Forest and Stream 



A Weekly Journal of the Rod and Gun. 



Tebms, S4 a Ybab. 10 Cts. a Copt. 1 

 Six Months, $3. j" 



NEW YORK, FEBRUARY 19, 1891. 



( VOL. XXXVL-No. 5. 



1 No. 318 Broadway, Nw Yot?.tj. 





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CONTENTS. 



Editorial. 



The New York Game Bill. 



Snap Shots. 

 Sportsman Tourist. 



In the Region Round Nicato- 

 wis.— vx. 



Winter in the National Par]£. 



Antoins Bissette's Letters.-vi. 

 Natxjrai, History. 



The Opossum. 



Notes on the Bear. 

 Game Bag aud Gun. 



Notes and Notions. 



ACoonless Hunt. 



Maine Game Law. 



Laramie Gun Club, 



The New York Game Law. 



Chicago and the West. 



Wiseanti Foolish Canvasbacks 

 Sea and River Fishing. 



A Day with the Wail-Eyed 

 Pike. 



A Trip' to Cold River. 



Trout Fishing Past and to 



Come. 

 Angling Notes. 

 Chicago and the West. 

 Connecticut River Pike. 

 Ftshculture. 

 New .Jersey Fish Commission. 

 Massachusetts Fishtultiire. 

 Trough for Young SalmonidEB. 



The Kennel. 

 Cocker Spaniels of 1890. 

 Southern Field Trials. 

 Dog Chat. 



Another Specialty Club. 



My Irish Setter. 



The Greyhound Stud Book. 



A Dog Protective Union, 



St. Bernard Club Meeting. 



California Notes. 



Notes and Notions. 



Kennel Notes. 



Kennel Management. 

 RiTLE AND Trap Shootinq, 



Range and Gallery. 



Magazine Gun Test. 



The Trap. 



North and South. 



Iowa Tournament. 



Brooklyn Traps. 

 Yachting. 



Cruise of the Monaitipee.— n. 



The Riley & Cowley Engine. 



Gen. Paiue and the 46ft. Class. 



Barbara and the Burgess Boats 



Senate Bill 4,331. 

 Canoeing. 



White Squall's '88 Cruise.— n. 



Boats and the World's Fair. 



Racing in the New York Clubs 



Brooklyn C. C. 

 Answers to Correspondents. 



THE NEW YORK COMMISSION. 



AMONG the changes proposed by the codification com- 

 mittee in the New York game law is one which re- 

 duces the Fish Commission from a membership of five to 

 three, provides that the office shall be in Albany and calls 

 for meetings on the first Fridays of alternate months. We 

 hare already expressed the opinion that such changes 

 would not be for the good of the service. 



As now conducted, the work of the Commission is 

 divided in a way which experience has shown to secure 

 the best results. Individual members are intrusted with 

 special divisions of the work. There are five hatcheries. 

 The Caledonia hatchery is under the charge of William 

 H. Bowman, of Eoehester; Sacandauga hatchery, on Mill 

 Creek, Adirondaoks, under the charge of Mr, Henry Bur- 

 den, Jr., of Troy; the Cold Spring Harbor, Long Island, 

 under the charge of Mr. L. D. Huntington, of New Ro- 

 cheUe. The hatchery at Old Forge, on the Fulton Chain 

 Lakes, and the Adirondack hatchery near Bloomingdale, 

 in. Essex county , are under the charge of the president, 

 Mr. E. G. Blackford. The New York office with the office 

 work is under the general supervision of Mr. A. Sylyes- 

 ter Joline, of Tottenville. The president of the Commis- 

 sion is designated by law as the Shellfish Commissioner, 

 and is charged with all of the work of designating the 

 natural growth oyster beds in the waters of this State, and 

 with the work of surveying and the granting of fran- 

 chises for the purpose of cultivating oysters. The office 

 work is under the direction and in charge of secretary E. 

 P. Doyle, who gives to it his entire time. 



The supervision of the hatcheries by the different Com- 

 missioners is an actual work performed by the present 

 Commissioners, as each hatchery requires the inspection 

 of the Commissioner in charge at least two or three times 

 each year, and in some instances the Commissioner in 

 charge has to visit the hatchery at least once a month. 

 It has been suggested that if the work of the Commis- 



sioners should continue to increase by the preposed 

 establishment of new hatcheries by the Legislature 

 (although the Commissioners themselves do not approve 

 of the establishment of any additional stations), it would 

 become necessary for the appointment of a general super- 

 intendent, who should be a practical fishculturist and a 

 man of good executive ability, to take general charge of 

 the work of the Commission. Indeed, it is well under- 

 stood by those who are conversant with the scope of the 

 Commission's labors that each one of the members of the 

 board has as much as he can reasonably be asked to do as 

 a gratuitous public service; and unless there are substan- 

 tial reasons, which have not been divulged, for believing 

 that the proposed change would increase the efficiency of 

 the board, the organization should be left as it is. 



The codification Committee also recommend that but 

 one commissioner shall be appointed from any judicial 

 department. In this they have manifestly paid heed to 

 certain expressions of distrust on the part of recent critics 

 of the Commissioners, lest the eastern portion of the State 

 should be unduly favored at the expense of the rest. In 

 a matter of such importance as this, foolish sectional 

 jealousy should be given no weight. The proposed re- 

 striction is unreasonable. The Governor may safely be 

 trusted to appoint to the Commission men whose public 

 spirit, ability and experience commend them, Avithout 

 regard to the locality of their residence. 



Equally uncalled for and mistaken is the proposal to 

 make Albany the headquarters of the Commission. At 

 least two of the members of the codification committee 

 must have known that one of the most important branches 

 of the Commission's work has to do with the oyster 

 fisheries. More time must be given to this division than 

 to all others combined; the commercial importance trans- 

 cends those of others. To do this oyster work with any 

 degree of satisfaction, the office of the Commission must 

 be readily accessible to the oystermen; in New York it is 

 convenient; in Albany it would be out of reach. To 

 transfer the maps and charts of the oyster surveys to 

 Albany would not alone seriously hamper the business of 

 the office, but it would subject the oysterman to unjust 

 because unnecessary expense of time and money. 



SNAP SHOTS. 



THE Fly-fishers' Club, of London, is a social institu- 

 tion, the purposes of which are to bring together 

 gentlemen interested in angling, to afi'ord a means of 

 communication between them, and to provide a reading 

 room stocked with angling literature. The club was 

 established in 1884 and has steadily grown in member- 

 ship, until its roll now shows a list of 310. Once a year 

 the club assembles for its banquet, at which gather mem- 

 bers from town and country, and these occasions are 

 always most happy reunions. It has often been suggested 

 that New York might follow the example of London and 

 establish such an institution here, but no one has yet been 

 found to take the initiative. The nearest approach to the 

 Fly-fishers' Club in this country is the Massachusetts 

 Association, with headquarters at Boston, and a member- 

 ship rapidly extending throughout the State. 



At the last meeting of the Fly-fishers' Club Mr. E. B. 

 Marston, editor of the Fishing Gazette, referring to the 

 copyright bill now under consideration at Washington, 

 related an interesting little story about Mr. F. M. Hal- 

 ford's work on "floating Flies," It appears that when 

 the book came ou.t an American paper took it bodily and 

 reprinted the whole thing without ever saying by your 

 leave or thank you. Mr. Marston thereupon wrote to the 

 editor, who responded that the proceeding should be 

 taken by Mr. Halford as a compliment. This was per- 

 haps the same paper that appropriated Vero Shaw's 

 "Book of the Dog," and when taken to task for it related 

 that the author should feel highly delighted that the 

 editor had considered his work good enough to reprint. 



The Massachusetts law, authorizing towns and cities to 

 appoint special officers to destroy the English sparrow, 

 has resulted in nothing, since no town has done anything 

 in the matter. The Commissioners now recommend that 

 cities and towns be empowered to pay bounties on eggs 

 and dead sparrows. 



Is pigeon-shooting cruel or legitimate sport? That is a 

 question now under discussion in two States, and immi- 

 ent in others. In Maine the practice is forbidden, but , 



an effort is making to repeal the law. A petition sent to 

 the Legislature recites that an investigation of belfries 

 and other pigeon roosts in Lewiston and Auburn has dis- 

 closed the fact that numbers of pigeons have died from 

 cold and neglect; it would have been more humane, says 

 the petition, to have given these birds speedy death at 

 the trap. Moreover, it is urged, if the ubiquitous Yankee 

 boy were encouraged by the reward of the few nickels 

 for which he might sell the pigeons to the trap-shooters, 

 he would be encouraged to feed and shelter the birds. 

 Arrayed against the trap-shooters are numerous school 

 teachers and even the Sabbath schools of some of the 

 cities; and they are sending in counter petitions praying 

 that the anti-pigeon law may be retained, on the ground 

 that the practice is cruel and degrading. It is thought 

 that the repeal will be effected. 



A serious defect in the proposed Nev^^ York law is its 

 failure to protect rapacious birds. The Commission seem 

 to share the popular prejudice against hawks and owls, 

 and, in sections 78 and 80, encourage their destruction. 

 It is sufficiently well known to all who have given the 

 subject even slight attention that the Avork performed by 

 rapacious birds is beneficial rather than injurious, and in 

 another column a correspondent gives citations on the 

 point taken from an exhaustive inquiry carried on by the 

 Bureau of Economic Ornithology at Washington. It is 

 difficult to combat prejudice, yet if the codification of 

 the New York game laws is to mean anything, and the 

 changes made are to endure, these changes should repre- 

 sent the best knowledge that we now have on all points 

 which the statute touches on. To fail to j)rotect these 

 rapacious birds will h'e seriously to injure the farming 

 interests of this State, and the bill should be altered so 

 as to avoid this injury. 



Whatever may be the merits of the libel suit which has 

 just been brought by an Albany gentleman against indi- 

 vidual members of the American Kennel Club, the case 

 will excite lively interest among all who are connected 

 with that institution. The complaint, we understand, is 

 based upon the repeated publication in the Kennel Ga- 

 zette, the club's official organ, of the name of the plaintiff 

 in the list of the disqualified. Whether or not the dam- 

 ages asked for will be awarded, it is quite clear that 

 members of the A. K. C. will not reiish being made 

 defendants in libel suits. The simplest way to guard 

 against such unpleasant consequences is manifestly to 

 discontinue the obnoxious posting of names of disquali- 

 fied members. It should be quite. practical to conduct 

 the affairs of a kennel club without taxing the ah-eady 

 overburdened calendars of the courts. We hear that 

 several other suits are to follow. 



The rabbit war in New Zealand goes steadily on. Our 

 consul at Aukland reports that although there is scarcely 

 any perceptible diminution in the number of vermin, yet 

 the returns show the progress made in this respect, as 

 seen by the export of skins. During the past ten years 

 the total number of skins exported amounted to, in 

 round numbers, nearly 100,000,000, increasing from about 

 7,000,000 in 1880 to 11,343,778 in 1889. The value of last 

 year's sale of rabbit skins outside the colony amounted to 

 $480,195. 



At the meeting of the New York Fish Commissioners 

 held Feb. 13, there were 366 applications for trout fry, 

 which called in the aggregate for 33,165,075 fish, and there 

 were voted to the applicants throughout the State 3,100,000 

 brook trout, 3,500,000 brown trout and 3,310,000 lake trout. 

 There were reported as on hand 33,000,000 fry, all trout of 

 different species except 7,000,000 frost fish. The distri- 

 bution of nearly 8,000,000 fry in the waters of this State 

 cannot but have an important effect on the fishing. 



On first thought it might appear that the man who 

 wrote in our rifle columns the other day and signed him- 

 self as the "champion deaf-mute trick, snap-rifle and 

 wing-shot challenger of the world" was laying claim to 

 an empty honor. Mr. O'Connell assures us, however, that 

 among the 90,000 deaf mutes of the world are many 

 shooting experts, and he has repeatedly been called on to 

 defend his claims. But what an odd "championship" it 



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