Forest and Stream 



A Weekly Journal of the Rod and Gun. 



Tkbms, $4 A Yeab. 10 Cts. a Oopt. ) 



Six Months, $2. ( 



NEW YORK, OCTOBER 14, 1886. 



3P 



1 VOL. XXVII.-No. 12. 



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



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Forest and Stream Publisliing' Co. 

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



CONTENTS. 



Editorial. 



Raib-oads and Game. 



The New Creedmoor. 

 The Sportsman Tourist. 



Sam Level's Camps— vni. 



Governor de Montmagny's 

 Game Preserve. 

 Natural History. 



Birds of Michigan. 

 Gasee Bag and Gun. 



On the Coast of South Carolina. 



Halcyon Days. 



Game Preserving in Britain. 



A Day in Kentucky Stubbles. 



The Fires in the Park. 



Abolish Spriag Shooting. 

 Camp-Fire Flickerings. 



"Nessmuk's" Poems. 

 Sea and River Fishing. 



The Sensibility of Fishes to 

 Pain. 



Hay Bay. 



Trout Streams of Alaska. 

 Bass Fishing at Riverton. 

 Angling Notes. 



The Kennel. 



Pacific Kennel Club. 



Eastern Field Trials Entries. 



The Indianapolis Dog Show. 



The Manitoba Field Trials. 



The Danburv Dog Show. 



The Dayton Dog Show. 



Kennel Management. 

 Rifle and Trap Shooting. 



Range and Gallery. 



Massachusetts Rifle Associa- 

 tion. 



The Trap. 

 Yachting. 



Closed and Gone to the Jury. 



Burgess Boats and Skimming 

 Dishes. 



Thetis and Stranger. 



The Second Class Races in 1887. 



Reports of Races. 

 Canoeing. 



American Canoe Association, 

 Record of 1886 Meet. 



The Calla Shasta Fall Meet. 

 Answers to Correspondents. 



THE NEW CREEDMOOR. 

 'T^HE Directors of the National Rifle Association are 

 fully alert to the importance of taking steps for the 

 abandonment of Creedmoor, if rifle shooting in the neigh- 

 borhood of the metropolis is not to become a thing of the 

 past. At the last meeting of the Board the matter was 

 discussed at some length, and although no formal or final 

 action was taken on the question, the majority of the 

 members of the Association are fully convinced that a 

 change is a necessity in the near futui-e. Lieut. Zalinski 

 has taken the matter in his special care, and with his 

 usual zeal and thoroughness is looking the whole ground 

 over before presenting his conclusions to his fellow direc- 

 tors. He thinks that at Staten Island something may be 

 done in the way of securing a long-distance range. Such 

 a change would reduce the cost of reaching the range and 

 home again more than one-half and the time in the same 

 proportion. 



At the present time it would be difficult to name a 

 place equ^ally near to New York city which is more in- 

 accessible. It is not on a line of railroad, but is fully a 

 mile away from even the little insignificant stopping 

 place which is now the railroad point for reaching the 

 range. The company controlling the means of transit 

 have shown no disijosition to bring the range nearer the 

 metropolis in traveling time, and could not do better than 

 they are in throttling the last show of interest in the in- 

 vigorating sport. 



The range itself is a magnificent spot. It is the finest 

 property of its sort in the world. It has historic associa- 

 tions about it which will always make it a place of inter- 

 est to those who shoot and those who admire skill in fine 

 marksmanship. Its broad stretch of nearly an hundred 

 acres has felt the tread of thousands of feet, and over its 

 long stretch of a half mile and beyond the well-sent bul- 

 lets of more than one American team have sped. 



All this is true, and yet tlie old range is showing the 

 signs of age. A dozen years has not dealt kindly with it. 

 The artificial liill of earth back of the butts has settled 

 very much and the bullet-proof fence atop of it is in a 

 state of v«ry unsteady equilibrium. In the butts below 

 the ground there is danger of a collapse, and the spring 

 will probably find the range in need of many thousand 

 dollars' worth of repairs in butts and fence. Besides, the 



new range where the short-range targets are located, and 

 where the now famous trajectory tests conducted by 

 Forest and Stream last faU were carried on, is no longer 

 under lease by the Association, and the owner has extrav- 

 agant notions about a new lease. All things considered, 

 the present is a good time for an adieu to the old shooting 

 ground, j^rovided, of course, something equally service- 

 able shall be discovered. 



With the experience which has been had in the man- 

 agement of ranges it would be possible to so plan a 

 shooting grotmd as to make very material economies in 

 space and working methods. The firing point should 

 be, if possible, fixed with the targets put at the various 

 distances from 100 up to 1,000yds. There has been a great 

 deal of unnecessary tramping up and down the range at 

 Creedmoor on the part of marksmen, when a great deal 

 of it might better have been done by the markers. It is 

 important that strong targets of the heaviest iron type be 

 on hand for the battering which the militia inflict upon 

 them, but much of the fine work in off-hand shooting 

 ought to be on other targets of a more portable type. 



It is urged that the old range may not net at sale as 

 much as was originally paid for it. If this be true, it 

 only proves that the original purchase was a good deal of 

 an imjDosition upon the State and that farmer Creed, if 

 he ever got all of the price paid, got a good deal more 

 than the land was then worth. 



Lieut. Zalinski is quite right in agitating the matter of 

 a new range, and whether the old fogy management of 

 the State militia at Albany can see the point or not, rifle 

 practice is a vital point of a soldier's duty. It can be 

 made popular instead of irksome as now, and the first 

 step in that direction is to provide a range near by, cheaply 

 accessible and open eveiy day the year round. Then the 

 civilian marksmen will once more compete in the regular 

 matches and the old time enthusiasm for the sport prevail. 



RAILROADS AND GAME. 

 TF railroads have in general been powerful auxiliaries 

 in the wholesale destruction of game, they have also 

 in particular cases taken an important and highly com- 

 mendable part in staying the hand of the skin-hunter and 

 game butcher. The agency of the Western roads, which 

 furnished ready transportation for the products of the 

 buffalo and elk-kilHng industries, has already been ad- 

 verted to in these columns; and occasion has been had 

 to call attention to the new attitude assumed by certain 

 roads, notably the Northern Pacific, which has taken the 

 stand that, as the large game of the West is a potent 

 attraction for tourists and is the direct object sought by 

 great numbers of passengers over that road, it is the wisest 

 policy to cut off market-hunting, that passenger fares 

 may take the place of insignificant freight bills. It would 

 appear as if this elementary bit of business principles 

 ought to be patent to and observed by the managers of 

 all roads which lead to hunting and fishing districts; but, 

 as a matter of fact, most roads have been just penny-wise 

 enough to clutch at the paltry revenue from game destruc- 

 tion, lawful and unlawful. In many instances, too, rail- 

 road officials have been foolish enough to wink at flagrant 

 game law violations which were of no benefit to them- 

 selves, though not altogether without profit to subordi- 

 nates. It is not long ago that passengers on the Long 

 Island Raih'oad were familiar with the frequent spectacle 

 of sportsmen, returning empty-handed after tramping 

 barren covers, buying of the trainboy snared game, regu- 

 larly brought aboard at the way stations. The brakemen, 

 baggage-masters and other train hands did a regular 

 business in smuggling this contraband commodity to the 

 New York markets. 



Times are changing. Passenger agents and general 

 managers are catching up with the times. Take the 

 Maine raikoads. It was only four years ago that the 

 Superintendent of the Somerset Railroad, which leads 

 to Maine game resorts, was anxious to let "sporting 

 men" know of the attractions held out by July moose 

 killers; and it was not so long ago as that that the Maine 

 roads in general went on the principle of receiving and 

 forwarding game and fish and no questions asked. Now 

 the railroad managers are among the best allies of the 

 game wardens. They will not transport contraband 

 goods; they have taken away from the Darling class of 

 game butchers their means of forwarding game to the 

 Boston markets. It is a sound dollars and cents business- 

 like course. The road collecting fares from passengers 

 going into the deer forests and out again wiU pay better 



dividends than a road contenting itself with tariff on deer 

 carcasses shipped to market. Certain of the Arkansas 

 railroads have taken the same stand. If all passenger 

 superintendents could be shown that the interests of their 

 roads demanded such an active cooperation in game pro- 

 tection, the great problem of how best to check the enor- 

 mous destruction of game for marketing would be solved. 



The latest example of far-seeing railroad management 

 brought to our notice is that of the Detroit, Mackinac 

 and Marquette Railroad Co. This note received from the 

 general passenger agent shows that on one line at 

 least the wildfowl shooters are appreciated as profitable 

 patrons: 



Detroit, Mackinac and IVIarquette Railroad Co.— Oflace of 

 E. W. Allen, Gen. Pass, and Ticket Agent, Marquette, Mich., Oct. 4.— 

 Editor Forest and Stream: We have on the line of our road a large 

 extent of marshy country through which streams of considerable 

 size flow, where geese and ducks come in considerable numbers 

 now; but I wish to do something to improve the sport which may 

 be had, and to that end desire to know if you can inform me where 

 Avild rice and vnld celery seed may be obtained. I would also be 

 glad to have some facts in regard to the method of sowing, and 

 what precautions, if any, can be taken against the inroads of 

 muskrats. For this information if in your power to give, I shall 

 be very much obliged.— E. W. Allen. 



The Sh acker Band.— The Forest and Stream, of 

 June 17, 1886, contained a communication from Dr. 

 Samuel B. Hunter, of Machias, Maine, giving an account 

 of the trial of certain Wesley parties charged with having 

 biirned the house and bam of a game warden. The arti- 

 cle contained sundry severe reflections on the moral con- 

 dition of a community where such crimes were practiced. 

 Maine papers copied Dr. Hunter's communication, and 

 certain Wesley people feeling aggrieved at this, instituted 

 libel suits against the author. The Machias Republican 

 of Oct. 9 contains tliis note: "The somewhat notorious 

 Shacker hbel cases vs. Dr. Samuel B. Hunter, of Machias, 

 have been withdrawn, and plaintiffs pay then- own costs." 

 This is the conclusion anticijjated by those familiar with 

 the facts. 



Important If True. — Last June, at a season when buf 

 falo hides are in exceedingly poor condition and totally 

 unfit for a taxidermist's pm-pose, Mr. W. T. Hornaday, 

 the Government taxidermist, went to the Milk River, 

 Montana, country to secure buffalo specimens for the 

 National Museum. Needless to say, the expedition was 

 not successful. We note in a Montana paper that Mr, 

 Hornaday is now on the way to the Yellowstone National 

 Park, where he proposes to shoot buffalo for the Museum, 

 Secretary Lamar having given him permission to kill the 

 game. This can hardly be ti-ue, for the Secretary of the 

 Interior has no authority to give any one permission to 

 kill a single one of the remnant of bison nor any game 

 whatever in the National Park. 



October Days are those of all the year the brightest 

 and most wont to linger long in the memory of sportsmen. 

 It is the month of exhilarating an*, brilliant foHage and 

 game mature and worthy of the quest. It is surprising- 

 how far and how sturdily one can tramp on an October 

 day. More good shooting stories begin "Once in October, 

 18 — ," than with reference to all of the other eleven 

 months of the year put together. The man who goes for 

 game in October returns laden with more prizes than are 

 contained in his game bag or across his saddle. 



Florida Land Swindles. — Along about the time hard 

 frosts have killed millions of noisy and noxious insect 

 pests, the land schemers begin to make a clamor over the 

 brilliant bargains in sand cities down on the Florida 

 peninsula. Cheap land in Florida is sometimes a very 

 dear investment. One good rule is to see a horse before 

 you buy it; a better rule is to see a wonderftil Florida new 

 city lot before you sink any money and hopes in it. 



October Moonlight invites to raids and scurries after 

 coons. Those who know no better think this form of 

 hunting a peculiarly southern institution; but the hillsides 

 of New England and the Middle States are resonant with 

 the October jollity of men and dogs and coons. We hear 

 from Connecticut of some famous runs rewarded by 

 much plunder. 



Nessmuk's Poems. — Elsewhere is printed a notice of 

 the forthcoming volume of poems by "Nessmuk." In- 

 tending subscribers are asked to fiU, out and return the 

 subscription blanks at an early date. 



