Forest and Stream, 



A Weekly Journal of the Rod and Gun. 



Terms, 84 a Year. 10 Cts. a Copy. ) 



Six Months, $2. j 



NEW YORK, JUNE 6, 1890. 



j VOL. XXXIV.-No. 20. 



I No. 318 Broadway, New York, 



CORRESPONDENCE. 

 Th e Forest asd Stream is the recognized medium of entertain- 

 ment, instruction and information between American sportsmen. 

 Communications on the subject to which its pages are devoted are 

 respectfully invited. Anonymous communications will not be re- 

 garded. No name will be published except with writer's consent. 

 The Editors are not responsible for the views of correspondents. 



AD VERTISEMENTS, 

 Only advertisements of an approved character inserted. Inside 

 pages, nonpareil type, 30 cents per line. Special rates for three, six, 

 and twelve months. Seven words to the line, twelve lines to one 

 Inch. Advertisements should be sent in by Saturday previous to 

 issue in which they are to be inserted. Transient advertisements 

 nmst invariably be accompanied by the money or they will not be 

 inserted. Reading notices $1.00 per line. 



SUBSCRIPTIONS 

 May begin at any time. Subscription price for single copy $4 per 

 year, $2 for six months. Rates for clubs of annual subscribers: 

 Three Copies, $10. Five Copies, $16. 

 Remit by express money-order, registered letter, money-order, 

 or draft, payable to the Forest and Stream Publishing Company. 

 The paper may be obtained of newsdealers throughout the 

 United States, Canadas and Great Britain. For sale by Davies 

 & Co., No. 1 Finch Lane, CornMU, and Brentano's, 430 Strand, 

 London. General subscription agents for Great Britain, Messrs. 

 Davies & Co., Messrs. Sampson Low, Marston, Searles and Riving- 

 ton, 188 Fleet street, and Brentano's, 430 Strand, London, Eng. 

 'Brentano's,!? Avenue de l'Opera, Paris, France, sole Paris agent 

 for sales and subscriptions. Foreign subscription price, $5 per 

 year; $2.50 for six months. 

 Address all communications 



Forest and Stream Publishing Co. 

 No. 318 Broadway. New York City. 



CONTENTS. 



Editorial. 



The Man in the Hollow Tree. 



Transfer of the Fish" Com- 

 mission. 



Snap Shots. 

 The Sportsman Tourist. 



Lost on Renous. 



Bridal Tour of the Kennedys. 



Forest Interests and Discus- 

 sion. 



"Nessmuk." 

 Natural History. 



Captive Canadian Jays. 



Large Sets of Eggs. 

 Game Bag and fcrUN. 



Grouse Shooting Incidents. 



National Game Legislation. 



The Black Partridge. 



Upland Shooting. 

 Sea and River Fishing. 



"With Fly-Rod and Camera." 



Troutiug on the Sioux. 



Black Baas FLy-Fishing. 



Chicago and the West. 



Random Casts. 



Some Enemies of the Trout. 



Harpooning Alligator Gars. 



Vermont Waters. 



Sea and River Fishing. 



New Hampshire Camps. 



Fishing and the Moan. 

 Fish culture. 



Newfoundland Fisheries Com- 

 mission. 

 The Kennel. 



English vs. American Beagles. 



Dog Talk. 



Dogs of the Day. 



Treatment of Dogs. 



Eastern Field Trials Entries. 



Kennel Notes. 

 Rifle and Trap Shooting, 



Range and Gallery. 



The Trap. 



Catskill Tournament. 



Milwaukee Tournament. 



The Illinois Shoot. 

 Yachting. 



Memorial Day Races. 



The Flying Pontoon. 



No "Field" in This. 

 Canoeing. 



Passaic River Meet. 



Eastern Division Meet. 



Knickerbocker C. C. Regatta. 

 Answers to Correspondents. 



A 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. 



TRANSFER OF THE FISH COMMISSION. 



ON May 14, 1890, the U. S. Senate Committee on Agri- 

 culture and Forestry recommended the passage of a 

 Dill providing for the transfer of the U. S. Fish Commis- 

 sion to the Department of Agriculture. This bill was 

 imended by making the Commissionership a Presidential 

 ippointment instead of a departmental one, and the bill 

 is amended is now in the hands of the Senate Committee 

 an Merchant Marine and Fisheries, to whom it should 

 aave been first referred. In recommending the passage 

 >f the bill the Committee includes in its report the fol- 

 owing remarks: 



This measure has for its object an increase in the 

 ifficiency of the Fish Commission by allying it with a 

 listinctly scientific executive department in which, 

 vhile its usefulness shall in no manner be circumscribed 

 ir impaired, it may be brought into proper relation with 

 he Executive and Congress." 



The report next; sketches briefly the resolution of 1871, 

 seating the Commission, the amendment to the original 

 esolution providing for a salaried appointment by the 

 ?resident, and the debate looking toward a permanent 

 irganization. To resume the language of the Committee: 



The Fish Commission has now grown to be a powerful and ex- 

 »ensive bureau, furnishing employment to more than one hun- 

 Ired and forty employees, disbursing annually more than $300,000, 

 tnd controlling, in whole or in part, the operations carried on in 

 31 parts of the country and on the sea in connection with the 

 tudy of the habits of fishes and with their propagation for human 

 ood. * * * * Doubtless independence promotes efficiency in 

 ome exceptional cases, or in the formative stage of an organiza- 

 Jon like this, where so much depends upon the personal qualities 



of the head: but as already shown the formative and exceptional 

 stages with respect to this organization have bee u passed; it has 

 entered oa a career which promises to be perennial; and its con- 

 tinued efficiency cannot wisely be left dependent upon the quali- 

 ties, attainments and inclination of the individual who may be 

 its temporary head, but should depend rather upon the syste- 

 matic administration of rules, principles and business methods, 

 sanctioned by law and experience, to be passed down from ad- 

 ministration to administration, as in the case with respect to 

 other bureaus of the Government. 



It is hardly necessary to say that any relations which this 

 organization may have with other branches of the Government 

 will be in no respect impaired by the change proposed; rather will 

 they be greatly increased in usefulness by the enlistment as its 

 representative of one whose personal relationships with the 

 heads of other Executive Departments are necessarily more inti- 

 mate and influential. 



It is of importance also that the President shall have the oppor- 

 tunity of obtaining information, which would be furnished if the 

 Commission were placed under the control of a Cabinet officer 

 with whom he regularly consults, and to whom ho looks for the 

 wise direction which is essential to good administration. And 

 this brings up one of the strongest possible reasons for placing the 

 Fish Commission under charge of one of the great Departments of 

 the Government. 



The head of the Commission is. and must continue to be, a 

 person of great scientific attainments. It is the work of such 

 which has brought the bureau to its present state of usefulness. 

 But along with this must necessarily go the business ability ne- 

 cessary for the making of contracts, the superintendence of con- 

 struction, the adjustment of salaries, the control of subordinates, 

 and that general management which is necessary in all affairs of 

 moment, both private and public. 



It is evident that the proposed transfer is not in the 

 interest of economy and efficiency, for no mention is 

 made of the former, and the report itself pays tribute to 

 the excellence of the present organization, in which it 

 reflects the mature judgment of the people whose inter- 

 ests have been advanced by the skill and energy of the 

 Commission. This work has been done under the direct 

 and constant supervision of committees of both Houses 

 of Congress; the details of its expenditures have been 

 scrutinized annually; various departments of the Govern- 

 ment have contributed to its scope and, in turn, utilized 

 iis results. Leaders among business men and scientific 

 associations at home and abroad have expressed their 

 admiration of the very efficiency which has provoked 

 the envy of political greed. From far and near, where- 

 ever the Fish Commission is known, protests have come 

 against any experiments with this successful branch of 

 the public service. Clearly this proposition has its ori- 

 gin, not in the public demand, which is unreservedly 

 opposed to it, but in a supposed political necessity. It 

 aims simply to pull down the organization to the level of 

 a fish-distributing machine, double the appropriations, 

 and provide additional places in reward for partisan 

 service. 



SNAP SHOTS. 

 THHE National Geographical Society has sent out an 

 -■- expedition to Alaska for the special purpose of 

 climbing Mount St. Elias. The gentlemen in charge, 

 Messrs, Mark B. Smith and J. C. Eussell, expect to leave 

 Seattle by the steamer which leaves for Sitka June 14, 

 and hope to begin their work about July 1. This work 

 will include not only the attempt to climb Mount St. 

 Elias, which has long been regarded as the highest moun- 

 tain in the United States, but also the mapping of all the 

 glaciers which can be reached from it. The party will 

 consist of about fifteen white men, and of course a con- 

 tingent of native helpers will be secured when the ground 

 is reached. The money for the expedition has been raised 

 in Washington by private persons, but it is stated tnat 

 the U. S. S. Pinta will be placed at the disposal of the 

 party on their arrival at Sitka to transport them to 

 Yakutat Bay, and to render any other aid possible. 



The opinion is tenaciously held by some people that the 

 solution of the problem of protecting our migratory game 

 may be found in Congressional legislation. It is beyond 

 dispute that a National law might embody wiser and 

 more effective provisions than the contradictory and in- 

 adequate State laws, if Congress had any power to legis- 

 late on the subject. Our frequently expressed belief is 

 that game protection, except on the public lands, is some- 

 thing with which Congress has no concern whatever, and 

 that national sportsmen's conventions which listen to 

 speeches advocating Congressional action on the subject 

 are simply wasting their time. The only jurisdiction 

 Congress has, it appears reasonable to assume, is when 

 game having been killed becomes an article of inter-State 

 commerce, and as such subject to action of Congress with 

 respect to regulation of that commerce. 



THE MAN IN THE HOLLOW TREE. 



TT happened at the time of the Wyoming Massacre 

 in Pennsylvania, that a fugitive took refuge in a 

 hollow tree. No sooner had he entered than a spider 

 began spinning her web across the entrance through 

 which he had crawled. The web completed, up came 

 the Indians, peering into every nook for their victim. 

 One look at the hole in the hollow tree showed them the 

 spider web spun across the opening, with the spider 

 snugly ensconced therein, and they passed on. This 

 story, with details of name and place and date, was told 

 to Dr. Henry C. McCook by a descendant of the man who 

 had been saved by the spider. Dr. McCook gives it in his 

 " Tenants of an Old Farm," and says it may have been 

 true, but points out that it is a variant of an old tale. A 

 similar story was told, in the times of the Reformation, 

 of a Protestant refugee, who was concealed in an oven. 

 Before that, in Arabia, it dates back to the early part of 

 the seventh century, to the Hijrah, when Mohammed 

 and his companion Aboo-Bekr, flying from the Korei- 

 shites, took refuge in the cave of Thor, and were there 

 miraculously saved by a spider in the same way. Still 

 further back, in the third century, St. Felix of Nola, hid- 

 ing in a ruined wall, owed his life to a like friendly spider. 

 Finally, a Jewish tradition has it that David, fleeing 

 before Saul, hid in a cave, and was in the same man- 

 ner preserved by the intervention of a spider. If then 

 the Pennsylvania pioneer did hide from the Indians in a 

 hollow tree, he had no reason for feeling lonely, for he 

 was one of a goodly and distinguished company. If we 

 had the entire list, no doubt it would be found that the 

 story has been told in every corner of the earth where 

 men have ever hidden in caves and hollow trees, and 

 where spiders have spun webs. 



But the caption at the head of this paper refers to an- 

 other man in a hollow tree. 



The Saturday Globe, of Toronto, Ont., in its issue of 

 May 17 last, contained a letter written from London, Ont,, 

 and signed S. S. Cann, which was briefly this: 



Mr. James Blackwell, a pioneer of Ops township, but now a re- 

 spectable retired citizen of Lindsay, gave me on his word of honor 

 a remarkable incident of Canadian bush life in early pioneer 

 days, as happening to himself at a time when bears and wolves 

 were numerous in those frontier townships. 



Mr. Blackwell had the misfortune to lose himself in the great 

 forest. Night fell suddenly, and was made more gloomy by the 

 calls and answers of the too well known marauding wolves; and 

 he philosophically concluded to secure the best stateroom pro- 

 vided by nature, and wait for the light of day. He soon found an 

 old stub, about 17ft. high, with a sapling leaning to. This stub, 

 forming at one time part of an immense tree that had been broken 

 pretty squarely off by a storm, he selected. On reaching the top 

 he found it to be hollow, leaving merely a shell. Mr. Blackwell 

 was preparing in the darkness to descend, but slipped and fell feet 

 first into the stub, and to the bottom. Certainly his situation 

 could hardly be more deplorable. To climb out was impossible. 

 Mr. Blackwell, after the first shock had passed, was not long in 

 discovering that he was not alone, for he found himself in a verit- 

 able bears 1 den, though the old folks were not at home. 



Now, it might seem that the presence of bears with such sur- 

 roundings only added to the miseries of the situation, but it 

 proved otherwise, and this seeming misfortune was but a blessing 

 in disguise. Mr. Blackwell was a muscular man, clear-headed 

 and cool. He began to reflect. As smoke is an indication of fire, 

 so fat and frisky cubs were an indication of adult bears not far 

 off, which in the order of things would soon put in an appearance 

 He knew the bear would never descend head first, so here was the 

 first dawn of hope. Soon he had the gratification to hear her 

 bearship, his deliverer, scrambling up the outside of his prison. 

 On reaching the top she reversed the order of things and began 

 to descend. Soon, with knife in hand, he found himself bearing 

 up against the huge brute. Now it was clear that to catch her by 

 the hindlegs would disqualify her from climbing. He knew that 

 she carried a caudal appendage a few inches long, strong and 

 covered with good bear skin, so with a death-like grip he seized 

 the bear's tail and gave her a couple of inches of cold steel. She 

 started upward again, apparently much astonished, carrying him 

 a few feet attached to her tail. Then she halted, apparently to 

 take in more fully the peculiarities of the situation, or to make 

 quite sure she had not got into the wrong stub. Of course there 

 was no time to lose. "Drowning men will catch at straws," to 

 use Mr. Blackwell's expressive language, "to say nothing of tails. 

 It needed no prophet to tell me that it was now or never, so tight- 

 ening my grip still tighter, if that were possible, I gave the old 

 lady a few more inches of steel as a gentle persuader, and she car- 

 ried me to the top like lightning, just giving me time to grasp for 

 ahold when she threw herself like a ball to the ground and 

 scampered into the thickets. I descended to find other quarters, 

 and soon placed myself for safe keeping in the crutch of an adja- 

 cent tree. Not too soon either, for shortly after the bears re- 

 turned. I heard their well-known snuffling distinctly. Not only 

 so, but the tree was soon surrounded by the wolves, which made 

 the place hideous by their snarling and dismal cries. At daylight 

 they dispersed at the rising of the sun. I descended, got my bear- 

 ings, and after traveling many miles struck a clearance, thankful 

 for my deliverance. Though now over 80, 1 look back to that 

 night, 50 years ago, and ask myself, not what might have hap- 



