4 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
A WEEKLY JOURNAL OF THE ROD AND GUN. 
TERMS, $4.4 Year. 10 Cvs. A Copy. 
Stx Monts, $2 
NEW YORK, DECEMBER 25, 1884. 
. VOL. XXIII.—No., 22. 
| Nos. 39 & 40 PARK Row, New Yor«. 
OORRESPONDENCE. 
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Nos. 89 anp 40 Park Row. New Yor« Crry. 
CONTENTS. 
EIDITORIAL. THE KENNEL, 
Christmas. National Field Trials. 
Taunton Bench Show, 
Southern Sportsmens’ 
Trials, ; 
The Lincoln Fund. 
RIFLE AND TRAP SHOOTING, 
Breechloader Tests. 
Range and Gallery. 
Deer on Long island. 
Almost Close Enough. 
_ Forests and Forestry. 
THE SPORTSMAN TOURIST. 
How they Killed a Deer. 
A Christmas Day in Ceylon. 
Camp Flotsam. 
Field 
Natura History, The Trap. 
Herns of the Female Qaribou. The Spangle Arm, 
The Hydra, CANOEING. 
GAME Bae AND Gun. 
The Mysterious ‘Coon. 
Some Remarkable Shots, 
Hunting and Shooting. 
The Spring Meet of 1885. 
Canoe Measurement Rule, 
The Log Book. 
Cruise of the Nonsuch and 
Black Duck Shooting. Mystic. 
The Maine Game Laws. YACHTING. 
ine Game Commissioners’ Cruiser. 
Report. The America’s Cup. 
Indiana Three Years’ Law, Towing the Dinghy. 
Philadelphia Notes. Oriva and Penguin. 
SEA AND River FIsHine. 
Eehees From the Tournament, 
FISHCULTURE, 
Salmon and Trout of Maine. 
THE KENNEL. 
A. K, R,—Special Notice. 
CHRISTMAS. 
pA TEER year has passed. Christmas with all its holy 
memories, ifs deeds of love, its open handed chari- 
ties, and its hearty merry-makings has come, and the great 
heart of the Christian world is warm with the impress 
of its blessed season, By it men and women are every- 
where made better, and more like thal model toward whose 
ideal excellence we should all strive. 
We know that the day is not that of the birth of Him whose 
name it bears; we know thatin truth it is the old Roman 
holiday of the Saturnalia, and the Anglo-Saxon Yule-tide 
festival, and that if is chosen by Christian people only as a 
fixed date and season at which all may unite in rejoicing 
over the birth of the Savior of Mankind. But what do we 
care for its origin? Whether it be a survival of the pagan 
Tiles of luxurious Rome, or a re-enacting of the merry- 
makings of Oak-worshipping Druids, or typify the natal day 
of the Ohrist-child who was to die that men might live— 
whether it represent any or all of these—the day is one of 
blessed influences, 
Merriment and rejoicing are a part of Christmas time, but 
beyond and beneath all this there is something far deeper. 
Throughout the civilized world on this day man’s love for 
his fellow man is the prevailing sentiment; a good will toward 
all his kind, which is never so sincere, never so univer: 
sal and never so touchingly and eloquently expressed ag 
on Christmas Day. This widespread kindliness makes itself 
evident in deed #s* self-abnegation, which cost the doer real 
effort. The thronged streets, the busy shops, the earnest 
work in the home circle, hastily put aside at the entrance of 
some member of the family, all bear witness to the exertion 
made to give happiness on this day. It is the season at 
which all men become more like Christ, for it is the day of 
the sacrifice of self. Its merriment is for the young and 
the thoughtless. They rejoice at Christmas-tide, and we 
love to witness their innocent mirth. But those who look 
beneath the surface, realize that the Christmas season exer- 
cises an unconscious influence for good, so blessed and so 
widespread that we may not measure it in words. In its 
very unconsciousness lies its chief loveliness. The great 
army of workers are unaware of their own self-denial. 
The father, who after a day of fatiguing labor, spends 
his eyening hours in selecting the presents for the wife at 
Fatten Up the Victims. 
A New Steel Steam Yacht. 
How the Wind Blows. 
Sloops and Cutters in 1884. 
ANSWERS TO OORRHSPONDENTS, 
PUBLISHERS’ DEPARTMENT. 
home and each member of his little brood; the toil-worn 
mother, calculating with exactest care, in order that the 
scanty sum saved up for Christmas may be so expended as 
to bring the greatest amount of pleasure to ber babes; the 
neat-handed daughter, whose will is great, but whose means 
are slender, and who by her own ingenuity and skill, fashions 
into tasteful ornaments for father and the boys a few inex- 
pensive trifies of silk and thread; the country boy, wio does 
chores for the neighbor, that. he may earn money for a pres- 
ent for mother and the girls; all these are missionaries, whose 
works speak to him whose ears are opened with an earnest- 
yess and a pathos which language could never equal. 
And can any one believe that all this is wasted; that such 
deeds of sacrifice are without their influence? That this 
thought and care and work, andthe love from which it 
springs are without their effect on the human race? It is 
isnot so, The planning and the toil, and the sacrifices made 
each year in anticipation of this festival have surely an eleva- 
ting and ennobling effect on those who make them and for 
whom they are made» Their power for good is great. 
Writers may talk as they please of the Christ myth, may 
strive to break down the religious faith of to-day, but this 
birthday festival, with all its tender associations and benefi- 
cent influences, will outlast men’s changing creeds and 
theories, and will do more to elevate and purify mankind 
than doctors’ dogmas or preachers’ fulminations, 
There is another thought which in every home comes up 
at Christmas time with special force. At this season’ of 
merry-making it is not often mentioned, but it is always 
present. 
It is in the early morning, long before the household is 
astir, and eyen before the children have found their stock- 
ings, that the mother, half awake, her thoughts turned back 
to other days, listens once more for the ‘“Merry Christmas” 
from lips that will never speak again, or waits for the patter 
on the floor of the rosy bare feet, which were long since taid 
away for their eternal rest beneath the little mound, whose 
outlines are now hidden by wreaths of the winter’s snow; 
and the sense that voice and touch so dear to her loving 
heart haye passed away from earth dims the sight and renews 
the bitterness of past sorrow. Thoughts such as these throng 
upon us now as at no otheranniversary. Father and mother, 
son and daughter, sister and brother, in every house in the 
land, have each some remembrance, sad—but ah, how sweet 
—which is to them the dearest and the most sacred of those of 
the Christmas time. With the recollection of former Christ- 
mas days comesrushing back the old feeling of bereavement, 
the inexpressible yearning for the meeting again our beloved 
dead; and memories of the dear ones gone before, warm and 
breathing as if they were with us still, come to us to-day, 
filling our souls with longing and with love. 
The sacred influences of Christmas do uot pass away with 
the day. In each life is aroused some worthier sentiment 
which the dull round of every-day care does not at once 
harden, The effort made by each loving heart, like the 
fragrance of some hidden flower, has an influence which 
extends far beyond its immediate neighborhood. How far- 
reaching this is no one may know, for we cannot trace 
the ultimate effect of our lightest action, The word or 
deed of the humblest of us all may perhaps sink deep into 
the heart of a wise man and teach him some great lesson. 
And from seed thus sown may spring a tree whose fruit shall 
bring relief to many a weary fellow mortal. 
DEER ON LONG ISLAND. 
Dee law passed in 1879, which absolutely forbade the 
killing of deer on Long Island for five years, went out 
of force this fall. During this close time scarcely any deer 
were killed and as a consequence the scrub oak and pine 
woods of Eastern Long Island are well supplied with deer. 
Moreover these animals, owing to their long protection, are 
very tame and easily approached, and therefore many have 
been killed. Their abundance shows how much good may 
be done by a law which is observed, and it is to be hoped 
that the legislative wisdom at Albany may be induced to 
enact a law again closing the season on Long Island for five 
years, and then opening it for the first fifteen days of 
November. Surely one season of good hunting in six years 
ought to satisfy the Long Islanders, and it is only in some 
such way as this that the supply of deer can be kept up 
there. It must be remembered that the eastern end of Long 
Island is less than one hundred miles from the great city of 
New York, and unles the deer are carefully protected it will 
take but a short time to exterminate them. The cover which 
has so long afforded them protection is being cut away, and 
each year a considerable area is being added tothe farming 
land, Ultimately the deer must be driven from here as they 
haye been from so many other localities which were once 
abundantly supdlied with them. Let us put off this evil 
day as long as possible, It is no small thing to have wild 
deer within a short distance of New York, and it is worth 
our while to preserve this stock as long as we may. 
ARE WH RHADY FOR A CHALLENGE? 
\ HILD it is too early as yet to state exactly what yacht 
we may be called upon to meetin defense of the 
America Cup, the news of two preliminary challenges should 
awaken our yachtsmen to a full sense of the situation. The 
question of what was done in 1851, or even twenty years 
ago, has not the slightest bearing on the present issue, and 
a false confidence in past results can only result in disaster 
to American interests. To-day American yachtsmen are 
called on to meet a totally different type of boat from any 
against which we have previously contended, and arguments 
based on cratt of the past decade are but treacherous guides. 
The capabilities of the probable contestant can he gauged 
with sufficient accuracy to make apparent the necessity of 
immediate action on our part. One of the few courses open 
to us—the selection of an old yacht, the construction of a 
new one, or a further trial ofj the latest compromise—must 
be decided on soon, as but a few months remain, and in 
either case much must be done to meet the coming cutter 
with even a reasonable show of success. The fact that we 
have thus far been successful in all contests for the Cup is of 
little importance in view of the altered conditions of yacht- 
ing, and may well be Jaid aside for the present, while we 
consider what our best sloops have done in this and the pre- 
vious season against two or three cruising cutters, and the 
still more important question of what they can do against 
the pick of the Huglish racing fleet. 
Justice ror InprAns.—Last week a delegation from the 
Indian Rights Association appeared betore the sub-com= 
mittee of the House, which has charge of the Indian appro- 
priation bill. The delegation consisted of Herbert Welsh, 
secretary; Clement McBiddle, Robert Frazer, C. C. Painter 
and §. C. Armstrong. They urged the appropriation of 
$50,000, to be used by the Indian Commissioner for the.. 
relief of the Indians in Montana, and maintained that 
immediate action was required to prevent actual starvation. 
They also urged the importance of adequate provision for 
the support of Indian schools, and said that first-class 
industrial training might be furnished at the rate of $176 
and transportation per pupil. They also recommended an 
increase of agents’ salaries, so as to make it possible to 
obtain competent men for agents; increased pay for Indian 
police and judges of courts of Indian offenses, and more 
stringent measures for the suppression of the whisky traffic 
among the Indian tribes. It isa little encouragement for 
the friends of right and justice that at last some one is found 
to say a word for the Indians. 
Wire Sixty Years BerTwEEN.—The express brought to 
the Formst anp StREAM office from Tennessee last week a 
pair of deer’s antlers, anda note that came with them told 
us that we were to accept them asa ‘‘token of amity” from 
our correspondent “Antler,” They were the latest trophy 
of his skill with the rifle. ‘‘From the fact that deer have 
become so scarce here,” the note continues, ‘‘I seldom hunt 
them of late, and it is more seldom that I succeed in killing 
one; and circumstances strongly indicate that I may have 
killed my last deer. That I have lived to see the frosts and 
snows of seventy-three winters is to me presumptive evi-. 
dence that my hunting days are nearly over. Still-hunting 
has been a favorite pastime from my youth up; and some 
sixty years have elapsed between the killing of my first deet 
and this last one.” 
A Curtovus Compuiication.—Some genius up in New 
Hampshire has conceived the brilliant notion that if the State 
wants to control the game on his land it must prove property 
and remove it. He has posted a notice which reads: ‘‘Notice 
is hereby given to the State of New Hampshire, and to the 
town of New Ipswich, and also to the Fish and Game Ward- 
ens of New Ipswich, to proceed at once, if they have any 
fish or game on my premises, to prove property and pay 
charges, and take them away.—DanieEt Farwewn. P, 8. — 
Beware of trespass.” Mr. Farwell might profit by reading 
the numbers of the ForEst anp STREAM, which explain the 
nature of property in game. Meanwhile, there are doubt- 
legs scores of men in New Hampshire who will, free of 
charge, devote their leisure in taking an imventory of the 
game in question, 
