Forest and Stream. 



A Weekly Journal of the Rod and Gun. 



Terms, $4 A Year. 10 Cts. a Copy. I 

 Six Months, $2. j 



NEW YORK, MAY 28, 1886. 



( VOL. XXIV— No. 18. 



; Nos. 39 & 40 Park Bow, New York. 



CORRESPONDENCE. 



The Forest and Stream Is the recognized medium of entertaln- 

 m&nt, instruction and information between American sportsmen. 

 Communications upon the subjects to which its pages are devoted are 

 respectfully 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. 

 AD VERTI8EMENTS. 



Only advertisements of an approved character inserted. Inside 

 pages, nonpareil type, 25 cents per line. Special rates for three, six 

 and twelve months. Beading notices $1.00 per line. Eight 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. 



STTB8GRIPTI0NS 

 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; 

 ■lve copies for $16. Bemit by registered letter, money-order, or draft, 

 payable to the Forest and Stream Publishing Company. The paper 

 may be obtained of newsdealers throughout the United States, 

 Oanadas and Great Britain. Newsdealers in the United Kingdom 

 |(nay order through Davies & Co., No. 1 Finch Lane, Cornhill. Lon- 

 lon. General subscription agents for Great Britain, Messrs. Sampson 

 Low, Marston, Searles and Rivington, 188 Fleet street, Loudon, Eng. 

 Address all communications, 



Forest and Stream Publishing Co. 

 Nos. 39 and 40 Park Bow. New York Crnr. 



CONTENTS. 



Editorial. 



SkhiuiiiR the St. Regis Country. 



A New Park Superintendent. 

 Thk Sportsman Tourist. 



The Bucktail in Florida.— vi. 



The Adirondacks. 



Notes of a Southern Pilgrimage. 



NATURAL HlSTORV. 



The Birds of Michigan. 

 Game Bag and Gun. 



The Boston Dumping Ground. 



California Game ana Sportsmen 



New York Trespass Law. 



Wisconsin Game. 

 Sea and River Fishing. 



Muskoka. 



Skinned Stream. 



Home-Made Minnow Nets. 



Jointing Gut Lengths. 



To Attach the Dropper. 



Florida Fishing Reminiscences. 



Fish Laws of New York. 



FlSHOULTURE. 



American Fisheries Society. 

 The Illinois Commission. 

 Massachusetts Lobster Law. 

 The Kennel. 

 The National Derby. 



The Kennel. 



Eastern Field Trials Derby 

 Entries. 



The American Kennel Club. 



The Death of Leicester. 



Chicago Dog Show. 



Philadelphia Bench Show. 



Kennel Notes. 

 Rifle and Trap Shooting. 



Range and Gallery. 



The Trap. 

 Canoeing. 



Knickerbocker C 0. Races. 



A New Centerboard for Canoes. 



Around the Camp-Fire. 



'•The Wooden Paddel."' 



"Alouette." 



"I'm the Captain of my Craft." 



"Koll the Main Down." 

 Yachting. 



The Cup Races. 



A Catamaran Race. 



The Coming Season. 



Seawanhaka Corinthian Y. C. 



Yachting at Chicago. 



A Chat with the Clubs. 

 Answers to Correspondents. 

 Publishers 1 Department. 



A NEW PARE SUPERINTENDENT. 



THE change has been made. R. E. Carpenter, recently 

 the Superintendent of the Yellowstone National Park, 

 has been removed. A little more than a month ago we 

 called attention to the fact that this individual was inefficient, 

 and that in more ways than one he had proved himself un- 

 faithful as a public servant. "We pointed out to the Secretary 

 of the Interior that he was thus in no respect a proper per- 

 son to longer occupy the responsible position which he then 

 held, and urged his prompt removal from office. 



The charges which we brought forward were not made 

 hastily, nor on insufficient information, and, knowing that 

 they were true, we felt the utmost confidence that they would 

 be carefully looked into by Mr. Lamar. It is characteristic 

 of the present administration that it moves deliberately. Its 

 actions are well considered beforehand, and so few mistakes 

 are made. We were, therefore, quite willing to await with 

 patience Mr. Lamar's decision, which, in fact, has come 

 rather more speedily than we had expected. We have rea- 

 son to know that the Secretary of the Interior takes a deep 

 and intelligent interest in the National Park, and we believe 

 that he may be counted on as one of the staunchest friends 

 of the reservation. 



Carpenter's removal is the direct result of the ventilation 

 of his acts by the Forest and Stream. We said last spring 

 that "the new Superintendent of the Park will have an op 

 portunity during the season that is coming to show what 

 stuff he is made of. He may be sure that his actions will be 

 scrutinized closely. If he does his duty he will be applauded, 

 but if he fails it will soon be known." The promise to 

 watch his actions we have fulfilled, and the result of this ob- 

 servation has been the publication of Carpenter's shortcom- 

 ings, and his consequent removal from his position. He 

 proved an utter failure as Superintendent. Would it not 

 have been better policy for him to have tried to do his duty? 

 He has been but six mouths in office, and is now turned out. 

 He has demonstrated his unfitness for his position and has 

 no one but himself to thank for his removal. 



Mr. D. W. Wear, the newly appointed Superintendent, is 

 a native of Missouri. Our representative who inquired 

 about him from Senator Vest, quotes that gentleman as say. 



ing: "Colonel Wear is about forty years old, active, intelli- 

 gent and honest. He commanded a regiment in the Union 

 Army during the war, and was a gallant officer. He is now 

 a State Senator from the city of St. Louis. He is an earnest 

 sportsman and in every respect a gentleman. His appoint- 

 ment means a new and better era in the history of the 

 Yellowstone Park." We are glad to hear so good an 

 account of the new Superintendent. He enters upon his 

 office at a time when he can do much for the Park, 

 or by neglecting it can do a great deal of harm. It will 

 not be difficult for him if he is a man of the right stamp to 

 gain the respect and hearty support of that portion of the 

 public who are interested in the Park. We hope that he 

 will take this course. Wc need a good Superintendent. 

 Another bad one would be a great disappointment. 



SKTNNING THE ST. REGIS COUNTRY, 

 'T^HE lumberman has invaded the St. Regis country in the 

 ■*- Adirondacks and his axe is converting that famous realm 

 of forest and spring and stream, and game and fish into a 

 scarred and barren wilderness of desolation. One lumber- 

 ing concern now owns the entire district extending from 

 near Meacham and St. Regis lakes on the east almost to the 

 Raquette River on the west, and from St. Regis Falls on the 

 north to McDonald Pond on the southern line beyond the 

 west branch of the St. Regis— a territory about thirty-five 

 miles square. This district they are systematically skinning. 

 Not only is all the soft timber, as pine and spruce, cut off, 

 but all the hard wood is taken too. Mills have been erected 

 for the manufacture of wooden ware, hoe. handles, fork 

 handles, and numerous other implements. During the past 

 winter many thousands of cords of firewood have been 

 cut off. Some of this is burned in the compauy's engines, 

 and the rest goes to supply the Ogdensburgh & Lake Cham- 

 piain Railroad. Everything is cut off, big and little, old 

 trees and shrubs. The skinners are doing their work thor- 

 oughly ; they are making a clean sweep. When they have 

 finished, when the game preserves have all been destroyed, 

 the springs and brooks dried up, the river flow lessened, they 

 will leave the bare ground and the rocks and go off to lay 

 waste some other fair forest land. 



It would not b,e sensible to blame the lumbermen and the 

 hoe handle manufacturers, who have wrought this havoc. 

 Sentiment and a regard for public welfare usually go to the 

 wall when they run counter to personal aggrandizement. 

 The promoters of this St. Regis lumbering coucern's work of 

 devastation doubtless saw lots of money in the enterprise. 

 So long as they can fill their own pockets by skinning the 

 Adirondacks, they are oblivious of the rights of the commu- 

 nity. They do their work of destruction with a good con- 

 science, and sleep soundly at night, unvexed by even a 

 thought of the outrages they have perpetrated in the North 

 Woods. 



The parties to blame for such a great public loss as this 

 forest destruction are the men who have been sent to Albany 

 from year to year by the people to care for their interests 

 there. The senators and the assemblymen of the State of 

 New York, who have been so intent on plunder and boodle 

 and all sorts of black and white and checquered jobbery, 

 that they have devoted their attention and the people's time 

 to filling their own pockets, and who, in this disgraceful 

 hustling for spoils, have been blind to the forestry needs of 

 the hour — these are men who have richly earned and ought 

 to bear the responsibility for Adirondack ruin. Tbey can 

 plead no excuse. Year after year, for more than a decade, 

 this question of Adirondack forest preservation has been 

 broached, and at session after session it has been thrust 

 aside because there was "nothing in it" for "the boys." 



A change has come. It could not help but come. The 

 scales are falling from the eyes of the people, and the senti- 

 ment of the public on this subject is growing so strong that 

 the Albany spoils hunters dared not longer ignore the ques- 

 tion. . How much of a change it will prove remains to be 

 seen. If the movement can be kept out of the control of the 

 interested parties who are openly and covertly doing their 

 best to get it into their own hands, there will be no possibility 

 in the future of such an outrage as that of the St. Regis. 



Out-Door Clubs. — Hartford has a Camera Club, whose 

 members go out in company to take pictures. The Y. M. 

 C. A. of New York has an Outing Club, whose members go 

 in company for rambles in the country. 



Game Law Changes.— Will correspondents favor us with 

 a memorandum of whatever changes may have been made in 

 their State and local game laws. 



The Situation in Massachusetts is told by a corres- 

 pondent whose communication i s published elsewhere. The 

 game Association, whose headquarters are at Boston, have 

 not the unity of action, the strength of solid combination, 

 and the money backing, which are so potential in shaping 

 legislation at the Hub. The dealers have a strong lobby. 

 They work hard because their immediate profits are at stake. 

 They succeed every year in bamboozling the Legislature 

 into perpetuating a law which, so far as it permits the sale 

 of game long after the open season for its capture has ex- 

 pired, is a standing disgrace to Massachusetts. The market- 

 men's crafty agents by their lying misrepresentations also 

 succeed in making the country members believe that the 

 Association members are a crowd of dudes who are wholly 

 selfish in their efforts to have right game and fish laws on 

 the statute books. It is exceedingly unfortunate that the 

 petty jealousy and prejudice, which have always existed 

 between dwellers in the town and dwellers in the country, 

 should be used, as in this case, to defeat the common good 

 of all. The Old Bay State, mother of so many scholars and 

 statesmen whose worth has adorned the nation, ought to 

 have a game law equally just to all, whether for most of 

 the year brick walls form their horizon, or whether they 

 dwell where the eye may rest on far-stretching fields of liv- 

 ing green and rolling hills purple in the decline of day. 



Decoration Day.— Next Saturday will be observed as 

 the anniversary of the day set apart for honoring those who 

 died in the Civil War. There will be parades and orations 

 and the decking of graves with the flowers of spring— a 

 ceremony ever beautiful and touching. By some of the 

 veterans of the war there has been of late an expression of 

 regret that this day should have become so much of a holi- 

 day, given tip to games, pleasure excursions, and other forms 

 of popular amusement, which bid fair to sink the prominence 

 of the other observances. This feeling is very natural. The 

 memorial purposes of the day should not be forgotten nor neg- 

 lected. But it is only human nature — as demonstrated by the 

 history of all holy days which have become holidays— that the 

 pleasures of the day should gradually usurp the position at 

 first accorded to its solemnities. But however great this 

 change in mode of celebration may be, there is little reason 

 to fear that the true purpose of Decoration Day will be for- 

 gotten ; and while it is a vain effort to attempt to prescribe 

 how the holiday shall be spent, it is enough that each man 

 so conduct himself that by his conduct and bearing and in- 

 fluence as a citizen, he is worthy of the country for whose 

 integrity these soldiers gave their lives. 



Mr. Whitney, of Pennsylvania (we do not know his 

 address any more definitely), will be interested in that clause 

 of the new law of this State which declares it a misdemeanor 

 to retain trout of less than six inches in length. We are led 

 to think so because we are told that Mr. Whitney has every 

 summer for some years dispatched from the Adirondacks to 

 his home in Pennsylvania his annual firkin of fingerlings. 

 When it comes to filling a firkin full of fingerlings weighing 

 seven pennyweights each, we are at a loss which the more 

 to admire, the flngerlinger's diligence in yanking them out 

 or his patience in cleaning them. There are lots of men who 

 do this sort of business. Some have big firkins and others 

 have bigger firkins; and some have short fingerlings and 

 others have shorter fiuger lings. Never judge a man's brains 

 by the hat he wears, nor seek to gauge the small-fry expert 

 by the size of his firkin, but rather by the want of size of the 

 by-and-by-would-be-fish that are in it. 



The Forestry Commission. — It is to be hoped that 

 Messrs. James and Dowd will accept their appointments as 

 Forestry Commissioners of the State of New York, at least 

 for the present and until the Senate convenes again. That 

 will prove a check to any improper appointments, which 

 might be made should they refuse to serve. It is highly 

 desirable that a forest warden .should be appointed at once, 

 that the practical work may be begun this year. The State 

 can afford to try no experiments with inexperienced officials, 

 provided experts can be found. There are men in this State 

 to day who have had practical experience in forestry work 

 abroad, and to such a man the management of the Adiron- 

 dack forestry undertaking should be intrusted. This is the 

 part of economy. 



The Deek Hounding Bill.— The deer hounding bill, 

 twice passed and sent to the Governor, has not yet been 



