Forest and Stream. 



. A Weekly Journal of the Rod and Gun. 



Terms, $4 a Year. 10 Cts. a Copy. > 

 Six Months, $2. f 



NEW YORK, JANUARY 3, 18 8 9. 



I VOL. XXXI.-No. 34. 



I No. 318 Broadway, New York. 



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CONTENTS, 



Editorial. 



Civilian Soldier Marksmeu. 



Snap Shots. 

 The Sportsman Tourist. 



The Mare- Browed Mau and 

 the Phantom Loon. 

 Natural History. 



Queer Food for Rodents. 



r l he Opossum on Long Island. 



Mississippi Valley BirdMigra- 

 tion. 



Hares in Newfoundland. 

 Game Bag and Gun. 



Rifles for Small Game. 



Big Rifles for Small Boys. 



The "Mazeppa Hitch." 



Tlie Tariff on Firearms. 



Weight of Caribou. 



Chicago and the "West. 



Maine Underground Railroad. 



William Senter. 



Rem ; nisenees. 



Yellowstone National Park. 



A Christmas Story. 



Connecticut Grouse Suarer. 

 Camp-Fire Flickerings. 

 Sea and River Fishing. 



A Christmas Reminiscence. 



Cliicago and the West. 



FlSHCUXTURE. 



Fishes of Great Egg Harbor 

 Bay. 



Rhode Island Commission. 

 A Century of Sawdust. 



The Kennel. 

 Dog Show Reports. 

 That Long Island Rabbit Bait 

 ing. 



Irish Water Spaniel Standard 

 St. Bernard Puppy Weights. 

 Dog Talk. 



The Interstate Fox Hunt. 

 New England Fox Hunting. 

 Pittsburgh Dog Show, 

 Kennel Notes. 

 Kennel Management. 

 Rifle and Trap shooting. 

 Range and ^allerv. 

 Civilian Soldiers' Marksman- 

 ship. 

 The Carver Shoot. 

 The Trap. 



Niagara Tournament. 



Carteret Cup. 



Christmas Shoots. 

 Yachting. 



Yachting on the Pacific. 



A Racing Association for New 

 Yorlc. 



A Cruise on Superior. 



Cruise of the Leona. 



Beverly Y. C. 



Notes. 

 Canoeing. 



A Righthander from a 



"Coward." 



A Clerical Canoe Cruise. 

 Answers to Correspondents. 



A portrait of the Forest and Stream's grizzly bear 

 is issued on an extra sheet with this number. 



SOLDIER MARKSMEN. 

 ^pHE collections of figures which appear in our rifle 

 *~ columns show with some detail the work done by 

 the Metropolitan Brigade of the State of New York in 

 carrying out the orders for rifle practice imposed by the 

 military authorities of the State. These troops represent 

 the flower of the National Guard of the country. There 

 is no city where the home guard strength is better 

 attended to, no city where eight regiments are supported 

 with ranks more or less full. It is seen that there is no 

 great variation in the figures. About so many men prac- 

 tice out of a possible total, and of this number about so 

 many manage to get up to the grade of marksmen. 

 Those who recall the time when not a single guardsman 

 fired a shot may look upon this showing of skill as phe- 

 nomenal. A member of a crack rifle club may look upon 

 a man who calls himself a marksman simply because he 

 has managed to get past an average of outers as a very 

 poor shooter. Both critics are right and both in a meas- 

 ure wrong. 



The Guard for what it has done and is doing deserves 

 much praise. It must be borne in mind that this exer- 

 cise is purely voluntary, that those men who don a 

 uniform for the pleasure of the thing really give a great 

 deal of time and trouble to their hobby and assume im- 

 portant obligations. The importance of these figures to 

 readers of 4 he Forest and Stream is in their bearing on 

 the question of arms and shooting. It shows that up to 

 the SOOyde. range the Remington State model rifle with 

 its .50-ealiber barrel throwing a heavy ball can and does 

 do good work. 



. The system which Gen. Robbins has elaborated and 

 carried out is a good one, It is one which other States 



may well copy. Criticism may be aimed at a system 

 which allows officers to shoot and put their totals into a 

 common total with that of the men. In fact, line officers 

 and brigade officials should shoot simply that they may 

 appreciate the efforts of the men, and be able to lend aid 

 and guidance. Again, the counting system is an artificial 

 one for simplicity's sake perhaps, but it would seem pos- 

 sible for something nearer an actual exhibit to be made 

 of the soldier's doings. Each man makes an actual score 

 over fixed distances. These could be aggregated into an 

 average score for each company or regiment. 



Again, the present system permits a man to keep on 

 shooting and shooting until a passing score is made. 

 There is no record of these attempts, and the result is 

 that a man of comparative leisure, like one of the 7th 

 Regiment, who may go again and again until he has got 

 a satisfactory score, is at a great advantage against the 

 poor militiaman who can only do his official stint of 

 shooting. 



What would seem to be needed in the whole shooting 

 system of this State is a scheme which follows the soldier 

 to his armory. At present a man may go to the range 

 and there for the first time shoot off a weapon. No won- 

 der he shoots wild. The actual shooting of a ball cart- 

 ridge is the last lesson in a long series, or rather it is the 

 finished work after the instruction has been given. Aim- 

 ing drill and armory practice at indoor ranges witli 

 reduced charges are the preliminary necessities to the 

 making of a good shot. What New York city wants is a 

 central range, safe and secure, where every guardsman 

 in the city should resort for the making of his trial shots. 

 Until a man has been taught to hold his weapon, it is 

 of no use to load it and tell him to hit a mark. The 

 indoor range instructor should be an experienced man 

 and one giving his entire time to it would soon find out 

 the possibilities in the case of each man. If a man can- 

 not become a shooter, then he has no place in the Guard. 

 If he is in the Guard then it is only neglect of his own 

 assisted by those above which prevents him from being a 

 possible shot and to a mob or an enemy a dangerous op- 

 ponent. The same instructor who acted at the indoor 

 range all winter ought to do duty at the open range all 

 summer. Men ought to come and go as they may find 

 it most convenient, the main aim being to make them 

 individually able to shoot. This accomplished the volley 

 and other firing would soon come. It will be urged that 

 the men who are learning to shoot to-day, who are be- 

 coming enthusiastic marksmen now, will be the officers of 

 the near future and will see to it that their men keep up 

 the proficiency. This is in part true, but instead of hav- 

 ing 80 line captains each teaching his men or leaving 

 them untaught, the work ought to be done by system and 

 at one central point. Thus the leaven would be in- 

 serted which in time would make the Guard a body of 

 sharpshooters. 



SNAP SHOTS. 



STUDENTS of natural history and all others who take 

 an interest in the subject will learn with satisfaction of 

 the action recently taken by the Board of Apportionment 

 of this city and the authorities of the American Museum 

 of Na tural History at the Central Park. At a meeting of 

 the Board of Apportionment last week it was determined 

 to increase the annual appropriation for the Museum from 

 $15,000 to $25,000, on condition that the collections should 

 be exposed to public view either on Sunday v or on two 

 evenings each week as well as during the day. This con- 

 dition has been accepted by the Trustees of the Museum, 

 who have elected to keep the building open until 10 

 o'clock during the evenings of Wednesday and Saturday 

 of each week. There are many positive and diverse 

 views held by different people as to the wisdom of open- 

 ing this and other museums on Sunday; but there is prob- 

 ably no doubt in the mind of any one as to the desirabil- 

 ity of having them open more that they usually are, and 

 especially at hours when those whose time is fully occu- 

 pied during business hours can take advantage of the col- 

 lections on view. The present step is a long one in the 

 right direction, and will make the American Museum of 

 Natural History more valuable than ever as an instructor 

 of the public. 



The times are out of joint; the first day of January in 

 the latitude of New York should not have the balmy mild- 

 ness of autumn; and yet the opening of- the new year 

 was as warm and sunny as that afternoon in last October 

 when "Coahama" entered the office and announced that 



he had come from Mississippi to see the Forest and 

 Stream's grizzly bear in Central Park. This was a bit of 

 euphuism, spoken, no doubt, in compliment to the bear. 

 "Coahama" is a man of affairs, who does not journey a 

 thousand miles to see a grizzly in a pit, though there is no 

 telling how far he might not travel for a chance at a 

 grizzly in the mountains, for he is a sportsman through 

 and through. His predilections for the gun and the field 

 crop out in all sorts of unexpected ways. When he buys 

 a new hat he selects one of white felt and broad-brimmed 

 and wears it for w T hat it is worth while new, but with a 

 thought ever to what it will be when old, for there is 

 nothing in the world better for duck shooting, says 

 "Coahoma," than a weather-worn old white hat. So we 

 went to the park to see the bear; but first a call was 

 made in the reptile house, where, the case being opened 

 by courtesy of Dr. Conklin, the Mississippi student of 

 reptilian life must needs handle the Gila monsters and 

 fuuible among the moccassins with a sangfroid acquired 

 during a surveyors life in Southern swamps and cane- 

 brakes. 



The interest in the bear manifested by "Coahoma" and 

 numerous others has prompted the suggestion that a life- 

 like portrait of the not unprepossessing creature might 

 be acceptable to the public. Mr. Thompson has made 

 careful study of the subject, and his drawing, presented 

 to our readers to-day, is from life. A very faithful like- 

 ness it is, as will be testified to by any one of the hun- 

 dreds of thousands and millions of people who have seen 

 the original. The bear lying in the foreground is the 

 common black bear of this country; and in the back- 

 ground are shown the rocks of the bear pit. 



Sewell Newhouse, the author of the "Trappers' Guide," 

 died at Community, New York, on the last day of 1888 

 at the age of 82. He was a native of Brattleboro, Vt. 

 In 1820, when he was fourteen years old, his family 

 moved to Oneida county, N. Y., then an almost unsettled 

 region, and here at the age of seventeen young Newhouse 

 began to make the traps which have caused his name to 

 be famous at least over the whole of North America. 

 For the next twenty years he was engaged in the business 

 of trap making, his annual manufacture running up 

 from very small beginnings to 2,000 traps a year. In 

 1849 Mr. Newhouse and his family became members of 

 the Oneida Community, and after that the business of 

 trap making was carried on by the Community under the 

 superintendence of Mr. Newhouse and Mr. J. H. Noyes. 

 His book, the "Trapper's Guide," has run through many 

 editions, and still remains the best authority on this diffi- 

 cult subject. 



In many districts of the Adirondacks the deer doggers 

 who aver that the deer are increasing are simply whistling 

 to keep their courage up. As a matter of fact, the 

 game, when the entire North Woods region is considered, 

 is rapidly dwindling year by year, at a rate which leaves 

 little hope for the future, and as if the jacking and 

 hounding in season were not bad enough, the hounders 

 at Paul Smith's and elsewhere, drive deer out of season, 

 and "mountain mutton" is supplied on hotel tables in the 

 summer. Smith, it will be remembered, is the man who 

 as a type of his class says that if his guests and guides 

 want to break the game laws, it is none of his business, 

 and he does not feel called upon to say booh to them. 

 And there was talk of making him a Commissioner of 

 Fisheries, some time ago. 



The letters printed to-day bearing on the right and 

 wrong of the killing hares by fox-terriers in the Hemp- 

 stead Coursing Club fashion are instructive, because they 

 afford a very fair index to the feelings on the subject held 

 by the great body of American sportsmen. As we have 

 said before, the question is not one of cruelty, but of 

 sportsmanship. The one fact that the victim has no 

 chance for its life is what stamps the Hempstead practice 

 as unbecoming and unsportsmanlike. This fox-terrier kil- 

 ling of hares dropped to the ground is not coursing, nor 

 can the advocates of legitimate coursing well permit their 

 sport to be injured by having it confounded with the 

 Hempstead way. 



Correspondence relating to the business and editorial 

 departments of this office should be addressed to the F6r- 

 est and Stream Publishing Co., and hot to individuals, in 

 whose absence the letters may remain unopened, 



