Forest and Stream. 



A Weekly Journal of the Rod and Gun. 



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



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NEW YORK, JULY 21, 18 8 7. 



I VOL. XXVIII.— No. 26. 



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



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CONTENTS. 



Editorial. 



The Loyalhanna. 



The Catskill Park. 



Snap Shots. 

 The Sportsman Tourist. 



My Trip co the Adirondacks. 

 Natural History. 



Domesticating Ruffed Grouse. 



Example of Ophidian Senility. 



Snake Fascination. 

 Game Bag and Gun. 



The Big Buck of Chetko. 



In the Cherokee Strip.— v. 



Game in Prussia. 



Open Seasons for Game. 



Michigan Deer Law. 



The Gardiner Stage Robbers. 



Game Notes. 

 Camp-Fire Flickerings. 

 Sea and River Fishing. 



Experience with Tackle. 



Big Trout. 



Shark and Porpoise. 



Brook Trout in Georgia. 



FreshetSj Trout, Black-Flies. 



Angling Literature of America 



The Bass of Otter. 



The Cusk. 



On Green River. 



Angling Notes. 



Fishculture. 



New York Oyster Law. 



Mohawk Fishways. 

 The Kennel. 



Am. Kennel Club Methods. 



English Kennel Club's Show. 



Beagles for Bench and Field. 



Mastiff Type. 



Indiana Field Trials, 



American Kennel Register. 



Foxhounds and Stockades. 



Kennel Management. 



Kennel Notes. 

 Rifle and Trap Shooting. 



Range and Gallery. 



Muzzleloader at the Score. 



The Trap. 

 Canoeing. 



New York C. C. Regatta. 



Lake St. Louis C. C. 

 Yachting. 



A New Herreskoff Steamer. 



Atlantic Y. C. Cruise. 



"Compromise Sloops." 



Lake Ontario. 



Halifax Jubilee Regatta. 



Knickerbocker Y. C. 



Jubilee Race— Genesta's Log. 



Pappoose and Shona. 

 Answers to Correspondents. 



CARELESSNESS ON THE RANGE. 



THE Pascoe-Robbins episode of June 11 on Creedruoor 

 range and the subsequent proceedings with refer- 

 ence to it seern to have a little more than passing signifi- 

 cance. According to the reading of the rules made in that 

 case there is little more than the common law relief left 

 to victims of careless marksmen on the range; and it ap- 

 pears that while a man who may for the sake of a tem- 

 porary gain in securing a cheap medal falsify a score 

 shall be disqualified permanently, a man who through 

 criminal carelessness puts the lives of his fellow riflemen 

 and the spectators in jeopardy may simply be invited to 

 leave the grounds and lose any chance he might have had 

 of winning in the particular match then in progress. 



The details of the Pascoe case are very simple. On the 

 afternoon of June 11, during an all-comers' match at the 

 range, Second Lieut. Pascoe of the Second Battery, N. 

 G. S. N. Y., a man who has been familiar with rifle 

 practice on the range for a decade or more, was gather- 

 ing up the rifles at the firing point. He took up one, and 

 without examining its condition, tried the trigger pull 

 by cocking and snapping the piece. It was loaded, and 

 a bullet went spinning up the range away from the 

 firing point and found lodgment in the ground close to 

 the feet of a brother officer. Gen. Robbins, who was 

 the executive officer in charge of the competition, came 

 up in angry mood, and having discovered who it was 

 that fired the shot, proceeded to give the offender a 

 severe tongue lashing in a very unmilitary fashion. 



Charges and counter charges have followed. The Lieu- 

 tenant explained that he had had indeed picked up a rifle 

 which "had been carelessly left loaded and that it was 

 accidentally discharged"; but he wished the General dis- 

 ciplined in some fashion because of the wordy drubbing 

 he had administered. The executive officer simply called 

 the attention of the directors to the incident ; and then 

 when hearing was had, it was very promptly decided that 

 with the word wrangle the Board had nothing to do, nor 

 singularly enough with the shooting incident either, 

 since the rules did not provide except the most mild of 



punishment for the offense of which the Lieutenant had 

 been guilty. 



It is upon this last point that the significance of the 

 whole affair turns, for it would seem to be the fact that 

 the most reckless handling of firearms is only to be met 

 with the mildest of rebukes. There are two rules which 

 bear on the offense in question and they are really dupli- 

 cates. The first provides that — 



"Any person discharging a rifle or snapping a cap within the 

 inclosure, except in accordance with the regulations for shooting, 

 may, at the discretion of the executive officer, be required to leave 

 the ground." 



The other is very similar and says : 



"Any competitor discharging his rifle accidentally, either by 

 his own want of care or by reason of any defect in the rifle, may 

 be disqualified from further competition in the match at the dis- 

 cretion of the executive officer." 



Could anything be more mild, more thoughtful for the 

 feelings and considerate for the rights of the careless 

 ones? They may be invited to leave the ground, and hav- 

 ing taken a beer may return for ought on the rule to the 

 contrary, and then they may be cut off from f urther com- 

 petition in the match, a very mild reminder of wrong 

 doing, especially as in this case the match was over and 

 it was during the gathering up of the weapons that the 

 bit of criminal carelessness was enacted. 



Creedmoor has had a wonderful run of- good luck. 

 Sharp-eyed officers and the general good shooting ability 

 of those going to the range have prevented a f atality ; but 

 according to the revelation made in this case, it is rather 

 in spite of bad rules than because of good ones. There 

 should be a wide discretion lodged with the Board of 

 Directors to make an example of a man who is so care- 

 less as to send a bullet whizzing he knows not where. 

 ' 'I didn't know" should be rather an aggravation than a 

 palliation of the offense, and the sooner the National Rifle 

 Association regulations are made to conform to this very 

 excellent rule of punishing criminal carelessness as a 

 crime, the better for all concerned. 



THE LOYALHANNA. 



THE Loyalhanna River, of Pennsylvania, is just now 

 in a suitable condition of filth and corruption to 

 point a moral. There is less water in it than at any time 

 within several years, and all the nastiness which the 

 dwellers along its banks see fit to dump and drain into it 

 just stays there to putrify and poison water and air. 

 Vitriol from paper mills, spent liquor from tannery vats, 

 sewage from towns, and sundry, other ingredients com- 

 pose a liquid medium in which the fish indigenous to the 

 originally pure waters of the Loyalhanna do not thrive. 

 Suckers, perch, and catfish, together with the bass which 

 were put into the stream by the State Fish Commission, 

 have perished, and are piled up along the shores, screens 

 and tail-races for miles, where they threaten a pestilence 

 on a large scale. The inhabitants are said not to relish 

 the evil which has come upon them in this day of reckon- 

 ing ; but they who dance must pay the piper, they who 

 dig pits for themselves must fall therein, and they who 

 convert a stream of pure water into a sewer and trans- 

 form a blessing of bounteous nature into a conduit of 

 filth must expect some time to have their nostrils filled 

 with the stench thereof. And the beauty of it all is that 

 in spite of this lesson the Loyalhanna folks will go right 

 on draining their tanneries and paper mills and sewers 

 into the stream, and making all ready for another pesti- 

 lence, whenever the clouds of heaven again refuse to 

 purify the river. That is human nature, the world 

 over. 



THE CATSKILL PARK. 

 T^OREST COMMISSIONER TOWNSEND COX is now 

 in Ulster county with a committee invited to aid 

 him, to select a site for one of the State parks provided 

 for by the Legislature. It is thought that the most suit- 

 able district to begin operations is one lying partly in the 

 town of Denning and partly in Hardenburg. A park of 

 one hundred acres will be fenced in with wire netting, 

 and in this inclosure will be placed a number of deer. 

 This is the first step toward restocking the Catskills with 

 a species of game once abundant there. In early times 

 deer hunting was an amply rewarded pursuit in that 

 magnificent range of mountains, but the dogging exter- 

 minated the stock and the deer have been as scarce as 

 the wolves of which the garrulous, gray-haired village 

 grandfathers tell wonderful stories. The deer put out by 

 the Forest Commission will be in charge of a gamekeeper 



and as local sentiment favors the new undertaking, it is 

 possible that the game may escape death at the hands of 

 poachers. The preserve is also to be stocked with wild 

 turkeys, hares and ruffed grouse (there are "patridges" 

 there now). Acting on the suggestion of Dr. Henry C. 

 Piffard, of this city, the Commissioners will put out a 

 number of guinea fowl, which they are advised will 

 quickly revert to a wild state and take care of them- 

 selves. 



The law passed at the last session of the Legislature 

 providing for the Catskill preserve, is as follows: 



Section 1. The Forest Commission is hereby authorized and 

 directed to set apart tracts of land not exceeding three in num" 

 her of such size as they may deem proper, belonging to the State 

 in the Catskill region, now constituting a part of the Forest Pre- 

 serve, for the purpose of breeding of deer and wild game. 



§ 2. Said Forest Commission may establish all proper rules for 

 the protection of said land and game therein. 



§3. Said Commissioners are authorized to purchase and turn 

 out upon such land such deer or other game as they may think 

 proper. 



84. No game shall be killed or pursued, trapped or in any way 

 destroyed within the limits of said lands so set apart for a period 

 of five years. 



§ 5. The sum of five thousand dollars is hereby appropriated to 

 be paid by the Comptroller, at such time and such amount as the 

 Commissioners may desire for the pxirposes of this act, aud the 

 Commission is authorized to receive private subscriptions and 

 expend the same for such purposes. 



g 6. ThiB act shall take effect immediately. 



The appropriation of §5,000 will not go a great way, 

 but once a beginning is made the undertaking will be 

 supported by public and private enterprise. The deer 

 which are to be put out have been presented by gentle- 

 men who are interested. The people of Kingston and 

 Catskill Mountain hotel and railroad managers are ex- 

 pected to support the Commission with liberal subscrip- 

 tions. The results of restocking the depleted trout 

 streams have amply demonstrated that money wisely ex- 

 pended to enhance the sporting attractions of the region 

 is invested where it will yield profitable returns. State 

 lands in Ulster county comprise 43,000 acres, and in 

 Sullivan county 3,000. 



SNAP SHOTS. 



IF THE reports concerning the new French arm, the 

 Lebel rifle, are true, there is to be a revolution in 

 rifle shooting, for the powers claimed for it are far beyond 

 those of any firearm now in use. The gun as described is 

 smaller than the ordinary military arms, has a small 

 bore, shoots a steel bullet, sharply pointed at one end and 

 revolving at the rate of a thousand revolutions in a sec- 

 ond, and capable of going through an eight-inch brick 

 wall at 500yds. The gun is a repeater, and the ammuni- 

 tion is so light that a soldier can carry 220 rounds in 

 place of the regulation 116 rounds of old-style cartridges. 

 The powder is an entirely new compound which, when 

 fired, has neither smoke nor recoil. The Lebel gun is 

 said to be as effective at a mile as at ten paces, and if it 

 is ever to be used for htmting purposes all the long-dis- 

 tance yarns of sportsmen will have to be levised and re- 

 written to suit the times. 



From the detailed report of the National Park stage 

 robbery, given in another column, it appears that the 

 highwaymen were amateurs nerved by the Dutch courage 

 which comes from copious libations of Gardiner's rotten 

 whisky. The scene of the attack was just within the 

 Park limits, and for that matter it might just as well 

 have been outside the Park altogether. The robbers were 

 of a very mild type, and the least display of spunk by the 

 passengers would have thrown them into a panic. There 

 is not the remotest probability that anything of this 

 nature will occur again, for the night stages from Gardi- 

 ner are now escorted by a detachment of soldiers. 



Gen. Richard Rowett, of Carlinville, 111. , died suddenly 

 in Chicago, July 13. Gen. Rowett was distinguished for 

 his services in the war, and was widely known as a 

 breeder of fine stock, his attention having been given 

 specially to horses. He was also a successful breeder of 

 dogs, and was the originator of the celebrated "Rowett 

 strain" of beagles. 



Mr. Edmund Orgill sailed on the City of Rome yester- 

 day to spend a few weeks in England and on the Conti- 

 nent. He will visit some of the kennels of Great Britain 

 but holds to the faith that it is unnecessary to leave the 

 United States to find good dogs. 



