Forest and Stream 



A Weekly Journal of the Rod and Gun. 



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

 Six Months, $2. f 



NEW YORK, JUNE 3, 1886. 



I VOL. XXVI.-No. 19. 



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



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CONTENTS. 



Editorial. 



The Condition of the Cup Races. 



Waking Up at Last. 



Abolish Spring Shooting. 



Common Sense Game Clubs. 

 The Sportsman Tourist. 



Rocky Mountain Resorts. 



A Carberry Deer Hunt. 



Days With" the Barmecide Club. 

 Natural History. 



Friendly Criticisms. 



Florida Mocking Birds. 

 Game Bag and Gek. 



The Elusive Blue Grouse. — I. 



Wildfowl of Western Waters. 



East Hampton Game Club. 

 Sea and River Fishing. 



Oamps of the Kingfishers.— xiy. 



New England Trout Waters. 



Julio T. Buel. 



Fishoulture. 



Protecting N. Y. Oyster Beds. 

 The Kennel. 



Wilkesbarre Dog Show. 



Pacific Coast Derby. 



Dog Show Secretaries. 



Kennel Notes. 

 Rifle and Trap Shootino. 



The National Rifle Club. 



Range and Gallery. 



The Trap. 

 Canoeing. 



Canoes and Sailing Boats. 



Pittsburgh C. C. Opening. 



The Royal C. C— Hendon Lake. 

 Yachting. 



The Loss of the Oona. 



Trial Trips of tbe New Yachts. 



Decoration Day. 

 Answers to Correspondents. 



COMMON SENSE GAME CLUBS. 



ATTENTION has been called to the success attending 

 the formation and maintenance of game clubs which 

 lease the shooting privileges of tracts of land. The system 

 is one which is found to work well, and it offers a solution 

 of the vexed problem of local game conservation. The 

 form of organization may be very simple, little machinery 

 is required. The results attained are more satisfactory than 

 those attending any other form of game protective effort, 

 aside from the actual possession of the protected territory. 



One such organization is the Middlesex County Associa- 

 tion, with headquarters at Middleton, Conn. This society, 

 which has been described at length in these columns, has 

 steadily won its way in the respect of the community, and 

 has accomplished much in creating and fostering a general 

 regard for game laws and the principles of game protection. 

 Its membership is open to reputable persons of 18 years 

 of age and over, the annual dues are small, and there is a 

 considerable tract of country preserved for the exclusive 

 shooting and angling of. the members. The association has 

 for four or five years devoted some effort to the restocking 

 with trout of streams in the neighborhood, and the im- 

 proved fishing has tended to increase public respect for the 

 principles and practices of the society. 



Elsewhere are printed the rules of the Easthampton Game 

 Club, of Easthampton, Mass., which is now in its third 

 year. The club has acquired exclusive shooting privileges 

 over a number of adjoining farms and tracts of land. On 

 this territory the club maintains signboards warning off 

 trespassers. The signs read : " Hunting or being on these 



grounds for any purpose prohibited. Owner." Each 



member is provided with a card, on one side of which is the 

 membership certificate: "Mr. is a member of the East- 

 hampton Game Club for the year ending Dec. 31, 188—. 



Sect'y." The other side of the card is ruled in 



columns for memoranda of date, number of grouse, wood- 

 cock, quail and gray squirrels killed, and name of owner 

 on whose land the game is taken. Members are required to 

 record all game killed, with the particulars of date and 

 place, and on Jan 1 to report to the treasurer of the club, 

 paying a fee of ten cents for every bird and squirrel killed. 

 The treasurer then in turn pays each landowner for the total 

 amount of game taken on his premises. 



The membership of the club is open to persons above 

 fourteen years of age. The annual dues are $1. Strict 

 compliance with the rule against killing game for the mar- 



ket is exacted. When the club was projected, it naturally 

 incurred the opposition of the market gunners, who had 

 pretty well cleaned out the game of the vicinity; and it was 

 also looked on with disfavor by some of the local sportsmen, 

 who resented the notion of having their free range restricted. 

 The market gunners the club could well afford to displease 

 and oppose; the others have subsequently seen the excellent 

 working of the plan and have become members. 



The scheme is thoroughly satisfactory in practice. Game 

 has increased since the new order of things. The members, 

 at slight expense and trouble, have reaped decided rewards. 

 The land owners are more than satisfied. They have been 

 relieved of the invasions of irresponsible gunners, market 

 hunters and hoodlums, who formerly tore down their fences, 

 let down the bars, trampled the fields, and now and then 

 left a charge of shot in a cow or horse. They now rest 

 secure in the assurance that if trespassers invade their fields 

 the offenders will be prosecuted by the club, one of whose 

 committees has this special work in charge. 



The revenue derived from the club members in fees for 

 game killed is inconsiderable, but the freedom from irre- 

 sponsible trespassing gunners is a decided gain, and few cf 

 the farmers now leasing their lands to the club would be 

 willing to go back to the old disorder of things. 



Such organizations should multiply and extend all over 

 the land. There would then be less clashing of interests 

 between farmers and sportsmen; for their interests are in 

 reality identical and should be recognized as such. 



THE CONDITIONS OF THE CUP RACES. 



ON Tuesday last a reply was received by the Cup Com- 

 mittee from Mr. Beavor "Webb, to their letter of April 

 26. Now that the veil of secrecy is finally withdrawn from 

 this important epistle, it is more difficult than ever to under- 

 stand why it could not be made public at once, and what 

 reason there was for surrounding such a simple matter with 

 unnecessary mystery. The substance of it is that the com- 

 mittee decline, to sail a race at Newport, they adhere to the 

 race over the New York Y. C. course; and they decline to 

 accept a mean of the N. Y. Y. C. and Y. R. A. time allow- 

 ance. A concession is made in the second condition, in 

 barring out Flynn's Knoll for the course, as requested by 

 Mr. Beavor Webb last year. 



In regard to the first condition, it was hardly to be ex- 

 pected that the club would consent to sail any of the matches 

 so far from home, as the trouble and expense is considerable 

 even in New York, and would be much greater at Newport. 

 Of course the waters are better there, but to sail the races 

 in August would necessitate holding the trial races 

 at a very early date, and before the four boats have been 

 thoroughly tested, while to go to Newport in September, 

 perhaps for eight or ten days, is manifestly inpracticable. 



In the second condition w T e believe the committee have 

 made a mistake in sacrificing an outside race over a fair 

 course, for the sake of a mere club pageant which in all 

 probability will be unfair to one boat or the other. The 

 concession in regard to Flynn's Knoll is unimportant, 

 the real fact is, as was apparent to every one who saw the 

 final race last year, that no fair race can be guaranteed over 

 such a course, when the importance of the race is so great 

 and the interest in it so general. It is very easy now to 

 promise to prevent interference by outside, boats, but such a 

 fleet as accompanied the race last year is utterly beyond 

 human control, and partakes of the unwieldy nature of a 

 mob in the street. The channel is narrow at the best for a 

 duel between two big boats, one drawing 13ft., and with 

 hundreds of steam and sailing craft rushing about as they 

 please, no open course can be guaranteed, and a carelessly 

 handled tus; or lumbering coaster may put a sudden end to 

 the race. Of course, under the deed of gift, the club has 

 the right to sail one race only over this course, but it does 

 not follow that, under the peculiar conditions of this race, 

 such a proceeding is in a true sporting spirit. The Eastern 

 yachtsmen would prefer an outside course, as fairer to both 

 competitors. 



As to time allowance, it was not to be expected that the 

 committee would accept a rule which, like the Y. R. A., is 

 really based on the assumption that Puritan, for instance, is 

 22ft. 7in. wide, and lift. 3in. deep, while Galatea is 15ft. 

 wide, and 7ft. 6in. deep, which is virtually what the rule 

 does, making Puritan 140 tons compared with Galatea's 90. 

 Were the rule different and less severe on the wide boat it 

 would be a fair proposal to average it with the N. Y. rule, 

 but under the circumstances their decision cannot be ques- 

 tioned. Jn his reply Mr. Beavor Webb suggests that the 



actual sail area be taken, in place of the approximate re- 

 sult, and there seems no reason why this should not be done 

 as being really a fairer method. As we have not the actual 

 sail area of Galatea it is impossible to tell just what the dif- 

 ference would be, but the method commends itself as a more 

 accurate one and better suited to gauge the contestants in 

 such an important race. 



ABOLISH SPRING SHOOTING. 

 O OMETIMES trifling indications may give us a notion of 

 ^ how a law works, and a word or two from a distant 

 locality may awaken a train of reflection, which will teach a 

 valuable lesson. Such a lesson comes to us in a line or two 

 from a correspondent in Long Island, who tells us that the 

 beach birds have not for years been so abundant there as this 

 spring, and that some of the larger species are even breeding 

 there. 



The reason for this is obvious. The law forbidding the 

 killing of these birds in spring is said to have been pretty 

 generally respected in most localities. The birds when they 

 reached Long Island shores were not at once pursued with 

 shotgun and driven away. Finding quiet spots where food 

 was plenty, they have lingered and have become very gentle. 

 No doubt some of them will breed, and as a result the beach- 

 bird shooting in August and September will be better than 

 it has been for years. Every State in the Union ought to 

 pass a law forbidding the shooting of birds of any kind after 

 the first of J anuary. 



To match the line from Long Island comes word from a 

 correspondent in the lake region of Minnesota that the red- 

 heads and bluebilJs are nesting in good numbers there this 

 spring, and that the chicken crop promises to be good. If 

 people can only be induced to protect birds of all kinds in 

 spring, and to make the shooting season short, a beneficent 

 Nature will fill up the gaps made by the sportsman in the 

 ranks of the game birds, and he will have shooting— good 

 shooting — for all time. But the carnival of wasteful 

 destruction which has been going on for so long must cease, 

 and men must learn to enjoy in moderation the good things 

 which the wood and the waters provide. 



WAKING UP AT LAST. 



HPHE project to permit a railway to run through the Yel- 

 lowstone National Park has been before the people for 

 several months. It has been the subject of investigations 

 before several committees of Congress, whose reports have 

 been published and are accessible to the public. Many of these 

 documents have been printed in Forest and Stream, and 

 have been duly commented on. Up to the present time, how- 

 ever, the great daily papers have had hardly a word to say 

 on the subject. Within the past few days the New York 

 Herald and Times have each spoken about the railroad, the 

 Herald having had a column despatch from Washington, 

 made up from the minority report of the Senate committee 

 on territories, published in these columns three weeks ago. 

 The following day the Times published an editorial called 

 out by the Herald despatch, in which the railroad project 

 was denounced as a job, and the strength of the lobby which 

 is working for it was pointedly referred to. Both of these 

 articles take the right side of the question, and we trust that 

 although the interest which is displayed is rather late in 

 manifesting itself, it may not be without its effect. 



The statement that two roads are being surveyed to the 

 Clark's Fork mines, neither of which roads will infringe 

 upon the Park, is true, but the surveys are not being con- 

 ducted by the Northern Pacific R. R., though, if the roads 

 are built, it may be done by that corporation. 



The National Rifle Club Meet at Vernon, Vt., last 

 week, was a most enjoyable aff ait for the veterans who form 

 what deserves to be called the old guard of muzzle shooters. 

 In our rifle columns will be found a very full and an appre- 

 ciative account of the meeting. The presence and participa- 

 tion of some of the representatives of the modern breech- 

 loading rifle added zest to the competition. 



Tbe Didn't-Know-It-Was-Loaded Genius is regularly 

 reported in the daily papers, playing his (or her) usual pranks 

 with rifle, shotgun and pistol, which are usually loaded just 

 enough to kill the unfortunate victim of this fatal idiotic 

 playfulness. 



The National Sportsmen's Association will convene 

 at Chicago next Tuesday in its first annual gathering. 



