Forest and Stream. 



A Weekly Journal of the Rod and Gun. 



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



Six Months, $2. j 



NEW YORK, SEPTEMBER 4, 1890. 



( VOL. XXXV.-No. 7. 



j No. 318 Broadway, New York. 



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CONTENTS. 



Editorial. 



New York's Opportunities. 



Destructive Fishing. 



The Creedmoor Meeting. 

 Sportsman Tourist. 



Around Cape Hatteras.— n. 



Slide Rock from Many Moun- 

 tains. 

 Natural History. 



Trapping Days.— n. 



The Cape Charles Tiger. 



An Iowa Nocturnal Monster. 

 Game Bag and Gun. 



Sport in New Mexico. 



Tne Plover (poetry). 



Shooting Talk. 



Colorado Notes. 



Labor Day in the Woods. 



Chicago and the West. 



A W. Virginia Game Country. 

 Sea and River Flshing. 



The Clubs of the St. Clair Flats 



Bass Fishing on the Green- 

 brier. 



Some Pleasant Memories. 

 The Pike of Lake Melissa. 

 On the Kalamazoo. 

 Virginia Trout and Quail. 

 Angling Notes. 

 "The Salmon Fisher." 

 Camp-Fire Flickerings. 

 Toboga Bill. 



Ftshculture. 



Trout Culture Possibilities. 



More About Trout Culture. 

 The Kennel. 



Dog Talk from England. 



"Specialism" in Dog Shows. 



The English Setter Club. 



Wilmington Dog Show. 



Ottawa Dog Show. 



The Barzois. 



Kennel Notes. 

 Rifle and Trap Shooting. 



Range and Gallery. 



Deer Hunters' Association. 



North End. 



San Francisco. 



The New Gas Gun. 



The Trap. 



Madison County. 



Corry Keystones. 



Central Illinois Tournament. 



London, Ont. 

 Yachting. 



The Lake Y. R. A. Circuit. 



Beverly Y. C. 



Gossoon and Minerva. 



New York Y. R. A. Regatta. 



Coming Races. 

 Canoeing. 



New York C. C. International 

 Cup. 



Answers to Correspondents- 



NEW YORK'S OPPORTUNITIES. 

 TF it were not for local jealousies, local selfishness and 

 legislative apathy, New York State might become a 

 real paradise for sportsmen. There lie within her bor- 

 ders hunting, shooting and fishing grounds which might 

 be made equal to any on this continent, providing they 

 were properly protected by law, and were so policed that 

 the law should be enforced. 



The wonderful system of lakes and streams of the 

 Adirondack region contain already superb fish, and 

 might by stocking and protection be made to produce 

 vast quantities more than they now do, and in much 

 greater variety. The same is true, though in less degree, 

 of many other sections of the State. Sullivan county 

 has its trout brooks; the central part of the State abounds 

 in lakes which might be made to teem with fishes which 

 are now unknown to their waters. Our salt-water line 

 fisheries might, and no doubt will be, greatly improved 

 as the good work of the TJ. S. Fish Commission goes on. 



Turning to feathered game the opportunities are not 

 less ample. Perhaps nowhere on all our coasts is there 

 a finer natural winter resort for wildfowl than that 

 afforded by the wide and shallow bays of the south 

 shores of Long Island. Here in the olden time— a time 

 still within the memory of living men— the waterfowl 

 collected in noisy millions, coming in the early autumn 

 and departing for the south only when these bays were 

 closed by frost, returning again as soon as the ice broke 

 up, and not leaving for their northern home until the 

 last days of May or the first of June. Geese, brant and 

 all the best varieties of ducks made the Great South Bay 

 and Shinnecock Bay their stopping places, and in old 

 times not even Currituck, Albemarle and Core sounds 

 were more populous with the clanging multitudes. Then, 

 several varieties of ducks bred commonly on Long Island, 

 #.nd feeding in th« early autumn in these productive 



waters were the decoys which called down the first 

 arrivals of the migrating hordes. 



How is it to-day? A few men still go shooting to Long 

 Island, but their reward is small. They get but few 

 ducks, and those only of the poorer sort, and for one man 

 that gets a duck ten return with empty hands. The con- 

 tinual shooting, the battery and the net have so depleted 

 the stock of fowl that it is no longer worth any man's 

 while to go shooting on the south shore. Although less 

 populous, and, from their situation, occupied for a much 

 shorter time in spring and fall, the lakes of Central New 

 York, by planting with food suited to the birds, and by 

 prevention of shooting at improper seasons, might be 

 made to afford splendid shooting, where now there is 

 little or none. 



It is needless to speak of the possibilities for quail, 

 ruffed grouse and woodcock shooting, were the seasons 

 observed and a decent respect paid to the law, but if this 

 were regarded, English pheasants and partridges might 

 be turned out and in many places would thrive, and in 

 the course of a few years so increase as to become firmly 

 established. Prairie chickens might be introduced on 

 Long Island, and black game in the Adirondacks; and 

 wild turkeys might be established in their former homes. 



It is in the North Woods, however, that the greatest 

 opportunities are to be found. Here, in this wide region, 

 if it were under proper State care, could be carried on a 

 work similar to that now being undertaken by a private 

 citizen in New Hampshire. The deer could be protected 

 and permitted to increase; the elk. the moose and the 

 caribou might be restored to the gloomy forests which 

 they once inhabited, protected there until they had in- 

 creased in numbers, and could then be treated as the 

 circumstances might demand. 



If a wise arid liberal policy were to be agreed on by 

 sportsmen and State officials, New York could be made 

 to furnish such magnificent sport with rod, with shotgun 

 and with rifle, that her citzens need never pass beyond 

 her borders in search of sport. 



Nor is New York the only State in which such oppor- 

 tunities present themselves. Several of the New England 

 States are as favorably situated, and so are many of the 

 Western and all of the Southern States. It is not too late 

 to take action, but before cencerted action can be taken 

 there must be agreement, and to-day agreement seems as 

 far off as ever. 



The trouble seems to be that we are all selfish, are all 

 human; each one of us believes that the laws were made 

 for others, but not for him. So there is a continual 

 struggle to see who shall get the most game, and the 

 game suffers. 



THE CREEDMOOR MEETING. 



DURING next week Creedmoor will be the scene of 

 the 18th annual fall prize meeting of the National 

 Rifle Association. The arrangement by which the State 

 of New York became the owner of the property while 

 yet reserving to the organizing association the right to 

 carry on its annual and other meetings, seems to be work- 

 ing in most satisfactory fashion. The directors are striv- 

 ing in the direction of popularity in the match where the 

 old rule about light rifles and heavy trigger pulls has been 

 in a measure abolished so far as certain matches are con- 

 cerned. We have in the past expressed our opinion 

 upon this point, and we reiterate that at the very start 

 the Association did a wise thing in putting a prohibition 

 upon the shooting devices which had been so common at 

 all the old-fashioned shoots in this country for years and 

 years back. 



Creedmoor was intended to foster the use of a practic- 

 able arm. Military shooting was very properly set before 

 anything else, and the influence of this mother range on 

 this style of marksmanship is seen in the orders 

 now issued on this branch in the militia guard of 

 every State, and in the regular army as well. Heavy 

 bits of ordnance mounted on a stand, such as are 

 still to be found among the string shooters, and the near 

 kin of these arms found in the palm-rested weighty tubes 

 which do such remarkably close shooting at the ring 

 targets and other measures of our German friends, were 

 ruled off the Creedmoor range for years, and the call 

 given to the comparatively rough and crude arm of the 

 service. Some attention was paid, indeed, to small-bore 

 work of a sort calculated to encourage the use of a 

 weapon where skill counted more than anything else, 

 and the international matches were fought out on these 

 lines. Had Creedmoor started out on any other plan, it 



is, we think, doubtful whether we should have seen the 

 valuable advance in the science and art of shooting which 

 can now be traced so fairly and clearly to this range. 



Now, in its years of prestige and of honorable record, 

 it is perfectly proper that the old range should be thrown 

 open to the shooters of every kith and kin, and that the 

 invitation be made to every one with a shooting contriv- 

 ance to come up and show what he can do with it. We 

 have not the least idea but that the light-arm riflemen 

 can hold then- own, so far as skill goes, with those who 

 use and advocate the more cumbersome style of arm. 



The meeting promises to be a notable one. Canada has 

 given no small attention to military shooting. She has 

 an enthusiastic and alert body of civilian shots who burn 

 a great deal of powder. They promise to send a picked 

 team down to give our military shooters a hard battle 

 and a taste of defeat. Several of the States will be 

 on hand with representative teams, and in the Barney 

 Walther team match all the crack off-hand clubs may 

 meet on fair neutral ground and settle for the season a 

 long line of talked-of matches and many disputed points 

 of superiority. 



THE MAINE DEER SUPPLY. 



FOR several years past, in fact ever since the anti- 

 marketing and anti-hounding laws have been in 

 force in Maine, the deer supply of those woods has been 

 on the increase. This year reports come, not from one 

 favored locality alone, but from all the hunting districts 

 of the Pine Tree State, that the deer are more numerous 

 than ever before; and abundant reward is promised to the 

 resident and visiting sportsmen when the season opens in 

 another month. 



There are numerous theories to* account for this pleas- 

 ing condition of affairs; but we think it most reasonable 

 to assume that the cause of Maine's present wealth of 

 game is to be found in the laws forbidding marketing 

 and hounding. When the Commissioners once made it 

 clear to the market venison hunters that the meat could 

 not and would not be shipped out of the State to the 

 Boston market, it was recognized that the occupation of 

 these people was gone; and the deer supply has been free 

 from their industrious pursuit. The non-hounding law 

 has not been so stringently enforced. In some districts 

 hounds are employed covertly and in the sneaking way 

 of law-breakers the world over, to drive deer into water 

 for the delectation of sportsmen from other States, but 

 the great incentive to hounding, which was market- 

 hunting, having been removed, it is improbable that the 

 practice as now conducted materially affects the aggre- 

 gate supply. 



From her large game, under existing conditions, Maine 

 is reaping a larger income than was possible under the 

 old ways. Deer "on the hoof" are more valuable, ten 

 times over, than deer packed for the Boston market. 

 While it might be practicable, as it certainly is desirable, 

 to make certain modifications in the law, so that sports- 

 men may carry home with them the venison and antlers 

 secured by them, there is little probability that the Legis- 

 lature will seriously listen to the notions of those inter- 

 ested parties who seek to restore the traffic in venison. 



DESTRUCTIVE FISHING. 



A CASUAL inspection of the east coast markets at 

 this time will show the presence of the young of 

 several valuable kinds of fishes. Spanish mackerel 

 measuring only 10 to 12in. and weighing about 8oz., and 

 channel bass (Scimna ocellata) of about lib. are among 

 the number. Such immature fishes have almost no 

 value to the fishermen, but the full-grown individuals 

 are very choice and high-priced. The worst feature of 

 this practice is the probable extermination of the species. 

 No special argument is necessary to show that if the 

 young are taken the fishing will soon be destroyed. In 

 addition to the numbers brought to the market, thousands 

 upon thousands of little fish are killed and wasted on the 

 fishing grounds. Striped bass suffer the same kind of 

 decimation, and it is a wonder that the species has not 

 already been exterminated. The ruthless and senseless 

 destruction of young fish by nets and seines has long 

 been a grievous drain upon our food and game fishes and 

 cannot be defended on any ground of advantage or ne- 

 cessity. We roust stop it or lose many of the best fish in 

 our waters. This might be done by regulating the size 

 of the mesh of nets and seines, and ^forcing compliance 

 with the legal requirements. 



