Forest and Stream 



A Weekly Journal of the Rod and Gun. 



Tkrms, $4 A Year. 10 (Sts. a Copy. I 

 Six Months, $2. ) 



NEW YORK, APRIL 14, 1892. 



) VOL. XXXVIII -No. 15. 

 I No. 318 Broadway, New York. 



CONTENTS. 



Editorial. 



April Days. 



Ontario Fish and Game In- 

 terests. 

 Snap Shots. 



The Sportsman Tourist. 



Stories of the Ozar>s.— in. 

 An Experience at Vermillion 

 Lake. 



The Abandoned Farms. 

 The Mortgaged Farm. 



Natural History. 



Taming Hummingbirds. 

 Game Bag and Gun. 



Hell Gate or Deer Lick'/ 

 A Strange Gun Disorder. 

 In the Snow. 



Wild Boars for the Adiron- 



dacks. 

 In the Granite State. 

 Chicago and the West. 

 Young Woodcock in March. 

 The Vermont League. 

 Brant at Monomoy. 



Sea and River Fishing. 



The Canadian Sa)mo7i Rivers. 

 Fishing at the World's Fair. 

 Angling Notes from Portland. 

 "With Fly-Rod and Camera." 

 Chicago and the West. 

 Boston Anglers. 

 Big Tront at. Cast alia. 



Fishculture. 



Fishway Construction. 

 The Kennel. 

 Boston Dog Show. 

 Points and Flushes. 

 National Beagle Club. 

 "Spectroscopic" Judging. 

 L T . S. Field Trial Club. 

 Dog Chat. 



Answers to Correspondents. 



Canoeing. 



The A. C. A. Flag. 

 Bow-Facing Oars. 

 News Not* s. 

 Yachting. 



Eastern Y. C. Special Race. 

 Improvements in the Fishing 

 Fleet. 



Polar Planimeter and Integra- 

 tor. 



Yachting at Belleville. 

 Boston Mosquito Fleet. 

 Alborak and Harpoon. 

 News Notes. 



Rifle Range and Gallery. 



New Jersey Rifle Shooting. 

 "Forest and Stream" Tourna- 

 ment. 



Trap Shooting. 



Drivers and Twislers. 

 Matches and Meetings. 



Answers to Queries. 



For Prospectus and Advertising Rates see Page 364. 



Any person who cannot find the "Forest and 

 Stream" for sale at any news stand in the coun- 

 try, is requested to report the fact, with location 

 of stand and name of dealer, to the Forest and 

 Stream Pub. Co., 318 Broadway, New York. 



ONTARIO FISH AND GAME INTERESTS. 

 HPHE Province of Ontario has gone about the revision 

 of its game statutes in a very sensible and syste- 

 matic way, and one which cannot fail of good results. 

 In 1890 a commission was appointed to investigate the 

 game and fish supply and to recommend necessary 

 changes in the laws for its preservation. Of this com- 

 mission Dr. A. G. McCallum was made chairman and 

 Mr. A. D. Stewart secretary, and these gentlemen have 

 done their work with a degree of interest, devotion, pub- 

 lic spirit and efficiency worthy of recognition and com- 

 mendation. 



The special subjects of inquiry were (1) as to the advis- 

 ability of dividing the Province into districts, with close 

 seasons for the respective divisions; (2) as to the deer 

 supply and suggestions of a practical nature for more 

 effective protection of that game; (3) the game laws of 

 the neigboring States with reference to their bearing on 

 the game of Ontario. The commission was empowered 

 to summon witnesses, and to take testimony under oath 

 or by declaration. A comprehensive series of printed 

 questions was prepared, the design being to elicit the full- 

 est possible information from all persons fitted to supply 

 it, and to secure abundant material on which to base 

 suggestions for legislation. 



The Commission gave nineteen public hearings in as 

 many different towns, and took down a voluminous store 

 of testimony. This was supplemented with the printed 

 question blanks, which were answered by 650 witnesses 

 as to deer, 508 as to fish, 487 as to birds; general questions 

 by 600, and the inquiries as to other animals than deer, 

 caribou and moose by 576. A most gratifying interest in 

 the inquiry was manifested in all portions of the Province; 

 and while some of the responses were manifestly dic- 

 tated by selfish motives and were therefore rightly 

 counted as valueless, and while others came from im- 

 provident pessimists who declared that there was little 

 game left now and it might as well be made the most of 

 while it lasted, the true sportsmen of the Province 

 have uniformly demonstrated their readiness to sink all 

 smaller considerations of present and personal profit in a 

 desire to insure the greatest permanent good to the great- 

 est number. 



The results of the inquiry are embodied in the pre- 

 liminary report to which we devote several columns to- 

 day. Thi3 report does not show a gratifying condition of 

 things. From all sides, say the Commission, has come 

 "the same sickening tale of merciless, ruthless and re- 

 morseless slaughter;" and the work now undertaken 

 should have been done long ago. The recommendations 

 of new laws are such as, it is hoped, may provide the 

 remedies. In compliance with those suggestions, a bill 

 introduced into the Legislative Assembly, and we are in- 



formed, enacted into a law, protects moose, elk and 

 reindeer to Oct. 15, 1895; makes the deer close season 

 Nov. 15 to Oct. 15 following; permits hounding only 

 from Nov. 1 to Nov. 15: limits one person to two 

 deer in a seasou, and protects does and fawns at all 

 times; protects grouse, pheasants, partridge, woodcock, 

 snipe, plover, ducks, hares, rabbits and squirrels from 

 Dec. 15 to Sept. 15 following; quail and wild turkey from 

 Dec. 15 to Oct. 15; swans and geese from May 1 to Sept. 

 15. "Wild turkeys may not be killed before 1897. The 

 sale of quail, snipe, wild turkey, woodcock and partridge 

 is forbidden for three years. Non-residents of Ontario 

 or Quebec must take out a $25 license. A board of five 

 Fish and Game Commissioners is provided, with game 

 and fish wardens. 



APRIL DAYS. 



A T last there is full and complete assurance of spring, 

 in spite of the baldness of the woods, the barren- 

 ness of the fields, bleak with sodden furrows of last year's 

 plowing, or pallidly tawny with bleached grass and un- 

 tidy with the jetsam of winter storms, and the wide 

 strewn litter of farms in months of foddering and wood- 

 hauling. 



There is full assurance of spring in such incongruities 

 as a phebe aperch on a brown mullein stalk in the midst 

 of grimy snow banks, and therefrom swooping in airy 

 loops of flight upon the flies that buzz across this be- 

 grimed remnant of winter's ermine, and of squirrel cups 

 flaunting bloom and fragrance in the face of an ice cas- 

 cade that with all its glitter gone hangs in dull white- 

 ness down the ledges, greening the moss with the moist- 

 ure of its wasting sheet of pearl. 



The woodchuck and chipmunk have got on top of the 

 world again. You hear the half querulous, half chuck- 

 ling whistle of the one, the full-mouthed persistent cluck 

 of the other, voicing recognition of the season. 



The song of the brooks has abated something of its first 

 triumphant swell, and is often overborne now by the 

 jubilant chorus of the birds, the jangled, liquid gurgle 

 and raucous grating of the blackbirds, the robin's joyous 

 song with its frequent breaks, as if the thronging notes 

 outran utterance, the too brief sweetness of the meadow- 

 lark's whistle, the bluebird's carol, the cheery call of the 

 phebe, the trill of the song sparrow, and above them all 

 the triumph of the hawk in its regained possessions of 

 northern sky and earth. 



The woods throb with the muffled beat of the par- 

 tridge's drum and the sharp tattoo of the woodpecker, 

 and are filled again with the sounds of insect life, the 

 spasmodic hum of Hies, the droning monotone of bees 

 busy among the catkins and squirrel cups, and you may 

 see a butterfly wavering among the gray trees soon come 

 to the end of his life, brief at its longest, drowned in the 

 seductive sweets of a sap bucket. 



The squirrels are chattering over the wine of the maple 

 branches they have broached, in merrier mood than the 

 hare, who limps over the matted leaves in tberaggedness 

 of shifting raiment, fitting himself to a new inconspicu- 

 ousness. 



pond and lake should be restocked with the fish native to 

 the State, and they should be protected by law against all 

 unsportsmanlike fish traps, and in the breeding season 

 against everybody. With so good a beginning the Asso- 

 ciation should be encouraged to co-operate with the Fish 

 Commissions with greater zeal than ever. What has 

 been done demonstrates the possibility of making Penn- 

 sylvania waters to swarm with fish again, and what is 

 possible in this direction should be done." 



car Adirondack 



SNAP SHOTS. 

 'T^HE New York Fish Commission 



rolled into Kingston, April 5, with brook trout fry 

 for the streams in Delaware and Rockland counties. For 

 the region around Stamford and other localities on the 

 line 75,000 fry were sent up the Ulster & Delaware R. R. 

 Elias Orser met the car at Kingston and received 30,000 

 for brooks in Rockland county. The distribution of trout 

 will be much more rapidly and safely done than by the 

 old messenger shipments, and when the Commissioners 

 fall into line with the modern system of distributing 

 yearlings instead of baby trout, blobs and darters will 

 grow leaner and there will be more big trout for those 

 who go a-lishing. 



The New York game bill has been reported and will 

 probably be discussed by the Senate this week. It has 

 been badly mangled in committee. The woodcock season 

 exception has been restored so that the opening date will 

 be Aug. 1 instead of Sept. 1 in counties of Jefferson, 

 Oswego, Lewis, St. Lawrence, Warren, Fulton, Herkimer 

 and Saratoga. The counties of Onondaga, Wayne, Oneida, 

 Cayuga, Wyoming, Genesee, Niagara and Monroe are 

 exempted from the snipe law. The deer hounding sea- 

 son has been extended ten days, from Sept. 10- 

 Oct. 11 to Sept. 10-Oct. 21. Deer are protected five 

 years in Ulster, Greene, Sullivan and Delaware counties. 

 The counties in which quail are protected for five years 

 now comprise Genesee, Wyoming, Orleans, Livingston, 

 Monroe, Cayuga, Seneca, Wayne, Tompkins. Tioga, 

 Onondaga, Ontario, Steuben and Cortland. The close 

 season on wild ducks is made May 1 to Sept. 1 (instead of 

 April 1 to Sept. 1); boat shooting is permitted in Great 

 Sodus Bay. The opening date on Long Island is Nov. 1 

 (instead of 10) for woodcock, grouse, hares, rabbits and 

 squirrels. In its present form the bill does not embody 

 the sentiments of the sportsmen of New York as expressed 

 at the Syracuse convention. 



RESULTS OF PROTECTION. 



^HE recent reunion of the Pennsylvania Fish Protec- 

 tive Association, says the Philadelphia Times, 

 furnished the occasion for a statement of the work of 

 the State Fish Commission, which must be gratifying to 

 every citizen, and which more than justifies the creation 

 of the Commission and the appropriation of liberal sums 

 for its maintenance. The restocking of inland lakes and 

 streams with choice food fishes, the passage and enforce- 

 ment of laws to protect them in the spawning seasons, 

 and the removal of fish baskets and other traps that have 

 for years depleted the rivers and have destroyed the 

 young fish in countless numbers, have resulted in a rich 

 fishery harvest for the people of this Commonwealth. 

 The combined efforts of the U. S. Fish Commission with 

 that of the State has completely restored the shad fishery 

 of the Delaware. While in 1881 the value of the shad 

 taken in that river was but $80,000, in 1891 it was 

 $700,000. 



The Times goes on to say that "Gratifying as the results 

 of the work of the State and Federal Fish Commissions 

 have been, the science of artificial fish propagation is 

 but in its infancy. Some means should be found for re- 

 storing the shad fishery of the Susquehanna, once the 

 most prolific shad stream in the State. Every stream, 



There are sportsmen in Rochester so firmly set against 

 spring shooting that they are coming out in print in 

 criticism of President Harrison and others high in office 

 who practice spring shooting, while thousands of sports- 

 men voluntarily abstain, under conviction that immunity 

 at this season is absolutely essential to saving the parent 

 stock. Comment of like character comes from Canada. 

 Dr. Malloch, of Hamilton, Ont., tells us that the good 

 results of spring protection are so manifest, in those 

 localities where it has been most faithfully tested, that 

 wildfowl shooters are firmly convinced of its substantial 

 benefits, as shown by the greatly increased numbers of 

 fowl which return in the autumn. The spring shooting 

 question, experience shows, may be summed up in these 

 few words: Shall we have an uncertain but surely less- 

 ening supply of game in spring and fall, or an abundant 

 and certain supply in fall only? 



At the meeting of the New York Association for the 

 Protection of Game, last Monday, the treasurer reported 

 that a restaurant keeper named Proctor had paid a fine of 

 $125 for unlawful sale of game, and the Hotel Bartholdi 

 Company a fine of $225 for a like offense, neither of them 

 standing suit. If these concerns enjoyed the same sort 

 of a pull that gives Delmonico protection, probably they 

 would not have bothered to settle up for breaking tbjB 

 game laws. If Delmonico's is to serve its guests forbid- 

 den woodcock in July, why would it not be a sensible 

 move to incorporate into the game law a specific exemp- 

 tion in favor of the Fifth avenue restaurant? Then pec 

 pie would understand it and cease blaming District At- 

 torney Nicoll for failing to prosecute. 



There is now before Congress a bill to prohibit news- 

 paper publication of a certain class of disgustirg medical 

 quack advertisements now so common. Such a law would 

 have no bearing on the Fobest axd Stkeam-; its adver- 

 tising columns are as pure as snow. 



