Forest and Stream 



A Weekly Journal of the Rod and Gun. 



Terms, $4 a Yeab. 10 Cts. a Copy. | 

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NEW YORK, DECEMBER 24, 188B. 



j VOL. XXV.— No. 23. 



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



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Forest and Stream Pabllahlng Oo. 

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CONTENTS. 



KorroRiAi,. 



Charging Military Amis. 



To Protect Exotic Species. 



To the Walled-In Lakes.— iii. 

 The Sportsman TomusT. 



Marooned on Eoncador. 



Shiftless Bill. 



Camp Flotsam —svi. 



The Devil Fisii of E^tero Bay. 



In the Forests of New Bruns- 

 wick.— iv. 



A Struggle with a Buck. 



Nights with the Grizzlies, 

 NATmiAL History. 



The A. O. U. Check List. 



Protection of North American 

 Birds. 

 Qamk Bag and Gun. 



The "Forest and Stream" Tra- 

 jeclory Test. 



The Lyman Sight for Deer 

 Huniing. 



S£A AND River FisHiNe. 

 The Rod and Reel Association. 

 Pictures in the Fire. 



FlSHOtTLTURE. 



A Valuable Site for a Hatcherv. 

 The Kennel. 



The National Field Trials. 



The American Kennel Club. 



Kennel Notes. 



Kennel Management. 

 RnriiE AND Trap Shootiks. 



Range and Gallery. 



The Trap. 

 Canoeing. 



Wide or Narrow Canoesr 



Oanoeing Notes. 

 Yachting. 



Cruise of the Coot— t. 



Ice Yachts. 



The Use of Oil at Sea. 



Boston Notes. 

 Answers to Correspondents. 



TO PROTECT EXOTIC SPECIES. 



A FEW weeks since we suggested a. i)lan for stocking 

 the east end of Long Island with deer, a project 

 which we regard as entirely feasible. It is evident that 

 measures of this kind are necessary, if we are to con- 

 tinue to have any large game within easy reach of the great 

 centers of the East. 



It is apparent that our supply of native game must, as 

 things are going at present, soon disappear. Two courses 

 are open to us to check its rapid diminution. These are (1) 

 a shortening of the open season and a proper enforcement 

 of the laws, and (-^J) the restocking of suitable localities with 

 game which is adapted to them. 



Any shortening of the open season is violently opposed by 

 many men, who call themselves sportsmen, but who are 

 unwilling, for the general good, to give up any part of the 

 pleasure which they take afield. They are so short-sighted 

 that they cannot see the inevitable result of the present 

 unfortunate methods in general practice, and so they con- 

 tinue to advocate the spring shooting of snipe and wildfowl, 

 the summer shooting of woodcock, the water-killing of deer, 

 and other Mke abom inations. For a number of reasons, the 

 attempts to enforce the laws are far less successful than 

 could be wished. The laws themselves are often faulty. Many 

 of the State officials appointed for the purpose fail to do 

 their duty, and the ignorance and opposition of large classes, 

 among which these offlcials have to work, is a serious bar to 

 success. 



The restocking of our covers has here and there been 

 attempted in a desultory and spasmodic way by individuals. 

 It has become quite a common practice to turn out quail in 

 various localities, and what has been done in this way has 

 resulted in very great benefit to certain shooting grounds, 

 liut to have any permanent value, such work should be 

 undertaken on a far larger scale tlian has yet been attempted. 

 In many localities here in the East large tracts of country are 

 preserved by clubs, who post the lands which they own or 

 hire, and employ men to look after the game. Often the 

 grounds of several such clubs adjoin each other, so that two 

 r three of these organizations may control a tract covering 

 many square miles of territory. In such a case it is for the 

 evident advantage of all that such bodies should unite in the 

 work of restocking their lands, and should undertake it on 

 so large a scale as to make the result of their efEorts a cer- 

 tainty. Thus, in the case of Long Island clubs, quail, Eng- 



lish partridges, pheasants, hares and (if a protective law shall 

 be enacted) deer should be liberated. In New Jersey, quail, 

 English partridges and pheasants will do well. The experi- 

 ment with the English game birds has been so thorouglily 

 tried in the last named State that its success appears no 

 longer doubtful. It has been shown that they will thrive in 

 that climate, but they should be protected so far as is possible 

 from the attacks of vermin, and at first should have some 

 fostering care. 



In the Adirondacks the game supply, while abundant, is 

 not varied. Hares, grouse and deer are the only important 

 game species now found there, for the black bear and the 

 cougar are not sufficiently abundant to afford spoit. In 

 old times two noble species — the moose and the elk— were 

 found there, but the last moose was killed more than twenty 

 years ago, and the elk is known there only by tradition and 

 by the fact that now and then his decaying antlers arc turned 

 up by the plow. There is no reason why both these fpa- 

 cies might not again be made to inhabit their ancient home 

 on the headwaters of the Hudson. The ownership of the 

 land in the Adirondack region is such as to make the protec- 

 tion of specimens of large game turned out there very easy. 

 Large tracts of lands are owned by corporations, many of 

 whom employ, to look after their tracts of forest, men who 

 might also guard the introduced species from danger until 

 they had become established. 



One thing is essential before any attempt at stocldng can 

 hope to be successful. Laws are needed and should be en- 

 acted by all the States for the protection of exotic species of 

 game birds and animals. Such laws should provide penal- 

 ties far more severe than those attaching to the laws for the 

 protection of our native game. Such exotic species and 

 their offspring should be regarded, for a time at least, as 

 private property, and it should be as much an offense to 

 attempt to capture, wound or kill them as to attempt to in. 

 jure the farmer's turkeys or his cows or horses. Such a 

 law is greatly needed at present, and it is to be hoped that 

 there will be no difficulty in getting the Legislatures of some 

 of the States to pass it. 



CHANCING MILITARY ARMS. 

 'T^HERE is, we understand, a very pretty scheme afoot 



looking to some changes in the small arms of the 



United States regtilars and the New York State mihtia. We 

 do not know how extensive the plan is nor how much of 

 the $600,000 set apart by Congress for the militia it is pro- 

 posed to consume in the little piece of legerdemain. 



At present the New York State militia use the Remington 

 .50-caliber gun as the official arm. It is not a desirable one, 

 partly because it was turned off quickly and cheaply at the 

 time of the contract for production, and partly because 

 at this day, in military arms especially, a .oO-caliber weapon 

 is looked upon as too large a bore for accurate work at long 

 ranges. With a picked and tried weapon at 500 yards the 

 Remington State model does fairly well. Above that dis- 

 tance, nobody would try to hit anything. 



The regular army weapon is the Springfield caliber .45, a 

 very handy piece in many respects, but with a great trap- 

 door breech, very unmechanical and antiquated when com- 

 pared with some of the newer makes of rifles. There are 

 now a number of magazine rifles distributed about the vari- 

 ous army posts, and it is the general impression that the 

 single loader "has got to go," and that the coming arm is to 

 be a weapon capable of an instant change from a single 

 loader to a magazine piece. 



It would be a very nice plan indeed if all the small arms 

 now in the hands of regulars could be gathered together, 

 fettled up a bit and then distributed among the militia at a 

 fair valuation. The regular army men could get hold of 

 the Congressional fund, have a new make of long-range, 

 magazine rifle put into the hands of the regulars and every- 

 thing would be lovely. 



In fact, a change is needed in the New York State arm; 

 but let it be made in the direction of progress. The Rem- 

 ington breech action, for a single-loading military arm, is 

 strong enough and simple enough to suit any critic. There 

 are 30,000 of them in the hands of the militia and in State 

 arsenals. Except in very few instances they are in good 

 order, and it would be a very simple matter to fit a new 

 barrel of smaller caliber, perhaps taking the government 

 .45-85-500 cartridge, and in this way the uniformity of cart- 

 ridge could be maintained between the regulars and militia, 

 while the latter would not get one obsolete arm in exchange 

 for another of the same sort. With a board appointed from 

 the National Guard— a board of experts, not a board covered 

 over with gold lace and incompetency—it woidd not take 



long to decide on a barrel, and for sixty or seventy-five 

 thousand dollars the change could be made in every arm now 

 owned by the State. This would be the sensible way 

 Whether it is the plan which Greneral Farnsworth will fol- 

 low remains to be seen. With a shorter barrel, having 

 more metal in it than the present one, a steadier shooting 

 weapon would result; one which the men could take back to 

 long ranges and use in effective target work. 



The Inspector- General of Rifle Practice of this State could 

 readily inform himself touching the tendency of that Spring- 

 field breech action to "stick" and get out of order. At the 

 recent fall meeting at Creedmoor with picked men from 

 among the Engineer Corps, there was constant complaint 

 about the manner in which the Springfield did not do its 

 work. In this regard the Remington is now far ahead of the 

 Regular weapon, and it would seem like inviting trouble to 

 take a lot of old Springflelds for the Remingtons we now 

 have 



If there are any rifles to be sent to the junk heap to appear 

 again bored out as cheap shotguns, let the Springfield go, 

 and for a while, at least, or until something better than the 

 U. S. A. gun is offered, our men will manage to worry along 

 with the amended "gas pipe." 



A Rejectld Holiday Gift. — Our esteemed contempo- 

 rary, the New York Herald, has been sedulously striving 

 for a fortnight past to work up a mad dog scare in New 

 York. A hydrophobia panic was the sort of a Christmas 

 gift it proffered to New York. The proffered gift has been 

 rejected; the public has not gone wild over the terrible con- 

 dition of things pictured in the HeraM's columns; and the 

 only substantial benefits accruing to anybody have been the 

 columns of free advertising given the more or less sapient 

 doctors who have paraded their hydrophobia lore in long- 

 winded interviews. No one appears to have been able to 

 say anything too utterly senseless on this topic for the news- 

 paper to print. If an editor or any other individual should 

 stand on the street corner and raise the cry of mad dog, he 

 would probably excite a commotion, though there might be 

 no mad dog this side of Konstontinogorsk; but columns and 

 pages of a newspaper given up to a false alarm will fall flat. 

 Now it's time to give the mad dogs a rest. 



The Yei^lowstone National Park. — In his annual 

 report, the Secretary of the Interior recommends for the 

 Yellowstone National Park an increased appropriation, the 

 appointment of five additional superintendents, and the 

 establishment of a court within the Park with exclusive juris- 

 diction over all misdemeanors. These recommendations, 

 we do not need to say, are just and sensible, and show that 

 Secretary Lamar appreciates the needs of the reservation. 

 Now that the needs of the Park are understood at Washing- 

 ton, we shall, with increased confidence of ultimate success, 

 urge the speedy revision of legislation and the adoption of 

 better means for the right care of the people's pleasure 

 ground. 



The Forest and Stream's Grizzlies are now on exhi- 

 bition at the menagerie in Central Park, where they welcome 

 visitors with the courtly grace of an older bear when he 

 meets a tenderfoot in the down-timber. We have had sev- 

 eral applications for the cubs; one from an animal tamer 

 who wants to train the grizzlies for the stage. For the pres- 

 ent the bears will remain at the Park. What the ultimate 

 disposition of the bears will be has not yet been decided; it 

 is something about which Forest and Stream will gladly 

 take counsel of its friends. 



Why Should They Interest Themselves?— A late 

 issue of the Albany Jonrnal— the paper once edited by George 

 Dawson—says that the Eastern New York Anglers' Associa- 

 tion wishes to hear from ' 'sporting men" about the fish laws. 

 Why should the Angler's Association care to hear from 

 "sporting men," and for what reason should "sporting men" 

 interest themselves in the fish laws? A correspondent suo-- 

 gests that the Jour ml may have meant "sportsmen," and 

 this is probably the truth. 



A Merry Christmas is the Forest and Stream's 

 Greeting to its thousands of readers; and may each, 

 whether shut in by Northern snow drifts or enjoying the 

 genial glow of the Southern sunlight, find in this number 

 something to add to the enjoyment of the season. 



Our Readers toill confer a favor by sending us fhe name^ 

 of such of their fiiends as are not now among the sv.bseriber 

 of th^ Forest and Stream, hit who wcndd preswnoMy 

 inter esUd in the paper. 



