Forest and Stream. 



A Weekly Journal of the Rod and Gun. 



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

 Six Months, $2. | 



NEW YORK, APRIL 10, 1884. 



j VOL.XXlI.-No. 11. 



I Nos. 89 & 40 Park Row, New York, 



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Forest and Stream Publishing Co. 

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CONTENTS. 



Editorial. 

 A Gun License Bill. 



A Pitiful Story. 



The Future of the Park. 

 The Sportsman Tourist. 



Spence Pitcher's Bear. 



Dear Shooting. 



The Frog Catcher. 

 Natural History. 



Bird Notes. 



Some Florida Pets. 



Protecting Song Birds. 

 Game Bag and Oun. 



The Performance of Shotguns. 



Mr. Conger Explains. 



Notes from Iowa. 



A Memory. 



Game in Texas. 



St. Lawrence Game Club. 



Wolves in Maine. 



10, 18 or 16. 



The Choice of Hunting Rifles. 

 Camp-Fire Flickering^. 

 Sea and Kiver Fishing. 



Rod Making. 



Violations of the Fish Laws. 



Length and Weight, of Fly -Rods 



Fishes and Fishermen. 



Opening the Season in New 

 Hampshire. 

 Fishoulture. 



An English Fishcultural Farm. 



The Kennel. 



The Cleveland Bog Show. 



Experience with Dogs. 



A Fox Hunt. 



Spaniel and Beagle Classifica- 

 tion. 



N. A. K. C. Derby. 



American English Beagle Club. 

 Rifle and Trap Shooting. 



Bifles of To-Day. 



Range and Gallery. 



The Trap. 

 Canoeing. 



Allegheny C. C. 



The Winter Camp-Fire. 



The Galley Fire. 

 Simple Dishes. 



The Log Book. 

 Among the Thousand Islands. 



Canoe vs. Sneakbox. 



Air-Tight Compartments. 



Club Notes. 



A Few Hints on Camping. 

 Yachting. 



The Lake Y. R. A. and Measure- 

 ment. 



The Gleam's Record. 



The Lake Yacht Racing Associ- 

 ation. 



Cruising in a Sloop. 



Log of the Watersnake. 

 Answers to Correspondents. 



TEE FUTURE OF THE PARK. 

 HPHE Yellowstone National Park seems now in a fair 

 -L way to be properly administered. The Improvement 

 Company Las been from the first a terrible bugbear— the 

 ogre which threatened, at one gulp, to swallow our National 

 pleasure ground. But for the prompt and energetic action 

 of Senator Vest, it might well have irretrievably damaged 

 this beautiful spot. For the present this corporation appears 

 to be fully occupied in striving to find a way out of its own 

 difficulties. A flood of light has been thrown upon it and 

 its doings, which has shown the people very clearly what 

 the methods and intentions of its projectors were. Its hands 

 are tied. Like the bad giants of our ehildhood's stories, it is 

 at last defeated and crushed. From this danger, which was 

 the most imminent of those that threatened, the Park has 

 been saved. 



The state of things now is not very unlike what existed a 

 few years ago. There is a difference, however. At that time, 

 probably not o»e man in a thousand knew that such a reser- 

 vation as the National Park existed. Now very few are 

 ignorant of this existence, and almost every one takes an 

 interest, more or less active, in the preservation from de- 

 struction of this grand region, in which each citizen should 

 feel that he has a personal ownership. 



The Senate has passed a good bill for the proper protec- 

 tion and «are of the National Park, and this bill is now in 

 the hands of a committee of the House of Representatives. 

 Senator Vest has appeared before this committee, and has 

 fully explained the character and bearings of the proposed 

 law, and it seems likely that it may be favorably reported. 



But when? What prospect is there, in the war of factions 

 which is ever raging in Washington, that a bill, in which 

 there is neither money nor politics, a bill merely for the good 

 of the whole country, will be pressed to a vote before the 

 session closes? It would seem, to one unacquainted with 

 the strangely dilatory methods of American legislation, that 

 it might be an easy matter to carry so important a measure 

 as Mr. Vest's bill, but we are not over-sanguine that this 

 w 11 be the case. 



We earnestly hope that the measure will become a law. 



On many accounts it is of the highest importance that it 

 should pass. Any delay in enlarging the boundaries of the 

 Park will be most unfortunate. The longer this action is 

 postponed, the more difficult it will be to bring it about. 

 Lands taken up on the borders of the Park will be difficult 

 to acquire, and will be held at fancy prices by those who 

 have entered them for settlement. 



But what was needed even more than a law on the subject, 

 kas been accomplished. The people have been aroused to 

 the importance of preserving the Park, and they have spoken 

 on this subject in tones that are unmistakable. They demand 

 that this Park shall be cared for, and that tbey and their 

 children's children may have the opportunity to see here for 

 all time what our country was before it had been touched by 

 the hand of civilization; what its fauna and flora were 

 before ruthless butchery had exterminated the one, and im- 

 portations of species from foreign localities had confused the 

 other. 



The number of those interested in the Park is constantly 

 increasing. As more and more intelligent people visit the 

 region there will be constant accessions to this number. We 

 must remember that if the Park is to be guarded as we wish 

 to have it, a constant effort must be made. Influence must 

 be brought to bear on all our legislators; the importance of 

 the Park and its proper care must be insisted upon ; the sub- 

 ject must be talked up with neighbors and friends, and 

 they must be interested; there must be no relaxing of our 

 efforts. The matter is not one which interests the professed 

 politician. He does not care for it. To him there is nothing 

 "practical" in it. He even sneers at it as a matter of senti 

 ment. Let him call it so if he will. There is need of a little 

 sentiment in the American life of the day. 



Whatever it is, let us continue to work for the accomplish- 

 ment of the good end we have in view. A good beginning 

 has been made, but it will not do to rest now. Each of us 

 has a duty to perform. And on the faithful performance of 

 that duty hangs the future of the Park. 



The proposition to utilize this reservation, or a part of it, 

 as a zoological garden is one which may come up a few 

 years hence with better prospects than it can now have. At 

 this time people are considerably exercised as to how the 

 reservation is to be cared for, and they will have enough to 

 do to see this work properly carried out. It will be a mistake 

 to have the energies which ought to be wholly devoted to one 

 matter, divided and spread out over several. If the efforts 

 of all the friends of the Park are concentrated on its en- 

 largement and proper care, we may hope that before long 

 these efforts will be crowned with success. After we have 

 aceomplished this most important work, other minor matters 

 can receive attention, but just now let us waste none of our 

 energy on side shows. 



A GUN LICENSE BILL. 

 f\R Tuesday last, a bill introduced by Mr. Moore passed 

 ^S the New York Assembly. Its provisions forbid the 

 shooting of quail or small birds on Staten Island by non 

 residents except on payment of a license fee of $1 0. This 

 license fee entitles the person paying it to shoot for ome year. 

 The bill appeared to meet the general approval of the house, 

 and only sixteen votes were cast against it. 



We cannot but regard this measure as an excellent one. 

 By far the greater number of those who go to Staten Island 

 to shoot are of a class very undesirable as visitors to any 

 community. The objects of their pursuit are song birds, 

 and to their thirst for the sparrow's gore they sometimes unite 

 a ruffianly conduct that makes them extremely unpopular with 

 the Staten Islanders. Too often they tear down fences, kill 

 chickens, and alarm the families of the residents. These 

 are the men who make the name of sportsman odious to. the 

 farmer, and they should be piomptly dealt with. 



There is another reason for limiting by every legal means 

 the shooting on Staten Island. Within the last two years a 

 considerable number of quail have been turned out there, 

 and with reasonable protection may do well, but if they are 

 exposed to the attacks of every Bowery gunner who spends 

 his Sunday in tramping over the Island with hired gun and 

 borrowed dog, they certainly cannot last long. 



This gun license law has often been spoken of as some- 

 thing that must finally be adopted in America if the game is 

 to be saved from extinction, and it has generally been 

 thought that it would be very unpopular. It will not be 

 long, however, before even the most thoughtless of sports- 

 men will have to ask himself, "What is to be done to save 

 the game?" Clearly, there is no hope in the self-restraint of 

 those who pursue it, and who are most interested in its 

 preservation, although it might be imagined that this would 

 be the first remedy thought of. 



A PITIFUL STORY. 



ONE of the saddest features of the collapse of that miser- 

 able fiasco, the National Park Improvement Company, 

 is the manner in which this corporation has treated the 

 mechanics in its employ. For eight months prior to March 

 last these mechanics have not received one cent of pay, and 

 their condition at the present time is truly deplorable. It is 

 stated that they are absolutely in need of clothing, that they 

 are without shoes, and this in a climate which is almost 

 Arctic in its severity, the elevation of the Mammoth Hot 

 Springs above the sea level being over six thousand feet, or 

 about thai of Mount Washington. 



We have recently had an opportunity of perusing a letter 

 written by one of the employes of this company, in which 

 the sad condition of himself and his fellows is described, 

 and the story told in it was very touching in its rugged 

 simplicity. 



In their desperation, the men have seized the hotel and 

 intend to hold it, as in some sort a security for what is due 

 them. We fear that this will scarcely help them much, 

 though they may be able to give the Improvement Com- 

 pany so much trouble that they will pay them off to get rid 

 of them. We do not know enough of Territorial law to 

 recommend a course to these unfortunate men, but in older 

 countries they could file a mechanic's lien on this ridiculous 

 summer hotel, which would fully protect their rights. Can- 

 not this be done in the present case? 



We have a very sincere sympathy for these poor men. It 

 would be hard to find a more striking illustratitn of the cant 

 saying that corporations are soulless than is the present case. 



It is believed that "Woodcraft" will be ready for de- 

 livery to an anxious pubMc by the first of next week at latest. 

 The sheets are now running through the press, and before 

 the first reader of Forest and Stream sees these lines a lot 

 of them will be delivered to the binder. There have been 

 some delays in certain parts of the manufacture of the book, 

 which have kept the volume back a little, but in a very few 

 days all the orders will be filled. The advance demand for 

 the book has already been so large that we have been 

 obliged to increase our order for the original edition one- 

 half, and if the orders continue to come in at the same rate 

 we shall have to double it. Every man who intends to spend 

 a little time in the woods this summer or fall, will want a 

 copy of "Woodcraft," and as the number who annually 

 spend their vacat/onS in camp is very large, we anticipate for 

 the book a sale quite beyond that of any book of the kind 

 which has ever been published. In our advertising columns 

 will be found some information about the work. 



The number op dogs entered in the April number of 

 the American Kennel Register is 105, making the whole num- 

 ber entered in the first thirteen issues of the monthly, 1,115. 

 Certainly this is a remarkable showing, and the fact indi- 

 cates far better than any long-winded argument could, just 

 how much need there was of such a register. Something 

 was required which should be rt liable, prompt and up to 

 the times, for it does a man little good to register his dog 

 and not have the registry number published until after the 

 animal is dead. The success of the Register is a matter for 

 congratulation to all dog breeders. 



The account given in another column of a Norwalk man 

 who killed at a single shot 27 or 28 broadbills, or 50 old 

 squaws, will startle some of our readers. Before condemn- 

 ing the act let each man examine himself and discover 

 whether he would have refused to take such a shot himself, 

 had the opportunity offered. He that is without sin among 

 us let him cast the first stone. At the same time, we cannot 

 help thinking that if the shooter had used a hundred shots to 

 kill his fifty birds he would have had a great deal more fun 

 out of his shooting. 



The pressure upon our space in all departments, but 

 particularly, for the last few weeks, in our kennel columns, 

 obliges us to hold over a great number of most interesting 

 articles on various topics. We hope that our contributors 

 will understand that their articles are only delayed through 

 circumstances quite beyond our control. 



The present season has been remarkable for the num- 

 ber and excellence of the dog shows which have taken place. 

 Three only remain to be held, St. Louis, New York and 

 Chicago, the latter some time late in May or early in June, 



