Forest and Stream 



A Weekly J ournal of the Rod and Gun. 



TiiiBMS, $i A Year. 10 Cxs. A OovY. I 

 Six Months, I 



NEW YORK, JULY 21, 1892. 



( VOL. XXXIX.-N0. 



( No. 318 Broadway, New i'ORK. 



CONTENTS. 



Editorial. 



Major H. W. Merrill. 

 Snap Shots. 



The Sportsman Tourist. 



Camps ofthe Kingfisliers.— V. 

 Camp on the Blue. 



Natural History. 



Snakes. 



The BirHs and the Music Box. 

 Mule Deer in Domestication. 



Game Bag and Gun. 



A Bit of Grouse Hunter's Lore. 



Rifles for Big Game. 



Close Seasons for Game and 



Fish. . 

 The Lonely Coot. 



Sea and River Fisiiing. 



Do Salmon Fast While Run- 

 ning? 

 A Tcush Sculpiu. 

 Littleton Sportsmen. 

 New England Waters. 

 New Jersey Coast Fishing. 

 Angling Notes. 

 Chicago and the West. 



Fishculture. 



Rearing Fish forDist-ibutiou. 

 Planting Trciit as Fry or Year- 

 lings. 



The Kennel. 



Irish Setter Club Meeting. 



The Kennel. 



New England Field Trial Cluh 

 Toronto Dos Show- 

 Pacilic Kennel Cub Meeting. 

 Mr. Middleton's Resignation. 

 Flaps from the Beaver's Tail. 

 Points and Flushes. 

 Dog Chat. 

 Kennel Notes. 



Answers to Correspondents. 

 Canoeing. 



Red Dragon C. C. 



W. C. A., Eighth A-anual. 



Toronto C. C. 



A. C. A. Membership. 



News Notes. 



Yachting. 



The America's Cup. 

 Vessels and Drawbridges. 

 July Regattas. 

 News Notes. 



Rifle Range and Gallery. 



The Miller Rifle Club. 

 New Jersey Rifle Shooting. 



Trap Shooting. 



The Keystone Annual. 

 Whitehouse Gun Club. 

 Drivers and Twisters. 

 Matches and Meetings. 



Answers to Queries. 



For Prospectus and Advertising Rates see Page 64 



MAJOR H. W. MERRILL. 

 Re.\df.rs of the Forest and Strkam, particularly those 

 who remember his slietches in the earlier volumes, will 

 learn with sir cere regret of the death of Major H. W. 

 Merrill, at his home in this city, on last Thursday, July 

 J 4. The intelligence was received at this office with sor- 

 row, for the Major had been not infrequently a visitor here 

 for many years, and he was one of those men with whom 

 a personal acquaintance ripens into alfection. His age 

 was 78 years. His wife survives him. A son, Frederick 

 J. H, Merrill, Ph.D.. is Assistant State G-eologist of New 

 York. A brother, Nelson Merrill, is a member of the bar 

 of this city. 



Major Merrill came of New England Puritan stock. 

 He traced his ancestry back to Nathaniel Merrill, who 

 emigrated from England to Connecticut in 1633-34. 

 About the year 1803 Jared Merrill moved from Connecti- 

 cut to what was then the far West, and settled in the 

 Oneida country of New York. In 18 11, his son Asa 

 Merrill went still further west, and made a pioneer 

 farmer's home in the wilderness of the Genesees, at a 

 point subsequently known as Byron. Here Hamilton 

 Wilcox Merrill was born in 1814. The child whose birth- 

 place was on the advance line of civilization was destined 

 to spend a large portion of his active life in service on the 

 frontiers. Living on the home farm to the age of twenty, 

 he went as a cadet to West Point, and graduating in 

 1838 was appointed Second Lieutenant of the 2d Dra- 

 goons, then on duty in the Seminole War. On the way 

 to Florida Lieut. Merrill was for a time with Gen, Scott 

 in Georgia and Tennessee, effecting ' the removal of the 

 Cherokees. Arrived in Florida his introduction to active 

 service was as the volunteer leader of a scouting party in 

 pursuit of the Indian murderers of a white family ; the 

 trail led into a dense hamak, impenetrable by horse, and 

 the young officer led the way, pistol in either hand, into 

 the dark cover, only to find, as was the rule in that war, 

 that the Indians had made good their escape. The three 

 years' campaigns which followed were full of hardship 

 and adventure, relieved by indulgence in field sports, for 

 which the Florida game supply of that period afforded 

 unlimited opportunity. 



Coacoochee and his followers at length deported from 

 Florida, Lieut. Merrill in 1841 marched with his com- 

 mand 1,400 miles west to Fort Towson, in the Choctaw 

 aud Chickasaw Nations, north of the frontier of the Re- 

 public of Texas; and from this time, except while in the 

 Mexican War, he was almost constantly in the field, in 

 the Indian country along the Texan frontieir, and in the 

 West, until his resignation from the service in 1857. 



In 1846 he joined Gen, Taylor's army at Camargo, in 

 Mexico, and took part in the battle of Monterey. Then, 

 in the army of Gen. Scott, he was in the siege of Vera 

 Cruz, the battles of Cerro Gorda, San Antonio, Contreras, 

 Molino del Rey (where, now Captain, he won for gallant 

 action and meritorious services the brevet of Major), and 

 the bombardment and battle of Chepultapec; was one of 

 the eight mounted men who escorted Gen, Soott into the 

 City of Mexico after its fall; and took part in the two 

 days' ftgbt i» tb^fccity after tl>e surreiidp^r \)7 t^a^Rta 4i}na, 



One whose life had been passed around such scenes 

 could not fail to be an interesting personality. Major 

 Merrill had a rare fund of entertaining reminiscences of 

 the old days, stories of how the elusive Seminole Coacoo- 

 chee lured the Scouts into the depths of Florida swamps, 

 there to make mock of them; of Capt. Martin Scott (the 

 man for whom the coon came down) who, in a moment 

 of peril, when some one called out to him to lie down , 

 answered, "Martin Scott never lies down," and the next 

 instant fell, mortally wounded by a Mexican bullet. 

 Again it would be a story of the memorable charge over 

 the Mudellin Bridge at Santa Cruz, where 300 American 

 dragoons put to rout 1,400 Mexican lancers; or of 

 that still more memorable charge, with fiercer odds, 

 at Molino Del Rey, where Mijor Merrill's horse 

 Black Warrior was shot under him; and more than 

 once, in such recital, the narrator would catch the martial 

 spirit of the hour and tell the story with inimitable efi'ect. 

 Or it might be a humorous incident in his own experi- 

 ence, how, when separated from his command in the 

 Indian country and obliged to camp for the night alone, 

 he was awakened by a terrific alarm, which, half awake, 

 he recognized as the Indian war whoop, but which proved 

 to be the screech of an owl perched just overhead. 

 Again, it would be a pathetic tale of a pointer dog found 

 on the battlefield of Molino del Rey, forgetting its own 

 mortal hurts, to seek out its dying master and lick his 

 face and wounds. 



From early life Major Merrill had a decided taste for 

 hunting, and it was his good fortune to be stationed 

 throughout almost the entire period of his army life in 

 regions where the game supply afforded unstinted scope 

 for this favorite pursuit. In the vicinity of his first 

 Florida camp, on the Ocklawaha River, the deer, wild 

 tm-keys, and wild ducks and geese were found in an 

 abundance which astonished him. On the Texan fron- 

 tiers and in the western Indian country were vast numbers 

 of buffalo; the command of ten marched for days together 

 in sight of the herds, and it was necessary to detail riders 

 to keep between their hosts and the wagon trains to pre- 

 vent the buffalo from stampeding the mules. Here too 

 there were deer and antelope, wild turkeys, ducks and 

 geese, grouse and quail, to say nothing of foxes and 

 wolves. We may well believe that with such incitements 

 to the chase hunting was often a more agreeable pursuit 

 than scouting for Indians; and an officer who knew how 

 to handle a gun might well deem it his duty to keep the 

 mess supplied with fresh meat. 



The records show that Major Merrill was a capable and 

 efficient officer in the command of his troops and his deal- 

 ings with the tribes; none the less was he accomplished 

 as a sportsman. Constant practice gave him great skil'. 

 Mounted on his faithful "Black Warrior," or on his 

 trained hunting pony, he outstripped the fleetest game 

 and thought it no feat to bring a buffalo to earth by a 

 shot while both pursued and pursuer were at full speed. 



Such hunting will never be known again on this conti- 

 nent; it is as much a thing of the past as are the condi- 

 tions of frontier life which prevailed in the Southwest a 

 half century ago. His experiences on the plains in the 

 '403 and 'oOs afterward furnishedsmaterial for a number of 

 interesting sketches contributed to the earlier numbers of 

 the Forest and Stream. 



The hunting rifle in use at that time was of course the 

 muzzleloader, and it was the good work done by the arm 

 in those days of frontier life that caused Major Merrill to 

 be a life-long advocate of its merits. The superiority of 

 the muzzleloader over the breechloader as an arm of 

 Ijrocision he maintained with much sturdiness. His 

 writings most valued by riflemen and of the greatest 

 practical good were those relating to point-blank and 

 the tra jectory curves of sporting rifles. These were sub- 

 jects to which Major Merrill devoted much study, and to 

 him belongs the credit of having first presented them in 

 a form adapted to popular comprehension and instruc- 

 tion. 



Major Merrill inherited a strong constitution, which 

 carried him unscathed through the exposures of Southern 

 campaigns, and blessed him with a hale and vigorous old 

 age; from his Puritan ancestry, too, came those high 

 traits of character which marked his public and private 

 life, and were the crown of that old age. His were 

 the bluntness of the soldier, the simplicity of a child, the 



gtraightforwar(Jnee^ jogenmQTjww Qf wewbo 



SNAP SHOTS. 

 Last autumn we chronicled the successful introduction 

 of our native quail into China, where the American trav- 

 eler is now greeted by the cheery whistle of Bob White. 

 There are other conquests in store. The authorities of the 

 Cape of Good Hope are greatly interested in a project of 

 introducing into that colony American game birds. Their 

 agent, who has naturally come direct to this office for 

 assistance in the undertaking, tells us that the South 

 African people want both quail and grouse. There is 

 probably no obstacle to prevent the successful transporta- 

 tion of quail from America to the Cape of Good Hope. If 

 properly cared for the birds will bear the confinement 

 and hardships of the voyage; but it is very doubtful if 

 ruffed grouse can be carried so far. The almost uniform 

 failure of all attempts to keep this creature in confine- 

 ment for any length of time appears to jioint to certain 

 defeat of such an enterprise as its transportation to South 

 Africa. On the other hand, the Massachusetts Associa- 

 tion has been decidedly successful in bringing sharp- 

 tailed grouse across the continent; and properly cared 

 for that species might weather the voyage to the Cape. 

 The undertaking is one which will be watched with much 

 interest and with many hearty wishes for its successful 

 achievement. Future Fourth of July orators may yet 

 with truth and pride allude to the whistle of the Amer- 

 ican Bob White saluting with the British drum beat the 

 rising sun around the world. 



Two* New Haven gentlemen, Mr. J. B. Robertson and 

 Mr. Clayton Redfield, have secured two pairs of Mongolian 

 pheasants, and are trying the experiment of rearing these 

 birds in confinement. The birds were received from 

 Oregon, and soon after their arrival in New Haven began 

 to lay. The eggs were taken as fast as laid and put under 

 bantam hens, and the first brood, numbering eight 

 chicks, was hatched July 5 The hen pheasants continue 

 to lay, and it is hoped that a considerable number of the 

 young may be reared this summer. If the expected suc- 

 cess should be attained, it is proposed next spring to turn 

 out a number of the birds in different parts of Connecti- 

 cut in the hope of stocking the State covers. If this 

 turning out should be done, wide publicity ought to be 

 given it, so that sportsmen who come upon the new birds 

 may recognize and spare them for breeders. 



Mr. Stewart Culin,curator of the archaeological museum 

 of the University of Pennsylvania, has been appointed 

 secretary of the Board of Commissioners for the Colum- 

 bian Historical Exposition in Madrid. The University 

 will make a considerable display of its arcbfeological 

 collections at the Exposition. 



The New York game law abolished at one fell swoop 

 more than forty .«pecial county regulations respecting fish 

 and game. 



ROD AND GUN AND CAMERA. 



As a recognition of the important place of amateur photography 

 in its relation to sports of the held and prairie and mountain and 

 forest and stream, the Forest and Stream offers a series of 

 prizes for meritorious work with the camera. The conditions 

 under which these prizes will be giveo are in brief as here set 

 forth: 



There will be ten prizes, as follows: First $%. Second $30 

 Third $15. Fourth $10. Six of |5 each. 



The competition will be open to amateurs only. 



The sulgects must relate to Forest and Stream's field— game 

 and fish (alive or dead), shooting and fishing, the camp, campers 

 and camp life, sportsman travel by land or water. 



There is no restriction as to the time when the pictures may 

 have been or may be made — whether In 1893 or in previous yearq. 



Pictures will be received up to Dec. 31, of this year. 



All work must be original; that is to say, it must not have been 

 submitted in any other competition, nor have been published. 



There are no restrictions as to make or style of camera, nor as 

 to size of plate. 



A competitor need not be a subscriber of Forest and Sthbam. 



All photographs will be submitteed to a committee, shortly to 

 be announced. In making their awards the judges will be in- 

 structed to take into consideration the technical merits of the 

 work as a photograph, its artistic qnalities; and other things 

 being equal, the unique and difficult nature of the subject. 



Photographs must be marked only with initials or a pseudonym 

 for Identification. With each photograph should be given name 

 of sender, title of view, locality, date, and name of oampra. 



The photographs shall be the property of the Forest and 

 Stream. This applies only to the particular prints f ent us. 



From time to time we shall reproduce by the half-tone process 

 samples of the work submitted, and should the interest in 

 Forest and Stream's Amateur Photography Collection prove 

 to be what is anticipated, we may ask for an expression of opinion 

 byavotfrof all our readers after the manner of the successful 

 aud famous "Oamp-Fite Flickering Vote.'* Such popular yot/Q 



