A Weekly Journal of the Rod and Gun. 



Tkrms, §4 a Vicar. 10 C3ts. A Copy. I 

 Six Monios, S3. I 



NEW YORK, JANUARY 7, 1892. 



! VOL. XXXVIII.-No. 1. 



' No. 318 Bboadavay, New York 



COXTHNTS. 



Editorial. 



Our Boyhood Number. 

 TheNeW "Forest and Stream." 

 Mr. Blackford's Removal. 

 Doe and Fawns. 

 Snap Shots. 



In Boyhood Days. 



"Us Boys." 



Cleaning the Old Gun. 

 MyFhsf Repeater. 

 Trout Cunnii g. 

 The Big Trout I Lost. 

 Long Wash, tbe Fisherman. 

 Pennsylvania Days. 

 Remiuiscerc°s of aSiisp-Shot. 

 My First Deer Hunt. 

 Angling Ann»ls. 

 My First Shootine Lesson. 

 Some Episodes in the Life of a 



Very Bad Boy. 

 Was It "Bewitched?" 

 A Boy's Troubles. 



Natural History. 



Wildfowl at CohasFet. 



Game Bag and Gun. 



Chkagoand tbe West. 

 About, Coons. 



Sea and River Fishing. 



Trouting in the Cascades.— iv. 

 Channel Bass with Spots. 

 Angling Notes. 



Hints and Helps. 



Fishcuiture. 



New York's Fish Planting. 



The Kennel. 



Death of Mr. N. B. Thomas. 

 Pointer Club Special Award 



Protested. 

 Dog Stories. 



Antonio— Maid of Keut Heat. 

 The Glovpfsville Show. 

 Spaniels Used lor Field Sports. 

 Notes and Notions. 

 Great Danes. 

 Dog Chat. 

 Kennel Notes. 



Answers to Correspondents. 



Rifle Range and Gallery. 



"Forest and Stream" Tourna- 

 ment. 



Trap Shooting. 



Fulf ord Captures Harrisburg. 

 Chicago Traps. 

 Matches and Meetings. 

 Drivers and Twisters. 



Yachting. 



Seawanbaka Harbor. 

 Instruction in Naval Archi- 

 tecture. 



Canoeing. 



A Fisherman's Canoe Yawi. 

 Club Constitutions. 



Answers to Queries. 



For Prospectus and Advertising Rates see Page 21. 



MR. BLACKFORD'S REMOVAL. 



Gy OV. HILL signalized his going out of office by 

 J removing Fish Commissioner Eugene Gfc Black- 

 ford ; and to add to this arbitrary and ungracious act an 

 element of grotesqueness and ridiculousness, he named 

 for the place ex-Mayor David G. Hackney, of Fort 

 Plain. 



By tastes, training, attainments, full information, 

 ability, long service and well-known devotion to the 

 work of fishcuiture, Mr. Blackford was the best equipped 

 man for the place in tite State. Whatever fitness Mayor 

 Hackney may have for the office is purely a matter of 

 conjecture; he is known only as a politician. 



Gov. Hill's action, it is well understood, was political. 

 The Fish Commissioners have the appointment of fifteen 

 fish and game protectors; and strong efforts have been 

 made to convert the protective system into a part of the 

 political machine. The Commissioners have ignored 

 politics; they have been governed in their appointments 

 solely by an earnest desire to maintain an efficient ser- 

 vice. Their only purpose has been to protect the game 

 and the fish, and to increase the supply. As public spir- 

 ited officers, serving without pay, they have acknowl- 

 edged allegiance to neither Democrat nor Republican; and 

 they have never considered an employee's politics, nor 

 the political bearing of his employment in their service. 

 This independent attitude they have maintained in the 

 face of constant importunings by those in authority to 

 appoint, for political reasons, unworthy applicants. 



One well known case where this was done was the 

 Bradley affair, and it was presumably the one which pre- 

 cipitated the removal of Mr. Blackford. In 1890 Game 

 Protector Bradley, of Gloversville, was removed by the 

 Commissioners for what they considered abundantly 

 sufficient reasons. They dismissed the man because the 

 interests of the service demanded it. But Bradley, if an 

 inefficient game protector, had a certain influence as a 

 political henchman; he could control a few votes in his 

 district, and strenuous efforts were made to have him 

 put back. Comptroller Wemple was specially clamorous 

 for this, and Gov. Hill did not hesitate to exert his influ- 

 ence to secure the reinstatement. At length the Com- 

 mission yielded to the pressure; at a meeting of the 

 board, three being present, two votes were cast for the 

 reappointment of Bradley,Mr. Blackford voting against it. 



Still Mr. Comptroller Wemple was not satisfied. He 

 demanded that Mr. Blackford, as president of the board, 

 should withdraw his official notice of Bradley's dismissal, 

 in order that Bradley might receive pay from the State 

 for the two months during which he had been off the 

 force. This Mr. Blackford refused to do, as any honest 

 man would have refused. In the light of this bit of 

 history, it is not in the least strange that Mr. Blackford's 

 removal should now have followed, nor that there should 

 have been named for his place a man who is reputed to 

 be a political co-worker with Comptroller Wemple. 



This step— the summary ousting of a faithful, upright 

 and independent public servant from a position of trust, 

 to make the office and its incumbent a subservient 



factor — is an unmistakable and shameless declaration 

 that the fishcuiture interests of the State of New York 

 are to be sacrificed to political ends. We are to have not- 

 game protectors but ward heelers; the increase of the 

 food fish supply is to be subordinated to .the satisfying of 

 partisan greed. 



It is outrageous that an important economic depart- 

 ment of the public service, such as the Fish Commission 

 is, should not be absolutely exempt from the pestilent 

 interference of scheming mayors, and wire-pulling comp- 

 trollers, and intriguing governors; that a public trust 

 which demands for its most efficient conduct the un- 

 trammeled control of competent and conscientious 

 officials, should be at the mercy of vindictive men high 

 in office. There is no more earthly reason why President 

 Blackford, of the New York Fish Commission, should 

 act at the beck and call of party managers than tbere is 

 that President Blackford, of the People's Trust Co., 

 should be subject to political control. The result would 

 be as surely disastrous in the one case as in the other. 

 The handing over of the Fish Commission to the politi- 

 cians cannot but mean its deterioration and ruin. 



One consoling feature of the case is to be found in the 

 probability that in bis last official act, dictatorial and un- 

 worthy as it was. Gov. Hill over-reached himself. Mr. 

 Blackford was appointed by Gov. Bobinson, as a fifth 

 commissioner to represent Long Island in the Board. 

 The law provides that the commissioner must be a resi- 

 dent of Long Island. For this reason it appears quite 

 clear that Mr. Hackney cannot serve. And, beyond this, 

 it is by no means certain that Gov. Hill had the power to 

 remove Mr. Blackford. Whether legal or not, that re- 

 moval was a decided wrong to the taxpayers of the State , 

 and good citizens should not fail to have it righted. 



THE NEW '-FOREST AND STREAM,' 



THE Forest and Stream is issued to-day in its en- 

 larged size of thirty-two pages; is printed on a 

 better quality of paper and is of uniform color through- 

 out. Doubtless many will miss the green cover, with 

 the appearance of which they have so long been familiar, 

 and which has come to be regarded as a characteristic 

 feature, but we are confident that our readers will shortly 

 be reconciled to the change, for they will find that 

 though altered in dress their favorite journal is still the 

 same in heart; that it is conducted in the same spirit as 

 before; contends for the same principles; is marked by 

 the same good qualities (and defects— for a newspaper is 

 after all a human institution), and that, in short, it is 

 pretty much the same Forest and Stream as that which 

 has won so firm a place in the regard of growing hosts of 

 friends. 



It is the ambition of those who have the conduct of 

 this journal to make it in the future more truly than ever 

 before representative of the field sportsman of America; 

 its columns a record of sportsman's experience on land 

 and water, its pages a sportsman's forum for discussion 

 of all sides of questions of interest. To accomplish this, 

 we gratefully acknowledge dependence upon the con- 

 tinued cooperation, support and sympathy of those who 

 read the Forest and Stream and contribute to its col- 

 umns; for, after all is said, that is the best sportsman's 

 paper which most adequately reflects his life and voices 

 his opinions and sentiments. 



DOE AN r D FAWNS. 



^HE charming picture on another page exactly re- 

 -L produces a photograph of a family of wild mule 

 deer, taken by Mr. Fred Baker, who lives in Wyoming. 

 Some of our readers will recognize the characteristics of 

 the great central plateau in the sagebrush-covered hill 

 at the back and in the ravine, one of whose sides is 

 formed by hard baked rock, which weathers off with a 

 cubical fracture. To this sheltered spot the old doe and 

 her fawns have retired, and lying down in the hot sun- 

 shine, are sleepily spending the midday hours. Here, by 

 a piece of good fortune which might not come to a man 

 once in a lifetime, Mr. Baker discovered the deer, and 

 creeping up to the edge of the ravine f ocussed his camera 

 on them without disturbing their siesta. The result we 

 give to our readers. 



Certain of the more striking characteristics of the mule 

 deer (C'ariaeus macrotis) axe well shown in this picture, 

 and are especially worthy the attention of those of our 

 readers who are not familiar with the species. Perhaps 



the most striking of these are the extremely large ears 

 which give to this animal its proper English name, mule 

 deer, and its specific name macrotis (great-eared). These 

 are always extremely noticeable, whether the animal is 

 undisturbed, as in the picture, or is startled and has its 

 ears thrown forward, or is running away. Another 

 peculiarity is the white patch, which marks the rump of 

 the mule deer — as it does that of several other Western 

 ruminants, the elk, the antelope and the mountain sheep 

 — and the curious white rat-like tail with its black tip, 

 looking like a white paint brush which has been dipped 

 in a pot of black paint. This is well shown in the stand- 

 ing fawn. This black tip has led residents of the eoun* 

 try which the mule deer inhabits to call it "'blacktail" 

 deer, a misnomer, since that name belongs to another 

 species found only on tbe Pacific slope. 



The fipsh of the mule deer is excellent eating, f ar better 

 in the estimation of some people than that of the Virginia 

 deer; but we think a man would have to be pretty hun- 

 gry or quite without soul Avho would be willing to dis- 

 turb the charming family group which is shown in our 

 illustration. As we grow older we incline more and 

 more to the opinion that a camera is sometimes a more 

 satisfactory implement to hunt with than a gun. 



OUR ''BOYHOOD NUMBER," 

 | T is a charming collection of boyhood reminiscences 

 *- which we give to-day— a series of recollections by 

 contributors who have shown themselves to be yet young 

 in heart. So generous was the response to our note of 

 invitation that we have been favored with more material 

 than we could find room for in this issue, and a portion 

 of tbe contributions intended for to-day have of necessity 

 been deferred. 



The memory of one and another of those who have 

 contributed to this charming collection of boyhood re- 

 minscecces runs back to the days of the flint-lock gun. 

 Their reminiscences bridge over a period of marvelous 

 developements in firearms and the various appurtenances 

 of shooting and fishing. The advances in that time are 

 hardly realized : but just consider that to the boy of to- 

 day, the actual use of the flint-lock is but a tradition ; 

 in that weapon so full of possibilities in your early fancy, 

 silver-haired reader, he sees nothing but a museum relic, 

 as antiquated as Noah's ark. Will a like antiquarian in- 

 terest attach to the hammerless breechloader of 1893, 

 when the contributors of the Forest and Stream's Boy- 

 hood Number of 1950, shall relate their youthful expert ■ 

 en ce with that arm? 



Does the boy in this press-the-butcon age, with his 

 light-weight, double-barreled, breech-loading, shell-eject- 

 ing product of the gunsmith's art, and with cartridge 

 belt full of store-bought loaded cartridges, find with it 

 all the fun, which he knew, who trudged beneath his 

 ponderous flint-lock, and with laborious operation loaded 

 the arm — powder poured from cow's horn into palm, 

 the charge wadded with hornet's nest and rammed home 

 until the ramrod bounded up again? 



In those good old times, the gun once loaded was pre- 

 pared for whatever game might fall within range. The 

 same charge of powder and shot did for woodchuck or 

 partridge or rabbit or high- holder; it was equally pre- 

 pared and equally efficacious to annihilate a tom-tit ol- 

 ive quietus to a pig-raiding bear. Not so now; in this 

 more enlightened and finical age we must have a 

 separate and distinct load for every beast and bird, with 

 carefully weighed and counted and machine- wadded 

 loading with scientific variations for every month in the 

 season, and a change of formula every time the natural- 

 ists change a game bird's Latin name. 



Mr. W. Townsend's wildfowl illustrations have been 

 received with much favor. Their chief merit is truthful- 

 ness; the wild ducks pictured are the wild ducks that we 

 see from the blind. It is not an easy task to draw ac- 

 ceptable illustrations of hunting scenes and of wild life, 

 the average artist evolves them as the German professor 

 did his elephant— out of his head— and for that reason 

 it is refreshing to look upon such intelligent and true 

 work as that by Mr. Townsend. Others of the series will 

 be published from time to time. 



In our news department for 1893, with the increased 

 space at our command, and with an enlarged staff, the 

 service will be better than in any previous years. The 

 records of all events in the several fields will be full, 

 prompt and intelligent. 



