_ 
> 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
A WEEKLY JOURNAL OF THE ROD AND GUN. 
TerMs, $44 YEAR, 10 Ors. a Copy. t 
Srx Monts, $2. 
NEW YORK, JANUARY 1, 1885. 
{ VOL. XXIII,—No. 238. 
Nos. 39 & 40 Park Row, New Yorr. 
CORRESPONDENCE. 
THE FOREST AND StRKAM is the recognized medium of entertain- 
ment, instruction and information between American sportsmen. 
Communications upon the subjects to which its pages are devoted are 
respectiully invited. Anonymous communications will not be re- 
garded, No name will be published except with writer’s consent. 
The Editors are not responsible for the views of correspondents. 
ADVERTISHMENTS. 
Only advertisements of an approved character inserted. Inside 
pages, nonpareil type, 25 cents periine. Special rates for three, six 
and twelye months. Reading notices $1.00 per line. Hight words 
to the line, twelve lines to one inch. Advertisements should be sent 
in by the Saturday previous to issue in which they are to be inserted. 
Transient advertisements must invariably be accompanied by the 
money or they will not be inserted. 
SUBSCRIPTIONS 
May begin at any time. Subscription price, $4 per year ; $2 for six 
months; to a club of three annual subscribers, three copies for $10; 
five copies for $16. Remit by registered letter, money-order, or draft, 
payable te the Forest and Stream Publishing Company. The paper 
may be obtained of newsdealers throughout the United States, 
Canadas and Great Britain, Newsdealers in the United Kingdom 
mImay order through Davies & Co., No. 1 Finch Lane, Cornhill, Lon- 
don. General subscription agents for Great Britain, Messrs, Sampson 
Low, Marston, Searles and Rivington, 188 Fleet street, London, Eng. 
Address all communications, 
forest and Stream Publishing Oo. 
Nos. 38 anp 40 Park Row. New York Crry. 
ss SF eee —— 
CONTENTS. 
THE KENNEL. 
A. K, R.—Special Notice. 
National Field Trials Club. 
Bench Show Entries. 
Cincinnati Dog Show. 
English Kennel Notes.—xx. 
Birmingham Bench Show. 
Southern Field Trials. 
Kennel Notes. 
RIFLE AND TRAP SHOOTING, 
Range and Gallery. 
Revolver Shooting. 
Western Rifle Ranges. 
EDITORIAL. 
Battery Shooting. 
The Withdrawal of Ress. 
Yorests and Forestry.—u. 
Tam SPortTsmAN TOURIST. 
Ceylon to Bombay. 
The End of the Year. 
Camp Flotsam. 
NATURAL History. 
Bird Migration in the Mississippi 
Valley. 
Advance of the Foreign Hordes, 
Notes of the Woods and Waters, 
GAmp BAG AND GUN. The Trap. 
Reloaded Shells. Christmas Shooting. 
Experience and A4dvice. CANOEING. 
Canoe Meet in Western Waters. 
“Canoe and Boat Building for 
Amateurs.” 
YACHTING. 
A New Steel Steam Yacht. 
A New Folding Anchor. 
Yacht Building in England. 
A New Cruiser on the Lakes, 
Cutters and Sharpies, 
Racing Cutters as Cruisers. 
A Cruise in the Flyaway. 
Is Lead a “Bad Cargo?’’ 
Yachting in Cleveland. 
The America’s Cup. 
Seience, or Rule of Thumb. 
ANSWERS TO CORRESPONDENTS. 
PUBLISHERS’ DEPARTMENT, 
The Beaver Dam Club. 
Some Remarkable Shots, 
Maine Game Law. 
Michigan Association. 
Smal] Calibers on Deer. 
SHA AND RivER FISHING. 
Landlocked Salmon. 
Adirondack Fishing. 
Rainbow Trout Peculiarities. 
Fishing Through the Ice. - 
The Most Killing Fly. 
Trouting on the Bigosh. 
FISHOULTURE. 
Re-Stocking the St, Lawrence. 
United States Work in Michigan. 
Salmon Culture in Maine. 
McCloud River. 
BATTERY SHOOTING. 
NE of the commonest and most successful methods of 
killing fowl along the seaboard is from battcries, The 
box which holds the shooter is invisible at a short distance, 
and as it is anchored over the fayorite feeding resorts, it is 
directly in the line of the birds’ flight, and the decoys are 
thus sure to attract their attention and they are brought 
within range. 
Sooner or later, however, the use of these engines will drive 
off and render wary the birds from any grounds where they are 
much used. This has been exemplified on the south shore of 
Long Island, where, although fowl are often abundant, there 
is no such shooting as there was before the use of batteries be- 
came so general. Thesame cause has played its part in the Vir- 
ginia broad waters, where now, asrelated by a correspondent 
within a short time, there is but little shooting compared 
with what was once to be had. It is stated that in the 
Chesapeake waters this cause has had much to do with the 
diminished flights of birds, and it was only by reducing the 
bumber of shooting days here to three each week that the 
alarming reduction in numbers was checked. South of the 
Chesapeake the first great body of water met with is Curri- 
tuck Sound, and here the birds are still found in great num- 
bers. But they are shot there from batteries by residents at 
such a rate that it does not seem that the supply could long 
endure this drain. It is for the interest of every one that 
this methed of killing birds should cease, and we believe 
that the day is not very far distant when every one who uses 
the gun will see this. . 
The practice of shooting fowl from batteries has an un- 
doubted tendency to break up the birds, and, because the 
batterius are always anchored over the feeding grounds, 
where they chiefly congregate, the result is to drive them 
away from any locality where it is much practiced. It 
would be a good thing for the State of North Carolina, 
and for every other Statein the Union, if they would pass 
and enforce laws forbidding the shooting of fowl from bat- 
teries by any one. The constant harassing and driving 
away of the birds does vastly more harm than what. killing : 
* 
is done, and if those who gun in Currituck Sound expect to 
keep the shooting there as good as it is at present, they 
should see to it that the batteries are abolished. 
Those who have the deepest and most immediate interest 
on the subject are the people whose homes are in the neigh- 
borhood of grounds where. fow] are still numerous. They 
derive a reyenue from the birds sold, but especially from the 
money spent by men who come from other sections of the 
country to obtain here the sport that they cannot find nearer 
home, The money thus brought into a section amounts each 
year to a considerable sum, but whatever it is, it will be cut off 
as soon as those who spend it find that they can no longer 
receive an equivalent in the shape of good shooting for the 
time and money which they are quite willing to expend for 
this pleasure. It would probably be regarded as a misfor- 
tune by those who dwell on the shores of —let us say—Cur- 
rituck Sound if all the members of the various ducking 
clubs should cease to yisit that region in winter, for the 
amount of money which they spend there is probably quite 
equal to the value of the birds killed and sold by the home 
gunners. 
It should not be a difficult matter to show the residents of 
the shores of this Sound who, to a great extent, get their liv- 
ing from its waters, that it is more for their interest than for 
that of any other class that the fowl should be protected here, 
and that when they are killed it should be in such a way as 
would be least likely to cause the others to desert the locality. 
The services of the residents once enlisted, the work of pro- 
tection would be made much more easy, and Currituck 
Sound would long remain what it has been for centuries, the 
winter home of a great body of our wildfowl. 
If, however, something of this kind is not done, it is appar- 
ent that other means of protection must be sought for. A 
“three days’ law” would be unwelcome to all gunners, 
whether residents, club men, or transient visitors, but it 
would give the birds some rest, and that is what they need. 
It would be far better, however, to decide upon some pian 
of action by which battery shooting should be wholly done 
away with. This can only be accomplished by the con- 
certed action of those must nearly interested, and it is to be 
hoped that movements in this direction may before long be 
inaugurated by the residents of several of the Southern 
States along the Atlantic. 
What we have said applies to all waters along our South- 
ern seaboard, and should be considered by all who reside 
near them. 
The matter is one which should be taken in hand before 
long, and pushed through with vigor. We believe that the 
entire prohibition of shooting from batteries and would 
relieve the birds and answer all present purposes. 
THE WITHDRAWAL OF RESS. 
qe withdrawal of Ress fora pecuniary consideration 
while running off the final tie for first prize in the All- 
Aged Stake of the Southern Sportsman’s Association Field 
Trials, at Canton, was the cause of considerable comment. 
Unfortunately, therules of the National Association, under 
which the trials were run, are faulty in this respect, and there 
was noremedy. The rules of the Eastern Field Trials Club 
cover this point, and provide that in such case both dogs 
shall forfeit all prizes won. 
The rule should go further, and make it obligatory on the 
judges to order both dogs out of the race when it is proved 
to their satisfaction that the owner of a dog, or his represent- 
ative, has induced a competitor to withdraw for a consider- 
ation or bribe of any nature. 
Field trials were instituted mainly for the purpose of test- 
ing the actual merits of different dogs by competitive trials, 
in order that we may have a guide to assist us in the im- 
provement of the different breeds and strains. Money 
prizes, while necessary in order to stimulate a com- 
petition and bring out the best work of handlers, are in 
reality but secondary rewards in these contests, and the true 
prize tothe owner of the winning dog is the glory of the 
record. It canreadily be seen that unless our field trials are 
kept free from the taint of money getting and gambling, 
they will soon sink into disrepute, and every effort should 
be made to keep them what they haye usually been up to 
this time, races between the dogs. No blame attaches to the 
handler who withdrew Ress, for he was doing what the rules 
did not forbid, and with him it was merely a matter of busi- 
ness, but no dealing of this kind can be countenanced. May 
the best dog win is the motto of every one who has the true 
interests of field sports at heart, and we trust that those who 
have the matter in charge will see-to it that in the future the 
buying and selling of field trial honors shall be impossible, 
FORESTS AND FORESTEY. 
II. 
Spee regulation of the rivers’ flow, freedom from excessive 
floods, and maintenance of an approximately uniform 
depth of water throughout the year, are all matters of vast 
economic importance and directly dependent on the absorp- 
tive and retentive power of the forest floor; and over the great 
continental areas lying between the Hastern and Western 
coast regions forests exercise an important, although not as 
generally well understood an influence, upon the amount of 
rainfall. 
The mere fact that once fertile regions have been rendered 
arid by the destruction of their forests has been verified by 
an abundance of evidence; but many authorities, attributing 
rainfall solely to its primary source—the oceanic moisture- 
laden currents—have been slow to commit themselves to the 
decided expression of opinion, that the creation of fresh 
forests would restore the original rainfall. The action of 
forests in this direction is nevertheless clearly traceable; 
they do not operate in the direction of attracting more mois- 
ture from the ocean, but they economize the rainfall from 
primary sources, store it up in their retentive floor, utilize 
and evaporate it to be reprecipitated locally as rain or dew, 
instead of allowing it to be at once borne back to the ocean 
by the rivers, as it would be in the absence of forests. It is 
a wonderful provision of nature that every plant, every ani- 
mal drawing its nourishment from the earth, both in life 
and death, returns to the soil all that it draws from it, with 
liberal interest. There must be a certain amount of plant 
food in the soil and moisture in the air to originate forests, 
but the forests, once startled, create food and economize 
moisture to provide for their expansion. 
Some plants appear to want little more from the soil than 
the mechanical conditions favorable to the penetration of 
their roots, and support of their trunks in an upright position. 
Among forest trees the pines are especially notable for their 
capacity to flourish on the bare rock or barren sand. All 
plants and animals derive almost the whole of their substance 
directly or indirectly from the atmosphere. The bones of 
animals consisting mainly of phosphate of lime, are derived 
primarily from inorganic nature, but the trunks of trees, and, 
in fact, the whole cellular substance of the vegetable world, 
is derived from the atmosphere. Decaying vegetable matter 
presents the atmospheric or organic elements, in combina- 
tions much more readily assimilable by plants, than the 
original uncombined elements; and soils covered with humus 
or decaying vegetable matter, are capable of supporting 
cereals, and other food crops, incapable of drawing their 
sustenance directly from the air. Forests are hence on 
certain soils an essential preliminary to agriculture, and of 
essential benefit on all soils. Their function is to elaborate 
the organic elements in compounds readily assimilable by 
plants, which cannot draw them directly from the atmos- 
phere; and to decompose certain insoluble forms of lime and 
potash into soluble salts, the presence of which in the cereals 
is necessary to the support of man and beast. 
Forests, too, afford food supplies for myriads of insects, 
which in life and death return to the soil not only all they 
take from the forest as food, but they return it in higher 
combinations, enriched with nitrogeneous compounds of high 
value as plant food for the cereals. 
As regards the influence of forests on rainfall. The 
primary sources are oceans, seas and Jakes, from the surface 
of which water is being constantly evaporated by the sun’s 
rays—the annual measure of evaporation is estimated to 
vary from two or three feet in high latitudes to eight or ten 
feet in the tropics. This yapor, borne along by ocean cur- 
rents in their preseribed courses, is in;part precipitated as 
rain on the ocean, in part borne landward, where the extent, 
locality and direction of the mountain chains, are mainly 
instrumental in determining the distribution of the rainfall 
over the Jand. Islands of no great area, and free from high 
mountain chaips, are uniformly well watered, but even on 
islands having a high mountain chain, the eastern slopes of 
the mountain are invariably visited with a more liberal rain- 
fall than the western; this is because the eastern currents, 
sweeping up from the tropics, pass through a region of 
greater evaporation than the western currents, which sweep 
down from the north. 
The great bulk of the moisture borne in by ocean currents 
on this continent is stopped by the Appalachian coast 
range in the East, and the Sierra Nevadas in the West, 
and precipitated as rain or snow along their respective 
sea faces. Comparatively little passes on to the great inter- 
nal basin of the continent, which would be an arid region if 
its rainfall were not supplemented by other sources; an 
