Forest and Stream 



A Weekly Journal of the Rod and Gun. 



Terms, $i a Year. 10 Cts. a Copt. I 

 Six Months, ?3. I 



NEW YORK, SEPTEMBER 9, 1886. 



J VOL. XXVIL— No. 7. 



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



COERESPONDENOK 



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Forest and Stream Publishing Co. 

 Nos. 39 AND 40 Park Row. New York Citt. 



CONTENTS. 



Editoriax. 



Polluting New York Harbor. 



The Creedmoor Meeting. 



Inviting Game Law Violation. 

 The Sportsman Tourist. 



Hunting in the Himalayas. 



Sam Lovel's Camps— v." 

 NATTjKAt, History. 



The Birds of Michigan. 



Bird Notes. 



Lobster's Claws. 

 Camp-fire Flickerings. 

 Game Bag and Gun. 



Game Preserving in Britain. 



Branting at Monomoy, Cape 



Proposed Moose Preserve. 

 Notes from a Ranchero's Sad- 

 dle. 



Targret Tests and Shot. 

 Ducking on the Kaiikakee. 

 Niglits with a Jack. 

 Reed Birds and Bobolinks. 

 Game Near a Large City. 

 Boston Notes. 

 Game Notes. 

 Muzzle vs. Breech. 



Sea and River Fishing. 

 A Trip to Mad River. 

 Stink Pond. 



An Adirondack Evening. 



FlSHCULTURE. 



American Fisheries Society. 



State Protection of Oyster 

 Beds. 

 The Kennel. 



Ne-svDort Fox-Terrier Show. 



The Covington Dog Show. 



The National Field Trials. 



Kennel Notes. 



Kennel Management. 

 RiELE AND Trap Shooting. 



Range and GaUei-j'. 



The Canadian Wimbledon. 



The Trap. 

 Yachting. 



The America Cup Races. 



Beverly Y. C. 



Shona— Shadow. 



Lieutenant W. Henn. 

 Canoeing. 



The Meet of 1886. 



The N. Y. C. C. Cup Races. 

 Answers to Correspondents. 



POLLUTING NEW YORK HARBOR. 

 T N another column wiH be found an account of the arrest 

 and jirosecution of the men vrho have been iUegally 

 dumping the city's refuse upon the oyster beds of Long 

 Island Sotmd, and of the proceedings about to be insti- 

 tuted against those rich corporations which have been de- 

 filing the waters of the East River and the Bay with 

 sludge acid and other refuse. This work, which has been 

 vigorously entered upon by Commissioner Blackford, will 

 receive the hearty support of the community. The laws 

 forbidding the pollution of our waters have for a long 

 time been ignored by the corporations referred to; and 

 they have poured vile chemicals from their sewers until 

 not only the oysters have been destroyed and the lobsters 

 driven off, but even the transient shad, taken in Newark 

 Bay, have been rendered imfit to eat. But a few years 

 ago angling for striped bass was a favorite amusement at 

 High Bridge and in the Kills, and New York Harbor 

 abounded with fish, oysters and crustaceans, wMch have 

 for some years deserted these localities. The bottom has 

 been covered with a thick glutinous substance of the most 

 vile odor, which has been discharged from the petroleum 

 refineries, and perhaps from the sewers of other factories 

 which should long ago have been compelled to take care 

 of their refuse. 



In Mr. Blackford's laboratory the other day we found 

 sixteen bottles of water taken from the outlets of the 

 different factories, and these samples needed no chemical 

 analysis to show they contained substances too vile for 

 fish to live in. In some of these bottles at least one-third 

 of the contents was of the consistency of ordinary syrup, 

 which on being agitated adhered to the sides of the glass. 



In the matter of dumping the city's refuse on the 

 oyster beds, it is interesting to note that some convictions 

 have already been obtained by Protector Mersereau. 



The enforcement of these laws will, we believe, prove 

 to be among the most important work yet undertaken by 

 any member of the New York Fish Commission. The 

 waters of Long Island Sound and New York Harbor at 

 one time produced an enormous quantity of food of 

 various kinds which would compare favorably in value 

 to that produced by all the other waters of the State. I 



Whether the oyster beds are so covered with tliis vile 

 sticky sludge acid as to be rendered permanently barren 

 or not, we cannot say; but it is possible that the waters of 

 New York Harbor may again produce the vegetation 

 and small animals which prove attractive to food and 

 game fishes. It will take years to determine this point 

 but that a beginning has been made to correct this great 

 evil will be a cause of rejoicing to anglers as well as to 

 the commercial fishermen and to the oystermen. 



INVITING GAME LAW VIOLATION. 

 'T^HE French angling season opens on June 15. Last 

 June Whitsuntide fell on June 13, and a number of 

 anglers who wanted to go fishing on that Simday wrote 

 to the Paris Lanterne expressing a desire to have the 

 season open on the 13th. The Minister of Public Works, 

 M. Baiiliaut, anxious to curry favor -with that journal, 

 made haste to write to the Lanterne that, though he was 

 powerless to change the statutes, he had given orders to 

 to the officers of the law not to molest persons who might 

 be caught unlawfully fishing on Whitsuntide. By this 

 maneuver M. BaThaut gained the gratitude of the anglers, 

 the approval of the Lanterne and the jeers of the rest of 

 the world for his official winking at violation of the law 

 He now has an imitator on this side of the water in the per- 

 son of the President of the New York Fishery Commission. 



Among the laws enacted at the last session of the New- 

 York Legislature was one forbidding the netting, having 

 in possession and sale of bobolinks (or reed birds), robins 

 and meadow larks. The officials specially charged with 

 the execution of this law are the State game protectors. 

 These protectors are under the immediate supervision of 

 the Commissioners of Fisheries. They are required to report 

 to the Commissioners monthly; they look to them for in- 

 structions, and only upon the Commissioners" certification 

 to the Governor that the protectors have faithfully per- 

 formed their duty can the latter draw their salary. The 

 protectors have evidently been consulting the Commis- 

 sioners upon the enforcement of the bobolink, meadow 

 lark and robin law. The president of the board published 

 in the daily papers of this city last week a notification to 

 this effect : 



"I desire to inform market men and others that by a law passed 

 by the last Legislature the sale of reed birds, robins and meadow 

 larks is prohibited. The penalty for selling or having any of these 

 birds or any pai't of them in possession is imprisonment in the 

 county jail for not longer than 30 days and a fine of not less than 

 $10 nor more than $50. While I shall not consider it my official 

 duty to urge the game protector to enforce this law, I cannot pre- 

 vent his doing so if he pleases, and altliough I suppose the Asso- 

 ciation for the Protection of Game, of which I am President, ^^^ll 

 ignore it, I cannot speak by authority, as no action has been taken. 

 But any malicious or greedy person may proceed under the statute 

 which gives to the plaintiff one-half of the penalty, so no one is 

 safe in disregarding it. I give this notice now, as this is the sea- 

 son for reed birds, and heretofore no one has thought interference 

 with their sale advisable or«^ necessary.— Robert Barnwell 

 Roosevelt, President New York Fishery Commission." 



Tliis is in several respects an extraordinary statement. 

 A State official declares that he does not consider it in- 

 cumbent vipon him to urge a subordinate to execute the 

 law, but he cannot restrain that subordinate if the latter 

 chooses to do his plain duty. The president of a game 

 j)rotective society, whose j)lethoric bank account is rep- 

 uted to have been swelled by the fines accruing from the 

 society's prosecution of game law offenders, dubs as "ma- 

 Ucious or greedy " any one who may undertake to secure 

 the lawful protection of bobolinks, meadow larks and 

 robins. 



The President of the New York Fishery Commission 

 appears to have misconceived the functions of his office. 

 He is not charged with the extraordinary powers of 

 officially approving or disapproving fish and game laws 

 enacted by the Legislature and determining whether or 

 not they are suitable statutes and deserving of enforce- 

 ment. He has no authority to say to the game protec- 

 tors, this statute meets my fancy, you must enforce it, 

 and that statute does not accord with my notions, you 

 may wink at its violation. It is his duty to take the law 

 as he finds it and see to its execution. The game protec- 

 tor cannot accept as an excuse for his failm-e to execute 

 tbe law any otcIi proclamation as this made by the 

 President of the Fishery Commission; and in the event 

 of his official dereliction the public will be interested to 

 know if the Commissioners acquiescing in their presi- 

 dent's view of tlie matter will transmit to the Governor 

 the requhed certificate that the protector has "faithfully 

 performed his official duty." 



It is a subject of much regret that as an officer of the 



State, a citizen of the community, a pi-esident of a game 

 protective club and a sportsman of wide fame, Mr. Eoose- 

 velt should have given such comfort to the individuals 

 who arrogate to themselves license to abide by game laws 

 or violate them, as best suits their individual tastes, con- 

 veniences and stomachs. In these days when United 

 States Senators jack Adirondack deer out of season, when 

 the wives and daughters of eminent doctors of divinity 

 urge their guides to hound deer out of season, when hotel 

 bUls of fare are brazen with lists of game deMcacies served 

 contrary to the law, when poachers for pleasure and 

 poachers for profit shoot and fish at will, the cause of 

 game protection, of time sportsmanship and of good citi- 

 zenship might surely be sustained by those whose official 

 and private positions are presumed to attach importance 

 to their acts and words. 



THE CREEDMOOR MEETING. 

 V\rY£'H. the next issue of Forest and Stream the 

 ' ' Fourteenth Annual Fall Meeting of the National 

 Rifle Association will be well under way. Everything 

 points to a successful shooting week. The programme 

 prepared gives nearly a score of matches, and enough of 

 them are open to all comers to insure a good gathering 

 of the small-bore men. There are prizes enough to satisfy 

 those who shoot for the love of the sport, while for those 

 who shoot for the pelf there is never prize list big and 

 heavy enough. The meeting will rim tlu-ough the entire 

 week, opening on Monday morning next and closing on 

 Saturday night. Secretary Shepherd in making up the 

 match list has profited by the experience of previous 

 meetings, and the various details really represent the re- 

 sult of much study. The range is brought into ready 

 communication with the city, no less than eleven trains 

 rumiing from New York and Brooklyn to Queens, where 

 stages give access to the shooting ground. There is every 

 prospect of a good gathering of individual shots, while of 

 the States, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania and New York 

 win be represented in the State team matches. The 

 Seventh and Twelfth Regiments of New York, the Thir- 

 teenth and Twenty-third of Brooklyn will appear in the 

 regimental matches. The regulars will be there from 

 Niagara and from the Fifth Artillery garrison about New 

 York. With good weather there ought to be close com- 

 petition and satisfactory scores. There have been many 

 extra prizes added to the various matches and one entire 

 match has been added, as annoimced m om- rifle columns. 



The Fisheries Question.— After all the years of dis- 

 pute between Canadian and American fishermen and the 

 threats of war, etc., a neAv compHcation has arisen. For 

 years the American fishermen have declared, with more 

 or less correctness, that the fishing privileges in Canadian 

 waters were worth nothing to them. This year the mack- 

 erel which have usually abounded on om- shores are absent 

 from them, and are swarming in the Gulf of St. Lawrence 

 where the American fishermen must go for them if they 

 want them. And now the trouble begins. The Canadians 

 are enforcing the law regarding the limit within which 

 Americans may fish, and have seized a vessel. It would 

 seem from this that the American fishermen really think 

 that a privelege to fish in Canadian waters is of some 

 value, for this reason, at least. 



The National Park. — Advices from a member of the 

 Forest and Stream staff, dated at Mammoth Hot 

 Springs, Yellowstone National Park, Sept. 1, say : Wm. 

 McLennan, lately one of Col. Wear's assistant superin- 

 tendents, brought in last night tliree prisoners whom he 

 caught near Soda Butte. They had left a large camp 

 fire in a very dangerous place. Since the civil assistants 

 were removed and the troops put in charge, the lawless 

 portion seem to think that it is no longer necessary to 

 observe any rules or regulations, but imagine that they 

 can do as they j^lease. Large fires are raging in several 

 lilaces in the Park, and have got quite beyond human 

 control. 



An Unusual Number of Gunning Accidents are re- 

 ported from different parts of the country. Almost every 

 one of these calamities is due to absolute carelessness. 

 When will gunners learn the peril of carrying gvms with 

 muzzles aimed full at their own bodies? 



The Sportsman's Paradise, where game is thick as 

 hops — A few miles further on. 



