Forest and Stream. 



A Weekly Journal of the Rod and Gun. 



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



Six Months, $2. f 



NEW YORK, MAY 2 2, 18 90. 



( VOL. XXXIV.-No. 18. 



\ No. 318 Buoadwat, New York. 



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CONTENTS. 



Editorial. 

 Trout. 



National Game Legislation. 

 John Elliott Curran. 

 Snap Shots. 

 The Sportsman Tourist. 

 Slide Rock from Many Moun- 

 tains. — VI. 

 Angostura— II. 



Antoine Bissette's Letters.-in. 

 Natural History. 



A Curious Grouse Drumming. 



New Biological Laboratory. 



In the Sonora Country. 



Some Enemies of Game. 

 Game Bag and Gun. 



National Game Legislation. 



The Elusive Caribou. 



Ducking Remini=cences. 



Chicago and the West. 

 Camp-Fire Flickerings. 

 Sea and River Fishing. 



Random Casts. 



Kentucky Waters. 



Hints for Salcnon Anelers. 



Canadian Salmon Leases. 



The Color of Trout. 



Silkworm Gut. 



Fishing in the Houiosassa. 



Angling Notes. 



Chicago and the West. 



New Trout and Salmon. 



FlSHCULTORE. 



Delaware River Fishing. 

 Work of the U. S. Fish Com- 

 mission. 

 American Fisheries Society 

 Meeting. 

 The Kennel. 

 Dogs of the Day. 

 Rabbit Hunting on Cape Cod. 

 Los Angeles Dog Show. 

 Dog Talk. 



English Field Trials. 

 Kennel Notes. 

 Rifle and Trap Shooting. 

 Range and Gallery. 

 Tournament at New Orleans. 

 The Trap. 



New York State Shoot. 



Chicago Trap. 



Ohio Trap Shooters. 

 Canoeing. 



A. 0. A. Meet. 



H. Lloyd Thomas. 

 Yachting. 



A Cruise in the Frolic. 



The Challenge of the Seventies 



The Objection to the New Deed 

 of Gitt. 



Classification by Corrected 



Length. 

 Corinthian Mosauito Fleet. 

 Answers to Correspondents. 



fit WESTERN NUMBER. 

 The issue of June 12 will be a Western Number. 

 It will be brimful of good things picturing sport 

 with rod and gun in the Great West. 



TROUT. 



THE trout season is now at its best; and reports that 

 have reached us from many sections agree that the 

 present season is the best one for many years. Lucky is 

 he who can snatch a few days from business cares, to 

 visit the old familiar scenes of his childbood, and again 

 wander along the banks of the well-remembered stream- 

 let in quest of the shy beauties that lurk in its depths. 

 With what ardent hope is the fly cast upon the bosom of 

 each well-known pool; and as the eager rise is followed 

 by successful strike, what satisfaction fills the heart. 

 Truly one moment like this is worth all the year of 

 routine life. 



The past two winters have been remarkably favorable 

 for the increase and preservation of trout life; and many 

 streams, especially the smaller ones, that had been nearly 

 depleted, now teem with an abundance of young fish; 

 and if these infants are properly protected, coming sea- 

 sons will amply repay in increased sport far more than 

 the trifling cost and self-denial entailed in preserving 

 them. "Spare the fingerlings" has ever been the watch- 

 word of the Forest and. Stream; and we are pleased to 

 note that "fishing for count" is no longer tolerated by the 

 angler who makes any pretensions to be a master of the 

 gentle craft; and it is sincerely to be hoped that the 

 slaughter of the innocents will soon cease altogether. 

 Eight solid ounces of gleaming gold and brown at the 

 end of one's line gallantly fighting with frantic despera- 

 tion for life and liberty are worth ten times, nay a hun- 

 dred times more than are eighty ounces represented by 



as many little fellows that have not the strength to cause 

 that electric thrill so dear to the angler's h.eart, nor to 

 stir a single nerve. For the sake of glorious sport in the 

 future then, spare the little ones; and in after years they 

 will rise and you — or some brother angler — will indeed 

 be blessed. 



JOHN ELLIOTT CURRAN. 

 TN Forest and Stream of Nov. 17, 1887, was published 

 a paper entitled "Maid of Beech," which was marked 

 for the rich poetic fancy which ran through it, and for 

 the suggestiveness of its compact sentences. Subsequent 

 and very recent allusions to it, and inquiry concerning 

 its author, have proved that it was given by the more 

 thoughtful of our readers a degree of attention not often 

 accorded to the ephemeral literature of the weekly press. 

 The pen that wrote that paper has now been laid aside 

 forever. A life of creditable literary work was closed, 

 and the promise of yet brighter achievements was 

 blighted, when John Elliott Curran died at his home in 

 Englewood, N. J., last Sabbath. 



Born at TJtica, N. Y., May 25, 1848, he entered Yale 

 in 1866. While at college he was known as an athlete, 

 and also as a thoughtful writer. He rowed on the fresh- 

 man crew against Hazard and was an adept in all sports 

 that called for the exercise of manly strength. His taste 

 for writing was manifested even as an undergraduate by 

 essays and sketches contributed to the Yale Literary 

 Magazine, the oldest and best of the college periodicals. 



After his graduation in 1870, Mr. Curran spent a year 

 in Europe, and then returning entered the Columbia Law 

 School. After his admission to the bar he practiced law 

 in New York for a number of years, but gradually aban- 

 doned his profession and turned his attention more and 

 more to writing, contributing many short stories to 

 Harpers, Scribner's and the Century. He wrote a 

 successful novel, "Miss Frances Merley," which 

 was published by a Boston firm, and received high 

 encomiums from the press. But it was not only as 

 a writer of fiction that Mr. Curran was known. 

 He had devoted much careful study to social problems, 

 and had written a number of thoughtful essays upon the 

 questions of the day. His was a philosophic mind; it is 

 believed by those who knew him most intimately that 

 had his life been spared the world at large would have 

 been benefited by the results of his riper years. But 

 over against the unfulfilled promise of a future, 

 however bright that promise may have been, set 

 the actual life that a man has lived. For the in- 

 fluence of such a life as that of John Elliott Curran 

 —whether it be long or brief— the world is better. 

 He was a man of singular honesty of character. When 

 he had once made up his mind as to what he ought to 

 do, no consideration could swerve him one hair's breadth 

 from his course. From the standpoint of material suc- 

 cess this rugged honesty sometimes stood in his way. 

 His desire to do exact justice to all made him slow to 

 criticise or condemn any one unless he knew all the cir- 

 cumstances of the case. His nature, as known to those 

 most intimate with him, was most gentle and tender. 

 He had the broadest possible sympathy for humanity at 

 large, and the widest charity for the erring and the un- 

 fortunate. 



NATIONAL GAME LEGISLATION. 



ATTENTION was directed in these columns the other 

 day to the recent decision of the United States 

 Supreme Court relating to the Iowa prohibition law. The 

 decision was in the case of a Kansas firm, which had 

 sent barrels and sealed cases of beer into Iowa, and there 

 offered the beer for sale in its original unopened barrels 

 and cases. The beer was seized under the Iowa liquor 

 prohibition law. The dealers contended that the beer 

 was an article of inter-State commerce, and as such 

 could not be legislated upon by a State, The case 

 was carried up to Washington, and the court of 

 last resort sustained the contention of the dealers. 

 The Supreme Court said that the beer which had been so 

 imported from one State into another was an article of 

 inter-State commerce and that it remained such until the 

 receptacles having been opened it was merged in the com- 

 mon property of the citizens of the State. The Constitu- 

 tion of the United States vests in Congress the exclusive 

 power to regulate inter-State commerce; and accordingly 

 the Supreme Court ruled that Iowa had no authority to 

 forbid the sale of liquors nor of any other commodities 



so long as they remained articles of inter-State commerce. 

 The right to import from one State into another carries 

 with it the right to offer for sale. A former ruling of 

 like effect was made by the Supreme Court in March, 

 1888, in an Illinois case, in these words: 



It is easier to think that the right of importation from abroad 

 and of transportation from one State to another, includes, by 

 necessary implication, the right of the importer to sell in un- 

 broken packages at the place where the transit terminates: for 

 the very purpose and motive of that branch of commerce which 

 consists in transportation, is that other and consequent act, of 

 commerce which consists in the sale and exchange of the com- 

 modities transported. Such, indeed, was the point decided in the 

 case of Brown v. Maryland, 12 Wheat. 419, as to foreign com- 

 merce, with the express statement in the opinion of Chief Justice 

 Marshall, that the conclusion would be the same in a case of 

 commerce among the States. 



Now, as we pointed out the other day, it is quite plain 

 that the principles here laid down must apply with 

 equal force to those game animals and fish, which by 

 being transported from one State to another become 

 articles of inter-State commerce. Most States prescribe 

 that in the close season for its own game no game at all 

 shall be sold, no matter whether killed within its own 

 boundaries or in another State. Such laws are held to 

 be essential to effective game protection. But if the 

 Supreme Court ruling is to prevail, it is clear that game 

 and fish dealers may lawfully sell at any time of the year 

 and all through the close season, game and fish imported 

 from other States and retained in its original packages. 

 If the sale of such game is to be stopped this can be ac- 

 complished only by a national law of direct specific 

 application or one generally exempting from the opera- 

 tions of the inter-State commerce law such articles as 

 are the subject of State legislation under the police 

 power. 



A bill of specific application to liquors only has been 

 introduced in the House by Congressman Boutelle, to add 

 to the Inter-State Commerce Act this amendment: 



That nothing contained in this Act shall be construed to author- 

 ize the sale or traffic in intoxicating liquors in any State contrary 

 to the laws thereof. 



A similar amendment substituting "game or fish" in 

 place of "intoxicating liquors" would remedy the present 

 weak point in game legislation. 



A bill introduced by Senator Wilson of Iowa, favorably 

 reported by the Committee on Inter-State Commerce, and 

 now under discussion in the Senate, is more comprehen- 

 sive. It is entitled, "A Bill to Protect the States in the 

 Exercise of their Police Powers," and provides: 



That any article of commerce, the manufacture or sale of which 

 is prohibited within any State by the laws thereof, in the exercise 

 of its police powers, shall not be transported or conveyed into 

 such State from any other State, Territory, District of Columbia, 

 or foreign country, by any railroad company, express company, 

 or other common carrier; but this shall not be held to prohibit the 

 transportation of such articles of commerce as aforesaid to per- 

 sons in such State authorized by the laws thereof to receive the 

 same, or through such State as aforesaid prohibiting the sale or 

 manufacture thereof to any other State or Territory in which 

 such manufacture or sale is not prohibited. 



As the enactment of game laws are within the police 

 powers of a State, this bill, if it shall become a law, will 

 have a direct bearing to uphold the statutes forbidding 

 the sale of imported game in the close season. 



$NAP SHOTS. 



THE recently organized Indiana State Fish and Game 

 Protective Association will hold its first mid-sum- 

 mer meet at Cedar Beach, June 25 to 27, under the man- 

 agement of the Cedar Beach Club. It will be a combina- 

 tion affair, with a regatta, a fly-casting tournament and 

 other attractions. One contest which will be watched 

 with breathless interest by the doctors of angling ethics 

 will be a fishing match between the Cedar Beach Club 

 bait-fishermen and the Indianapolis Fly-Fishermen's 

 Club, to determine which mode is the most potent with 

 the bass of Turkey Lake. Secretary Jesse T. Blair and 

 President W. T. Dennis evidently set great store by this 

 event, and have issued formal subpoenas to fish commis- 

 sioners and others, believers and unbelievers in fly-fishing. 



It appears that the question of the right of a Legislature 

 to declare illegally set nets public nuisances and to pro- 

 vide for their summary destruction as such, without due 

 process of law, is not yet settled. In the New York case 

 it was recently decided by the Court of Appeals that the 

 law was constitutional and could be enforced. The 

 announcement is now made that the case will be carried 

 up to the Supreme Court of the United States for final 



