Forest and Stream 



A Weekly Journal of the Rod and Gun. 



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



Six Months, $2. f 



NEW YORK, FEBRUARY 9, 1888. 



VOL. XXX.— No. 3. 

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



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CONTENTS. 



Editorial. 



The Small- Arms Trade. 



The Forest Commission 

 Report. 



The Maine Jigging Case. 



Notes and Comments. 



The Rock Climbers.— vn. 

 The Sportsman Tourist. 



The Call of the Moose.— n. 



Bob. 



Natural History. 



The Yv T ays of Wolves. 



Chat About Snakes. 



Forty Years Ago. 



Powder-down Feathers in 

 Herons. 



Talking to Domestic Animals. 



Charles Linden. 

 Game Bag and Gust. 



Experience in Maine. 



At Close Quarters with a Buck 



A Brush with Ephraim. 



Explanations and Felicita- 

 tions. 



The Hunting Rifle. 



Deer Driving in Dakota. 



Sailing for Ducks. 



Sailing for Antelope. 



Passaic County F. and G. P. A. 



Albany Game Law Mill. 

 Camp Fire Flickerings. 



Sea and River Fishing. 

 Knotted Eels. 

 Trout of the Tracadie. 

 Out of the Frying-Pan into the 

 Five. 



A Boyhood Memory. 

 Sunapee Lake. 



FlSHCULTURE. 



U. S. Fish Commission Report. 

 The Kennel. 

 Rule 2. 

 Rule 7. 



Puppies and Guns. 



Nights with the Coons. 



Augusta Dog Show. 



American Pet Dog Show. 



Fox Hunting in S. Carolina. 



Some Diseases of the Teeth. 



Kennel Mana gement. 



Kennel Notes. 

 Rule and Trap Shooting. 



Range and Gallery. 



The Trap. 

 Yachting. 



A Winter Cruise in the South. 



New York Y. C. Election. 

 Canoeing. 



Cruising Canoes at the Meet. 



Atlantic Division, A. C. A. 



Prizes for Paddling Races. 

 Answers to Correspondents. 



A. B. Steele, Esq., in speaking of the difficulties of cany- 

 ins,- on prosecutions for cutting timber on State land, as- 

 serts that "the whole area of State lands is being cut 

 over, and that if a person inform on a trespasser neither 

 his person nor his property is safe." The Commission ask 

 for authority to bring actions for trespass in the name of 

 the State in any of the fifteen counties of the forest re- 

 serve. 



The report has some very sensible recommendations on 

 the subject of "occupancy" as a recognized means for 

 the recovery of land sold for taxes, and the Commission 

 pleads somewhat piteously- for such a reapportionment of 

 the appropriation as will enable them to perform the 

 duties assigned to them. This is a matter which should 

 not require special legislation. The appropriation having 

 been sanctioned under two or at most three general budget 

 heads, the Governor should be armed with full power to 

 make all necessary reapportionments under the several 

 heads at the recommendation of the Commission. Perhaps 

 it was not so much the fault of the Legislature that provis- 

 ion was not made for detailed expenditure under every 

 prescribed subhead, as the failure of the Commission to 

 submit a detailed statement of requirements under budget 

 heads. 



But in spite of all shortcomings the State of New York 

 is to be congratulated on having secured a body of Com- 

 missioners so evidently anxious to do justice to the oner, 

 ous responsibilities they have assumed from a simpla 

 sense of public duty, for it will be remembered that the 

 Commissioners are in receipt of no pay nor emoluments. 



THE FOREST COMMISSION REPORT. 



IN anticipation of the annual report of the Forest Com- 

 mission of New York, the Commissioners have 

 drafted a special report on legislation for the action of the 

 Legislature now in session. 



The first subject taken up by the Commission is that of 

 leases of forest plots for summer residences. Of the 

 present occupants some have taken possession without 

 any authority whatever, and some have been appointed 

 custodians by the Land Commissioners, who, having no 

 authority to lease the land directly, were simply evading 

 the intention of the law in appointing custodians with 

 power to build, improve and live upon it; but whatever 

 may be the decision with regard to custodians appointed 

 prior to the passage of the act vesting the forest reserves 

 in the control of the Forest Commission, all appointed 

 subsequent to that date are necessarily null and void, and 

 the Commissioners, holding that it is not desirable to ex- 

 clude the public from a proper and reasonable enjoyment 

 of the forest preserve, and believing that it was not the 

 intention of the Legislature to throw any obstacles in the 

 way of such proper enjoyment, ask for legislative action 

 to confer on them all necessary power in the premises. 



The Commission further recommend the necessary legis- 

 lation for the appropriation of taxes raised on the lands 

 of non-residents to the building and maintenance of 

 roads running through the lands assessed. Under the 

 present system the highway taxes are paid to the Com- 

 missioners of Highways, who have power to expend it 

 in any part of the town in which in their opinion it will 

 do the most good. 



But the most important feature in the Commissioners' 

 report is their recommendation for change of venue in 

 prosecutions for trespass upon State lands, a recommenda- 

 tion based upon the difficulty of finding witnesses who 

 dare or are willing to furnish the State with iHtforrnation 

 in their possession with regard to such trespasses. In 

 fact the anarchical conditions of affairs, and the reckless 

 defiance of the law in the North Woods, have reached such 

 a pitch that the late district attorney for Herkimer county, 



THE SMALL-ARMS TRADE. 



WITHIN the past few days two events have started a 

 great deal of tongue- wagging and repeated asser- 

 tions that there was a scheme afoot to form a controlling 

 interest in the small -arms trade. The two matters which 

 started all this talk about a gun trust were first the bid- 

 ding in at the court sale of the Remington works at 

 Ilion, by Messrs. Hartley & Graham, of that great manu- 

 factory, for $152,500, and second the purchase of the 

 Whitney Arms Co. works at New Haven, by the Winches- 

 ter Repeating Arms Co., of the same place. The fact 

 that these two occurrences took place within a few days 

 one of the other was the occasion of the widespread 

 notion that something hi the nature of a coalition was 

 afoot, and that competition of a destructive sort was to 

 be done away with under the terms of a protective agree- 

 ment. 



Neither of these sales were sudden steps. The sale of 

 the Ilion works was in obedience to a court order secured 

 by the receivers, Brill & Russell, and the purchase for 

 this small sum, provided the sale is ratified by the court, 

 will leave the purchasers a very handsome profit whether 

 they wish to go into arms manufacturing or not. The 

 appraisement of the property at auction prices put the 

 value at over a million of dollars. There is in the inven- 

 tory the factories, guns and sewing machine patents, 

 costly machinery and plant in almost endless variety, 

 water-ways and franchises, real estate, etc. The fact 

 that an agent of the Winchester Company was present 

 at the sale and did not take up the property is given 

 special significance by those who had a pecuniary interest 

 in seeing a much larger sum realized. The sale of the 

 Whitney Arms Company works at New Haven has been 

 under consideration for several years, and repeated offers 

 of the works have been made to the Winchester Company 

 as the most probable purchaser. Now that the Winches- 

 ter people are somewhat pushed with work the Whitney 

 works have been taken probably at figures fixed by the 

 purchasers. 



The strongest ground for suspecting that there may be 

 something of a trust in process of formation is the fact 

 that arcn manufacture has not been for some time past in 

 a very satisfactory way. There are great private arm- 

 ories fitted with fine machinery of an expensive sort and 

 of exclusive patterns, capable of turning out rifles by 

 the hundred, but there are no contracts to keep these 

 establishments running at a profitable rate. Competition 

 has been pushed to an extreme which must leave but the 

 barest minimum of profit, if it leaves any at all, until 

 to-day there is no piece of fine mechanism upon the 

 market which is offered to the purchaser at such a low 

 price as a fine rifle. 



With those facts in mind it is no wonder that there 

 is a widespread notion among dealers and others con- 

 versant with the trade that there is something in the 



nature of a trust under way. Frequent mention is made 

 of the fact that a cartridge trust or pool, formed several 

 years ago for the regulation of the prices of metallic 

 cartridges, has been in successful operation, and the in- 

 ference is that it would be a short step to the establish- 

 ment of a gun trust. With the Winchester, the Colt, and 

 the new Ilion owners in a combine, the trade would be 

 largely controlled, and so far as big contracts were con- 

 cerned a practical monopoly would exist. This would 

 be of more importance in regard to military rifles, and 

 more especially as concerns contracts for foreign delivery 

 since the U. S. Government has for many years carried 

 on its own small-arms works at the Springfield armory. 



In the making of sporting rifles, it is doubtful whether 

 a pool woidd have much influence. There are many 

 small concerns turning out fine small-bore arms, and these 

 could hardly be brought into any sort of a working com- 

 bination. There is not so much danger either from an 

 excessive cutting of rates in this part of the trade. The 

 name of the maker, his reputation and standing among 

 sportsmen is a large part of his capital, and this is not 

 readily sacrificed. A maker of repute can always com- 

 mand a fair price for a good article, and while trusts may 

 operate where goods are sold in bulk and through the 

 customary channels of trade, they would not avail much 

 where the repute gained by years of skill is one of the 

 factors to be allowed for. 



The fact is that just now there is a popular widespread 

 distrust on this whole subject of pools and combines. 

 In the monopoly of certain staples of life they have re- 

 cently worked palpable injury and borne hardly upon 

 the great mass of the community. When another one is 

 hinted at there is little wonder that an outcry should be 

 raised, and so far there is no open act or confession to 

 show that a small-arms trust is under way; but, in the 

 meantime, the fact remains that the purchasing prices of 

 fine weapons have been for some time down to a point 

 far below anything like a decently remunerative figure, 

 and even were some sort of a trade understanding reached, 

 there will always be enough cheap arms in the market for 

 those who seek them, and there will always be sportsmen 

 ready to pay a superior workman a fit price for a superior 

 arm. 



THE MAINE JIGGING CASE. 



THE case of trout jigging at the Upper Dam, Maine, 

 last year, has again been brought up by the printing 

 of this card in a New York paper: 



"We are in receipt of several private letters requesting our 

 opinion as to the truth of the chai-ges against Mr. Stewart of 

 'jigging' trout in Maine waters. We desire to answer them pub- 

 licly. We have read caref ully all the testimony, published and 

 unpublished, in the case; a score of affidavits not yet given to the 

 public have been before us; an exhaustive brief of the case has 

 been prepared for his own enlightenment by the writer; personal 

 inquiries have been made as to the practices of the defendant on 

 other waters, and more especially as to the character of tackle 

 and methods used by Mr. Stewart when fishing the waters of the 

 Upper Dam, with which we are familiar, and we have reached 

 the conclusion that even the most prejudiced jury would be 

 forced to render the Scotch verdict 'not proven.' Personally we 

 believe in Mr. Stewart's entire innocence of the charge made 

 against him. War. C. Harris." 



We beg to say, in all kindness to Mr. Stewart, that no- 

 body cares a rap what Mr. Wm. C. Harris may profess to 

 believe in this matter. He has never been constituted a 

 piscatorial pope, nor is his rjosition in the angling world 

 so exalted that his say-so, unsupported by evidence, will 

 be accepted as a final verdict in the jigging case. If Mr. 

 Stewart has "a score of affidavits" which he thinks can 

 offset the evidence printed in this journal, the very best 

 possible use he can put them to is to send them to the 

 Forest and Stream for publication. Our columns have 

 always been open for any rejoinder he might care to sub- 

 mit, they are open now, they will be open in the future. 

 If he has documents to prove his innocence they will be 

 of ten thousand times more good to him printed in the 

 Forest and Stream than briefed for one individual, 

 whose "enlightenment" leaves all the rest of the world 

 in the dark, and whose championship, though it costs 

 little, is worth less. . 



The report of the Passaic County (N. J.) Fish and Game 

 Protective Association printed elsewhere is an instructive 

 document. These New Jersey citizens appear to have 

 gone to work in a sensible, straight-forward and success- 

 ful way to enforce the laws, and conserve and replenish 

 the game and fish supply. The record is here printed for 

 the instruction, edification and emulation of o-ther 

 societies with similar aims, 



