Forest and Stream 



A Weekly Journal of the Rod and Gun. 



Terms, $4 a Yeab. 10 Cts. a Copy. ) 



Six Months, $2. f 



NEW YORK, MARCH 20, 1890. 



j VOL. XXXIV.— No. 9. 



I No. 318 Broadway, New Yowk 



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the shooter can readily see when the former are hit, 

 while it* the latter are used he will often be in doubt as 

 to the result even when the charge apparently went just 

 in the right place. 



CONTENTS. 



Editorial. 



Practice that Tells. 



A Record of Shots. 



Snap Shots. 

 The Sportsman Tourist, 



Boyhood Recollections. 



Dungeness— A Winter Home. 



A Text to Fit the Occasion. 



The Adirondack Park Project. 



The National Park Bill. 

 Natural History, 



Illinois Birds. 

 Game Bag and Gun. 



A Record of Twentv-Seven 

 Shots. 



Women in the Field.— n. 



More Quail for Massachusetts. 



Notes from the Game Field. 



Waterproofing Tents. 

 Camp-Fire Flickerings. 

 Sea and River Fishing. 



That Texas Gar. 



Angling Notes. 



A Chapter on Lake Trout. 



About Tarpon Fishing. 



Some Kentucky Streams. 



Random Casts.— v. 



FlSHCUI/TCRE. 



Indiana Protective Effort. 



FlSHCULTURE. 



Lobster Culture. 



Herring Fishery of Sweden. 

 The Kennel. 



Rochester Dog Show. 



Dogs of Any Day. 



Dogs of the Day. 



Disinfection of Dog Show 

 Benches. 



Coursing Gossip. 



Beagles Catching Rabbits. 



Baltimore Dog Show. 



Kennel Notes. 



Kennel Management. 

 Rifle and Trap Shooting. 



Range and Gallery. 



The Trap. 



U. S. Cartridge Co.'s Tour. 



Chicago Traps. 



Brooklyn Trap Shooting. 

 Canoeing. 



1,500 Miles in an Adirondack 

 Boat.— xii. 



The Log of the Esperance. 

 Yachting. 



The New Fife Cutter. 



The Challenge to Valkyrie. 



Seawanhaka Corinthian Y. C. 

 Answers to Correspondents. 



RECORDS OF SHOTS. 

 Y\7 HEN a fisherman is seen to load himself with a ruul- 

 * * titudinous outfit of tackle, he is at once put down as 

 a novice; for the fly-book of the veteran contains a choice 

 and far more limited assortment which experience has 

 tested and approved. There is no surer test of one's 

 record tban the outfit he provides when going into the 

 woods. The more expert the hunter, the more simple his 

 needs. The greenhorn imagines that arms and ammu- 

 nition make a successful sportsman; the old hand knows 

 perfectly well that more solid satisfaction is to be had 

 from a few careful shots than from a score of wild ones. 

 The entertaining ''Record of Twenty-Seven Shots," by 

 Col. Cecil Clay, affords a capital illustration of this; and 

 we commend it to the careful reading of those who are 

 prone to squander ammunition by recklessly blazing 

 away, hit or miss. There is a certain satisfaction in pre- 

 serving for subsequent review a record of the shots fired 

 on such a trip as that described by our correspondent. 

 Obviously the record can be kept only by one accus- 

 tomed to husband his resources. The man who goes out 

 with a repeater and "pumps lead" into a band of elk will 

 find no special satisfaction in subsequently studying his 

 score. 



PRACTICE THAT TELLS. 

 QOME beginners in the use of the shotgun are fortunate 

 ^ enough to have an abundant supply of game to 

 practice on from the first, but most novices are compelled 

 to acquire the rudiments of the art of "shooting-flying" 

 by diligent practice at inanimate targets, resorting to 

 actual field work for the finishing touches. Holding the 

 gun just right on the object aimed at is of course the 

 only end to be attained, and this can be learned only by 

 practice. No theory as to holding ahead or "dead on" is 

 worth a rap. Practice and practice only will enable one 

 to do the trick. Some there are who will never become 

 experts, even with constant practice, while others seem 

 to get on in a short time. Trap-shooting, while not to 

 be compared to the actual shooting at birds in the field, 

 will in a measure prepare one for the latter, and the 

 novice who can make a fair score at the trap can soon 

 "get the hang" of the work on birds, if it is in him. 



The very best practice that can be had is to set the trap 

 at the edge of a shallow pond and so arrange it as to 

 throw the targets low down, just over the water, and to 

 shoot from different positions to learn the various angles. 

 The charge of shot striking the water will show just how 

 much the target was missed, and it will be a pretty poor 

 scholar who cannot soon learn to make the proper con- 

 nection. The most objectionable feature of ordinary 

 practice at the trap is that there is nothing whatever to 

 give the new beginner the remotest idea as to how and 

 why the target was missed. Shooting over the water 

 tells the whole story so plainly that the veriest tyro will 

 never be in doubt as to how he was off the mark. 



This kind of practice may be had in perfection without 

 the aid of the trap by securing the assistance of a second 

 party to throw for one, at different ranges, the larger 

 pieces of broken clay-pigeons that can be found at the 

 shooting grounds of any club. We mention this mate- 

 rial as it is much better than stones or bits of wood, as 



SNAP SHOTS. 

 A CORRESPONDENT reporting a trap-shooting meet- 

 ing explains, "The execrable weather this morning 

 promised a wet blanket to all outdoor sports, and some 

 regular attendants at the Saturday shoot left their guns 

 at home when they started for business, and therefore 

 were not prepared to enjoy the bright beautiful latter 

 half of the day." Which means that trap-shooters are 

 business men. In fact the average sportsman in this 

 country is a worker. The use of rod or gun is his recre- 

 ation. He works hard and plays between times. And 

 so it happens that the Forest and Stream, as a journal 

 of recreation, finds its support among the busy classes,. 

 There are hosts of people in the United States who have 

 nothing else to do, save to engage in sport, think sport, 

 talk sport, write sport and read sport, but that class is 

 not large enough to sustain a publication of sport, con- 

 fined to the limited field of their interests. A "weekly 

 journal of the rod and gun" can be made acceptable to 

 the public only in so far as it is supported by the classes 

 of society made up of the brain workers and the hand 

 workers. Fishing and shooting lose their zest, when re- 

 sorted to by idle persons to kill time and dissipate ennui; 

 and what is written about them under such circumstances 

 is equally without zest, salt that has lost its savor, insip- 

 idity. 



Surely the highest office of sport of whatever kind is 

 as recreation. It is in this character that the pleasures 

 of field and stream are annually assuming a larger place 

 in popular estimation. If an accurate census could be 

 taken of the members of any one profession, that of the 

 law for example, who go fishing, the proportion would 

 be found to be decidedly on the increase. And if there 

 were to be a still deeper investigation into the compara- 

 tive success of the professional men who seek such open- 

 air recreation and of those who do not, the showing- 

 would be on the side of the anglers and sportsmen. It 

 was only the other day that a case came to our notice 

 which illustrates this. A gentleman who had occasion 

 for legal advice in a city near New York, sought out the 

 leading member of the bar, and accidentally discovered 

 first that he was a reader and admirer of Mr. Robinson's 

 "Uncle Lisha's Shop," and then that he was a devoted 

 angler, making an annual pilgrimage to the Maine wil- 

 derness, camping and fishing; and finally that he con- 

 sidered himself a more successful lawyer for his summer 

 outings. There was a time when, if a lawyer wanted to 

 go fishing, he took good care to keep his angling proclivi- 

 ties from coming to the notice of his clients. A better 

 day is coming, when under a more worthy popular appre- 

 ciation of the brain- clearing effects of a wild woods out- 

 ing, clients will flock to attorneys who are known as 

 anglers; and when a lawyer sets out for his play-day in 

 the woods he will boldly post on his office outer wall the 

 notice, "Gone fishing. Back in a month." 



Much interest attaches to the enterprise undertaken by 

 Mr. Austin Corbin, who has laid out on an extensive 

 scale a preserve for big game in New England. A. tract 

 of country has been secured forty miles north of Concord, 

 amid the Croydon and Grantham Mountains in New 

 Hampshire. The range covers many thousands of acres. 

 Mr. Corbin proposes to inclose the territory, police it, 

 and maintain it strictly as a private game preserve. 

 The species of big game to be put out upon it 

 will include buffalo, elk, antelope, moose, caribou 

 and deer, white-tailed and black-tailed. While this 

 is further northeast than the recorded native range 

 of the buffalo, there is no reason why they should not 

 do well in New Hampshire. The region is the native 

 home of the moose, caribou and the white-tailed deer; 

 and the black-tail might thrive there. We seriously 

 question, however, the success of the experiment with 

 antelope. The climate is dry as compared with that of 

 the West, and the probability is that the species will not 

 live in New England. It is sincerely to be hoped that 

 Mr. Gorbins enterprise in establishing such a preserve 

 for the noble game of America may be successful. 



One of the myths kept in stock by the advocates of 

 Adirondack deer hounding is that of the peculiarly consti- 

 tuted deer dog of the North Woods, which in season 

 chases the game with an abandon and perseverance born 

 of a consciousness that "the law is off," but in winter 

 mortifies the flesh, curbs his carnal instincts, and not only 

 refuses to run off deer hunting on his own hook, but actu- 

 ally refrains from barking out loud lest he should frighten 

 a deer chancing to be in the neighborhood. To this myth 

 the hounders cling, undismayed by the long record of 

 deer run down and killed by dogs in the Adirondack 

 woods every winter. Game Protector Leonard has 

 brought this subject to the attention of the Commission- 

 ers. He advises them that the running of deer by dogs 

 in winter is a decided evil. Of course it is. Everybody 

 familiar with the Adirondacks in winter knows it to be. 

 The very men who claim the contrary know better. They 

 deceive neither themselves nor other people by their myth 

 of the law-abiding, home-staying dogs of a North Woods 

 winter. If hounding is to be permitted in a season pre- 

 scribed for it, some way should be devised to stop the 

 ravages of the deer dogs in winter. How can it be done? 



Every one who has had much experience in night 

 shooting will be aware that in pale moonlight or bright 

 starlight the back sight of the gun and the object aimed 

 at may be seen fairly distinct, while the fore sight is 

 absolutely invisible. The difficulty has been met by 

 touching the foresight with phosphorus to render it 

 luminous, and diamond foresights have been suggested ,- 

 but these appliances are not always available when 

 needed, and as the difficulty can be easily overcome 

 without any artificial adjuncts, it is well for the sports- 

 man to know how to do it. If you bring ,'your gun to 

 yoiu- shoulder, and looking through the back sight 

 are able to see the object, you may be holding 

 dead on or aiming low, but it is certain that you are 

 not aiming high; now elevate the muzzle of your 

 weapon until the object just disappears, and then slowly 

 lower it, firing as soon as the object becomes visible 

 again. A little experimenting in daylight will give con- 

 fidence in the method. 



We gladly second Mr. J. B. Harrison's suggestion that 

 those who are interested in seeing the problems connected 

 with the Adirondack forests wisely determined, should 

 contribute to the discussion of the subject. The year in- 

 tervening between the present and the time when this 

 subject will come up again at Albany should be improved 

 to the full for a thorough consideration of the points 

 involved. 



We shall publish next week a letter from Commis- 

 sioner J. Henry Phair, of Fredericton, New Brunswick, 

 relating the long fight he and his associates made in the 

 courts of the Province to make good their fishing rights 

 as riparian proprietors. This bears on the question of 

 the fishing leases in Canada, and supplements the letter 

 we published last week from Mr. Henry P. Wells. 



The triumphal progress of the Iolanthe's troupe of ex- 

 pert shooters has already stimulated interest in the sport 

 of trap-shooting, and the coming season, it may be pre- 

 dicted with confidence, will be one of unprecedented 

 activity. 



