Forest and Stream. 



A Weekly Journal of the Rod and Gun. 



Terms, $4 a Year. 10 C'ts, a Copy. t 

 Six Months, $2. f 



NEW YORK, OCTOBER 17, 1889. 



j VOL. XXXIII.-No. 13 

 i No 318 Broadway-, New York. 



CORRESPONDENCE. 

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No. 318 Broadway. 



Forest and Stream Publishing Co. 



New York City. 



CONTENTS. 



Editorial. 



Shooting from Steamers. 



"Mad Bull-Pistols All!" 



Snap Sbots. 

 The Sportsman Tourist. 



Autumn Thoughts (pomn). 



How We Slew the Great Wild 

 Boar. 

 Natural History. 



The Hibernation of Reptiles. 



The Woodcock's Whistle. 

 Game Bag and Gun. 



Odd Incidents. 



Safety of Gun Locks. 



Ducks and Duck Shooting. 



The Hunting Rifle. 



The Game Season. 



Pattern and Penetration. 



Adirondack Deer. 



The Bear as a Boxer. 



Notes from Worcester. 



Chicago and the West. 



(lame Notes. 

 Sea and River Fishing. 



Club Leases. 



Nipigon, the Paradise of Ang- 

 lers. 



Salmon Fishing in Scotland. 

 Aquaria Notes. 

 A Silver-Side. 

 Angling Notes. 



FlSHCULTURE. 



U. S. Fisb Commission Work. 



Salmon Work in Maine. 

 The Kennel. 



The A. K. C. Finances. 



The "Stock-Keeper" and its 

 Assailant s 



Danbury Dog Show. 



Port Huron Dog Show. 



Eastern Field Trials Entries. 



Indiana Trials Entries. 



The All-Day Field Trials. 



Dog Talk. 



Kennel Notes. 



Kennel Management. 

 Rifle and Trap Shooting. 



Range and Gallery. 



The Rensselaerwyck Meeting. 



The Trap. 



The Middlesex Tournament. 



The Fodde Shoot. 

 Yachting. 



A 28ft. Steam Launch. 



Lead Keels with Iron Bolts. 

 Canoeing. 



Sails and Fittings of Fly. 



Starting Signals for Races. 



Canoes vs. Sailing Boats. 



Corinthian Mosquito Fleet 

 Regatta. 

 Answers to Correspondents 



SHOOTING FROM STEAMERS. 



IT was once the common practice of tourists to shoot 

 birds audi alligators from the decks of steamers on 

 Florida rivers and lakes. This abominable, because cruel 

 and useless, warfare was waged until the supply of 

 victims for the brutality w~as nearly exhausted. The de- 

 velopment of the Florida railway systems, by which the 

 tide of travel has been diverted from the water courses, 

 has bad a direct and marked effect on the wild life of the 

 country. Instead of the leisurely progress by water craft 

 tourists are now whirled through the country by rail, and 

 the blood-thirsty contingent has no opportunity to deal 

 out death at every turn. The waters and the shores are 

 once again becoming populated with birds of plume, 

 even the alligator is coming again into peaceful posses- 

 sion of his mudbank, and the moss-draped stretches of 

 shore line are enlivened by the welcome charms tff living- 

 creatures. 



Some of the peculiarly constituted individuals, who 

 find satisfaction in maiming birds by shooting from the 

 decks of moving steamers, have found a new if more re- 

 stricted field for their pernicious activity : and the scan- 

 dalous practices that once disgraced Florida are now re- 

 peated by them in Maine. The shooting by tourists from 

 the little excursion steamers, on many of the lakes, is 

 rendering the birds that have usually bred on these lakes, 

 scarce and extremely shy. Everybody shoots at them. 

 Even the firemen on the little steamers shoot at every 

 bird they see, and the poor loons — the great northern 

 diver whose night cry renders such a weird charm to the 

 woods and the lakes — are being exterminated. It is a 

 shame. These steamer people are hurting their own 

 trade in that they are destroying one of the principal 

 charms of the lakes. 



The birds are entitled to fair treatment, especially in 

 the breeding season. Shooting from these steamers on 

 Moosehead and the Rangeleys should be prohibited. 

 Many of the ducks and loons shot at are only wounded. 



and the steamer people have no time to finish their cruel 

 work. In one case, reported to us by our correspondent 

 "Special" as having come under his own obseiwation, a 

 loon was shot at several times with a rifle and left minus 

 his under mandible. The shooter thought he had accom- 

 plished a good deal, but alas for the poor loon that must 

 die of starvation. 



This shooting at everything alive on the water is 

 wrong, and real sportsmen will not do it. There is no 

 defense for this depriving wild creatures of life in pure 

 wantonness nor for the cruelty of maiming them. No 

 thoughtful, high-minded man will wound a bird which 

 he knows he cannot put out of its misery, nor will he 

 kill birds when no advantage can be derived from their 

 death. Shooting birds from steamers, like the old-time 

 game shooting from railroad trains, is very mean and 

 contemptible business. 



"MAD BULL"— PISTOLS ALL! 



NEW YORK had a quiet autumn day last Sabbath, 

 but the quietness was sharply interrupted by a 

 street bull fight. That is, one four-footed beast tried con- 

 clusions with a thousand two-legged idiots and came out 

 dead. He only made one victim, and this only indirectly 

 since the shot which lodged in a spectator's groin was in- 

 tended as a tickler in the hide of the bullock. 



It was the old story. One which has been told over 

 and over again and will probably be told as long as bul- 

 locks come afoot to this town to be eaten. The anima^ 

 came with others over an uptown ferry. He did not go 

 to the abattoir near by, but wandered away. He may 

 have wandered along ever so quietly, but he at once be- 

 came a "mad bull" in the opinions of the lads and men 

 about him. Small fools "pegged" him with stones or 

 belabored him with cudgels, bigger simpletons took 

 him for a target, drew all manner of petty 

 firearms, and made all the variety of misses possi- 

 ble in trying to hit him. This programme was car- 

 ried out over several miles of city street, and naturally 

 there w r ere several retaliatory rushes by the bull; but he 

 was finally downed, killed and carted away to the butch- 

 er's. Then a score tally was taken and thirty punctures 

 of the skin were reported. Just about one hit in ten 

 shots, a wretched showing of marksmanship, but nothing 

 better than might be expected from such a parcel of 

 shooters. One shot of the several hundred misses is 

 accounted for. It is in the flank of an onlooker. An- 

 other, too, is accounted for; it was stopped by the hand 

 of one of the assistant shouters. Police and populace 

 stood side by side in popping away. The crowd on one 

 side of the street fired at the bull in the middle, and the 

 crowd on the other side responded in a vigorous skirmish 

 fire, and neither company of fools seemed to think for an 

 instant of the danger run. 



There is a city ordinance which prohibits the firing of 

 firearms within the city limits. There is another which 

 requires the taking out of a license to carry a pistol, yet 

 the moment a stray bovine is noticed in the street, these 

 two ordinances are flung to the winds, and every Tom, 

 Dick and Harry either rushes into the house for his fam- 

 ily arsenal or yanks from his hip pocket his personal 

 armory and shows how clever he can be at missing. 

 The police are little, if any, better than the people as 

 shots, but they keep at it to the end. A mad dog, or 

 more often one which somebody has imagined might be 

 mad, is in large measure a target for the mob; but he 

 does not compare with a bullock astray in drawing out 

 the reckless bullets of the citizens. 



What is needed is a few arrests followed up by fines 

 the very next time a bull takes a stroll. Let the ordi- 

 nances about pistol firing hold good when the bull is 

 abroad as at any other time. Let those familiar with 

 the management of animals at large attend to the wan- 

 derer, under police supervision, but let not each and 

 every man and boy appoint himself slaughterer by the 

 pistol process. 



In next week's issue will be given the story of 

 "Comanche Chief," being one of Mr. George Bird Grin- 

 nell's "Pawnee Hero Stories," soon to be published in 

 book form. The same number wilt contain a lively ac- 

 count of the adventures and misadventures of a Wash- 

 ington party of duck shooters on the North Carolina 

 coast, written by Alexander Hunter. Mr. Edward Wake- 

 field, whose story of wild boar hunting in New Zealand 

 is printed to-day, has promised us a number of other 

 sketches of wild life at the antipodes. 



SNAP SHOTS. 



TT is much to be desired that the treasurer of the Amer- 

 ican Kennel Club should give to the public a plain, 

 comprehensive and detailed statement of the income 

 and expenditures of the club. Such an exhibit, demon- 

 strating financial prosperity, would put an end to theor- 

 ies and speculations about the condition and prospects of 

 the club, and would at once and most effectually silence 

 adverse criticism, questionings and "croakings." As the 

 club is a public institution, we can see not the slightest 

 objection to making public these details; in fact, the more 

 the publicity given to them, the more surely will the club 

 be accorded such measure of support as the figures shall 

 show it to deserve. The club is a voluntary association; 

 and no good purpose can be served by withholding from 

 the kennel world the fullest information as to the finances. 

 It strikes us as altogether unreasonable to construe this 

 demand for the figures into an attack on the integrity of 

 the treasurer, or to question the motives of those club 

 members who are calling for facts and figures. Certainly 

 nothing that Mr. Peshall has published can be construed 

 as casting imputations on Treasurer Vredenburgh's hon- 

 esty; it has rather been a reasonable and quite justifiable 

 demand for enlightenment on the business standing of 

 the concern. The controlling spirits of the club should 

 have discernment enough to distinguish between the 

 chagrined snarls of those newspaper managers whose 

 penny -catching schemes have gone awry, and the well- 

 meant comments of club members who have at heart the 

 well-being of the A. K. C, and deserve at least the credit 

 of meaning well, whether right or wrong in their con- 

 tention. 



Last Saturday Kaiser William, having the Russian 

 Czar to entertain, and too considerate to treat him with 

 any more Bismarck, did the most sensible thing he could 

 do under the circumstances, and took his imperial brother 

 hunting. Of course Diana is always favorable to royal . 

 ties, and never permits them to draw a blank cover. 

 Red and fallow deer were driven within shot of their 

 imperial majesties, and Czar and Kaiser laid each his 

 victims low; then came a rest for lunch and a renewal of 

 the royal sport. Doubtless the Czar bethought him of 

 the ponderous wisent, or bison, in his forest at Bialowitz, 

 and of the Russian bears and wolves, and craved for the 

 triumph of demonstrating to his imperial brother the 

 superiority of Russia in this respect. Pending war may 

 even be averted to afford the opportunity. Be this as it 

 may, nothing could have been better designed for the 

 promotion of peace as far as it depends on the will of the 

 two autocrats, than a day spent together in a congenial 

 pursuit in the forest. There throwing aside all cares of 

 state, stripping themselves of the trappings of royalty, 

 and exhibiting themselves as comrades in a pursuit of 

 which both are said to be passionately fond, each re- 

 vealed himself in his true light. In the forest Czar 

 and Kaiser met each other as man to man, and whatever 

 is noble and manly in the character of each would be 

 sure to have commended itself to the other. All the 

 talent of a Bismarck could not do as much to cement 

 a good understanding between the two potentates, as a 

 day spent together in the hunting field. If Kaiser Wil- 

 liam designed that hunt, he is perhaps a keener politician 

 than he himself wots of. 



The yachting season which opened in American waters 

 with a strong breeze in the match between Titania and 

 Shamrock on May 30, and closed very appropriately with 

 the very squally finish between Kathleen and Shona on 

 Oct. 1, has been a remarkable one in several ways. The 

 weather conditions have been more severe than in many 

 years, the usual drifting matches being few compared 

 with the races sailed in moderate to very strong winds; 

 this year for the first time has been seen a regular racing 

 class, well built up to and keeping up the racing persist- 

 ently about the coast, as both forties and thirties have 

 done, while there has been an unprecedented number of 

 races. Each class, 40 and 30ft., has sailed some thirty 

 matches, and while there are many knotty questions 

 still unsettled, and many apparent contradictions to be 

 reconciled, the season must be set down as a most suc- 

 cessful one, for the racing men in all classes, for the non- 

 racers who look on, and as an aid to those enthusiasts 

 who are constantly at work for the advancement and 

 perfection of the sport, 



