Forest and Stream 



A Weekly Journal of the Rod and Gun. 



Terms, S4 a Tbab, 10 Cts. a Cottt. 1 

 Six Months, $3. I 



NEW YORK, DECEMBER 10, 1891. 



J VOL. XXXVII.-No. 21. 



I No. 318 Broadway, New York. 



COKTENTS. 



Edi toiial. 



Forest and Stream in 1893. 



Our Boyhood Number. 



America's Military Arm. 



Those DplmoTiico Woodcocli. 



The Six-Inch Trout Law. 



Snap Shots. 

 The Sportsman Tourist. 



To Johnnv— A Dog. 



A Trans-Con line ntal Run.— ii 



Winter Srorts in Nortli Caro- 

 lina.— in. 



Off to the Woods. 



In Mainp Woods.— ra. 

 Natural History. 



Monkey Talk. 



More Shark Notes. 



Habits of Whitefish in Ponds. 

 Game Baur and Gun. 



Ways ot thfi Ruffed Grouse. 



The Game Fields. 



Take a Compass. 



Shawangunk Notes. 



Chirago and the West. 



Oregon Wildfowl. 



Where Hns All the Game 

 Gone? 



Indiana Sportsmen and Far- 

 mers. 



Sea and River FisTiing. 

 The Six-Inch Trout Lnv. 

 Fishing Through the Ice. 



Sea and KiVer Fishing. 



Angling Notes. 



Chicago and the West. 



Onondaga Anglers' Associa- 

 tion. 



Nursery Rhymes. 

 JFislicultnre. 



Hudson River Fish. ways. 

 The Keimel. 



The Central Field Trials. 



Texas Field Trials. 



Spaniel Prizes. 



Dog Chat. 



Kennel Notes. 

 Rifle Range and Gallery. 



Revolver Championship. 



New Jersey Rifle Shooting. 

 Trap Shooting. 



Drivers and Twisters. 



Matches and Meetings. 

 "Vachtijvg. 



Three Days with a Small 

 Yacht. 



Yacht Building at Bristol. 

 Yacht Building at Boston. 

 Yacht Building at Essex. 

 Canoeing. 

 Chesapeake Bay Canoes. 

 Royal C. C. 



Canoeists' Winter Headquar- 

 ters. 



Answers to Correspondents. 



For Prospectus and Advertising Rates see Page 422. 



THE "FOREST AND STREAM" IN 189^. 

 'JpHE first number of the Forest and Stream in its 

 enlarged size will be that of Jan. 7 instead of Jan. 

 21 as announced last week. 



The issue of Jan. 7 will also be made the beginning of 

 Vol. XXXVIII. The present volume will end with No. 

 24, Dec. 31. In future the two volumes per year will 

 comprise the first and the last six months respectively— 

 January to June, and July to December, inclusive. 



A further change, to be made with the beginning of 

 the year, will be in the quality of the paper used. We 

 have selected a new paper, of tint and texture better 

 adapted to the satisfactory printing of illustrations. The 

 pictorial features will be more important in 1892 than 

 they have been in the past. 



AMERICA'S MILITARY ARM. 



A SORT of report of progress comes from the Board of 

 Military Experts on the selection of a magazine 

 arm in the annual report of Gen. Flagler, the new chief 

 of ordnance. This is to the effect that the tests made of 

 the various magazine arms presented and secured for 

 test have been such as to make it inadvisable at this 

 time to make contracts for the re-armament of the United 

 States Infantry. While there are but 24,000 men in round 

 numbers in the United States Army, there would no 

 doubt follow the announcement of a new arm demands 

 from a number of States for a supply to arm the State 

 militia, so that not only would the expense reach a very 

 large figure, but a blunder on the part of the guiding 

 United States officers in the matter would provoke very 

 widespread criticism. Civilian soldiers are apt to be very 

 sharp commentors in a matter of this sort. 



There is a wide difference of opinion among army 

 officers in this matter. Gen, Sheridan was a warm ad- 

 vocate of adopting the best gun then in sight rather than 

 hold back in the hope of securing a better weapon, even 

 though that hope was founded on a probability practi- 

 cally amounting to a certainty. Gen. Breckenridge was 

 also earnest in this direction, urging that it was destruc- 

 tive of the morale of an army to know that its arms are 

 obsolete and inferior. It cannot be said that there is any 

 want of encouragement for inventors and mechanics 

 who are working on the problem of an improved small 

 arm, A dozen governments of the Old World are in hot 

 haste after the last and best thing out in this line. In- 

 ventors are welcomed, and having introduced ^their ideas 

 through the proper channels, are given full opportunity 

 of showing the advantage of whatever they offer. Prac- 

 tically all that has been done abroad by the expenditure 

 of vast sums of money was placed before our Army Board 

 and subjected to their judgment. 



It must be borne in mind that the conclusion to retain 

 the single-loader as the ofiicial arm of the United States 

 Army does not mean that the Springfield is to be re- 

 tained, though that would not be such a great catastrophe. 

 It has been virtually decided to abandon the large 45-cali- 

 ber in favor of the smaller 30-caliber. This is a step 

 toward a magazine arm. The smokeless powder, in one 



of its many varieties, is also to be adopted. So that, apart 

 from the advantage of a magazine arm for close range in 

 shooting, our army will have a weapon of the longest 

 range, shooting an elongated pencil bullet, with the advan- 

 tage of doing away with the cloud of black powder 

 smoke. 



There is not the least cause for alarm or worriment in 

 this cautious haste of our army advisers. So far as the 

 drill of our State militia force is concerned, when they 

 have learned to shoot well standing at 300yds. or less and 

 have learned the art of prone shooting at 500 or 600yds,, 

 they are accomplished marksmen and could readily 

 adapt themselves to the demands of work at 1,200 or more 

 yards, provided the arm was capable of it. It might 

 truly rouse the professional pride of a uniformed force to 

 know and feel that they had the best arm in existence, 

 and this is a point well worth covering, providing there 

 is any chance of its remaining covered, and this is just 

 the ground taken by Gen, Flagler when he says, "It is 

 hoped that this country can produce a better arm; and 

 until it can or until it has been demonstrated that it 

 cannot, it would be wise to defer a change from the ex- 

 cellent single-loader, now in service, to a magazine 

 system." 



It would make a long and interesting chapter to tell of 

 the race which has been going on in Europe now for 

 several decades to find the ideal small arm. The advance 

 has been very great, but the new weapons, however 

 finely they have passed examinations in proof houses and 

 before committees, have not been given the only satis- 

 factory test of real use. As it is in arms so it is in 

 respect to powdei-s. The test in the case of the ammu- 

 nition is a matter of time, and cannot be hur- 

 ried. A lot of cartridges which have been tucked 

 away for years in a magazine may come to the 

 front fighting line at a critical moment. Will they 

 stand the test and show results? This is a question 

 which no cautious army officer would answer in the 

 affirmative respecting any of the new powders, what- 

 ever rival inventors and agents may noisily claim for 

 their several compounds, America is not losing very 

 much in the way of risk by going slow in the matter, and 

 it has much to gain. For domestic use, so to speak, that 

 is, putting down riots, etc., om- military, regular and 

 militia, are amply provided, and if they are to be 

 strengthened for this work, it is not in the direction of 

 extra long range, small- calibered rifle, with plethoric 

 magazine, but rather in the direction of machine guns 

 and gatlings. The resolution to go slow on magazine 

 arms need not deter any militiaman from working for his 

 badge bar, nor prompt any regular to cease trying to get 

 on the army team. 



THE SIX-INCH TROUT LAW. 



t-1 ENERAL RIPLEY'S paper, read at the annual meet, 

 ing of the Vermont Fish and Game League and 

 printed in our columns this week, contains among vari- 

 ous important matters a renewal of the 6in. trout limit 

 discussion, which has induced legislation in most of the 

 commonwealths in which trout and salmon are native. 

 Reference to the Book of the Game Laws shows that a 

 6in, trout law is operative in Colorado, Connecticut, Del- 

 aware, Michigan, New Jersey, New York, Utah, Ver- 

 mont and Wyoming. In Maine, New Hampshire and 

 Pennsylvania trout Sin, long may be taken. California 

 has fixed the limit at Sin. for all trout except brook trout, 

 and we are in doubt whether the native species {Salmo 

 irideus) is intended or the introduced fontinalis. Color- 

 ado, Utah and Wyoming, whose indigenous trout are 

 chiefly black-spotted species of large size, apply the same 

 rule framed for brook trout (fontinalis) in the East. 

 Michigan fixes the 6in, limit for brook trout, rainbow 

 trout, grayling and landlocked salmon— species showing 

 a wide range of variation in size at maturity — and New 

 York has a similar array of species of diverse limits of 

 growth. In Vermont it is lawful also to take salmon 

 trout and landlocked salmon measuring 6in. Washing- 

 ton includes among her salmon the steelhead, which is 

 really a large river trout (Salmo gairdneri). 



Manifestly there is room for reflection and the ming- 

 ling of common sense with some of our protective laws 

 if we mean to accomplish the best results. We trust the 

 whole subject will receive careful consideration and free 

 discussion, leading up to harmony and strength of action 

 in the near future. The basis of the 6in. law, as ex- 

 pressed by its supporters, is the necessity of providing 



for at least one spawning before the capture of the trout. 

 The opposition to this limit comes chiefly from regions 

 in which the brook trout spawns when less than Gin. 

 long and seldom exceeds 6in. at any time of its life. 

 There is, besides, a large body of anglers who prefer 

 small trout to large ones for the table. We invite ex- 

 pressions of opinion on this important and eminently 

 practical question, as well as upon the need of discretion 

 in the application of comprehensive laws. 



OUR BOYHOOD NUMBER. 



OWING to the change of plan noted in another col- 

 umn, by which the enlargement of the Forest and 

 Stream will be made on .Jan. 7 instead of Jan, 21, as first 

 announced, we shall defer to the initial number of the 

 new volume publication of the material in hand for our 

 special "Boyhood Number," and originally promised for 

 Christmas week, A detailed announcement of the papers 

 will be made next week. 



THOSE DELMONICO WOODCOCK. 



SOME eighteen months ago, in July, 1890, Dr. Willett 

 Kidd, the game protector of the district in which 

 New York city is included, visited Delmonico's restaurant 

 and found that woodcock were then served there out of 

 season. He promptly put the case into the hands of Dis- 

 trict Attorney Piatt, of Westchester county. Mr. Piatt 

 manifested a willingness to do his duty as a public offi- 

 cer with alacrity and dispatch. This willingness mys- 

 teriously gave way to reluctance and the alacrity to 

 procrastination , and the dispatch in turn to innocuous 

 inaction. Not even were the papers served. At length, 

 since District Attorney Piatt and his assistant, Mr. Ver- 

 plank, were so crowded with work that they could not 

 attend to the Delmonico case, the protector employed as 

 outside counsel Judge Nelson H. Baker. Judge Baker 

 was for an immediate, aggressive and uncompromising 

 prosecution of the case. In due course of time Judge 

 Baker was so overwhelmed with other business that he 

 really could not give any time to the Delmonico case. 

 The papers were still not served. Protector Kidd then 

 transferred the case to New Y'"ork County, and gave it to 

 District Attorney Nicoll, This was done, we believe, at 

 the close of last year, or in the beginning of 1891, For 

 some reason the case has not been tried, and this is the 

 more worthy of note because the evidence is said to be 

 very clear, and the District Attorney is believed to have a 

 perfectly good case. W e understand that the last stay 

 of proceedings secured by the defendants will expire 

 to-day; and we shall watch with much interest the 

 further progress (or delay) of the case. 



SNAP SHOTS. 



DR. GEORGE BROWN GOODE, Assistant Secretary 

 of the Smithsonian Institution, best known to the 

 readers of Forest and Stream as the author of ' 'Amer- 

 ican Fishes," and editor of "The Fisheries and Fishery 

 Industries of the United States," two unfailing springs of 

 information concerning the natural history of fishes, 

 sailed to-day on the steamer Werra of the North German 

 Lloyd Line to the Mediterranean. After twenty years of 

 hard and unremitting labor in behalf of the National 

 Museum and the U, S, Fish Commission, Dr. Goode is 

 obliged to seek much needed rest, and he will pass the 

 winter in Italy and perhaps Sicily, renewing acquaint- 

 ance with his friends among the zoologists and particu- 

 larly the ichthyologists. In the museums of Genoa, 

 Florence and Naples he will find many of the curious 

 deep-sea fishes which have formed the object of his most 

 recent studies, and will endeavor to arrange for impor- 

 tant exchanges of specimens. 



We have in hand for publication in our issue of Jan. 7 

 a capital portrait of Mr. Walter Wiuans, in revolver 

 shooting position, on the Bisley range. Mr. Winans is 

 the donor of the Winans Trophy, for the American 

 Amateur Revolver Championship, now in progress under 

 direction of the Forest and Stream, and enjoys the dis- 

 tinction of being regarded as the most expert revolver shot 

 in Great Britain. 



The annual dinner of the Massachusetts Association for 

 the Protection of Fish and Game will be held next Thurs- 

 day evening at Young's Hotel, Boston. 



