Forest and Stream. 



A Weekly Journal of the Rod and Gun. 



Tebms, U a Yeab. 10 Cts. a Copt. 1 

 Six Months, $2. f 



NEW YORK, APRIL 30, 1891. 



( VOL. XXXVI.-No. 15. 



I No. 318 Bhoadway, New Yobk. 



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Forest and Stream PxtbUsliliiK Oe. 

 No. 318 Bhoadway. New Yobk Citt. 



CONTENTS, 



Editoeial. 



Destruction of Seal Life. 

 The Codification BilL 

 A. K. C. Accounts. 

 Snap Shots. 



SpOETSMAN TotTRIST. 



Ducking in the Mountains. 

 A Story of the First Railway. 

 Olla Podrida. 

 Natttral History. 

 Wrens vs. Sparrows and Boys. 

 How Green Mountain Forests 

 Go. 



A Marine Reservation. 

 Game Bag aud Gun. 



Six Years Under Maine Game 

 Laws.— V. 



Game That is Always on Tap. 



The Bob Whites. 



Bores and Shooting Qualities. 



Ways of the RutTed Grouse. 

 Sea and River Fishing. 



April Trotit. 



The Monarch of the Pool. 

 On the North Shore.— I. 

 The Lemon Sole. 

 Angling Notes. 

 Chicago and the West. 



Sea and Rivbb Fishhtq. 



For Forest and Stream 

 Readers. 

 The Kennel. 



American Spaniel Club Judges 



Mastiffs. 



Oocker Spaniels at Chicago. 



Yred enburgh— Peshall. 



Beagle Club Meeting. 



Dog Chat. 



Kenuel Notes. 



Kennel Management. 

 RiFiiE AND Trap Shooting. 



Range and Gallery. 



The Revolver Championship. 



The Trap. 



Harrisburg Traps. 



Brooklyn Shooters. 



Professionals and Rounders. 

 Yachting. 



Work in the Yards. 



Yokohama Sailing Club. 



Names of Yachts. 

 Canoeing. 



Cruise of the Shenandoah C. C. 



Two New Canoes." 



The Zerega Sail Competition. 

 Answers to Correspondents. 



THE AMERICAN KENNEL CLUB ACCOUNTS. 

 '^^HE trial of the case of Mr, Chas. J, Peshall, who was 

 indicted for criminal libel of Alfred P. Vredenburgh, 

 has resulted in a verdict of acquittal. In other words, a 

 jury of business men have determined that it was not 

 libel for Mr. Peshall to state in the Forest ajjd Stream 

 of June If, 1890, that the accounts of the American Ken- 

 nel Club were "juggled." As a matter of fact, it happened 

 that the verdict turned directly upon the actual condi- 

 tion of the books as shown by an inspection in the jury 

 room. After discussion of the evidence, on the third 

 ballot the juiy stood, nine for acquittal and three for 

 conviction: and so firm were both sides after a further 

 consideration of the evidence that no other result than a 

 disagreement was thought possible. At this juncture 

 the A, K. C. Treasurer's book was sent for, and when the 

 three jurors who had stood out for conviction looked at 

 them there was no further argument; they concurred 

 with the rest that Mr. Peshall had not been guilty of 

 libel. 



The result of the famous Peshall case is far from pleas- 

 ing. Mr. Peshall, it is true, has every reason to feel 

 elated and to look for the congratulations of his friends, 

 and of others, who, knowing him (as we have known 

 him), have believed (as we have believed) in the perfect 

 sincerity of his contention. To know the man at all was 

 to be convinced that he had made no charges, the full 

 truth of which he did not believe; and the verdict will of 

 course be accepted as a substantial indorsement of his 

 charges. With this personal vindication he and his 

 friends may well be satisfied. 



When it is considered, however, what Mr, Peshall's 

 personal vindication means, at what a cost it has been 

 won, there is outside of his own sympathizers little reason 

 for rejoicing. Here was a man on trial for having ques- 

 tioned the accounts of a public club. He was not alone 

 on trial. The accounts were being tried. The verdict 

 tUToed on the aqtual Conditioii of the ^.Qcounts. The mm 



was acquitted. The acquittal is bound to carry with it in 

 the mind of the public, rightly or wrongly, discredit 

 of the accounts; and we submit that this is an end- 

 ing of the case much more deplorable than the con- 

 viction of any one man possibly could have been. 

 Had the jury found Mr. Peshall guilty, his friends 

 might possibly have claimed for him that such 

 verdict proved only that he had been intemperate 

 and criminally rash in his public charges; they might 

 still have contended for his honest intention and 

 his justifiable motives. At the most, looking at it ab- 

 stractly, such a result would have convicted an individual 

 only, and any personal hardship would — in public esti- 

 mation—have borne with it more than ample compensa- 

 tion in the vindication of the accounts— accounts with 

 which the kennel world is so nearly concerned. The 

 members of the local clubs constituting the American 

 Kennel Club surely have little reason to be satisfied that 

 Mr. Peshall has been vindicated at the expense of their 

 executive officers. 



There was no charge of stealing ; nowhere in all the 

 discussion of the case has there ever been any imputa- 

 tion that one single cent had been dishonestly appro- 

 priated. The charge was that certain transactions had 

 not been recorded as they should have been recorded: in 

 short, that the accounts had been "juggled." 



What are the facts about the financial management of 

 the American Kennel Club for the years 1888 and 

 1889? Do the Treasurer's books contain a correct 

 record of the transactions of that period? Was the 

 January 11th, 1889, balance of $1,228.28 made up of 

 money actually earned by the club and properly 

 belonging to it at that time? These would appear to be 

 questions easily answered by the club's ofiicers having 

 the books in their possession. They are questions, one 

 would suppose, which would have been answered at the 

 trial, and answered conclusively — beyond the shadow of 

 a dispute— by the men who caused the prosecution of Mr. 

 Peshall. On the demonstration of the absolute integrity 

 of these accounts, or at least of the correctness of the 

 manner of keeping those accounts, depended the verdict 

 last Friday, The demonstration was not afforded. The 

 verdict was against them. 



DESTRUCTION OF SEAL LIFE. 



A S was to be expected, the announcement made last 

 week by the Forest and Stream of the project to 

 establish marine reservations in the Pacific Ocean, which 

 should be refuges for certain species of the larger aquatic 

 mammals which resort to the land for rest and breeding, 

 has attracted wide attention and tnet with general ap- 

 proval. Every day thinking men are coming to realize 

 more and more that it is worth while, now, before it is 

 too late, to try to save from utter extinction the wild crea- 

 tures native to our continent. These wild animals are a 

 part of nature; and nature, uninterf ered with, cannot exist 

 among our people— has no place in our scheme of civi- 

 zation. To-day even the most sternly practical men 

 regret the extermination of the buffalo, and we have 

 heard those who were among the most successful of the 

 old-time buffalo skinners express profound sorrow at the 

 part they took in that miserable butchery. 



The slaughter of seals, sea lions, sea elephants and wal- 

 ruses has been going on for more than a hundred years, 

 and these animals have been destroyed in numbers which 

 really cannot be computed. No one who is not familiar 

 with the literature of the subject, can have any concep- 

 tion of the vast numbers of these creatures which have 

 been slain since the trade in their skins and oil first be- 

 gan. It has been a war of extermination, and one 

 species — the northern sea elephant — has already suc- 

 cumbed to this continual pursuit, and has no doubt 

 passed out of existence. 



The history of sealing tells the story of the rapid 

 diminution of other species. The fur seal, for example, 

 used to be taken in paying numbers on both coasts of 

 South America, and on many outlying islands in the 

 Atlantic, the Pacific and the Antarctic oceans, as well as 

 on the coasts of Australia and New Zealand; but to-day 

 those shores no longer resound with the hoarse barking 

 of their crowding multitudes, and the only profitable fur 

 seal fisheries are on those islands of the North Pacific 

 where the seals have been protected for many years, and 

 where they are now, we are told, rapidly diminishing in 

 numbers. 



The walrus, while it inLabited aM area much more lim- 



ited, and was probably never anything like so numerous 

 as the fur seal, has yet been slaughtered in appalling 

 numbers, for we have records of cases where one ship's 

 company destroyed eight or nine hundred of these great 

 beasts at a single killing. Mr, Lament mentions such 

 occurrences, and adds that in one case, when he visited 

 the spot six years afterward, "the smell of the island was 

 perceptible at several miles' distance." 



The destruction of the Phoeidce in the North Atlantic 

 is scarcely less than of the species already mentioned, 

 and each year very many thousands of them are slaugh- 

 tered, as many as 35,000 having been taken in one spring 

 by a single vessel. The season for this hunting lasts, 

 however, only about two months. 



It is evident that these marine carnivora are peculiarly 

 subject to destruction by man, and that if they are to be 

 preserved it must be done at once, and by the establish- 

 ment of just such places of refuge as outlined in Forest 

 and Stream last week. That the Secretary of the Inter- 

 rior should act in this matter will be acknowledged by 

 all, and we have good reasons for believing that the time 

 is not far off when these marine reservations will be duly 

 established by law. 



Elsewhere we print letters from eminent naturalists, 

 whose intimate knowledge of one phase or other of the 

 subject in hand, entitles their opinions to the greatest 

 weight. Their letters are prompted by their interest on 

 the subject — an interest which is shared by all who have 

 given the subject any thought — and solely by a desire 

 for the public good. 



THE CODIFICATION BILL. 

 \ POLITICAL wrangle between the Senate and the 

 Governor of the State of New York has resulted 

 in a deadlock, which blocks the wheels of legislation and 



will apparently prevent the passage of any more bills dur- 

 ing this session of the Legislature, which is now almost at 

 an end. Among the bills which will fail to be acted upon 

 is that for codifying the New York game and fish laws — a 

 measure which all sportsmen in this State hoped might 

 pass. The failure of this bill is deplorable, but it is not 

 difficult to discover the reasons which postponed action 

 on it until it is now too late to hope for its passage. 



The commission appointed by the Governor to codify 

 the game laws did not confine itself closely to the work 

 for which it was established, which was "to revise and 

 codify the laws of this State for the protection and pre- 

 servation of fish and shellfish and of birds and quad- 

 rupeds." It went outside of this defined and limited 

 work, and attempted to legislate out of office the present 

 Fish Commission. By this action it drew upon the bill as 

 originally submitted the hostility of all the Fish Commis- 

 sioners, who naturally objected to the slur which was 

 thus cast upon them and upon their work. The time 

 taken up in hearings before the game law committee, 

 which should result in eliminating this provision of the 

 bill, caused the delay which has led to the failure of 

 the measure. 



If the codification commission had confined their 

 labors to the game and fish laws and to nothing else, their 

 bill, with some minor modifications, would no doubt be 

 to-day the law of the State. 



The laws on our statute books with regard to fish and 

 game are a disgrace to the State and it is high time that 

 they should be changed for the better. Next year an or- 

 ganized effort should be made to put through the Legis- 

 lature a bill, which shall simplify and improve them. 



SNAP SHOTS. 

 \ CORRESPONDENT writes: "I leave home to-day 

 for my thirty-ninth annual spring trip to the dear old 

 Adirondack woods and waters." Our correspondent "Are- 

 far" asked, the other day, what old men who had never 

 gone fishing had in memory to amuse themselves with. 

 Surely our friend of the thu-ty-nine annual fishing trips 

 to the Adirondacks — if he shall ever confess to old age- 

 will have a rich store of delightful reminiscences. 



The Forest and Stream notes with pleasure that it is 

 to have for neighbors Messrs, Hartley & Graham, who 

 are about to remove from their old stand in Maiden Lane 

 to Nos. 313-315 Broadway, just across the street. The 

 vicinity of this office is every year coming to be more 

 and more a center for the sportsmen's goods trade: ever 

 since we came here, of course, it has been the center 

 from which has gone out the best of sportsman's litera' 

 tm-e. 



