Forest and Stream 



A Weekly Journal of the Rod and Gun. 



« 



Tkrms, $4 a Year. 10 Cts. a Copy. | 

 Six Months, 82. ( 



NEW YORK, MAY 29, 1884. 



I VOL. XXII.— No. 18. 



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



CORRESPONDENCE. 

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

 The Editors are not responsible for the views of correspondents. 



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CONTENTS. 



Editorial. 



Rattlers and Rattlings. 

 Pistols and Children. 



Large Trout. 

 The Sportsman Tourist. 



A Story for Decoration Day. 

 Natural History. 



The Baltimore Oriole. 



The Couesian Period. 

 Game Bag and Gun. 



English and American Guns. 



The Performance of Shotguns. 



The Choice of Hunting Rifles. 



That Steam Cat. 



Midnight Melody. 



Two-Eyed Shooting. 



Deer Floating Incidents. 



The Massachusetts Bill. 



The New York Law. 

 Camp-Fire Flickerings. 

 Ska and River Fishing. 



Camps of the Kingfishers.— in. 



Useful Hints. 



Michigan Angling Notes. 



Fish Day at Worcester. 



Schroon Lake. 



Tim and Seven Ponds. 



Philadelphia Notes. 



The Revallier or Ravallia. 



FlSBCtTLTTKE. 



The Menhaden Question. 



FlSHCULTURE. 



The American Fishcultural 'As- 

 sociation. 

 The Kennel. 



Dachshunde vs. Spielhunde. 



N. A. K. Trials, 1884. 



Pointers at New York. 



The English Field Trials. 



Beagles at New York. 



Chicago Dog Show. 



National Bench Show Ass'n. 



Kennel Notes. 

 Rifle and Trap Shooting. 



Range and Gallery. 



The Trap. 

 Canoeing. 



Deseronto C. C. 



The Association Book. 



The Chart Locker. 

 Mississquoi River. 



The Hudson River Meet. 



The Connecticut River Meet. . 



The Merrimac River Meet. 



Canoeing in the Eastern States. 



Stowage of Canoes. 



Organization of Canoe Clubs. 

 Yachting. 



The Merlin. 



Food at Sea— Cheese vs. Salt 

 Junk. 

 Answers to Correspondents. 



RATTLERS AND RATTLING. 

 r T\HE lying proverb that all is fair in love and war has been 

 -*- a convenient excuse for all sorts of rascality ever since 

 it was first uttered. A fair stand-up fight has no tricky 

 features about it, and every move of either contestant in a 

 battle is fair according to the rules of equal opportunity or 

 it is the unfair advantage sought by an antagonist who stands 

 in self-confessed inferiority. It matters not whether the 

 game at stake be a crown and its dependencies and the sub- 

 terfuge the deceitful approach of an armed force under 

 cover of a flag of truce, or whether it be a match before the 

 trap for a medal bauble and the trick of the beaten team be 

 one of an hundred well-known devices by which one marks 

 man seeks to "rattle" or confuse another. 



We recall -with pleasure the stately courtesies which 

 marked the opening series of matches between the American 

 and Irish teams of riflemen. It was one company of gen- 

 tlemen working with another company for a common aim. 

 Each was intent on making as big a score as it was possible 

 with the arms and experience at its command, and each ex- 

 pected the other to do the same. Defeat came to one side, 

 but it did not bring with it any feeling of vindictiveness. 

 Those who failed to make the better score knew that they 

 had done their best, and they knew, too, that they had re- 

 ceived the best wishes of their antagonists, and they were the 

 first and mo.'.t sincere of those who heaped congratulations 

 upon the winners. It was not a match in which the utter- 

 ance of such a word as "rattling" was heard. Instead, the 

 match at Creedmoor and again at Dollymount was made the 

 vehicle for the conveyance of many expressions of good will. 

 It was, in short, a match conducted strictly according to the 

 conditions laid down for it, yet without for a moment losing 

 sight of the gentlemanly courtesy due at all times from one 

 individual to another. There was no sinking of the gentle- 

 man in the sportsman, or rather, there was a proper blend- 

 ing of the two, as there always may be and should be, if the 

 greed for victory doesnoi crowd out of sight the natural in- 

 stincts of fair play, which every true sportsman feels. 



In many trap contests we have seen the same regard for 

 the rights and feelings of the antagonists manifested that 



marked the rifle matches to which we have referred. Visitor 

 marksmen or a team from a distance were treated as guests 

 of the home team rather than foes to be beaten at any cost. 

 It was recognized on both sides that there was to be a 

 trial of skill and that with equal opportunity and barring 

 mishap, the most skillful among the group of con- 

 testants was sure to win. Such meetings were of good 

 effect in so far as they encouraged the patrons of trap- 

 shooting to seek their own advancement through honest 

 endeavor and diligent effort. Each man sought to improve 

 his own stvle and accuiacy because he was sure that success 

 would follow such attention to detail. It was, in short, an 

 exercise where there was improvement in real merit because 

 such merit was recognized at the scoring point. 



There is another side to these pictures, however, and too 

 frequently they are brought to public attention, to the dis- 

 grace and scandal of true sportsmanship. In these contests 

 the only criterion is that of victory. It matters not how it 

 is gained only that the final showing gives at least a nom- 

 inal success, There comes in then the fine art and low 

 cunning of the "rattler." Professionalism in the worst 

 meaning of that much-abused term comes out in all its force, 

 and while perhaps the letter of the conditions may be strictly 

 observed, the spirit of the conditions, which is after all the 

 spirit of fair play, is completely thrown to the winds. The 

 intention of each side is not for a trial of skill or victory 

 founded upon superior merit, but rather for a test of subter- 

 fuges, for such a series of surprises for the enemy as shall 

 snatch victory from his grasp. There are surprises which 

 may be perfectly honest. If A, by putting thought and 

 brains into his work, shall produce a guu, closer shooting, 

 harder hitting and surer in its fire than any that have here- 

 tofore been used, and shall introduce it to the attention of B, 

 through a match, he is entitled to all that his brain work 

 shall bring him. He has earned his victory, not perhaps by 

 being content to do better work with an inferior gun, but by 

 producing a better gun and thereby insuring better work. 

 Such a step is fair and honest; but it is quite another matter 

 to snatch victory, at least on paper, by resorting to the many 

 confusing tactics of the professional "rattler." 



It would be a waste of space and time to go into all the 

 unpleasant details of the progress of a match in which the 

 arts and devices of those who win by trickery are brought to 

 play, and once this sort of thing is countenanced there is no 

 limit to the extremes to which it may be carried, and a 

 match ceases to be more than a measure of rascality. 



In the past the Forest and Stream has found occasion to 

 administer some sharp rebukes to the mug-hunting, mer- 

 cenary spirit which in large measure lies at the foundation of 

 the evil under consideration. Rivalry is the life of all such 

 gatherings as those before the trap and the butts; but that 

 spirit of rivalry is quickly quenched when the spirit of greed 

 comes in and is allowed to run full sway without the control 

 of gentleman ly courtesy, and that observance of the intent 

 as well as the mere letter of formal conditions. 



A gun club may organize pretty much as a band of pirates 

 is drawn together, by a common motive of plunder. It may 

 for a time carry its own by sheer dint of worrying its 

 opponents ; but in the end it kills by the mere crushing out 

 of all the true sportsman's feeling, which is, that the reward 

 of sport is in the exercise itself and not in such results as 

 may be turned to base material advantage. 



National Bench Show Association. — The Westmin- 

 ster Kennel Club have taken the initiatory step toward the 

 formation of a National bench show association. They have 

 sent to all of the prominent kennel clubs a circular letter re- 

 questing the attendance of some of their members at a meet- 

 ing to be held in New York on June 21, for the purpose of 

 consultation regarding the formation of such an association. 

 That the call will meet with a hearty response there is not 

 the slightest doubt. We look forward with much interest to 

 the meeting, believing that its action will result in great 

 benefit to the breeder and exhibitor, and in increased useful- 

 ness and popularity of our bench shows. 



Luck.— It is reported that a rich vein of coal has been dis- 

 covered on the lands owned by the Woodmont Rod and Gun 

 Club, on the Potomac. If the prospector is right about the 

 find, there will be millions in it for the club members. This 

 is an instance of virtue rewarded, as it should be. The 

 club's motto is "Protect and Enjoy." The usual motto is, 

 "Enjoy, and if anything is left let it protect itself." The 

 Woodmont anglers deserve their luck. They have demon- 

 stracted beyond all question that game protection— with a 

 coal mine, an oil well, or a gold reef thrown in— pays. 



PISTOLS AND CHILDREN. 



AN arrest made Monday in this city was the first under a 

 recently enacted ordinance, which prohibits the sale 

 of pistols to minors under the age of fifteen years. A boy 

 had been sent on an errand to purchase a pistol, and the fact 

 coming to the notice of the police, an arrest followed. There 

 has been in the past a great deal of trouble over the firearm 

 question as affecting children. There would seem to be a 

 natural fever on the part of every boy at some time to own a pis- 

 tol. It may be the most dangerous possible contrivance, and 

 the very fact that this danger is unforeseen only makes it the 

 more to be dreaded. To meet this demand of the lads and 

 the measure of their pockets, the firearms companies have' 

 sent out a series of alleged pistols which have only cheap- 

 ness to recommend them. They have neither strength nor 

 accuracy nor beauty in their favor, and there exists no pre- 

 tense of a reason to justify their manufacture. 



In this city, where the evils which naturally follow in the 

 train of such deadly contrivances are so manifest, there 

 have been many ordinances and local laws aiming to reduce' 

 the disastrous consequences which follow this pistol-carrying 

 mania. There are laws which make it necessary to secure a 

 permit for the habitual carrying of a pistol; but still the boy- 

 nuisance remained, and the more recent ordinance naturally 

 followed to reach this trouble. Rigidly enforced, it will do 

 much toward reducing the trouble to a minimum, but the 

 real remedy is to be found in a complete suspension of this 

 useless class of arms. If this be brought about by a general 

 prohibition of their sale, good. An arm of service is one 

 thing, but a dangerous toy, placed by mercenary manufac- 

 turers in ignorant, innocent hands, is quite another. 



LARGE TROUT. 

 \ CCOUNTS of the capture of large trout are now in sea- 

 -■^*- son, and in reading them one must always consider the 

 locality where the fish are taken. For instance, a trout of 

 five pounds taken in the waters of Maine or of the Sault Ste. 

 Maria would not be a remarkable fish, while, if taken in the 

 waters of New York, Pennsylvania, or Vermont, it would 

 be considered a monster. New Hampshire papers chronicle 

 a catch of 127 trout, taken by Eugene Batchelder and John 

 Lynch, of Claremont, which contained many fish of six to 

 eight ounces, as the finest catch in years. 



From Pennsylvania comes the account of the largest trout 

 taken in Pike county in ten years. It was taken by Thad. 

 Mercer in the Little Bushkill, below the lower falls, last 

 week, and weighed four and a quarter pounds. Previous to 

 this the largest trout taken in Pike county was taken a dozen 

 years ago at the mouth of the Sawkill, and was a quarter of 

 a pound heavier than the one mentioned above. Both these 

 fish were taken with the worm. This region has furnished 

 several large trout. One came out of the Beaverkill and was 

 exhibited in Barnum's Museum before it was burned, and as 

 it was said to weigh six pounds, there were many in those 

 days who doubted that a brook trout ever reached that weight. . 



The largest wild trout that we know of being taken im 

 the State of New York, was taken by A. R. Fuller, of 

 Meacham Lake, Franklin county, in Clear Pond, near 

 Meacham, and weighed five pounds. 



From Maine come the largest trout taken in America. The 

 great fish taken by Mr. Geo. Shepard Page, of ten and a half 

 pounds, weighed after being out of water for two days, and 

 the eleven and a quarter pound fish sent to the Smithsonian, 

 have never been beaten. Last year a trout was taken in the 

 Rangeley Lakes that weighed nine and a half pounds. 



Railroads in the National Park. — There are abund- 

 ant reasons why no railroads should be allowed in the Yel- 

 lowstone National Park, but the Cinnabar and Clarke's Fork 

 Railroad Company are untiring in their attempt to lobby a 

 bill through the Senate at Washington, giving them permis- 

 sion to construct a road through the Park. Government 

 officials, paid liberal salaries, are found, who shamelessly 

 lend themselves to helping on the nefarious scheme, and only 

 the vigilance of honest Senators can thwart the job. The 

 subject came up in the Senate last Monday. Messrs. Vest, 

 Logan and Voorhees spoke in opposition to the bill, and Mr. 

 Sawyer would have shown what .a fine thing this road must 

 be to the dear people, but he was not given a chance to de- 

 liver himself. The monopoly granted to the Hatch concern 

 was a national disgrace ; to permit this railroad company to 

 grab what they have the presumption to demand, would be 

 another cause for humiliation among right-thinking citizens. 



A New Florida Book.— Dr. J. A. Henshall's new book, 

 "Camping and Cruising in Florida," is now in press and will 

 be issued shortly. 



