Forest and Stream 



A Weekly Journal of the Rod and Gun. 



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

 Six Months, $2. j 



NEW YORK, JULY 15, 1886. 



J VOL. XXVl.-No. 25. 



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



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CONTENTS. 



Editorial. 



New York Harbor. 



American Steam Yachts. 



Yellowstone Park Matters. 

 The Sportsman Tourist. 



Two Months Among the Crees. 



Days With the Barmecide Club. 



A Quaint Quarry. 

 Natural Historv. 



The American Association. 



The Audubon Society. 

 Game Bag and Gun. 



Woodcock. 



Foxhounds and Foxes. 

 Hospitable Texas. 

 Southern Hunting Methods. 

 Spring Snipe Shooting. 

 Prairie Chickens. 

 Muzzle vs. Breech. 

 Sea and River Fishing. 

 Light Rods for Sea Fishing. 

 A Maine Angling Tour. 

 Trout in Western North Caro- 

 lina. 



How We Killed A Sunflsh. 



FlSHCVLTURE. 



Oyster Culture. 



Fish Hatching at Laramie. 



The Kennel. 

 Carlo. 



Coon Hunting:. 

 Dogs of the Occident. 

 Kennel Management. 

 Kennel Notes. 

 Rifle and Trap Shooting. 

 Range and Gallery. 

 The Creedmoor Practice. 

 The Springfield Tournament. 

 The Trap. 



St. Hubert Gun Club. 

 Yachting. 

 Corinthian Y. C. 

 Oil-Burning Steam Launches. 

 Look to Your Bobstays. 

 Miranda. 

 Atlantic. 



Harlem Y. C. Regatta. 



NewRochelle Y. C. Regatta. 



Great Head Y. C. Regatta. 



New Bedford Y. C. Regatta. 

 Canoeing. 



Canoeing on Black Creek. 



Royal C. C. Regatta. 



Oakland C. C. Uruise. 



Publications Received. 

 Answers to Correspondents. 



YELLOWSTONE PARK MATTERS. 



IT seems probable that neither Senator Vest's bill for the 

 better government of the Yellowstone Park nor the bill 

 authorizing the building of a railway through the Park will 

 receive the serious attention of Congress during the present 

 session. We shall have to wait with what patience we can 

 for that body to do its plain duty by the people. In the 

 meantime a larger number of people are constantly becom- 

 ing acquainted wilh the needs of the Park, and a wider in- 

 terest is being felt in its proper protection. 



The new hotel company is putting up several buildings at 

 various points of interest, and the Northern Pacific Railroad 

 has purchased, as we announced at the time, the Mammoth 

 Hot Springs Hotel, which has been overhauled and put in 

 good order. 



There seem to be some hitches in the conduct of matters 

 in regard to the hotels. It will be remembered that last 

 spring Ellwood E. Thorne, of New York, purchased for the 

 Northern Pacific R. R. Co. the large hotel at the Hot 

 Springs. This is said to have been turned over to the new 

 corporation afterward formed, called the Yellowstone Park 

 Association, the management of which consists of Mr. 

 Charles Gibson, of St. Louis, and a number of gentlemen 

 •who are interested in the N. P. R. R., the latter corporation 

 being represented by Mr. H. C. Davis, Assistant General 

 Passenger Agent of the road. The present quarrel in the 

 association is not clearly explained by any of the dispatches 

 which we have received. One account is as follows: 



"The new association purchased the present hotels at the 

 lower and upper Geyser Basins, which they refitted and 

 refurnished, opening them on June 15. Mr. Thorne came 

 up from New York three weeks ago to look after the prop- 

 erty and found that the new association had control. Mr. 

 Thorne and President Harris, who are old friends, were 

 together a few days ago and the rumor was current that Mr. 

 Harris backed Thorne in the matter, while General Manager 

 Oakes, Traffic Manager Hannaford and Passenger Agent Pee 

 stood by Gibson and Davis. Mr. Thorne canno t get hold 

 of his property and the case may be carried to the courts for 

 adjustment. Superintendent Wear, of the Park, telegraphed 

 the Secretary of the Interior at Washington to sustain the 



Northern Pacific in the matter, but Mr. Wear received a 

 reply instructing bim to hold himself free from the case." 



NEW YORK-HARBOR. 



NOW that the general government has followed the State 

 of New York in providing for the protection of the 

 harbor of New York city we hope for a return of our game 

 fishes after natural deposits have covered the foul sludge 

 acid which now lines the bottom, or after it has been rend- 

 ered harmless by age. On Monday last the Senate 

 passed Warner Miller's bill to prevent obstructive and injuri- 

 ous deposits within the harbor and adjacent waters of New 

 York city by dumping or otherwise, and to punish and pre- 

 vent such offenses and making other provisions. 



This is a most excellent bill, for it makes the placing, dis- 

 charging or depositing by any process, or in any manner, of 

 refuse, dirt, ashes, cinders, mud, sand, dredgings, sludge 

 acid, or any other matter of any kind other than that flowing 

 from streets, sewers and passing therefrom in a liquid state 

 in the tidal waters of the harbor of New York or its ad- 

 jacent or tributary waters a misdemeanor punishable by a 

 fine of not less than $250 nor more than $2,500 and imprison- 

 ment not less than thirty days nor more than one year or 

 both. The same punishment added to a revocation of license 

 is provided for a vessel towing a load of such prohibited 

 matter. The commissioners of the harbor are to prescribe 

 the limits within which deposits are to be made. 



This bill, aided by the one put through the State Legislature 

 last winter by Mr. Doyle to protect the oyster beds from the 

 evils of dumped refuse and chemicals, will tend to keep the 

 mouth of the Hudson cleaner, and must eventually make it 

 a resort for the species of fish which formerly came 

 into it in great numbers but have abandoned it of 

 late years because of its vile flavor and the absence of food 

 on its sticky bottom. Senator Miller's bill was introduced 

 mainly in the interests of commerce, because of the filling of 

 the channel, but it will interest anglers as well, and we have 

 personal knowledge that the Senator is a lover of the gentle 

 art; though we regret to say he is not sound on game law 

 observance. 



AMERICAN STEAM YACHTS. 



WHILE the main interest this season naturally centers 

 in the large sailing yachts, the steam fleet is by no 

 means neglected, and under the care of the American Y. C. 

 sport is steadily growing. To-day the third annual regatta 

 and cruise of the club begins, with a turnout of yachts that 

 does great credit to this young but powerful organization, 

 and the success of last year is likely to be repeated. A not- 

 able feature of the past winter was the number of steam 

 yachts which were rebuilt and improved. Until a very recent 

 date the American steam yacht of moderate size was more 

 apt to inspire wonder than admiration in the beholder, the 

 chief feature being a total absence of style, and while the 

 standard as yet is not up to the mark, it is far higher, and 

 constantly improving. The American steam yacht fleet leads 

 all others in the possession of the largest vessels, and is un- 

 surpassed in the matter of elegant equipment, but in the 

 medium and smaller classes there is room for a vast improve- 

 ment both in design and in the engineering department. Of 

 skill in design and execution we have plenty, our engineers 

 and meehanics are second to none, and with a demand once 

 manifested for a steam yacht of shipshape proportions and 

 finish, it will be met as quickly and completely as that for a 

 larger class of sailing yachts has been. 



Keels in Light Winds.— The yacht races thus far this 

 season show that we have by no means arrived at the bottom 

 of the keel question as yet, and that the possibilities of this 

 class, unhampered by extreme narrow beam or a pure length 

 rule, are likely to surprise even the most sanguine keel boat 

 advocates. The work of the small keels in Eastern waters 

 is throwing some light on the question, and latest results will 

 bear careful study. At Marblehead on Saturday the two 

 keel cutters, Vera and Mona, beat the centerboard cats 10 

 minutes, in a breeze so fight that the larger classes could not 

 finish. 



The Wimbledon Rifle Meeting opened this week. 

 The prizes aggregate $60,000. That sum will be divided up 

 into small portions by the time it finds its way into the 

 pockets of the winners, for there are scores of contestants. 

 Without a large prize list no range can draw well. Creed- 

 moor ought to be endowed with funds sufficient to warrant 

 an attractive lot of prizes. 



An Act to Amend an Act to Amend an Act to Amend 

 an Act. — Had the last New York Legislature had a week or 

 two more of useful existence it might have added to the rig- 

 marole which introduces some of its laws; perhaps it might 

 even have reconsidered its hounding law. In several in- 

 stances this wise body enacted one law and then set about 

 providing the proper remedy by straightway enacting an- 

 other measure repealing its own act and substituting some- 

 thing else in place. Thus the trout law was taken up for 

 revision, and a particularly stupid bill passed April 13; on 

 May 25 following, the Legislature crawfished out by another 

 bill correcting some of the ignorant blunders in the act of 

 April 13, but perpetrating a gross outrage with respect to 

 the fingerlings. Another piece of double back-action, self- 

 correcting legislation was the black bass law. One bill was 

 passed February 9. This was amended and corrected and 

 patched up by a second piece of tinkering on May 20, which 

 is in the title explained to be 'An act to amend ... an act 

 to amend ... an act to amend ... an act." This is legisla- 

 tion in the fourth degree. It requires long training in the 

 interpretation of complex and intricate verbiage to deter- 

 mine what such patched-up laws actually mean. 



A Righteous Judgment.— A Long Island doctor, who 

 showed his skill with the pistol by shooting a tin can atop 

 the head of a companion, and banged away until he not only 

 riddled the can but killed the man, was last week convicted 

 of manslaughter in the second degree. The lawyer for the 

 defense made the curious plea that the marksman was so ex- 

 pert that he was certain of hitting the mark aimed at, and 

 there was consequently no folly in his shooting as he did. 

 No man in this world is so skilled with firearms and so sure 

 of hitting the mark as to be warranted in shooting at tin cans 

 and apples and potatoes on the head of man or woman or 

 child. In this particular case the fallacy of the defendant's 

 argument was demonstrated by the fact that the bullet in- 

 tended for the can did miss the mark and penetrate instead 

 the brain of the man. There are a number of pistol and 

 rifle shots in this country who give stage exhibitions of their 

 skill by shooting at objects placed on the head of a human 

 being. Every once in a while the papers report a case of 

 death caused by the practice. There are laws enough to 

 forbid such exhibitions, but they are not often enforced; nor 

 are the shooters who cause such death hung as numerously 

 as they should be. 



July is one of the months in which is demonstrated the 

 strength of the sporting instinct. Men who, under ordinary 

 circumstances, take every precaution to keep cool and com- 

 fortable in the mid-summer heat, shoulder their guns and 

 seek out the thickest coverts, and there in quest of a winged 

 lure put themselves through a course of tactics that would 

 try the fortitude of disciplined troops. It is all nonsense to 

 decry summer woodcock shooting on the score of its fatigu- 

 ing hardships. If a sportsman enjoys the toils of the pursuit 

 no argument heaped upon argument can convince him that 

 the pains are not four-fold compensated and rewarded by the 

 pleasures. One might as well try to show the winter wild- 

 fowl shooter that he is an idiot for half freezing himself to 

 death. So long as game remains and the shooting instinct 

 survives, the sportsman will court summer's heat and win- 

 ter's cold, and bear each with smiling content, provided only 

 he have anything to show as a reward. 



Stewed Dog As an Advertisement.— The enterprising 

 managers of a cowboy-Indian show, now exhibiting in the 

 vicinity of New York, have devised an ingenius method of 

 utilizing the common cur of low degree with much profit to 

 themselves. They cause the dogs to be slain, stewed and 

 eaten by the Indians, giving out to the press that the savages 

 are celebrating their regular annual traditional sacred weird 

 and mystical dog feast. The wide-awake editors detail their 

 reporters to witness the dog feast and write up vivid reports 

 of it; and the readers have a column or two of stewed dog 

 served up to them at breakfast or dinner. At first the In- 

 dians refused to eat any other than the traditional snow white 

 dog, and the regular annual feast was not celebrated oftener 

 than once a month, but now a dog of any color will do, and 

 the annual feast is a weekly institution. The Indians are 

 not squeamish, but there are signs that the newspaper 

 reading public is bcoming satiated and the show managers 

 will soon be obliged to devise other schemes of advertising. 



A Texas Man has been found guilty of stealing his own 

 horse and sent to the penitentiary. It would be well if 

 Texas justice were meted out to the fellows who steal other 

 men's dogs. 



