and they are looking finely.' " The introduction 

 of this species has not been markedly successful, but if those 

 turned out by Mr. Everts have done well, we are very glad 

 to hear of it. It is now seven or eight years since the first 

 of these birds were imported, and for the last two or three 

 but little has been heard of them. We understand, how- 

 ever, that Mr. Braun has orders for some additional impor- 

 tations this spring. The birds can only be obtained in Sicily 

 during the mon th of Apiil. 



Look odt for the Ssipe. — If this weather holds English 

 snipe may be looked for in this latitude before very many 

 days. They do not usually make their appearance in any 

 numbers much before the first of April. We shall be glad 

 to hear of the first arrivals. 



