Fo 
ST AND STRE 
A WEEKLY JOURNAL OF THE RopD AND GUN. 
‘Terms, $44 YEAR. 10 Crs. 4 Copy, 
Srx Montus, $2. t 
NEW YORK, SEPTEMBER 18, 1884. 
VOL. XXIIT.—No. 8. 
Nos. 39 & 40 Park Row, New York. 
CORRESPONDENCE. 
Tak Forrest AnD STrrAM is the recognized medium of entertain- 
mént, instruction and fhformation between American sportsmen. 
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Nos. 39 anp 40 Park Row. New YorE Crry. 
CONTENTS. 
EDITORIAL. 
The Creedmoor Meeting. 
Poems on Field Sports. 
THE SPORTSMAN TOURIST. 
. The Sea Otter Hunters: 
Hanwioe in the Himalayas.—ir1 
Natura History. 
A Humming Bird Combat. 
Antidote for Snake's Bite. 
Hornets and Yellow-Jackets. 
The Birds Again. 
Game BaG anpD Gun. 
How we Lost W. P. 
The Texan Antelope Hunters. 
Duck Shooting in California. 
Shot Cartridges. 
Bullet yersus Buckshot, 
- Deer in North Carolina. 
SzA AND River FISHING. 
Minnow Casting for Black Bass. 
Kennebago. 
Bass Fishirg. 
Points on Suckers, 
How a Trout Takes the Fly. 
FISHCULTURE, 
Penusylvania Fish Commission, 
Oyster Industry of the World. 
Present Condition and Future 
Prospects of the Oyster In- 
dustry, 
THE KENNEL. 
English Kennel Notes. 
New York Non-Sporting Show. 
Importing Dogs from England. 
An Old-Time Story. 
Dublin Bench Show. 
Speculations and Speculators. 
Manchester Show. 
‘The Philadelphia Show. 
Denver Bench Show. 
National Breeders’ Show. 
RIFLE AND TRAF SHOOTING, 
Range and Gallery. 
The Creedmoor Meeting. 
The Trap. 
Philadelphia Tournament. 
CANOHING, : 
Amateur Canoe Building.—xy. 
A. C, A. Executive Committee. 
The Canoes of 1884. 
YACHTING. 
Yacht Racing at Toronto. 
Quincy Y. C. Regatta. Sept. 11. 
boston ¥. C. Third Champisn- 
ship Races. 
Beverly Y. C. 97th Regatta, 
The Carmelita, 
Yolande. 
ANSWERS TO CORRESPONDENTS, 
PUBLISHERS’ DEPARTMENT. 
THE CREEDMOOR MEETING. 
4yhe full report which we give of the work on the Na- 
tional Rifle Association range during the past week 
will tell of the doings at a very successful meeting. With 
over 1,500 entries scattered through the nineteen matches on 
the programme, there was abundant competition, and those 
who won prizes high in the lists were compelled to show 
some very fine scores, i 
The militia did not make such a showing as it was fair to 
expect they would, but the regulars were shown that there 
is plenty of good shooting talent among the non-professional 
men ofarms. With the close rivalry came, of course, many 
protests, but the management was prompt in disposing’ of 
all questions brought up, and of the general conduct of the 
meeting there are as yet only words of praise. The financial 
exhibit has not yet been made up, but it is safe to estimate 
that, while the meeting was not a success in the way of pay- 
ing for itself completely, yet it was sufficiently supported to 
encourage the directors in presenting as good or better pro- 
gramme next year. It has been a triumph for those who 
advocated a policy of wise expenditure, even to the point of 
liberality, over those who wished to bring econcmy to the 
verge of parsimony. 
One of the novel sequences to the meeting was the wail it 
evoked from some ancient Fluellen in arms, through a 
column of space in the New. York Herald of the 15th inst. 
The writer had evidently seen one of the special military 
rifles such as modern experience demands shall be provided 
for such of the military as shall show themselves extra pro- 
ficient in marksmanship and enable them to make the best 
use of their skill against the enemy in the ranks of the sharp, 
shooters’ squad. Without troubling himself about the facts 
jn the case this stickler for the obsolete and the defunct pro- 
ceeds to draw 4 very pretty pen-picture of the modern gol- 
dier with a special military proceeding to work before an 
imaginary enemy as though he were operating on a lawn be- 
fore a target, and by inference leaves the deluded reader to 
believe that Creedmoor is given up.to practice with small- 
bore, special military rifle. In fact, this class of practice 
represents the very advance guard of real military shooting, 
= ; i” 
Among those who study small arms in behalf of the sey- 
eral great armies of the world, the special endeayor now is 
to secure an extra-accurate, long-range, small-bore weapon, 
with as many appliances for securing the best results as can 
possibly be put upon it. The demand is for a light weapon 
capable of carriage for the average man and yet not a mere 
blunderbuss for short-range slaughter. The tendency is to 
improve the gun and train the man up to the machine rather 
than simplify the weapon down to the stupidity of the man. 
Brain will beat brawn when the test comes, and if the Flu- 
ellens range themselves on the side of the latter they must 
abide by the result. Statistics, too, are against our ancient 
advocate. The recent meeting at Creedmoor was really a 
military gathering, in which the present armament of the 
troops was abundantly recognized. ‘There was just a leaven 
of small-bore effort and of special military shooting just 
sufficient to show that the management is cognizant of the 
latest drift of the science of arms. 
There were nineteen matches, of which two were confined 
to small-bore sporting weapons, and they had just twelve en- 
tries. There was another match, open to any rifle, with a 
handicap in favor of military arms, and this had 310 entries, 
the large majority being of the military class. In the any- 
military class there were four matches, and the aggregate 
entry list was but 156, and here again the service arms were 
employed in large measure in open competition with the 
weapons whose excellence so troubles our venerable text- 
writer, All the remaining matches were open only to mili- 
tary men, either regular or militia, carrying the service arm 
of their corps. The total entry list ran up to 1,036. Here 
the shooting was done by men who bore arms just as they 
came from the official armory, and with all the hindrances 
and defects retained on them by Boards of Ordnance con- 
seryaliye enough to suit our protesting friend. More 
than this, eight of the matches, embracing 649 en- 
tries, were confined to men using the New York 
State model weapon—the ‘‘gas pipe’—which has so 
often filled the fair breézes which float over the broad Creed- 
moor lawn with the azure tints of hearty and well-deserved 
profanity. It isa weapon after Fluellen’s own heart. It is 
crude; it is capable of immense service in the way of bang- 
ing about, a crook in the barrel may or may not affect its in- 
accuracy, and it is nakedly innocent of any appliances which 
would enable the user to find the bullseye. Such weapons 
are lying about loose at Oreedmoor, and it may cheer F.’s 
heart to know that fully two-thirds of the shots fired at 
Creedmoor for the past week came from the muzzles of these 
.50-caliber contrivances, The desire to enter intocompetition 
was so strong that chances were taken with these arms, 
They have done good service in the past, but we will hail 
the day when America shall recognize the fact that the right 
arm for the coming soldier is the very best one which inge- 
nuity can contrive, and make a grand clearing out sale of 
much of the junk now stored away in arsenals and depots. 
PopMs ON Fieup Srorrs.—Some years ago we noticed 
the proposed publication of a volume of poems by Mr. Isaac 
McLellan. The manuscript was destroyed in the Park Row 
fire. Having, with most commendable perseverance, col- 
lected the poems again, Mr. McLellan makes the welcome 
announcement that the volume will shortly be ready for the 
press. Mr. McLellan was a college mate of Longfellow at 
Bowdoin, and has been favorably known as a poct for more 
years than some of us. have lived. We presume several 
thousands of schoolboys have spoken his poem on the death 
of Napoleon Bonaparte: 
Wild was the night; yet a wilder night 
Hung round the soldier’s pillow— 
and we know that tens of thousands of readers have been 
found for his numerous poetical descriptions of the pleasures 
of field and stream. It is natural that Mr. McLellan should 
desire to see his poems gathered together from the various 
journals in which they have been printed into a more perma- 
nent form, and if is altogether fitting that his book should 
be given cordial welcome and hearty support, For particu- 
lars we refer our readers to the author himself, whose addres 
is Greenport, Long Island, N, Y. 
A Sueenstion FoR Bence Show MAnacers.—Is it not 
about time to put an end to the fictitious valuations of dogs 
in bench show catalogues? What do the characters ‘‘$10,000” 
after an entry signify? It would be more becoming and 
sensible, if the animal is not for sale, to so state it. Here is 
a chance for some club to inaugurate a reform by substi- 
tuting the words ‘‘Not for sale,” in the place of the ridicu- 
lous figures now se common, 
Tue RETURN OF THE GROoUsH.—The ruffed grouse is a 
notional bird. Sometimes it takes a fancy to disappear so 
utterly and mysteriously from a locality that the sportsman 
may hunt over his favorite grounds without even finding a 
trace of one. Where or why the birds go is something that 
no one as yet appears to’ have determined with any degree of 
satisfaction. Breechloading shotguns, grouse ticks, the 
clearing up of land, and half a dozen other causes 
have been assigned, but they do not explain the 
puzzle. Two or three years ago this disappearance 
of the birds was so general that it carsed alarm. 
Last year the birds began to come back again, and this sea- 
son they are on hand in force. Many favorable reports have 
eome from different localities, which indicate that the ruffed 
grouse shooting of 1884 will be remembered. There is 
scarcely any game that American sportsmen could so ill 
afford to lose as the ruffed grouse. All the more, then, 
should measures be taken for its protection from the snarers, 
who are after all probably the most destructive agents en- 
gaged in its diminution. 
THE WonpDERFUL KEELY GuN.—The famous ‘‘motor’ 
man of Philadelphia has been turning his attention to guns; 
and if the papers of that city are to be credited, he has at 
least succeeded in astonishing some army officers who have 
seen the performance of the new engine of destruction. 
The gun is loaded with a wonderful “‘etheric vapor,” 
whether the same that makes the ‘“‘motor’” stock sell we are 
not told. The vapor was introduced into the gun, in the 
presence of the invited guests, and a number of leaden 
bullets more than an inch in diameter were fired through a 
board and flattened out against the iron plate as if they had 
been pounded with a trip hammer. We are promised a 
public exhibition in New York. Meanwhile the folks who 
are getting up an electric gun have to be heard from. 
A PousaKk EXPEDITION is projected by the Russian Minis- 
try of Marine, to be conducted on the plan suggested in the 
FOREST AND STREAM of July 24. The scheme is to have 
several large parties to start from Jeannette Island and pro- 
ceed entirely on foot across the ice, leaving large depots of 
provisions in their rear. It is thought that there are many 
islands north of Jeannette Island that could be utilized, 
The rumor that the New York Yacht Club was to join with 
Cyrus W. Field, Jr., in sending out Chief. Hngineer Melville 
on a new polar expedition is denied by the officers of the 
club and by Mr. Field’s brother. 
A, O. U.—The next meeting of the American Ornitho- 
logical Union promises to be interesting and important. It 
is probable that several well-known ornithologists from 
abroad wall be present, among them Dr, P. L, Schlater, Sec- 
retary of the Zoological Society of London, and for many 
years editor'of the Jézz. Dr. Schlater came over to attend 
the meeting of the British Association of Montreal, thence 
he goes to Washington, where he will be the guest of Dr. 
Coues, Messrs. Henry Seebohl and Howard Saunders, it is 
expected, will also attend the A. O. U. meeting. 
THat Bia Bass Hwap,—The head of the Florida black 
bass—the leviathan of 28} pounds—has been set up in a glass 
case and is now on exhibition in this office, where all who 
may be interested in such things are invited to call and in- 
spect it. It is one of those wonders which must be seen to 
be appreciated. 
THE Po.iticaAL BonkE.—The office of game protector in 
this State is important, but not of such consequence, one 
might think, as to be looked upon as a political gift, It is: 
quite true, however, that the office has in some cases been 
peddled out as a sop to political influence. 
Tue PicturED Rocxs are described in the current num- 
ber of Lippincoté’s, over the signature of D. D, Banta, a 
‘hame very pleasantly remembered by readers of the “‘Be- 
tween the Lakes” papers recently published in these columns, 
Dr. Extrorr Covss returned from Europe last week. 
He reports that his trip was both pleasant and profitable in 
the way of new material secured. 
SHoreuN ACCIDENTS are numerously reported this year, 
They are mostly confined to apple orchards, melon patches 
and vineyards, 
