AND 



A Weekly Journal of the Rod and Gun. 



Terms, 84 a Year. 10 Cts. a Copy. / 

 Sis Months, $2. C 



NEW YORK, FEBRUARY 9, 1893. 



j VOL. XL.— No. 6. 



( No. 818 Broadtvay, New Yokk. 



Editorial. 



CONTENTS. 



Tlie Kennel. 



The Big Eiver. 



International Fislieries Commis- 

 sion. 



The Sea Otter and the Aleuts. 

 Snap Shots. 



The Sportsman Tourist. 



Hunting in Greenland.— m. 



A Tramp Tlu-ough the Mountains 



The Hermit in His Home. 



Natural History. 



Rahbits and Ferrets. 

 Queer Game for Hawks. 

 Pine Grosbeaks. 



Game Bag and Gun. 



Chicago and the West. 



The "Nessmuk" Memorial. 



The Maine Jack Babbit Scheme. 



Some Notable Shots. 



A Veracious Narration. 



Pennsylvania Game Laws. 



The Big Turkey. 



On the Pampasof EntreEios.-V. 



A Colorado Outrage. 



The Minnesota Game Situation. 



"Podgers's" Commentaries. 



Pattern and Penetration. 



Sea and River Fishing. 



On the North Shore.— V. 



Angling Notes. 



Curious Capture of Mussels. 



Boston and Maine. 



Told on the Way. 



Fishculture. 



Minnesota Commission Report. 



The Fancy in England. 



Mr. Mulcaster's Ride. 



Saratoga Kennel Club. 



The Health of Dogs at Shows. 



Baltimore Dog Show. 



Philadelphia Kennel Club. 



Ulindio Kennel Club. 



Chicago Dog Show. 



Flaps from the Beaver"s Tail. 



Points and Flushes. 



Dog Chat. 



Kennel Notes. 



Answers to Correspondents. 



Yachting. 



Speed Records of American 



Yachts.— m. 

 The Cruise of the Cy-pres. 

 New York Y. E. A. 

 New York Y. C. 

 The Cup Defenders. 

 News Notes. 



Canoeing. 



Fritz Schlaukopf's Canoe. 

 News Notes. 

 Rifle Range and Gallery. 

 Amateur Revolver Champion- 

 ship. 



Trap Shooting. 



Interstate Manufacturers' and 



Dealers' Association. 

 Charity Shoot at Rochester. 

 The Kazoo System. 

 The Powder Challenge Accepted. 

 Drivers and Twisters. 

 Answers to Queries. 



For Prospectus and Advertising Rates see Page V. 



THE BIG RWER. 



In a wide plain at the meeting of the three waters, 

 Gallatin, Madison and Jefferson, is the beginning of the 

 Big River. Around this plain on every side rises a rim of 

 mountains, sometimes in sharp waUs of cold gray rock, or 

 again in gently sloping foothills, clad lower down with 

 aspen and above with dark pine, but ending always in the 

 same gray verdureless pinnacles. This rim seems to cut 

 the valley off from the rest of the world, but there are 

 openings in the walls, and to reach the real head of the 

 mighty stream we must go further back, back to the 

 fields of snow and ice that lie in the gorges of the main 

 divide, back to the boiling springs and geysers of the 

 Yellowstone Park, back to the gray lichen-covered rocks 

 which form the crest of the continental backbone. At 

 the head of the GaUatin, the Firehole, the Beaver Head 

 and Trapper's Creek, the Big Eiver starts. 



Its drops trickle from the edge of snowbanks, or from 

 the crevices of the rocks, and at first hide among the shde 

 rock or creep away beneath the grass and moss of some 

 Alpine ravine, but as they come together and see how 

 many they are, they take courage and seek the light, cut- 

 ting out for themselves tiny channels in the hillside, 

 bounding down cliff faces and forcing their way 

 among the stems of the short grasses and the bushes that 

 grow high up on the slopes. 



At first the waters of the Big Eiver are clear as crystal 

 and in them the trout play, while even yet deer and elk 

 and mountain sheep plunge their slender noses into the 

 limpid current. But as it goes further and further, leaving 

 the pine trees and aspens, the rocks wliich gave it birth 

 and the narrow valleys through which it first hirrried, as 

 its current broadens and its course becomes less swift, as 

 it parts from the mountains and journeys out on to the 

 plain,it loses this crystal clearness,the freshness of its youth. 



Never tiring, it hurries along on its way to the southern 

 sea, passing through many lands and by many peoples. 



From the flat bottom land gray with the silvery frond- 

 age of the sage rose once the homes of the possessors of 

 the land. Some of these homes were conical skin lodges, 

 others larger dweUmgs built of poles and sod, or others 

 still of grass and reeds. About them the children played 

 and the women performed their daily tasks. Hither the 

 men returned from the successful hunt or the war jom-ney ; 

 here children were born and old people died. These walls 

 compassed laughter and tears, joy and gTief, triumph 

 and downheartedness as do our own homes to-day. Here 

 went on the daily life of a simple people who were con- 

 tented and free. 



The Blackf eet call the stream the Big Eiver; the Cheyennes 

 the Eiver of Monsters; the Eees called it Life; the Pawnees 

 aT3.d many others the Medicine water; by all it was rever- 

 enced and feared, to it aU offered sacrifice. For beneath 

 its muddy surface hved strange people and animals, who, 

 if angered by neglect, could bring bad luck, and seize and 

 pull down the swimmer who might tiy to cross it. Or if 

 the presents due had not been made to it, the Underwater 



People might upset the bull boat which was ferrying a 

 family across, and all might die. 



To-day no one makes presents to the Big Eiver. The 

 old behefs and customs have fallen into disuse and are 

 being forgotten. Once a master of the savage, it has be- 

 come the seiwant of the white man, and from far above 

 the junction of the Three Forks it pays him tribute, 

 yielding its waters to freshen and fertilize the crops that 

 he has sown in the groimd. 



INTERNATIONAL FISHERIES COMMISSION. 

 The agreement referred to in our last issue between the 

 Governments of the United States and the United King- 

 dom of Great Britain and Ireland to appoint a commission 

 of experts to consider and report upon the regulations, 

 practice and restrictions proper to be adopted for the 

 promotion of the fishery interests and the preseiwation of 

 food fi.shes was completed Dec. 6, 1893. 



Following out the j)lan of agreement the representative 

 of the United States Government, IMr. Eichard Eathbun, 

 has invited Dr. Wakeham to begin the inquiry in Wash- 

 ington, in order to utilize, as far as available, the infor- 

 mation collected by the U. S. Fish Commission through 

 its extensive investigations, conducted for a number of 

 years by direction of Congress. 



Similar investigations have been pursued in the Domin- 

 ion of Canada, with the result of massing equally valu- 

 able data for the prosecution of a scientific inquiry fike the 

 present undertaking. 



The resources in men and means of the Fish Commis- 

 sions of the two coimtries will be applied as far as practi- 

 cable to the purposes of the joint commission. 



The nature of the inquiries to be entered into by the 

 Commissioners was announced in our columns. Their 

 reports will be laid before their respective governments, 

 and after consideration will, if practicable, be made the 

 basis of an understanding which may lead to a treaty or 

 concurrent legislation on the part of the governments, re- 

 inforced and given full effect by legislation of the States 

 and Provinces concerned. 



It is greatly to be desired that the vai-ious interests in- 

 cluded in the scope of this agreement will unite upon 

 such measures as may be shown necessary to the ends 

 sought — ^the promotion of fishing industries and the pres- 

 ervation of food fish. We hope to see also, as one of the 

 early results of the inquiry, an adequate acount of the 

 aquatic animals of the Dominion of Canada with suitable 

 illustrations. There is not in existence even a complete 

 list of the fishes of the country. 



town last year, sixteen natives lost all they possessed and 

 were left destitute. (Only two otters were secured on the 

 Aleutian Islands in 1892.) The loss of his gun deprives the 

 native of the power to get sea lions, which are essential as 

 a source of food and clothing. Many of the 'families of 

 Belkovsky and Morzhovoi are without the necessaries of 

 life unless they have become the objects of charity. 



Mr. Townsend was informed that not more than 1,000 

 sea otters were taken in Alaska in 1891. The catch of 1892 

 is not yet known. A new engine of destruction of recent 

 introduction in the otter fishery is the steam larmch. By 

 this means, in 1892, the schooner Herman secured 78, the 

 St. Paul 51 and the Pearl 68 sea otters. 



Mr. Townsend's remarks were based upon his personal 

 experience gained during seven voyages to different parts 

 of Alaska. He does not consider the use of guns and nets 

 by the natives likely to cause the extermination or further 

 reduction of the animal. It is caught in considerable 

 numbers annually with nets about the Commander Islands ; 

 fifty-six were netted in a single night in May, 1893, just 

 prior to the arrival of the steamer Albatross at the islands. 

 When taken in nets the females are always spared and 

 none are wounded or frightened away from the coast. 



In order to preserve the otter and aid the impoverished 

 natives, Mr. Townsend made the following recommenda- 

 tions: 



(1) "Let natives be exempted from aU restrictions that 

 may be placed on the otter fishery by Government, as 

 their guns and nets are actual necessities in gaining a 

 livehhood and they should be allowed free use of them. 



(2) ' 'Reserve Sannak Island with its surrounding rocks 

 and other sections of the otter's habitat if necessary. 



(3) "Introduce domestic cattle among all natives of the 

 Aleutian chain of islands, or remove the natives to favora- 

 ble places on the mainland." 



THE SEA OTTER AND THE ALEUTS. 



The Treasury Department circular in regard to the seal 

 fisheries of Alaska provides, among other things, that the 

 use of rifles, shotguns or other firearms by the natives in 

 killing sea otters or the use of nets in taking them is 

 hereby i)i'ohibited. 



The effect upon the natives of the enlorcement of this 

 clause of the regulations was the subject of an address by 

 Mr. Charles H. Townsend before the Biological Society of 

 Washington at its last meeting. 



My. Townsend stated that nine-tenths of the native and 

 white population along nearly 2,000 miles of coast Hue are 

 directly supported by the otter fishery. The sea otter 

 hunters have no other trade. "White hunters," he said, 

 '•can usually take care of themselves, but it is a serious 

 matter for aU these people, so long accustomed to the 

 ordinary clothing and staples of civilization, to be de- 

 prived of everything, and, without warning, thrown back 

 on the almost forgotten methods of procuring food prac- 

 ticed by their wild ancestors; and that, also, on remote 

 and inliospitable shores from which the abimdant game 

 of early times has vanished. Esquimaux and other main- 

 land natives always have the resources of the great inte- 

 rior of Alaska to draw upon, and live in close contact 

 with nature; but the civilized and docile Aleuts of this 

 stormy, sea-beat archipelago five, move and have their 

 being by himting the sea otter. 



Therefore, if the weKare of the native people of Alaska 

 is taken into consideration, the preservation of the sea 

 otter is a more important matter than the preservation of 

 the fur seal, for the accomphshment of which onr Gov- 

 ernment is sparing no expense. We have purchased from 

 Eussia not only the seal and sea otter fisheries, but also 

 the native races themselves, which are worthy of consid- 

 eration as well as the marine mammals." 

 Through the seizure of gims and outfits by the York 



SNAP SHOTS. 

 That is an engaging subject upon which "George Ken- 

 nedy" writes this week— engaging because of its wildness. 

 Of all the shy woods creatures whose hidden lives and 

 mysterious ways pique our curiosity and allm-e to study, 

 the shyest and most fascinating is the human being, who, 

 withdrawing from his fellows, "goes off to hide," and, 

 dwelling in solitude, shuns the approach of man. Since 

 the followers of the rod and the gun are aU the time jour- 

 neying into such out of the way places and into the by- 

 paths of the world, in search of other hidden and hiding 

 creatures, our correspondent suggests they are peculiarly 

 fitted to teU about the hermit, because to them he has re- 

 vealed himself, shyly and unwillingly and tantalizingly, 

 it may be; and we gladly second Mr. Kennedy's call for 

 further notes on this shrinking woods dweller. 



Perhaps if the proposal to introduce the^ pestiferous 

 jack rabbit into Maine were sifted, it would be found that 

 some indiAddual, personal interest was at the bottom of 

 it. As a matter of fact, in Maine, as in most other portions 

 of the continent, the supply of vermin is now more gen- 

 erous than is desirable; and the projectors of additions to 

 the native stock should be compelled to show cause why 

 their schemes should not be squelched for the public 

 good. We reproduce a photograph showing the result of 

 one Sunday's jack rabbit drive in California. This pic- 

 ture of the clubs, the clubbers and the clubbed is full of 

 suggestion and warning for those who propose the State 

 farming of jack rabbits. 



At a hearing by the Albany Committee on Game and 

 Fish last Tuesday, it was wisely determined to defer 

 action on bills under consideration, pending the re- 

 ceipt of a brief from the State Fisheries Commissioh 

 and Chief Protector Pond, which wiU be prepared at the 

 next meeting of the Commission on Feb. 15. We beheve 

 that President Huntmgton and the other members of the 

 Commission share the views expressed by the State Asso- 

 tiation in the Syracuse convention, that the present law 

 should be retained substantially as it is, and that provision 

 for f m-ther protection should be left to county supervisors. 



Dr. Sweeny's report on Minnesota game should have 

 careftd reading. He pictures a desperate condition of 

 things, but that the situation is so clearly rmderstood and 

 that the remedy is being sought by such capable men as 

 Dr. Sweeny and IVIr. Andrus and their associates affords 

 ample promise that the evils wiU be corrected. 



One of the signs of the times; a growing tendency to 

 criticise large bags of game, 



