Forest and Stream 



A Weekly Journal of the Rod and Gun. 



Terms, $4 a Year. 10 Cts. a Copy. I 

 Six Months, $2. ( 



NEW YORK, MARCH 23, 1893. 



( VOL. XL.-No. 12. 



I No. 318 Bboadway, Nbw York. 



CONTENTS. 



Tags Are Tin- American. 

 Possession in Close Season. 

 Public Fish and Private Waters. 



The Sportsman Tourist. 



Camping on the Tenderfoot. 

 "Nessmuk." 



Natural History. 



Bird Chat. 



The Pueblo Beaver Colony. 

 "Blackfoot Lodge Tales." 



Game Bag and Gun. 



"Podgers" on Pacific Ducking. 

 A Story with a Moral. 

 New Mexico Bears and Bear 

 Dogs. 



Chicago and the West. 

 Some Maine Deer Grounds. 

 Judge Green Pleads Extenuating 



Circumstances. 

 Boston and Maine. 

 The King of Northern Maine. 

 Nova Scotia Moose Snares. 



Sea and River Fishing, 



Walton and Cotton's Fishing 

 House. 



Crooked Lake, Michigan.— II. 

 In the Wilds of Potter. 

 Illinois Wardens Work for Love. 

 Chicago and the West. 

 Angling Notes. 



Sea and River Fishing. 



Government Exhibit at Chicago. 

 When Do They Spawn? 



The Kennel. 



Washington Dog Show. 

 Death of J. M. Tracy. 

 "Kennel Secrets." 

 Detroit Do^ Show. 

 Where is the Cocker as a Sport- 

 ing Dog? 

 Self-Hunting Dogs. 

 Flaps from the Beaver's Tail. 

 Dog Chat. 



Answers to Correspondents. 

 Yachting. 

 A Vacation Voyage. — H. 

 Yachting vs. Hay Fever. 

 Royal Victoria Y. C. Cup. 

 Yachts at the World's Fair. 

 Scotch Lugger Nos. 

 News Notes. 



Canoeing. 



The Canoeists" Club. 

 News Notes. 



Rifle Range and Gallery. 



Eifle Notes. 

 Trap Shooting. 



Live Birds at Bloomsburg. 

 The Eastern T^ew York League. 

 Drivers and Twisters. 

 Answers to Queries. 



J^ffr Prospectus and Advertising Rates see Page VII ^ 



TAGS ARE UN-AMEBICAN. 



The most interesting point of the newly-adopted New 

 Jersey game and fisli law, of which the general provisions 

 were given in our issue of March 9, is the repeal of the 

 former statute requiring non-residents to take out 

 licenses for shooting and fishing. On the other hand, it 

 is reported that the Maine license scheme may be put 

 through in the Legislatm-e of that State. 



And now Mchigan falls into line 'with a hunter's license 

 project of the same order. The Michigan bill is closely 

 modeled after the Canadian laws, which require licenses 

 from sportsmen going across the line from the United 

 States. The provisions of the bill now under considera- 

 tion are, briefly, that no one who is not actually a resi- 

 dent of Michigan shall kiU any bird or animal without 

 first having taken out a license (fee $10), good for the 

 year of issue, which license shall be exhibited to any one 

 who asks to see it; penalty for being without the license, 

 or for refusing to show it, is a fine of $50 or imprison- 

 ment. The bill may be amended also to apply to fishing. 



In their origin these discriminations against non-resi- 

 dents usually have some apparent justification, The 

 New Jersey law, as enforced in the eastern counties of 

 the State, has been employed as a defense against the in- 

 cursions of hordes of irresponsible gunners (not sports- 

 men) from New York city; and while certain thrifty 

 sharpers over on the Palisades have under the cover of 

 the statute practiced a system of blackmail, for which 

 they should have gone to jail, the respectable i^rotective 

 associations, such as Mr. Force's society in Plainfield, 

 have used the law honestly, with pure motives and good 

 effect. We assume that the Michigan measure has been 

 suggested as a remedy against the market-himters from 

 outside the State who are destroying the game, and if 

 this theory is correct, the aim of the proposed law is 

 good. 



But, after all and at the best, while non-resident license 

 laws may be right and fan- as between citizens and sub- 

 jects of different governments, they do not appear just 

 and becoming as between citizens of a common covmtry. 

 Whatever may be their usefulness in protecting game, 

 surely there is in them something unpatriotic and un- 

 Amex'ican. Nothing can be wise nor commendable that 

 tends to build higher the barriers of sectionalism between 

 the people of one State and those of another; that encour- 

 ages sectional jealousies; that suppresses the feeling that 

 we are all of us citizens of one common country; and that 

 emphasizes in the stead of this the less noble suggestion 

 that the resident of Ehode Island is an alien in Maine, he 

 of Illinois an alien in Michigan. Americans, even the 

 most liberal of them, are narrow enough, heaven knows, 

 in their sectional prejudices, without finding themselves 

 discriminated against and taxed and subjected to a pass- 

 port system when they stray from their own State into 

 another. 



The average sportsman— the man who goes from his 

 own home into other sections for his shooting or fishing — 

 is inclined to be more Hberal than some othei-s in this 

 regard. He is more liberal becaiLse he has seen the coun- 

 try and mingled Avith the people, and has found out that 



his fellow American wherever he may dwell is after all 

 the right sort of man. Sportsmen then as a class should 

 seek to secure game protection without calling into oper- 

 ation statutes which in their essence are the reverse of 

 liberal, the revei'se of fraternal, and so it may be repeated 

 are un-American. A non-resident law should be the very 

 last expedient for protecting game or for insuring the suc- 

 cess of any other cause, social or political. 



It is said for these laws that probably they do not vio- 

 late the Constit"ution of the United States. But even if 

 they be within the letter, they may be none the less in 

 conflict with the spirit of that instrument. The Fathers 

 certainly never intended nor foresaw a condition of local 

 restrictions in these United States when the Massachu- 

 setts man who goes into the Maine forests must take out 

 a passport, or the Maine man who shoots game in New 

 Jersey must be registered, or the New Jersey man who 

 visits Maryland must be tagged, or the Maryland man 

 who invades the deer wilds of Michigan must wear his 

 label. There is a law now going into effect which re- 

 requires Chinamen to be photographed and listed; when 

 it is proposed to treat native born United States citizens 

 after that manner, the time has come for us to ask in all 

 seriousness, where are we at? 



Game preservation is important, and cA^ery necessary 

 expedient for insuring it should be adopted; but we be- 

 lieve that the desired end may be secured by statutes 

 based on unobjectionable principles. 



THE DELMONICO WOODCOCK. 



Following our publication in the March 2 issue of the 

 story of how the Delmonico woodcock case has been mis- 

 managed by Assistant District Attorney Townsend, the 

 case was set for trial in the City Court, before Judge 

 McGown, on March 9, when, at the instance of the de- 

 fendants, it was again postponed. 



One very curious phase of the business is that though 

 the case was set for the 9th, Protector Kidd, who is of 

 course the chief witness for the people, was not apprised 

 of this until the following week, nor can we learn that 

 any of the other witnesses for the prosecution were sub- 

 poenaed. The case has been put down again for next 

 Friday, March 24; and it is to be hoped that Mr. Towns- 

 end will take the usual precautions to have his witnesses 

 ready and his evidence in shape. After all these months 

 and years of patient waiting, the siiortsmen of New York 

 will not be particularly edified by the failure of the pros- 

 ecution if that failure shall be due to any dereliction on 

 the part of Assistant District Attorney Townsend. 



As for Protector Kidd, we advise him to come down 

 with his blankets and camp on the steps of the City Hall 

 until the case is actually on. Judging from past experi- 

 ence there will be several more postponements and delays 

 on one pretext or another. 



That Delmonico July, 1890, woodcock case must be dis- 

 posed of, and if District Attorney DeLancey NicoU has 

 seen half of the newspapers which have copied our inter- 

 esting little story of March 2, he will agree with us in 

 this. 



PUBLIC FISH AND PRIVATE WATERS. 



Massachdsetts has followed the good example set by 

 Michigan in respect to the distribution of State fish for 

 private watei-s. A statute just enacted prescribes that the 

 Fish Coaimissioners shall fm'iiish no trout nor trout 

 spawn to any individual or corporation, for stocking- 

 waters under the control of such individual, without first 

 having exacted an agreement that the waters so stocked 

 with State fish shall be free to the pubHc for fishing 

 during the lawful open fishing seasons. This is hard, 

 practical, common sense; and it is justice too. 



We have said more than once that the citizens of a 

 State should not be taxed for the hatching of fish to be 

 given to a private party no more than they should be 

 taxed to hatch chickens for a private party. 



There is no more pronounced trait of human nature than 

 an eagerness to get something for notliing, to be a dead- 

 head when deadheadism is possible, to sponge on the 

 public. This trait is manifested strongly and indecently 

 by individuals who cry for fish furnished at the public 

 expense. The Pennsylvania Fish Commissionei-s told, 

 at the last meeting of the American Fisheries Society, 

 how people in their State would send in for trout over 

 and over again, tinder assumed names, and actually 

 lie unblushingly, all for the sake of getting what cost 

 ' them nothing. In New York State the records of the 



Fish Commission will show a like experience. One name 

 appeai'ing among the regular annual applicants for the 

 gratuitous issue of trout fry is that of the president of one 

 of our largest life insurance companies, a man who is 

 abundantly able to pay a hundred times over for what 

 trout he requires for stocking his own posted trout brook. 

 And yet this man, not content with getting from the 

 public hatcheries all the fish he can beg in his own name, 

 sends other applications in the names of other people, 

 and does it year after year. 



At the recent meeting of the Megantic Club in this city 

 ex-Fish Commissioner Blackford expressed his opinion 

 that the province of State activity in fishculture was in 

 the increase of the food fish supply, the fish that people 

 buy in the market; while the propagation of trout for 

 sport should be an enterprise left to individuals and clubs 

 and associations. These views are shared by a growing 

 number of men interested in fishculture. It is probable 

 that when the public fully comprehend that a large share 

 of the jaroducts of State trout culture go to the benefit of 

 a comparatively few individuals, more than one legisla- 

 ture wiU follow the lead of Michigan and Massachusetts. 



POSSESSION IN CLOSE SEASON. 



Mr. H. D. McGuiRE, the newly appointed State fish 

 and game warden of Oregon, has alrpady started in to 

 make things interesting. He has brought suit against a 

 Portland cold storage establishment for possession of 

 frozen salmon in the close season, during w-hich period 

 the law prohibits having in possession. There is no 

 ambiguity in the terms of the statute, but the cold storage 

 people, who received the fish in open season and were 

 simply holding it in cold storage for its owners, contend 

 that the prohibition was never intended to apisly to law- 

 fully caught salmon preserved by freezing any more than 

 to fish preserved by canning or by smoking. 



This contention has been made by dealers in game and 

 fish many times before, but it has been overthrown in 

 com-t. The Phelps-Eacey case in New York State is a 

 familiar precedent. In this case a dealer of this city was 

 prosecuted for having quail in possession in the close sea- 

 son. He set up for his defense that the birds had been 

 killed lawfully, and were preserved by cold storage. The 

 defense would not hold; and he paid his fine. 



Prohibition of the sale of game and fish in close season 

 is recognized by all practical and experienced individuals 

 and societies engaged in game protection as an absolute es- 

 sential. Without shutting down the market sale of game 

 and fish in close season tho laws would be in large meas- 

 ure farcical. 



SNAP SHOTS. 



What a beautiful tribute from one poet to another is 

 that of James Whitcomb Riley's sonnet, "Nessmuk," 

 printed on the following page. Of the bronze medallion 

 portrait, of which an illustration was given last week, 

 Capt. L. A. Beardslee ("Piseco") writes: Permit me to add 

 mine to the many compliments and congratulations you 

 will undoubtedly receive from friends of 'Nessmuk' on 

 the wonderfully good Kkeness of the old woodsman that 

 Mr. Brewster has produced. I have a photograph of him 

 that does not more closely resemble the mental picture 

 that has staid with me for years." 



That is a remarkable and interesting story sent to us by 

 Mr. J. Parker Whitney of a colony of beavers which have 

 taken up their abode in the city of Pueblo, Col. It may 

 be already too late for the suggestion, but if the creatures 

 have not already been destroyed, some one should make 

 it his immediate business to provide for the colony's pro- 

 tection and preservation. A city that can boast such an 

 unique attraction should constitute itself in very truth a 

 '•city of refuge" for the wild Avoods creatures that have 

 put themselves under its protection. 



J. M. Tracy, Avho died at Ocean Springs, Miss. , last Mon- 

 day, Avill be remembered by his associates as an accom- 

 plished sportsman, a companionable comrade and a man 

 of high thinking and noble aims. His distinctive place as 

 a field artist and painter of dogs is not likely soon to be 

 filled by another. 



The old term "shooting flying" has come to have a 

 double significance in these days of both shotgnns and 

 cameras. Mr. Edward E, Hardy sends us a pretty bit of 

 achievement in "shooting flying" Avith the amateur 

 camera: and the picture is reproduced on another page. 



