Forest and Stream. 



A Weekly Journal of the Rod and Gun. 



Tebms, 14 A Year. 10 Cts. a Copy. ) 



Six Months, $2. f 



NEW YORK, DECEMBER 30, 1886. 



\ VOL. XXVII.~No. 33. 



) Nos. 39 & 40 Paek Row, New Yobk. 





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CONTENTS, 



Edctorial. 

 This Won't Do. 

 Snap Shots. 



A Report on the Yellow.stone 



Park. 

 Shepherd F. Knapp. 

 The SroKTSAfAN Tocrist. 

 The Phantom Buck of Baxter 



Peak. 



White Goats and Bull Trout. 



An East Florida Resort. 



That Brown Pnp. 

 NATUBAii History. 



Contiding Chipmunks. 



Hares for Kestoclcing. 

 Camp-Fire P'lickerings. 

 GAME Bag and Gun. 



Some Unsuccessful Hunts. 



Note Book of a Hunting Par- 

 son. 



Quail. 



Yellowstone National Park. 

 Game Notes. 

 Sea and River Fishing. 

 American Silkworm Gut. 



Sea and River, Fishing. 



Numbering Fish Hooks. 



Rising to a Fly in Alaska. 



Some Florida Notes. 

 Fishculture. 



Connecticut Shellfish Com- 

 mission. 

 The Kennel. 



The National Derby. 



Texas Field Trials. 



Kennel Management. 



Kennel Notes. 

 Rifle and Trap Shooting. 



Range and Gallery. 



Cliristmas Sho:>ti.ng. 



The Trap. 

 Yachting. 



Cruise of the Coot.— xxxi. 



Tliose Plans of the Thistle. 



The New British Rating. 



A Sharpie on the Gulf Coast. 

 Canoeing. 



Canoes vs. Sailing Boats. 



Oakland C. C. 

 Answers to Correspondents. 



A REPORT ON THE YELLOWSTONE PARK. 



THE report to the Seci-etary of the Interior of Captain 

 Harris, of the First Cavah-y, Acting Superintendent 

 of the National Park, has recently been published, and 

 wUl be found in another column. 



It is an admirable document and should be carefully 

 read by every one interested in our great national pleas- 

 ure ground. As we have had occasion before to remaxk, 

 Captain Harris is depj)ly interested in the Park, and takes 

 the same intelligent view of its needs that is held by all 

 those who are most familiar with and best qualified to 

 speak of it. He understands the importance of having 

 trained mountain men in the Government employ to 

 watch the trained mountain men and others who are not 

 in the Grovernment employ and who are trying to rob the 

 Park of some of its most attractive features. He is a 

 strict disciplinaria.n, and we may be sure that he will do 

 everything in his power to guard the Park from injury so 

 long as he remains in charge. But he tmderstands fully 

 the absolute necessity of a civil government in the Park, 

 and appreciates, as every one else except Congi'ess seems 

 to, the utter absurdity of having a lot of rules and regu- 

 lations which there is no machinery nor power to enforce. 



The rules and regulations established by Captain Harris 

 and appended to his report show very clearly how accu- 

 rate and intelligent an understanding he has of what is 

 needed in the guardianship of the Park. And it is most 

 unfortunate that, comprehending so weU what is re- 

 quired, he should lack the tools to carry out his recom- 

 mendations. These regulations have not been adopted by 

 the Interior Department, but they are very much needed 

 and should be made the law of the reservation. 



It is hoped that Congress may pass the Vest bill (S. 

 2,436) during the present session. The action of the 

 House on the iniquitous railroad bill was such as to afford 

 the greatest encouragement to those who watch the 

 course of legislation with regard to the National Park. 

 There will bo difficulties in the way, of course. The rail- 

 road lobby, smarting under their recent defeat, may 

 fight any effort for protection of the Park, either out of 

 pure malice, or in the hope of making some compromise 

 through which they can grasp with their iron tentacles — 

 tentacles that never loosen their hold— some portion of t]m 



Park which has been dedicated and set aside as a public 

 pleasure ground for the American people. No such com- 

 promise must be permitted. None is necessary. Sooner 

 or later the pubhc will msist that this Park shall be pro- 

 tected, shall be governed, shall be improved. Sooner or 

 later Congress will l>e made to understand that tliis Park 

 is for the benefit of the whole people — not for the rich or 

 for the poor, not for the muie owners or the railroad 

 owners; not for the people of the East or the people of 

 the West, but for all alike. 



Captain Hatris's report is one of the most important 

 documents pul>lished about tlie Park for a long time. He 

 looks at the reservation from the standpoint of an old 

 army man, and yet he comes t-o the same conclusion 

 which has been reached by every intelligent civilian, 

 whether a scientific, profeseional or business man, wJio is 

 acquainted with the Park and has given the subject any 

 thought. We believe that his report will have no little 

 influence for good in Congress. 



THIS WONT DO. 



'X'HE unforttmate occurrences at Grand Junction dur- 

 mg the last meeting of the National American Field 

 Trials Club, call for somewhat more extended comment 

 than can be given them in our news columns. 



Nothing that has been done of late years, we venture to 

 say, has been so bad or has had so great a tendency to 

 bring field trials into disrepute as the Ben Hill-Lillian 

 heat, and we may feel sure that if such occuirences are 

 passed over or excused, the interest taken in field trials 

 will cease. We have had occasion more than once in the 

 past to express our opinion of jockeying at field trials, 

 and to point out that these competitions are between dogs 

 honestly run, as in an ordinary day's shooting. If the 

 sharp practices, almost inevitable in trials of skill where 

 money is involved, are allowed to creep into the contest, 

 or if the prejudiced or feelings of handlers are to be per- 

 mitted to interfere with the legitimate struggle for vic- 

 tory between the dogs, we had better at once abandon 

 field trials, for when this takes place decent people will at 

 once cut loose from them, and they will sink to the lowest 

 level of gambling. 



In the case at Grand Junction the facts are as follows: 

 The setter dog Ben Hill, owned by Stephenson and han- 

 dled by Be van, was drawn to run against the setter bitch 

 Lillian, owned by P. H. Bryson, and handled by Stephen- 

 son. Stephenson claimed that the dogs ought not to be 

 run together under the rule which provides that two dogs 

 owned or handled by one pereon shall not be run together 

 if it can be avoided. This claim was at first allowed by 

 the judges and Don's Dot and Ben HiU were put down 

 and run for a few minutes, but Mr. Rose, the owner of 

 Daisy F. , who was drawn to run against Don's Dot, pro- 

 tested against the change, alleging that Ben Hill and Lil- 

 lian were not owned or handled by the same person. Mr. 

 Rose's protest was sustained by the executive committee. 

 The brace then down wag ordered up, and that evening it 

 was decided that Ben HiU and Lillian must run together. 



When the dogs went down, Bevan, who was Stephen- 

 son's liandler, by the latter's order, took Ben Hill away 

 where there were no bh-ds, and so handled him that it 

 was impossible for liim to win. 



Naturally enough this action on the part of the hand- 

 lers caused a good deal of talk, but nothing was done 

 about the matter until the meeting of the National Hand- 

 lers' Association, held Dec. 18 at Grand Junction. At 

 this meeting charges were preferred against Stephenson 

 and Bevan for conspiracy to defeat Ben Hill in his heat 

 against Lillian. 



In his defense Stephenson made a perfectly frank state- 

 ment: saying that he tried to withdraw Ben Hill from the 

 race, but that the judges would not permit this; that 

 from motives of friendship for Mr. Bryson he tried to de- 

 feat his o-wn dog, and that he believed LiUian the better 

 of the two animals. He entirely exonerated Bevan, who, 

 he said, was acting imder orders from himself, and stated 

 that a t the time he did not think that he was doing wrong. 

 The association declined to inflict a penalty. 



Up to the time when Ben HiU and LiUian were put 

 down Stephenson had acted a sti'aightf orward and honor- 

 able part. He tried to withdraw his dog, and should 

 have been allowed to do so, but the judges would not per- 

 mit it. That he acted in good faith is evident, for if he 

 had not done so he could easily have "lost" Ben Hill, and 

 then Lillian would have won the heat by default. Fail- 

 ing to obtain permission to draw bis dog, he took the 



course above detailed and thus exposed himself to the 

 severest censure, as weU as to any penalties the club may 

 choose to inflict. 



Charges were prefen-ed to the National Field Trials 

 Club against the "pulUng of Ben HiU" in his heat with 

 Lillian, and these charges were at once laid before the 

 executive committee for their action. 



This is so plain a case on the above statement that it 

 scarcely seems necessary to characterize it. The puUing 

 of a horse in a, race under similar circumstances would, 

 bring upon the jockey or driver guilty of the act the 

 severest penalty which could be inflicted. It seems 

 that the motives w^iich actuated Stephenson in his 

 action were generous rather tlian base, but in a matter of 

 this kind we have to deal with results, not motives. If a 

 handler be permitted to jockey from good motives, it w^ill 

 be impossible to prevent the same thing being done from 

 bad ones, and our field trials must be kept clear of all 

 taint of fraud if they are to amount to anything in the 

 future. 



We have great confidence that tliis matter will be prop- 

 erly handled by the National Field Trials Club. General 

 Shattuc we know to be an honorable man and one who 

 woiTld never lend his name to anything that was open to 

 suspicion. We look to him to bring the N. F, T. Club out 

 of this tmpleasant position with a clean record. 



It is noteworthy that this jockeying was practiced 

 openly. There was no attempt at concealment; the men 

 did not seem to realize that there was anything wrong 

 about it. Singularly enough the judges permitted it, 

 apparently without a word of remonstrance. They did 

 not at once order up the dogs and throw tliem both out 

 of the race, as they ought to have done. They seemed to 

 think it was part of the game. This argues on the part 

 of the judges, if they were aware of what w^as taking 

 place before their eyes, either a strange moral obliquity 

 or else an ignorance of all the rules of justice and fair 

 play. In either case they were unfit to be judges. 



More than this, there were some strange judgments 

 rendered on the work toward the last of the meeting; 

 judgments which were thought by some to have been 

 favoritism, but which it is charitable to suppose were 

 made by men who did not see the work on which they 

 were deciding. Hasty, snap decisions, and short heats in 

 which only one dog had an opportunity to do a bit of 

 work, seem to have been the rule at the end of the meet- 

 ing. It is hardly neccessary to say that this is all wrong. 



We need for judges at field trials younger men — men 

 w^ho can get around more actively, and see all the woi"k 

 done as it is done. Had we had such men at the last 

 trials at Grand Junction, and at the same time men of 

 sufficient experience to have rated the work done at it? 

 proper value, many of the heats would have been decided 

 differently, and different dogs might have won. 



SNAP SHOTS. 



THE deep-sea fishermen frequently complain that their 

 favorite pastime does not receive due attention at 

 the hands of writers for the Fobest and Stream. Whose 

 fatilt is it? 



Ohio sportsmen are to meet in convention at Columbus 

 Jan. 12, to take measures for securing better game and 

 fish laws and better means of enforcing the statutes. In 

 one respect the Ohio la w is admirable— it is brief and 

 comprehensible. The most ignorant market-hunter Avho 

 pots bunched quail in the snow can read it or at least 

 understand it when read to him. Whatever changes are 

 made in the law, let this simplicity and directness of 

 pliraseology be preserved. 



The Evening Post surmises that Mr. Husted is making 

 a still-hunt for the speakersMp of the New York Assem- 

 bly. This must be distressing news to that gentleman's 

 Adirondack deer-htmting friends. If the Bald Eagle of 

 Westchester cares to keep his standing in the craft he 

 should give over the abhorrent tactics of the stiU-hunter, 

 and whoop it up as with a pack of mongrel liounds and a 

 club. 



The Essex Club, of Gloucester, Mass. , whose side-hunt 

 of snow buntings was noticed last week, have appointed 

 a committee to determine whether bimtings are lawful 

 game or not. The law is so plain that it ought to be com- 

 prehended by any one man all alone by himself without 

 the aid of a coromxttee, 



