Forest and Stream 



A Weekly Journal of the Rod and Gun. 



Terms, $i a Year. 10 Cts. a Copt. (■ 

 Six Months, $2. \ 



NEW YORK, JUNE 6, 1889. 



I VOL. XXXII.— No. 20. 

 1 No 318 Broadway, New York. 



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CONTENTS. 



Editorial. 



Lake Conemaugh. 



T'ie Seal Fisher'es. 



Summer Camps for Boys. 

 The Sportsman Toukist. 



James River Tales.— u. 



A Berkshire Brook. 

 Natural History. 



Wild Pets. 

 Game Bag and Gttn. 



Montana Game Law. 



Incidents in my Hunting Life: 



Cross Shooting. 



A Weapon for the Vacation. 



Sizes of Trap Shot. 



The "Forest and Stream" Gun 

 Test. _ 

 Sea and River Fishing. 



The Sunset Club.— iv. 



Sa'bling and Brown Trout 

 Hybrid. 



Fishing near New York. 



Chicago and the West. 



Brief Notes from Anglesea. 

 Fishctjdture. 



Results of Cod Hatching. 

 The Kennel. 



San Francisco Dng Show. 



Salisbury's Pedigree. 



Central Field Trial Club 

 Derby Entries. 



The Kennel. 



Dog Talk. 



Kennel Notes. 



Kennel Management. 

 Rifle and Trap shooting. 



Range and Gallerv. 



The BulJard Rifle Match. 



Massachusetts State Shoot. 



The Creedrnoor Programme. 



The Trap. 



Norwich Tournament. 



The Milwaukee Shoot. 



Compton Hill. 



Colt Gun Club Tournaments 



Western Penn. Matches. 



Missouri State Tournament. 



New York State Association. 

 Canoeing. 



Passaic River Cruise. 



Y^onkers C. C. 

 Yachting. 



The Objections to the Deed of 

 Gift, 



Valkyrie. 



Larchmont Y~. C, Titania— 



Shamrock. 

 Knickerbocker Y. C. Regatta. 

 South Boston Y. C. 

 Yorkville Y. C. Regatta, 

 Cruise ot the Saracen. 

 Answers to Correspondents. 



LAKE CONEMAUGH. 



BY trie terrible calamity in a Pennsylvania valley the 

 South. Fork Fishing and Hunting Club, of Pitts- 

 burgh, has been precipitated into such melancholy noto- 

 riety as no other sportsmen's club has ever had. The 

 flood in the Conemaugh Valley was caused by the burst- 

 ing of the dam which held the club's artificial lake. 



The South Fork of the Conemaugh flowed through a 

 lovely vale, high up amid the mountains; the spot was 

 one specially favored by nature; its beauties had long 

 been known to artists and anglers, who resorted thither. 

 More than fifty years ago, when the valley was dammed 

 to furnish a reservoir to supply the old South Pennsyl- 

 vania Canal, the trout stream was broadened into a lake. 

 Then the Pennsylvania Eailroad supplanted the canal; 

 there was no longer any use for the reservoir; the 

 mountain dam was practically demolished, and the 

 lake shrank again to the stream bed. In 1879 the 

 property was acquired by a number of Pittsburgh sports- 

 men who formed the South Fork Fishing and Hunting 

 Club, rebuilt the dam on a grander scale than before, and 

 formed a vast artificial lake, three miles long, from one- 

 half to three-quarters of a mile broad, and in some parts 

 ninety feet deep. This was Lake Conemaugh; and with 

 generous expenditure of money, the club members, all of 

 whom were wealthy, converted the lake into a luxurious 

 pleasure home for themselves and families during the 

 summer season. A magnificent club house was erected ; 

 with numerous costly cottages on the shores, and there 

 were steam yachts, sailing craft, canoes, and all the ap- 

 purtenances of outdoor life. Our issue of March 1, 1882, 

 reported the stocking of the waters with six hundred 

 black bass transported from Sandusky Bay, a successful 

 enterprise which attracted much attention. 



But all this time the tremendous volume of water, 

 held in place up on the mountains by its man-made bar- 

 rier, was a menace to the valleys below with their vil- 

 lages and towns of tens of thousands of inhabitants. 

 There were constant forebodings and apprehensions, and 

 repeated warnings of peril and disaster. Capitalists who 

 bad their millions invested here in steel and iron works, 

 and who were responsible for the safety of thousands of 

 employees, sought to have the peril removed; but legal 

 measures to that end only brought out a mass of testi- 

 mony from engireering experts certifying to the impreg- 

 nable character of the dam, and giving assurance of its 

 safety. More than this, if the reports be true, at the in- 

 stance of the club the structure was regularly inspected 

 by the civil engineers of the Pennsylvania Railroad, and 

 by them pronounced to be safe. And in truth for those 

 who owned the lake it may have been difficult to see in 

 its crystal waters any hint of its tremendous potency for 



disaster. To them it was a pleasure lake, bright with the 

 glint of the sunlight, reflecting in its pellucid depths the 

 fleecy clouds of heaven, its surface gay with fairy sail 

 and pennant and streamer; it was associated only with 

 recollections of days of recreation and joyous pastime; 

 and so the warnings were unheeded; the menace was 

 unnoted. 



Now that the end haS Come, the dam has given way, 

 the floods have devastated the valleys, obliterated vil- 

 lages and towns, overwhelmed in an hour with awful 

 death unnumbered thousands of human beings, and 

 filled the whole civilized world with horror at the mag- 

 nitude of the ruin and woe of last Friday— it is simple 

 enough now to pen paragraphs hot with indignation and 

 cutting with words of crimination of the owners of the 

 dam; and to turn a sentence with satire of the wealthy 

 Pittsburg sportsmen who maintained the Lake Cone- 

 maugh reservoir for their summer pleasure. And yet, 

 when sober reflection shall succeed the hasty com- 

 ments of the hour, it will be realized that the blame 

 for the disaster, wherever it may be laid, can in no 

 wise be made more severe because of the purpose for 

 which the fatal dam was built. To spend one's vacation 

 in outdoor recreation is perfectly legitimate and honor- 

 able; to gather in families, as these Pittsburg people 

 did, on a mountain lake, is among the ideal modes of 

 summer life; to provide means and facilities for such 

 vacation outings is not less praiseworthy. To maintain a 

 dam to form a lake for pleasure purposes is an enterprise 

 no less legitimate than to build a dam for running a mill 

 wheel. If the construction be a sham, if the artificial 

 reservoir be a death trap, if ruin and horror ensue, the 

 builders and owners are culpable in an equal degree, 

 whether they are bass fishermen or cotton manufacturers. 



Amid the great burst of sympathy which is to-day 

 awakened by the reports of the Pennsylvania calamity, 

 there should be no other feeling than of like compassion 

 for the members of the South Fork Fishing and Hunting 

 Club, for we may be sure that their hearts have suffered 

 not the least among all the multitude upon whom the 

 shadow of the disaster has fallen. 



SUMMER CAMPS FOR BOYS. 



IT is not generally believed that the average boy studies 

 hard enough at school to do himself very much harm. 

 Perhaps he does not, but there are many boys, who, 

 whether above or below the average, spend too much 

 time over their books and far too little in active outdoor 

 exercise. This is especially true of the boy brought up 

 in the city, where there is little to interest or attract in 

 the streets, unless it be when with a number of his fel- 

 lows he can join in some active game. One character- 

 istic of the small boy is his perennial energy. His mind 

 is ever active. He insists on having something to do. 

 If he cannot find an adequate vent for this energy in 

 action, he will resort to beoks; and reading of the adven- 

 tures of others, he will throw himself into their lives, 

 and work off his mental energy without physical action. 

 The habit of omnivorous and continuous reading is too 

 common among American boys. It is often formed at 

 just the age when the child's physical rather than mental 

 development needs cultivation. It is likely to keep the 

 boy in the house when he ought to be out of doors, tear- 

 ing across fields, wading in the puddles, climbing trees, 

 and generally letting off steam. It results too often in 

 nearsightedness, in stooping shoulders, in hollow chests, 

 in exaggerated nervousness, in consumptive tendencies. 

 The perfect man must be physically complete, and in the 

 race for life the man with superb physique will be likely 

 to distance the physically weak even though the latter's 

 mind may be more fully furnished. The healthy mind 

 in the healthy body is what is needed, but we must first 

 take steps to secure the healthy body which is to contain 

 the mind. 



In a recent examination held in this city by an Army 

 examining board, out of fourteen candidates for positions, 

 five— more than thirty-five and one-half per cent.— were 

 rejected for physical disability. These were professional 

 men and students. If it is true as indicated by this ex- 

 amination that one-third of the men belonging to the 

 educated classes in America 'are physically deficient, 

 there is small hope for the race of native Americans. 

 Probably it is not true, yet no one who looks over the 

 men that he meets day after day can doubt that the pro- 

 portion of men who would fail to pass a physical examin- 

 ation is far larger than, it ought to be, Too often the 



pride that parents take in then: children and the ambition 

 that they feel for them lead to a mental forcing process 

 which not only destroys their physical health, but reacts 

 on their brain, and a boy who at ten was a marvel of 

 precocity is found at eighteen to be hopelessly dull. 



There must be a remedy for this tendency to an over- 

 development of brain and nerves in the American people, 

 and this remedy will be found in part in the physical 

 education of the young and growing boys. The move- 

 ment now being made toward the outdoor occupation and 

 education of boys during the summer vacation is a long 

 step in the right direction. 



There are several summer camps for boys in New Eng- 

 land, one in Massachuseetts, one in New Hampshire, 

 and, we believe, one in Maine, and while their methods 

 all differ, their purposes are the same, keeping the boys 

 away from books. At some of these camps boys are 

 taught rowing, swimming and other outdoor exercises, 

 the use of arms, and certain mechanical trades, if they 

 have a bent that way, and are carefully looked after all 

 the time. In others the course is broader, and includes 

 woodcraft, observations in natural history, and such 

 other instruction as will best fit them to enjoy their 

 temporary camp life. 



This is as it should be. Physical culture has been too 

 much neglected, and where not neglected has been xm- 

 intelligently pursued by the bustling hurrying people of 

 America. A boy, if he exercised at all, has felt that he 

 must row in a four-mile race. As a broad proposition it 

 is no doubt true that excess in anything is harmful. To 

 exercise too much may not have the same baneful effects 

 as to drink or to smoke too much, but it is harmful. So 

 is excessive study. So is excessive reading. In summer, 

 then, take the boys away from their books. Make them 

 spend their time in the open air. Teach them to fish, to 

 shoot, to ride, to row, to swim, and above all to study 

 nature. In teaching them all these things they will be 

 taught also something that no one can ever learn from 

 books, that is readiness, judgment, self-reliance, inde- 

 pendence. Their health will be benefitted; the weak 

 and delicate ones will grow rugged, the stout ones will 

 become young giants. By cultivating their powers of 

 observation, they will be taught to see nature's beauties 

 and so to love her. Thus will their views be broadened, 

 their resources multiplied, and the possibilities for the 

 happiness of their lives infinitely increased. 



THE SEAL FISHERIES. 



FROM London, from Washington and from the North- 

 west coast comes the news that war vessels are be- 

 ing dispatched by the United States and the British gov- 

 ernments to the Behring Sea. These vessels are sent on 

 the one hand to prevent depredations on the seal fisheries 

 claimed by the United States; and on the other to pro- 

 tect the rights of the British Columbia sealers, who an- 

 nually destroy great numbers of seals and whose depre- 

 dations, if not checked, will unquestionably end in the 

 extermination of the fur seals and will render the only 

 important sealing grounds of the United States valueless. 

 The dispute over the fishery rights of North America 

 between Great Britain and the Uuited States seems no 

 nearer settlement now than when it first arose, but there 

 certainly must be some common ground on which an 

 amicable understanding might be reached, which should 

 be fair to both countries. The shouts for war which are 

 heard from some quarters are unworthy of attention. 



With a view to securing accurate information on this 

 subject, the Forest and Stream some time ago dis- 

 patched a staff correspondent to British Columbia with 

 instructions to investigate this killing of the fur seals in 

 the open sea. This he has done in a very thorough 

 manner. 



We shall next week begin the publication of his report 

 on this subject, and this paper will give our readers a 

 very clear idea of the methods employed in taking the 

 fur seal, whether in the legal way upon the land, or 

 illegally in the water. The question of the rights of 

 nations in the premises is one to be settled by inter- 

 national lawyers and diplomats. That it should be 

 settled promptly and peacefully all will agree. 



The report of our correspondent will extend over 

 several numbers of the Forest and Stream and will, we 

 are confident, have great interest not only because of its 

 timeliness, but by reason of the special advantages en- 

 joyed by our staff correspondent in gathering his in- 

 formation. 



