Forest and Stream. 



A Weekly Journal of the Rod and Gun. 



Terms, $i a Year. 10 Gis. A Copy. I 

 8ix Months, $3. f 



NEW YORK, AUGUST 18, 1892. 



( VOL. XXXIX.-No. 7. 



( No. 318 Broad-vvay, New York. 



CONTENTS. 



Editorial. 



Commoa Law and Common 



Custom. 

 Snap Shots. 



The Sportsman Tourist. 



Camps of the Kingfishers.— x. 

 "Podsers" in the Mountains. 

 The Fall Hunt. 



Natural History. 



Skunk and RattlesnakPS. 

 Photographing a Nesting 

 Woodcock. 



Game Bag and Gun. 



The Hunting Rifle Again. 

 A Hunt in the Rockies. 

 An Incident of the Cottonwood 

 Fight. 



The Snipe as a Waterfowl. 

 Chicago and the West. 

 An Accidental Deer. 



Sea and River Fishing. 



Learning a Better Way. 

 Fishing Near Syracuse. 

 Black Bass in Illinois. 

 Chicago and the West. 

 The Red-Throated Trout. 

 Fishing "Up Salt River," 

 Angling Notes. 



Fishculture. 



Fry vs. Fingerling. 

 The Kennel. 



Beagles on the Trail. 



Notes and Notions. 



Psovoi— Borzoi. 



About the Beagle Challenge. 



Points and Flushes. 



Dog Chat. 



Kennel Notes. 



Answers to Correspondents. 



Canoeing. 



Northern Division Meet. 

 Aid for the Cruisers. 

 News Notes. 



Yachting- 

 New York Y. C. Cruise. 

 New York Y. R. A. 

 August Regattas. 

 News Notes. 



Rifle Range and Gallery. 



New Jersey Rifle Shooting. 

 Trap Shooting. 



Pennslyvania State Shoot. 



Drivers and Twisters. 



Matches and Meetings. 

 Answero to Queries, 



For Prospectus and Advertising Rates see Page v. 



Why They Need It. 



Court House, Hamilton, Aug. 11.— Editor Forest and Stream : 

 1 have much pleasure in informing you that at the last meeting of 

 the board of Ontario Game and Fish Commissioners it was unan- 

 imously resolved that in future the Commissioners should be sup- 

 plied regularly with copies of the Forest and Stream. 



Your paper has reached such a standard of excellence, treating 

 as it does, hoth popularly and scientiiically, all that appertains to 

 the protection, preservation and propagation of game and fish on 

 this continent, that the Commissioners feel that they cannot be 

 without it. 



You will therefore be good enough to place on your suhscription 

 list the following names, to whom you will send your paper regu- 

 larly until further notiee. [Here follow the names,] 



A. D. Stewart, 

 Sec'y Ontario Fish and Game Commission. 



ILLUSTRATIONS OF WILD LIFE. 



We have in preparation a series of illustrations of 

 American wild animalp, to be published as supplements 

 of the Forest and Stream. 



The drawings are by Mr, Ernest E. Thompson, whose 

 previous work in this line is well known; and we are 

 confident that the merits of his successful delineation will 

 be recognized. The subjects already drawn are of the 

 Felidse, and they will be published as follows. See that 

 your newsdealer has the numbers'. 



Sept. 8. The Panther. 



Oct. 6. The OcEiiOT. 



Nov. 3. The Canada Lynx. 



Dec. 1, The Bay Lynx. 



THE FISHING ''UP SALT RIVER" 

 Messrs. Harrison and Cleveland are anglers; and as 

 we pointed out last week, since one of them, missing the 

 White House, must in due time go "up Salt River," both 

 must be interested in knowing what sort of fishing will 

 be found in those famous waters; and the Forest and 

 Stream has undertaken to tell them. Since our an- 

 nouncement last week a correspondent has suggested that 

 Mr, Cleveland might himself give us the information we 

 are intent on giving him; but any personal knowledge 

 Mr. Cleveland may have of Salt River fishing is based 

 on an experience now four years old; and every one 

 knows that the angling resources of a stream may be 

 completely altered in a much briefer period than that, 

 and it is one characteristic of our fishing columns that 

 the reports in them are always up to date. 



A special correspondent commissioned to investigate 

 the fishing resources of Salt River has presented his re- 

 port, which is printed to-day. It must be conceded that 

 the picture drawn is not an enticing one for the angler, 

 nor of a character to afford much consolation in the 

 prospect. When the catalogue of "the finny tribe" of 

 Salt River begins with water snakes, soft and hardshell 

 tm-tles and crawfish, the stoutest-hearted statesman may 

 well enough "view the situation with alarm." Nor is 

 one in the end likely to be reassured by reading that the 

 accepted sport on the stream is "cooning for cats," a 

 special branch of the Waltonian art with which the 

 new-comer, thougli a bait-fisherman, must be sadly un- 

 familiar. 



Nature and man have joined forces to diminish the fish 

 supply. Recurring floods pour ipto Salt River tone of 



mud and sand which kill the fish; impassable dams for- 

 bid ascent to spawning grounds; barbarous modes of fish- 

 ing and a more barbarous disregard of nature's laws as 

 to breeding seasons combine to ruin all possibility of 

 well stocked waters. 



The fish supply, however, might be improved by re- 

 stocking. Mr. Harrison would be making a prudent pro- 

 vision for himself, or at least doing the graceful thing 

 for Mr. Cleveland, if he were to ask the United States 

 Fish Commission to turn into Salt River a few million 

 goggle-eyes and gars and blue cats and jumpers. 



But before restocking may wisely be pursued on 

 any extensive scale, missionary work must be done 

 among the dwellers on the river; they must be weaned 

 from "cooning" catfish oif the spawning beds, and taught 

 to exchange trot-lines and pitchforks for hook and 

 line, as savages are led to put away their breech-clouts 

 for pantaloons. Then, in the good time coming, with 

 fish in the river and true fishermen on its banks, the old 

 question, "Which would you rather or go a-fishing," 

 might be answered in favor of Salt River fishing, even 

 though the alternative were the White House. 



COMMON LAW AND COMMON CUSTOM. 

 The owner of a North Carolina mountain farm, through 

 which flows a stream, stocked the waters at considerable 

 expense with a species of trout not indigenous to the 

 region. The fish did well; and though the stream was 

 duly posted, the proprietor's neighbors helped themselves 

 and defied his prohibitions. The trespass laws proving 

 ineffectual, the common law was invoked, the trout 

 catchers charged with larceny, convicted and pun- 

 ished. 



The common law gives the owner of land and water the 

 exclusive right to take the game or fish found thereon. 

 It is this exclusive right to take them that constitutes 

 his so-called "property" in them. Further, the common 

 law principle is that whenever any one else, without per- 

 mission, invades this right, and captures the fish or game, 

 the fish or game, so soon as it is reduced to possession, 

 becomes the property of the land owner; and taking away 

 the fish or game constitutes larceny. 



For instance, if Mr. O. O. Smith, of Pennsylvania, were 

 thus to capture a trout in the brook on the farm of Mr. 

 Rowland E Robinson, of Vermont, Mr. Robinson having 

 the exclusive right to fish therein, the moment the fish 

 was clutched by Mr. Smith it would become the property 

 of Mr, Robinson; and if Mr. Smith should take it away, 

 Mr, Robinson could have him punished for larceny. 



This is the common law principle; but we need not say 

 it is a principle more honored in the breach than in the 

 observance. After a tussle with the fish and its capture, 

 Mr, Smith would not for a moment consider that it did 

 not belong to him; nor, whatever attitude Mr, Robinson 

 might assume toward the man from Pennsylvania as a 

 trespasser, would he think of confiscating the fish and 

 lodging Mr. Smith in jail for stealing it. 



Common law is one thing, common custom quite an- 

 other. As a rule, in this country game and fish are 

 looked upon as belonging to the person who takes them, 

 not to him on whose land or in whose waters they are 

 taken, except in those instances where an individual or 

 association protects game and fish for the purpose of 

 sport. It is probable that in the future, as game preserves 

 shall multiply, and as private enterprise, like that of the 

 North Carolina case we have cited, shall introduce new 

 species and thus acquire an equitable claim to a certain 

 ownership in them, we shall hear more of this phase of 

 the common law. There will be, as there are now, cer- 

 tain aggravated cases, where the peculiar conditions 

 would in public opinion justify punishing the taking of 

 game or fish as larceny: but the day will be a long time 

 coming, if it shall ever come, when the successful sports- 

 man or angler shall regard himself or be regarded by 

 others as a thief because he has taken game or fish from 

 the premises of another. 



An interesting note of fishery protection, recorded in 

 Nature, is that the Chamber of Commerce at Tahiti has 

 recommended the abolition of the diving apparatus used 

 in the pearl fishery because in their opinion the shells 

 found in a greater depth than 10 fathoms are those mostly 

 important for rej)roduction, and to destroy them will ruin 

 the fisheries and bring distress upon the natives who de- 

 pend upon the pearl-shell diving, without ^the dress and 

 apparatus, for their livelihood. 



SNAP SHOTS. 

 By a discussion in the Moses case the General Term of 

 this State has decided that the law forbidding Sunday 

 fishing applies to private ponds. Last year the Clark's 

 Lake Anglers' Club leased the exclusive fishing rights in 

 Wickham Pond, in Warwick, N. Y., and the public was 

 warned not to trespass. As the water had always been 

 open to the public for fishing, much discontent was 

 shown with the new order of things; and two young men 

 having been arrested for trespass, a counter move was 

 made by the villagers, and President R. H. Moses, of this 

 city, was arrested for fishing on Sunday and was fined 

 $5. Mr. Moses refused to pay the fine and appealed his 

 case to the County Court, which sustained the Warwick 

 justice, and then to the General Term, which has re- 

 afiirmed the decision of the lower court. As other fish- 

 ing statutes apply to private waters, it is difficult to sur- 

 mise the grounds upon which JMr. Moses hoped to evade 

 paying his fine. 



Probably few persons are aware of the large propor- 

 tions of the canary bird trade between Germany and the 

 United States, and fewer still dream of the extent of 

 the American song-bird trade between the two countries. 

 Some light on the subject is given in a recent report of 

 George H. Murphy, of the Berlin consulate, Germany 

 sends us every year 100,000 canary birds, of which about 

 two-thirds come to one firm in this city, to be shipped 

 thence to Charleston, New Orleans, San Francisco and 

 other distributing centers. This same firm sends back to 

 Germany from this country every year about 5,000 Vir- 

 ginia cardinal birds, 3,000 nonpareils, 3,000 indigo birds 

 and 500 mocking birds. If there is no error in Mr. Mur- 

 phy's figures this drain on the American bird supply is 

 something which should have the immediate attention of 

 the authorities. 



Readers of the charming story which Mr. Hills sends 

 us relating his experience in photographing a nesting 

 woodcock, should turn back to the issue of July 28, and 

 study again the reproductions there given of Mr. Jaquin's 

 photographs. The pictures and the story together make 

 up a very interesting contribution to the literature of this 

 favorite game bird. In bringing out such pictures as these 

 the Forest and Stream Amateur Photography Competi- 

 tion may already be pronounced a successful enterprise. 

 A Washington correspondent suggests that some posses- 

 sors of really meritorious amateur photographs may be de- 

 terred from submitting them by the notion that only difii- 

 cult subjects are desired. This would be a mistake, the 

 plan provides for all phases of outdoor life within For- 

 est AND Stream's special fields. 



Have any game or song birds been introduced into 

 New Hampshire? A law of the last legislature provides 

 for the protection for five years of "birds not now to be 

 found in the State, but which may be brought into the 

 State prior to October 1, 1896." Our correspondent 

 "Von W." suggests that this may have been designed to 

 protect the game enterprise of Mr. Austin Cor bin, on 

 Croydon Mountain. It is also possible that some of the 

 sportsmen in the southern or eastern portions of the 

 State, influenced by similar action in Massachusetts, 

 may have proposed to introduce pinnated grouse or Mon- 

 golian pheasants. 



The trout fishing on the North Shore, Mr. Starbuck 

 tells us, has been very poor this year, in fact "played out'' 

 for the rod and line fisherman. But the Indians have 

 netted tons and tons of trout, selling their catch to a 

 large fish dealing concern for 10 cents a pound; and the 

 big ones find their way chiefly to Chicago markets. 



A Wisconsin man brags of having taken 480 brook 

 trout at one haul with a basket in a dammed stream. In 

 the good old days before the missionaries went to the 

 South Sea Islands there used to be go-as-you-please 

 matches to determine which chief would eat the most 

 man. 



A sawfish 34ft. long was captured in a net at Evans 

 River, New South Wales. The saw measured 5ft. and 

 had 25 pairs of teeth. 



We have several inquiries for prairie chicken grounds, 

 and information of available territory would gladly be 

 reoeiYed, 



