Forest and Stream. 



A Weekly Journal of the Rod and Gun. 



Tkhms, a A Ykak. 10 Ots. a Copy. I 

 Six Months, ^. ) 



NEW TORK, SATURDAY, DECEMBER 30, 1893. 



( VOL. ZLI.— No. 26 



( No. 318 Bboadwav, New Yoke. 



CONTENTS. 



Editorial. 



The Coast Fisheries Conference. 

 The Colonels are Included. 

 Snap Shots. 



For the Waningr Year. 

 The Singing Mouse Stories.— iv. 

 Dan vis Folks.— xix. 

 After Toil Recreation. 

 Woman on the Stream. 

 The Hog Thief of Camas Prairie. 

 Duck Shooting in Oregon. 

 Hunting With a Camera. 

 Capturing a Baby Jaguar. 

 Shootem Goose on Caraquet 



Shore. 

 A Mighty Hard Tramp. 

 A Westeru WaU. 

 Allen Bayou and Beyond. 

 Utah Notes. 



The Boy. rheBost^nian, the Bull. 

 Two Wild Animal Scories. 

 Two Guaranteed Moose. 

 Trout Fishing m New Brunswick. 

 With the Deer in Michigan. 

 Quail Breeding and Wintering. 

 Angling Notes. 



The Kennel. 



American Foxhounds. 



Akron Dog Show. 



American Kennel Club Meeting. 



The Kennel. 



Points and Flushes. 

 Dog Chat. 



Answers to Correspondents. 



Huntinsr and Coursing. 



A Run with the Genesee Hounds. 

 National Beagle Club Meeting. 

 Hunting and Coursing Notes. 



Yachting. 

 A Cheap Cruise. 

 Rochester Y. C. 

 News Notes. 



Canoeing. 



The Log of theFrankie.— m. 

 New York C. C. 

 News Notes. 



Rifle Range and Gallery. 



Portchester Rifle Club. 

 Zettler Rifle Club. 

 Rifle Club Doings. 

 Rifle Notes. 



Trap Shooting. 



The Interstate M. and D. 

 Turkey Shoot at Akin. 

 EUiott's Great Trap Work. 

 Drivers and Twisters. 



Answers to Queries. 



THE COAST FISHERIES CONFERENCE. 



"We shall begin in our next number the publication of 

 the fuU official report of the coast fisheries conference 

 held in this city on the call of President Huntington of 

 the New York Fish Commission. While the conference 

 adjourned without having accomplished anything definite 

 toward the object for which it was called, the proceedings 

 demonstrated several things: First, a widespread and 

 growing belief on the part of the rod and line fishermen 

 that the supply of food fish along the coasts of the New 

 England and Middle States is diminishing; second, a 

 firmly expressed declaration on the part of the net and 

 seine fishermen and fish dealers that food fish are as 

 plentiful as ever. 



Further, it was clearly shown that the rod and line 

 fishermen believe in stopping the use of pounds in inland 

 salt waters and the hauling of menhaden seines in bays, 

 sounds and narrow waters, while limiting the use of 

 pounds everywhere to the four months beginning July 1. 

 The commercial fishermen and fish dealers oppose these 

 measures as being too sweeping and destructive of the 

 fishing industry, but declare their willingness to submit 

 to any reasonable regulations looking toward the protec- 

 tion of the fish and the maintenance of the supply. 



The great difliculties in the way of concerted action 

 and satisfactory results of such meetings are immediately 

 apparent. The interests represented are diverse and con- 

 flicting, the convention finds itself powerless to act 

 effectively, and the data presented to establish certain 

 important statements are found to be imsatisfactory. 

 Few States have the means of collecting statistics, and 

 many compilations offered in evidence are discovered to 

 be faulty. Again, the States are usually tmwilling to 

 unite upon any legislation affecting the coast fisheries. If 

 one of them has a temporary advantage of posi- 

 tion it generally opposes a change of regulations. 

 The same is true of interior waters and a case in point is 

 the struggle on the part of the Pennsylvania Fish Com- 

 mission to induce the Maryland Commissioners to unite 

 with them in removing fish traps from the lower fifteen 

 miles of the Susquehanna River. 



Statistics are often misleading unless carefully handled 

 and adequate. There is frequently a local diminution of 

 food fish, although the general supply may be kept up 

 by developing the waters. Again, the supply may be 

 maintained by extraordinary increase of the nets and 

 Doimds employed in the fishery. The Spanish mackerel, 

 for example, is rapidly falling off in Virginia, yet the 

 market supply is kept up by shipments from new waters 

 in the Gulf States. The catch of shad continues uniform, 

 but the number of pounds in some regions has been 

 enormously increased. 



. There is no question that inquiries into the actual state 

 of the fisheries should continue to be made — as they have 

 been made year after year by some of the States as weU 

 as the United States. It is neither necessary nor desirable 

 that the inquiry should be limited to practical fishermen 

 and fish dealers. These classes do not themselves desire a 

 commission so restricted. No harm can come from a 

 study of the life history of the fishes and of the methods 

 employed in the United States and abroad. The relation 

 of scientific research to public economy is too well known 

 to require explanation or defense. Let us have all the 

 information needed as a basis of proper legislation and as 



a guide in the artificial propagation of useful fishes, and 

 let all good men unite in supporting measures necessary 

 to protect the inhabitants of the waters. Such protection 

 may be secured without danger of destroying great indus- 

 tries and making fish a luxury which only the rich can 

 afford. 



QUAIL STOCKING. 



The letter from our Canadian correspodent "Oinna," 

 printed in another column, wUl be read with great inter- 

 est, especially by those who have in view the restocking 

 with quail of sections where no birds are now found. We 

 have been hearing of the rearing of quail in confinement 

 for lo, these many years, but the authentic cases where 

 success has been had could be numbered on half the fin- 

 gers of a single hand. From the tone of the letter which 

 "Cinna" quotes, it would seem that Mr. Duncan had Little 

 or no difiiculty in rearing his birds, and he looks forward 

 to renewed success next season. If it can be shown that 

 the quail can be reared in confinement, one of the shoot- 

 ing problems of the future will have been solved. 

 : Reports from northeastern shooting grounds everywhere 

 show that this autmnn quail have been singularly scarce, 

 and we have in mind more than one township, where birds 

 are usually moderately abundant, in which the total bag 

 for all the gunners this year does not number a dozen 

 birds. If it is true that the severe winter of 1893-93 is 

 the cause of this scarcity, it would seem that the prospects 

 for shooting next autumn are dismal enough. 



It is apparent that before long field shooters must take 

 some action, either by importing foreign birds, as has 

 been done in some cases, or by restocking with native 

 species brought from long distances. This last method, 

 while it has been extensively tried, cannot be said to have 

 been successful, and of the many thousands of Southern 

 quail turned out in the Northern States within the past 

 few years, only a very inconsiderable proportion have 

 been shot, or have lived over to reproduce their kind. 

 The enterj)rise of restocking our coverts is as yet wholly 

 in the experimental stage, and it is safe to say that we 

 know very little about what should be done in the matter. 



PORTRAITS IN INK. 

 TV. — THE PROFESSOR. 



You anticipate great pleasure in meeting the Professor 

 of some congenial branch of natural history, for you 

 ichthiology, perhaps, for you have long been acquainted 

 with him through his charming descriptive writings, 

 wherein he discourses so eloquently and feelingly of the 

 ennobling and refining influences of field sports through 

 the close contact with nature to which they bring one. 



In season and out of season he preaches the gospel of 

 outdoor sport, which, if followed in the true spirit, must 

 perforce make one reverent,! wise, patient, generous, self- 

 sacrificing, modest, while bestowing the grosser gifts of 

 health and strength. 



Hunt, Shoot, Fish and Be Good, is the grand precept of 

 life that he continually exhorts you to follow, to be guided 

 by, and in your humble attempts to follow this saintly 

 teacher, you have felt condemned when you caught your- 

 self uttering a naughty word over a fouled hook or a 

 missed fair shot, and almost despair of complete sanctifi- 

 cation when you detect yourself rejoicing more over a 

 heavy bag and fall creel than over sky and landscape, 

 glorified by sunset or the twilight solemnity of the woods. 



But he, serenely exalted above all such weakness and 

 vanity, must be the ideal true sportsman and gentle 

 angler, possessing all the vii-tues of each, which he has so 

 admirably set forth, and as such you have limned a por- 

 trait of him. 



It is a pity to meet him and have it spoiled by compari- 

 son with the original. There is no similitude in it to this 

 gross, arrogant, selfish, egotistic man, who takes as of 

 right the easiest chair and the warmest or coolest place, 

 sorts the basket for the finest frtiit, disparages the fare, 

 asserts his theories, scoffs away opposite opinions, vaunts 

 his achievements, patronizes nature with the air of being 

 her chief proprietor and only interpreter. 



If you should attempt a more truthfid portrait than 

 your ideal one, while you are in the reaction of disillusion, 

 you would doubtless draw it in charcoal with very few 

 touches of white chalk, and the result would be a carica- 

 ture, not a portrait, with every ugly feature exaggerated 

 and overshadowing the gentler ones. 



Really, he is not an imposter, nor is he a bad man, but 

 one with two sides. Your first picture was drawn from 

 the better one, reflected in his writings; that it is poorly 



exemplified in them does not prove that his teachings are 

 false. 



He must have felt or he could not so well describe the 

 refining influence of intercourse with nature, though it 

 has not perceptibly touched the baser of his two person- 

 alities. He is certainly none the worse for it, doubtless 

 better than he would be without it. 



If you have ever been intimately acquaintfsd with a 

 saint it is more than likely that you have found him 

 very good and very disagreeable, the fine gold of a pious 

 life strangely mingled with the dross of human frailties, 

 but such a revelation does not make religion less true, 

 nor the gold itself less precious. 



A bad example does not invalidate a good precept, and 

 if shootmg and fishing have not made the Professor a per., 

 feet man it is no reason why you should forswear such 

 pastime or cease to use the rod and gun as pretexts for 

 going forth to nature. 



THE COLONELS ARE INCLUDED. 

 There are sundry think-themselves-better-than-other 

 men who appear to be deluded with the notion that they 

 enjoy special immtmity from the game and fish laws. 

 These statutes, they affect to hold, are all well enough in 

 their way as restraints upon the common herd, but we, 

 the possessors of handles to our names, are not botmd by 

 them. 



And not only this, but there are never wanting others 

 to proffer their friendly services to back up the assump- 

 tions by these men of special privileges. Let a Chicago 

 Doctor of Divinity kill deer in Minnesota out of season, 

 and his lawlessness will be defended not alone by himself 

 but by apologists who hold that the Minnesota Legislature 

 never intended to curtail the deer slaughtering inclina- 

 tions of Doctors of Divinity. Let a Connecticut Adjutant 

 General kill deer in Maine in the close time and be 

 brought to book for it, and he will straightway appear 

 at the head of a regiment of titled Nutmeggers demand- 

 ing the exemption of Adjutant-Generals from the game 

 law. Only the other day, when one of the district 

 game protectors of New York brought suit against an in- 

 dividual who had been shooting wildfowl in a way forbid- 

 den by the statute, the offender, or his friends for him, 

 set up the impudent claim that he should be let off 

 from punishment because he was a Colonel on the Gov- 

 ernor's staff. 



Now is it not about time for all of us to understand 

 and comprehend so clearly that we may govern our-^ 

 selves accordingly, that there are no privileged classes 

 in this country with respect to game and game fish 

 statutes; but that we were all bom free and equal be- 

 fore these laws; and that even the Colonels among us 

 must conform to them? 



SNAR SHOTS. 

 The seventh annual dinner of the Megantic Fish and 

 Game Club will take place at the Vendome, Boston, on 

 Thursday evening, Jan. 11, at 6 o'clock. Treasurer Chap- 

 man writes us that it is proposed to make this dinner ex- 

 cel, if possible, all previous occasions. 



A responsible and trustworthy Washington correspon- 

 dent, who because of his interest in the preservation of 

 wild ducks has taken pains to investigate the Treasury 

 records of egg importation from the Northwest, sends us 

 a statement which we publish in our shooting columns. 

 It is to the effect that there is practically no such impor- 

 tation whatever. His investigation was prompted by the 

 note of Commissioner Huntington of Ohio caUing for a 

 protest against a proposed modification of the tariff by 

 which eggs would come in free; and unless the Treasury 

 records can be shown to supply fallacious data, it would 

 appear that the inroads of the eggers upon the wildfowl 

 supply cannot be affected one way or the other by the 

 Wilson biU. 



Rev. Dr. Charles H. Parkhurst, who as president of the 

 New York Society for the Suppression of Crime, has been 

 engaged in a crusade against the vicious classes of this 

 city, winds up the passing year with a complaint that he 

 has found the District Attorney's office obstructive of his 

 efforts. If Dr. Parkhurst has been an attentive reader of 

 the Forest and Stream he must be familiar with the 

 Delmonico woodcock case; and we commend to him a 

 review of that affair, for it will afford abimdant evidence 

 of the encouraging truth that the unwearied prodding of 

 obstructive officials will in the end clear the way for 

 bringing wicked men to the bar of justice. 



