Forest and Stream 



A Weekly Journal of the Rod and Gun, 



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



Six Months, $2. ' ( 



NEW YORK, MARCH 16, 1888. 



1 VOL. XXX.— No. 8. 



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



CORRESPONDENCE. 



The Forest and Stream is the recognized medium of entertain- 

 ment, instruction and information between American sportsmen. 

 Communications on the subject to which its pages are devoted are 

 respectfully invited. Anonymous communications will not be re- 

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

 The Editors are not responsible for the views of correspondents. 



ADVERTISEMENTS. 

 Only advertisements of an approved character inserted. Inside 

 pages, nonpareil type, 30 cents per line. 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 previous to 

 issue in which they are to be inserted. Transient advertisements 

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

 inserted. Reading notices $1.00 per line. 



SUBSCRIPTIONS 

 May begin at any time. Subscription price, $4 per year; $2 for six 

 months; to a club of three annual subscribers, three copies for $10; 

 five copies for $16. Remit by express money-order, regi ered letter, 

 money-order, or draft, payable to the Forest and Stream Publishing 

 Company. The paper may be obtained of newsdealers throughout 

 the United States, Canadas and Great Britain, For sale by Davies 

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

 agents for Great Britain, Messrs. Davies & Co., and Messrs. Samp- 

 son Low, Marston, Searles and Rivington, 188 Fleet street, London, 

 Eng. Brentano's, 17 Avenue de 1'Opera, Paris, France, sole Paris 

 agent for sales and subscriptions. Foreign subscription price, $5 

 per year; $2.50 for six months. 

 Address all communications, 



Forest and Stream Publishing Co. 



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



CONTENTS. 



Editorial. 



Systems of Game Protection. 



Classification of Racing 

 Yachts. 



The Rock Climbers.— xii. 

 The Sportsman Tourist. 



An Uninvited Guest. 



Some Canoeing. 

 Natural History. 



The Food of Rapacious Birds. 



The Hermit Thrush. 



The Prong-Horned Antelope. 

 Game Bag and Gun. 



Pilgrimage of the Saginaw 

 Crowd. 



Small Bores. 



Winter Shooting at Montauk, 

 Worcester Sportsman's Club. 

 Sea and River Fishing. 

 Fly-Table Talks and Notes.-I. 

 Durability of Artificial Flies. 

 IntbeLand of the Micmacs.-v 

 Fly-Fishing at Lake Batiscan. 



FlSHGULTURE. 



The Decrease of Food Fishes. 



The Mission of the Menhaden 

 The Kennel. 



An Evil at Dog Shows. 



Johnny and Drake. 



Kennel Management. 

 Rifle and Trap Shooting. 



Range and Gallery. 



The Trap. 



Canadian Trap News. 

 Yachting. 



English and American Yachts 



New York Y. C. 



Yacht Building at Roslyn. 



Yachting Notes. 

 Canoeing. 



Atlantic Division Meet. 



Standing or Lowering Rigs. 



The Single Blade and the Open 

 Canoe. 



Canoe Cruises. 

 Answers to Correspondents. 



PROTECT THE PARK. 

 ALL REAdEES who are interested in the protection of the 

 Yellowstone National Park are invited to co-operate with 

 this jonrnal in the endeavor to secure needed legislation. 

 Petitions will be sent to all who will undertake to have 

 them signed and forwarded to Washington. 



SYSTEMS OF GAME PROTECTION. 



O TATE game warden systems are in their experimental 

 ^ and formative stage. No system has been devised 

 and put into actual operation which fully meets the re- 

 quirements. Some are lacking in one thing, some in an- 

 other. 



Beginning with the oldest, there is the Maine system. 

 There are here two Commissioners who have subordinate 

 officers under them. The Commissioners are dependent 

 on the wardens for the detection and arrest of offenders. 

 The wardens were once given a part of the fines recovered. 

 ■At the last session of the Legislature the law was amended, 

 taking away from the wardens their shares of the fines. 

 The result has been that the wardens have not done such 

 effective work as they did before. The stimulus has been 

 removed; the service is correspondingly inefficient. 

 Maine's great game and fish interests urgently demand a 

 change in the law, and a restoration of the rewards to the 

 wardens. 



A similar defect in the Michigan system goes far to 

 nullify the efficiency of official game protectors. There 

 [the statute prescribes that the wardens shall be paid by 

 county supervisor boards, and their compensation is left 

 entirely to the will of the supervisors. Game protection 

 had a great boom in Michigan when the system first 

 went into effect, but very soon it was discovered that 

 supervisors were not inclined to vote money to wardens 

 in payment for services rendered, and here, as in Maine, 

 activity ceased because there was no money in it. Game 

 protective societies will talk protection and make 

 speeches and write arguments in its favor for nothing; 

 but when it comes to a warden actually going to work 

 and doing something, he must in some way be paid for 

 it. Michigan's game protective system will fizzle out 



unless some way is provided to pay her officers for a 

 faithful discharge of duty. 



In one particular the Michigan system is well planned. 

 The local and subordinate wardens are under the control 

 and direction of a chief warden, who has jurisdiction 

 over the entire State. 



Ohio has a force of wardens who do efficient service; 

 and it is thought that their work can be improved if they 

 are placed under the direction of a chief. The most im- 

 portant piece of game and fish legislation before the Ohio 

 Legislature this year has been this proposal to provide for 

 a chief game protector. 



The same plan has been under discussion in New York, 

 in which State the game protectors are now under the 

 control of the Commissioners of ^ Fisheries. They are re- 

 quired to report to the Commissioners, but they are ap- 

 pointed by the Governor and may be dismissed only by 

 him. The Commissioners of Fisheries, as a board, have 

 demonstrated their unfitness to direct the ""protectors. 

 Some of the members of the Commission appear to think 

 it the proper thing to resolve the meetings into minstrel 

 shows and crack jokes when game protection is under 

 discussion. Even were the Commissioners a unit as to 

 policy and united in zeal, they would hardly be asked to 

 assume the labor involved in an adequate supervision of* 

 the protectors, for the Commissioners serve without re- 

 muneration. A bill has been introduced into the Assem- 

 bly to provide for the appointment of a chief protector, 

 who shall have general charge of the work throughout 

 the State, and to whom the other protectors shall be 

 subordinate. 



The efficiency of such a system would depend alto- 

 gether upon the character of the man appointed to fill the 

 place of chief protector. If he is to be only a new cog in 

 the political machine, put into place to further the ends 

 of the man who appoints him, the last state of game 

 protection is likely to be worse than the first. If on the 

 contrary a fit person could be appointed irrespective of 

 political consideration , to do the work with the sole aim 

 of protecting game and fish, the gain would be decided; 

 and the protectors who now wink at law breakers with 

 or without an itching palm, would be given an oppor- 

 tunity to seek out new fields of usefulness in some other 

 line of endeavor. 



* CLASSIFICATION OF RACING YACHTS. 

 T T IS just a year since the attention of American yachts- 

 men was first called to the pressing necessity of a 

 reform in the matter of classification, by the Forest and 

 Stream, the point then most strongly urged being that 

 all the leading clubs should combine in adopting and 

 supporting one uniform system, whatever that might be. 

 The progress made, and the manner in which the subject 

 has been dealt with by the clubs in this time is a striking 

 evidence of the lack of unity and purpose in American 

 yachting, and is at least conclusive, if far from satis- 

 factory. Had the matter been promptly taken up when 

 first suggested, a series of classes could easily have been 

 determined on before the season opened, and as compara- 

 tively few racing yachts were built last season, the new 

 classes could have been used in all, or nearly all, the 

 season's races, and the scheme have been in perfect work- 

 ing order before the building season of 1887-8. Though 

 some discussion took place and the necessity for action 

 was generally recognized, no concerted movement was 

 taken by the clubs. The Seawanhaka C. Y. C. brought 

 up the question among a nnmber of other pressing mat- 

 ters, but nothing resulted save the appointing of a com- 

 mittee to report in time for action after the close of the 

 season. The New York and Eastern clubs paid no 

 attention to the matter, while the Larchniont Y. C. tem- 

 porarily remodeled its old classes in partial conformity 

 with those proposed by the Forest and Stream. Only 

 two clubs, the Atlantic and the young New Rochelle Y, 

 C. moved actively in the matter, both taking up the pro- 

 posed classification and adopting it permanently, while 

 the Corinthian Y. C. adopted the classes as an experi- 

 ment in its first regatta. 



During the racing season little was done, but in the 

 fall a move was made which resulted in a lengthened 

 conference of committees from the New York, Seawan- 

 haka, Atlantic and Larchmont clubs. The Eastern Y. C. 

 was invited to join, but as no meeting was held during 

 the winter, no official action was possible. Though the 

 representatives of the various clubs differed on some 

 points, all were agreed on the main issues, and the origi- 

 nal classification, already adopted by the clubs, was 



recommended by each committee. The Atlantic Y, C. 

 was already committed to it, the Seawanhaka C. Y. C, 

 at a special meeting, authorized its officers to sign in its 

 behalf an agreement of ail the clubs binding them for a 

 period of five years, and the Larchmont Y. C. unani- 

 mously adopted it, but in deference to the leading posi- 

 tion which has always been conceded to the New York 

 Y. C. , it was generally felt that its consent was indis- 

 pensable to the full carrying out of the plan. 



Here came the first hitch; from the beginning the New 

 York Y. C. had failed to push the subject, and lor a very 

 good and sufficient reason ; that in doing so it would have 

 to follow other clubs younger than itself. The fact that 

 the whole movement was the first general step toward a 

 needed organization of the clubs, that the success of the 

 plan would be of the greatest advantage to all, weighed 

 but little when compared with the other facts, that the 

 plan had originated entirely outside of the New York 

 Y. C, and that it had already been approved by other 

 clubs. The committee, however, after full discussion 

 with those of the other clubs, recommended the plan, 

 and it came up for final action at the general meeting of 

 the New York Y. C. last month. 



Here a second snag was encountered. In the proposed 

 division the single-stick classes, beginning at the lowest, 

 were as follows: 26ft. l.w.l. and under; over 26 to 30; 

 over 30 to 35; over 35 to 41; over 41 to 48; over 48 to 56; 

 over 56 to 65; over 65 to 75; over 75ft. This division has 

 much to recommend it; the intervals increased in size as 

 the lengths of the yachts were greater, it grouped the 

 existing boats very well together in nearly all the classes, 

 and it encouraged good sizes of boats for the new fleet to 

 be built under it. As will be seen by the list given in the 

 Forest and Stream of March 24, 1887, it fitted well with 

 the existing fleet, save at one point, the yachts known 

 formerly as first and lately as second class, those of about 

 70ft. Here the proposed plan would raise the limit 5ft., 

 or to 75. This was felt to be an objection to it, but with 

 the next lower interval at 55ft. , it was very difficult to 

 avoid a disturbance somewhere, and while it was un- 

 desirable to upset a long established class, the evil was 

 not so great as it seemed. Looking over the class, the 

 boats were: Bedouin, 70ft. liin.; Titania, 70ft.; Gracie, 

 69ft. 4in. ; Shamrock, 67ft.; Pocahontas, 67ft.; Fanny, 

 65ft. 9in.; Ileen, 65ft. 4in.; Stranger, 65ft.; Thetis, 64ft. 

 2in.; Huron, 63ft.; Arrow, 61ft. 8in.; Hildegarde, 61ft. 

 6in.; Mischief, 61ft.; Wenonah, 60ft. 9in. Of this lot of 

 fourteen only three have any chance of first place in a 

 fair race to-day, Bedouin, Shamrock and Titania. The 

 rest are either too small or too old in model and build to 

 have the least chance of a prize, and Bedouin has stood 

 for several years the acknowledged leader of the class. 

 Her owner is willing to see the limit extended to 75ft. 

 Shamrock, for some reason, was intentionally built too 

 small by 3ft. for the class, and Titania is the only one 

 likely to make a well-grounded objection to the change. 

 As for Pocahontas, Fanny and the rest, their place in the 

 racing is not such as to entitle them to the right to object, 

 while Gracie has little hope of winning from a well- 

 designed modern boat of her own size. The new class 

 proposed at 65ft. would, moreover, include all from 

 Fanny down in a class where any of the first half dozen, 

 Mischief, Stranger, Thetis, Huron and Fanny, might still 

 have a fair chance to win, and where, even if a new boat 

 were built to the class, she could not greatly exceed them 

 in size, so that they would be actually better off than in 

 the old 70ft. class with Bedouin and Shamrock to take 

 all the mugs. 



Weighing all points together it would seem that while 

 one or two boats might have their chances injured by a 

 new yacht of greater length, the arrangement would in 

 itself have been beneficial to the majority, and have 

 aided the adoption of the entire list of classes depending 

 on it. Whether or no the new 75ft. class would at once 

 have proved popular and have been built up to is un- 

 certain, but the new 65ft. class would have been a moBt 

 desirable one. The experience of forty years of yacht 

 building has brought out vessels of 60 to 67ft. as the 

 favorite size for single-stickers, as the above list will 

 show, in fact until a few years since no sloop exceeded 

 67ft. This size proved ample for the needs of the majority 

 of yachtsmen, but these were all old wooden craft; a 

 vessel of steel or composite build and modern style, of 

 65ft. l.w.l., would have at least thirty per cent, more 

 cabin room, and at the same time be safer, faster, and 

 would cost little or nothing more to run. She would 

 give the accommodation generally demanded, in fact far 



