Forest and Stream. 



A Weekly Journal of the Rod and Gun. 



Terms, $4 a Year. 10 Cts. a Copy. 1 

 Sis Months, $3. j 



NEW YORK, MAY 11, 1893. 



j VOL. XL.-NO. 19. 



( No. 318 Broadway, New Yoke. 



COOTENTS. 



Editorial. 



Capercailzie for America. 

 The Florida "Volcano.'" 

 Snap Shots. 



The Sportsman Tourist. 



The Green Bay Monster. 



Natural History, 



The Pheasant's Worth. 

 Spring Notes. 



The Wood Bison and Musis; Ox. 

 Among Michigan Birds. 



Game Bag and Gun. 



Deer in Maine. 



Notable Shots. 



Powder and Shot Measures. 



Quail Shooting in Delaware. 



A Tough Wolt. 



A Memory. 



The Hallensee Powder Tests. 

 Sea and River Fishing. 



On the North Shore —in. 

 Angling Notes. 

 Maine Fishing in May. 

 Forest and Stream in the World's 

 Fah. 



Large-Mouth and Small-Mouth. 

 To Anglers About Visiting 



Canada. 

 One Way of Killing Salmon. 

 Ohio Fish Legislation. 

 That Prehistoric Reel. 



Fishculture. 



Valuable Papers Burned. 



The Kennel. 



San Francisco Dog Show. 

 Instinct and Reason. 

 "Our Bulldog Pictures." 

 World's Fair Show. 

 Beagle Type. 



Flaps from the Beaver's Tail. 

 Points and Flushes. 

 Dog Chat. 



Answers to Correspondents. 



Yachting. 



Corinthian Mosquito Fleet. 

 The Seabury Works at Nyack. 

 Qardner-Mosher Steam Yachts. 

 Britannia and Valkyrie. 

 Measurement About Boston. 

 International Racing. 

 News Notes. 



Canoeing. 



News Notes. 

 Rifle Range and Gallery. 



Chicago Rifles. 

 Rifle Notes. 



Trap Shooting. 



WilHamsport Tom-nament. 

 Pacific Coast Shots. 

 Chicago Traps. 

 Drivers and Twisters. 

 Answers to Queries. 



J^or Prospectus and Advertising Rates see Page 421. 



On and, after May 1 the Western office of Forest 

 and Stream Pub. Co. will be permanently located 

 at 909 Security Building, cor. Fifth avenue and 

 Madison street, Chicago. 



CAPERCAILZIE FOB AMERICA. 



We take pleasure in announcing what we believe to be 

 the first importation of live capercailzie to Anaerica, a 

 brace of these birds having arrived in New York from 

 Christiansand, Sweden, on the steamer Russia, last Friday. 

 They were consigned to the Forest and Stream and were 

 for the Hon. D. F. Stillman, of Westerly, E. I., to whom 

 we have forwarded them. 



In our issue of May 8, 1890, we printed a report of the 

 State Department by the Hon. W. W. Thomas, Jr., 

 Minister to Sweden, in which he recommended the intro- 

 duction to American forests of the capercailzie (Tetrao 

 urogallus) and the black game (T. tetrix). In this report 

 Mr. Thomas showed that these splendid species of grouse 

 would probably do weU in any part of the United States 

 where the ruffed grouse is to be found, and especially re- 

 commended the birds for the wooded districts of New 

 England, New York, Pennsylvania and the wooded slopes 

 of the Rocky Mormtains, as well as other forest-clad 

 mountains of the West. He showed also that capercail- 

 zie and black game had been shipped of late years from 

 Sweden to variotis parts of Germany, Austria and Hun- 

 gary, where both species were once abundant but had 

 been exterminated, and also called attention to the well- 

 known fact that the capercailzie had been re-introduced 

 and become established in Scotland. At that time we 

 urged that experiments should be made with both these 

 grouse, which can be obtained in Sweden without much 

 difficulty, and which seem to be sufficiently hardy to 

 endure transportation without great loss. 



Accompanying the bUl of ladin 5 which reached us from 

 Mr, Anderson, the shipper, is the following letter: 

 Editor Forest and Stream: 



I send this day two cases of game birds as recommended by Mr. 

 Thomas, of Stockholm, and IMr. 0. O. Wibert, of Hersleholm, accord- 

 ing to an article pubhshed in your paper of May 8, 3890. More game 

 birds ^^^ll be sent to America. I think the most convenient time to 

 ship would be October and November. I have sent hundreds of them 

 to Southern Europe, Vienna and other places, crated like those I sent 

 to-day, and have only lost 2 or 3 per cent, by death. I have had a 

 great deal of experience with feathered and horned game, and find that 

 they stand transportation better on the water than by raUroad, 2 to 1. 

 A special person is looking after the consignment I ship to-day. I am 

 very anxious to hear how they ai-rive. 



The capercailzie is the largest of all the grouse family, 

 the full grown male bird weighing from 10 to 141bs., while 

 the female is somewhat smaller. It is a denizen of the 

 pine and fii- forests of northern climates, its food consist- 

 ing largely of the buds and leaves of ti-ees, the needles of 

 pine and spruce, berries of all sorts, seed grain and in- 

 sects. As our own dusky grouse is said to do in winter, 

 the capercailzie often lives for days in the same pine tree, 

 feeding upon the leaves and young cones. The female 

 makes her nest upon the ground, and lays from six to a 

 dozen eggs. It is said that after the young are hatched 

 and old enough to fly a little, the birds always roost in 

 the trees. 



Lloyd in his "Field Sports of the North of Europe," 



tells ua that the capercailzie is often domesticated in 

 Sweden, and that he has known birds of this species to 

 be kept for a long time in aviaries built for the purpose. 

 They became perfectly tame and remained healthy, feeding 

 on oats and the leaves of the Scotch fir, large branches of 

 which were introduced into their cages once or more in 

 the course of a week. They were also supplied with an 

 abundance of native bei-ries when these were procurable, 

 and were amply provided at aU times with water and 

 coarse sand, both of which were frequently changed. He 

 even says that they will sometimes breed in confinement, 

 and tells us of a case where six were hatched in a cage. 

 Unfortunately none of them survived. 



The subject of the introduction of foreign game ani- 

 mals into our covers is one which is constantly at- 

 tracting more and more attention, and as the pre- 

 serve system extends, more and more money will be 

 expended each year in the introduction of foreign birds. 

 There can be no question that the hardy grouse of 

 northern Europe would do well in many of the wilder 

 portions of this country, and no doubt the capercailzie 

 in Maine, in the Adirondacks, and in the Rocky Moun- 

 tain region would live, thrive and increase. It might 

 well be worth the while of our State Forestry Commis- 

 sion, which is in charge of the Adii'ondack and Catskill 

 parks, to import a considerable number of these birds to 

 be released in this wild region, where they would no 

 doubt do well, and private clubs and associations, of which 

 there are now so many in the country, might also make 

 an efl:ort in this same direction. 



To the Hon. D. F. Stillman, however, must be given 

 the credit of having made the first effort to introduce 

 into America a most superb member of the grouse family. 



DYNAMITE. 



A TRULY heroic measure has been adopted in Missomi to 

 get ahead of the dynamite fiend. This individual is the 

 cui-se of Missouri fish waters, as of the waters of many 

 another State, particularly in the South. Streams large 

 and small, where fish were formerly abundant, in supply 

 good for all time with reasonable use, have long since 

 been made barren and worthless by the senseless and 

 destructive raids of the dynamiter. 



The Missouri Legislature was appealed to in the last 

 session, in a petition extensively signed, to provide a 

 remedy for the dynamite cartridge; and the measure en- 

 acted appears to be quite aniple in scope. It prescribes 

 stringent regulations for the possession, traffic in and use 

 of dynamite, giant powder and other mtro-glycerine pro- 

 ducts. No person may deal in these explosives until he 

 shall have taken an oath that he will neither use them 

 unlawfully for taking fish, nor sell them for such pur- 

 poses, nor dispose of them to a pmrchaser until the pur- 

 chaser in turn shall have dehvered an aflidavit setting 

 forth that he will not use nor permit them to be used for 

 killing fish. The several affidavits must be filed with 

 designated public officers; violations are punished by im- 

 prisonment. 



The statute is calculated to insure a close record of the 

 trade and handUng of explosives; under it there should 

 be Kttle difficulty in tracing the history of a case of fish 

 dynamiting and putting the responsibility where it be- 

 longs. At the same time, owing to the pecuMar nature 

 of the product so controlled and to its restricted use, 

 dealers may not rightfully complain of hardship or bur- 

 densome restrictions to trade. 



In adopting this law Missouri has provided a check on 

 what has been recognized as the most destructive 

 agency affecting the food fish supply of the State. Public 

 interest demands the rigid execution of the dynamite 

 license law. 



Fish Commissioner John W. Titcomb, of Vermont, who 

 has come to New York with a new and ingenious landing 

 net device, tells us that the trout supply in Vermont 

 waters has been injm-ed more severely than has been 

 appreciated by the freezing of the streams and pools in 

 the last wiater. On the other hand, he reports a marked 

 change in public sentiment regarding fish protection. In 

 certain localities, where in former years commissioners 

 and wardens encountered nothing but opposition in their 

 efforts to apprehend netters, the feeling has been so 

 changed that they now find abundant help, support and 

 co-operation. In public sentiment must be sought the 

 only efficient backing for the enforcement of game and 

 fish laws; once this favorable attitude of the community 

 is assured, the laws will virtually execute themselves. 



THE FLORIDA ''VOLCANO." 



A PHOSPHATE prospector, J. Q. Martin, reports in the 

 Orlando Recorder that he has solved the long-standing 

 mystery of the Florida "volcano." From time immemo- 

 rial a cloud of smoke has hung over the Pinhook swamp, 

 a vast morass in Taylor and Jefferson counties, bordering 

 the Guff coast, and although repeated expeditions have 

 set out to penetrate the swamp and determine the nature 

 of the phenomenon, no one has ever before been success- 

 ful. We believe that it was while on an exploration for 

 the Florida "volcano" that Mr. C. L. Norton, known to 

 our canoeing readers, fell from a tree with such disastrous 

 results. Mr. Martin, who is an experienced swamp ex- 

 plorer, relates that, cutting a well-blazed path, he returned 

 on his trail from time to time and carried in provisions, 

 until he came to a part of the swamp where the ground 

 was honey-combed with holes, sometimes five feet deep, 

 made by fire, with miry bottoms; and ponds of acres in 

 extent, also hoUowed out by fire. The air was smoky, 

 and the stench from dead fish and rotten water terrible in 

 the hot sun. At noon he came where the ground was still 

 burning, and here was the solution of the mystery. 



The earth was solely composed of coarse vegetable matter, which 

 bm-ns like tinder when not too wet. In the heaviest rains some fire 

 that has got into a rotten log will smoulder for weeks, only to ignite 

 the ground again when dry enough. At some places a kind of moss 

 grew, which shed water like a rubber coat. A subterranean outlet 

 for rainwater drains the land. Sometimes a heavy growth of pine 

 needles would faU point foremost and often straddle the twigs. When 

 the flre comes to such a place the dry pine needles burn on the bushes 

 to their very tops and the flames next devour the tops of the pines 

 themselves. The smoke is black as night and wiU ascend for days 

 and be seen at a long distance, and at night to sky looks red. And 

 this is aU there is about the Florida "volcano." I could guide any 

 one to the spot. It must have burned for 100 years and there is muck 

 enough to bm-n for 1,000 yeai-s to come. 



This is but a sorry realization of the romance with 

 which writers have been wont to surround the volcanic 

 mystery. For the rest it may be added that Mr. Taylor 

 found good hunting; he heard numerous bears and 

 panthers, and killed 100 turkeys and a deer. 



SNAP SHOTS. 



The advertising pages of a journal devoted to special 

 interests afford data for estimating the condition of those 

 interests. Determined by the bulk and variety of the ad- 

 vertising contained in this issue of Forest and Stream, 

 the interests represented must be in a healthy and flour- 

 ishing condition. Our trade announcements relate to aU 

 branches of the field sportsmen's activities; nowhere else 

 in this country may be found such a grouping of sports- 

 men's supplies, and it is not too much to say that in no 

 other journal are the advertising pages read more thor- 

 oughly or with greater interest. 



Tennessee sportsmen are talking of organizing a State 

 association for the purpose of protecting their interests in 

 the next Legislatm-e. The Chattanooga Times is active in 

 promoting the scheme. We have already alluded to the 

 intelligent and efficient service rendered by the Times to 

 the sportsmen of Tennessee; it is a pleasure to record 

 such an instance of co-operation on the part of a lay 

 journal. If every daily and weekly in the land shared 

 the views of Forest and Stream respecting our game and 

 fish, this would be a great country for the man with the 

 gun and his brother with the rod. Local game and fish 

 protective organizations will find no more profitable lines 

 of effort than through their home journals, particularly 

 the small countiy weeklies. The country editor wields 

 an influence which only fools deride; politicians appre- 

 ciate this; sportsmen w^ould do well to learn it. 



Since our last acknowledgment contributions for the 

 "Nessmuk" memorial fund have been received from the 

 following: 



]Mr. H. O. WrLBUR, Philadelphia, Pa. 



JlR. C. A. Tapt, Whitinsvflle, Mass. 



The total amount subscribed to date is $233. The work- 

 ing drawings for the monument have been received; and 

 we hope that the successful completion of the work may 

 soon be announced. 



In a recent raid lasting thirteen days, Han-ison Hawn, 

 State Game Protector, assisted by E. D. Orossley, of Skan- 

 eateles, discovered 110 bona fide cases of violation of the 

 law and took twenty nets. Mr. Hawn reports that this 

 spring the run of pike upon their spawning beds in his 

 district is the heaviest for years. 



