Forest and Stream 



A Weekly Journal of the Rod and Gun. 



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NEW YORK, JANUARY 12, 1888. 



J VOL. XXIX.-No. 25. 



) Nos. 3!) & 40 Park Row, New York. 



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CONTENTS. 



Editorial. 



Park Matters in Congress. 



The Rock Climbers.— hi. 

 The Sportsman Tourist. 



Ducks on Lake Bisteneau. 

 Natural History. 



Snowy Owls in 1886-7. 



Cherished Myths 



Plumage of Mallard Drake. 



Puppies and Guns. 



Facts about Snakes. 

 Game Bag and Gun. 



Zinc for Gun Barrels. 



Coleman's Island Camps. 



Among the Elk. 



Peleg's Experiences. — ill. 



Maine Large Game. 



Parmore's Beach. 



Notes from the Park. 



From the Far North Land. 



Testing a Rifle's Strength. 

 Sea and River Fishing. 



Along the New Jersey Coast. 



Rangeley Spawning Grounds. 



Prizes for Large Fish. 



Sea and River Fishing. 



New Hampshire Trout Law. 

 Fishcultuhe. 



The Late Spencer F. Baird. 

 The Kennel. 



American Kennel Register. 



Rule No. 2. 



Fox-Terrier Club Stakes. 



The Eastern Field Trials Club 



Indiana Field Trials. 



A Proposed Breeders' Club. 



Kennel Notes. 

 Rifle and Trap Shooting. 



The National. Rifle Associa tion 



Range and Gallery. 



The Trap. 

 Yachting. 



Iceyachting on the Hudson. 



The Cruising Schooner Alert. 



Deed of Gift. 



Yacht Design on the Dela ware 

 River. 

 Canoeing. 



Cruising Canoes at the Meet. 

 Answers to Correspondents. 



WHO MADE RULE TWO 9 



THE preposterous rule compelling entries in the 

 American Kennel Club's stud book lias been repeat- 

 edly referred to as a rule of the American Kennel Club. 

 Is it so in any proper sense? and does it deserve the con- 

 sideration due to a measure deliberately adopted by that 

 club in its representative capacity? These points are 

 worth taking into account in making up an estimate of 

 the character of the rule. 



The American Kennel Club is composed of a union of a 

 number of clubs, which are chiefly bench show associa- 

 tions, whose individual members are owners, breeders 

 and exhibitors. In theory, an action of the American 

 Kennel Club is to be taken as embodying the views of 

 that organization itself, through it of its several constit- 

 uent clubs, and through them of their individual mem- 

 bers; in short, of the great mass of breeders and owners 

 — the entire portion of the public interested in kennel 

 affairs. It is quite clear that, before it can be received as 

 truly representing the views of this dog breeding, dog 

 owning and dog showing public, an American Kennel 

 Club measure must first have had the sanction of a 

 majority of the individual members of the constituent 

 clubsj and an affirmative majority vote of the clubs them- 

 selves. Whether a given measure be good, bad or indif- 

 ferent, it cannot be accepted as the fruit of the deliberate 

 judgment of those who are concerned in it, unless it has 

 been considered and acted upon by them. 



This compulsory registration rule is not at all of that 

 character. It does not embody the recorded views of the 

 American Kennel Club itself, nor of a majority of the 

 constituent clubs, nor of the individual members of those 

 Clubs, nor of the great body of breeders, owners and 

 exhibitors whose interests are involved. 



The action taken on the compulsory rule was not the 

 action of the A. K. C. itself, for it was not adopted by the 

 club, but by a clique in the executive committee, when 

 only six votes were cast, and the vote even then only 

 stood four in favor to tw6 against. It would be the 

 height of absurdity to accept this job, put up by a few 

 men, after others had gone home, as in any adequate 

 sense the action of the American Kennel Club. 



The measure did not represent a majority of the con- 

 stituent clubs. Philadelphia voted against it; New Eng- 

 land (the leading club of the country) promptly withdrew 



in disgust; New Haven did the same; Horn ell repudiated 

 the rule; Mr. "Wade assures us that Pittsburgh will not 

 have it, and prominent members in private letters to us 

 corroborate this; even in the New Jersey Club there is so 

 much opposition that it is not impossible that the rule 

 will be disapproved there; from all we can learn St. Paul 

 and Minneapolis will not show under it; the Fox-Terrier 

 Club obey the rule, but acknowledge its injustice by 

 themselves paying the required fees for exhibitors. 



Moreover the attitude of the subsidiary clubs, which 

 though not members of the A. K. C. , show under its rules, 

 is demonstrated by the action of the Fort Schuyler Club 

 of Utica, which refuses to sacrifice its entry list by sub- 

 mitting to the rule. 



The action most certainly did not represent the ex- 

 pressed wishes of individual members of the constituent 

 clubs, for the subject had never been brought before them, 

 and had not been acted on by them; but was a surprise 

 to them when they learned of it after the meeting on 

 Dec. 6. We have published many letters from members 

 of the various clubs, and the sentiment is so overwhelm- 

 ingly of indignant opposition to the rule that we are per- 

 fectly safe in affirming that had the rule been voted on 

 by the club members it would never have had a chance 

 to go to the A. K. C. at all. 



Nor is the compulsory registration measure recognized 

 as wise by any large proportion of independent breeders 

 and exhibitors, who are not club members but on whom as 

 large exhibitors the success of the shows largely depends. 

 We have published a number of letters from well-known 

 breeders expressing their disapproval of the catch-penny 

 scheme, and their conviction of the bad effects such a 

 rule enforced would be sure to have on kennel interests. 

 These men speak in behalf of those who are most con- 

 cerned in the matter; and they speak with the fullest 

 understanding of what is truly for their own benefit and 

 what is not. They understand it a great deal better than 

 the individuals who are trying to force this tax on them. 



This, then, is "American Kennel Club Eule 2," a meas- 

 ure not discussed by club members, not intrusted by them 

 to be voted for by their delegates, not approved by a 

 majority of the clubs, not even voted on by the Club 

 itself. This is Rule 2 — a put up job, rushed through by a 

 clique of self -constituted dictators to the breeders and 

 exhibitors of the United States and Canada, and levying 

 a tax of fifty cents all around on every dog shown on 

 this continent. If four votes could do all tins, and do it 

 all alone, what might not have happened had there been 

 five? It is possible that no dog could have wagged his 

 tail after Jan. 1, 1888, without leave from Mr. Peshall, or 

 turned around before lying down without a permit from 

 Cugle, or bayed the moon except to sheet music supplied 

 by some other crank ambitious to "elevate the dog" at 

 his master's ex pense. 



PARK MATTERS IN CONGRESS. 



TWO bills relating to the Yellowstone Park have 

 already come before Congress. 

 On Thursday last Delegate Toole, of Montana, intro- 

 duced in the House a bill granting a right of way through 

 the Park to the Cinnabar and Clark's Fork Railroad. This 

 is substantially the same bill that was defeated at the 

 last session of Congress by a vote of 170 to 65, and which 

 was fully discussed in these columns while it was before 

 the House. The present bill has been referred to the 

 Committee on Public Lands, of which Mr. Holman is 

 chairman. 



Mr. Holman visited the Park two years ago, and his 

 experience there enables him to comprehend the value of 

 this reservation. He appreciates the economic import- 

 ance of preserving its forests and realizes what their de- 

 struction would mean to a vast territory in the North- 

 west. This territory is as yet only sparsely settled, but 

 under favorable conditions it is destined to become a 

 flourishing farming district. Its development depends 

 on its water supply, and its water supply depends on the 

 forests which protect the sources of streams rising in the 

 Yellowstone Park and in the mountains immediately to 

 the south and east of the Park. The region which is 

 thus dependent on these streams is not a circumscribed 

 one. There is plenty of room in it. It will ultimately sup- 

 port many millions of people. On streams which rise 

 in and near the Yellowstone National Park depends 

 in a large measure the fertility of an area which 

 contains more than six hundred thousand square miles. 

 In more than one of the Territories, which but for these 

 streams would be deserts, there is room for all the New 



England States nearly three times over. On the east 

 side of the Mountains, Wyoming, Montana and Dakota, 

 which are watered chiefly by these streams, have an area 

 aggregating nine times that of New England. On the 

 west side of the Rockies, Idaho, Washington and Oregon, 

 nearly five times as large as New England, would be 

 barren wastes without these streams. The country that 

 they water is larger than that occupied by the Thirteen 

 original States, with Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan. 

 Wisconsin and Iowa added. All through this vast 

 region farmers are settling, breaking up the ground, and 

 using the water from the streams to irrigate their crops. 

 To permit the destruction of the forests of the Yellow- 

 stone Park would be to dry up these streams and so* to 

 bring ruin on the farmers who have gone into this wild 

 and arid country and are making it productive. Mr. 

 Holman is aware of the vastness of the territory under 

 consideration, and he knows that the streams which are 

 of such vital importance to the farmers of the dry North- 

 west depend for their volume and regularity on the 

 forests which clothe the mountains of the Yellowstone 

 Park. 



These forest consist of evergreen trees, pine, spruce and 

 fir, and are easily set on fire. The pitchy forest floor, 

 made up of pine needles, branches and resinous roots, 

 needs but the touch of a spark to set it in a blaze. Such 

 sparks would be supplied by locomotives, and fires would 

 be started which would cause irreparable damage. 



The railroad people have now less excuse than ever be- 

 fore for trying to enter the Park. In years past they 

 have pretended that a road was needed to develop that 

 "flourishing mining camp," Cook City, but there are 

 at present only fifteen or twenty people in Cook, and 

 it does not appear that it is worth while to destroy the 

 forests of the Park in order that this handful may have 

 rail communication with the great centers. Moreover, a 

 railroad— the Rocky Fork and Cook City — is in process of 

 construction, and is partially completed from Billings, 

 Mont., up Rocky Fork, wholly without the Park, nearly 

 to the mines at Cook. It would seem that this road 

 could be completed in half the time that it would take to 

 construct so difficult and expensive a piece of engineer- 

 ing as the Cinnabar and Clark's Fork R. R. would inevi- 

 tably be. 



In view of the fact that Mr. Holman is chairman of the 

 Public Lands Committee, which has the bill in charge, 

 and the further fact that he realizes that the forests of 

 the Park must be protected, it may be reasonably assumed 

 that the project for a railroad through the Park will be 

 checked in Committee. The bill should be reported 

 adversely or not at all. 



Senator Vest's Yellowstone Park bill will probably be 

 referred to the House Committee on Territories, of which 

 Mr. S. S. Cox, of New York, is a prominent and influen- 

 tial member. At the last session of Congress, Mr. Cox 

 employed his brilliant talents in opposing the bill author- 

 izing a railroad through the Park, and through his efforts 

 that bill was killed. No doubt he may be relied on to 

 take again the position which did liim so much credit 

 last year. 



It is to be hoped too that Mr. Cox, who then showed 

 himself so firm an upholder of the rights of the people at 

 large, will actively interest himself in Senator Vest's bill 

 and will urge its prompt consideration when it reaches 

 the House. What the Park has always needed is an in- 

 fluential, energetic and talented supporter in the House 

 of Representatives. We have strong hopes that Mr. Cox 

 may prove to be this long wished for champion. If he 

 will take the bill in hand, there will be little anxiety 

 among its friends as to the result. 



The Hotel Property at the Upper Geyser Basin in 

 the Yellowstone National Park was recently sold by order 

 of the Wyoming courts at public auction in the Park. It 

 is understood that the sale was made to settle the claims 

 of different parties who professed to have an interest in 

 the property. The Department of the Interior telegraphed 

 the Superintendent of the Park to make a public state- 

 ment before the sale, that no sale would be binding unless 

 approved by the Department of the Interior. It is under- 

 stood that the property was bought by Mr. Gibson for 

 the Yellowstone Park Association. 



As announced last week, the American Kennel Regis- 

 ter will be enlarged, the change being made with the 

 January number. 



