Forest and Stream. 



A Weekly Journal of the Rod and Gun. 



Terms, $4 a Year. 10 Cts. a Copy. 1 

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NEW YORK, DECEMBER 18, 1890. 



S VOL. XXXV.-No. 22. 



I No. 318 Broadway, New York. 



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CONTENTS. 



Editorial, 



Is the Golden Trout a Hybrid? 



Next Week. 



Snap Shots. 

 Sportsman Tourist. 



A Winter in Michigan.— u. 

 Natural History. 



A Skeleton of the Ivory Bill. 



Pelagic Birth of Fur Seals 

 Denied. 



Some Menagerie Babies. 

 Game Bag and Gun. 



Shot Count and Weight. 



Chicago and the West. 



Chinese Pheasants. 



The Maine Deer Law. 



Wild Turkeys in the Overflow. 



The Ohio Season. 



British Sportsmen in America. 



The Massachusetts Banquet. 

 Sea and River Fishing. 



A Day's Fishing at Home. 



World's Fair Fisheries Exhibit 



■'As to Aureoius." 



A Companion of the Trout. 



Angling Notes. 



Saibling of New Hampshire. 



Fish Roosts. 



The Golden Trout. 



The Kennel. 

 Beagle Training. 

 Cocker Spaniels of 1890. 

 Some A. K. C. Matters. 

 Central Field Trials. 

 A Thanksgiving Beagle Run. 

 Dog Chat. 



Meeting of the A. K. C. 



Kennel Notes. 

 Rifle and Trap Shooting. 



Range and Gallery. 



The British Magazine Arm. 



The Trap. 



Newark. 



Cleveland. 



Hutchinson, Kas. 

 Yachting. 



Single-stick Racing in 1890 



Some Points About Mark- 

 boats. 



Naphtha Launches. 



Prognostications. 

 Canoeing. 



Summer and Winter. 



Western Canoe Association. 



A Tall Yarn. 



Railroad Canoeing. 



A Permanent Camp. 

 Answers to Correspondents. 



Readers of Forest and Stream who are contemplating 

 the purchase of hooks for Christmas presents will do well 

 to send at once for a copy of our free illustrated, cata- 

 logue of publications. 



IS THE GOLDEN TROUT A HYBRID ? 

 TN an article on the ''Saibling in New Hampshire,'' we 

 have mentioned the principal characteristics of the 

 cross between large-scaled and small-scaled members of 

 the salmon family. It is suggested by several writers, 

 among whom are Von W., of Charlestown, N. H.: Mr. A. 

 N. Cheney and Dr. J. D. Quackenbos, that the golden 

 trout of Sunapee Lake and Dan Hole Pond may be a 

 hybrid between the landlocked salmon and brook trout, 

 or between the saibling and brown trout of Europe. 

 Fortunately we have already published a good figure of a 

 hybrid between the saibling and brown trout in our issue 

 of June 6, 1889. This figure is accompanied by a moder- 

 ately full description of: the fish. These gentlemen, and 

 others interested in the subject, will at once appreciate 

 the peculiar coloration of this cross. The pattern of color- 

 ation is known among fishculturists as the zebra marking. 

 It is entirely unlike both its parents in the whitish ver- 

 miculations which cover the head and body. The sketch 

 does not show the large size of the scales, although the 

 number in the lateral line is correctly given. The brown 

 trout has about 120 scales in the lateral line, while the 

 saibling has about 220. In the hybrid, however, the size 

 of the scales constantly follows the brown trout parent, 

 whichever way the cross is made. This holds true in all 

 the many specimens which we have examined. 



Another fact of very great importance in connection 

 with this subject is the reported uniform sterility of the 

 hybrid between the saibling and brown trout. None of 

 the examples seen by us show any development of the 

 reproductive organs, and the Norwegian fishculturists, 

 who have artificially produced the cross for many years, 

 mention the sterility in their accounts of the fish. We 

 believe that the theory of hybridism between the saibling 

 and brown trout prior to the shipment of brown trout to 



New Hampshire may be fairly set aside as untenable on 

 account of this well-known sterility of the primary cross. 

 We do not know whether any one has attempted to cross 

 the saibling and landlocked salmon, but as the landlocked 

 salmon is a large -scaled species of the genus Salvia, and 

 the saibling is a small-scaled species of the genus Salve- 

 linvs. we consider it safe to predict that the result of 

 union between these two species would be a large-scaled 

 and sterile fish. There is in New Hampshire a fertile 

 cross between the saibling and brook trout, of which we 

 have received a fine three-year-old specimen from Col. 

 Hodge. This we hope to describe shortly. In our issue 

 of Nov. 20, 1890, Dr. Bean described another fertile 

 hybrid between the golden trout and the brook trout. 

 Referring, therefore, to Mr. Cheney's remarks upon the 

 "possibility that the imported saibling eggs were im- 

 proved by a previous cross with the trout in Germany,'' 

 we are bound to conclude, owing to the above-mentioned 

 circumstances, that no such cross was made, and that we 

 received eggs of saibling pure and unadulterated. As to 

 the saibling eggs which were seat by Professor Baird to 

 Mr. W. L. Gilbert, at Plymouth, Mass., in 1880, and which 

 he reported as having died, we must here express a doubt 

 concerning the additional eggs said to have been received 

 from Mr. Stone. Mr. Gilbert was unable to distinguish 

 the product of these eggs, when they had reached the 

 length of eight inches, from the common fontinalis. If 

 Mr. Gilbert, with his experience, could not distinguish 

 his trout of this size from the fontinalis, there is a very 

 strong probability that he really had fontinalis and 

 nothing else. 



NEXT WEEK. 



OUR next number will contain another chapter of 

 "Nessmuk's" 'Winter in Michigan," giving a highly 

 interesting story of the heroic treatment to which, when 

 desperately ill with fever, he was subjected by his Indian 

 friends. There will also be the concluding part of Mr. 

 Polk's entertaining account of wild turkey hunting in a 

 Mississippi overflow. The same number will have a 

 paper of "Cowboy Reminiscences,'' by Alex. M. Reynolds. 

 These are not all the good things in store for Forest and 

 Stream readers in Christmas week. 



SNAP SHOTS. 



" OUCK-FEYER," that nervous excitement which 

 takes possession of the sportsman just at the crit- 

 ical moment when the game appears, causing his heart to 

 thump, his breath to come short and his limbs to quake, 

 is a stock subject for laughter and jocularity; and funny 

 enough it is. But there is a serious side as well; we have 

 in times past noted cases of its fatal termination; and a 

 fresh one is just reported fram Dauberville, Pa. A young 

 man went rabbit shooting. He did not return by dusk 

 and members of the family went out to look for him. 

 After a prolonged search he was found lying dead under 

 a chestnut tree, with his empty gun beside him and a 

 dead rabbit, which he had evidently shot, a few rods 

 away. His death was caused by heart failure, induced by 

 the excitement of shooting the rabbit. 



A correspondent who was at Alexandria, Va., last 

 week, where he had occasion to visit the lighthouse at 

 that place, found in an outbuilding belonging to the 

 keeper two "big-guns," which were evidently kept in 

 readiness for the annual slaughter of ducks. Before the 

 Potomac became infested with these pot-hunters canvas- 

 back ducks and redheads came up to Washington in 

 large numbers, but at present they are very scarce. A 

 few years ago our informant saw fifty-three canvasbacks 

 killed at one discharge of a big-gun, off the mouth of 

 Broad Creek, near Fort Washington, and a great many 

 others were crippled and eventually died. This is a 

 rather sad commentary on the integrity of the Govern- 

 ment's servants, and it is to be hoped that the practice 

 is not general. 



In the American Naturalist for September, Mr. Robert 

 C. Auld has an article entitled, "A Means of Preserving 

 the Purity and Establishing a Career for the American 

 Bison of the Future." Mr. Auld reviews the buffalo 

 situation as delineated in Mr. Hornaday's book, and, 

 taking that gentleman's estimate of the number of living 

 individuals of the race, concludes that there are only 

 about 250 specimens that can be used for breeding pur- 

 poses. The worth of a race of domesticated buffalo is 

 acknowledged, but it is evident that with this small num- 



ber of breeders the utmost care in breeding must be 

 exercised or else the race will die out, either from too 

 close inbreeding or else from continued out crossing, by 

 which the pure blood of the original race shall be lost. 

 To avoid these dangers Mr. A uld advocates the establish- 

 ment of a buffalo register, which shall be conducted on 

 the same plan as the herd books of the various breeds of 

 cattle. The idea is certainly a good one, and was sug- 

 gested to Mr, C. J. Jones, of Garden City, Kansas, by 

 the Forest and Stream some two years ago. Mr. Jones 

 at that time appeared to think well of it and promised to 

 keep such a register of his herd, and we sent him a book 

 for this purpose. Whether this register has been kept up 

 or not we can not now say, but we presume that it has 

 for Mr. J ones has displayed so much intelligence in his 

 efforts at breeding buffalo cattle that he would not be 

 likely to neglect so important a matter. 



The National Park bill came very near being brought 

 up in the House last Friday, when the Public Lands 

 Committee had a day given it. The greater part of this 

 day was devoted to the consideration of a bill in relation 

 to public swamps and meadows. It was understood that 

 the Yellowstone Park bill would be called up next, and 

 the railroad people worked hard to bring this about, but 

 were unsuccessful. Within the past week an excellent 

 article has appeared in Garden and Forest, which shows 

 clearly the injury which would be done by a railway in 

 the Park, and the Times and Tribune of this city have 

 again given very positive expression to their editorial 

 opinions against the railroad. The more the people think 

 over this matter the more general will be the feeling 

 against giving up to a greedy corporation this fair bit of 

 nature in which each one of us now has some title. 



An angler is an angler the world around. Our long- 

 time contributor "Piseco," Capt. L. A, Beardslee, of the 

 Navy, who is now in command of the U. S. Receiving 

 Ship Vermont, at the Brooklyn Navy Yard, has on the 

 walls of his cosy cabin photographs of Walter Brackett's 

 famous salmon paintings. In the midst of the service 

 routine "Piseco" has but to glance at these suggestive 

 pictures, and in a trice he is transported to the Adiron- 

 dack waters, where, as he has unblushingly confessed in 

 the Forest and Stream, he takes his trout with the worm. 



The Maine deer question is a topic which promises 

 much interesting discussion this winter; and we trust 

 that its consideration may not be profitless. We are 

 glad to promise a series of papers from the pen of Miss 

 Fannie P. Hardy, whose "Out-of-Door Papers" -were so 

 well received some months ago. Miss Hardy has had 

 unusual opportunities to learn the feeling of the people 

 of Maine who are most nearly interested in the game and 

 fish protection problem; and her suggestions will, we 

 are sure, have a decidedly practical value. 



The late Surgeon-General Jedediah H. Baxter, U.S.A., 

 was a devoted salmon angler, having for years main- 

 tained a fishing lodge in Canada. He was one of the 

 warmest admirers of Mr. Robinson's books "Uncle Lisha's 

 Shop" and "Sam Lovel's Camps," and in the years when 

 the successive chapters were appearing in the Forest 

 and Stream there were weekly gatherings at Dr. Baxter's 

 home, where Senators Edmunds, Frye and others came 

 together to hear the sketches read aloud. 



The defect of the present New York law, pointed out 

 by our correspondent "St. Lawrence" last week, by which 

 accomplices in offenses cannot be compelled to testify 

 without incrimination, is one which we hope the codi- 

 fication committee will remedy. It is the testimony of 

 more than one official that if such accomplices were per- 

 mitted to turn State's evidence, a decided advance would 

 be made in the direction of enforcing the laws by bringing 

 offenders to punishment. 



That was an excellent suggeetion of Prof. Putnam's, at 

 the Massachusetts dinner last week that the State Fish 

 Commission should maintain a pound, in order actually 

 to determine just what the season's record of pound fish- 

 ing may be. Laws and fishery regulations based on the 

 dishonest and misleading returns made by the fishermen, 

 in their pretended compliance with the law, cannot reach 

 the end desired. 



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 current issue of the Forest and Stream by sending us 

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