Forest and Stream 



A Weekly Journal of the Rod and Gun. 



Terms, $4 a Year. 10 Cts. a Copt. | 

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NEW YORK, JULY 23, 1885. 



I VOL. XXIV.— No. 26. 



i Nos. 39 & 40 Park Row, New York.. 



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CONTENTS. 



Editorial. 



Canned Goods hi Camp. 



Work for the Maine Authorities. 

 The Sportsman Tourist. 



Sport in the Sierras. 



Morelia. 

 Natural History. 



The Beginnings of Life. 



A Key to Bird Lore. 



Ne;->t and Egg Collecting. 

 Game Bag and Gun. 



The Mower and the Quail. 



A Trip to Nova Scotia. 



The Spokane Bear Club. 



Philadelphia Notes. 



"Still-Hunting the Grizzly," 

 Camp-Fire Flickerings. 

 Sea and River Fishing. 



Bass, Pike and Mascalonge. 



Muskoka.— in. 



The Annual Worm Scare. 



Bass in the Upper Hudson. 



Killing Bass Flies. 



Tinklewater Protected'. 



FlSHCULTURE. 



The Kennel, 



Stud Fees. 



The Irish Wolfhound. 



Kennel Management, 



Kennel Notes. 

 Rifle and Trap Shooting. 



Range and Gallery. 



The Trap. 



Meridian Gun Club Tournament 

 Canoeing. 



Hartford C C Cruise. 



Knickerbocker C. C 



Royal C. 0. Regatta. 



Ottawa C. C. 



A. C. A. 

 Yachting. 



The Goelet Cup Races. 



HullY. C, July 18. 



American Y. C, July 16, 17, 18. 



Wanda. 



Welcome! Genesta. 



Accidents on the Water. 



The Construction of Center- 

 boards. 



More About Bent Timbers. 



Some Objective Points in Fish- Answers to Correspondents. 

 culture. I Publishers' Department. 



WORK FOR THE MAINE AUTHORITIES. 



IT is a very common excuse with persons who- do not 

 report game law violations that they fear the vengeance 

 of the parties concerned. We are constantly in receipt of 

 letters from individuals who complain about such offenses in 

 their neighborhood, but decline to lay the facts before the 

 proper authorities because they are afraid that their cows 

 will be killed or their barns burned. If we are to credit, 

 such representations, the shiftless fellows who kill game and 

 fish out of season exercise a regular reign of terror over the 

 law-abiding and respectable members of the community. 

 In some instances, doubtless, there may be reason for the 

 fear that a prosecution for poaching would be followed by 

 some such sort of revenge, but. more often nothing of the 

 kind would follow. 



This deterrent fear of burning barns is not confined to any 

 particular locality. We hear the same story from the West, 

 from the Adirondacks, from persons dwelling within five 

 miles of New York city, and from Canada. A recent case 

 was that of some deer killed in Maine or over the line in 

 Canada. The man who knew the most about it persistently 

 refused to communicate with us freely, for fear that his 

 name might be known and then the deer killers would burn 

 his house and perhaps assassinate his family. It did not 

 appear very plausible that one or two worthless renegades, 

 fugitives from justice, would commit any such a crimen but 

 it was quite useless to attempt to disabuse our informant of 

 his fear. 



It is safe to say that, for the most part, this terror of the 

 stock-killing and barn-burning vengeance of game destroyers 

 is without any sensible ground. Once in a great while a 

 case of such revenge does come to public notice, but they 

 are extremely rare. The press dispatches yesterday recorded 

 that a Maine game warden had suffered for his activity in 

 bringing poachers to justice. The report says : 



Machias, Me., July 21.— Fred Mimson, of Westley, one of the game 

 wardens of Washington county, who recently caused the arrest and 

 prosecution of some residents of Westley for violating the game laws, 

 discovered a few days ago that a potato patch owned by him, from 

 which he expected a yield of forty bushels of potatoes, had been 

 visited and every plant pulled up. His beans had been similarly 

 treated, and about forty young apple trees had been girdled and 

 ruined. While Munson and his wife were visiting a neighbor last 

 night their house was set on fire and entirely consumed. 



The facts being as here reported, there is one task for the 

 Maine authorities more important than all other game pro- 



tective measures put together. The perpetrators of this out- 

 rage must be apprehended and punished for their crimes. 

 The lawless classes in Washington county must be taught 

 the lesson that game laws are to be enforced, that their exe- 

 cution is a matter of legal justice, and that the offender must 

 not seek revenge for his lawful punishment by destroying 

 the property of the prosecuting officer. This, we insist, is 

 the most important thing the Maine game officers have to 

 see to. If it is neglected, if these scoundrels who have 

 girdled fruit trees and burned dwellings are permitted to go 

 unpunished, then good-bye to game protection in Maine. 



CANNED 6001)8 IN CAMP. 

 rpHAT people have sometimes been poisoned to death by 

 J- eating canned beef may be a consoling reflection to the 

 woods explorer who, penetrating to some favorite haunt in 

 search of solitude and game, finds only the empty tin cans 

 of the man who has been there before him ; and the corres- 

 pondent who winds up his wail with the wish that all the 

 "fish hogs" may meet violent deaths, might, rejoice to hear 

 that some of these gentry have been cut off in their prime, 

 eating canned mackerel in camp. Tens of thousands of cans 

 of food are consumed each month, and every once in a while 

 the newspapers report that the contents of a can have proved 

 fatal. We never heard of such a case among campers, al- 

 though instances have been brought to our notice of outers 

 who have been made violently ill by canned foods, and that 

 too, in remote localities far from human habitations. The 

 canned vegetables, fish and meats are so compact, port- 

 able and convenient to use that they form uo inconsiderable 

 part of the ordinary camp food supply; as a rule they arc 

 perfectly wholesome, but the exception is not so rare that any 

 one can afford to neglect what have been proved to be wise 

 precautions in the use of canned food. 



Sometimes the vegetable or the meat was rotten before it 

 was sealed up in the can. In such a case of course only the 

 canner is to blame. But it is probable that in many other 

 cases the poisonous character of the food is acquired after it 

 has been unsealed and exposed to the air. Then the contents 

 of the can are subject to putrefaction perhaps more rapidly 

 than food products of the same kind that have not been 

 canned. Meat which may be kept sealed up in the can an 

 indefinite length of time spoils rapidly after having been for 

 a short time thus exposed. Canned goods should be eaten 

 soon after they are unsealed. It is a very common notion 

 that because such food has remained wholesome in the air- 

 tight can for a long time, it may be left open with equal 

 security. This is erroneous. There is still much mystery 

 about some of the cases of canned goods poisoning, but it 

 has been pretty thoroughly demonstrated that canned goods 

 opened and left exposed to the atmosphere for a short time 

 are quite likely to prove unwholesome. 



In this connection attention is called to a most instructive 

 article, entitled "The Beginnings of Life," printed in our 

 Natural History columns. 



Indian Troubles. — The official report of the investigation 

 into the causes of the present Indian troubles has not yet 

 been made, and comment on the subject would therefore be 

 premature. To one who understands the condition of things 

 in the Indian country, and reads the press dispatches in the 

 light of that kuowledge, it appears extremely probable that 

 the real cause of the present difficulty will be found in the 

 aggressions of the cattle men. It is to be hoped that the 

 Government officers charged with the investigation of the 

 affair may go to the bottom of it and put the blame where it 

 belongs* 



Adirondack Deer. — The June deer killing in the North 

 Woods appears to have been as extensive this year as form- 

 erly. As to hounding, one of the State game protectors 

 writes us: "So far as my district is concerned there will 

 not be much hunting with hounds. Of course, the Boonville 

 Herald will do a great deal toward helping the hounders in 

 the course it is pursuing, but deer will not be run with dogs 

 to any very great extent." We shall be glad to have informa- 

 tion from our Adirondack readers respecting the observance 

 of the new law. 



Pointers at the Eastern Field Trials.— The pointer 

 is again coming into favor, and the annual meeting of the 

 Eastern Field Trials Club next November will show a not- 

 able gathering of the breed that will be unparalleled in the 

 history of American field trials. Several fanciers of the 

 breed have assured us that the "short hairs" are bound to 

 win, and three or four owners have told us just which com- 

 petitor was coming in ahead. 



Netting in Jamaica Bav.— A correspondendent com- 

 plains that netting is destroying the fishing in the waters of 

 Jamaica Bay and Eockaway Inlet, on the eastern portion of 

 the south shore of Long Island. AVe have found that this is 

 uot only the case but also that there is no law to prevent it. 

 The net fishermen of Carnafsie are cleaning up the fishing 

 grounds so that anglers find no fishing on their old grounds. 

 The sheepshead that formerly abounded there have been 

 taken at one fell swoop. If it be argued that they do not 

 breed here on our northern coast and that they have served 

 their turn in supplying food we will say that they would 

 have served a better turn in being caught by a thousand 

 anglers than by ten fishermen. The fish taken by anglers 

 serve as food as well as those that are netted. They also 

 serve a better purpose in giving recreation and health to 

 overworked men who seek the waters for rest and who can- 

 not spare the time or money necessary to go further away. 

 The salt waters of Long Island, especially the bays and har- 

 bors, should be preserved as resorts for anglers, and the few 

 fish they contain will be an inducement for them to visit 

 them. The fish will as surely find their way to the table as 

 if all dragged up at a swoop and will benefit a vast number 

 instead of a few. If the one hundred sheepshead taken at 

 one haul in Jamaica Bay last Friday had been taken by fifty 

 men, their value would have been far greater to the com- 

 munity, to the takers, to the hotels, and to the baymen who 

 let boats and sell bait. Let us have a law preserving these 

 waters. 



Shooting Nesting Birds. — A correspondent raises a 

 question of the propriety of shooting nesting birds for 

 ornithological collections. The bald account of the capture 

 of a mother bird by deliberately shooting her while sitting on 

 her eggs may very reasonably excite the indignation of any 

 one but an ornithologist. But the collector would readily 

 find at least self-justification for his act. He would explain 

 that the whole science of ornithology is very largely based 

 upon the actual capture of the birds themselves and the 

 taking of their nests. He would explain that in ornithology 

 nothing can be taken on hearsay or supposition. If any- 

 thing is to be accepted as a fact it must be accompanied with 

 unmistakable material evidence. Thus in the case referred 

 to, the nest of a very rare bird was discovered. For abso- 

 lute certainty of identification a naturalist would demand 

 the nest, the eggs and the skin of the bird shot when actually 

 on the nest. Otherwise there might be a mistake. That is ' 

 briefly how a naturalist w T ould defend the shooting of nest- 

 ing birds, and in this particular instance he would add that 

 the killing of the Swainson's warbler was highly important, 

 because by thus securing bird, nest and eggs a long missing- 

 link in the life history of the bird was supplied. Here the 

 collector kuew and appreciated the importance of what he 

 was doing. It is obvious, however, that such a justifica- 

 tion could not properly be extended to every amateur col- 

 lector of birds and eggs who thinks it necessary to gather 

 for himself specimens which are perfectly well known. 



The New York Athletic Club have lately added to 

 their new club house a large book for suggestions and com- 

 plaints from members. One page is ruled for suggestions 

 and the opposite one is divided into two colmns, one for the 

 decision of the committe on each suggestion aud the other 

 for an entry of the action taken by them. The first sugges- 

 tion on the opening page is "Subscribe for the Forest and 

 Stream," the comment thereto being "Capital idea," while 

 the entry in the third column is "Ordered." 



The Quail and the Mowing Machine. — Another instance 

 has been brought to our notice where a number of quails' 

 nests were saved from destruction by adopting the precaution 

 noted last week of locating the setting bird before the grass 

 is cut. Such an expedient is practicable in small lots of 

 grass, and the results are so happy that it must find favor 

 with all who would be glad thus to care for the cheery quail. 



One of the Lamentable Shotgun Accidents of the 

 season was that by which, last week, a son of Professor 

 Eaton, of Yale College, lost his life. He was climbing over 

 some rocks when the gun was dropped and the charge 

 entered his body. 



The Salmon Fishing in Canada and New England is 

 very good this year. The Maine rivers are affording an 

 unusual amount of sport, and the papers of that State are 

 quite enthusiastic on the subject. 



The Sensational Report that the New Jersey cranberry 

 bog fires were set by sportsmen in revenge for being ordered 

 off a certain piece of land is doubtless a canard. 



