Forest and Stream. 



A Weekly Journal of the Rod and Gun. 



Terms, $4 a Tear. 10 Cts. a Copy. ) 

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NEW YORK, FEBRUARY 26, 1886. 



VOL. XXTV.-No. 5. 

 9 & 40 Park Row, New York. 



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CONTENTS. 



Editorial. 



This is Number Four. 



The Deer Bill. 



Gun -Shy Shooters. 



Fly- Fishing Long Ago. 



Through Two-Ocean Pass.— iv. 

 The Sportsman Tourist. 



Uncle Lisha's Sliop.— ix. 



A Hail from the Great Antilles. 

 Natural History. 



The Prairie Dog as a Water 

 Witch. 



The Rocky Mountain Goat. 



The Birds of Michigan. 



Mocking Birds Poisoning Young 

 Game Bag and Gun. 



Effects of Deer Hounding. 



Battery-Shooting. 



Small-Bore Shotguns. 



Major J. Verity's Remarkable 

 Shot. 



Maine Game. 



Southern Shooting Grounds. 



Some Remarkable Shots. 



Reynard's Ways. 



Philadelphia Notes. 



Massachusetts Game. 



Michigan Association. 

 Sea and River Fishing. 



Black Bass Talk. 



The Trout of Bear River. 



Otsego Lake. 



Some Remarkable Catches. 



Newlight. or Southern Croppie. 



Varnish for Rods. 



Trout Flies. 



Black Bass in Winter. 



Sea and River Fishing. 



The Vermont Fish Laws. 

 Fishculture. 



The New York Oyster Commis- 

 sion. 



Fishculture in Ye Olden Time. 



Fishculture in North Carolina. 

 The Kennel. 



Eastern Field Trials Club. 



N. A. K. C. Rules. 



A Grateful Dog Owner. 



Pointer Breeding. 



The Scotch Collie. 



The Irish Terrier Garryo wen. 



New Haven Dog Show. 



English Kennel Notes.— xxv. 



Kennel Notes. 

 Rifle and Trap Shooting. 



Range and Gallery. 



Military Rifle Sights. 



Missing Fire. 



The Trap. 

 Canoeing. 



Canoe Yawls and Cruising. 



The Snake. 



Paddles and Outfit 

 Yachting. 



The Newark Y. C. 



The Construction of Cabin Tops. 



The First Cutter on Lake 

 Michigan. 



Interior Plans of Schooner 

 Yacht. 



"Blow ye Winds Heigh O!" 



A Book on Small Yachts. 

 Answers to Correspondents. 

 Publishers' Department. 



FLY-FISHING LONG AGO. 



THE early history of fly-fishing is as obscure as the early 

 history of man.. No doubt it was practiced long before 

 it was written about or thought worthy of an allusion in so 

 important a thing as a book was held to be several centuries 

 ago. Dame Berners describes a dozen flies, Oppian, iElian 

 and other authors allude to them, but until Cotton wrote, 

 1676, there was no treatise on fly-fishing worth the name. 

 In the rare old book referred to in the fishcultural columns, 

 "L. M." also gives us "twelve kindes of flies to angle for the 

 trout in Sommer with other fishe." These flies are all winged 

 ones, "to angle withall on top of the water," and of the 

 twelve names two survive, viz., the dun and stone flies. Our 

 correspondents who have been discussing the vagaries of fly 

 nomenclature should read the reprint of Mascall's book. 

 Before he comes to his list of flies he commends the stone fly 

 for trout, but whether the natural insect or its counterfeit 

 he does not say. 



We have no means of knowing how the flies used by 

 Cotton would compare with those- made to-day, in points of 

 neatness and serviceability, but we know that the rods he 

 used would be considered unwieldly now, and neither he nor 

 Walton knew the use of a reel. As near as we can find out the 

 line was tied to the tip of the rod — the old plates indicate this 

 — and Cotton tells us to use a line a yard and a half or two 

 yards longer than the rod, and the extreme length of the 

 latter was sixteen feet. The reel existed in the time of 

 Walton and Cotton, for they had heard of its use in salmon 

 fishing. Walton says : "Note also, that many use to fish for a 

 salmon with a ring of wire on the top of their rod, through 

 which the line may run to as great a length as is needful 

 when he is hooked. And to that end some use a wheel about 

 the middle of their rod, or near their hand." To which he 

 adds, "which is to be observed better by seeing one of them, 

 than by a large demonstration of words." Evidently the 

 reel was used in salmon fishing only, of which Walton had 

 no experience. 



Of the work of Mascall there may not be half a dozen 

 copies of the original left, and these are beyond price, being 

 owned by the great libraries and accessible to those only who 

 are within reach of the collection. Collectors of angling 

 books who are abundantly able to pay princely prices for 

 original editious of rare works seldom find them offered for 

 sale, and content themselves, perforce, with the low-priced 

 reprint. A copy of "The Compleat Angler," of 1653, pub- 

 lished at the modest price of eighteen pence, would now 

 bring five hundred dollars or more, while copies of some of 

 the ninety odd editions of this famous work can be bought 

 for a slight advance on their value as paper stock. 



A reader of these older fishing books canuot help noticing 

 how boldly the writers stole from each other. There were 

 no great collections of angling books and they had no idea 

 of ever being found out, for it was a mere chance, as they 

 no doubt thought, that any person who read the new book 

 would ever see the old one to which they had access. In 

 some cases they did not hesitate to quote bodily, without 

 credit or mention that any other writer on angling ever 

 lived, and in others they changed the phraseology slightly. 

 We moderns are more adept at this and do not steal in such 

 a bungling manner, "convey, the wise call it," but we often 

 find ideas warmed over and so served that, while the flavor- 

 ing may taste new at first, before digestion is complete we 

 recoguize an old piece de resistance. Notwithstanding this 

 very human failing, there is a charm about these old writers 

 that lay partly in their credulity concerning natural history, 

 partly in their acceptance of the statements of their prede- 

 cessors, but mainly in their simple and quaint style. 



THIS IS NUMBER FOUR. 



AND now marches forward the New England Kennel 

 Club, and solemnly presents a fourth construction of 

 Kule 8. At this rate we shall have fifteen different rules 

 and constructions ground out to us during the year. We 

 begin to feel tired in advance. 



The New England version of Rule 8 is different from all 

 the others, and admits into the champion class all dogs that 

 have won a first prize in the open classes at the bench shows 

 of any organization now recognized as a member of the A. 

 K. C. Nothing is said about an extra champion class. This 

 rule is an attempted interpretation of Major Taylor's con- 

 struction; but it really goes back to first principles, as any 

 one can see by referring to a premium list of a show held a 

 few years ago. It is an endeavor to keep within A. K. C. 

 rules, but what a failure. The interpretation of Rule 8 is 

 justified neither by obedience to A. K. C. rules, nor by com- 

 mon sense, nor by public sentiment. In trying to follow 

 out Major Taylor's directions, the club has succeeded in 

 exposing itself to ridicule. 



The further we get along the more comical it all is. The 

 A. K. C, under the leadership of Major Taylor, flounders 

 about most hopelessly, and shows no prospect of ever reach- 

 ing firm ground. 



We had hoped for better things from New England. In- 

 stead of using their own judgment, they try to follow 

 orders. That they have not succeeded is clearly not their 

 fault, for no man has yet been found who knows what 

 Major Taylor meant when he "constructed" Rule 8. 



The New England Kennel Club through a mistaken sense 

 of duty have taken a course which is much to be regretted, 

 and we should not suppose that they would feel very kindly 

 toward Major Taylor for having placed them in so unpleas- 

 ant a position. 



GUN-SHY SHOOTERS. 



FROM a Canadian correspondent comes an inquiry for a 

 method to cure flinching. He says, "1 have a friend 

 who dodges back when shooting; he gives the trigger a tug, 

 jerks the gun away from the mark, and shuts his eyes. " 

 Almost every one can recall cases of a similar nature. Gun 

 shyness may be inherent, or it may have resulted from the 

 use of unnecessarily heavy loads of powder and shot. If 

 inherent it is usually much harder to overcome than when 

 caused in the other way. 



There is but one course to pursue, and that is, to persist- 

 ently practice with a gun loaded with very light charges. 

 Use powder without shot. Let the charge be so light that 

 the gun may be discharged without a tremor. The charge 

 may then be very gradually increased, and in the end the 

 shooter will probably find that he can use the ordinary 

 charges without difficulty. But whenever, with an increased 

 charge, the nervousness returns, that charge should at once 

 be abandoned and a lighter one substituted. 



Sometimes the flinching is due to what may be termed 



'bird-shyness," being due very largely to the nervous con- 

 dition induced by the starting up of the game. We have 

 known shooters who at pigeon matches killed their seven or 

 eight birds out of every ten, and shot without flinching, but 

 who in the field, where a quail or a grouse or a woodcock 

 rose, invariably acted in just the manner described by our 

 correspondent. One such flincher was completely cured in 

 this manner. When quail hunting one day, a friend sug- 

 gested that the charges of shot be withdrawn from his 

 shells; and then the gun-shy man took deliberate aim at each 

 bird as it rose within range, blazed away with his powder 

 charges, never flinched, and was in each instance sure that 

 he "could have killed that bird." Finally a shot-charged 

 cartridge having been surreptitiously inserted, sure enough 

 he did kill a bird ; and after that found no more difficulty in 

 shooting the usual charges. 



THE DEER BILL. 



MOST of the petitions for the passage of the bill forbid- 

 ding deer hounding have been returned to us and 

 forwarded to Albany. Those who still have blanks are 

 notified that unless sent to us immediately they cannot be 

 used. 



The number of signatures and the very general represen- 

 tation of all classes, as shown by the names, should be 

 sufficient proof to those at Albany that the passage of the 

 bill is desired by the public. 



Much has been done by individual effort to secure the 

 interest and support of members of the Assembly and Sen- 

 ate, and much more can still be accomplished in this direc- 

 tion. It is individual effort that counts. 



Whatever else is done or left undone in the way of New 

 York game legislation this year, let the Curtis bill against 

 deer hounding be made a law. 



A New Forestry Association. — At a meeting held in 

 Utica last Saturday, a New York State Forestry Association 

 was formed. The new society will fill an important office 

 if it will take charge of forestry legislation and aid the cause 

 by disseminating information about the forests and instruct 

 the public in forest economy. The following officers were 

 elected: President, Andrew D. White; Vice-Presidents, 

 Clinton L. Merriam, of Locust Grove; H. R. Lowe, of MidS 

 dletown; Patrick H. Agan, of Syracuse; Patrick Barry, of 

 Rochester; Morris K. Jessup, of New York, and John F. 

 Seymour, of Utica ; Recording Secretary, E. B. Seuthwick, 

 of New York; Corresponding Secretary, S. W. Powell, of 

 New York; Treasurer, Thomas Denoy, of New York; Ex- 

 ecutive Committee, Robert Lenox Bank, of Albany; Charles 

 E. Whitehead, Egbert L. Viele, and T. B. Coddington, of 

 New York; R. U. Sherman, of New Hartford; C. W. 

 Hutchinson, of Utica; Dudley Miller, of Oswego; Roselle 

 H. Hall, of Watertown, and Sherman S. Rogers, of Buffalo. 



The Michigan Association met last week and adopted 

 a bill to be introduced into the Legislature providing for the 

 appointment of a State game warden. Sportsmen who are 

 residents of that State and others would be glad to see such 

 an officer appointed. It is high time that the burden of game 

 protection in Michigan be assumed by the State. The law- 

 makers at Lansing are behind the age. | Every State that 

 fails to make due provision for enforcing the game laws is 

 behind the age. Other natural resources are appreciated, 

 but the Solons of the day appear oblivious of the fact that 

 large game in a State like Michigan is of any account ; so it 

 is given over to the pot-hunters, who slaughter it when and 

 how they please, and ship it to the Chicago and St. Louis 

 and New York markets. 



A Valued Gift. — We have received from Dr. E. Sterling, 

 of Cleveland, O., a copy of the late Dr. Theodatus Garlick's 

 "Treatise on the Artifical Propagation of Certain Kinds of 

 Fish," being a presentation from Dr. Garlick to Dr. Sterling. 

 Facing the title page is a photograph of Dr. Garlick, taken 

 in 1858; and interleaved are some of the printed papers 

 written by Dr. Garlick in defense of his claim to having 

 been the first person on this continent to breed fish by arti- 

 ficial fecundation. 



A. K. R.— Two thousand one hundred and thirteen dogs 

 have the right to the designation A. K. R. and a number 

 after their names. The Register has been issued every month, 

 is issued every month, and will be issued every month. It 

 is doing a most excellent service, because it provides a cur- 

 rent, reliable, and more and more complete chronicle of just 

 the records that dog owners want to have at their elbows. 



