Forest and Stream 



A W eekly Journal of the Rod and Gun. 



Terms, $4 a Yeab. 10 Cts. a Copy. I 

 Six Months, $2. ( 



NEW YORK, JUNE 30, 1892. 



I VOL. XXXVIII.— No. 26. 

 I No. 31S Broadway, New York. 



CONTENTS. 



Editorial. 



Humble Acquaintances.— n. 

 TrouserB Hooks and Pulls. 

 Snap Shots. 



The Sportsman Tourist. 



Camps of the Kingfishers,— ti. 

 A Sportsman's Dilemma. 



Natural History. 



Pets in Featheis and Furs. 

 Rattlesnakes and Their Ways. 

 Eutopia. 



'"Podgers's" Commentaries. 

 Game Bag and Gun. 



Is th» Snipe a Waterfowl? 

 Ed. Wilson. 



"Sport" in France.— hi. 

 New York Protectors. 

 That "Game Pocket." 

 Canadian Duty on Guns and 

 Rods. 



Camp-Fire Flickerings. 

 Sea and River Fishing. 



"Oh. Come With Me." 

 Fishing Abuse on the Dela- 

 ware. 

 Ansling Notes. 



Deep Lake Fish and Game 

 Club. 



Trout of the "Soo." 



Fishing Off Pelee Island . 



Three Bishops and a Judge, 



Ve mont Fishing. 



Potomac Notes. 



Fly-Pisbicg in New Bruns- 

 wick. 



Chicago and the West. 

 Canadian Angling Notes. 

 New Kngland Anglers 

 Golden Trout of Mt. Whitney. 

 Pike Perch in New Hampshire 

 A Kentucky Fish Preserve. 



Fishcuiture. 



Rearing Fish for Distribution. 



The Kennel. 



The Beagle Standard. 



Any Case and "Mount Royal." 



Hamilton and Rochester Date 



Clash. 

 Dogmatics of Dogdom. 

 Flaps from the Beaver's Tail. 

 Points and Flushes. 

 Dog Chat. 

 Kennel Notes. 



Answers to Correspondents. 

 Canoeing. 

 Toronto C.C. Paddling Trophy 

 The A. C. A. M«et. 

 The W. C. A. Meet. 

 A. C. A. Prize Flags. 

 Fraacis J. Baxter. 

 News Notes. 



Yachting. 



Beverly Y. C. Special Regatta. 

 An International Tropuy on 



the Lakes. 

 Conqueror vs. Collector. 

 The Peerless— Boyd Collision. 

 June Rfgattas. 

 News Notes. 



Rifle Range and Gallery. 



Revolver Championship. 

 New Jersey Rifle Shooting. 



Trap Shooting. 



Waverly (la.) Tournament. 

 In the Shenandoah Valley. 

 Great Shoo'ing in Michigan. 

 Drivers and Twisters. 

 Matches and Meetings. 



Answers to Queries. 



For Prospectus and Advertising Rates see Page 627. 



TROUSERS HOOKS AND PULLS. 

 When Jefferson Davis was Secretary of War, and 

 Bhowing himself to be a decided martinet, a witty lieu- 

 tenant once had the audacity to suggest that there should 

 be added to the equipment of every soldier a stout, long- 

 shanked hook, made fast to the seat of his trousers. This 

 hook, it was pointed out, might be used in camp for a 

 stool, or the coffee-pot might be suspended from it while 

 the wearer stood with his back to the fire; and on forag- 

 ing expeditions the hook might be employed for "toting" 

 chickens and ducks and rabbits. But the chief value of 

 the hook, its inventor argued, would be as a discour- 

 ager of recklessness. When a foolhardy soldier dashed 

 ahead into the face of the enemy his cooler comrades 

 could yank him by a rope attached to the hook, back out 

 of danger and into the ranks again. The War Depart- 

 ment records do not show that the lieutenant's device 

 was ever adopted; but there is some color for believing 

 that the trousers hook as a discourager of precipitancy 

 has a place in modern life; and its effectiveness when at- 

 tached to the pantaloons of district attorneys is presuma- 

 bly well understood by restaurant purveyors of unlawful 

 game birds. 



The trousers hook theory explains beautifully some of 

 the earlier phases of the notorious Delmonico woodcock 

 case. 



In July of 1890 Game Protector Kidd secured evidence 

 that Delmonico's restaurant, on Fifth avenue, New York, 

 was serving woodcock, contrary to the game law; and he 

 brought suit against the'concern in Westchester county. 

 District Attorney Piatt, of Westchester, was for a prompt, 

 immediate, uncompromising prosecution; never was sol- 

 dier on the field of battle more eager to fly into the face 

 of the enemy. But somebody pulled District Attorney 

 Piatt's hook, and all of a sudden he fell back. His 

 assistant, Mr. Verplank, was then for action; but his 

 hook too waB pulled; and he collapsed. Next came 

 Judge Nelson H. Baker, engaged as outside counsel. 

 Judge Baker outdid Mr. Piatt in alacrity and impatience, 

 and in telling what he was going to do, and how soon he 

 was going to do it. He set out instanter to storm the 

 breastworks. Somebody pulled his trousers hook. Back 

 he tumbled. 



Protector Kidd brought the case down to New York 

 and handed it over to District Attorney Nicoll. In Mr. 

 Nicoll the protector found at last a district attorney un- 

 hampered by a trousers hook. Time has demonstrated 

 that when he is charged with the prosecution of a 

 wealthy and fashionable restaurant proprietor for vio- 

 lating the game laws the District Attorney of New York 

 requires no trousers hook attachment to discourage pre- 

 cipitancy of prosecution. Mr. Nicoll is no rattle-brained 

 recruit, rushing headlong on to the bayonets of the foe. 

 He does not get excited just because a game protector 



has a clear case; he does not, as did Messrs. Piatt and 

 Baker, declaim for immediate action, When he gets 

 such a case against Delmonico for July woodcock, he 

 just puts the papers away in a pigeon-hole, permits him- 

 self to be annoyed as little as possible by the importuni- 

 ties of the protector, and at the expiration of eleven 

 months tells us that he hopes to have the case disposed 

 of "in a few weeks." When the few weeks have rolled 

 away he loses track of the calendar, and reposes in blissful 

 ignorance as to when the case may be called by the 

 court. Manifestly no trousers hooks are necessary to re- 

 strain the ardor of an in-a-few-weeks and don't-know- 

 when district attorney. 



Two years have elapsed since this Delmonico case was 

 brought by Protector Kidd. On one flimsy pretext and 

 another it has been postponed by the officials whose duty 

 it is to enforce the laws without favor. The conduct of 

 this matter by District Attorney Nicoll has been scandal- 

 ous. There is no prospect that Delmonico will be tried 

 for months to come. 



We have heard much of late about the "pull" which 

 the law breakers of this city are reputed to have with the 

 public officers who are charged with enforcing the laws. 

 When an offender, whose guilt is unquestioned, goes 

 unpunished, the customary explanation is that he has a 

 "pull" with those whose business it is to see to his pun- 

 ishment. A "pull" then must be a very desirable essen- 

 tial in the outfit of a restaurant where illicit game is 

 served; and some folks might assume that Delmonico 

 would be benefitted by a "pull" with District Attorney 

 Nicoll. But if without a "pull" Delmonico can violate 

 the game laws and go unpunished, as in this case, what 

 in the world would he want of a "pull" if he could 

 have it? 



HUMBLE ACQUAINTANCES —II. 

 As the woodchuck sleeps away the bitterness of cold, 

 so in his narrower chamber sleeps the chipmunk, happy 

 little hermit, lover of the sun, mate of the song sparrow 

 and the butterflies, what a goodly and hopeful token of 

 the earth's renewed life is be, verifying the promises of 

 his own chalices, the squirrel cup3, set in the warmest 

 corners of the woodside, with libations of dew and 

 shower drops, of the bluebird's carol, the sparrow's song 

 of spring. 



Now he comes forth from his long night into the full- 

 ness of sunlit day, to proclaim his awakening to his sum- 

 mer comrades, a gay recluse, clad all in the motley, a 

 jester, maybe, yet no fool. 



His voice, for all its monotony, is inspiring of gladness 

 and contentment, whether he utters his thin, sharp chip 

 or full-mouthed cluck or laughs a chittering mockery as 

 he scurries in to his narrow door. 



He winds along his crooked pathway of the fence rails 

 and forages for half-forgotten nuts in the familiar 

 grounds, brown with strewn leaves or dun with dead 

 grass. Sometimes he ventures to the top rail and climbs 

 to a giddy 10ft. height on a tree, whence he looks abroad, 

 wondering on the wide expanse of an acre. 



Music hath charms for him and you may entrance him 

 with a softly whistled tune and entice him to frolic with 

 a herds-grass head gently moved before him. 



When the fairies have made the white curd of mallow's 

 blossoms into cheeses for the children and the chipmunk, 

 it is a pretty sight to see him gathering his share, handily 

 and toothily stripping off the green covers,filling his cheek 

 pouches with the dainty disks and scampering away to 

 his cellar with his ungrudged portion. Alack the day, 

 when the sweets of the sprouting corn tempt him to turn 

 rogue, for then he becomes a banned outlaw and the sud- 

 den thunder of the gun knolls his tragic fate. He keeps 

 well the secret of constructing his cunning house, with- 

 out a show of heaped or scattered soil at its entrance. 

 Bearing himself honestly, and escaping his enemies, the 

 cat, the hawk and the boy, he lives a long day of happy 

 inoffensive life. Then when the filmy curtain of the 

 Indian summer falls upon the year, he bids us a long 

 good night. 



We have printed, several times, the conditions of the 

 photography competition, and yet it seems they are not 

 clearly understood by every one, for we have had many 

 letters asking whether more than one picture could be 

 submitted by an individual. A careful reading of our an- 

 nouncement will show that there is no limit to the num- 

 ber of pictures which may be sent in by a single person. 



SNAP SHOTS. 

 A Correspondent, who is now in the Northwest, 

 mentions incidentally that a prominent member of the 

 Pickwick Club of New Orleans is authority for the state- 

 ment that he found in September, 1891, Indians and 

 French Canadians in the Nepigon country with 100 bar- 

 rels (!) of albumen, obtained from the eggs of wildfowl, 

 gathered for shipment to the Eastman Company, pho- 

 tographers, of Rochester, N. Y. We hope, however, that 

 this is a mistake. If such a traffic is in order, where will 

 the birds be in a year or two hence? 



We have received from Mr. J. Ridler a fine specimen 

 of the small-mouthed black bass of Lake Ida, Alexandria, 

 Minn., where it is commonly called "the gray or Oswego 

 bass." The fish is 16in. long and 4^in. deep. Owing to 

 the careful method of packing it came through in perfect 

 condition. If this is the same fish as the small-mouthed, 

 red-eyed gray bass of our correspondent Mr. Mershon, he 

 may rest assured that it does not differ at all from the 

 small-mouthed bass of the East. We shall know more 

 about the subject when Mr. Cristadoro's specimen, re- 

 ferred to in our columns last week, arrives from Lake 

 Ida. 



The promise of a boneless shad, to be evolved through 

 experiments by the TJ. S. Fish Commission with a shad, 

 a flounder and a jellyfish, it seems almost needless to say, 

 was never intended to deceive the intelligent reader. 

 The Fish Commission has no employe named D. El burke 

 Crawford; it has never attempted the introduction of a 

 jellyfish from Japan nor contemplated the impossible 

 task of crossing a back-boned animal with an inverte- 

 brate. As well might one attempt to hybridize a goose 

 and a butterfly or a monkey and a clam. For the pres- 

 ent we must accept the shad, bones and all, or adopt Sen- 

 ator Vance's fish-eating machine described in our col- 

 umns Jan. 21, 1892; and even this will prove dangerous 

 for a left-handed person. 



History repeats itself. The game dealers of this city 

 held a meeting the other day to provide for making a 

 test case of the suit against a refrigerating concern for 

 having in possession game out of season, and the mem- 

 bers of the dealers' association expressed an opinion that 

 the law forbidding possession and sale of game killed in 

 other States was unconstitutional. A meeting of like 

 character, with expressions of substantially the same 

 tenor, was held by the game dealers in this city on Jan. 

 3, 1859. It was then pointed out with force that the 

 game laws were an infringement of constitutional 

 rights, and could not stand a test of the courts. They 

 have now stood that test for forty years, however, and 

 there is no reason to think that they will not stand it for 

 forty years to come. 



The permanent Board of Fish and Game Commission- 

 ers to which is given charge of the fish and game inter- 

 ests of the Province of Ontario, consists of Dr. George 

 McCallum, President; A. D. Stewart, Hamilton, Secre- 

 tary; J. H. Wilmott, Beaumaris, Muskoka; W. B. Wells, 

 Chatham; H. P. D wight, Toronto; W. G. Parish, Athens, 

 county Leeds. The intrusting of these interests to 

 such a commission is full of promise that they will be 

 well taken care of. One by one the States and Prov- 

 inces of this continent are coming to recognize 

 that the natural resources of the fields and forests and 

 waters are too valuable to be left to shift for themselves 

 or to be cared for in a half-hearted way at helter-skelter. 



The Jekyl Island Club has abandoned its pheasant 

 breeding enterprise on its preserves on Jekyl Island, Ga. 

 The game bred and multiplied and increased amazingly, 

 but could not withstand the vermin. The wild hogs, the 

 snakes, the coons, the minks, the fleas, the ticks, the red 

 bugs and the thousand and one other pests have proved 

 too much for the birds; and Jekyl Island pheasants are 

 things of the past. It is reported that the club will con- 

 fine its efforts to stocking the island with quail. The 

 deer supply is constant, for while no hounding is per- 

 mitted on the island, it is practiced in the neighborhood, 

 and the deer, fleeing from the dogs, swim over to Jekyl. 



We publish to-day the first one of a series of reproduc- 

 tions from photographs sent in for the Forest and 

 Stream Amateur Photography Competition. From time 

 to time others will be selected for illustration. 



