Forest and Stream 



A Weekly Journal of the Rod and Gun. 



Terms, u A Year. 10 Cts. a Copy, i 

 Six Months, $2. f 



NEW YORK, FEBRUARY 20, 1890. 



I VOL. XXX IV. -No. 5. 



I No. 318 Broadway, New York. 



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CONTENTS. 



Editorial. 

 Scneroing for a Railway. 

 The Strike in Fly-Fishing. 

 Bits of Talk. 



St. Lawrence River Nets. 

 The Sportsman Tourist. 



Dungeness— A Winter Home. 

 Naturae History. 



New Fishes from the Galapa- 

 gos. 



The Birds' Drinking Fountain. 

 Game Bag and Gun. 



About the Koshkonong"Ra,ts" 



With the Squirrels. 



Lots of Big Game. 



Those Big Texas Pastures. 



The Wily Grouse. 



Deer in the Oats. 



The Weather and the Game. 



Game Notes. 

 Sea and River Fishing. 



On the North Shore.— I v. 



Rangeley Camps. 



Distribution of Fresh Water 

 Fishes. 



Random Casts. 

 Fish culture. 



Massachusetts Fish Com. 



Fishcultdre. 



Erratic Movements of Fish. 

 The Kennel. 



New York Dog Show. 



American Kennel Club. 



Eastern Field Trials. 



Pacific Field Trials. 



Kennel Notes. 



Kennel Management. 

 Riele and Trap Shooting, 



Range and Gallery. 



The Trap. 



U. S. Cartridge Co.'s Tour. 



Lincoln Gun Club. 



Chicago Trap Interests. 



Conlin's Gallery. 

 Canoeing. 



1,500 Miles in an Adirondack 

 Boat.— vm. 



The A. C. A. and W. C. A. 



Canoeing about Montreal. 

 Yachting. 



Second Cruise of the Orinda. 



Portland Y. C. 



Quaker City Y. C. 



Signal Guns on Coasting Ves- 

 sels. 



Answers to Correspondents. 



THE STRIKE IN FLY-FISHING. 

 / ~\NE of the most difficult things to learn in fly-fishing, 

 particularly when fishing for speckled trout, is the 

 art of striking. To the uninitiated it may be explained 

 that the term "striking" means the motion made by the 

 angler with his rod when he fastens the hook into the 

 fish's mouth as it rises to the fly. 



Some writers on angling state that it is unnecessary to 

 strike at all, while others say you cannot strike too 

 quickly. But long experience teaches us that no general 

 rule can be laid down, so much depends on whether the 

 trout are much fished for and shy, or whether they are 

 not used to the feathery deception and rise boldly and 

 without fear. In the first case one cannot strike too 

 quickly after the fish has taken the fly. And yet while 

 striking quickly one must not strike hard, for the deli- 

 cate gut leader, such as is necessary to use when fishing 

 for educated fish, will not stand the sharp strain, particu- 

 larly when the fish happens to be of good size. How 

 often do we remember to our sorrow the unexpected and 

 startling rise of a big fish after a long period of fruitless 

 casting, the instinctive sharp strike followed by the limp 

 return of the line, while the trout went sailing off with 

 the whole cast trailing behind him. Of course when 

 angling on wilder waters such very light leaders are un- 

 necessary and such mishaps are not apt to occur. If the 

 cast is properly made, the line will be quite, or at least 

 so nearly, straight that it will require but the slightest 

 motion to hook the fish. All anglers should carry a fine 

 file, and see that the points of their hooks are as sharp 

 as a needle, so that a slight turn of the wrist will bury 

 the barb. 



Seth Green could perform this delicate operation better 

 than any one else we have ever met. The fish in Cale- 

 donia Creek required it, and he had, by long and con- 

 stant practice, become very expert in striking. Some 

 years ago Caledonia Creek from the mill down to Seth 

 Green's line was open to the public. To those who know 

 it not we may say it is the most difficult bit of water to 

 fish we have ever seen or heard of. Running deep and 

 still, clear as crystal and cold as ice, much overhung 

 with bushes and branches, it is hard to wade and pro- 

 voking to cast over. The trout, owing to much fishing 

 and an abundance of natural food, were suspicious and 

 shy beyond belief. On a dark day, with a favorable 

 breeze to ruffle the water, a very good angler, using 



drawn gut leaders and midges, would sometimes have 

 great success, but these days were few and far between. 

 Seth Green used to go over these waters almost every 

 day in a boat. All the trout he caught went into his 

 well, which he had built under the seat, and from the 

 well into his pond below his house. But his fishi?rg was 

 wonderful. Mind you, there are lots of people who cast 

 superbly but who know little or nothing about fishing; 

 but he understood both; and if a trout ventured to touch 

 his fly, quick as a flash it was hooked with a sharp move- 

 ment of the wrist, and yet so slight that the flies hardly 

 moved an inch on the water. 



The fish on the Pacific slope require entirely different 

 treatment. They show by their manner of taking the 

 fly that they are more salmon than trout. Unless pro- 

 voked by missing winged prey at the first attempt, they 

 rise gently, take the fly between Aheir lips and turn down- 

 ward. Then is the time to strike and not before. It takes 

 some time, when the angler from the East first meets 

 these fish, to get over the habit of quick striking, and the 

 chances are that he will miss many good offers at first. 



ST. LAWRENCE RIVER NETS. 



A MONG the bills introduced into the New York Legis- 

 lature, are two relating to the St. Lawrence River. 

 One of these, which originates with the Anglers' Asso- 

 ciation of the St. Lawrence River, forbids all netting ex- 

 cept for minnows and bullheads. The other, which 

 comes from the net fishermen, provides for licensing 

 certain persons, on payment of a fee of from $1 to $25, 

 to fish with nets, provided that if any game fish are 

 taken in the nets they shall be returned alive to the water. 



The record of the rapid increase of the fish supply in 

 the river, since the public-spirited members of the Ang- 

 ling Association set about the task of enforcing the laws 

 against nets=, should be an all-sufficient argument in 

 favor of restricting still more closely the destructive 

 practice of netting. There i3 no surer way to deplete the 

 waters of the St. Lawrence of game and food fish than 

 to give such license as is now asked for by the netters. 



The clause prescribing that game fish caught in nets 

 must be returned to the water will be, as it is in every 

 similar case, a perfect dead letter. Two years of such 

 fishing as would be permitted by this bill in behalf of the 

 netters would ruin the fishing of the St. Lawrence and 

 deprive the people of that section of an annual revenue, 

 now reaped from the angling visitors, aggregating tens 

 of thousands of dollars each season. 



SCHEMING FOR A RAILROAD. 

 r l^HOSE who have followed legislation at Washington 

 affecting the National Park know why that reserva- 

 tion is still without a government. Three times the Sen- 

 ate has passed bills for its protection, but these have al- 

 ways failed in the House. 



The opposition to a Park bill in the House of Repre- 

 sentatives has come from people who desired to obtain a 

 franchise for a railway to run through the Park, A 

 strong lobby has long fought for this grant, and the 

 lobby declares that without some provision of the kind 

 no bill for the protection of the Park forests, and the 

 preservation of this national reservoir, shall pass the 

 House. 



Up to the present session the railroad lobby have pro- 

 fessed to be governed only by a consideration for the 

 public welfare. Ignoring other available railway routes 

 from Cooke City, they have professed to desire the priv- 

 ilege of building a road down the Yellowstone River, so 

 that the miners of Cooke City could get their ore out of 

 the mountains to a trunk line. Now, this does not satisfy 

 them. In order to conciliate the opposition and to hasten 

 the progress of the bill through Congress, the friends of 

 the Park have intimated to the railway people their wil- 

 lingness to so amend the Vest bill that the Yellowstone 

 and Lamar rivers and Soda Butte Creek should form in 

 part the boundary of the Park on the north. This would 

 give an opportunity for a railway lying wholly without 

 the Park to be built from Cooke City to Gardiner. Thus 

 Cooke would have her outlet, and the integrity of the 

 Park would be preserved. 



When this compromise was offered to the speculators 

 by the friends of the Park, it was refused. 



It thus appears that the speculators are working, 

 not for the good of Cooke City, but for their own pockets. 

 What they desire is not an outlet for Cooke, but a right 

 of way into the Park which they can sell to the Northern . 



Pacific R. R. It is not certain that this corporation would 

 buy such a franchise, but the speculators think that it 

 would do so, and that they would get their pay in good 

 hard cash or negotiable bonds. It is understood that 

 these speculators now strongly object to having the river 

 made the boundary of the Park, since, if this were done, 

 the N. P. R. R. could build a line to Cooke, and the value 

 of any possible franchise obtained by the schemers would 

 be greatly lessened. 



The opposition to Senator Vest's bill is based entirely 

 on the desire of these speculators to obtain from Congress 

 for nothing a franchise that they can sell. They are 

 ready in the hope of advantaging their pockets to stop 

 a much needed bill, to put off indefinitely a measure 

 which is of great importance to the whole Northwest. 



The lobby which has this matter in charge is singularly 

 fortunate in having on its side Mr. Payson, of Illinois, 

 who is a prominent member of the Public Lands Com- 

 mittee, to which the Park bill must be referred when it 

 reaches the House. It is probable that if he wishes to do 

 so Mr. Payson can cause this bill to be smothered in com- 

 mittee, or else to be reported with an amendment granting 

 a right of way to a railway into or through the Park. 

 Such an amendment will effectually kill the bill, for it 

 is certain that Mr. Vest, who has worked so long and so 

 hard for the Park, and whose special charge in Washing- 

 ton it is, will not consent to a railroad in the Park. 



BITS OF TALK. 

 CONCERNING STYLE IN OVEKCOATS. 



" T DON'T hanker after bear meat, but how will you 

 trade overcoats ? " said the man to the bear. 

 •' I'll keep my own, if it's all the same to you," said the 

 bear. 



" I've taken a notion to black fur myself; yours looks 

 as if it would fit me: hand it over," said the man, 



" How will you have it?" said the bear. 



"With a hole in it," said the man; " there is no use to 

 dicker any longer about it." And he put a bullet where 

 it would close the bargain at once. 



" Take it, but you will find it a dangerous style of coat 

 to wear in this country," said the dying bear as he clum- 

 sily shuffled off the coil. 



So the man wore the bear's overcoat. 



One day another man saw him in the woods. " That's 

 my meat," said the other man, and he blazed away with 

 a ,44-long. " If I had known you were a man," he said, 

 " I would not have shot. I was misled by your fur coat. 

 I took you for a bear." 



" You cannot always judge from appearances. Clothes 

 don't make the bear," said the dying man. 



MARKET HUNTING. 



IT IS held by some of those who have studied the sub- 

 ject most carefully that the great bulk of game 

 killed finds its way to market. If this theory is correct, 

 what shall be done to reduce the destruction by market- 

 hunting? Non-export laws are directed to this end. 

 How one law works was told last week by a Detroit 

 City, Minn., correspondent, who wrote that the trans- 

 portation companies were receiving and shipping venison 

 openly and with the advice of lawyers, although the law 

 expressly forbade it. In our copy of the Minnesota law 

 we can discover nothing whatever upon which these 

 game shippers and their counsel base the plea that such 

 handling of game out of season is legitimate. If there is any 

 flaw in the statute the citizens of Minnesota should take 

 the earliest opportunity of correcting it. A non-export law 

 can be framed to hold, but there must be something more 

 than the mere law in the books. The Connecticut non- 

 export law did not amount to much until the association 

 organized by Mr. A. C. Collins undertook to make it 

 something more than a dead letter. The law was once a 

 failure; it is now a success; the success is not due to any 

 amendment, which is the average game protective 

 panacea; its efficacy lies in active execution. Now come 

 the Massachusetts Commissioners of Fish and Game with 

 a demand for a non-export law like that of Connecticut. 

 Such a law they assert to be almost essential for the 

 preservation of the birds, because market-gunners are 

 killing off the stock for New York and other markets. 

 The plea is, we believe, quite justified by the facts. It 

 is worthy of remark too that this movement for a non- 

 export law is made in a State whose open game market 

 at Boston is the depository of game unlawfully shipped 

 from other States, 



