Forest and Stream. 



A Weekly Journal of the Rod and Gun. 



Terms, S4 a Year. 10 Cts. a Copt. ) 



Srx Months, $2. ( 



NEW YORK, OCTOBER 16, 1890. 



j VOL. XXXV— No. 13. 



I No. 318 Broadway, New York. 



CORRESPONDENCE. 

 The Forest and 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. 



ADVERTISEMENTS. 

 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 

 tBsue in which they are to be inserted. Transient advertisements 

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

 tnserted. Reading notices 81.00 per line. 



SUBSCRIPTIONS 



May begin at any time. Subscription price for single copy 84 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 ohe 

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

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

 London. General subscription agents for Great Britain, Messrs. 

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

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

 Brentano's, 17 Avenue de l'Opera, Paris, France, sole Paris agent 

 for sales and subscriptions. Foreign subscription price. $6 per 

 year; §3.50 for six months. 



Address all communications 



No. 318 Broadway. 



Forest and Stream Publishing Co. 



New Yore City. 



CONTENTS. 



Editorial. 



The Coon Hunters. 



Snap Shots. 

 Sportsman Tourist. 



Slide Rock from Many Moun- 

 tains. 



Moose River and the West 

 Branch. 

 Natural History. 



Down the Creek. 



Ways of the Ruffed Grouse. 

 Game Bag and Gun. 



Chicago and the West. 



Adirondack Deer. 



Rifle and Caliber. 



In Mill Bayou. 



Ducking in Iowa. 



Bay Snip 0 at Currituck. 



Sporting Trips from the Hub. 

 Sea and River Fishing. 



A Night at the Herring 

 Fishery. 



Half Hours in the Sierra 

 Nevada. 



Where the Bass Bite Best. 



Angling Notes. 



Chicago and the West. 



Channel Bass of Anglesea. 



A Live Association. 

 Ftshculture. 



Work of the Fish Commission. 

 The Kennel. 



The Tariff and imported Dogs. 



Gordon Setter Field Trials. 



The Kennel. 



American Spaniel Club. 



Winchell vs. National Express 

 Company. 



South Carolina Kennel Asso- 

 ciation. 



Whippet Racing. 



Danhury Dog Show, 



Dog Chat. 



Dog Talk. 



Eastern Field Trials Entries. 



Kennel Notes. 



Kennel Management. 

 Rifle and Trap Shooting, 



Range and Gallery. 



Rensselaerwyck. 



The Trap. 



Elliot vs. Murphy. 



ALoona Shooting Association. 



Chicago. 



Watson's Park. 



New York State Shoot. 

 Yachting. 



A Thousand Miles in a 

 Naphtha Launch.— n. 



New York Y. R. A. 



American and British Yacht- 

 ing. 



The Nautical Fair at Halifax. 

 Canoeing. 

 Canuck. 



Camping at the Meets. 

 The Paddling Championship. 

 Answers to Correspondents 



A NAME ON A POSTAL. 



If you have a friend, who might be interested 

 in the FOREST AND STREAM, but does not know 

 the paper, send us his address on a postal card. 

 It will be esteemed a favor by us ; and it may be 

 so regarded by him. 



THE COON HUNTERS. 



HAVE the coon hunters been idle or unsuccessful , that 

 they make no report of their adventures during the 

 season of the sport, which is now drawing toward a close? 



It is a distinctively American sport, concerning whose 

 method of pursuit there can be no dispute. Concerning 

 fox hunting there may be endless wrangling between 

 those, who hold that it is only sportsmanlike when the 

 hunter rides to the hounds in good old English fashion, 

 and those who as stoutly maintain that hunting on foot 

 with the gun is made as sportsmanlike by the conditions 

 which render the other method impracticable. 



But there is but one way of hunting the coon. Hunted 

 only at night, to follow him, the boldest rider must dis. 

 mount, yet he who risks neck and limbs, or melts or 

 freezes for sport's sake, and deems no sport manly that 

 has not a spice of danger or discomfort in it, must not 

 despise this humble pastime for such reason. 



On leaving the highway that leads nearest to the hunt- 

 ing ground, the way of the coon hunters takes them, in 

 darkness or feeble lantern light, over rough and uncer- 

 tain footing, till the cornfield's edge is reached and the 

 dogs cast off. Away go the hounds, their course only in- 

 dicated by the rii»tling of the corn leaves, as they range 

 through the field, until one old truth'-teller gives tongue 



on the trail of Br'er Coon, who perhaps has brought his 

 whole family out on a nocturnal picnic. The hounds 

 sweep straight away, in full cry, on the hot scent to hill 

 or swamp, where their steadfast baying proclaims that 

 the game is treed. 



Then follows a pell-mell scramble toward the musical 

 uproar. Stones, cradle knolls, logs, stumps, mud holes, 

 brambles and all the inanimate enemies that lie in wait 

 for man when he hastens in the dark, combine to trap, 

 bump, bruise, sprain, scratch and bemire the hurrying 

 hunters. 



Then when all have gathered at the center of attraction, 

 where the excited hounds are raving about the boll of 

 some great tree, the best and boldest climber volunteers 

 to go aloft into the upper darkness and shake the quarry 

 down or shoot him if may be. If he succeeds in accom- 

 plishing the difficult task, what a melee ensues when the 

 coon crashes through the branches to the ground and 

 becomes the erratic center of the wild huddle of dogs 

 and men. 



Fewer voices never broke the stillness of night with 

 sounds more unearthly than the medley of raging, yelp- 

 ing and growling, cheering and vociferous orders given 

 forth by dogs, coon and hunters, while hillside and wood- 

 land toss to and fro a more discordant badinage of echo. 



The coon is not a great beast, but a tough and sharp- 

 toothed one, who carries beneath his gray coat and fat 

 ribs a stout heart and wonderful vitality; and a tussle 

 with a veteran of the tribe of cornfield robbers tests the 

 pluck of dogs and the coolness of men. 



If the coon takes refuge in a tree too tall and limbless 

 for his pursuers to climb, there is nothing for them but 

 to keep watch and ward till daylight discovers him 

 crouched in his lofty perch. 



A huge fire enlivens the long hours of guard-keeping. 

 A foraging party repairs to the nearest cornfield for 

 roasting ears, and the hunters shorten the slow night tide 

 with munching scorched corn, sauced by joke and song 

 and tales of the coon hunts of by-gone years. 



The waning moon throbs into view above a serrated 

 hill-crest, then climbs the sky, while the shadows draw 

 eastward, then pales in the dawn, and when it is a blotch 

 of white cloud in the zenith, a sunrise gun welcomes day 

 and brings the coon tumbling to earth. Or, perhaps, not 

 a coon, but some vagrant house cat is the poor reward of 

 the long watch. Then the weary hunters plod homeward 

 to breakfast and the nailing of their trophies to the barn 

 door. 



"When the sweet acorns, dropping in the frosty nigbt, 

 tempt the coon to a later feast, there is as good sport and 

 primer peltry. In any of the nights wherein this sport 

 may be pursued, the man of lazy mold and contemplative 

 mind loves best the hunt deemed unsuccessful by the 

 more ardent hunters, when the hounds strike the trail of 

 a wandering fox and carry a tide of wild music, flooding 

 and ebbing over valley and hill-top, while the indolent 

 hunter reclines at ease, smoking his pipe and listening, 

 content to let more ambitious hunters stumble over ledges 

 and wallow through swamps in pursuit of the elusive coon. 



Send in reports of nights with coons, nights when this 

 little brother of the bear blended his querulous call with 

 the crickets and August pipers, nights of frost, when the 

 cricket's note was stilled and voices of coons and owls 

 alone thrilled the autumnal gloom till the hounds' por- 

 tentous music awed both to silence. 



SNAP SHOTS. 



IN repeated instances which might be named, enter- 

 prises designed to advance the fishing interests of 

 poorly stocked or depleted waters have been set in opera- 

 tion and continued in the face of stubborn local indiffer- 

 ence or opposition. And in repeated instances, too, the 

 sequel has been that by the successful results of the enter- 

 prise this narrow and mistaken disfavor has at last been 

 overcome and converted to active cooperation. When the 

 Lake George (N. Y.) Association began, six years ago, the 

 work of restocking that magnificent body of water, their 

 greatest obstacle was the contrariness of the residents, 

 who, of all persons under th« sun, were the most to be 

 benefited by the association's liberality and public spirit. 

 Notwithstanding this untoward attitude of the lake- 

 dwellers, the work has been carried on, yearly plantings 

 of fish have been made, laws were secured to provide 

 needed protection, and to-day, as Gen. Robert Lenox 

 Banks reports, not only is the fishing in Lake George 

 yielding goodly returns for the effort expended, but local 



sentiment has undergone a decided change and now favors 

 the enforcement of the laws. 



Is there not a profitable field for telling work in just 

 this one direction— to show the public that protective 

 game and fish laws are founded on common sense and 

 are in their operation effective for the good of the entire 

 people ? 



Hudson River salmon fishing appears to be assured. At 

 the annual meeting of the New York Commissioners last 

 Tuesday it was reported that there are now more and 

 larger salmon in the Hudson than ever before, one 

 351bs. specimen having been taken this year. A stock of 

 25,000 yearlings will be put into this river. The Legisla- 

 ture will be asked to compel owners of dams to provide 

 suitable fishways. When considered from the standpoint 

 of common sense, it does appear foolish for the people of 

 this State to spend money on stocking streams when the 

 mill dams shut out the fish from what would be their 

 spawning grounds. The mill dam nuisance is tremen- 

 dously expensive to the people, but it is a difficult one to 

 remedy. The system of damming streams for mills and 

 tanneries was in full force long before people thought 

 much about the fish supply. It is only within a recent 

 period that the dams have begun to be popularly recog- 

 nized in their true light as obstructive nuisances. There 

 is a great work of education to be wrought in this coun- 

 try before our rivers and creeks and brooks are restored 

 to a condition when they can have their highest useful- 

 ness and greatest value as productive sources of food 

 supply. 



The ardor of the hunter and angler is rivalled by that 

 of the amateur photographer; and when one individual is 

 possessed of enthusiasm in all these three branches, it is 

 astonishing what an amount of exertion and fatigue he 

 will undergo. Mr. W. A. Brooks, whose account of a 

 Moose River, Me., expedition is now appearing in our 

 columns, writes of a climb to the summit of Ktaadn with 

 a camera, thought to be the first one ever taken to the 

 top. The Indian guide, Soclexis, who figures in the 

 Moose River trip, accompanied him; and they had a tre- 

 mendous pull, six miles up hill and down, over a blazed 

 trail, and then the ascent up the track of a great ava- 

 lanch, through loose sand, slide rock and a chaotic mass 

 of boulders, at an average angle of 40". 



The Boston Transcript "supposes a case,*" and suggests 

 that under the new tariff sportsmen may be required to 

 pay a duty on the game they have bagged in Canada. 



A club has its camp in the United States, roams and 

 shoots at random over its broad acres, some of which lie 

 in Victoria's realm. A member, on crossing the line 

 with a well filled bag, is stopped by an official and his 

 luggage examined. The game is pronounced dutiable. 



But this is not going off our land, only to eamp.' 'Yet 

 it is coming into the United States,' the officer replies, 

 and a bond or cash is required and given." This is jocu- 

 lar. But does the Transact know that by the laws of 

 Canada the exportation of game is absolutely forbidden? 



The law protecting Vermont deer— the deer were im- 

 ported by the Rutland Club— will expire Nov. 1; but Fish 

 and Game Commissioner Brainerd, in his report to the 

 Legislature now in session, has advised that the protec- 

 tion be extended for five years more; and it is more than 

 probable that a law to that effect will be enacted before 

 November shall come around. The Vermont hunters 

 who have been loading for deer must defer their projected 

 campaigns. 



By the way, can any of o*r New Jersey readers report 

 as to the deer supply in that State after the years of 

 protection? 



Under the old tariff the uniform duty on shotguns was 

 35 per cent, ad valorem. The new schedule is as follows 

 On all doublebarreled sporting breechloading shotguns, 

 valued at not more than $6 each, a duty of $1.50 each; 

 the same, valued at more than $6 and not more than $12 

 each, $4 each; valued at more than $12 each, $6 each; 

 and in addition thereto on all the above 35 per cent, ad 

 valorem. On singlebarreled breechloading shotguns, $1 

 and 35 per cent, ad valorem. 



Mr. W. O. Blaisdell, of Illinois, tells us that he proposes 

 to import some live partridges from India to put out in 

 that State. 



