210 



FOREST AND STREAM. 



[April i, 168©. 



served on board the Wyoming, the Guard and the Nipsic (one of 

 the ill-fated men-of-war which foundered in the harbor of Apia, 

 March 15, possibly the same day the Conserva met her fate), 

 While stationed at Panama in 1873 he contracted the coast fever 

 and resigned from the service. Then as a naval architect he 

 built two gunboats for the Haytiam government, and took them 

 down and delivered them. Several years were spent abroad; and 

 then in 1878 he joined the staff of the Forkst and Stream as 

 editor of its yachting department, a position which he held until 

 1884. 



Always a most enthusiastic lover of yachting, Mr. Kunhardt 

 had been known for some time as an able contributor to various 

 yachting publications when he assumed the direction of Ihe 

 yachting department, of the Forest and Stream, which position 

 he held for six years, resigning it Anally to try a new venture. 

 His powerful' pen had already been wielded freely in denunciation 

 of the faulty and daugerous craft then in general use, and in 

 praise of safer and abler yachts; and through bis efforts and 

 those of a few other enthusiasts the merits of the cutter type, 

 then entirely unknown in America, had been brought to the 

 notice of yachtsmen. Already the first modern cutter had been 

 begun at New York, and when in J uly, 1878, he took command of 

 the few columns of the Forest and Stream then devoted to 

 yachting the alleged merits and defects of the new boats were 

 being generally discussed. The writers of the day, in both the 

 daily and weekly press, were unanimous in praise of the existing 

 craft, the Gracie, Fanny, Coming, and their fellows, and loud in 

 their condemnation of the cutt er. With them were arrayed the 

 great body of American yachtsmen as well as the general piiblic. 

 Against all these Kunhardt took his stand firmly in favor of 

 deeper yachts, better and lower ballast, seamanlike rigs and 

 more extended and venturesome cruising. The story of the sturdy 

 fight that he made is too well known to need re-telliug; how for 

 six years he kept on fearlessly against all odds, and how in the 

 end he saw the utter defeat of his opponents. 



It is too soon yet to estimate the value of the work he has done 

 for American yachting, his sharp and trenchant pen made some 

 enemies, the truths he told were unpalatable, and time alone can 

 bring a true recognition of the pioneer work he did, not alone for 

 the yachts themselves, but for the literature of yachting. That, 

 he was extreme in his views, and vigorous and uncompromisiug 

 in his methods, must be admitted, but he was a reformer, moved 

 to his self-appointed work by a sense of many existing evils, and 

 his justification lies in the fact that he succeeded where most, 

 others would have failed. Thefrnit of his labors is seen and 

 recognized to-day in the presence of a fleet of magnificent new 

 yachts and the utter disappearance of the once popular national 

 type. 



It is an easy matter to look back now and criticise his errors, 

 and to see where a little different course might have brought 

 home to him the full fruits of his victory; but so it is with all re- 

 formers, social, religious or political. The first and hardest of 

 the work is done by the fighters, the men of thought and action; 

 only by their sledge-hammer blows are errors overthrown and 

 the truth made plain, and no one can blame them if, after long 

 and hard fightiug, they fail to see at once when the point has been 

 reached at which more may be accomplished by milder methods. 

 This much can be truly said of Mr. Kunhardt; he was thoroughly 

 honest, earnest and disinterest ed in his work; he took it up solely 

 of his own will, looking for no material reward and knowing full 

 well the abuse and opposition he must inevitably encounter, and 

 he carried it to a successful termination. Whatever fame may 

 be in store for him when the events of to-day have become the 

 history of yesterday, he has left a firm and indelible mark upon 

 American yachting. 



In addition to his work on the paper, Mr. Kunhaidt found time 

 to prepare for the press an elaborate and indeed monumental 

 work on "Small Yachts," and this was supplemented by another 

 volume on "Steam Yachts and Launches." 



The years of his editorial work were, moreover, by no means 

 devoid of incident, for they were interrupted bj several excur- 

 sions, in the course of which he developed a mica mine in Geor- 

 gia, sunk a shaft for gold in Leadville. and was driven back from 

 an enterprise in the gold fields of Honduras only by his old 

 enemy, the coast fever; here more nearly dead than alive, picked 

 up by a friendly schooner captain, he crawled into a bunk, and lay 

 for days and weeks between life and death, finally reaching New 

 Orleans, and then finding his way back to his old post in the 

 Forest and Stream office. 



In 1886 he made a cruise in a catboat from New York to Beau- 

 fort, S. C. The spectacle of this sturdy champion of deep keel 

 cutters going to sea in a catboat was naturally one at which there 

 was much amusement, but Kunhardt justified himself by the 

 plea, which was quite true, that, under the circumstances it was 

 a catboat or nothing, and he took the catboat. The "Cruise of the 

 Coot," published in our yachting columns, excited wide interest, 

 for Kunhardt had a wonderfully graphic pen; he could see the 

 picturesque and paint it so clearly in his nervous, terse, compact 

 style, thnt others saw it vividly, too. 



List autumn, when our correspondent "Coahoma," Major T. 

 G. Uabaey, a chief engineer in charge of one of the Mississippi 

 levee districts, was here, he called for the skipper of theCcot, 

 and a new cruise was planned, on the lower Mississippi, whose 

 novel phases of life and nature were to afford Mr. Kunhardt 

 abundant material for a series of descriptive papers for this jour- 

 nal. But before the date set for his departure on this expedition, 

 he announced that he had undertaken to provide a war-ship for 

 one of the West Indian governments. The rest is told in a few 

 words. Mr. Kunhardt bought the iron steamship Madrid, made 

 her over into a gunboat, and rechristened her the Conserva, 

 Upon her return from her trial trip the ship was libeled by the 

 Haytian Minister, who represented that she was destined for the 

 service of the insurgent Hippolyte. The Dominican Consul, how- 

 ever, claimed to be her owner, and she was finally released from 

 the libel and immediately put to sea, on Wednesday, March 13, 

 bound for Samana. Monday, March 25, the steamship Colorado 

 reported the finding of a raft with two dead seamen, and a great 

 quantity of wreckage, off Cape Charles. Many circumstances 

 strongly pointed to the wreck as that of the Conserva. The next 

 day, March 26, a pilot boat reported at Philadelphia that she had 

 picked up one of the Conserva's lifeboats, off Wenwick's Island; 

 and then came word from a New York pilot boat of the finding or' 

 another of the Conserva's boats. It is now generally conceded 

 that the Conserva has gone to the bottom; and the large amount 

 of wreckage passed through by steamships from the South indi- 

 cates that more than one vessel was concerned in the disaster, 

 and that there was a collision. 



Mr. Kunhardt was unmarried. One brother is a captain in the 

 Royal Artillery of England, and another one he expected to meet 

 on his arrival at Samana. He was a man who held a very warm 

 place in the affections of those who knew him well. His life of 

 adventure had taught him a practical philosophy ; and if it was his 

 fate to have gone down with the Conserva, perhaps such an end- 

 were it given to men to choose— is that which would have been 

 chosen by one who loved the sea as he did; 



"Sam Lovel's Camps." By R. E. Robinson. Pince $1. 



MEXICAN NOTES. 



YOTJK correspondent has added a brief chapter or two 

 to the first experience in this country, which he 

 detailed last December. As your wideawake Chicago 

 representative has found out— few things they don't dis- 

 cover about that town — Mexico has ducks in winter. One 

 Illinois sportsman found plenty on an overland trip to 

 this country, and others found the coast of the Gulf from 

 Galveston south to the line well stocked. If these gen- 

 tlemen had made their way southward some distance 

 along the coast of Mexico they would have found that 

 the ducks had left their wariness behind them, and in 

 the security of this sleepy land become fat and lazy. 

 The fact is this is the winter quarters of the ducks. That 

 great flight which every fall runs the gauntlet of sports- 

 men and pot-hunters from Illinois to Mississippi, from 

 Dakota to Texas, passes the winter months in the latitude 

 of the Gulf of Mexico. The rainy season on the Mexican 

 plateau ends about October, leaving ponds, lakes, lagunas 

 and marshes with abundant water and vegetation to 

 welcome the dusky emigrants from the frozen North. 

 Mexico, as a country, is singtdarly deficient in rivers, 

 but the ''elevated plateau," about which we learned in 

 our school geographies, from the very fact that it is de- 

 fective as a water-shed is an excellent place for lakes. In 

 fact the great Laguna section in the States of Chihuahua, 

 Durango and Coahuila, of which mention was made by 

 Mr. Hough lately, and which, now celebrated as an 

 agricultural region, is destined to be also as a resort for 

 wildfowl, is a great basin, tome 4,000ft. above sea level, 

 which has no outlet to either ocean. It has no central 

 body of water of any consequence, its rainfall and the 

 water of the several rivers, one of tbem, the Nazas. of 

 considerable size, being distributed over the gentle slope 

 of the basin for artificial irrigation. At the end of the 

 rainy season, and more or less all winter, there is much 

 overflowed land, which absolutely teems with waterfowl 

 of every variety. 



Speaking of irrigation reminds me of another import- 

 ant characteristic of this central plateau. The scarcity 

 of running streams and their tendency to dry up makes 

 a demand for artificial ponds and lakes. These presar 

 of varying size and character are found everywhere and 

 are of no small importance to the ducks. 



In these ponds and lakes, artificial and natural, as well 

 as in the rivers and marshes to be found occasionally, 

 the ducks that prefer fresh water pass a jollv winter, 

 while others that like salt or brackish water fare equally 

 well along the bays and creeks of the great Gulf. Breech- 

 loaders and that wild desire to "kill a duck," so sympa- 

 thetically treated in your editorial of Feb. 21, have 

 scarcely invaded this retreat as yet, and while this is so 

 I think that in spite of the bad season of the Middle 

 States, the duck supply is far from exhausted. The dry 

 season here is exceedingly dry, and many of these resorts 

 fail before it is over, but they hold out fairly well till 

 spring— which begins to come in January— sends the 

 ducks away and away in search of a nesting place.* 



There is another section of the country, which is in 

 winter always well supplied with ducks, and winch is 

 somewhat better known than the Laguna district. This 

 is the neighborhood of Acambaro, State of Michoacan. 

 It is a region of lakes with some rivers and marshes. It 

 is only eight or ten hours by rail from the City of Mexico. 

 This city being headquarters for foreigners here, contains 

 a good many hunters, who have made the Acambaro 

 region something of a resort. I have a friend traveling 

 in that section now, who is an enthusiastic hunter and is 

 engaged to get all the "pints." This part of the country 

 is reached by the Mexican National Railroad, the narrow 

 gauge short line for the United States, and is about six 

 days from New York. The Lacuna district may be 

 reached by the Mexican International, via Eagle Pass, 

 Texas, or by the Mexican Central, via El Paso, in about 

 the same time. 



Supposing that some reader of this may become inter- 

 ested and contemplate a trip to this picturesque, roman- 

 tic and unique hunting ground, I ought perhaps to speak 

 of some other matters. There are some difficulties to be 

 overcome, though the balmy air and the lack of competi- 

 tion prevent one's having to "tumble out of bed at mid- 

 night, row out to a point, lie down in a blanket and sleep 

 till morning to hold the ground," etc. The first to be en- 

 countered are the Custom House and the fact that people 

 down this way don't speak "United States." There would 

 be no trouble about the first if it were not for the fact 

 that decent ammunition and camping supplies cannot be 

 found in this country except in the large cities, and then 

 at prices that make your hair stand on end. A gun and 

 two pistols, with 100 rounds of cartridges for each, pass 

 free. After that, on ammunition and camp kit, quien 

 sabe how much will have to be paid or how abjectly the 

 traveler will have to supplicate the privilege of paying it. 

 If it were just pay and go, it would not be so bad, for the 

 Mexican Government needs the money. But talk about 

 red tape! There are just miles of it about their Custom 

 House. On the document by which I shipped a few 

 household goods, there were, first and last, some twenty- 

 five signatures of different persons, and stamping to the 

 nominal value of $13.50. It looked like the settlement of an 

 hacienda or mine running back to the time of Ferdinand 

 and Isabella. The only conceivable object of all this fool- 

 ishness is to keep the officers from stealing the money. 

 But in spite of all this I wotdd say: Don't depend on get- 

 ting anything here. Bring what you need. Arrange to 

 stop a day or two on the border and get the help of a cus- 

 toms agent. Then whatever you can't get through you 

 can leave. This climate is usually mild, and a heavy 

 camping kit is not needed. A boy, Mexican or Ameri- 

 can, could probably be picked up at Laredo, Eagle Pass or 

 El Paso at a small cost. 



But I had better stop this. I will add, however, that I 

 have not the slightest interest financial or otherwise in 

 the coming of any one to this country. I only write 

 from the natural prompting of a hunter to tell "the 

 other fellows." Other information could be obtained 

 doubtless from the officials of the three railroads. I do 

 not know much of the others but I can by experience 

 vouch for those of the Central as manly and obliging be- 

 yond the ordinary. My stock of information, limited but f 

 increasing, is at the serviee of any one interested, 1 



Now wasn't that duck supplement "some?" I took 

 great comfort in the fact that it was No. 1. That means 

 that No. 2 is in prospect. I'm ready. Seems to me 

 Foeest and Stream improves all the time anyhow. I 

 never read a journal in which could be found a freer or 

 prompter interchange of opinion on topics of common 

 interest. Two things are a source of constant amuse- 

 ment to me, the hearty good-fellowship of the correspon- 

 dents— except sometimes in "The Kennel," where natur- 

 ally there will be some growling and snarling— and the 

 promptness and energy with which, from Maine to Cali- >j 

 fornia, they pounce upon any heresy either in sports- 

 manship or natural history which some incautious soul 1 

 may advance. 



Since I made my Avail about my lonesomeness here, a 

 friend and former acquaintance has come to live in this 

 city, who adds to a thorough familiarity with the lan- 

 guage and people, gained in six years residence and travel 

 in the republic, a love of the gun and field as ardent 

 as my own. Already we have measured swords — or 

 guns, if you prefer — and are laying deep plots for the 

 future. Undoubtedly in the mountains here are bear, 

 deer, turkey, lynx, etc. When I get a chance at them I 

 shall probably be as heavily loaded with a turkey story 

 as the Chicago man who had been to the Indian Terri- 

 tory. By the way, I asked about that Del Rio section, 

 bought up by certain Philadelphia sportsmen, and some 

 who know say it is or was a very paradise for turkeys. I 

 want to express my satisfaction and pleasure in reading 

 the article on the dusky grouse, a bird that titillated my 

 bump of curiosity not a little in the West, but which I 

 never had an opportunity of studying thoroughly. 



Aztec, i 



San Luis Potosi, Mexico, Feb. 28. 



THE FLYING PEGGY. 



EAST SAGINAW, Mich. , March 28.— Editor Forest and 

 Stream: Your draft at one day's sight for ten lines on 

 account of Salmo fontinalis per Salvelinus. came to 

 hand yesterday. I make it a point never to dishonor a 

 demand of this kind, but do not believe I can condense 

 anything into ten lines that will be of much interest to 

 the readers of the Forest and Stream; but as fontinalis 

 is to be the theme, and the days are at hand when we 

 will enjoy yanking Mm forth (or fifth) from his cool lurk- 

 ing place underneath the sunken log or from behind a 

 moss-grown lock, perhaps it will not come amiss if I 

 relate our trip taken at the first of the season last year. 

 The Saginaw Crowd (and I have written of their pilgrim- 

 ages before) are part of them devoted anglers aB well as 

 shooters, so it is customary for half a dozen of us to 

 make arrangements with the superintendent of the rail- 

 road here, Sanford Keeler, who, by the way, is one of 

 the largest-hearted and best natured sportsmen in the 

 world, foij his special car No. 43. This is a combination 

 of passenger coach and locomotive, and will carry six 

 passengers. It has but two driving-wheels, and the cab > 

 is lengthened about 12ft. A partition runs across sepa- 

 rating the engineer and fireman from the rear compart- 

 ment; and in this cosy little room are nicely upholstered 

 chairs that will accommodate our little party. The boys 

 have christened her the "Flying Peggy," and she will run 

 like a streak of lightning. For weeks before May 1 ap- 

 pears friend Brooks, or old "Section 37." has stirred the 

 gang into life, and is talking of the beauties of Kinney 

 Creek and the Sweetwater, until we imagine we are pull- 

 ing them out by dozens. Scarcely can we wait for the 

 opening of the season, but it comes at last, and the time 

 of which I write the party is composed of Brooks, Ed, 

 the city official, and two outsiders, Sandy and Mac, in- 

 cluding of course the scribe. Sandy is the buyer for one 

 of the largest hardware institutions in the State, not 

 much of a sportsman, but does enjoy a good time. He 

 weighs in the neighborhood of 3001'bs., and is as good 

 natured as he is fat. Mac is a Scotchman, as his name of 

 course implies, and this happened to be his first fishing 

 expedition since he had left Auld Scotia. With a bor- j 

 rowed rod and a business suit and a pair of rubbers, he ! 

 imagined he was going to find the same kind of fishing 

 he was familiar with at home. 



We meet at the depot at 11 o'clock at night, some of 

 us having been to the theater before, others having a 

 friendly game of ' 'pede" at Gene's. The luggage is stored 

 aboard the Peggy, not forgetting the ground coffee, cof- 

 fee pot and oil stove for boiling it. All aboard, the 

 whistle screeches for the drawbridge, and away we 

 shoot into the darkness west on the F. & P. M. road, 

 bound for Kinney Creek, ninety miles west of us. Three 

 or four small streams are crossed by this railroad within 

 a few miles of each other, and, as they have been stocked 

 from time to time by the railroad officials, they afford 

 rare sport to the angler for a few days, or until the 

 poacher and pot-hunter have gotten in to deplete them, 

 The Peggy speeds along into the darkness; the cards are 

 gotten out and a four-handed game is soon in progress. 

 It is not long before Brooks has all the gun wads, and 

 some of the party begin to yawn sleepily. We buy back 

 all our gun wads that are in Brooks's possession, fold up 

 the table and prepare to turn in, but not for much of a 

 sleep, as it lacks but an hour or two of daylight and the 

 Peggy ie not very good as a sleeping apartment. We curl 

 up on the chairs, and some of us sleep and some don't. 

 We rattle through Reed City, across the Grand Rapids & 

 Indiana road, and ere long the whistle sounds for 

 Stearns's Siding, and just as the east is beginning to turn 

 gray the jolting of the car ceases and *>ne by one the 

 anglers awaken. Brooks gets out the coffee pot, some 

 one else starts up the oil stove, and we soon have a hot 

 breakfast. The tackle is put together and two of the 

 boys are left to fish the Sweetwater, and the Peggy runs 

 back a mile or two to Kinney Creek. The cold water is J 

 a mass of white foam where it passes beneath the road- 

 bed through a stone culvert, and goes singing away among 

 the dark shades of the hemlocks and cedars. 



Already one or two of the natives are seen sneaking 

 in ahead of us down," stream, but we know so well the 

 twists and crooks of these little brooks (for they are no 

 more than 10 or 12yds. wide in some places, in other places 

 not half that width) that we easily take a short cut and 

 cut them off and begin the day's sport. A peculiar 

 feature of these waters is the large size to which the 

 trout seem to have grown; something about the food I 

 imagine, causes the rapid growth, for frequently trout 3 1 

 or 3|lbs. in weight are taken from little holes where one 

 would naturally expect a fingerling. Sandy had not , 

 fished long before he had succeeded in entangling his 



