——— : 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
A WEEKLY JoURNAL OF THE RoD AND GUN. 
Terms, $44 Yrar. 10 Crs. A Copy. t 
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NEW YORK, DECEMBER 11, 1884. 
VOL, XXIII.—No. 20, 
{ Nos, 39 & 40 Park Row, New Yore. 
CORRHSPONDEHNCEH. 
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CONTENTS. 
EDITORIAL. FISHOULTURE. } 
Netting Ducks on Long Island. The Adirondack Hatchery, 
The Rifle Year. THE KENNEL. 
National Field Trials Club. 
THE SPORTSMAN TOURIST. 
Carolina Quail Shooting. 
NATURAL History, 
Notes of the Woods and Waters. 
American Kennel Register. 
The First Time Afield, 
A Proposed Lincoln Fund. 
Judging Collies. 
Runaways, 
Notes on the Capture of Sea| Food for Dogs. 
Kirds, The Mastitf Bap ies. 
Bird Notes. National Field Trials. 
The Migratory Quail. 
GAME BaG AND Gun. 
A Thanksgiving Day Excursion, 
Adirondack Deer Hounding. 
Wire Cartridges. j 
Dogs for Foreign Shooting. 
English Kennel Notes.—xrx. 
Kennel Management. 
RIFLE AND TRAP SHOOTING, 
Range and Gallery. 
Dakota Game. The Trap. 
Kentucky Game. The Best Gun for Clay-Pigeons. 
The Maine Game Law. CANOEING. 
Remarkable Shots. New York ©. C. 
Small-Bore Shotguns. Royal C.C. 
A Call for a Creed, More Coals for Newcastle, 
SEA AND Rivur FIsHine. 
Canoeing in 1884, 
On the Grand Mesa, 
YACHTING, 
Wilmurt Lake. A Steam Yacht in a Gale on 
Expired Reel Patents. Take Ontario, 
Kill Fish When Caught. ANSWERS TO CORRESPONDENTS. 
The Attack at Dawn, PouBLISHERS’ DEPARTMENT. 
THE RIFLE YEAR. 
fe oa the present month thus far has given us mag- 
nificent shooting weather, which has afforded opportunity 
for much capital practice on the ranges, yet the season may 
be considered as fairly closed with the Thanksgiving Day 
matches. Here and there on ranges where there are inclosed 
- shooting houses, trials of skill over the off-hand ranges up to 
200 yards may be kept up even through the entire winter; 
but formal practice on the part of organizations and clubs— 
military as well as civilian—has been generally suspended 
for the year 1884, and it is time to cast up the account and 
see where we stand and what the record of the year may be. 
On the whole, it has been a satisfactory season; quiet, in- 
deed, without any such rush of excitement as is brought on 
by an international match; but in almost every State of the 
Union the crack of the rifle has been heard on a score or 
more of ranges. The way is gradually clearing up to a point 
where it will be generally discovered how much we do not 
know in the matter of close marksmanship. Just what cer- 
tain makes of rifles will do over certain ranges, and the rela. 
tive merit of many of the contrivances now relied upon to 
bring about good scores, are questions which are being 
worked out here and there by many observant workers. 
Men who study the science and practice the art of marks 
manship without any preconceived notions of how things. 
must come out, are becoming more frequent on our ranges, 
and once they grow into an important body in the shooting 
world, then will the many faults of the present arms be done 
away with. There is too much respect for old-fashioned 
ways of doing things now hampering those who make, as 
well as those who use, rifles. The military habit has had 
mauch to do with this, and many who shoot with non-mili- 
tary clubs are really soldiers out of uniform and inclined to 
the military habit of respecting precedent and observing 
rule. 
The National Rifle Association has carried out its work 
on the most modest basis. The fall meeting called out a 
generous show of competition in answer to the efforts made 
by the directors in putling upa liberal prize list. It is 
pretty certain that if anything is to be done in a general 
meeting where a popular support is looked for, it must be 
brought about through a liberal prize list. It may be pos- 
sible for a small club of enthusiastic shooters to carry on 
matches for a long time, and with abundant pleasure in the 
contests, upon a merely nominal prize list. Where local 
feeling is aroused, contests may be had between counties 
in a State, and between States in a larger match, where the 
glory of winning is considered an ample return for the 
outlay of effort, but as a general rule the sport must be 
made attractive by such prize lists as will draw out the 
crowd, There must be the chance of winning something of 
value held out, even though the odds be more than cor- 
respondingly increased. 
There is room, too, in our prize meetings for new matches, 
Put under such conditions as would bring new talent to the 
front, many of the old-time matches would become attrac- 
tive. In place of forcing everything to bend to the making of 
good scores on paper, more attention should be paid to the 
simulation of real work with the rifle. When a man has 
learned to use a rifle well, the next thing is to learn to use it 
as he would in the field, or under such demands of rapidity 
and at such unknown distances as would be made in prac- 
tice before an enemy. 
NETTING DUCES ON LONG ISLAND. 
je another column will be found a communication from 
the game protector for the counties of Kings, Queens 
and Suffolk, relative to the netting of ducks on Long Island. 
This abominable practice, which was so much complained 
of last year, is still being carried on in Great South Bay, and 
is doing great injury to the shooting there. Mr. Whittaker 
states that it is impossible for him to seize the nets put out 
for the purpose of catching the birds. He informs us that 
he -has taken legal advice on the point, and no less an 
authority than Mr. Whitehead has warned him that he will 
expose himself to a suit for damages if he interferes with the 
netters, The statute made and provided in the case (Laws 
1879, Chap. 534) reads as follows: 
Src. 5. No person shall at any time kill any wild duck, goose or 
brant with any device or instrument known as a swivel or punt gun, 
or with any gun other than such guns as are habitually raised at 
arm’s length, and fired from the shoulder, or use any net, device or 
instrument, or gun other than aforesaid, with intent to capture or 
kill any such birds. 
The netters, we are told, spread their nets over the feed 
ing grounds of the ducks and capture them by this means, 
but if the nets are seized, even though the dead ducks are 
found entangled in them, they swear, and bring witnesses to 
support their statements, that the nets were put down for the 
purpose of taking bass. This throws the burden of proof 
upon the prosecutor, who is obliged to establish the fact that 
the nets were spread for the purpose of taking the birds and 
not the fish. Proof of this it would, of course, be impossible 
to obtain. 
It would seem, from this statement, that the fault lies with 
the law as it now stands, and this emphasizes once mere a 
point that we have frequently made against the New York 
law. In these statutes the conviction of any offender is 
made difficult, and often impossible, by throwing the bur- 
den of proof on the prosecution. In the present instance, 
the presence in the section of the words ‘‘with intent,” prac- 
tically nullifies the section. If those two words were omitted, 
and the capture of ducks by means of nets were simply pro- 
hibited, the finding of dead ducks in a net would be prima 
facie evidence of an intended violation of the law, and it 
would rest with the defendant to show that in setting his 
nets there was no intention to catch ducks. This an honest 
man would have no difficulty in proving, 
All such words as ‘“‘knowingly,” ‘‘wilfully,” “with intent” 
and similar phrases which have to do with the purposes of 
violators of the law, are out of place inour game laws. We 
presume that the criminal code does not say that any 
person who shall wilfully pick a pocket or break into a bank 
or rob a till ‘is guilty of a crime, and it would scarcely be 
held a good explanation if the thief who was caught with 
his hand in his neighbor’s pocket, should say that he put it 
there in search of a match. The public are supposed to 
know the law, and if offenders are ignorant of it, that is a 
misfortune of theirs, of which the law does not take 
cognizance. At all events, if men are found with stolen 
property in their possession, an explanation is demanded of 
them. So, if men are found taking up nets which have in 
them birds unlawfully captured, it should rest with them to 
show their innocence of guilty intent. The law has been 
violated, and through their agency; on them should rest the 
burden of proof to show that they are not responsible. 
Cases similar to the one indicated are numerous in these 
statutes, and are a disgrace to the State of New York, since 
they make its laws ridiculous. How absurd it is to say that! 
no person shall ‘‘wilfully sell or expose for sale” netted 
quail or grouse. It is the business of the dealer to know 
whether birds have or have not been netted, and an absolute 
prohibition of the sale of such birds is all that is required. 
The dealer may safely be trusted to look out for his own in- 
terests in this matter, and if the word ‘‘wilfully” were ex- 
punged, a single conviction would put an end to the sale of 
snared birds, and there would be no more advertising that a 
higher price would be paid. for trapped than for shot birds, 
Mek a meeting held last. Tuesday evening at Canton, Miss., 
the National American Kennel Club voted to change 
the name of the organization to the National Field Trials 
Club, and a committee was appointed to so revise the con- 
stitution as to remove everything that referred to other func- 
tions, The changes of name and constitution will in no wise 
alter the character of the club. It will do no more nor less 
with the new name than it did with the o/d. However 
broad may have been the field proposed by the founders of 
the club, practically, for some years it has done nothing 
more than to hold its annual field trials. The giving of bench 
shows has been left to local clubs, and any control that might 
be exercised over these exhibitions, has been assumed by an- 
other organization recently formed for this express purpose, 
The National American Kennel Club originally contemplated 
the publication of a stud book; but for some weason or other 
the financial burden proved too great for it to bear, andina 
moment of sadly misplaced confidence, it turned over the 
entries and fees received for the second volume to a concern 
which has since proved itself irresponsible in the matter. A 
stud book has fortunately been supplied by the publication 
of the now firmly established American Kennel Register, so 
that in reality there was no special reason why the National 
American Kennel Club should longer burden itself with a 
task which requires painstaking labor quite out of propor- 
tion to any tangible return made for it, 
NATIONAL FIELD TRIALS CLUB. 
Tue Mianonetre Casp.—The survivors of the wrecked 
English yacht Mignonette, who saved themselves from star- 
vation by killing and eating cue of their companions, a boy, 
have been tried for murder, convicted and sentenced to be 
hanged. The decision of the court was, that the taking of 
human life could be justified only by a plea of self-defense, 
and that the deliberate killing of another for the preserva- 
tion of one’s own life was murder. Harsh as were the ex- 
traordinary circumstances of the case, this decision will be 
accepted as good law. These circumstances were urged by 
the convicted men in their plea for mercy, and according to 
the cable reports, it is probable that the sentence will not be 
executed. If the unforiunates should be pardoned, the 
clemency of the crown will meet with universal indorse- 
ment, for although strictly and technically the offense of the 
Mignonette crew was murder, no one can ascribe to them 
the motives that usually prompt a murderer. Nor is. the 
verdict likely to have very great influence upon other ship- 
wrecked men in like circumstances, for if they arrive at a 
point where they are ready to kill and eat a companion to 
save their lives, they will not be deterred from doing so by 
the very remote contingency of a trial for murder, in which 
they will be convicted, if at all, only by their own testimony. 
THe Marne Derr Law.—We print this week further 
letters on this subject whichis, it seems to us, well worth agi- 
taling. We shall be glad to hear from any correspondents 
who have anything to say on the matter, which is of such 
great importance to the people of the old Pine Tree State, 
We are anxious to hear all that can be said on the subject 
pro and con, and urge our readers to contribute their views 
and experiences, Let us accumulate the evidence now 
rather than wait until the Legislature is in session. 
AMATEUR CANOE BurILDING.—The papers on amateur 
canoe building, printed in the Forest AND STREAM, have 
been collected into book form and will shortly be issued 
from the press. Several additions have been made to the 
chapters that appeared in the paper, and the manual is the 
most complete ever published or for a long time likely to be 
published. The book will be ready for delivery in about a 
fortnight, and all orders will then be filled in their proper 
turn. 
Aprronpack DEER Hounprne.—Ought deer hounding to 
be forbidden throughout the entire Adirondack region? If 
it ought to be, canitbe? And if it is, can the law be enforced? 
These are questions that just now are calling for an answer. 
We should be glad to have the opinions of those whose 
knowledge of the subject gives them authority to speak, 
