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 YORK, APRIL 17, 188 4. 



j VOL. XXlI.-No. IS. 



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



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forest and Stream Publishing Co. 

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CONTENTS. 



Editorial. 



How the Water Goes. 



Ichthyophagous Club. 



Compulsory Pilotage. 



Fishing for Bass. 

 The Sportsman Tourist. 



Down Ike Madawasca. 



Down the Yukon on a Raft.— rx. 



Mr. O'Brien Protests. 

 Natural History. 



Stearns's Natural History of 

 Labrador. 



Southern Limit of Quail and 

 Grouse. 



A Zoogenic Paradox. 

 Game Bag and Gun. 



Keeping Quail in Confinement. 



Ethics of Fox Hunting. 



The First Geese, of the Season. 



Long Island Duck Netters. 



The Performance of Shotguns. 



Mr Greener Criticised. 



Summer Shooting. 



The Choice of Hunting Rifles. 



New Hampshire League. 



Massachuset s Game Prospects. 



Tennessee Convention. 



Philadelphia Notes. 

 Sea and River Fishing. 



The Rod-Past and Present. 



An Old-Fashioned Rod. 



Training on the Bigosh. 



Black Bass in Massachusetts. 



Fishing Through the Ice. 



Sea and River Fishing. 

 The Dublin Pond Trout. 

 "Birch Lake Perch." 

 Tennessee Notes. 



FlSHCULTURE. 



Report of ihe New Jersey Com- 

 mission, 



New Hampshire. 

 The Kennel. 



Eastern Field Trials Club. 



New York Dog Show. 



English Kennel Notes. 



A Pious Pointer. 



Kennel Management. 



Kennel Notes. 

 Rifle and Trap Shooting. 



Range and Gallery. 



The Trap. 

 Canoeing. 



Whitehall C. C. 



The Spring Meet on the Hudson, 



A Hint to Canoeists. 



Canoe vs. Sneakbox. 



Canoeing in Great Britain. 



Amateur Canoe Building. — xin. 

 Yachting. 



'•Bad Advice." 



The Lake Y. R. A. 



Wanted, Yacht Skippers. 



A Cruising Steamer. 



The New feceamerElectra. 



Which Shall It Be? 



Measurement on the Lakes. 

 Answers to Correspondents. 



With its compact type and in its permanently enlarged form 

 of twenty-eight pages this journal furnishes each ween alarger 

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

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

 American publications put together. 



HOW THE WATER GOES. 

 f~pHE lessened water supply of many of our streams 

 -■- and their periodical floods are occupying the public 

 attention more and more. 



Last week there was a large and enthusiastic public meet- 

 ing in New York, attended by our best citizens, at which 

 both subjects were discussed, and resolutions calling for 

 legislation to preserve the Adirondack forests were adopted. 

 In the speeches, made by the Mayor and other citizens, the 

 old story of the diminished water supply was told again. It 

 is familiar enough to almost every one, and whoever spends 

 a little time in the woods each year has seen the work going 

 on under his own eyes. 



The trout fisherman, who in spring follows down his 

 favorite brook from its source amoug the hills, through the 

 woods and out. into the grass lots and cultivated fields, notices 

 each year that more and more of the alders that once fringed 

 the stream are cut away, and that the waters, that were for- 

 merly almost everywhere shaded, are now exposed to tlie 

 glare of the sun's rays. Each year the woodcock shooter 

 finds favorite bits of cover, spots where in former days he 

 was always sure to start a bird or two, cut off, so that noth- 

 ing but a ehewux de frise of stubs remains; so it is every- 

 where. The swamps to which the quail, when started, once 

 fled for refuge, the hard wood forests in which the partridges 

 used to wander, the very hedge rows along th» old fences 

 and stone walls, are being cut away. All this is, in one sense, 

 an improvement; it gives to the farmer land once useless, and 

 enables him to cultivate the whole of his tract. But the im- 

 provement is one which will carry with it its own punish- 

 ment. A land without woods is no country for the farmer. 

 At once it lacks water, for this runs off as soon as it falls. 

 It will soon lack soil, for the spring torrents carry this away 



and deposit it in the rivers, where it still further blocks up 

 the ever shoaling channels. 



Within the past two or three years we have been amazed 

 and alarmed at the rapidity with which forest destruction is 

 being carried on in New England. There is a place to which 

 we go for a day or two every autumn for a little ruffed 

 grouse shooting. Three years ago the rough and sterile hills 

 were most of them well wooded with oak, hickory, chestnut 

 and beech, and it was as good a locality for ruffed grouse as 

 could be found in the State. The farmers and land owners 

 seemed to cut only such wood as they needed for fuel or for 

 fence rails. Since that time, some one has brought into this 

 town two or three portable sawmills. The result is that all 

 the timber has been cut off. Heaps of sawdust and great 

 piles of tough, dry boughs and twigs cumber, but do not 

 protect, the earth. Brooks that were once full and flowing, 

 in which one could see the trout dart, and along whose bor- 

 ders the woodcock fed, and the grouse stalked with deliber- 

 ate tread, have disappeared. Their former channels are now 

 dry gullies, which may serve to carry off the superfluous waters 

 of the spring time, but have no permanent supply. 



The shooting and the fishing have gone with the brooks, but 

 that is not all. The manufacturers, whose mills are on streams 

 which these former brooks fed, complain bitterly that they 

 no longer have water enough for their purposes, and say 

 that during certain months of the year they will have to 

 shut down unless some measures are taken to increase the 

 supply. In fact, a very large proportion of the mills in many 

 of the most thriving manufacturing towns of New York 

 State have already put in steam power, finding that water 

 power was no longer to be relied on. This is the case near 

 Watertown, near Stuyvesant, near Claverack, near Chatham, 

 and near half a hundred other towns that we could mention. 

 There is need of speedy action if anything is to be done to- 

 ward preserving the Adirondacks. It is said that the lum- 

 bermen, alarmed at the general interest manifested in the 

 subject, are cutting timber there right and left. They merely 

 fell it, not trimming at all, their object being to get as much 

 on the ground as possible before any law interfering with 

 them shall be passed. 



The whole story of our wasted water supply has an appli- 

 cation broad enough to cover our whole country. Local 

 legislation is necessary, it is true, but some general and wise 

 measures must be taken by the Federal Government. 



We cannot think that the time will be long before some 

 steps are taken in the right direction. The matter is one 

 which touches, or soon will touch, the pockets of merchants, 

 manufacturers, ship owners and farmers, and the pocket, 

 among the well-to-do, is a very sensitive organ. 



THE ICHTHYOPHAGOUS CLUB. 

 npHE time approaches for the annual dinner of the fish 

 -*- eaters with the sesquipedalian name. We have not 

 heard from them this spring, and do not know how they have 

 hibernated, but as the "peepers" are out on the marshes, 

 and one turtle has been seen to emerge from the New Jersey 

 mud, we presume that the Ichthyophagoi are thinking of 

 taking a slight ' 'feed" in order to get their stomachs in shape 

 for the summer campaign. The organization of this club is 

 incomplete. There are not officers enough. At present 

 there is only a president, treasurer, surgeon, head taster, 

 naturalist and poet, and the last three positions are held by 

 one individual. This came about because it was deemed 

 desirable to kill the poet, and he was appointed head taster 

 in the vain hope, that some of the dishes suggested for him to 

 experiment on might "lay him out." This has not happened, 

 and the club is in yearly danger of having some new verses 

 inflicted upon it, which may cause death to some of the 

 members who have withstood the assaults of hell-benders, 

 water snakes, and other outre, viands on their digestions. 



As the poet declines to die by natural means, we suggest 

 that the club kill and eat him. We shall not carry the sug- 

 gestion so far as to counsel them to imitate the Ancient Mari- 

 ner, who survived the protracted cannibalism of his castaway 

 comrades until he sang : 



"O, I am the cook and the captain bold, 



And the mate of the Nancy brig; 

 The bo'sen tight and the midship mite, 



And the crew of the captain's gig." 



Still, the obnoxious officer should be disposed of, as he 

 shows no intention of resigning; and there should be ap- 

 pointed a corps of nurses, an undertaker, two grave diggers, 

 and a sexton. It is certain that this indigestion-breeding and 

 dyspepsia-encouraging club cannot go on forever eating hor- 

 rible marine monsters without coming to grief some time, 

 and the officers which we have recommended to be appointed I 



should not be allowed to eat with the club, but may safely 

 be permitted to drink with them, in order that they may live 

 to attend to their duties. It makes no difference whether 

 the surgeon eats or not, he can be spared with the poet ; but 

 the undertaker and his assistants shorld not be subjected to 

 risks. 



Instead of drawing their nets in distant waters for rare 

 and curious forms of aquatic animals, which are abhorrent 

 even to those who are familiar with them, we suggest that 

 they tempt fate by eating the products of the waters near the 

 city. Among these we would name : Oysters and shad from 1 

 Newark Bay with their fltivor of petroleum, crabs from. 

 Staten Island with sludge acid sauce, eels from Newtown 

 Creek served in Standard oil, and flounders from the Swash 

 Channel garnished with city refuse. Such a menu, with 

 other additions, which will readily occur to their caterer, 

 will put to the test the reputed bravery of this club, which 

 has based its reputation for courage upon eating perfectly 

 wholesome articles which happen to be refused by popular 

 prejudice. The members who might die from the effects of 

 this dinner would depart in the proud consciousness of hav- 

 ing done good by calling attention to tfee pollution of our 

 waters, as would certainly be done by the daily press, and 

 on their tombstones might be written: "Died that our waters 

 might be purified." 



COMPULSORY PILOTAGE. 

 r pHE bill before Congress relating to compulsoiy pilotage 

 -*- makes no especial exception of steam yachts. Of 

 course this is only due to an oversight, as no reasonable per- 

 son the least acquainted with the state of affairs will attempt 

 to push through a measure which would be an odious and 

 uncalled for hardship to owners of steam yachts; which 

 would, in fact, kill the sport at one stroke. We believe it 

 only necessary that the committees recently appointed by 

 the N. Y. Y. C. and A. Y. C. should call the attention of 

 those having the pilotage bill in charge to the absurdity of 

 the proposed infliction in order to bring about the required 

 modifying clause exempting steam yachts. Such vessels arc 

 nearly all small, drawing but few feet, can disregard chan- 

 nels, and have superior intelligence on board at all times 

 capable of conducting with safety in and out of port. More- 

 over, being private property only, carrying neither passen- 

 gers nor freight, steam yachts manifestly ought not to be 

 dealt with in the summary manner the ptblic safety may 

 demand in the case of vessels plying for profit. It is too 

 clearly to the interest of owners of steam yachts to navigate 

 with due care to require the meddlesome interference of red 

 tape. Besides, in the event of casualty, the loss would be 

 upon a private owner and the responsibility upon persons 

 who voluntarily take the risks in accompanying him in his 

 vessel. Steam yachting, and especially steam launching, is 

 already overburdened with wanton legislative complications. 

 What is needed for the prosperity of the sport is a relief 

 from official fuss and humbug and not a further dose like the 

 pilotage bill. There ought to be no hesitation in granting 

 the request of the delegation of yachtsmen charged with 

 seeking exemption from the proposed compulsory pilotage 

 bill. To refuse assent to immunity would be to return to 

 barbarous limitations about a sport which should receive the 

 most liberal encouragement from legislation in behalf of the 

 interests of the country at large. Yachting, as a school of 

 the sea, deserves not only leniency but direct promotion at 

 the hands of national, State and municipal administrations. 



A Tennessee Association is to be organized at a conven- 

 tion of sportsmen in Kuoxville, May 20. The call is issued 

 by the Knoxville Gun Club, and all individuals who are 

 desirous of uniting for game protection in that State are 

 invited to be present. Tennessee is greatly in need of such 

 an association, and it is to be hoped that the Knoxville con- 

 vention may be well attended. Nashville should send a 

 large delegation, and if Chattanooga and Memphis are at 

 all adequately represented, this initial meeting will have 

 enough influence to arouse public opinion on the subject. 



Maryland Ducking Law.— We have been told recently 

 of attempts made to enforce the Maryland law, that boxes 

 shall not be put on the ducking flats before daylight. The 

 Chesapeake gunners are going to work the right way to 

 utterly ruin what was once the finest ground for fowl on 

 this continent. 



Our Readers toiU confer a favor by tending us the names 

 of such of their friends as are not novo among live subscribers 

 of tlie Forest and Stream, but who would presumably br. 

 interested in the paper, 



