Forest and Stream. 



A Weekly Journal of the Rod and Gun. 



Terms, 84 a Year. 10 Cts. a Copt. 1 

 Six Months, $2. j 



NEW YORK, JANUARY 2 9, 1891. 



( VOL. XXXVI.-No. 2. 



( No. 318 Broadway, New York, 



G0BBJE8P0NBEN0E. 

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No. 318 Broadwat. 



Forest and Stream Publishing Cot 



New York Citt. 



CONTENTS, 



Editorial. 

 The pprsistency of Peei^. 

 Snap Shots. 

 Sportsman Tourist. 

 In the Region Round Nieato- 



wis.— It. 

 Through the Olympics on an 



Elk Trail.— I. 

 Natural Histort. 

 The Porcupine. 

 What the a . O. U. has Done. 

 The Biue-btriped Trigger Fisn 

 Game Bag and Gun. 

 In English Fields and Covers. 

 A Pennsylvania Decision. 

 Legislation at Albany. 

 Maine Deer Interests. 

 Wildff^wl in Oregon.— n, 

 Ohavham Fish and Game As- i 



sociation. i 

 Vermont, Fish and Game | 



League. 

 A Word for Light Guns. 

 Loading. 



Tne Dog for Grouse. 



Rochester and Vicinity. 



Game Notes. 

 Oamp-Fire Fligkbkings. 

 'SiOA AND River Fishing. 



American Tiout Fly Imita- 

 tions. 



A Letter from Germany. 



Carp in Lake Erie. 



Potomac River Black Bass. I 



Sea and River Fishing. 



Bti-s m Calm and Storm. 



Angl i ng Retreats of Main e.-u. 



Angling Notes. 

 Ftshculture. 



New Hampshire Fishculture 

 Work. 

 The Kennel. 



Brunswick Fur Club's Meet. 



Cocker Spaniels of 1890. 



Eastern Coursing Club's Meet. 



Dog Chat. 



Circumstances Alter Cases. 

 Notes and Notions. 

 Kennel Notes. 

 Kenntl Manaeement. 

 RiELE AND Trap Shoot rara 

 Range and Gallery. 

 The Trap. 



Br'er Gawge and Mr. Elliott. 

 Yachting. 



The Montgomery Sailing Club. 



TV e Measurt ment of Sail Area 



Attxiliary Naphtha Lamch. 



Another Cruise in the Velma. 



The Documenting of Ameri- 

 can Yachts. 



Senate BJl 4,821. 

 Canoeing. 



Prize Flags for Canoe Races. 



War Canoe Racing. 



"General Purpose" Canoes. 



Puritan C. C. 

 Answers to Correspondents- 



THE PERSISTENCY OF PESTS. 



FROM the sowing and planting of his seed, almost, 

 indeed from the turning of the furrow, the farmer 

 enters upon a contest with the weeds, for a place in which 

 his crops may grow, and if lie or the crops are not van- 

 ' quished, as the weeds never are, the warfare continues 

 till harvest time. 



While he, with infinite labor, prepares the ground and 

 ' sows his seed with all care, praying that drouth may not 

 wither nor floods drown it, and that frosts may not cut 

 down the tender plants, the wir.ds of heaven and the 

 fowls of the air scatter broadcast the seeds of the noxious 

 weeds, or they lie dormant in the ground awaiting oppor- 

 tunity, and then they germinate in sterile place-", fence 

 corners and nooks of the wayside, and flom-ish alike in 

 scorching sunshine and in sodden soil. 



They defy the latest and the earliest frosts, grow with 

 their roots in the air; and cut down, spring up, grow on, 

 blossoming and rixDcning their seed in creeping stealth 

 and even unscathed by blight; and so flourish in spite of 

 all unkindliness of man or stress of nature, that the hus- 

 bandman wishes Ihey might by some freak of demand 

 become the useful plants, his present crop the undesired 

 ones. 



Somewhat of the position that weeds stand opposed to 

 the plants which the husbandman depends upon for his 

 livelihood, vermin hold toward the beasts and birds, upon 

 which the sportsman depends for hia recreation. 



While they whose jprotection men endeavor to main- 

 tain during the season of procreation, and at times when 

 scarcity of food prevails, decrease often to complete 

 ' extinction, the vermin, whom the hand of man is always 

 against, continue to increase and multiply or at least hold 

 ^ their own. 



To them as to the weeds nature seems to deal a kinder 

 hand, and spares, even nourishes, while she destroys their 

 betters. 



The snow crust, that walls the quail in a living tomb, 

 makes a royal banqueting hall for the pestiferous field 

 mice, where they feast and i-evel in plenty, secure from 

 all their enemies, feathered or furry. It impounds the 

 deer, but gives free range to the wolf and to his as piti- 

 less two-legged brother, the crust hunter. 



The wet seasons that drown the callow woodcock and 

 grouse work no harm to the ravenous brood of the hawk 

 and owl, nor to the litter of fox, mink or weasel. Wet 

 or dry, hot or cold, the year fosters them throughout its 

 varied round. 



Winged ticks kill the grouse, but the owl endures their 

 companionship with sedate serenity and thrives with a 

 swarm of the parasites in the covert of hia feathers. 



The ekunk has been in bad odor siace man's first ac- 

 quaintance Avith him, and has always been killed on 

 sight as a pest that the world would be the sweeter for 

 being rid of. In later years the warfare against him has 

 received an impetus from the vahxe of his fur, but 

 though this has gone on relentlessly for a quarter of a 

 century, or more, his tribe still live to load the air with a 

 fragrance that incites the ambitious trapper to further 

 conquest. 



All the year round all the farmers and their boys wage 

 war upon the crows, but each returning autumn sees the 

 columns of the black army moving southward with ap- 

 parently unthinned ranks, while, year by year, the 

 harried, platoons of ducks and geese return fewer and less 

 frequent. 



Those detested foreigners, the English sparrows, in- 

 crease and multii)ly in spite of bitter winters and right- 

 eous persecution, while our natives, the beloved song 

 birds, diminish in numbers. 



Thus on every hand we find the undesirable in ani- 

 mated nature, the birds and beasts that we. would gladly 

 be rid of, maintaining their numbers, while those whose 

 increase we desire are losing ground and tending toward 

 extinction. 



The prospect for the sportsman of the future is indeed 

 gloomy, unless he shall make game of the pests and be- 

 come a hunter of skunks and a shooter of crows and 

 sparrows. Who can say that a hundred years hence the 

 leading sportsmen of the period will not be wrangling 

 over the points and merits of their skunk and woodchuck 

 dogs and bragging of their bags of crows and sparrows? 



SNAP SHOTS, 



THE second International Ornithological Congress will 

 be held at Whitsuntide. 1891, at Budapest, Hungary. 

 Those who expect to attend should be present by May 16, 

 and names will be registered and detailed programmes 

 issued on and after May 14, at the central office of the 

 National Museum. The programme as stated is as follows : 

 May 17, opening ceremony of Congress and exhibition; 

 May 18, formation of special committees and sections; 

 May 19, reading of papers and special committee work; 

 May 20, concluding session of the Congress; May 21, com- 

 mencement of excursions. The sections into which the 

 Congress will be divided are as follows: Systematy, 

 Biology, Anatomy, Avigeography, Oology, Migration 

 and Economical Ornithology. Persons who intend to 

 read papers should advise the committee of the precise 

 titles of their contributions and the sections before which 

 they will come before April 30. Such communications 

 should be addressed to the Hungarian Scientific Com- 

 mittee, National Museum , Budapest, Hungary. 



The Audubon monument fund, which was set on foot 

 two years ago, has languished. The committee of the 

 New York Academy of Sciences having the undertaking 

 in charge have secured a design of a monument to cost 

 $10,000. The scheme of making the subscription a 

 national one appears to have been abandoned; and it is 

 now proposed to make an effort to secure in New York 

 100 subscribers who wiU contribute $100 each, and to 

 have the monument completed and dedicated next Octo- 

 ber. 



In our columns of Dec, 25, 1890, we called attention to 

 the effort in northeastern Pennsylvania to occomplish the 

 repeal of the law framed for the protection of pickerel 

 from Dec. 1 to June 1, which period covers their spawn- 

 ing season. Some newspapers of Montrose and other 



towns in the same county are advocating a change of 

 the law and one of them goes so far as to recommend 

 the seining out of all pickerel weighing |lb. or upward. 

 Mr. G. W. Bunnell, of Auburn, joins us in defending the 

 wisdom of the act in question and he has recently ex- 

 pressed his opinion in one of the newspapers mentioned. 

 Our confidence in the gentlemen who influence legislation 

 in matters pertaining to Pennsylvania fishes is such that 

 we feel sure of the wisdom of their action, and there 

 ought to be no question as to the necessity of protecting 

 spawning fishes. If the pickerel is a favorite with any 

 class of fishermen let them show their appreciation of it 

 by applying to its care the same common sense principles 

 which govern their treatment of other animals. 



Readers of early volumes of Forest and Stream will 

 recall the series of hunting sketches contributed by El 

 Cazador, in which were quaintly described the experi- 

 ences of an old Californian woodsman. Their author 

 was Maj. H. W. Mitchell, of Los Angeles, Cal., a man of 

 high standing in the community, and one who as sheriff 

 had won the admiration of his fellows for his proved 

 coiu'age and brave discharge of hia duty. Intelligence of 

 his melancholy death has just come to us. With two 

 comrades Maj. Mitchell was deer hunting on the Los 

 Angeles River. A deer had been wounded and the three 

 hunters separated to pursue the game. Shortly after this 

 one of them, seeing what he took to be the deer, shot 

 twice; and running up discovered that he had killed Maj. 

 Mitchell. Thus by an irony of fate, alas! not infrequent, 

 a brave man who has dared and achieved heroic endeavor 

 and gone unscathed through rivers of peril, meets death 

 at last by some ignominious cause. 



The enterprising citizens of Southern Pines, North Car- 

 olina, have issued a proclamation inviting the whole 

 country to join them in "a week of old-time Southern 

 sport,"' beginning Feb. 4. The enticing programme maps 

 it out thus: Wednesday, reception of visitors. Thurs- 

 day, quail hunt. Friday, rabbit chase. Saturday, squir- 

 rel hunt. Sunday, services at white and colored churches, 

 Monday, wild turkey hunt. At night, coon hunt. Tues- 

 day, fox chase. Wednesday, deer hunt. This programme 

 will be interspersed with a "Southern barbecue, a possum 

 supper and banjo picking, dancing, singing, mouth organ 

 and reed playing by colored men and women." And we will 

 add on behalf of the citizens' committee that any reader 

 of Forest and Stream, who cannot make it convenient to 

 be present on this occasion, may find ample sola.ce in read- 

 ing the third page of coOn hunting literature, which will 

 be given in our issue of Feb. 5. 



In our issue of Jan. 1, President Blackford, of the New 



York Fish Commission, wrote in reply to the charges by 

 Mr. John D. Collins, of Utica, that Protector Drew had 

 been discharged because he intercepted illicit shipments 

 of fish to Mr. Blackford : 



1 challenge Mr. John D. Collins to produce the proof or evidence 

 for his statements, or stand convicted of being a willful and 

 malicious slanderer. I also challenge him to produce any evi- 

 dence that I have ever done anything as a buyer or seller of iish 

 that has been inconsistent with my position as a Commissioner 

 for the State of New York. 



Five weeks have elapsed, but Mr. Collins has produced 

 nothing to substantiate his statements. There may have 

 been people who read these charges, and not knowing 

 the character of the Commissioner believed Mr. Collins. 

 Who believes him now? 



There was a time when, of all newspapers, the New 

 York Sun was noted for the crispest and pertest and 

 tersest paragraphs of news. In those days Mr. Dana 

 surely never would have allowed the vicious circle-round- 

 the-owl-and-finally-twist-its-head-off style which con- 

 verts "a number of fishermen" into "a number of gentle- 

 men interested in the sport of luring the finny tribe from 

 the deep by the means of hook, bait and line." 



In their report for the year 1890, just to hand, the 

 Massachusetts Commissioners report that the operation of 

 the non-export game law, enacted last year, has already 

 shown excellent results, having practically stopped the 

 invasion of the Commonwealth by men from other States 

 for market-hunting. It is gratifying to learn that com- 

 mon carriers have shown themselves in hearty sympathy 

 with the law. 



