Forest and Stream. 



A Weekly Journal of the Rod and Gun. 



Terms, M a Year. 10 Cts. a Copy. / 

 Six Months, $2. i 



NEW YORK, APRIL 10, 1890. 



( VOL. XXXIV.-No. 13. 



1 No. 318 Broadway, New York. 



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CONTENTS. 



Editorial. 

 Plans for the Year. 

 Respect for Law. 

 Let the Fish Commission 

 Alone. 



The Sportsman Tourist. 



Slide Reck from Many Moun- 

 tains. 



The Peribonca. 



West Florida Sports. 



Antoine Bissette's Letters.— n. 

 Natural History. 



Ways of the Woodcock. 



California's Hard Winter. 



An English Game Farm. 

 Game Bag and Gun. 



In Estes Paris. 



Signs of Springtime. 



A Verdict for the People. 



Goose Shooting on the Arkan- 

 sas. 



Turkey Hunting in Texas. 

 Quail in Massachusetts. 

 Sport in Texas. 

 The Wyoming Game Law. 

 Sea and River Fishing. 

 The Salmon of Alaska. 

 Random Casts. 

 Pollution of our Rivers. 

 Angling Notes. 



Fishcultdre. 



Bulletin of U. S. Fish Com- 

 mission. 

 The Kennel. 



Boston Dog Show. 



Fox-Terriers at Boston. 



Foxhounds at Boston. 



Meeting of A. K. C. Associate 

 Members. 



Kennel Notes. 



Kennel Management. 

 Rifle and Trap Shooting. 



Range and Gallery. 



The Trap. 



U. S. Cartridge Co.'s Tour. 



New Haven Gun Club. 



Wellington Gun Club. 

 Canoeing. 



1,500 Miles in an Adirondack 

 Boat.— xv. 



The A. C. A. Meet. 



War Canoes. 



Canoeing Notes. 

 Yachting. 



Mosquito Fleet Races. 



The New Jameson Cutter. 



Miramichi Y. C. 



Work at Bay Ridge. 



Yachting Notes. 

 Answers to Correspondents. 



LET THE FISH COMMISSION ALONE. 



A BILL introduced in the Senate by Mr. Paddock 

 would, if passed, very seriously threaten the use- 

 fulness of the U. S. Fish Commission. This bill provides 

 that on and after July 1, 1890, the Fish Commission shall 

 be transferred to the Department of Agriculture, that 

 after that date the Fish Commissioner shall be an officer 

 of that department, that all officers and employees of 

 the Commission "shall be subject to appointment and 

 removal by the Secretary of Agriculture," and that the 

 records, papers and properties of the Commission shall be 

 turned over to the Department of Agriculture and after- 

 ward be controlled by the head of that Department. 



It is perhaps no exaggeration to say that no department 

 of the TJ. S. Government has recently done so much in a 

 practical way to benefit the whole country as has the 

 IT. S. Fish Commission. Its work has in the most direct 

 way put money into the pockets of the people. It is now 

 proposed by Senator Paddock to change all this and to 

 turn the Fish Commission into a bureau of political re- 

 wards, to make positions on the Fish Commission berths 

 for political henchmen, rewards for political services. 



The U. S. Fish Commission has always been free from 

 politics, and as we have good reason to know, when 

 Professor Baird years ago was considering the inception 

 of this organization, he regarded politics as the greatest 

 danger which could threaten the work of the Commis- 

 sion. For this reason he had himself placed at its head, 

 because as long as he was its head he could feel sure 

 that politics would not be injected into it. 



The work and the relations of the Fish Commission are 

 extremely diverse. It is brought into contact with and 

 uses without expense to the Government, the appliances 

 and the experience of a number of different departments, 

 especially those of the Navy and of the War Department. 

 While practical, and doing practical work, it is also in 

 the highest degree scientific. It has intimate relations 

 with institutions of learning all oyer the country, and 



uses their best men in various branches of special inquiry. 

 It is thus an important factor in the scientific progress of 

 this country both by the material which it collects, and 

 by the opportunity and stimulus which it affords to scien- 

 tific workers. The Fish Commission is in no sense a 

 bureau. It is a commission constituted by Congress to 

 develop the economic water resources of the country by 

 the application of scientific methods to its work and in- 

 vestigation, and by the actual cultivation of the waters 

 on the part of the Government. 



To transfer the U. S. Fish Commission to the Agricul- 

 tural Department would be to place it on an equal foot- 

 ing with the various divisions of that department, among 

 which are the Pomological Division, the Microscopical 

 Division, the Division ©f Forestry, the Division of Silk- 

 culture, and so on. These divisions are no doubt very 

 useful, but the work which they have done is in no degree 

 to be compared with that done by the U. S. Fish Com- 

 mission. The usefulness to the public of this Commis- 

 sion depends upon the preservation of its independence 

 and upon its being kept free from the curse of politics. 

 In this way alone can be secured that broad and aggres- 

 sive work which gives to the Commission its value to the 

 people. 



Congress has cut this Commission loose from any other 

 department and set it by itself. Col. McDonald, its chief, 

 is directly responsible to Congress, and is left the utmost 

 freedom to do the Commission's work in the way which 

 seems best to him. How good that work is those who 

 make their living from the waters of the Atlantic and 

 the Pacific, and from those of the Great Lakes, can best 

 tell. 



RESPECT FOR LAW. 



T^HIS seems to be rather a bad season for the netters 

 -^ in New York State, and money from their pockets 

 is flowing quite freely into the hands of the district 

 attorneys of the northern counties. This speaks well for 

 the energy and faithful work of some of the game pro- 

 tectors, and it is very encouraging. 



While the conviction of an occasional violator of the 

 fish laws may seem to many people a matter of small 

 importance, the moral effect of such cases is really very 

 far-reaching. For every one of these men that is brought 

 to book, a dozen or twenty are so thoroughly frightened 

 that they either give up their evil courses or, at all events, 

 only continue them in the most secret and stealthy way. 

 Every conviction of this kind encourages the officers of 

 the law to renewed exertions; strengthens the earnest- 

 ness of purpose of the game protective societies, and — 

 most important of all— diffuses among the great class of 

 people who take no interest in the game and fish laws 

 the knowledge that these laws really mean something. 



For there are a vast number of people who live under 

 the impression that laws protecting game and fish are 

 dead letters, statutes which are never enforced and to 

 which no one pays any attention. Such people when 

 they hear of a conviction, by which John Smith or Peter 

 Jones is forced to pay $100 fine, gain a greatly in- 

 creased respect for the law. It is just this lack of respect 

 for these particular laws that has made, and still makes, 

 their enforcement a work of great difficulty. Each con- 

 viction therefore helps on the good work of game pro- 

 tection far more than most of us realize. 



It used to be thought that the New York State game 

 protectors were mere figureheads, and that their positions 

 were political rewards, but in the light of recent events 

 in certain parts of the State, this can be said no longer. 



PLANS FOR THE YEAR. 



WE approach the awakening time of the year. 

 Nature will soon arise and clothe herself in all 

 her best. The jewels of the streams will be released 

 from winter's custody, and all the finery of the flowers 

 will be called upon to deck the royal garments of 

 another spring. The life of the woods and of the fields 

 will quicken and be glad, and everywhere will be seen 

 the tokens of the wonderful re-birth of the year. 



This is the planning time of the year. The merchant 

 bethinks him of the increase of his business, usually 

 attendant upon the season. The lawyer snuffs afar off 

 the battles of the tribune which milder weather has a 

 way of bringing out. Not less than these the sportsman 

 plans. He formulates and re-formulates in his own 

 mind the campaign for the season of field sports. . He 

 disposes a dozen times and in a dozen different ways of 



the prospective leisure time at his command, and makes 

 vast schemes of severe retrenchment in view of the ex- 

 penditures of the coming vacation days. 



This is preparation time. This is time for planning in 

 more ways than one. There should be double plans in 

 any sportsman's prospectus for the year. He should be 

 glad that he is alive: he should be thankful that he lives 

 in a glorious world like this; and he should use gratefully 

 the pleasures that are offered. He should not only plan 

 the manner in which he will find the season's privileges, 

 but also the manner in which he will enjoy them. He 

 should determine, and keep his determination, to live up 

 even to the letter of the high code of sportsman's morals. 

 No illicit powder smutch should soil his conscience, and 

 no unlawful line, cast albeit deep in the unpatrolled for- 

 ests, should later drop across the smooth current of his 

 honest sleep. Let him remember that the woods have 

 ears, and that the blue skies see all he does. Planning 

 thus, and living up to bis plans, may each good sportsman 

 be happy in the delights of this and many other coming 

 seasons; may he learn fully the sweets of the only sting- 

 less pleasures on this earth; and when at last his season 

 is over, may he lie down in good peace, as nature does, as 

 sure as she that there will be yet another awakening, in 

 which the lilies of the field will still be blooming, sweet 

 and undented and welcoming. 



A ZOOLOGICAL GARDEN. 



A BILL was introduced at Albany last Friday by Mr. 

 Hoag to incorporate the New York Zoological and 

 Botanical Gardens, and to provide for the establishment 

 of such gardens in New York city. The incorporators 

 named in the bill include a number of our best-known 

 citizens, and power is given them to establish in the city 

 of New York "zoological and botanical gardens for the 

 purpose of encouraging and advancing zoology and 

 botany, original researches in the same and kindred sub- 

 jects, and of furnishing instruction and recreation to the 

 people." They may purchase and hold animals, plants 

 and specimens, and may possess real estate, the net 

 annual income of which shall not exceed $50,000. The 

 commissioners of the Sinking Fund are authorized to 

 allot, set aside and appropriate for the use of this corpor- 

 ation any of the lands belonging to the city north of 

 155th street, but such appropriation shall be revoked un- 

 less the proposed gardens shall be established within five 

 years. As soon as any lands are set apart the Mayor and 

 the President of the Department of Parks shall become 

 ex officio members of the board of managers of the pro- 

 posed corporation. 



No argument is needed to show the desirability of pass- 

 ing this bill, and giving to the persons named in it as incor- 

 porators of this company the right to go ahead, organize 

 and carry out their plans. It has long been a shame 

 and a disgrace to New York city that it has no decent 

 zoological collection, while other cities of far less size and 

 commercial importance have such collections, which are 

 in the highest degree creditable to them. That a good 

 collection of wild animals, brought together with judg- 

 ment and properly cared for, would pay in this great 

 city, is scarcely to be doubted. The crowds which col- 

 lect about the cages in Central Park offer abundant testi- 

 mony on this point. 



Within the last ten or a dozen years a number of bills 

 of the same general character as this one have been in- 

 troduced at Albany, but they have either not become 

 laws or, if enacted, the incorporators have failed to take 

 advantage of the powers granted them. In view, how- 

 ever, of the high standing of the individuals named in 

 Mr. Hoag's bill, it would seem probable that if incorpor- 

 ated , as proposed, the New York Zoological and Botanical 

 Gardens would soon be something more than a mere 

 name, and would become before long an organization 

 creditable to this city, and profitable to its stockholders. 



Attention is called to the full text of the Wyoming 

 game law which we print in another column. The 

 frightful rapidity with which the big game of that Terri- 

 tory has been destroyed during the last few years, calls 

 for the adoption of stern measures to enforce the law. 

 This can be done only by the residents of the Territory, 

 and their action in this matter will be watched with 

 interest. 



The outlook for a year of great sporting activity wag 

 never better. 



