Forest and Stream 



A Weekly Journal of the Rod and Gun. 



Terms, ! 



4 A Year. 10 Cts. a Copy. ) 

 Six Months, $3. f 



NEW YORK, SEPTEMBER 1, 1892. 



l VOL. XXXIX.— No. 9 



( No. 318 Broadwat, New Yohk. 



CONTENTS. 



Editorial. 



Nigbt Sounds. 

 Snap Shots. 



Tlie Sportsman Tourist. 



Yacation Timp. 

 "Oamp of the Kingfishers,— xi. 

 The Oontest. 



Natural History, 



The Snake's Skin-Shedding. 

 A Caribou Without Fear. 



Game Bag: and Gun. 

 New York Woodccok and 



Grouse. 

 The Hunting Rifle. 

 Velocities of Shot. 

 About Killing Elk. 

 Massachusetts Shooters. 

 Chicago and the West. 



Sea and River Fishing. 



Trout and Beaten Paths. 

 Angling Notes. 



Woods FToll and Thereabouts. 



Orsig's Pond. 



A Kankakee Bass Pocket. 



Chicago and the West, 



Troutlng in the Northwest. 



Chairback Mountain Trout. 



Green Lake, Maine. 



The Fishermen of Boston. 



Cultivated Trout Again. 



A Remarkable Statement. 



The Kennel. 



Use and Abuse of Arsenic. 

 Flaps from the Beaver's Tail. 

 Should Judges be Their Own 

 Clitics? 



Soulhern Field Trials Derby 



Entries. 

 Points and Flushes. 

 Skin Diseases of the Dog. 

 Handsome. 



Credit is Due to the Breeder. 

 Bad Form. 

 Dog Chat. 

 Kennel Notes. 



Answers to Correspondents. 

 Canoeing. 

 The A. O. A. Meet. 

 A Lazy Cruise for Recreation. 

 News Notes. 



Yachting. 



To Boston in a 25-Footer. 

 British 40-Rater?. 

 News Notes. 



Rifle Range and Gallery. 



New Jersey Rifle Shooting. 

 Now for Fun at Seagirt. 



Trap Shooting. 



Great Sport in North Carolina 

 Drivers and Twisters. 

 Matches and Meetings. 

 Answers to Queries. 



For Prospectus and Advertising Rates -see Page v. 



ILLUSTRATIONS OF WILD LIFE. 



We have in preparation a series of illustrations of 

 A merican -wild aninialf, 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 

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

 your newsdealer has the ntimbers: 



Sept. 8, The Panther. 



Oct. (i. The Ocelot. 



Nov. 3. The Canada Lynx. 



Dec, 1. The Bay Lynx. 



In connection with the illustration of the panther will 

 be given some notes of observation of that creature by 

 Mr. Greorge H. Wyman, and Mr. O. O. Smith's story of 

 how he won his cougar skin trophy in Oregon last year. 



NIGHT SOUNDS. 



Usually when" the labors of the day are ended the 

 men sleep soundly, A long day's toil, marching or 

 hunting, the work of making camp and cooking supper, 

 prepare the traveler for the dreamless enjoyment of his 

 bed. 



It may now and then happen, however, that some man 

 of the party for a long time lies awake, and such a one 

 hears sounds that are hushed except during the watches 

 of the night. Even the commoner sounds of the wilder- 

 ness — those that are audible at all times — take on a dif- 

 ferent character to ears that listen to them after the 

 quiet of slumber has stolen over the camp. The wood 

 of the still burning fire snaps and crackles now more 

 viciously than it did during the evening, and the fall 

 into its soft bed of ashes of a burned-off stick, which 

 would have been unnoticed in the daytime, is now dis- 

 tinctly heard. The whisper of the gentle breeze among 

 the pines and the intermittent brawling of the little 

 brook speak to the listener in tones whose purport he 

 feels that he understands, though, perhaps, he could not 

 translate their speech into the commonplace language of 

 everyday life. To all of us there come now and again 

 thoughts and emotions that we cannot voice. 



Soon after darkness has settled down over the 

 earth, the coyote begins to utter his complaint, and from 

 the top of some near hill sound introductory barks, fol- 

 lowed by a series of shrill yelps, growls and shrieks, 

 swelling at length into a chorus, as if all the little wolves 

 of the neighborhood had gathered here to annoimce their 

 woes and make their appeal to those whose camp-fire 

 burns so brightly near at hand. Yet we know that all 

 this noise issues from the throat of one little wolf, so 

 small that a man could easily carry him in one hand. The 

 noise continues for an hour or two— longer if the mcon is 

 bright— and then ceases, to be renewed just before day- 

 light in the morning. Though the little animal which 

 makes this noise is a most harmless beast, from his cries 

 you might judge him to be a demon, and more than 

 once we have seen men new to the country nervously 

 grasp their rifles, and anxiously inquire "What's thatf 

 when they first heard the coyote's voice. 



It is in the middle of the night that we hear the stranger 

 voices of nature, some of which we may not comprehend. 

 The cracking of sticks in the timber, close to the camp, 

 tells of the passage of some heavy animal, perhaps a bear, 

 since no footfall is heard, though the sounds are near. 

 Besides, it is only now and then that a stick snaps, and 

 the changing directions from which the noise comes show 

 that the creature is not merely passing by the camp, but 

 is prowling about it on all sides. At length these sounds 

 come more and more faintly as their author moves away, 

 and there is silence, broken only by curious faint noises 

 hardly to be detected or described, but which the ear as 

 one listens recognizes as the dropping of a pine cone on 

 the soft forest floor, the snapping into place of a twig 

 which has been bent bsck and is now freed, or the pas- 

 sage of some tiny animal through the grass. All at once 

 one is startled by a sound like that of a horse galloping; 

 but it is only a little field mouse that is running over the 

 canvas of the tent, which, drum-like, magnifies the patter 

 of the tiny feet, and makes them seem like thunder. 

 Often the tent may be invaded by a dozen of these little 

 intruders, which race over the sleepers, forage among 

 the food , and have a genuine revel amid their novel sur- 

 roundings. 



As the night wears on, an odd snuffling, almost like the 

 grunting of a young pig, is heard approaching, and for a 

 time a skunk works about the camp, causing — ^if the tent 

 door has been left open— some anxiety lest curiosity 

 should lead him to enter and investigate. In the South- 

 ern country, the bite of this animal is greatly feared, but 

 we recall no cases in the North where skunks have 

 attacked sleepers. 



The minutes and the hours pass. The skunk has moved 

 away and again there is silence, interrupted now and then 

 by the petulant squall of the lynx or the faint bark of the 

 distant fox. If the month is September, and the moon is 

 bright, one may hear all night long, if in an elk country, 

 the musical bugling of the challenging bulls, and per- 

 haps a band, coming down from the mountain side to the 

 water, will call and whistle and splash and play all night, 

 making sleep impossible in the camp. Sometimes will 

 be heard the clash of horns when two enraged bulls meet 

 in the headlong charge, and push and push until the 

 weaker little by little yields and gives ground, and either 

 comes to his haunches or nimbly springs aside to draw 

 ofi: and get his breath for another charge, or perhaps to 

 fly ingloriously before the threatening antlers of his 

 victorious rival. But in these latter days such sounds 

 are seldom heard. 



As day approaches the great owl sounds bis resonant 

 call from the tall tree where he rests, and is answered by 

 some distant comrade, and a little later the serenade of 

 the coyote begins again. The whistling wing-beats of 

 migrating wild ducks thrill the air with their faint 

 music, and other sounds of traveling birds are heard. 

 The horses, whose footfalls and croppings of the grass 

 ceased early in the night, awake. You can hear those 

 which have been lying down get up, and all begin to 

 move about and feed. The wind rises; the sighing of the 

 pines becomes at first a murmur, then a groan, and at last 

 a roar, drowning every other noise except the shrill scream 

 which comes from two branches rubbing together, or 

 the crash of some falling tree. This tumult will last till 

 morning. There will be heard no more voices peculiar 

 to the night. Let us turn over and go to sleep. 



One of these days we shall have a legal treatise on the 

 "Fishing Alibi." Some years ago an absent bank cashier 

 was charged with having absconded; but he turned up 

 again and explained that he had been belated on a fish- 

 ing excursion. A defendant in a murder case on trial for 

 his life was asked to explain certain blood stains on his 

 clothes; he showed that the stains were not of blood, but 

 of a mosquito preventive, which he had used on a fishing 

 trip. In the Borden murder case at Fall River, the 

 woman accused of murdering her father and stepmother 

 alleges that at the time the murder was done in the house 

 she was in the barn looking for some lead to make sinkers 

 to go fishing with. It is not often that a fishing trip or 

 the preparation for a proposed fishing trip is fraught with 

 such momentcuB consequences. 



An international fly and bait casting tournament will 

 be held at Edinburgh on Sept. 20. The competition will 

 be in trout and salmon fly-casting. What has become of 

 our own National Rod^ and Reel [Association with its 

 9,ngling^tournai»ents? 



SNAP SLIOTS. 

 The syndicate letters sent out over the signature of 

 Albert Edward Tyrrell are among the phenomena of 

 modern journalism. We observe one of his efforts in a 

 recent New Orleans Times -Demoerat, headed "Mecca of 

 Hunters;" and it is as extraordinary a mixture of lies 

 and thievery and silliness as an exchange reader may 

 come across in a fortnight. "When you have named 

 Cameron, Deer River, Tuxedo Park and Ellenburgh," 

 says Mr. Tyrrell, "you have called off all the really avail- 

 able hunting grounds in New York State." A deer stalk- 

 ing, he tells us, is now being arranged by some of the 

 famous New York hunters, who make annual pilgri- 

 mages to Florida . An enthusiastic quail hunter, whom his 

 friends call the "philosopher," lets Mr. Tyrrell into the 

 mysteries of shooting. Many a novice, the philosopher 

 tells him, does not know when he has hit a bird, but a 

 good quail hunter ought to know "before the bird has 

 fallen two feet" whether or not to shoot at 

 it again. "Henry Welles, the gentlemanly sec- 

 retary of the Spalding Club," evidently "sized up" 

 Mr. Tyrrell for an idiot, and stuffed him with a story of 

 having bagged four pheasants (by which he means quail), 

 "each of which weighed three and three-quarter pounds 

 apiece." The syndicater also claims to have interviewed one 

 "Edward Lacy, of the Forest and Stream," who was 

 bound for Maine hunting, and told him, "In fact, I'm 

 going into Washington county after deer. I understand 

 that some one has seen a jet black animal of that genus 

 up there, and that's the creature I am going after." Mr, 

 Lacy also appears to have filled him up with a pleasing 

 bit of fiction about a fox-hunting club formed by "rich 

 New Yorkers," to gather in all the best foxhounds of 

 the country. All this, and there is more of it, is illus- 

 trated with drawings stolen from the Forest and 

 Stream, without a word of credit; one of them being 

 labeled "A Moose Hunter's Camp." The marvel is not 

 that the Albert Edward Tyrells of the syndicate bureaus 

 will write such screeds as this, but that any managing 

 editor in his senses will print them. 



Politics unfortunately often have an evil influence in 

 the appointment of game and fish wardens; but on the 

 other hand it is equally unfortunate that an official's 

 record and attitude with respect to the enforcement of 

 fish and game laws are not more often taken into consid- 

 eration as political factors. It is only occasionally that 

 we hear of the members of the fish and game protective 

 societies going into a local election to support a constable 

 or sheriff" or district attorney who has done good service 

 in this respect, or to oi^pose one who has made for him- 

 self a bad record as to fish and game. In Massachusetts, 

 Sheriff Crosby, of Pittsfield, was asked the other day 

 to appoint as a deputy, for special service in 

 enforcing the fish law, a member of the Rod and 

 Grun Club. The sheriff' not only refused to do this but 

 told the seventy petitioners that he didn't think much 

 of the law anyway, didn't see why a man couldn't buy or 

 eat a trout of any size at his own table at any time of 

 year — an official opinion about a law he is sworn to en- 

 force, which recalls the advice of Mr, Robert B. Roose- 

 velt, when as a fish commissioner of this State he in- 

 structed the game protector not to enforce the reed bird 

 law because that statute did not find favor in the Com- 

 missioner's eyes. There is some satisfaction in learning 

 that the Pittsfield Rod and Grun Club members propose to 

 make Sheriff Crosby's dereliction an issue of his cam- 

 paign, and it will be a yet greater satisfaction when elec- 

 tion time comes to record iheir success. A fish commis- 

 sioner who instructs his subordinates not to enforce a 

 certain game law which he disapproves, a sheriff who 

 sneers at a trout law, and a district attorney who as- 

 sumes to have private opinions respecting the woodcock 

 in close season law, may have views on a dozen other 

 subjects, and as public ofiicials will bear watching. 



A German fish breeder has brought suit against the 

 Duchy of Oldenburg to recover for damages for the loss 

 of his fish, which he claims was due to neglect on the 

 part of public officials who permitted drainage from mills 

 to pollute the breeding waters. Yet in this country the 

 public is year after year defrauded of a possible food-fish 

 supply in rivers and streams by the thousand and one 

 pollutions from mills and factories; and in its simplicity 

 the public never dreams of collecting da^magos nor of 

 putting an end tp the costly abuse. 



