Forest and Stream. 



A Weekly Journal of the Rod and Gun. 



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

 Six Months, $3. j 



NEW YORK, JUNE 5, 1884. 



VOL. XXlI.-No. 19. 

 3 & 40 Park. Row, New York. 



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CONTENTS. 



Editorial. 



The Wild Dogs of Maine. 



Pointers at New York. 



The Reward of Virtue. 

 The Sportsman Tourist. 



Uncle Lisha's Shop.— I. 



Adirondack Fish and Game. 

 Natural History. 



The Couesian Period. 



The Spikehorn. 

 Game Bag and Gun. 



Early Accounts of the Grizzly. 



The Performance of Shotguns. 



The Choice of Hunting Rifles. 



Philadelphia Notes. 



The Cost of Guns. 

 Sea and River Fishing. 



Camps of the Kingfishers.— iv. 



Trout and Water Snakes. 



Pennsylvania Angling Notes. 



Black Bass in Tennessee. 



Rod and Reel Association. 



FlSHCULTURE. 



Columbia River Salmon Hatch- 

 ing. 

 FisLculture in Canada. 

 The Kennel. 

 The Philadelphia Show. 

 Are Dogs Domestic Animals? 



TH-3 KenMel. 



English Kennel Notes. 



Pointers at New York. 



Beagles at New York. 



Kennel Notes, 

 Rifle and Trap Shooting. 



Range and Gallery. 



Creed moor. 



California Rifle Association. 



The Trap. 



The Clay-Pigeon Tournament; 

 Canoeing. 



Spring Meeting at Newburgh. 



Pittsburgh C. C. 



The Merrimack River Meet. 



The Tale of a Boat. 



The Chart Locker. 

 Mississquoi River. 

 Yachting. 



S. Boston Y. C. Spring Matches. 



N. Haven Y. C. Opening Cruise. 



Knickerbocker Y. C. 



Atlantic Y. C. Opening Cruise. 



Seawanhaka Corinthian Y. C. 



LarchmontY. C. 



The Merlin. 



Another Blow at the Sand- 

 baggers. 

 Answers to Correspondents. 



POINTERS AT NEW YORE. 

 '"PHAT the judging of the pointer classes at the West- 



-*~ minster Kennel Club show was received with surprise 

 and dissatisfaction by a large majority of those interested, is 

 well known. As a consequence of this we have received a 

 great number of letters bearing on the subject. Of these a 

 very considerable number contain no statements of argument 

 or fact, and will therefore never make their appearance in 

 these columns; others, which deal liberally in reckless accus- 

 ations, of "hatred, malice, and all uncharitableness" on the 

 part of other writers, will also fail to appear in type, while 

 a third class, devoted to the laudation by their owners, of 

 certain champion stud dogs, can only be printed at our usual 

 advertising rates. 



It seems too often impossible for men to discuss the faults 

 and merits of the dogs which they own in a temperate and 

 common sense manner. If X. criticizes Y.'s greyhound as 

 having a bulldog head, Y. is very likely to reply that X.'s 

 paternal grandfather made his money in the slave trade. 

 Reason, logic, and common sense appear to be thrown to the 

 wind when it comes to a question of a dog's qualifications 

 for the show bench. It is not difficult to see why this is the 

 case. The explanation, of course, lies partly in the warm 

 affection which exists between the dog and his owner. No 

 one of the lower animals is so near to man as the dog, and 

 in many cases the love with which it is regarded is not very 

 different from that feeling which a man has for his children. 

 So it is that very often when a mau attempts to write in 

 defense of his dog he is so strongly moved that he will use 

 any weapon, however puerile, which he thinks may serve 

 his purpose. And yet it ought to be possible for men, who 

 iu the ordinary affa'rs of life are sensible enough, to employ 

 their intelligence in considering a -question wheie their feel- 

 ings are so deeply engaged. They ought not to write like 

 children, and when they do so it will be a waste of good 

 postage to send their letters to this office. 



Mr. Mason's criticism of the pointer judging was temper- 

 ate and quiet, devoted wholly to pointing out what he con- 

 siders the faults in the individual dogs, and so a model of its 

 kind. The replies to it should be in the sam e strain, and it 

 is certainly unnecessary that they should contain anything 



more than the judgment of the writer on the animals dis- 

 cussed. After all this judgment will be nothing more than 

 an expression of opinion, for we have no model, no perfect 

 dog with which we can compare the living animal. Each 

 man in looking at a pointer for example, will have a differ- 

 ent idea as to the faults of this particular dog. One man 

 will think that his chest is just right, while another 

 will consider it not deep enough, and a third too wide, and 

 to a positive statement as to faults of this kind there seems to 

 be no reply except a reference to authorities which can not 

 settle the question because their statements are susceptible 

 of widely differing interpretations. 



Another reason why men find it impossible to reason 

 temperately about the bench show qualities of their dogs is 

 that the average man appears to be utterly unable to appre- 

 ciate that excellence on the bench and excellence in the 

 field may be, and often are, two utterly diverse things, A 

 bench show winner may be a good field dog, or he may be 

 utterly worthless to shoot over, but there are thousands 

 of dogs which it is a delight to follow afield in the autumn 

 days, but which, if entered in a bench show, would be 

 laughed at by every one. Yet, we often hear a disappointed 

 exhibitor say, "Well, my dog ought to have had a place, he 

 is a superb dog on ruffed grouse!" Such people ought, to 

 know enough to keep their dogs out of bench shows, and so 

 save themselves expense and much anxiety. A dog's field 

 qualities depend largely on characters which are mental and 

 are susceptible of cultivation. They are more or less de- 

 pendent on outside circumstances, but a dog's bench show 

 qualities are purely physical, and can scarcely be modified 

 at all after the animal has matured. Bench show qualities 

 are, in a measure, the result of breeding, yet the most care- 

 ful breeding may produce animals which have the gravest 

 faults. Therefore accident, or some unknown quantity 

 which we cannot as yet determine, usually decides what the 

 young animals shall be. 



"We urge upon our correspondents interested in kennel mat- 

 ters, the importance of moderation in their discussions, and 

 for ourselves we must decline to admit to our columns any 

 bitterness. The virulence of these quarrels, as sometimes 

 carried on in our contemporaries, cannot but give sportsmen 

 generally the impression that dog owners and breeders are 

 a quarrelsome and ill-conditioned lot, and that like their 

 favorites so much maligned by good old Dr. Watts, they 



* * * "delight 



To bark and bile 



For 'tis their nature to." 



THE WILD DOGS OF MAINE. 

 I ET the dakhun hide in the shadow of Cheops, and the 

 -*-' cuansu slink abashed into the jungle; let the polugar 

 dhole drown in the Ganges, and the pariah flee to Himalayan 

 fastnesses; let the pero get him to the uttermost antipodes, 

 and the dingo crawl into a hole. The dogs of Maine are 

 wild. So pronounces the Supreme Court of that State. 

 Dogs (wild and tame) sometimes go mad; Supreme Court 

 judges never lose their reason. 



The learned gentlemen whose opinion on this point is else- 

 where given in full, have performed a courageous and 

 momentous task. We term it courageous. It is. Upheld 

 and inspired by their keen vision into the arcana of canine 

 philosophy, the Maine judges have dared to stand in the 

 face of the common sense of mankind in this year of grace 

 1884 and declare that the dog— "man's best friend"— is a 

 wild beast. The pet that plays with the children, the old 

 house dog that has been a faithful guard so long, the pointer 

 and setter, fine bred and trained, all these belong with the 

 bear, the wolf and the 'coon, to the fern naturm. 



We are surprised that certain citizens of Maine, who style 

 themselves sportsmen, are disposed to be enraged at the dic- 

 tum of the judges. Clearly these fault-finders do not fully 

 comprehend what a glorious thing this is for the game sup- 

 ply. In decimating and exterminating Maine game the dog 

 has taken an active part. He has run the deer and pointed 

 the grouse. "Now," reason the judges, "we will have a bit 

 of retributive justice. The dog has helped to destroy the 

 game, we will make game of him. There is little else to 

 hunt, let us hunt the dog." This, it will be observed, fully 

 exempts the judges from the very serious charge made 

 against them, namely, that "they are no sportsmen." On 

 the contrary, they must be sportsmen, and the very 

 truest sort of sportsmen at that. While other sportsmen, 

 glowing with earnestness, have been devising various more 

 or less impracticable schemes to conserve the game, the 

 Supreme Court worthies have grappled the problem and 

 solved it on the instant by transforming into savage beasts 

 the tens of thousands of formerly inoffensive and presuma- 



bly domestic animals. The novelty of this class of game 

 may lead to much perplexity of spirit among those who 

 desire to hunt dogs in a decent and "legitimate" manner. 

 The ethics of the sport are little understood, and it will take 

 some time to learn what is the approved fashion of dog pur- 

 suit. Perhaps the gentlemen who hunt the metropolitan 

 curs might be induced to go to Maine and instruct the rising 

 generation in their art. 



We congratulate the hunters of Maine upon this sudden 

 and magnificent addition to their wild game supply. . It is 

 to be hoped that enthusiastic dog hunters will not recklessly 

 engage in the exciting and ennobling pursuit of shooting the 

 game. The dog is, of all wild animals, the most confiding. 

 In some parts of Maine, we are credibly informed, he ven- 

 tures in broad daylight into the barnyards, and even now 

 and then into the kitchens of the farmhouses. These habits 

 render it very easy for the circumspect gunner to approach 

 him. If every man and boy who happens to own a gun goes 

 out to shoot dogs, it stands to reason the supply will be 

 decimated in less than no time, and before long the Maine 

 wild dog will go the way of the dodo and the snakes in 

 Ireland. 



It is imperative that a close season should be provided, 

 during which no dog should be killed; and it might be well 

 to add a clause forbidding at any season the exportation of 

 dog quarters to the Boston sausage market, or of their hides 

 to the New York kid-glove factories. We are quite content 

 to leave this matter of a dog season to the sportsmen of 

 Maine, merely suggesting that they have now an opportunity 

 to provide an abundance of game for the professional gentle- 

 men who take their vacation in mid-summer. There is no 

 special reason why the dogs should not be shot at that sea- 

 son ; and it is probable that those who enjoy shooting the 

 doe with fawn would take kindly to the sport of dog shooting. 



An exception should be made in favor of the yellow dog. 

 He ought to be protected all the year around, and be given 

 every encouragement to increase and multiply, in the hope 

 that in some way, at some time and in some place, a yellow 

 dog and a Maine Supreme Court judge may meet, for the 

 judge might learn something from the dog. 



THE REWARD OF VIRTUE. 



i~\NE of the most mysterious features of angling, to one 

 ^ who has not the gift, is the patience with which a man 

 will sit at the end of his rod, hour after hour, and half a 

 day or a day at a time, though never a nibble nor a rise gives 

 him encouragement. The uninitiated are wont to scoff at 

 such perseverance ; they are always ready with a dozen or 

 two other things that a man might well better give his time 

 to than dangling a bait-line or throwing a fly. Leave such 

 wiseacres to their conceit. The patient angler is wiser than 

 they. He knows that after all the waiting there may yet 

 come the reward. Perseverance is his cardinal virtue. 

 Hope springs eternal in the angler's breast. And if the fish 

 is not finally creeled, if the long vigil has been without tang- 

 ible fruition, yet is he not without compensation, for has 

 he not all day long been indulging in the pleasures of hope? 

 To-morrow, perhaps, he will prove again not only the joys 

 of anticipation, but the satisfaction of basketing a fish as 

 well ; and so to-morrow you will find him once more at his 

 post. 



It is a pleasant little story that comes to us from a corre- 

 spondent in Vermont. A St. Albans angler went out the 

 other day to try his luck for speckled trout at Fairfield Pond. 

 He began fishing at 10 o'clock; 11 came and he had had no 

 sign that there was a fish in the pond. The sun climbed to 

 the meridian; 1 o'clock, 2, 3, went by, and still no fish. 

 Finally, at half past 3 there was a rise, a strike, and a 5$- 

 pound trout in his basket. He had been fishing five and one- 

 half hours. The catch averaged just one pound to the hour. 

 He felt amply rewarded for the day's work. There are all 

 varieties of tastes and shades of sentiment among anglers ; 

 and it might not be universally conceded that this was very 

 good fishing. Some anglers might contend that they would 

 prefer their five and one-half pounds of trout in installments 

 at more frequent intervals, while there are others who would 

 choose the luck of the Fairfield Pond man. In their scale of 

 merit, one five and one-half pound trout tips down the beam 

 against a bushel of fingerlings. 



Hydrophobia.— A lawyer of Goshen N. Y., who is also 

 an angler, gives it as his deliberate opinion that the average 

 citizen stands a better chance of being blown to flinders at 

 the mouth of a cannon than of being bitten by a rabid dog. 

 He is right. 



