Forest and Stream 



A Weekly Journal of the Rod and Gun. 



Terms, $4 A Year. 10 Ots. a Copy. ) 



Six Months, $2. \ 



NEW YORK, DECEMBER 1, 1887. 



I VOL. XXIX.-No. 19. 



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



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CONTENTS. 



Editorial. 



The Future of the Park. 



The America's Cup 



Notes a*id Comments. 

 The Sportsman Tourist. 



Hunting in Florida in 1874.— Ill 

 Natural History. 



Instinct. 



Grouse in Captivity. 

 Why Trout Culture Fails. 

 How the Drumflsh Croaks. 

 Game Bag and Gun. 

 Game Near Town. 

 A Truncated Quail Hunt. 

 Where Game Abounds. 

 Clubs and Preserves. 

 Michigan Deer. 

 The Massachusetts Associa- 

 tion. 



Express Companies and the 



Game. 

 Notes from Ontario. 

 Uncle Lisha's Shop. 

 Sea and River Fishing. 

 On tha Gasconade. — rv. 

 Camp Adams.— i. 

 Lake Herrings and Gulls. 

 Angling Notes. 



Fishculture. 



The Chemical Changes in 

 Oysters by Floating. 

 The Kennel. 



The American Field Trials. 



The Eastern Field Trials. 



Mrs. Langtry and her York- 

 shire Terrier. 



Fox-Terrier Club Stakes. 



Kennel Notes. 



Kennel Management. 

 Rifle and Trap Shooting. 



Range and Gallery. 



The Trap. 

 Canoeing. 



Civis Americanus Sum. 



The Toronto Canoe Sail. 



A New Device for Reef Lines. 



A New Division of the A. C. A. 



An Amateur's Experience. 



Cruising Boats on Lake Erie. 



Ottawa C. C. 



The A. C. A. and the Cruisers. 

 Yachting. 



The New Deed of Gift. 



Loyalty Visits Boston. 



Sailing Boats of Toronto Bay. 

 Answers to Correspondents. 



THE AMERICA'S CUP. 



THE present time is always the dead period of the year 

 in yachting. The excitement of the fall races is over 

 the fleet is laid up. and a reaction sets in as men return to 

 the business and social duties of the winter, which were 

 suspended during the sailing season. It is too soon for 

 even a careful survey of the season just closed, and there 

 has not yet been time for the consideration of plans for 

 the following year. As all builders and designers know, 

 the present is the season of least activity, and it is not 

 until the holidays are past that new work is begun in 

 earnest. However, it is precisely this period of rest and 

 deliberation after a season's racing which the members of 

 the New York Yacht Club, who hold in their hands the 

 destinies of the America's Cup, have selected as the time 

 when a challenger must do all the serious work of de- 

 signing, and must determine exactly the yacht he will 

 build. The challenge must leave the other side within a 

 week, or it will be too late to insure a race within the 

 season laid down, that is, prior to Nov. 1. If it were only a 

 challenge that was required, the requirement would be 

 partial and unfair enough; but further, the owner and 

 designer must decide every important element of the pro- 

 posed yacht, beyond a possibility of subsequent changes, 

 and must place information of the principal ones in the 

 hands of their opponents. 



Just why the New York Yacht Club omitted to place 

 the amount of ballast and length of spars with the other 

 requirements in the deed of gift is not clear. Certainly 

 it was from no false notions of modesty or fair dealing; 

 but it was probably an oversight, due to the extreme haste 

 with which the whole matter was hurried through. The 

 three great factors in design at present are dimensions of 

 hull, weight of ballast, and area of sail, each being ap- 

 proximately equal in value; and as a matter of principle, 

 if the club has any right to demand one, it has the same 

 right to demand the others as well. Bad as it is to de- 

 mand that the other side shall show its hand to the de- 

 fenders while they work in the dark, the case is still worse 

 when it compels the former to crowd all the work of 

 designing into the short time between the close of the 

 eason and the early part of December, a period of one 



month. Of old the matter would not have been so seri- 

 ous; a design might then have been prepared some time 

 in advance; but in these times it would take a very wise 

 man to say in midsummer what style of boat he would 

 design in the following winter. 



The practical operation of the deed is about what its 

 framers evidently desired, the peaceful, if inglorious pos- 

 session of the America's Cup. If no challenge be received 

 within a very short time the lists are closed for the fol- 

 lowing season, and for a period of a year at least the New 

 York Yacht Club can hold the Cup, undisturbed by visions 

 of foreign challengers. Ten months before Oct. 15 would 

 be Dec. 15; let that date pass and no race is possible 

 before the season of 1889. 



Of course the club has the power to waive the limit, 

 and in view of the widespread disfavor with which the 

 new deed has been received by the body of the club, as 

 well as by other American yachtsmen; and the fact that 

 even the men who drew the new deed realize that they have 

 gone too far and placed the club in a very serious position; 

 it is not unlikely that a challenge later on would receive 

 attention. Before relying on this, however, it will be 

 well for intending challengers to remember the treatment 

 others have had in the past, and that while they may 

 receive a courteous acceptance of the challenge, they 

 need not be surprised to receive a printed copy of the new 

 deed of gift, and a curt intimation that their challenge is 

 not in due form. 



THE FUTURE OF THE PARK. 



IN THE forthcoming report of the Secretary of the 

 Interior it is probable that, while commending the 

 zeal" and energy shown by Capt, Harris in enforcing the 

 Yellowstone Park regulations, the Secretary will strongly 

 renew the recommendation made in a former report that 

 the Park be placed in charge of a specially appointed 

 superintendent and assistants. The ground taken by the 

 Secretary will naturally be that it is inconsistent with the 

 purposes of Congress, as expressed in existing law, for the 

 Department to be obliged to resort to military assistance 

 in the care of this reservation, save in cases of emer- 

 gency. 



The Secretary will urge the adoption of the bill (S. 

 2436) which passed the Senate by a large majority at the 

 last session of Congress providing for a civil government 

 of the Park; the number of assistant superintendents to 

 be increased from ten to fifteen. If, however, Congre: 

 should direct that the present arrangement shall con- 

 tinue, it is recommended that in addition to the military 

 force, there should be employed fifteen experienced 

 mountaineers to serve as special police, with power of 

 deputy marshals, having the power of arrest, and to be 

 selected and controlled by the military commander. 

 These men should be chosen because of their familiarity 

 with the Park, and should serve in the capacity of scouts. 



Special stress will be laid upon the urgent necessity of 

 speedily amending the present inadequate law providing 

 for the punishment of offenses committed in the Park. 

 As things are now the only penalty for infraction of Park 

 regulations is expulsion and confiscation of hunting 

 equipment. Clearly, as travel to the reservation in- 

 creases, and as game in the adjacent country is thinned 

 out, more stringent measures must be provided, both for 

 the protection of visitors and for conserving the game. 

 If adequate remedial legislation is not adopted at an early 

 day there will be nothing left in the reservation which a 

 law and its machinery would care for. In other words, 

 it will be an exhibition on a national scale of locking the 

 stable door after the horse has been stolen. 



It is probable, also, that the Secretary will direct atten- 

 tion to the necessity of a survey to accurately determine 

 and mark the boundary lines of the Park, in order that 

 settlers may not unwittingly encroach upon the reserva- 

 tion, and that game hunters should have no advantage of 

 a disputed territory. In defining anew the boundaries, 

 additions should be made on the east and the south, more 

 fully to carry out one of the main purposes of the Park 

 as a preserve for the large game of the country. The 

 proposed enlargement would take in an area of high 

 mountains, unfit for agriculture, and having no mineral 

 deposits. 



If the law against importation of contract labor applies 

 to musicians and clergymen, why will it not prevent the 

 importation of game-keepers, whippers-in, kennelmen, 

 and all the other employees who are coming over from 

 ' England to fill engagements in this country? 



NOTES AND COMMENTS. 



AVERY important decision has just been rendered by 

 the Full Bench of the Supreme Court of Massachu- 

 setts, in answer to an appeal from certain -parties in Rock- 

 land who have been complained of under the Cruelty to 

 Animals act, for letting loose a fox that had been reared 

 in confinement, and then attempting to "ride to hounds" 

 after him. The Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to 

 Animals was at the bottom of the prosecution, aided by 

 prominent citizens of the town where the alleged act of 

 cruelty was committed. The would-be hunters were 

 easily convicted in the lower courts, but they appealed; 

 their appeal setting forth that the fox is a "noxious ver- 

 min," and hence falls under another form of the law, per- 

 mitting his destruction, without defining the means. 

 Judge Devins, in rendering the decision, rules that the 

 fox is an animal, and hence must fall under the protection 

 of the statute preventing acts of cruelty. This decision 

 has been received with a good deal of displeasure by a 

 number of young gentlemen of prominence, either Eng- 

 lish or affecting to be English, who have been to a great deal 

 of expense in trying to render the sport of fox hunting 

 with hounds and horses popular in Massachusetts. They 

 have imported some remarkably fine packs of hounds, 

 with whippers-in and all the paraphernalia of regular 

 English fox hunts. Now the Supreme Court has decided 

 that the hunters are punishable under the act for the pre- 

 vention of cruelty to animals. 



The West is advancing toward an appreciation of the 

 economic value of wild game and the necessity of caring 

 for the supply. The latest indication of this increased 

 interest is shown in a very substantial way. The United 

 States Express Co. and the American Express Co. have 

 issued a general order to their agents forbidding them to 

 handle game unlawfully offered for shipment out of 

 Indiana, Michigan, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Iowa and 

 Dakota. The companies recognize the spirit and intent 

 of the law forbidding exportation, and they say to their 

 agents plainly that the statutes must be respected to the 

 letter. This is a great step. It cuts off the markets. If 

 all express companies would follow this example the 

 problem of game preservation would not be so difficult as 

 it is now. Our reports from Michigan show that the 

 wardens in that State are keeping a watchful eye on 

 illicit game shipment, as several hunters from abroad 

 have found to their cost. 



Brevet Brig.-Gen. Randolph B. Marcy, who died at 

 Orange, N. J., last week, had lived long enough to see a 

 text book prepared by himself at the special instance of 

 the War Department almost entirely superseded by the 

 advance of the times. This was the "Prairie Traveler," 

 a handbook for overland expeditions, written in 1858. 

 It was famous in its day, and was consulted by pioneers 

 setting out for the far West; but not one individual of 

 the hundreds of thousands who go West now have any 

 need of the book or knowledge of its existence; they 

 study only the time-table of lightning express trains and 

 hotel cars. 



Township 35, in Washington county, Maine, must be a 

 cheerful region to live in. It appears that hunters in the 

 vicinity of Nicatous Lake have been hounding deer into 

 that body of water and killing them there after the mode 

 forbidden by law and reason. The still-hunters took 

 things into their own hands and undertook to kill off the 

 dogs. The bounders have registered a vow and duly 

 proclaimed it, "If another hound is killed we will clean 

 out every horse and ox in the township." It is quite 

 clear that unless the hatchet is buried it will go hard 

 with the wild and domestic brute population of Town- 

 ship 35. 



A Paterson, New Jersey, ordinance requires all dogs to 

 be registered, and exacts a fee of $2 per dog for the regis- 

 try. The revenue derived from this source is $6,000 per 

 year. Owners have recently endeavored to do away with 

 this fee, urging that it amounts to a tax in disguise and is 

 not therefore authorized by law. Judge Dixon, of the 

 Supreme Court, last Tuesday decided that the ordinance 

 is proper and the fee not excessive. 



The meeting of the Massachusetts Association, in Bos- 

 ton, last week, was a good beginning in the new direction 

 of effort planned by the members. The clause of the 

 Massachusetts law permitting grouse snaring is iniquitous, 

 and the clubs of the State should combine their forces 

 this winter and take it from the statute books. 



