Forest and Stream. 



A Weekly Journal of the Rod and Gun. 



84 A Year. 10 Cts. a Copt. 1 

 Six Months, $3. { 



NEW YORK, FEBRUARY 12, 1891. 



5 VOL. XXXYI.-No. L 



( No. 318 BaoAD-WAY, New York, 



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CONTENTS. 



Editorial. 



The Winter Camp-Fire. 

 Deaths from Snake Bite. 

 Ontario Game Law Inquiry. 

 Snap Shots. 

 Sportsman Tourist. 

 In the Region Round Nicato- 



wis.— v. 

 Through the Olympics on an 

 Elk Trail.— m. 

 Natural History, 

 Life of the San Francisco 



Mountain Region. 

 A System of Sparrow Destruc- 

 tion, 



Nature in Central Park. 



Some Interesting f^ets. 



Coons Catch Rabbits. 

 Game Bag akd Gun. 



The Old Camp on the Cass. 



Mating Out Justice to a Coon. 



Coon Hunting in Tennessee. 



The New York Game Law. 



Chicago and the West, 



Ontario Game Laws. 



Fish and Game in Maine, 



Rochester and Vicinity. 



Game Not es. 

 Sea and Rn^ER Fishing. 



Angling Retreats of Maine. 



Angling Notes. 



Pike Pishing in Toronto Bay. 



Water Life. 



Salmon in Winter. 



The Salmon Rivers of Alaska. 



Ftshculture. 



Minnesota Fishculture. 



More About Connecticut Shad 

 The Kennel. 



Greenville (S. O.) Show. 



Notes and Notions. 



Size Without Change of Food. 



Meeting of the Advisory Com- 

 mittee. 



Up a Tree. 



Dog Chat. 



Hamilton (Ont.) Members' 

 Show. 



Pacific Coast Field Trials. 

 "Fanciers' Gazette" Apolo- 

 gizes. 

 Kennel Notes, 

 Kennel Management, 

 RiELB AND Trap Shooting. 

 Range and Gallery, 

 The Trap. 



The Deat-Mute Championship 



Chicago Traps, 

 Yachting. 



New York Yacht Racing Asso- 

 ciation. 



Philadelphia Y. C. 



The 46- Foot Class. 

 Canoeing. 



White Squall's '88 Cruise. 



The A. C, A. and W. C. A, 



Canoeing in England. 



The Canoe Reception. 



Dates for Canoe Races. 

 Answers to Correspondents, 



THE WINTER CAMP-FIRE. 



THE chief requisite of a winter camp-fire is volume. 

 The feeble flame and meagre bed of embers that are 

 a hot discomfort to the summer outer, while he hovers 

 over coffee-pot and frying-pan, would be no more than the 

 glow of a candle toward tempering this nipping air. 



This fire must be no dainty nibbler of chips and twigs 

 that a boy's hatchet may furnish, but a roaring devourer 

 of logs, for whose carving the axe must be long and 

 stoutly wielded, a very glutton of solid fuel, continually 

 demanding more and licking with its broad red tongues 

 at the branches that sway and toss high above in its hot 

 breath. 



So fierce is it that you approach cautiously to feed it 

 and the snow shiinks away from it and can quench of it 

 only the tiny sparks that are spit out upon it. 



You must not be too familiar with it, yet it is your 

 friend after its own manner, fighting away for you the 

 creeping demon of cold and holding at bay, on the rim 

 of its glare, the wolf and the panther. 



With its friendly offices are mingled many elfish 

 tricks. It boils your pot just to the point you wish, then 

 boils it over and licks up the fragrant brew of celestial 

 leaf or Javanese berry. It roasts or broils your meat to a 

 turn, then battles with you for it and sears your fingers 

 when you strive to snatch the morsel from its jaws, and 

 perhaps burns it to a crisp before your very eyes, vouch- 

 safing you but the tantalizing fragrance of the feast. 



Then it may fall into the friendliest and most compan- 

 ionable of moods, lazily burning its great billets of ancient 

 wood while you burn the Virginian weed, singing you 

 songs of summer, its tongues of flame murmuring like 

 the south wind among green leaves, and mimicking the 

 chirp of the crickets and the chickadee's cry in the sim- 

 mer of esniding sap and vent of gas, and out of its smoke 



blossom sparks, that drift away in its own currents like 

 red petals of spent flowers. 



It paints you pictures, some weird or grotesque, some 

 beautiful, now of ghosts and goblins, now of old men, 

 now of fair women, now of lakes crinkled with golden 

 waves and towers on pine-crowned crags, ruddy with the 

 glow of sunset, sunny meadows and pasture lands, with 

 farmsteads and flocks and herds. 



The ancient trees that rear themselves aloft like strong 

 pillars set to hold up the narrow arch of darkness, exhale 

 an atmosphere of the past, in which your thoughts, wak- 

 ing or sleeping, drift backward to the old days when men 

 whose dust was long since mingled with the forest mould , 

 moved here in the rage of war and the ardor of the chase. 



Shadowy forms of dusky warriors, horribly marked 

 in war paint, gather about your camp-fire and sit in its 

 glare in voiceless council, or encircle it in the grotesquely 

 terrible movement of the war dance. 



Magically the warlike scene changes to one of peace. 

 The red hunters steal silently in with burdens of game. 

 The squaws sit in the ruddy light plying their various 

 labors, while their impish children play around them in 

 mimicry of battle and the chase. 



All then vanish, and white-clad soldiers of France 

 bivouac in their place, or red-coated Britons or Provincial 

 rangers, unsoklierly to look upon, in home-spun garb, but 

 keen-eyed and ever alert, and the bravest of the brave. 



These dissolve like wreaths of smoke, and a solitary 

 white hunter, clothed all in buckskin, sits over against 

 you. His long flint-lock rifle lying across his lap, he is 

 looking with rapt gaze into the fire, dreaming as you are. 



So, growing brighter as the daylight grows dim and 

 the gloaming thickens to the mirk, and paling again as 

 daylight creeps slowly back upon the world, but always 

 bright in the diurnal twilight of the woods, the camp- 

 fire weaves and breaks its magic spells, now leaping, now 

 lapsing, as its own freaks move it. 



Then, perhaps when it has charmed you far across the 

 border of dreamland and locked your eyes in the blind- 

 ness of sleep, it will startle you back to the cold reality of 

 the wintry woods with a crash and roar of sudden I'evival. 



ONTARIO GAME LAW INQUIRY. 



WE call especial attention to the brief note of Mr. 

 A. D. Stewart, published in another column, in 

 which he requests, from sportsmen who shoot or fish in 

 Ontario, Canada, information for the Commissioners of 

 Game and Fish for that Province, There are many of 

 our readers who are interested in the work of this Com- 

 mission, and who can render it efficient aid., and we hope 

 that the responses from dwellers on this side of the line 

 may be many. 



An examination of the question blanks Bent us leads us 

 to believe that the Ontario Fish and Game Commission 

 have hit upon the most intelligent and practical plan yet 

 devised for obtaining the information they seek. Their 

 questions are addressed to 3X)ortsmen who are interested 

 in quadrupeds, birds and fish, but besides inquiring as to 

 the aspect of sport which has to do merely with recreation, 

 they wish to consider its economic side. Thus there are 

 special questions addressed to dealers in game and fish, to 

 dealers in guns and tackle, to hotel and storekeepers in 

 sporting localities, to managers and supervisors of rail- 

 ways and steamboats, to conductors and pursers, to boat 

 and canoe builders and to guides. 



It cannot be doubted that when the answers to these 

 questions have all been received and the information and 

 opinions contained in them carefully digested by the Com- 

 mission, the results will be of very great value. The 

 outcome of the intelligent inquiry set on foot by the On- 

 tario Fish and Game Commission will be watched with 

 great interest. 



The very general interest taken in the new game bill 

 proposed by the codification committee appointed by 

 Governor Hill, is shown by the comments on its provi- 

 sions, which we publish elsewhere. It was the knowledge 

 that this proposed law would be eagerly read by sports- 

 men, not only in this State but all over the country, 

 which induced Forkst ahd Stream last week to print it 

 in full — something that no other paper has done. This 

 action has enabled those who intend to be present to-day 

 at the heariug before the Fisheries and Game Committee 

 of the Assembly, to inform themselves on the proposed 

 law and to discuss its provisions intelligently. The bill 

 should be fully talked over, and, as finally adopted, ought 

 to represenfc the best sentirnent of the State. 



DEATHS FROM SNAKEBITE. 

 'T'HE number of persons annually destroyed by wild 

 animals in India is something almost beyond belief. 

 The latest official statistics published on this subject are 

 those for the year 1888. These show that in that year no 

 less than 22,970 people were killed by snakes and other 

 wild beasts, which destroyed besides 76,371 cattle. No 

 less than 20,571 persons died from being bitten by snakes; 

 tigers killed 975, leopards 184, wolves 139, bears 110, 

 elephants 57 ; the deaths of the remainder being due to 

 dogs, crocodiles and other animals. 



Notwithstanding that for years most vigorous eft'orts 

 have been made in India to exterminate snakes and 

 other animals destructive of human life, the fact remains 

 that the mortality from this cause, instead of diminishing, 

 increases. The result of the attempts made in 1888 to 

 destroy these noxious creatiu-ey was the killing of 30,709 

 wild beasts and 511,948 snakes. In some places bounties 

 have been offered for snakes killed, but it is believed that 

 instead of causing a reduction in their numbers, this has 

 led to snakes being bred for the bounty. 



It is thought by some of the local governments of India 

 that the best method for reducing the terrible annual 

 mortality from snakebite will be to destroy the cover ih 

 which the snakes live near the villages, and it is said that 

 this plan will be tried. It may be doubted, however, 

 whether it will prove effective, The problem is a diffi- 

 cult one, and, considering the wide range of country- 

 affected, the climate and the character of the population, 

 the prospects for its solution are not bright. 



SNAP SHOTS. 



\ MONG the items included in the Sundry Civil Service 

 bill now before Congress is one appropriating money 

 for roads in the National Park. It reads as follows: 



1 EiiLO-wSTONE Nationai. Pabk; For the improvement of the 

 Yellowstone National Park, seventy-five thousand dollara, the 

 same together with the unexpended balance of a.ppropriations 

 already made, to be expended by and under the direction of the 

 Secretary of War. For the repair, maintenance, relocation and 

 completion of roads, bridges and paths already in use and neces- 

 sary to reach objects of natural interest in the Park. For the 

 construction of a road from Grand Canon to Yellowstone Lake 

 outlet, thence to the thumb of the Yellowstone Lake, thence by 

 the shortest practicable route to Fountain Geyser: any unexpended 

 balance to be applied to the construction of additional roads, 

 bridges, footways and bridle paths, as the public service may re- 

 quire, in the discretion of the Secretary of War. 



In some respects this measure is an improvement on . 

 previous items for this pm-pose. The contract system 

 has been struck out and the money is to be expended 

 under the direction of the Secretary of War. Just what 

 is meant by "the shortest practicable route" from the 

 Thumb of Yellowstone Lake to the Fountain Geyser is 

 not quite clear. We presume that it is not intended to 

 build an absolutely straight road between these two 

 points over the dreary, bleak and uninteresting summit 

 of the Elephant's Back Plateau? "The shortest practi- 

 cable route" is no doubt the one best adapted to tourists 

 and travelers, and that is the route by way of the beauti- 

 ful Shoshone Lake. People do not go into the Park 

 merely for the purpose of riding through it in the short- 

 est possible time. They go there to see its beauties, and 

 of these beauties Shoshone Lake is not the least. 



The suggestion having been made that the Castle 

 Garden building, in this city, should be converted into a 

 public aquarium, Mr. E. G. Blackford, president of the 

 State Fish Commission, has written to the Comptroller 

 stating that if the city should cary out this idea the Fish 

 Commissioners will heartily cooperate with the author- 

 ities. Of the site Mr. Blackford says: "The location of 

 Castle Garden is absolutely perfect for the successful 

 maintenance of an aquarium, situated as it is on New 

 York Bay, from which could be drawn a supply of pure 

 salt water at a minimum of expense. The facility with 

 which specimens of marine life could be placed in the 

 tanks makes the establishment and maintenance of the 

 plant a comparatively easy matter. No location could be 

 chosen which would be so accessible to the people of Ncav 

 York. I believe that the running expenses of such an 

 institution could be paid if it were free to the public on 

 all but two days of the week, when a small admission fee 

 could be charged." 



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