Forest and Stream. 



A Weekly Journal of the Rod and Gun. 



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



Six Months, $3. j 



NEW YORK, OCTOBER 28, 1886. 



J VOL. XXVII.-No. 14. 



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



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Forest and Stream Publishing Co. 

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



CONTENTS. 



Editorial. 



Proposed Statue to Izaak 



Walton. 

 Tinder. 



Short Lobsters. 

 The Sportsman TotraiST. 



A Trip to the Park. 



A Critic and his Critics. 

 Natural History. 



The Sport of Hawking. 



An Uncomfortable Pair. 

 Game Bag and Gun. 



Coot Shooting on the Maine 

 Coast. 



On Shaver's Fork. 



A Cruise on the Kissimmee. 



Sam's Initiation. 



The Season's Last Grouse. 



Notes from Idaho. 



Game Preserving in Britain. 



Notes from Currituck. 



Game Notes. 

 Camp-Firb Flickerings. 

 Sea and Etver Fishing. 



Long Island Sea Fishing. 



Hay Bay and Bay of Quinte. 



Sea and River Fishing. 



Maskinonie, Mascallunge, etc. 



Halcyon Days.— ii. 



A Modest Fisherman. 

 The Kennel. 



St. John Dog Show. 



Stafford Dog Show. 



Points on Breeding. 



Fox-Hunting. 



Kennel Notes. 

 Rifle and Trap Shooting. 



Range and Gallery. 



The Trap. 



International Match. 



Hudson Tournament. 

 Yachting. 



Season's Record. 



Closed and Given to the Jury. 



British Racing Skippers. 



Cruise of the Coot.— xxvn. 

 Canoeing. 



Meet of 1886. 



Pecowsic. 



An English View. 



A. C. A. and the Clubs. 

 Answers to Correspondents. 



SHORT LOBSTERS. 



THE Massachusetts Fish and Game Protective Associa- 

 tion, tlxrough the energy and self-sacrifice of one of its 

 most active members, Deputy Fish Commissioner F. R. 

 Shattuck, has certainly done a noble work in the way of 

 protecting the lobster along the New England coast. In 

 this direction aid of the right kind has been rendered by 

 the Maine Fish Commission and through one of its officers 

 for the protection of shore fish, Commissioner Counce, of 

 Thomaston. Early in the season Mr. Counce succeeded 

 in arresting one Trefethern, of Portland, for buying short 

 lobsters and shipping them to Boston and New York, 

 Trefethern was indicted before the Grand Jury in that 

 State at two or three different times. He was tried and 

 beaten before the lower court and appealed. He was 

 beaten on both his appeals. During this time he was 

 running short lobsters to Boston, but Mr. Shattuck proved 

 too much for him, and he was arrested and twice indicted 

 before the Grand Jury in Boston. But bis experience in 

 Maine served him a good turn. He went into court last 

 week, pleaded guilty and paid his fines. 



In the meantime Mr. Shattuck has not been idle in 

 other directions. With the efficient aid of Captain Gould, 

 of the Harbor Police, as true a sportsman as ever breathed, 

 Commissioner Shattuck has arrested a number of fisher- 

 men and lobster dealers for having in possession and sell- 

 ing short lobsters. He has just finished trying the tenth 

 and last case of this kind before the Municipal Court here, 

 and he has beaten in every case but one. Counting the 

 Trefethern cases before the upper coru't, the Fish and 

 Game Protective Association can claim the honor of hav- 

 ing beaten the short lobster offenders in eleven cases out of 

 twelve. This is a good record, and it all comes of having 

 energetic and sensible men to do the work. The lobster 

 men are thoroughly frightened; some of them paid theii* 

 fines, $135 and costs, and they promise to obey the law in 

 future. Indeed, it would not be strange if sometime 

 there might be lobsters of respectable size along the New 

 England coast. 



What is wanted is a Unif oma law that shall bring Rhode 

 Island and Connecticut into the good work. As it now 



is, the Soimd is stripped of everything in the shape of a 

 lobster before it has time to grow to a size that a decent 

 fisherman would not be ashamed of. It is worthy of note 

 that all along the Maine and Massachusetts coasts, at least, 

 the fishermen evince a willingness, and even a desire to 

 see the short lobster law inforced. All they ask is that it 

 be made general. They know that it is better to give the 

 lobsters time to grow; but if undersized ones are to be 

 caught, each fisherman feels as though it was a duty to 

 his pocket that he get his share. 



By the way, the Forest and Stream has been taken 

 into court in the short lobster case. And it came out 

 with honors. It was brought in with the intention of 

 showing that Mr. Shattuck desired to persecute the seller 

 of illicit lobsters, and to bring him into disrepute by 

 publishing articles against that class of persons. But the 

 lawyer for the defense was a little too sharp, since Mr. 

 Shattuck had no difficulty in showing that he did not 

 write the article in question. The judge wound up the 

 whole matter by remai'king that he was a reader of the 

 Forest and Stream himself;' as much as to say that the 

 article was a good thing, and an honor to both the writer 

 and the paper. 



TINDER. 



THE drought is mdespread and serious. In the vicin- 

 ity Of New York City it has lasted since July 16, no 

 heavy rain having fallen since that time. For the entire 

 period of more than three months the precipitation here 

 has been but 3.40 inches, or little more than one-fifth the 

 average rainfall for the corresponding season during the 

 past ten years. From the Atlantic coast to the great 

 cattle plains of the West comes the same story of parched 

 lands and withered vegetation. To the dried grass have 

 now been added the fallen leaves of autunm; and field, 

 brush, swamp and woodland are so much tinder, ready 

 once the spark falls, to burst into conflagration. 



Too often the spark is supplied by foolhardy, thought- 

 less persons in pursuit of game, who recklessly start a fire 

 which they have absolutely no power to control. In the 

 present inflammable condition of game covers, even 

 ignited wads from a shotgun may start a flame in dry 

 moss or leaves or grass. A destructive fii'e in Ohio last 

 week was reported to have had such an origin. In the 

 "Jenny Jump" range, in Warren county, New Jersey, 

 last Saturday, a fire that burned over several himdred 

 acres of fields and woodlands, was started by some boys 

 who took advantage of their holiday to beleaguer a bee- 

 tree and undertook to "smoke them out." The same day 

 a thousand acres of timber and other lands in the towns 

 of Keene, Chesterfield and Westmoreland, New Hamp- 

 shire, were burned over, the fire having been kindled the 

 night before by a party of coon hunters who attempted to 

 smoke out the varmint from a hoUow tree. It was a big- 

 price to pay for a coon. Whether they captured the prey 

 or not is one of the interesting details on which all the 

 press dispatches maintain distressing silence. 



PROPOSED STATUE TO IZAAK WALTON. 



AS has been noted in these columns, it is pi'oposed to 

 erect a statue to Izaak Walton in Winchester Cathe- 

 dral, and anglers all the world over are asked to contrib- 

 ute to this object. No doubt those scholarly anglers who 

 delight in the pages of Walton, with their wealth of pure 

 English and their charm of simplicity, will respond to this 

 appeal. 



Mr. R. B. Marston, editor of the London Fislmig Gazette, 

 and Hon. Treasurer of the Fly -Fisher's Club, writes us un- 

 der date of Oct. 11 as follows: "Many of your readers 

 are anglers, and I ventiu-e to ask for a short space in your 

 columns to inform you that the Dean of Winchester has 

 promised to find a niche for a statue of Izaak Walton in 

 the great screen of the cathedral, which is now being re- 

 paired, if anglers will provide the statue. American 

 anglers will, I feel sure, desire to contribute to erect a 

 statue in memory of the 'Father of Anglers.' I have 

 opened a subscription list, and shall be glad to receive and 

 acknowledge in the Fishing Gazette, any sums sent to me 

 for 'the Izaak Walton Statue Fund.' " 



In order to further this scheme to erect a statue to the 

 memory of Izaak Walton, the Forest and Stream Publish- 

 ing Company will receive and forward such amounts as 

 anglers, or others, may contribute, and will make an ac- 

 knowledgement of all such sums in the columns of For- 

 est and Stream. 



"The Forest Waters the Farm."— The famous French 

 book "Les Etudes de Maitre Pierre sur L' Agriculture et 

 les Forets," the Studies of Master Peter about Forests and 

 Agriculture, which performed a valuable mission in 

 creating jjublic sentiment favorable to forestry reform in 

 France, has been translated under the above title by the 

 Rev. S. W. Powell and is jpublished from this office. It 

 is designed as a text-book of the first principles of com- 

 mon sense in relation to preserving woodlands as reservoirs 

 to water the f ai'm. It ought to be circulated by tens of 

 thousands to land owners, agriculturists and all public- 

 spirited and selfish citizens throughout the land, where- 

 ever the principles of woodland economy have been defied. 

 The story of the work accomplished by the Studies of 

 Master Peter was told in the Forest and Stream a year 

 or two ago in a description of torrent taming in France. 

 On a scale large or small the destructive work of like 

 torrents has been proceeding in all settled portions of the 

 United States; and the sooner the people of this country 

 set about the work of torrent taming the better for indi- 

 vidual, State and National prosperity. 



National Rod and Reel Association. — At a meeting 

 last Tuesday the following officers were elected : Presi- 

 dent, Henry P. Wells; Vice-Presidents, Henry P. Mc- 

 Gown, John A. Roosevelt, M. M. Backus, WiUiam Dun- 

 ning. T. B. Stewart; Secretary, G. Poey; Treasurer, James 

 L. Valottin. Upon the suggestion of Mr. WeUs it was 

 determined to hold the next tom-nament Wednesday and 

 Thursday, May 25 and 26 next. The weather will at such 

 a date more probably prove propitious than it has proved 

 at the October meetings, anglers will not have left town, 

 and, their angling being yet to come, they will be likely 

 to take a more lively interest in the spring tournament 

 than in a fall meeting. 



The Virginia Field Sports Association was organized 

 at Richmond, Oct. 21, the occasion being the gathering of 

 sportsmen from different parts of the State at the Virginia 

 Fan-. The call, it will be remembered, was issued by 

 Hon. John S. Wise, of Richmond, who was elected 

 President. The membership is ah-eady nearly one hun- 

 dred and fifty, and the promotors anticipate a rapid 

 growth and strong support. A trap-shooting tournament 

 was contested by the members. A bench show and a 

 field trial will be given next year. 



Wild Rice in Great Britain. — A correspondent writes 

 from South Wales to Mr. Chas. Gilchrist, of Point Hope, 

 Ontario, that he has thoroughly acclimated some wild 

 rice, sent by that gentleman from Canada. The rice has 

 been sown on a small scale, and the greatest difficulty in 

 its cultru'e in Wales appears to be a plague of rats which 

 devour it before it has a chance to grow. The experi- 

 ment, however, demonstrates clearly enough that the 

 wild rice may be successfully cultivated in Great Britain 



The Susquehanna Fish Pirates are just now receiving 

 some attention from the officials charged with breaking 

 up the villainous obstructions, snares and traps in that 

 poacher-plagued river. An account of how the officers 

 are doing their duty was given in cm* last number. The 

 good work ought to go on, not only in the Susquehanna 

 but in hundreds of other streams as well, which, if only 

 decently cared for, would yield food fish in largely 

 augmented supply. 



The Critics of a Critic gives us some spicy reading. 

 Each one of them is a master of the art of writing clear 

 cut, vivid prose; and their views are worth something. 

 The editorial acumen having been impeached, there was 

 nothing to do but to select such a board of reference and 

 lay the case before them. The views of others would 

 have been invited had we not grown weary of trying to 

 find some one to back up the opinions of the original self- 

 constituted critic. 



Sam Lovel's Camp, — Now that the "camp squirrel has 

 chattered his farewell" to the campers on the Slang, the 

 readers of that charming series will be glad to know that 

 they may, by and by, look for an account of Sam Lovel's 

 autumn camps on the Slang. 



THE Forest and Stream goes to press one day earlier 

 than usual this week, as Thursday will be the holiday set 

 apart for dedicating the Bartholdi Statue of Liberty. 



