Forest and Stream. 





A Weekly Journal of the Rod and Gun. 





Terms, $4 a Year. 10 Cts. a Copy. 1 

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NEW YORK, APRIL 8, 1886. 



j VOL. XXVI.-Nb. 11. 



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



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CONTENTS. 



Editorial. 



The Deer Hounding Bill. 



.Railroad Routes to Cooue. 



'Canaoian Salmon Rivers. 

 IJThe Sportsman Tourist. 



Siens of Spring. 



Notes from Key West. 

 JSatural History. 



The Audnboti Society. 



Wild Celery. 



Hawks and Game Birds. 

 Game Bag and okjn. 



Our T.-ajectory Trials. 



A Turkey an d Chicken Shoot. 



A. Study of Bullets. 



Deer Hounding. 



Management of Muzzleleading 

 Rifles. 



Sprrng Wildfowl. 



Another Cluo Constitution. 

 Sea and River Fishing. 



Casting 1 tne Fly. 



Hints on Bass Angling. 



Rangelev Lake Large Trout. 



The Trout of Sunapee Lake. 



Sea and River Fishing. 



A Troui Angler's First Salmon. 



D atb of Ira Wood. 

 Fishoflture. 



Restocking with Salmon. 

 The Kennel 



The New H^ven Show. 



The Boston Show. 



Kennel No;es. 



Kennel Management. 

 Rifle and Trap shooting. 



Our Militia Marksmen. 



Sir Henry St. John Halford. 



Range and Gallery. 



Tbe Trap. 

 Canoeing. 



A Word for the Waters of the 

 Toothpick Soate. 



A C A. Members and A. C. A. 

 Matters. 

 Yachting. 



Lake Ontario Yachting. 



Collapse of the Cutter Boom. 

 Ankwbrr to Oorresponubnts. 

 Publishers' Department. 



TEE A UD UBON SOCIETY. 

 P"pHE interest in the movement to put an end to the 

 slaughter of song and insectivorous birds is increasing 

 •every day, and the work is constantly gaining momentum. 

 Local secretaries have been appointed in many cities and 

 towns, and the membership is already large. The plan of 

 effort is very simple. There are no elaborate forms of local 

 organization to cumber and hamper. The Society seeks to 

 accomplish its end by moral suasion and the creation of 

 right sentiment. It does not work in a roundabout way. 



The hearty enthusiasm with which the plan of the Audu- 

 bon Society has already been received and the activity 

 displayed by friends of the birds in different localities give 

 abundant promise of the achievements sure to follow the 

 •efforts now put forth. The extent of the evil sought to be 

 remedied is of such startling magnitude that the bare state- 

 ment of the actu 1 facts is sufficient to command attention 

 ^to the movement and win approval of the methods adopted. 

 After a vexatious delay the' ceitificates of membership are 

 almost ready to be issued. 



Circulars of information and pledge forms will be fur- 

 nished upon application. As the ultimate success of the 

 ■Society will depend largely upon the extent of its member- 

 ship, it is hoped that every reader of the Pokest and 

 Stream who i3 concerned for the welfare of our birds, may 

 actively co-operate in the effort and either act as a local 

 •'secretary or bring the matter to the attention of some one 

 •else who will. 



THE DEER HOUNDING BILL. 

 ^TPHE Senate Committee on Game Laws favorably reported 

 the bill to repeal the non-hounding deer law, and the 

 measure was made a special order for yesterday ; owing to 

 the protracted discussion of other bills, however, it was not 

 reached. It will probably be voted upon this week. 



The full text of the bill is given in another column. The 

 Senate Committee amended the hounding clause so that the 

 season contemplated will be from Sept. 1 to Oct. 5. A fort- 

 night more or less of lawful season will make little practical 

 difference. If hounding be permitted for a month only, that 

 will mean the maintenance of deer dogs all the year through 

 to kill deer at all seasons. Nothing short of absolute pro- 

 hibition of hounding will secure for the game the protection 



essential to its conservancy. It is only a question between 

 deer and dogs. 



Tbe provisions against marketing venison are plausible, 

 but the good to be achieved by them is purely imaginary. 

 Venison hounded in September and October is not fit to 

 market. So long as the law permits city "sportsmen" to 

 water-butcher deer in September and leave the carcasses to 

 rot in the woods, legislation against market-hunting is fool- 

 ishness. 



In like manner the shortening of the season is only a 

 pretext. The number of deer saved by this provision will 

 amount to nothing compared with the numbers destroyed by 

 the hounds. These clauses are offered by the hounders only 

 with the deliberate intent to mislead the Legislature if it is 

 in earnest in its purpose to properly protect the game, or to 

 furnish it an excuse if it is more eager to heed the clamor of 

 the water-butchers than to consult the true interests of the 

 community. The real purpose of these agitators is not to 

 secure any better protection for Adirondack deer. They are 

 eager only to gain permission to pursue their own selfisli 

 sport, to be let alone in their indecent scramble for the game 

 while it lasts, and to enjoy their brief term of hounding and 

 exterminating. 



CANADIAN SALMON RIVERS. 

 T^HE transfer of the salmon rivers from the Dominion, or 

 general, to the Provincial, or State, governments, has 

 proved very unfortunate as regards their protection and 

 improvement. A gentleman residing in the Dominion, and 

 who is exceptionally well posted in this matter, tells us that, 

 with the exception of such streams as have fallen within the 

 private control of moneyed men, chiefly Americans, the 

 rivers are rapidly deteriorating. The local, or provincial, 

 authorities confine their efforts to collecting rents from 

 them, without making any adequate provision for their pro- 

 tection and guardianship. In fact, their limited funds will 

 not allow them to do this. At various times we have heard 

 reports that in consequence of this state of things all the 

 old and destructive practices are reviving with marvelous 

 rapidity with fatal effects. 



We remember that this is just what Mr. W. P. Whitcher, 

 late Commissioner of Fisheries of the Dominion, predicted 

 would follow the changes made by the Hon. A. "W. McLean, 

 late Minister of Marine and Fisheries, who turned a deaf ear 

 to all the suggestions of Mr. Whitcher, who was perfectly 

 familiar with all the facts, and had labored to build up the 

 system of protection which worked so well under his foster- 

 ing care. Mr. McLean let slip tbe command of the resources 

 from the rivers, and to this may be attributed their decline. 

 This is much to be regretted, but whether it is past remedy 

 by legislation or not, we cannot say. Certain it is that with 

 the exception of a few rivers which are under private con- 

 trol, the salmon streams of Canada are failing fast. 



Spring Shooting is now in order wherever the wildfowl 

 can be intercepted on their way to the northern breeding 

 grounds. One by one the different States are coming to see 

 the folly of permitting the untimely destruction of breeding 

 creatures. The New York law forbids snipe shooting on 

 Long Island ; the same prohibition ought to hold all along 

 the Atlantic coast and on all inland waters. It was hoped 

 tbat the new Ontario law might stop spring shooting, but 

 it did not. 



No Soul in It.— The daily press reporter who is detailed 

 to write up the "opening of the trout season" may make a 

 readable story of it, and pack it full of information; but did 

 you never note that there is no soul in such an article? 

 For the true afflatus one must write of angling eon amove; 

 and a simple bit of actual experience told in plainest words 

 by an angler is worth more than all the gaudy rhetoric of 

 the space-writer. 



Bears. — Harper's Weekly of April 3, has a page of illus- 

 trations of the Central Park bear pit, the pride and glory of 

 which are the Forest and Stream's grizzly cubs. The 

 bears and their fame are growing daily; iron bars contain 

 the one, but a continent's range is limit all too pent for tbe 

 expansion of the other. 



In A Nutshell. — "I've had lots of fun in the Adirou- 

 dacks myself, and when my boy is old enough I want him 

 to have some deer hunting there, too. That's why I'm op- 

 posed to the repeal of the anti-hounding law." This was 

 said to us by a Syracuse gentleman last week. It states the 

 whole case in two sentences. 



RAILROAD ROUTES TO COOKE. 

 T^HE results sure to follow the building of a railway in the 

 Yellowstone National Park will be most disastrous to 

 that reservation. On this point there is but one opinion 

 among those who are familiar with the region, and whose 

 knowledge best qualifies them to pass judgment on the sub- 

 ject. The Park has been set apart as a pleasure ground for 

 the people, and to devote any part of it to commercial pur- 

 poses at this time will be to do a grievous injustice to all for 

 the benefit of a few. 



We have more than once pointed out the evils which 

 would follow the construction of any railroad within the 

 Park, and have shown bow it would neutralize all the bene- 

 fits which are certain to follow tbe wise action of Congress in 

 setting aside the reservation, and the efforts which have of late 

 years been made in the direction of a proper conservancy of 

 this wonderful region. The inestimable economic importance 

 of the forests about the headwaters of the Yellowstone and 

 Snake rivers, the popular aud scientific interest in the preser- 

 vation of the various species of wild animals and of the natural 

 curiosities of the region have been sufficiently insisted on, 

 and are generally understood. Tbey furnish the strongest 

 possible reasons against the building of a railroad in the 

 Park. 



On the other hand we have the urgent demands of certain 

 mine owners, interested in the development of a mineral 

 region, situated in the mountains, in which rise Soda Butte 

 Creek, Clark's Fork, and Stillwater Creek, for a railroad 

 which shall enable them to bring their ore to a point where 

 it can be reduced at comparatively small expense. These 

 mine owners assert that a line up the Yellowstone, the East 

 Fork and Soda Butte Creek is the only one practicable for a 

 railroad. We have already shown that such a route presents 

 enormous engineering difficulties, and have the testimony of 

 reliable engineers to prove that there are other routes running 

 up the streams which flow down the eastern slope of the 

 range which present fewer difficulties of construction, lighter 

 grades and less rock work and which do not infringe upon 

 the territory set apart by Congress for the people's pleasure. 

 Cooke City is not, as it is supposed by many, the center of 

 this mining camp. It is on the extreme southern border of 

 a mineral region, which extends about fifteen miles to the 

 north and northeast. The only mines of any importance 

 near to the town are the Great Republic and the Iron Clad,' 

 early discoveries of the region. The natural center of this 

 district is some miles east of Cooke, in a little park on the 

 head of Clark's Fork, a basin through which passes all the 

 traffic from the east to Cooke and to the mines at the foot 

 of Henderson Mountain. From this little park there are 

 practicable wagon routes to nearly all the mines in the 

 district. 



There are three possible ways for a railroad from the 

 Northern Pacific to the Clark's Fork mines, none of them 

 crossing any portion of the National Park. These are (1) 

 from Billings up Clark's Fork ; (2) from Park City up Clark's, 

 and then up Rocky Fork to a point near its head, thence 

 across by a tunnel to Bear Tooth Creek to its head, thence 

 across to Davies' Ranch and up Clark's Fork, and (3) from 

 the mouth of the Stillwater up that stream to a point three 

 miles above the upper west fork, where a considerable 

 group of mines have been located. These routes have 

 not been made the subject of detailed railroad surveys, 

 but each of them has been carefully gone over by a civil 

 engineer with a view to the possible construction of a 

 railroad, and each one of them is pronounced perfectly 

 practicable. 



■ The Stillwater route is about the same length as the Cin- 

 nabar and Clark's Fork; but it is an easier one, and, as we 

 have already shown, entails but little heavy work. The 

 Clark's Fork route is longer, and there is but one difficult 

 piece of work on it. This is at the canon. By commencing 

 to climb the hill some distance before the caiion is reached, 

 however, it is practicable to reach a point some three hun- 

 dred feet above the water and above the canon, where a road- 

 bed could be built along a steeply sloping, grassy hillside, 

 which further up the stream runs into a fiat bench. From 

 this point to the head of the river there appears to be no 

 difficulty in building a roadbed. About the Rocky Fork route 

 less is known. 



If there is any practicable way for a railroad to the Cooke 

 City mines without infringing on the Park, Congress has no 

 business to grant permission for a tie to be laid within that 

 reservation. Tbat such routes do exist on the eastern slope 

 of the range can be easily shown, and until the most search- 

 ing investigation has demonstrated their impracticability, 

 Congress should refuse even to consider the proposition to 

 lay rails within the Park. 



