Forest and Stream 



A Weekly Journal of the Rod and Gun. 



Terms, $4 A Year. 10 0? 



Sec Months, $i 



. a Copt. ) 



NEW YORK, JANUARY 10, 1889. 



1 YOL. XXXI.-No. 25. 



I No. 31S Broadway, New York. 



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CONTENTS. 



Editorial. 



Announcement. 

 • American Shooting Associa- 

 tion. 



Revolvers for Officers. 



Snap Shots. 



After Stolen Horses. 

 The Sportsman Tourist. 



Reminiscences.— ii. 

 Natural History. 



The Bats. 

 Game Bag and Gun. 



Maine's Game. 



Shooting Clubs of GhicagO.rU 

 Diminution of the Wildfowl. 

 Sea and RrvER Fishing. 

 Our Angling Presidents. 



FlSHCULTURE. 



The Vermont Commission. 



The Sawdust Question. 

 Camp-Fire Flickering^. 

 The Kennel. 



Chesapeake Bay Retriever. 



Salisbury's Pedigree. 



New England Fox Hunting. 



Dog Show Reports. 



St. Bernard Club Cups. 



Dog Talk. 



Meriden Dog Show. 



The Kennel. 



American Kennel Club. 



Kennel Notes. 



Kennel Management. 

 Riele and Trap Shooting. 



Range and Gallerv. 



Secretary Shepherd's Report. 



Championship of New York. 



The Trap. 



Middlesex Gun Club. 



A New Tucker System. 



N. J. A. C. Gun Club. 



What is a Professional Trap- 

 Shooter? 



Shooting in Cleveland. 



Canadian Trap Notes. 



New Jersey Gun Clubs. 

 Yachting. 



A Cruise on Lake Superior. 



Collingwood Fishing Boat. 



Long Cruises in Steam 

 Launches. 

 Canoeing. 



Special Racing Appliances. 



Improvements of Canoe Sails. 



Racing for Cruisers. 



Sailing and Paddling Canoe, 



Ottawa C. C. 

 Answers to Correspondents. 



REVOLVERS FOR OFFICERS. 

 r pHE question of placing revolvers in the hands of 

 J- officers as a regular arm is just now receiving an 

 extra share of attention. It is assumed from the start by 

 those who are' in favor of this small arm that it cannot 

 be too speedily adopted, and that an officer who fails to 

 make himself an expert off-hand pistol shot is neglecting 

 his military education very much. On the other hand 

 there are officers who stand very high in shooting mat- 

 ters and whose opinions are well worth taking, who 

 think that when a line officer has managed his company 

 well and has gotten the best possible work from the hun- 

 dred men under his command he has done about all that 

 could be expected of him. To do this and do it well will 

 tax the attention and ability of any army man, and with 

 a hundred rifles well drilled and ready to speak— and 

 speak effectually— at his command, the officer need not 

 bewail the lack of the few pistol balls he might be able 

 to send along with the rain of rifle bullets. An officer is 

 supposed not to need protection, but to have his men 

 about him not only able to form a body guard, but to do 

 a great deal more besides in the way of harassing the 

 enemy. 



There are cases when on detached duty the officer 

 might find the possession of a revolver and the ability to 

 use it a matter of life and death on his part. This would 

 only apply to staff officers, however, to aides, etc., who 

 might be acting as messengers and away from their own 

 men. The ordinary line officer is hardly likely to find 

 himself in any such position. 



It is for these reasons that those who speak with care 

 and thought express the opinion that the present rush 

 for revolver practice on the part of officers is some- 

 what of a craze and not founded on a complete know- 

 ledge of the conditions likely to be met in actual hostili- 

 ties. But it may be urged that the same objections 

 would apply to rifle practice by officers of the line and 

 by staff officers as well. True, an officer would not be 

 required -to take up and nse a rifle either as an offensive 



or defensive weapon. He has a body of men about him , 

 each with a tried rifle at hand, and he uses his skill and 

 position as an officer to see that those rifles do their full 

 work. It must be borne in mind, however, that an 

 officer learns to shoot a rifle when he is in the ranks, that 

 he improves during his non-commissioned stage, and then 

 as a commissioned officer he shoots to encourage and in- 

 struct his men. This draws the difference between rifles 

 and revolver shooting so far as the militia is concerned, 

 while for the regular army the officer is supposed to know 

 the whole art of war, including the use of all manner of 

 arms. 



In expressing these views entertained pro and con on 

 the matter of revolver work, Ave would not for a moment 

 seek to discourage revolver practice. It is an admir- 

 able sport, one entirely military, and the danger is that 

 our officers will know too little rather than too much. 

 Every armory should have its revolver gallery for the 

 officers as well as the rifle range for the men, and each 

 should be liberally patronized. There seems to be a con- 

 tradiction in heaping up the scores of officers and men in 

 one grand total as the shooting ability of the whole 

 guard, when in war practice the officers will not use the 

 rifle at all. For this reason the skirmish and volley firings 

 are in every way better than the fixed distance scores in 

 determining the shooting ability of the entire force. 



AMERICAN SHOOTING ASSOCIATION. 



IN our issue of August 30, last year, was given the 

 outline of a scheme, proposed by Mr. C. W. Dimick. 

 for the organization of manufacturers of guns, ammuni- 

 tion and artificial targets, under the title American Shoot- 

 ing Association, to promote the interests of trap-shooters. 

 As then stated the project was to draft a set of rules to 

 be universally adopted as the standard, to classify shoot- 

 ers according to skill, to form State leagues and to organize 

 inter-State or national tournaments, which should be par- 

 ticipated in by these several leagues. There was to be a 

 central office in New York, with a general manager. 

 The capital of the Association was to be used to provide 

 prizes, and in short, everything was to be done to foster 

 and encourage the sport. 



From that time to this nothing further has been heard 

 of the Association; and the public is beginning to fear 

 that the scheme may have been abandoned. We are 

 glad to say this is not the case; the project of an Ameri- 

 can Shooting Association has not been given up; those 

 interested in seeing it put through are carefully consider- 

 ing all the pros and cons, and there is a strong probabil- 

 ity that at no distant day the organization will be in 

 working order. 



It is very likely, too, that there will be a number of 

 material departures from the exact lines of the Associa- 

 tion as originally planned. Among those who have 

 given thought to the scheme is Mr. S. A. Tucker, whose 

 experience as a trap-shooter and an almost universal 

 acquaintance with shooters in every part of the country, 

 entitle his opinions to great weight. As modified by 

 Mr. Tucker, the Association would provide a set of rules 

 for common adoption, and would classify shooters, 

 unless some scheme of shooting were adopted making 

 such classification unnecessary. But in place of the 

 State and inter-State league system, which practice 

 has shown to be cumbersome and difficult of satisfactory 

 management, Mr. Tucker proposes that the Association 

 shall support tournaments in general by guaranteeing 

 certain sums of cash as prizes. The tournaments thus 

 supported may be managed by individuals otherwise 

 wholly independent of the Association, or by persons 

 selected by the Association as maragers, and by it sup- 

 plied to clubs wishing such services. Thus, there are 

 many towns where tournaments might now be held 

 with every reasonable prospect of success, but where they 

 are not given because no one is willing to risk the con- 

 tingency of failure: in such a town, if the individual or 

 cluD organizing a tournament shall guarantee a certain 

 number of shooters, the Association in turn will guarantee 

 a certain sum of cash for prizes, under conditions to be 

 determined. So. too, if a club, is in need of a tournament 

 manager, the Association will designate some one be- 

 lieved" to be competent to conduct the affair, the re- 

 sponsibility, however, being not with the Association, 

 but with the individual. The scheme is, in short, 

 to encourage and support tournaments given by others, 

 J rather than to give tournaments of its own, or to manage 

 | a complicated league system. It will readily be under- 



stood that Mr. Tucker's plan would involve less expense 

 for the machinery of the Association, and would thus 

 secure a larger proportion of its funds to be given 

 directly as prizes, and that is where the money will do 

 the most good. 



The modifications proposed by Mr. Tucker are such as 

 may well commend themselves to the projectors of the 

 American Shooting Association, and we hope to chron- 

 icle the early organization of the movement. As pointed 

 out in our trap columns, the need of some central body 

 having jurisdiction and accepted authority in trap-shoot- 

 ing affairs is imperative. Only by such a recognized 

 court or board of appeal may the numerous vexed ques- 

 tions which come up from time to time be settled. Such 

 a body, too, might very well take cognizance of and strive 

 to reform various abuses which have a retarding influence 

 on the sport. • 



ANNO UNCEMENT. 

 \ I R. FRED MATHER, having been compelled by the 

 demands of other business arrangements, to re- 

 sign his position as editor of the Sea and River Fishing 

 and Fishculture columns, after eight years' connection 

 with the Forest an.d Stream, those departments will 

 hereafter be under the direction of Dr. Tarleton H. Bean, 

 who is in every way admirably qualified for his new 

 work. Dr. Bean is the Ichthyologist of the United States 

 Commission of Fish and Fisheries, and the editor of the 

 Commission's publications. He is known as a careful 

 student, an accomplished scholar, and the leading living 

 authority on many families of fishes, among them those 

 which are of most interest to anglers. Dr. Bean's opin- 

 ions on ichthyological subjects as expressed in the FOR- 

 EST and Stream may be accepted as worthy of confi- 

 dence, and entirely in accord with the latest knowledge 

 concerning the topics discussed. To this end his personal 

 qualifications will be supplemented by the facilities of 

 the Smithsonian Institution, the National Museum and 

 the United States Fish Commission. The heads of de- 

 partments in each of these institutions have assured Dr. 

 Bean of their co-operation in every fitting way. Add 

 to this that Dr. Bean is a young man, earnestly devoted 

 to the subject, and is one among the men who are making 

 the literature of the day in this special field, and no as- 

 surance is needed from us that the fishing departments 

 of the Forest and Stream will be of the highest attain- 

 able excellence and invaluable to anglers and fishcul- 

 turists. It only remains to bespeak for Dr. Bean and for 

 the Forest and Stream from our multitudinous friends 

 and contributors a continuation of the encouragement, 

 support and co-operation which always have been and 

 always must be essential adjuncts, without which the 

 highest editorial success cannot be attained. 



SNAP SHOTS. 



ASAECASTIC critic might find a point for a sharp 

 thrust in the new shooting society's house just 

 opened on Eighth street in this city, and of which some 

 facts were given in the last issue. There is a tall and 

 stately club house, specially built to house a shooting 

 society, and yet the only provision made for firing off a 

 rifle is a narrow slit 5ft. wide partitioned along one side 

 of the basement. The Zettler Brothers have taken charge 

 of this gallery and the veteran Noone put up a fine off- 

 hand target of 110 in 10 shots on the opening day. Two 

 sets of targets may be worked and they are ingeniously 

 contrived so that they travel to and fro from the firing 

 point to the other end of the range along a sort of elevated 

 railroad mounted on steel wire. It is a very clever ar- 

 rangement and will utilize the meager shooting facilities 

 to the utmost. Yet it remains queer and characteristic 

 that in this metropolitan shooting palace nominally there 

 is ample room for about 500 simultaneous beer drinkers 

 and just two simultaneous riflemen. 



The town of Union, Maine, is at war over a dead dog. 

 The man who shot the dog is willing to settle for $5, but 

 the man whose dog was shot holds out for $100. This is 

 an anomalous condition of affairs for Maine, whose 

 Supreme Court has ruled that dogs are /em naturce, wild 

 animals, and thus to be preyed upon and destroyed with 

 impunity by mankind. 



Personal. —Will Mr. Henry Maedonald, author of 

 "Early Days on the Missouri," kindly send his present 

 address to this office. We wish to communica te with hirn. 



