Forest and Stream. 



A Weekly Journal of the Rod and Gun. 



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



Six Months, $3. \ 



NEW YORK, DECEMBER 9, 1886. 



I VOL. XXVII.-No. 20. 



"( Noa. 39 & 40 Park Row, New York. 



CORRESPONDENQE. 

 The Forest and Stream is the recognized medium of eiitertain- 

 menr, instri:r-tion and information betvreen American sportsmen. 

 Communications on t.he- subject to vrliicti its pages are devoted are 

 respectfully- in-\-ited. Anonymous communications will not be re- 

 garded. No name will be publisbed except with writer's consent. 

 The Editors are not responsible for the ^riev/s of correspondents. 



ADVERTISEMENTS. 

 Only advertisements of an approved character inserted. Inside 

 pages, nonpareil type. ."0 cents per li no. Special rates for three, six, 

 and twelve months. Seven words to the line, twelve lines to one 

 inch. Advertisements should be sent in by Saturday pre'^'ious to 

 issue in which They are to be i7isei-ted. Transient advertisements 

 must invariably be accompanied by the money or they will not be 

 inserted. Reading notices Sl.OO per line. 



-S" UB80RIPTI0NS 

 May begin at an;^' time. Subscription price, $4 per year; $3 for six 

 months; to a dull of three ;innual subscribers, three cojiies for $10; 

 five copies for SIO. R.emi t by express money-order, registered letter, 

 mouey-ordor, or draft, payable to the Forest a.nrl Stream Publishing 

 Company. The paper may be obtained of newsdealers throughout 

 the United States, Canadas and C-rreat Britain. For sale by Pavies 

 & Co., No. 1 Finch Lane, Cornhill, London. General subscription 

 ;age7its for Great Britain. Messrs. Davies Co., and IVlessrs. Samp- 

 son LoAv, :\lar«tou, Sea.rles and Ri^dnston, 188 Fleet street, London, 

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 Address all communications, 



Nos. 39 AND 40 Park Row. 



Forest and Stream Publisliing Co. 



New York City. 



CONTENTS. 



Kdttorial. 



A Word i n Confidence. 



No S'Tnpatb.y. 

 The Sportsman Tottrist. 



Bearhead and the Bear. 

 Naturax. History. 



Notes from the Park. 



Shore Bird Nomenclature. 



A Rash Judgment, 



CAMP-FiRE FLlCKBHINfiS. 



(lAJiE Bag and Gun. 



Summer Vroodcock Shooting. 



New England Gf-me. 



The Jiaine Tragedy. 



First Lessons. — n. 



In Turkey Co-er. 



Rutied (Trouse iu jrichlgaii. 



Maine Game Report. 

 Sea and RrvBR Fi.«hing. 



Spliced Rods and Ferrules. 



FrSHCrLTURE. 



Carp and Catfish in California 

 The Iveknel. 



Eastern Field Trials. 



Mastii'f Prizes. 



Kennel Notes. 

 RiELE AND Trap Shooting. 



The Frere Target. 



Range and Gallerv. 



The Trap. 

 Yachting. 



A Lengt; i and Sail Area Cutter 



Ice Yacht Season. 



Lightness in Constraction. 

 \ Canoeing. 



AVestern Men and Western 

 Meets. 



Run on the Upper Mississippi. 



Wide vs. Narrow Canoes, 

 Answer,* to Cijrrespondents. 



A WORD IN CONFIDENCE. 

 T) EADEES old and new of the Forest and Stream 

 1_V jjj^y pleased to know that the paper is now at the 

 close of 188G enjoying the support of a wider circle of 

 friends than at any former period in its history. This is 

 an interesting fact, for it ])roves with the liest possible 

 denionstratioii, namely success, tlie sound sense of the 

 theory long ago adopted by editors and pnJilishers, and 

 steadfastly adhered to, that there is room in this country 

 for a journal treating the subjects embraced by our 

 departments, and depending for its support wholly upon 

 what have been accejjted by the conductors of the Forest 

 AND Stream as legitimate journalistic methods. In other 

 words, w^e have kept faith with subscribers by devoting 

 our reading columns exclusively to honest reading mat- 

 ter, and have not given up our pages to extended paid 

 puffs of railroad routes clumsily disguised as accounts 

 of sportsmen's travel, nor alluring descriptions of won- 

 derful agricultural regions, all paid hy the cohmm. The 

 conviction that a .'3p(irtman's journal for sportsmen could 

 be conducted \vithout resorting to such questionable 

 make-shift expedients lias proved quite correct. 



The Forest and Stream will be, in the future, as in 

 the past, thoroughly representative of the best field 

 sportsmanship of America. It will maintain its position 

 as the chosen exponent of those who seek recreation 

 with gun or rod, rifle, canoe, or yacht. Its tone and 

 high character will be scrupulously preserved, and readers 

 in 1887 may expect a rich fund of sporting sketches and 

 stories, suggestions, bright sayings, prompt, reliable 

 news, and interesting discussions. Angler, shooter, dog 

 breeder, canoeist and yachtsman, may be assured that 

 whatever is of interest in these respective fields in 1887 

 will find its w^ay into the columns of the Forest and 

 Stream. 



The Pollution of New York Harbor.— In another 

 place we record the conviction of two men for illegally 

 dumping refuse on the oyster grounds. This is a good 

 beginning and we rejoice to learn that Fish Commissioner 

 Blaclcford has obtained indictments against the Standard 

 Oil Company and other oil works located on the Kill von 

 Kull, for polluting the waters of New York harbor. For 

 years these great concerns have fouled the waters and 

 di'iven the fish, lobsters and oysters away from their 

 former feeding groimds, and it is a cause for rejoicing 

 that some one has brought them before the courts for it. 



NO SYMPATHY. 

 n^^HE Maine report, of which advance notice is given in 

 another column, is a thoroughly business document. 

 We will give fuDer extracts from it when the complete 

 text is received. It is full of sound sense. Here is some- 

 thing worth thinking about in connection with the recent 

 murder of a game warden and the character of the 

 "oppressed" himters. The Commissioners say: "Our 

 game laws are fair and impartial to all. They only seek 

 to protect the game when it is breeding, or when nursing 

 its young, or when recuperating after the season is past. 

 It is merely sought to insure to the working man, 

 whether at manual labor, or at the desk, or counter, or 

 factory, or sawmill, an equal right to his share of what 

 belongs equally to all. By what right do tliese men 

 abandon that work by which the members of the 

 social w^orld earn their bread, and claim authority 

 to kill and sell that which belongs to the State and which 

 tlie State gives equally to all, upon conditions to be ful- 

 filled before legal title to tlie same can be acquired? By 

 what riglit do ciertain men conspire together to seduce 

 visitors at otir summer resorts to break onr laws and kill 

 our game? With bated breatli the inhabitants infonn us 

 of the outrages of these men, but always pleading that 

 we will not give tlieir names, as they fear the threats of 

 personal violence of life, of burned barns, or tracts of for- 

 est fired. The whole community, the whole State stands 

 in aw'e of these vicious, dangerous outlaws." 



It is the veriest nonsense to prate of the hardships 

 wrought by tlie law. Tlie game of the State is for the 

 people. Law-abiding citizens should not be robbed of it 

 by those members of society who like domestic animals 

 in certain countries liave reverted to a feral state and 

 taken to the woods. 



Snow in the South, — The first extensive snowstonn 

 of the winter not only bmued the Northern and Middle 

 States, but whitened the ground thi-ougli the South as far 

 as Georgia and Alabama. The snow fell from a foot to 

 eighteen inches deep in regions where snow is seldom seen 

 at all, and the mercury ran far below tlie freezing point. 

 Such unusual weather could hardly be without its effect 

 on the game, Fi'om some localities we hear reports that 

 quail were frozen to death in large numbers. Happily, 

 however, the storm was succeeded by milder weather, 

 and we are inclined to believe that the injury to the quail 

 has been overestimated. While the snow and cold 

 weather were hard upon the quail, they mad^e the duck 

 shooting very good. On Currituck Sound, though there 

 has as yet been but little weather to bring the fowl in, 

 there has been excellent shooting at "common ducks,'" a 

 term which includes all varieties except canvasbacks and 

 redheads. We heard of tlu-ee gims, on the grounds of 

 the Narrows Island Club, killing 112 liirds in a day. 

 This should sa,tisf y any one. The best shooting at canvas 

 and redheads will come later, w^hen a severe freeze 

 occurs. At last advices from High Point it was snowing 

 heavily, but it is to be hoped that the storm, unprece- 

 dented in the South at this season of the year, may not 

 interfere with the field trials to be run at Grand Junction, 

 Tenn. 



Summer Woodcock SnooTiNa. — The communication 

 on this subject, j)rinted elsewhere, is w^orthy of respectful 

 consideration, because, for one thing, it comes from a 

 sportsmen whose experience of twenty years should give 

 him some authority. The belief he holds is shared by 

 many others. Indeed the tendency of tlie times is toward 

 stricter and more adequate protection. There is only one 

 sure basis of reasoning on this w- oodcock question. To 

 discuss summer woodcock shooting from the standpoint 

 of sentiment is fruitless. It is quite as idle to attempt to 

 argue against the jiractice on the ground that July shoot- 

 ing is tremendously hard work. The one reason for 

 closing the season in summer is that the stock of birds 

 will not stand the great di-ain now made upon the supply. 

 It is the simplest arithmetic. It is proverbial philosophy. 

 You cannot eat your cake and have it too. Woodcock 

 do not miraculously increase. If they are killed off 

 they will not spring up again. If New Jersey and Penn- 

 sylvania sportsmen expect to enjoy woodcock shooting in 

 the future, common sense requires abandonment of this 

 foolish summer destruction. 



No Credit.— The Forest and Stream is widely quoted. 

 Usually the best things taken from it are not credited, or 

 else the credit is given to some other paper which has 

 appropriated from our columns. This is a common thing 

 with all journals having much original matter worth 

 copying. There is now- going the rounds a little story of 

 a man w-ho shot a centipede oft' from his toe, the bullet 

 wounding a mule and poisoning it to death with the 

 poison of the centipede. This yarn is widely circulating 

 and is credited to the Tombstone, Ariz, , Epifajoh. Months 

 ago it was printed and reprinted as coming from the 

 Laramie, Wyo,, Boomerang, Bill Nye's paper. Probably, 

 if traced back, it will be foimd to have appeared in the 

 old Sjmnt of the Times back in Mexican war times. We 

 do not mind it much when the Forest and Stream is 

 denied due credit for what esteemed contemporaries find 

 useful in its columns, but it is aggravating to see "Ness- 

 muk's"' poems (recently published in the Forest and 

 Stream) going the rounds with no credit to either paper 

 or author. To filch in this way is of no special credit to 

 the newspapers copying the poems. 



Birch Bark Pictures,— We have been shown by Mr, 

 J, Henry Phair, Commissioner of Fisheries, Frederic- 

 ton, New Brunswick, some very artistic birch bark pic- 

 tures. The bark, of different shades, is cut to the form 

 of the required figures, and pasted upon the paper, on 

 which the background is draw-n. The natural bark, in 

 short, is used to form one of the colors of the picture. In 

 one of the specimens, for example, the figui'e of a canoe 

 and three anglers is cut from bark, pasted upon a card, 

 and then the details of river, shore and sky are drawn in 

 pencil. The effect is very beautiful, Mr, Ph air's work, 

 we notice, has received attention at the Indian and Colon- 

 ial Exhibition in London. 



Ought to be Stopped.— The exportation of American 

 w^ild turkeys, quail, ruffed and pinnated grouse, ducks, 

 snipe and other game to Great Britain, 



An Interesting Market Item, — Among the current 

 New York market quotations is this: "Connecticut par- 

 tridges and woodcock are $1,23 a brace, and those from 

 the West |1," The exportation of woodcock and gTOUse 

 from Connecticut is forbidden by the game statutes of 

 that State, but the birds are for sale in New York. There 

 is no special difficulty in bringing them to market. The 

 mere existence of the law does not stop market-hunters, 

 since there is no adequate machinery for enforcing the 

 regulations. In the same way Michigan venison is to be 

 had in St. Louis and New York and Boston and Philadel- 

 phia, though the Michigan non-export game law is. very 

 explicit. 



An Impotent Grip,— When the Passaic County Fish 

 and Game Protective Association caught Domenico Billa, 

 Giovanni Pelozi and Pauli Gacomond, sons of Italy and 

 song bu'd shooters, red-handed and pockets stuffed with 

 booty, and hauled them before a Paterson justice, the 

 interpreter gave to constable and magistrate the grip of 

 the Knights of Labor, and assured the court that the bird 

 shooters were all members in good standing. The dodge 

 failed to work, and the Italians paid their fines. The 

 Paterson Pres.s- reports that the work of the Association 

 will be prosecuted with vigor. 



The Belleville Sportsmen are doing good work for 

 Ontario game by bringing to justice parties who have 

 been unlawfully killing deer. It is worthy of remark 

 that one of these convicted deer poachers was himself a 

 magistrate. He has now, it is to be hoped, acquired a 

 practical and useful knowledge of the game law of 

 Ontario, It w^as dear bought knowledge, even though 

 the cash outlay was comparatively insignificant. 



The Eefort of the Eastern Field Trials is con- 

 concluded this week. The meeting has been a notable 

 one by reason of the large number of entries; and some of 

 the heats have brought out very fine w^ork. The trials 

 have passed off pleasantly, and it gives us jileasure to 

 record the absence of any unpleasant episode to mar the 

 satisfaction of those participating. 



Nessmuk's Poems are already an assured success. The 

 first five hundred advance subscriptions haying filled, we 

 are now under way for a full thousand. The artotype 

 portrait is a great success. The price of the book has 

 been advanced to $1.50. 



The Thirteen-thousandth First Man to eat thirty 

 quail, one each consecutive day, is hard at work in 

 Chicago. 



