* 



Forest and Stream. 



A Weekly Journal of the Rod and Gun. 



Teh ms, $4 a Year. 10 (Jts. a Copt, t 

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NEW YORK, JUNE 13, 1889. 



1 VOL. XXXII.-No. 21. 

 ) No 318 Broadway, New York. 



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A 



EuiTORIAXi. 



Protest Against Black Ba&s. 



Bill Sykes and the Rest of Us. 



Snap Shots. 

 The SPORTSMAN TOUKIST. 

 j Fur Fisheries of the North- 

 west Seas. 



A Mountain Muse. 



In Blue. Grass Land.— I. 

 Natural History. 



Nesting Habits of Hawks. 



Spring Notes on Migratory 

 Birds. 



Frogs and their Prey. 

 Game Bag and Gttn. 



Chicago and the West. 



The National Park. 



The Hunting Rifle. 

 Sea and River Fishing. 



Fishing near New York. 



A Quat ter with a Hole in it. 



rndianapolis Fly-Casters. 



New England Streams. 



Chicago and the West. 



'•Trout" in Lower California. 



FlSHCUI/TUHE. 



Loss of Fish from Carp Ponds. 

 The Kennel. 

 Dog License Laws. 



CONTENTS. 



The Kennel. 

 Dog Talk. 



"Old English Mastiffs." 

 Dog Training Instructions. 

 Maney Trefoil. 

 Kennel Notes. 

 Kennel Management. 

 Rifle and Trap Shooting. 

 Range and C-rallery. 

 Making Military Marksmen. 



The Trap. 

 Illinois State Shoot. 

 New York State Shoot . 

 Southern Illinois. 

 Massachusetts State Shoot. 

 Brewer on British Shooters. 

 Canoeing. 

 Delaware River Meet. 

 Eastern Division Meet. 

 Yachting. 

 The America's Cup. 

 Corinthian Y. C. of New York. 

 The Replies of the New York 

 V. C. 



Larchmont Y. C. Regatta. 

 Atlantic Y. C. Regatta. 

 Ten Months' Notice Clause. 

 The Steam Yacht ' W. B," 

 Answers to Correspondents. 



PROTEST AGAINST BLACK BASS. 



THE black bass must go. A combination of shad fish- 

 ermen and amateur anglers along the banks of the 

 Upper Delaware has decided his fate. Eedoubtable 

 warrior, faithful husband, devoted parent, he has been 

 weighed in the scales (perch-pickerel-sun Hsh-and-other- 

 choice-varieties scales) and found wanting— deficient in 

 flavor and sadly insensible to the rights and liberties of 

 his juvenile associates of every kindred. "Perhaps the 

 highest authority hereabouts on angling matters" has 

 said it, and now we must acknowledge that Micropterti.% 

 the lion-hearted,, has locally degenerated into "a tough 

 and a blackguard" forever. And all this because in the 

 season just passed shad were less plentiful in the Upper 

 Delaware than the above mentioned combination desired 

 they should be. It is, perhaps, a matter of no conse- 

 quence that the catch of shad in the lower Delaware was 

 the largest known for fifteen years— so large that the 

 price dropped to about one-half the lowest figure re- 

 corded in all that time. It may not be conclusive to the 

 average intellect when it is known that the president of 

 the Pennsylvania Fish Commission personally examined 

 thousands of stomachs of black bass taken from the Dela- 

 ware and found only two or three shad in the entire lot, 

 but observed almost exclusively insect larvse and crus- 

 taceans. Perhaps it is merely a coincidence that myriads 

 of shad and multitudes of black bass occupy the South- 

 ern rivers in common and without inconvenience from 

 the association. 



If the shad fishermen and amateur anglers of the Upper 

 Delaware really wish to make out a case against the black 

 bass, let them watch the descent of the yotmg shad in 

 July and August, and see whether or not the black bass 

 feed, upon them. Find out also whether the perch and 

 pickerel forget their instincts and spare the defenseless 

 travelers. In short we invite them to study the whole 

 subject carefully before antagonizing the work of men 

 who are deeply interested in the successful and judicious 

 stocking of streams for the good of the entire commun- 

 ity. Their brethren along the Susquehanna joined in 

 this hue and cry against the bass when the fish first 

 showed their presence in that river because they feared 

 they would destroy all the chubs and suckers, but now 

 they look upon the conversion of a ten-cent sucker into 

 a fifty-cent bass with wonderfid equanimity. 



BILL SYKES AND THE REST OF US. 



WRITER in the St. Louis Globe-Democrat presents 

 a strong, if not savage, indictment of the dog as a 

 factor in modern civilization. He concerns himself 

 chiefly with the hordes of worthless curs maintained by 

 the lower classes in his own State, and the figures quoted 

 certainly afford a satisfactory basis for the argument 

 that Missouri would take a decided step ahead if the 

 armies of her mongrels were wiped out. When official 

 statistics show that in one county the inhabitants number 

 12.000 and the dogs 21,000, there is something so mani- 

 festly out of proportion that the citizen who preaches a 

 crusade against the canine surplus and rids the land of 

 the mongrels should have a place in the calendar along 

 with St. George and St. Patrick. 



In his general indictment of all dogs and all dog 

 owners, however, the Missouri writer has permitted his 

 zeal to run away with his common sense. In casting 

 about for an adequate solution of man's love for a clog 

 and the dog's devotion to man, he claims to have dis- 

 covered it in that human weakness which finds delight 

 in flattery. The gist of his argument is this: 



There is probably no human weakness so universally diffused 

 among all ranks and conditions of men * * * as love of skillfully 

 administered flattery. Never was there man horn of woman to 

 whom cordial and spontaneous praise did not give a glow of sat- 

 isfaction and raise in his own esteem, nor one that did not think 

 the flatterer a most clever and far-seeing person. The difficulty 

 is to helieve the flattering tale to be the expression of genu- 

 ine feeling, and absolutely free from selfish motives. If, how- 

 esver, dread of men's motives embitters, especially with the cyni- 

 cal, the sweet morsel of man's flattery, it is not so with the dumb 

 flattery of the dog, nor did there ever exist a man, charm he never 

 so wisely, who could flatter as can the hound. It is true that 

 the dog has the nature of the ideal slave. He cares nothing 

 for his own species; to him his master is all in all, and 

 his master's fancies the laws of his being. The more brutal 

 the master the more devoted the dog. The Bill Sykeses^ 

 who caress their canine followers with cudgels, and take 

 pleasure in inflicting pain upon their dumh eompanions, are 

 better served by their dogs than are those who are kind to 

 them. For the hrutal master, who has invariably kicked , beaten 

 and ill-used him, the dog will give his life. * * * For those 

 who are habitually thoughtful and kind to him the dog evidently 

 has a certain contempt, as for persons having power, but not 

 using it; to him the noble map, and worthy master is he with 

 whom the lash and the bludgeon are in constant use: for him no 

 canine sacrifice is too great. * * * 



These conclusions must have been reached after sadly 

 limited opportunities of observation. The theory of flat- 

 tery may be left to be determined for himself by each 

 sportsman who has shared his lunch with his dumb 

 comrade by the spring's side on the morning of a day 

 afield. It may with equal safety be left to the small 

 boy with the yellow dog: he would be a cynical philoso- 

 pher indeed who could find base motives in that com- 

 panionship. The truth is, as a moment's reflection will 

 show, that no single argument can be advanced to prove 

 gratified vanity to be the basis of man's love for the 

 canine race, which could not with equal reason be put 

 forward in support of that weakness as the impelling mo- 

 tive of man's love for man, and the sufficient bond of all 

 family and social ties. 



Equally fallacious is the notion thai those dogs which 

 are the most severely ill-treated are the most devoted. A 

 familiar spectacle in the police courts of our large cities 

 is the bruised and swollen-eyed wife, pleading with the 

 judge for the brute of a husband who has beaten her; 

 here is an example of the love which survives brutality 

 and clings to its object with utmost devotion. Yet no 

 one has ever seriously advanced the general proposition 

 that the best beloved husbands are they who cudgel and 

 kick their wives; nor has any one ever pretended to dis- 

 cover that a man who treats his wife and children kindly 

 is regarded by them with contempt. The wife-beaters of 

 the police reports enjoy no monopoly of woman's love 

 and devotion. What is true of mankind is true of man 

 and dog; the Bill Sykeses are not alone in winning and 

 holding the affections of their dumb companions: nor 

 is cudgeling the only efficient means of awakening a 

 dog's love. That love will survive blows; it is not created 

 by blows. That the Bill Sykeses are beloved even unto 

 death in spite of their cruelty speaks volumes not for the 

 dog's servility, but for his noble character. It is only 

 another of those good traits with which he has been en. 

 dowed to fit him for human companionship. 



An unfathomable mystery is this depth of the dog's 

 devotion to his master. Who shall say that the capacity 

 to love is not his by the merciful endowment of a Divine 

 dispensation, a mitigation of his dumb lot, an alleviation 



of that stern fate which has put him on the nether side 

 of the mysterious line between brute and human? What 

 other than an ignorant and presumptuous theorist, look- 

 ing into the upturned, wistful eye of a dog, can rail at 

 the comradeship of dog and man, and find in it none 

 other than ignoble motives ? 



SNAP SHOTS. 



O UMM ER travel in the National Park began May 15th, 

 £5 when from eight to sixteen people were going in every 

 day. The roads were good except that on the one from the 

 Norris Geyser Basin to the Falls there has been snow. 

 The Yellowstone River is Up and- muddy, but not nearly 

 as high as usual. There is as yet but little activity in 

 any of the tieyser Basins. Road-building crews are at 

 work in the Gibbon Canon. There seems every prospect 

 for a good season in the Park, and we hope that the vis- 

 itors to the region this year may be numbered by tens of 

 thousands. The greater the number of intelligent visitors 

 to this Wonderland, the more hope there will be of obtain- 

 ing from Congress the legislation for its protection and 

 enlargement which is so much needed. 



An interesting report as to the action of the swallows 

 of Europe is announced from France. It is stated that 

 these birds have for some years been slain by wholesale 

 in spring as they land on the caast of the Mediterranean 

 Sea on their journey northward from Africa. The De- 

 partment of the Bouches du Rhone is one of their great 

 landing places, and here machines for killing them in 

 great numbers have been laid along the coast. These 

 engines consist of wires connected with electric batteries. 

 The birds, fatigued by their long flight over the sea, 

 perch on these wires and drop to the ground dead. 

 This has been going on for some years, and it was noticed 

 last spring that the swallows no longer landed on this 

 point, but have gone further east or west, and seem dis- 

 posed to desert France for other and less dangerous parts 

 of Europe. The Zoological Society of France has ob- 

 served this fact, and has brought the subject to the 

 attention of the Government, warning it that there is 

 reason to think that the swallows will abandon France, 

 and that if this should take place, the loss to her agricul- 

 turists would be incalculable. 



Now that the New York State Association for the Pro- 

 tection of Pish and Game is about to convene for its 

 regular yearly tournament at the trap, it is a.fitting time 

 to repeat our annua,! suggestion, that the association 

 ought to drop its misleading title and adopt one more in 

 accordance with the truth. Trap-shooting is not game 

 protection. The two things may sometimes go together, 

 but as a rule the trap-shooting swallows the game protec- 

 tion. That was the w T ay it went with the New York 

 Association ten years ago. The records of the yearly 

 meetings since 1878 are absolutely barren of anything 

 attempted or accomplished by the organization for the 

 good of the game or fish supply. The course of events has 

 been precisely what we then said they would be. 

 The only game protection character preserved by the 

 society is in its name, and that name is a misnomer. It 

 should be changed. 



Home weeks ago we called the attention of the New 

 York police authorities to reported infractions of the 

 law protecting song birds, which were going on in the 

 upper part of the city. Since then the officials in control 

 of the districts referred to have taken all possible steps 

 to have the law enforced, and especially to watch the 

 particular piece of property mentioned as the scene of 

 the trapping. While danger to the song birds from this 

 source is practically over for this season, the police will 

 no doubt keep a sharp lookout for the trappers hereafter, 

 and will do all in their power to put an end to this nefar- 

 ious business. 



California has appropriated $2,000 to be expended by 

 the Fish Commissioners for importing and putting out 

 "such game birds as they may be able to secure, includ- 

 ing wild turkeys, prairie chickens,, bob-white quail, 

 pheasants, grouse, skylarks and others ^valuable as game 

 birds," The introduced species will be protected for a 

 period of years. 



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