Forest and Stream 



A* Weekly Journal of the Rod and Gun. 



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

 Six Months, $2. f 



NEW YORK, JUNE 24, 1886. 



j VOL. XXVI —No. 22. 



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



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Forest and Stream Publishing do. 

 Nos. 39 and 40 Park Row. New York City. 



CONTENTS. 



Editorial. 



Song Birds and Statistics. 



The Crow Reserve. 



Sustain the Prize List. 



The Park Railroad Job. 

 The Sportsman Tourist. 



Days With the Barmecide Club. 

 Natural History. 



The Fisher. 



Additions to California Avi- 

 fauna. 



Inoculation for Snake Bite. 



Bear and Moose Queries. 



Bird Notes. 

 Game Bag and Gun. 



In Ihe Old Backwoods. 



Another Breechloader. 



'•Jumping Deer." 



A California Outing. 



Montana's Cattle Kings. 

 Sea and River Fishing. 



Ondawa (Poem). 



Camps of the Kirgfishers. 



Among the Alders. 



Quebec Fishery Laws. 



Minneso'a Trout Streams. 



Salmon Fishing. 



Sea and River Fishing. 

 Land- Locked Salmon. 

 Prospect Lake. 

 Maine Angling. 

 Trouting iu the Northwest. 

 English Fly-Casting. 



FlSHCULTURE, 



Salmon in the Hudson. 

 The Kennel. 



Parasitic Diseases of Dogs. 



Kennel Notes. 

 Rifle and Trap Shooting. 



Range and CJallerv. 



Massachusetts Rifle Association. 



The Trap. 



The Leavenworth Tournament. 



Yachting. 

 Cruise of the Coot. 

 Dorchester Regatta. 

 Hull Y. C. Regatta. 

 New York Y C. Regatta. 

 Seawanhaka C. Y. C. Regatta. 



Canoeing. 

 Hudson River Meet- 

 New Nautilus and Pearl. 



Publications Received. 



answers to Correspondents. 



THE CEO W RESERVE. 



IN reply to the Forest and Stream's charge that the 

 Crow Indian reservation has been captured by the cat- 

 tlemen, the Interior Department, through Commissioner At- 

 kins, has given out an explanation and a denial. The ex- 

 planation, as reported in the New York Times, and copied 

 elsewhere, is in effect a corroboration of the statements made 

 by us. The department explains that leases may lawfully 

 be made; but it appears from Commissioner Atkins's own 

 showing that no single one of the cattlemen, whose herds 

 now cover the reserve, has a lease or any warrant whatever 

 for the occupation. They are, therefore, all trespassers, and 

 should without delay be ejected. The sheep man Barry, who, 

 after dickering with the department without driving a bar- 

 gain, put his sheep on the reserve and paid nothing, is only 

 one of a class of defiant trespassers, who infest the reserva- 

 tion "without a shadow of right." 



Having thus shown the condition of affairs on the Crow 

 reserve to be fully as bad as or worse than that described in 

 these columns, the department expresses a touching con- 

 fidence in its agent and denies the truth of the charges of the 

 Forest and Stream, "basing this denial on a thorough 

 knowledge of bis [the agent's] probity, and a lack of any 

 accurate information, etc." — a somewhat extraordinary basis. 



The confidence in the Crow agent's probity is good 

 enough so far as it goes, but it is to be hoped that the de- 

 partment will supplement this by securing the accurate infor- 

 mation without which it cannot properly remedy the abuses 

 complained of. We again urge the Secretary of the Interior 

 to make a searching investigation of the condition of affairs 

 in the Crow reserve. Eightly conducted, such an inquiry 

 will show the truth of the Forest and Stream's charges — 

 that the choice lands of the reservation have been taken by the 

 cattlemen, who are now practically in control of the reserve, 

 and by the construction of permanent improvements are pre- 

 paring to maintain their hold in the future; that the Indians 

 do not receive proper compensation for the privileges ac- 

 corded, are not justly treated, do not acquiesce in the taking 

 of their lands, and are in part deceived as to the actual con- 

 dition of affairs. When the department's confidence in its 

 agent is complemented or supplanted by accurate information 

 on these points, we trust that prompt official action may fol- 



low, and the cattlemen may have reason to give over their 

 boast that they have the Crow reserve in their power. 



THE PARK RAILROAD JOB. 



THE bill to grant a right of way to the Cinnabar & Clark's 

 Fork Eailroad Company through the Yellowstone 

 National Park came up in the Senate last Monday, on motion 

 of Mr. Butler, of South Carolina, the champion of the rail- 

 road schemers. Mr. Vest made a strong speech in opposition 

 to the bill. "He denied that the road was intended in good 

 faith to reach mining property. Why had not at least a pre- 

 liminary survey been made? He would not appeal to men 

 who thought the Mammoth Cave and Niagara Falls should 

 be transferred to commercial use, or that the Great Geysers 

 should be devoted to laundry purposes and dished out 

 to Chinamen for dirty linen. But he would ap- 

 peal to Senators to preserve at least one spot of 

 beauty from the rack and roar of commerce and the 

 greed and avarice of selfish men. The railroad company's 

 object was not to get to a mine but to carry passengers to 

 and through the. .Park. The construction of this road, Mr. 

 Vest asserted, would be the destruction of the Yellowstone 

 Park. A former officer of the Interior Department had 

 haunted the Senate in the interest of this bill. Some sug- 

 gestions had been made to the effect that Mr. Vest and other 

 Senators who opposed tbis bill were the tools of the North- 

 ern Pacific Railroad Company. Any statement of that kind 

 was utterly and infamously false. No man connected with 

 that company had ever dared to approach Mr. Vest on the 

 subject. If the Northern Pacific Railroad Company had 

 any interest whatever in the matter it was that a road 

 through the Park should be built, as it would form a branch 

 of that road." 

 The question went over for a future consideration. 



SONG BIRDS AND STATISTICS. 



A CINCINNATI gentleman has been entertaining the 

 Society of Natural History of that city with some 

 statistics to prove, theoretically, that the possible destruction 

 of song birds by milliners' agents and other wholesale bird 

 hunters can have no appreciable effect upon the grand sum 

 total of the birds, which for the three Americas he puts at 

 3,000,000,000, including all the feathered species. His con- 

 clusions are (1) that the great bulk of millinery feather goods 

 are from other than song birds; (2) that song birds are in 

 little demand because of their plain plumage; (3) that the 

 birds of brilliant plumage utilized by the miliners are of 

 South American and other foreign origin; (4) that the 

 destruction of harmful species compensates for that of useful 

 species; (5) that even if all the birds so destroyed were song 

 birds, the reduction in numbers from this cause would still 

 be inappreciable in its effects on the fauna of the country at 

 large. 



Figures may, under skilful manipulation, be made to prove 

 anything. But no manipulation of figures in the millions 

 and billions can restore to the gardens and orchards and 

 meadows and pastures and woods the birds which have 

 been destroyed to adorn women's headgear. No arithmeti- 

 cian with his addition, multiplication and progression can 

 help the people of this country to see birds where there are 

 no birds. Figure as one may, the incontrovertible fact re- 

 mains that the song birds have been destroyed in such vast 

 numbers that the effect is appreciable; it has been seen and 

 lamented by men and women in widely separated localities. 

 There is no imagination about it. Those who have under- 

 taken the task of awakening public sentiment to make an 

 end of the song bird slaughter are not engaged in combating 

 an imaginary evil. They are contending against a folly 

 whose actual material evil results are perfectly plain to 

 every one whose gaze is not confined to theoretical expan- 

 sions of the multiplication table. 



The First Ten Thousand Roll of Audubon Society 

 members will be reached and passed this month. New mem- 

 bers are enrolling at the rate of a thousand a week. That 

 means that the song bird feathers have had their day as hat 

 decorations. Ten thousand — and by and by there will be 

 tens of thousands— of people who think alike on such a topic 

 must have an influence on the sentiment of the day. 



Quail in the Hay Field. — If there are quail in the hay 

 fields, instead of driving the mower over the nests or the 

 young broods, put the dogs in to locate the birds, mark the 

 spot, and when the team reaches it turn the horses' heads to 

 one side. We suggested the plan last year. It was tried 

 with success. It is a Jittle trouble, but it may save the birds. 



SUSTAIN THE PRIZE LIST. 

 ^T^HE officers of the National Rifle Association contem- 

 plate the preparation of a circular addressed to the 

 public and asking for the establishment by wealthy citizens 

 of prizes and challenge trophies. Wimbledon has scores of 

 such gifts placed at the disposal of the managing council, 

 and in this way records are kept up and certain trophies 

 carry with their possession a championship in this or that 

 style of shooting. In this way rivalry is kept bright and 

 active, and those in control of the meeting feel encouraged 

 and able to offer large added prize lists in money to each of 

 the matches. 



Creedmoor needs something of the same sort. It has had 

 such trophies in the past, and they have helped very much 

 in keeping up the interest in the art. Tne Army and Navy 

 Journal Cup was such. The Hilton shield of to-day is 

 another example of how popular such a prize may become 

 and how much good it may do. 



Gen. G. W. Wingate, the heat . of the Association, in talk- 

 ing recently on this subject, arter speaking of the necessity 

 of keeping up the militia to a state of efficiency as shots, said : 

 "But in order to keep up this skill and bring it to the highest 

 state of efficiency possible we must have competition and 

 emulation, and in order to do this we must have prizes. The 

 prizes given at Wimbledon are to a very large extent con- 

 tributed by public spirited citizens, and are of such value as 

 to make their acquisition an object for the volunteers. It is 

 necessary that prizes going over from match to match be 

 provided if these matches are to be continued. The Associ- 

 ation cannot afford to provide them. What we want is some 

 suitable trophy which can be contended for by teams from 

 different organizations, and not held finally till won three 

 times. Such a course would make the .teams more ambitious 

 and would insure a higher degree of skill among the marks- 

 men." 



This is exactly the pressing want of rifle practice to-day. 

 It is hardly reasonable to expect militia marksmen to go out 

 and give of their time and money without some incentive. 

 The public has a direct interest in having the shooting 

 ability kept up, and the rich class of citizens perhaps more 

 than others, and it is but fair that trophies, prizes, gifts, etc., 

 be offered, so that when victory does follow effort the win- 

 ning guardsmen or team may have something to show as an 

 emblem of that success. 



We have faith that, if this matter is put strongly and 

 clearly before the public, there will be a prompt and 

 satisfactory response from many quarters, and, the system 

 having been established and its good results shown, there 

 will then be a steady and liberal support to the work 

 which for a dozen years past the National Rifle Association 

 has been courageously carrying on. 



The Six-inch Trout Law.— Several States have a clause 

 in their fish laws forbidding the taking of trout under six 

 inches in length. The provision is a most wholesome restric- 

 tion on the unreasonable and foolish destruction of finger- 

 lings. The line between trout fit to basket and trout unfit must 

 be drawn somewhere, and the limit of six inches is none too 

 small. The New York law did have such a clause, but the 

 stupid politicians in the .last Legislature did away with it . 

 The markets are now open for the reception of the fry; and 

 Mr. John D. Collins, secretary of the Utica Fish and Game 

 Protective Association, tells that bushels of little trout 

 taken in the headwaters of streams are shipped to New York, 

 Philadelphia and Boston markets. This is not very encour- 

 aging to the public-spirited persons who have contributed 

 time aiid money in efforts to restock the depleted streams of 

 the State. 



New York County Supervisors. — The county super- 

 ors iu New York have authority to add to the protection 

 of game and fish, but no authority to take from it. They 

 may increase the close season on any species; they may not 

 shorten it. The Rockland county supervisors have voted to 

 open the woodcock season July 1. This they cannot do. 

 The State law provides that the season shall open August 1 ; 

 persons who shoot woodcock in Rockland county before that 

 date will be just as much liable to a penalty as if the super- 

 visors had taken no action ; the unauthorized step of the 

 supervisors will excuse no one. 



Club Rules. — We have frequent calls for copies of club 

 rules, by-laws and constitutions. Secretaries of gun clubs, 

 angling clubs and game protective associations will oblige us 

 by sending spare copies of their printed rules, that these may 

 be in turn sent to organizers of new dubs. 



