Forest and Stream. 



A Weekly Journal of the Rod and Gun. 



Tebms, $4 a Year. 10 Ois. A Copy. 1 

 Six Months, f 2, f 



NEW YORK, MARCH 6, 1890. 



( VOL. XXXIV.-No. 7. 



( No. 318 Broadway, New York. 





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CONTENTS. 



Editorial. 



Tic Sport Exhibit in 1892. 



Bids for the Seal Islands. 



Snap Shots. 

 The Sportsman Tourist. 



Slide Rock from Many Moun- 

 tains.- IV. 



Dungeness— A Winter Home. 

 Natural History. 



Notes on the Woodcock. 

 Gj*me Bag and Gun. 



Farmer and Sportsman. 



Odds and Ends from Cape 



C"d. 



Antelope in Kansas. 

 Kentucky Quail Netting. 

 Quail Shooting m North Caro- 

 lina. 



Wolves in the Adirondacks. 

 The Weatl'er and the Game. 

 An Incident of Old Times. 

 Sunday Shooting. 

 Woman in the Field. 

 Pattern and Penetration. 

 On toe Face of the Moon. 

 G« me Notes. 



Waterproofing Clothing and 

 Tents. 



Sea and River Fishing. 

 On the North Shore.— vi. 

 Angling Notes. 



1 he Canadian Fishing Leases. 

 Length and Weight of Fishes. 



Sea and River Fishisq. 

 What is This? 

 Random Casts.— tn. 



FlSHCTJLTCRE. 



California Fish Topics. 

 The Kennel. 



Boston Gog Show. 



Baltimore Dog Show. 



English Notes. 



Texas Field Trials. 



Dogs of the. Day. 



New York Dog Show. 



Three Fool Foxes. 



Brunswick Fur Club. 



Chicago Dog Show. 



Kennel Notes. 



Kennel Management. 

 Riele and Trap shooting. 



Range and Gallery. 



The Trap. . ♦ 



U. S. Cartridge Co.'s Tour. 



Tra p in Brooklyn. 



The New Haven Gun Club. 



Canadian Trap Notes. 

 Canoeing. 



1,500 Miies in an Adirondack 

 Boat.— ix. 



A. C. A. Meet Transportation. 

 Yachting. 



To Mount Desert in a Single- 

 hander. 



Ratine Fixturps. 

 Answers to Correspondents. 



THE SPORT EXHIBIT IN 1892. 



CHICAGO seems to hare made a successful fight in 

 her struggle for the possession of the World's Fair 

 of 1832. The whole country will wish the bustling city 

 of the central West the best of fortune in the big under- 

 taking placed in her charge. It will be of course as great 

 a show as can be put together in the time at disposal, and 

 to this end immediate and active hustling in every direc- 

 tion by everybody concerned is imperatively necessary. 

 The sportsman's side of American life should have an 

 exposition worthy of its importance. It may not be pos- 

 sible to run a trout stream through the exposition grounds, 

 to have a tarpon pond handy by or a bison herd ready for 

 our transatlantic visiters to look at or take a few shots 

 into. It will be possible, however, to make a display of 

 the extra fine wares now turned out from our American 

 factories and placed at the disposal of the world's sports- 

 men. 



In firearms and fishing tackle in every one of the 

 various branches of artisan ship which the sportsman 

 puts at his service, our workmen need have no fear in 

 challenging the shops of Europe to a competitive exhibit. 

 All this will fill show cases with interesting matter, but 

 something more is needed. There should be competitions 

 where visitors may see our sportsmen in actual manipu- 

 lation of these various devices. We may have a casting 

 tournament on a large scale, and in all the varieties of 

 this sport. The dog men will attend to their specialty 

 in a fashion befitting the occasion, and in the use of fire- 

 arms there should be a programme of events which in 

 after years ought to make the Exposition date a memor- 

 able one. 



In military shooting we do not stand at the head; our 

 militiamen have not been able to vanquish the Volunteers 

 of Great Britain on their own grounds. Although pos- 

 sibly strict compliance with precedence ought to send a 

 team abroad before inviting visitors here, yet it will be 

 possible by the promise of a return match to secure a 

 representative team here in '93. There should be not 

 only a gathering of teams from the several States, but a 

 national team ready to meet all foreign teams. This in 

 miUtary shooting. In long-range small-bore work, an 



American team ought to stand ready, and if the Western 

 men have not the arms nor the skill, they can depend 

 upon a good lift from the Eastern shooters. The German 

 contingent in America ought to give one of the Old 

 Country shooting fests with as much of the festival 

 character as our American temper will support, but 

 with an abundance of the shooting side to show the 

 superb skill of our German-American marksmen. 



Coming to trap-3hooting, there should be at once an 

 exhibit of appliances in every line, of arms and of men. 

 Live birds there should be in abundance, with plenty of 

 artificial targets to show how well we have supplied a 

 substitute for the rapidly disappearing feathered target. 

 The prize list ought to be commensurate with the occa- 

 sion and the programme ought to be broad enough to inr 

 elude each and every sort of marksmanship worth en- 

 couragement. There is a grand chance to give field 

 sports a big lift in connection with the Exposition, which 

 the whole country will assist Chicago in making a mon- 

 ster one, but no time is to be lost. The announcements 

 have to go a long way and time for preparation is needed. 

 Make up the schedule of events at once, make them 

 ample enough to give everybody a chance to exhibit his 

 skill and put sportsmen of national experience in charge. 



BIDS FOR THE SEAL ISLANDS. 



AT noon on February 20 the bids for the lease of the 

 se*al islands for a period of twenty years were 

 opened at the office of the Secretary of the Treasury. 

 There were twelve bids, of which two failed to contain 

 certified checks for $100,000, as called for by the adver- 

 tisement, and one has since been withdrawn, leaving 

 nine to be considered. 



The bidding is double in its nature, being on a basis of 

 60,000 skins per year for the lowest [limit, and 100,000 

 skins for the highest limit. The following bids were 

 made on the bases named: The American Fishing and 

 Trading Company of San Francisco, $11,044,000 and 

 $14,340,000. The North American Trading Company of 

 West Virginia. $8,900,000 and $14,100,000. The Pacific 

 Steam Whaling Company of San Francisco, $9,580,000 

 and $15,300,000. The Alaska Commercial Company, 

 $8,800,000 and $14,000,000. The Atlantic and Pacific 

 Trading Company, $10,850,000 and $17,850,000. The 

 North American Commercial Company of Illinois, $9,- 

 G52,000 and $15,340,000. The North American Com- 

 mercial Company of New York and San Francisco, 

 $14,004,000 and $22,604,000. Another bid by the same 

 company, $12,750,000 and $20,450,000. Another bid by 

 the same company, $13,442,000 and $21,642,000. 



All these bids are largely in excess of any" rental of 

 these islands previously paid. 



On Feb. 28 Secretary Windorn directed a lease to be 

 made with the North American Commercial Company 

 of New York and San Francisco for the exclusive 

 privilege of taking fur seals upon the islands of St. Paul 

 and St. George, Alaska, for a period of twenty years 

 from May 1. The directors of the company are Lloyd 

 Tevis, Henry Cowell, Matthias Meyer, and Isaac Liebes, 

 all of San Francisco, and Albert Miller of Oakland, Cal. 

 D. O. Mills of New York is a stockholder of the company. 

 It's capital stock is $2,000,000. 



The company offers to pay an annual rental of $60,- 

 000 for the lease, and, in addition to the revenue tax of 

 $2 upon each sealskin, it will pay $7.62| for each fur 

 sealskin that shall bs taken and shipped by it. The com- 

 pany also proposes to pay 50 cents per gallon for each 

 gallon of seal oil; to furnish, free of charge, to the native 

 inhabitants of the islands of St. Paul and St. George, 

 annually, such quantity of dried salmon as the Secretary 

 of the Treasury may direct; to furnish, under the direc- 

 tion of the Secretary of the Treasury, the natives the 

 salt and barrels necessary for preserving meat. 



The increase of revenue over that previously received 

 by the Government from the Alaska Commercial Com- 

 pany is not far from $700,000, but in some other respects 

 the lease is less satisfactory than the one which has just 

 expired, the bid of the new lessees not having been as ex- 

 plicit as it ought to have been with regard to the care to 

 be taken of the natives of the seal islands. 



The increase in the amount bid for this lease gives a 

 clear notion of the great profits reaped by the former 

 lessees, who have had for twenty years a monopoly of 

 this business. While the new lessees control the Pribyloff 

 Islands it must be remembered that the Alaska Commer- 

 cial Company still holds possession of "all the Russian 



seal islands. Besides this a large number of seals are 

 annually caught in the open sea, and it is quite possible 

 that these three elements may interfere with each other 

 in such a way as to bring down the price of seal fur to 

 such a point that the new lessees of the Alaska seal 

 islands may have to do business at a loss. It is, however, 

 much more probable that these two wealthy corporations 

 will unite to keep the price up for the benefit of both. 



SNAP SHOTS. 



A REPORT of the fur crop gathered in Maine during 

 the past winter ought to be read by those persons 

 who so often write to us asking where they can go camp- 

 ing in the Adirondacks and Maine and pay their expenses 

 by trapping. It is hardly necessary to say that such 

 questions are usually asked by men who are entirely 

 without knowledge of the trapper's craft. In Maine last 

 season there were caught and killed 236 bears, worth 

 perhaps $12 each; 22,000 muskrats, worth 16 cents each; 

 6,500 skunks, 50 cents; 5,300 mink, $1.15; 900 coons, 60 

 cents; 3,250 foxes, $1.40; 730 sables, $1; 71 fishers, $7; 96 

 otters, $8; 176 lynx, $3; 5 silver foxes, $50; 9 cross foxes, 

 $8; 950 house cats, 15 cents, and 75 wildcats, 70 cents. 

 Maine is perhaps the most thickly populated of the East- 

 tern States. Its area is approximately 33,000 square 

 miles. It requires therefore only a pencil and a small 

 piece of paper to determine the amount of fur to the 

 square mile taken in the State, according to this report, 

 which does not profess to be exact. The results of this 

 iguring gives us one bear to 140 square miles, one musk- 

 rat to 1$ square miles, one skunk to 5 square miles, one 

 sable to 45 square miles and so on to the end of the chap- 

 ter. It takes 9 square miles to produce a dollar in musk- 

 rats, 10 square miles to produce a dollar in skunk skins, 

 45 square miles to produce a dollar in sable— all this pro- 

 vided you are lucky enough to catch them, This fur 

 crop is gathered almost wholly by experienced trappers. 

 Gentlemen who want to go to Maine and the Adirondacks 

 and pay the expenses of your trip by trapping, take our 

 advice and don't. • 



Shall woman join man in the sports of the field? If 

 shooting as a sport is manly, is it womanly too? When a 

 woman takes to shooting in these days, are we to share 

 the sentiment of an old rhymster who wrote in 1802: 

 "Since to handle the reins, 

 Hunt and shoot you take pains, 

 And act, my dear girl, so uncommon; 

 I can't love you, I swear, 

 For your words, look and air. 

 Make me think you a man— not a woman?" 

 These questions are answered, and answered quite con- 

 clusively, we think, by the relation from a lady's pen 

 printed in our columns to-day. They are not discussed 

 speculatively nor theoretically, but practically by an 

 account of how one woman has actually joined her hus- 

 band in his outings, and has learned to shoot. And she 

 is only one of a large number of women who use the gun 

 in the field, and find in the sport decided satisfaction. 



The results of the pattern and penetration tests of shot- 

 guns now being carried on under the auspices of the 

 Forest and Stream, and being published in thest. 

 columns, will ultimately be printed in book form. 

 Owners of guns, who cannot but feel an interest in these 

 matters, will then have a permanent record of the action 

 of most of the best known makes of guns with varying 

 charges, and such a record will be of the greatest value to 

 all who use the shotgun. 



The bill to codify the New York game statutes is ad- 

 vancing at Albany; and there is some ground for hope 

 that it may be passed. No more important measure in 

 relation to game and fish protection has been before the 

 Legislature for years. The passage of this bill, the ap- 

 pointment of a competent committee, and their simplifi- 

 cation of the statutes, are all in the line of more efficient 

 conservation of game and fish. 



In consequence of the decision of the Court of Appeals 

 in the netting ease, both bills relating to nets in the St. 

 Lawrence, one coming from the net fishermen and the 

 other from the Anglers' Associatien, have been with- 

 drawn. Those interested in protecting the St. Lawrence 

 game fish are of opinion that with the present statute, 

 as upheld by the Court of Appeals decision, they have all 

 the law required. 



