Forest and Stream 



A Weekly Journal of the Rod and Gun. 



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

 Sis Months, $3. ) 



NEW YORK, AUGUST 27, 188B. 



J VOL. 2XV.— No. 5. 



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



GORBESPOKDENOE. 



Thb Forkst aot Stream Is tbe recognized mediirm ot entertain- 

 ment, instnietion and information between American sportsmen. 

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Forest and Stream Pnbllflhlnit; Co. 

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CONTENTS, 



Editorial. 



The Rifle Trajectory Test. 



From Pocahontas to Priscilla. 



Clean and Unclean. ^ 

 The Sportsman Todhist. * 



Auld Lang Syne. 

 Natural History. 



The Cotton Rat as a Fighter. 



The ■\\"hite Goat. 



Water Birds of Nova Scotia. 

 Camp-Fibe FucKERrsas, 

 liAME Bag and Gun. 



Weapons in Game. 



The BiK Marsh of the Taiitramar 



A Hunt on the. Yazoo. 



The Choice of Huns.— ii. 



Dakota Oame and Shootbig. 



Deer in the Adiroudacks. 



National Sijortsmen's Conven- 

 tion. 



To Preserve Dead Game. 

 Sea and River Fishing. 

 Game Qualities of the Basses. 

 Dowels versus Simple-Ferrules. 

 A Tale of a Loon. 

 Fishing in Dakota. 

 Agassiz and Angling. 



FiSHOULTURE. 



Egg Protective Contrivances. 

 1 The Kennel. 



The Irish Wolfhound. 



The American Kennel Ciub. 

 1 The New Setter Standard, 

 t Kennel Notes. 

 Rifle and Tbap Shootiko 



"Forestand Stream'" Rifle Trial. 



Range and Gallery. 



The Trap. 



Field Day at Vicksburg. 

 Canoeing. 



lanthe C. C. Regatta. 



American Canoe Association. 



Buflfalo C. 0. 



A Cruise on the Potomac. 

 Yachting. 



The Cup Races. 



The Trial Races, Aug. 31. 23, 34. 



Carolina Y. C. 



A Cruising Schooner for Shoal 



Waters. 

 Irex. 



Larchmont Y. C, Oyster Boat 

 Races. 



Answers to Correspondkkts, 



THE RIFLE TRAJEOTOBY TEST. 

 Tj^V^^RYTHINGr points to a most successful outcome in 

 tbe trajectory test which the Forest and Stream has 

 undertaken for the benefit of the thousands of shooters 

 throughout the country. The comments and suggestions, of 

 which a few are given in our rifle department, show that the 

 interest excited is wide-spread and that many are earnestly 

 watching the result of the trial. 



Some of our correspondents seem to allow their iove for 

 their favorite rifles to run away, in some measure, with their 

 discretion. There is no necessity of losing one's temper over 

 such a simple matter. For ourselves we have no idea what 

 the test will show, nor have we much care in the matter. 

 Having no preferences between rifles, not being bound in any 

 way to this or that make, it will be a matter of entire indif- 

 ference which may show the flattest line of fire. We shall 

 have completed our work when, with all the data taken, the 

 rifle shall be fired from its rest. Then the perforated screens 

 of tissue paper will tell their tales of high or low lines of 

 fire. 



Many of our correspondents urge the fixing of a rigid code 

 of conditions under which each rifle shall come before being 

 admitted to the test. Weight of rifle, trigger pull, caliber, 

 etc., are all suggested. Some of the points urged upon us 

 for legislation are entirely foreign to the programme which 

 we have laid out for the benefit of our readers. With a rifle 

 clamped in a rest we cannot well see h.ow this or that trigger 

 pull can come in as a factor in making up the trajectory. 

 Some hunters prefer a heavy pull while others find it safe to 

 trust themselves in the field with a very light trigger. So 

 too with weight of rifle. If a sportsman chooses to lug 

 about on his tramps after game a great heavy rifle, that is a 

 matter of no moment so far as trajectory is concerned, and 

 while we shall give in our report of tests every detail about 

 the rifle used, it would only complicate matters unnecessarily 

 to make the weight of the rifle a preliminary condition of 

 entry. 



It will be a free-for-all, go-as-you-please race for superior- 

 ity in flat shooting. The thousand and one other points 

 about a rifle may be settled in other ways. With oui- baseline, 

 our rest and our screens we can fix definitely the rise which 

 each bullet undergoes in its flight from muzzle to target. 

 There is great need, it seems to us, for just this one item of 

 knowledge about hunting rifles at this time; if we can supply 



it with satisfactory exactness, the whole object of our trial 

 will be accomplished. In a subsequent issue full and com- 

 plete details with illustrations' of the plans and appliances to 

 be used will be given. Mechanics are now busy making up a 

 rest, which can be used with any of the several rifle models, 

 whether single-loading, magazine or muzzle. We wish to 

 make the test to its fullest extent of practical value, and to 

 that end especially desire to confine it to models now in 

 actual use in the trade and in the hands of sportsmen. 



CLEAN AND UNCLEAN 

 ''T^HE character of a journal's constituency may De deter- 

 mined by the cleanliness or uncleanliness of its advertis- 

 ing columns. The paper that insists on decency in its adver- 

 tising pages goes to one class of readers. The paper that 

 prints dirty medical advertisements and lures for vile pub- 

 lications goes to a quite different class. There is no mis- 

 taking the two. Decency is expected of the one, indecency 

 is expected of the other. 



Once let a journal establish for itself a fair- name in this 

 respect, it is bound by its record and by its constituency to 

 maintain its character. No deviation would be tolerated by 

 its readers. If the Forest atnd Stream should so far forfeit 

 its self-respect as to print the foul advertisements that defile 

 some of its contemporaries, there would be an instant and 

 emphatic protest from its subscribers. Aside from all 

 worthier considerations, the knowledge that the journal's 

 readers demand purity in the advertising columns would be 

 suflicient reason for holding to such a course. 



Legitimate advertisers would have abundant reason to 

 complain if among their notices of guns and fishing tackle 

 and sportsmen's supplies were to be sandwiched the filthy 

 advertisements in question; for such things disgust decent 

 readers, and cause them to shun the advertising pages, the 

 value of which is thereby of necessity debased. 



We hold the opinion that the reading matter auu the adver- 

 tisements of a sportsman's journal should be clean and above 

 reproach; and with some pride, which is perhaps pardonable, 

 we invite attention to the significant fact that the Forest 

 AND Stream is the only journal of shooting and fishing pub- 

 lished in this country that does practically maintain such a 

 principle. And as has been said before in these columns, 

 when the editors and publishers find that a sportsman's 

 paper of such character is not suited to the times, they will 

 go into some other branch of journalism. 



FROM POCAHONTAS TO PRISCILLA. 

 f ESS than four years ago the New York Yacht Club sailed 

 ^ a series of races similar to those just terminated and 

 with the same object in view, to select a yacht to defend the 

 Cup. Then, as now, the club had built a yacht specially for 

 the purpose, and it is gratifying to compare the new boat 

 with the dismal failure that still graces the mud of South 

 Brooklyn, It is true that Priscilla has not thus far proved 

 as fast under some conditions as her Boston rival, but she 

 has proved successful compared with a much higher standard 

 of speed than that of 1881, and although not yet in her 

 pi'oper trim, and capable with some changes of rig of much 

 better performance, even in her present form Priscilla is a 

 verj' fast boat. 



In each of these cases money was spent freely to secure 

 the best boat possible, and in the first instance with more 

 liberality than discretion. As the result proved, the boat 

 was no credit in any way to those connected with her con- 

 struction, and her collapse in the trial races terminated 

 abruptly an inglorious career. Without entering into the 

 disputed question as to the thoroughness of the trials and 

 whether, with a new rig and partial rebuilding, she might 

 not have turned out in time a fairly fast boat, it is enough 

 to note that she was unable to stand the strain of the few trial 

 races, and shook herself partly to pieces in them, and that, 

 whatever the possible merits of her model, the finished boat, 

 after the expenditure of a large amount of money, was but 

 an empty shell and absolutely unfit for any purpose in her 

 existing condition. Pocahontas was the last of the big 

 wooden centcrboard sloops of the old type in model, build and 

 rig, and it is very unlikely that we shall ever sec another. 



While no less a centerboard sloop, PrisciUa differs mate- 

 rially from her predecessor, but most of all in the quality of 

 the work. Though built and rigged more rapidly than any 

 other yacht nearly her size, she bears evidence throughout of 

 the excellence of the material and workman.ship as well as 

 of careful planning, which it is most encouraging to notice, 

 and which, whatever her ultimate success as a racer, is in 

 itself a substantial proof of improvement in yacht building. 

 Not only does the substitution of first-class ironwork in the 

 hull for such wooden construction as that of Pocahontas 



mark a very important advance, but a still greater improve- 

 ment is evident in sails, rigging and gear. In proportions 

 the rig is still that of the sloop, lofty and long-sparred, and 

 the boat would probably be much improved with a cutter 

 rig; but what we are concerned with now are the details and 

 workmanship, to which little exception can be found. 

 Everything, down to the most trivial detail, has been care- 

 fully planned and as skilfully constructed, and thus far with 

 most satisfactory results, as, in spite of her heavy rig, all the 

 races have been sailed without accident or injury of any 

 moment. There was no apparent reason why matters 

 should not have been managed as well four years since, but 

 they certainly were not; and the very marked difference 

 belwen then and now shows an improvement that all yachts- 

 men may be proud of. 



The Adirondacks and Africa. — We suggested last week 

 that the newspapers would make President Cleveland's visit 

 to the Adirondacks an occasion for spinning unwieldy yaa-ns 

 about his camp life; and such has proved to be the fact. 

 The Chicago Trihune took the famihar "Camp Fire Flicker- 

 ing'' about the man whose frog bait crawled out on to a rock — 

 and sat there blinking while the man wondered why the fish 

 did not l)ite— expanded the story to a half column and put 

 it in the form of a communication from President Cleveland's 

 camp, making the President its hero. Yesterday our esteemed 

 and monumentally enterprising contemporary, the New 

 York World, appeared with a full page account of how its 

 "tenderfoot" special reporter had accomplished an imperti- 

 nent invasion of the President's camp; and editorially in all 

 seriousness compared the feat to Stanley's search for Living- 

 stone in Africa. If the World man had been posted on the 

 game laws he would have omitted this passage: "While 

 we were eating breakfast the distant baying of a deerhound 

 was heard. The President, Mr. Ward, Mr. Bacon and three 

 of the guides went down to the pond and stationed them- 

 selves at various points to wait for the deer that the excited 

 baying of the hound showed to have been started. They 

 saw never a deer, however." Peihaps there is no copy of 

 the game laws in the back olfice of the New York World. 

 It may be added that Governor Cleveland was in favor of a 

 non-hounding law, and it is certain that President Cleveland 

 did not practice what is now prohibited by that law. 



Long Isi,and Deer. — The deer hunters who have been 

 £0 put out by the law against Adirondack hounding, should 

 remember that there is still one county in the State where 

 they m-Aj follow their favorite form of amusement. In Suf- 

 folk county, on Long Island, deer may be hounded during 

 the first ten days of next October, and if all hands are patient 

 enough to wait, and will then go down therein a body, they 

 may secure some antlers. It is very important that every 

 man who wants a deer should have his dogs on hand 

 promptly, for after sunset of the opening day there will not 

 be nearly so many deer to divide up. The Long Island 

 peofjle extend a general invitation to all sportsmen to join in 

 their October deer hounding; and particulars of routes, etc., 

 will be given in ample time. 



The Price is too Great. — At Rye, near New^ York, the 

 other day, a business man bade his wife good-bye and started 

 for the city. The wife went back into the house, opened a 

 closet where her children's toys were, and took up a gun 

 with the intention of removing it to another room. The 

 gun was discharged. The charge entered the woman's brain, 

 instantly killing her. The telegraphic message announcing 

 the fact was awaiting the husband on his arrival in the city. 

 It was a fearful price to pay for learning the fatuity of leav- 

 ing a loaded gun in a closet with children's toys. 



Fires in the National Park. — A press dispatch of 

 Aug. 32 reports that Judge Payson, of Illinois, was arrested 

 in the National Park for abandoning a camp without ex- 

 tinguishing the fire, and was fined, but resisted the payment, 

 on the ground that the Wyoming justice who imposed ifc had 

 no jurisdiction. The report adds that the justice finally 

 "backed down," and the judge set out for home breathing- 

 vengeance. The report is evidently a one-sided and sensa- 

 tioual account of the affair, and before commenting on it we 

 shall await authentic advices from the Park. 



The American Forestry Congress.-— The fourth 

 annual meeting of the American Forestry Congress will be 

 held in Horticultural Hall, Boston, beginning on Sept. 23, 

 under the auspices of the Massachusetts Horticultural Society, 

 in conjunction with the New England Agricultural Society, 

 the Massachusetts Board of Agriculture, and the Society for 

 the Promotion of Agriculture. 



