Forest and Stream. 



A Weekly Journal of the Rod and Gun. 



Tebms, $4 A Year. 10 Crs. A Copt. 1 

 Six Months, ^. ) 



NEW YORK, SATURDAY, OCTOBER 28, 1893. 



1 VOL. ZLI.— No. ir. 



j No. 318 Bkoadwat, New York. 



CONTENTS. 



Editorial. 



Minnesota Wildfowl Season. 

 Portraits in Ink. 

 Snap Shots. 



The Sportsman Tourist. 



The Saginaw Crowd.— iii. 



Natural History. 



Taxidermy at the Fair. 



Game Bag and Gun. 



A Pot-Shooting Pot-Pourri. 



Oregon Notes. 



"Podgers" Moralizes. 



Seen at the Fair. 



Michigan Game and Fish. 



New Hampshire's Army of Gun- 

 ners. 



A Bay Duck Shoot. 



A Virginia Turkey Hunt. 



Climbing for Blacktails. 



A Treed Fox. 



Georgia Association. 



October in New England. 



Forest and Stream ia the 

 World's Fair. 



3ea and River Fisliing. 



"Fisherman's Luck." 



A Week in the Triton Tract. 



Fishing in Canadian Waters. 



Androscoggin Waters. 



Angling Notes. 



The Hurricane and the Fish. 



The Kennel. 



International Field Trials. 



U. S. Field Trial All-Age Entries. 



Another Original Dog. 



Dog Chat. 



Kennel Notes. 



Answers to Correspondents. 

 Huntiner and Coursing. 

 Make the N. G. C. a Coursmg 

 Club. 



Northwestern Beagle Club of 

 The Kenmore Coursing Meet. 

 N. E. Beagle Club's All-Age En- 

 tries. 



Yachting. 



The America's Cup Baces. 

 How a Yacht Race is Reported. 

 News Notes. 



Canoeing. 



More About Camp Sites. 

 The Racmg Rules. 

 Canoe Notes. 



Rifle Range and Gallery. 



Lancaster and North End. 

 Rifle Club Domgs. 

 Rifle Notes. 



Trap Shooting. 



Riverside Gun Club Tournament 

 Emerald Gun Club. 

 Drivers and Twisters. 

 Answers to Queries. 



For Prospectus and Advertising Rates see Page viii. 



The Forest and Stream is put to press 

 Dn Tuesdays. Correspondence intended for 

 publication shiould reach us by Mondays and 

 as much earlier as may be practicable. 



You are invited 



to visit the " Forest and Stream's" 

 exhibit in the Angling Pavilion at 

 the entrance from the main hall 

 of the Fisheries Building, in the 

 World's Fair, 



THE MINNESOTA WILDFOWL SEASON. 

 Reference has been made to the blunder of the Minne- 

 sota Legislature in the last session relative to the close 

 season for wildfowl. The f ramers of the bill intended to 

 forbid killing "except between" Sept. 1 and. April 25 fol- 

 lowing, but the text of the law when enacted omitted the 

 word "except," and made the intended open season the 

 3lose season and the close season the open season. How- 

 aver, the Commissioners, of whom Mr. W. P. Andrus, of 

 \Iinneapolis, is the executive agent, did not propose to be 

 talked even by a statute so seriously defective as this. 

 They secured from the Attorney-General a ruling that the 

 intent of the law would be to permit the killing of wild- 

 Jowl from Sept. 1 to April 25, and they determined to 

 jbserve such intent and to permit duck shooting in that 

 period. But they gave 't out eai-ly in the year that they 

 should keep an eye on all persons who were inclined to 

 take advantage of the legislative blimder, and that should 

 any such persons kill game in what ought to be the 



lose season they would not be allowed to kill it in the 

 season actually forbidden by the statute. As a matter of 

 fact, whether owing to the threat of the Commission, 

 or because of the' influence of the growing respect for 

 ;ame protection which now prevails in Minnesota, very 

 ittle duck shooting was engaged in prior to Sept. 1. The 



ntended close season was generally respected by all 



ilasses of gunners, and the sportsmen of Minnesota who 

 have been with easy consciences shooting in the legal 



lose season since Sept. 1 have enjoyed excellent sport. 

 3o the defective statute has not worked great harm after 

 all. 



The Commissioners report that game protection is 

 gaining popularity in Minnesota. They say that they 

 have toxmd the sportsmen generally throughout the 

 country— those resident in the State and, coming from 

 outside — w illin g to co-operate with th' n in keeping 

 down the quantity of game that cou-1 or should be 

 killed, and in that way to protect the birds. Owing to 

 the energy exerted in the past two or three years in 



the protection of game, they now find that this season 

 there is a greater abimdance than at any time hereto- 

 fore. The eflScacy of a good law well enforced has been 

 demonstrated in their work. The farming community, 

 which heretofore was very much averse to the enforce- 

 ment of the game law, now, since they understand what 

 it means, are of , the greatest aid in making the law 

 effective. This is only another demonstration of the 

 truth that a right public sentiment is more effective 

 than stringent laws, and we see here that while with- 

 out the support of such a sentiment good laws may 

 accomplish nothing, with it even bad laws may protect 

 game. It would be gratifying to know that Minnesota 

 enjoyed a perfect game code; it is even more gratifying 

 to be assured that public opinion in the State is grow- 

 ing for the conservation of the fish and birds and mam- 

 mals. 



PORTRAITS IN INK. 



I.-^THE MAJOR. 



If you live in or near a certain little town and are one 

 of the brethren in the bonds of the rod and gun, you must 

 know the Major, for he is the self -constituted and gener- 

 ally accepted oracle in all matters pertaining to the ruder 

 or the gentler craft. 



His neat little shop is the place where those who would 

 be considered true sportsmen most do congregate, and 

 you, desiring such recognition, go thither also. 



A huge watch hangs above the door, symbolic of the 

 owner's regxilar occupation and modestly hinting that you 

 may here find proper weapons wherewith to kiU time as 

 well as to mark its course. 



It is not the place for cozy chat and is too neat to be 

 comfortable, and without a seat to invite ease. There is 

 but one, the stool at the window where the Major's assist- 

 ant sits, mending and cleaning watches, and you cannot 

 sit on the show cases which cover the counter. 



Under the polished glass of these are displayed, besides 

 watches, rings, pins, and trinkets, an array of shining 

 trolling baits, gaudy flies, flimsy reels, hooks and coils of 

 line, the one spUt-bamboo rod that is never sold, and 

 some unsafe pistols. In a rack near the other window 

 are a few choicely kept guns and jointed rods, cheap to 

 look at, but dear to the purchaser. 



There are a few stuffed birds here and there, which the 

 Major will teU you casually were mounted by himself, 

 but there are never any additions, though some rare speci- 

 mens are brought to him for identification and he never 

 hesitates to name them at the first glance of his twinkling 

 eyes. v 



Standing behind the show cases, in immaculate linen, 

 venerable with his bald head and white locks and neatly 

 trimmed mustache, he smiles blandly at your ignor- 

 nance while he benevolently enhghtens it with his wis- 

 dom. 



How learnedly he discourses of gims and charges, 

 rods, tackle and bait, of game and fish and methods of 

 taking them, exemplified by relations of his own phenom- 

 enal exploits. 



But if you are so honored as to be permitted to ac- 

 company him on a fishing or shooting trip, you do not 

 find him exceptionally skillful, only anxious to take aU 

 the fairest shots without regard to turn or courtesy, and 

 to be first at the most promising points. These privil- 

 eges, generally accorded him by reason of his venerable 

 presence and position as first sportsman in the land, are 

 likely to give him good scores to boast of, but however 

 large, they are shared with no one else. 



He is a wordy supporter of game laws, loud in his 

 denunciation of violators of them, yet he never enters 

 a complaint against such law breakers nor subscribes a 

 cent to aid in their prosecution. It might injure his 

 trade. He consorts suspicioasly with well known poach- 

 ers and it is inferred that he sometimes anticipates the 

 open season by a day or two. Indeed, to whom but 

 him should belong the cream of this sport? 



The Major's chosen companion is some poor fellow, who, 

 wise in the ways and haunts of fish and game, deems 

 himself well paid for days of rowing or paddling or lug- 

 ging a heavy bait kettle along a stream, by the- honor of 

 such exalted comradeship and a gift of a cast-off shoot- 

 ing coat or worn out wading boots or worthless reel or 

 frayed hue. This is a cheap arrangement for the Major 

 and gives him all the tangible proceeds of the day's sport. 

 Yet it may be that the poor comrade has the best of it 

 after all, and takes home with him something that cannot 



be possessed by the Major, to whom the woods are but 

 cover for game, the streams and lakes only the homes of 

 fishes. 



Your cheeks tingle with the blushes that ought to 

 mantle his serene countenance, when he tells without 

 shame, nay with pride, how he and one of his brother 

 sportsmen, wormed themselves into the confidence of an 

 old farmer, partook of his hospitality and then sneaking 

 into his orchard, drove his pet bevy of quail into some 

 neighboring cover and kUled them aU. 



As you look at his bland cunning face and take just 

 account of him, you wonder how with his sham honor, 

 sham wisdom, sham sportsmanship, sham title, all so 

 transparent, the venerable old fraud can maintain his 

 position. Yet you help him to do so. You go and listen 

 to him, thinking that there is an air of respectability con- 

 ferred upon the frequenter of his place, and you buy your 

 sportsmen's furnishings there rather than at a shop where 

 you could get as good for half the money, because it 

 soimds well to mention incidentally .that you bought 

 your ammunition or your tackle at the Major's, though 

 the one fouls yom* gun abominably and the other lost you 

 the biggest fish you ever struck. And so you philosophi- 

 cally conclude that humbugs are a convenience, if not a 

 necessity and shout with the others— "Long live the 

 Major." 



SNAP SHOTS. 

 The sportmen of Georgia met in Atlanta last week and 

 formed a State association, with the expressed purpose of 

 improving the game law and securing its enforcement. 

 The very first thing for the new association to vmdertake 

 is to do away with the numerous county laws, which are 

 as diverse as they are numerous, and to substitute for 

 them a consistent law of general application to govern 

 the entire State. 



The purpose of a close season is to afford the game 

 immmity from pursuit during the breeding, rearing and 

 maturing periods. These periods do not differ, one from 

 another, in adjoining counties; and no more should the 

 periods of protection differ. The quail law, for example, 

 should be uniform throughout all Georgia. _ If between 

 the upper and the lower divisions of the State there is 

 any perceptible variation of breeding habits, the birds 

 should be given the advantage of this, the one imiform 

 close season being provided to give ample protection 

 throughout the State. 



One of the funny incidents of the Atlanta convention 

 the other day was the reading of a letter from the pro- 

 moter of the National Sportsmen's Convention scheme. 

 The notion that these Georgia sportsmen, who have not 

 yet succeeded in getting a uniform game code for their 

 own State, may, might, could, should or woiild do any- 

 thing to help on the project of a uniform game code for 

 the whole continent — this is very funny or very pathetic, 

 just as you may view it. 



The settlers of Uinta and Fremont counties in Wyo- 

 ming are petitioning the authorities to abate the depreda- 

 tions of invading Indians, who stray from agencies in the 

 vicinity and slaughter game for their skins only; and the 

 Phcsnix, Arizona, Rejniblican finds something to clamor 

 about in the hunting exploits of the Crown Prince of 

 Austria; "it is about time," says the Arizona editor, 

 "Americans grew tired of having foreigners come over 

 and slaughter our few remaining representatives of the 

 noble animals that once crowded the plains and fiUed the 

 mountains." Game butchery is bad enough, whoever 

 may be the agent of it; but the average white American 

 is possessed of human nature enough to regard these out- 

 rages as particularly atrocious if they happen to be perpe- 

 trated by Indians or foreigners. 



Now that the shooting season ia in fuU sway, corres- 

 pondents are invited to send notes from the game fields, 

 reporting the success that crowns the day's pursuit and 

 telling of good grounds for gunners to visit. It is by 

 such interchange of experience and information that the 

 Forest and Stream can serve the greatest number. 



What have been the practical results of quail stocking 

 enterprises when the birds have been imported from dis- 

 tant States? Has the stock remained in the country where 

 put out, or has it emigrated? We would like to have 

 reports from some of the quail importers, for the infor- 

 mation and benefit of others who are proposing to under- 

 take such wctk. 



