Forest and Stream 



A Weekly Journal of the Rod and Gun. 



Terms, i 



4 A Yeab. 10 Cts. a Copy. I 

 Six Months, S2. ( 



NEW YORK, SEPTEMBER 16, 1892. 



( VOL. XXXIX.-No. 11 



I No. 318 Broadwat, New York. 



CONTENTS. 



Editorial. 



Wood for the Pirp. 

 The Rail Shooting. 

 Dog Taxes and Uog Destruc- 

 tion. 



The Naval Reserve. 

 Schooner Racing. 



Thie Sportsman Tourist. 



A Camper's Diary.— ii. 

 The Old Camp. 



la Memoriam John (i. Whit- 

 tier. 



Natural History. 



Life Histories of North Ameri- 

 can Birds. 



Game Bag and Gun. 



Notes from the Game Fields. 

 Arkansas Non-Export Law. 

 New England Grame and Fish. 

 Chicago and the West. 



Sea and River Fishing- 

 Angling Notes, 

 Let Nature Alone. 

 Chicago and the West. 

 A Dav on Astal Lake. 

 Wtiy the Fish Are Pew. 

 "Podgers" Tell* of Salmon. 

 *'Picl<erel'' or "Pike.'" 

 The Kentucky Pish Bill. 

 Some MichiganTroutS treams 



The Kennel. 

 Northwestern P. T. C. Trials. 



The Kennel. 



American Kennel Club Meet- 

 ing. 



Judging by Scoring. 



Should Judges be Their Own 



Critics? 

 Gordons in the N. E. Trials. 

 BuU-Terriera Again. 

 American Field Trial Derby. 

 Toronto Dog Show. 

 Dog Chat. 



Answers to Correspondents. 

 Yachting. 

 American Model Y. C. 

 Yacbtsat Columbian Exhibi- 

 tion. 

 Beverlv Y. C. 

 Lynn Y. C. 

 News Notes. 



Canoeing. 



The Song My Paddie Sings. 

 Eastern Division Meet. 

 Holyoke C. C. 



Rifle Range and Gallery. 



Massachusetts State Shoot. 

 On Jersey's Sea G-irt Shore. 



Trap Shooting, 



Central Illinois Fourteenth 



Annual, 

 Michigan Trap - Shootex's' 



League. 

 Once a Year. 

 Answers to Queries. 



For Prospectus and Advertising- Rates see Page v. 



OUB COLUMBUS NUMBER. 



The Forest and Stream of Oct. 5dO (the day before the 

 Columbus celebration) will be a special Columbus 

 number. The contents, both text and illustrations, will 

 relate largely to the age of Columbus, and will be as in- 

 teresting as unique. 



WOOD FOB THE FIBE. 



To the traveler on the plains or in the mountains there 

 are three essentials to a good camp. These are wood, 

 water and grass. The water is necessary to men and ani- 

 mals alike, while the wood is required for cooking, and 

 grass for the aniinals. 



It is not always possible to obtain all three of these. In 

 the old days on the plains "dry camps" were not un- 

 usual, though of tener one had to camp by alkali pools, 

 whose acrid water gave little relief to the thirsty stock, 

 and which the men could hardly drink, even in their 

 coiiee. So, too, it was often necessary to camp where 

 there was little or no grass. In such cases there was 

 nothing to do but tie up the poor animals to the wagon- 

 wheels, and let them starve till daylight. If turned loose 

 they would be sure to wander away in search of food, and 

 in the morning might not be found. 



In the old times on the prairie travelers were sometimes 

 obliged to camp without wood ; but this did not occur 

 very often. Usually bushes would be found along the 

 streams — a few dried willow twigs— or there would be 

 sage brush , or the almost universal Tjois de vaehes — cow 

 wood— the buffalo chip. Any of these would do to cook 

 with. 



In the mountains good wood, water and gi-ass are 

 almost always to be had. As a rule, the steep slopes are 

 timber clad, and the stream bottoms wooded. There is 

 sage brush on the prairie, and groves of aspens 

 scattered among the foothills. Even in the midst of 

 this abundance, the careful traveler does not go 

 about collecting his wood at haphazard. He knows 

 that thore are different degrees of excellence among 

 the sorts that he has to choose from, and he selects that 

 kind which experience has shown him to be best 

 suited to his needs. He remembers that pine, while ex- 

 cellent for a camp fire, owing to the brightness with 

 which it burns, is not the best wood in the world to cook 

 with, since it is likely to smoke his viands and give them 

 an unpleasant taste. Fir, he will not; have at all, if any 

 other wood can be secured. It is continually snapping 

 and fills the frying-pan with coals. If it is used for a fire 

 by which to sleep, it covers one's blankets with coals and 

 sparks, burning many a hole in them, and obliging the 

 man when he first lies down to sit up at frequent inter- 

 vals and brush off the fire from his bed or clothing. This, 

 if he is tired and sleepy, leads to the use of language 

 entirely unscriptural. Sage brush makes a good fire for 

 cooking and a pleasant, bright blaze to sit by, but it is too 

 unsubstantial, and a fire of sage brush has to be constantly 

 renewed. The same is true of any light brush that flares 

 up for a moment and then burns down. 



The ideal wood for the fire, whether it be for cooking, 

 or to sit by after the meal is over, is dry aspen. It burns 

 with a bright, clear flame and with little smoke, and 

 when it has died down to coals makes the best possible 

 fire to cook over. And then after the meal is over, as we 

 light our j)ipe8 and stretch out our feet toward the fire, 

 some one of the party lays on two or three sticks from 

 the pile of split wood near at hand, the cheerful blaze 

 rises, and we do indeed take our ease, if not in our inn, 

 at least in our lodge. Each man provides himself with a 

 splinter from the sticks, or with a slender branch, which 

 he can light at the blaze if he needs it, or with which he 

 can easily rake out a coal from the ashes to renew the 

 light in his pipe, which has perhaps gone out while he 

 was earnestly talking. With this fire there is no snap- 

 ping. No need now to dodge a shower of sparks, which, 

 bursting with a loud report from a blazing log, fly in all 

 directions, or to jump up and brush off a live coal, which 

 has been thrown on a piece of canvas which is likely to 

 char and smoulder until a great hole is burned in it. 



An aspen fire gives no trouble, only warmth, cheeriness 

 and a bright light by which one may read, write or sew. 

 Blessed be the aspen. 



DOG TAXES AND DOG DESTRUUTIOA, 

 Mr. a. C, Collins, of Hartford, Conn., has been study- 

 ing up the dog killing question, and in a letter in the 

 Hartford Times contends that those statutes are unconsti- 

 tutional which provide for the summary destruction of 

 dogs upon which taxes have not been paid. The subject 

 is one which may well receive attention. In many 

 Slates the dog is recognized as property, and the ownet'd 

 property rights in it may be enforced in the courts of 

 law against dog thieves or dog killers. Yet in these same 

 States the law provides that if the tax on the same dog 

 go unpaid the constable or dog killer or some other pub- 

 lic oflftcial may club or shoot on sight. This, it is con- 

 tended, constitutes confiscation and destruction of prop- 

 erty without "due process of law." Other property 

 is destroyed in a like manner, notably unlawful fish- 

 ing nets. The Legislature of this State declared nets 

 set contrary to law to be public nuisances and as such 

 subject to summary seizure and burning. This course 

 has been followed by the game protectors. In one case, 

 however, a protector who had destroyed unlawful nets 

 was sued for their value, on the very ground that their 

 destruction had not been after due process of law; and it 

 was also contended that the Legislature had no power to 

 provide for such destruction. The courts of the State 

 sustained the law, and the case is now before the United 

 States Supreme Court, S^meof our kennel clubs might 

 do a public service by testing the constitutional^ity of the 

 dog law. There is slight probability that any individual 

 will take this up, for the average man will not go to the 

 trouble and expense of fighting in the courts over a dead 

 dog. 



THE BAIL SHOOTING. 



Now, according to the seasons and the signs we shoujd 

 all be going rail shooting. The nights are growing cooler; 

 the corn grass, or wild rice, is heading out; the woods 

 along the marshes are showing the red and yellow tints 

 of autumn; golden rod and aster brighten the roadsides, 

 and cardinal flowers flame in the edge of the marsh. 

 Over the water and along the distant hillsides hangs, 

 morning and evening, the light haze of early autumn. 

 Along the shore may be heard the mellow whistle of the 

 beach bird, and from the little pond holes in the wet 

 meadows we may now and then start a black duck or two 

 or a little bunch of blue- winged teal. The time is at hand. 

 The rail should be here. For the last three or four years, 

 however, there have been no birds. On grounds where 

 it was formerly no unusual thing to kill ninety rail in a 

 tide, the gunner may now count himself fortunate if he 

 secures one-fourth that number. The season opens early 

 and all the birds bred on those marshes which are most 

 accessible are shot long before any flight-birds arrive. 

 When the flight birds come they are killed as soon as 

 they reach the ground, and so there is no good shooting. 



The extermination of the rail may well be viewed with 

 alarm by gunners. There is perhaps no kind of shooting 

 which affords greater attractions or variety than this at 

 so light a cost in the shape of effort, and it is sad to see 

 the sport diminishing year by year, merely because it is 

 overdone. What remedy— if any — can be suggested 

 which will apj)eal to shooters generally it is hard to say. 



One thing, however, is certain, that nothing would be 

 easier than to protect the grounds where rail are shot. 

 And if a general close time extending over several years 

 should be agreed on by a number of adjacent States, and 

 enforced during the month of September, we might after 

 a few years see something like the old-fashioned flights 

 and the "boats" of twenty years ago. 



But this state of things is not likely to come about. 

 We are most of us too anxious to get the last bird that 

 flies, too much afraid that if we do not kill it some one 

 else will. There is too much human nature and too little 

 public spirit in each one of us. If it were not so, game 

 would be more plenty everywhere. 



It is to be feared that at the close of the present rail 

 season it will be found that the marshes have again been 

 bare of birds, and that the youngsters of to-day can 

 shoot rail only by getting their fathers and their uncles 

 to tell them of the good old days of twenty years ago. 



SCHOONER BACING. 



One of the unexpected things which has lately hap- 

 pened in yachting is the marked revival of schooner 

 racing, a revival as unaccountable as the sudden decline 

 a few years since. The success of Sichem in 1886 and 

 '87, followed by the rebuilding and improvement of 

 the former champion Grayling, created an interest in 

 schooner racing that was only second to that in the great 

 single-stickers. With the addition of Miranda, Sea Fox, 

 Elma, Quickstep, Iroquois, Marguerite, OUaone, May- 

 flower, Atlantic, Constellation, and later the rebuilt Vol- 

 unteer, a very strong racing fleet was built up between 

 1887 and 1891. In spite of this building the racing fell 

 off rapidly until at the end of last season the schooner 

 classes were to all appearances as dead as the 90 and 70ft. 

 single-stick classes. 



Just what has started them into new life it is hari to 

 say, the purchase of Constellation by Mr. Bayard Thayer 

 has helped, and the building of the steel SO-footers Lasca 

 and Alcgea has done still more, but it has often been proved 

 that the building of new boats does not of necessity mean 

 more racing. 



Whatever the cause or causes may be, the result is emi- 

 nently satisfactory; there has been good racing through 

 the whole season in all classes, from the 60 ft. upward to 

 the largest, and this racing has not been limited to new 

 and modern yachts alone, but such older craft as Azalea, 

 E imona and Montauk have started repeatedly, and in 

 many cases with gratifying results to their owners. The 

 season closes quite brilliantly with three races within a 

 week, the final one being that of the New York Y. 0. to- 

 day. Better than this is the fact that the large schooner 

 fleet in commission and in active racing this year is likely 

 to be augmented by at least one 90 footer this winter, and 

 possibly one or two of the Quickstep class, 



THE NAVAL RESERVE. 

 The New York yachtsmen who make up the majority 

 of the first battalion of the State Naval Reserve, have 

 been called on for actual service for the first time since 

 their enlistment, and some 300 of them are now doing 

 duty at Fire Island, being called on to protect the cabin 

 passengers of the quarantined steamer Normannia in their 

 occupancy of the Surf Hotel, on property just purchased 

 by the State. As was to be expected the men turned out 

 promptly for a service that was, at the best, hard and 

 disagreeable, in the face of an easterly gale, and that also 

 promised to be serious, though the opposing force of bay- 

 men has since dispersed peaceably. 



The Supreme Court of Arkansas has sustained the law 

 which forbids the export of game arid fish. The statute 

 of 1889 declared game and fish to be the property of the 

 State, and the taking of them to be a privilege granted 

 by the State to individuals; and the privilege was limited 

 to taking for consumption within the State. The de- 

 cision, printed elsewhere, affirms the power of the State 

 to impose such limitations; and indeed this is the only 

 logical conclusion. That the case has been carried through 

 with success is largely due to the able attorney for the 

 State, J. M. Rose, Esq., of Little Rock, 



The first quarterly meeting of the executive committee 

 of the New York State Association for the Protection of 

 Fish and Game will be held in Syracuse, Oct, 13, As the 

 purpose of the meeting will be in large measure for 

 organization, it is important that all clubs should be rep- 

 reseutecl. 



