Forest and Stream. 



A Weekly Journal of the Rod and Gun. 



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

 Six Months, $2. j 



NEW YORK, SATURDAY, JANUARY 27, 1894. 



i VOL. XLU. — No. 4. 



I No. 318 Broadway, Nkw York. 



i^r Prospectus and Advertising Rates see Page v. 



The Forest and Stream is put to press 

 on Tuesdays. Correspondence intended for 

 publication should reach us by Mondays and 

 as much earlier as may be practicable. 



SPECIMEN COPIES. 

 Any reader of the "Forest and Stream" may 

 on request and without expense have a specimen 

 number of the paper sent to a shooting or fishing 

 friend. 



SNAP SHOTS. 



A recent book of stories by Edward Eggleston is en- 

 titled "Duffels;" and the author has a bit of pleasant word 

 gossip about a sportsman's term which "Nessmuk" made 

 familiar. When the Indian trader, or "bushloper," ex. 

 changed his goods for peltrie, says Mr. Eggleston, his 

 staple was a certain coarse cloth, brought from Duffel in 

 Holland. After a time the term came to be applied to 

 the trader's stock, of which duffel was the chief part; 

 then to all kinds of small wares, and by a natural transi- 

 tion to the contents of a traveler's or camper's outfit — the 

 pan and kettle and gun and woods whatnot. 



Another term which has an interesting development is 

 "sport." This is the commonly accepted appellation for 

 the user of rod or gun in the back districts to which he 

 repairs for shooting or fishing. As such persons usually 

 hail from the town, and are at first practically the only 

 townspeople who invade the wilderness, the word "sport" 

 comes to be synonymous with city man. Afterward when 

 summer hotels are built, and others than sportsmen find 

 their way into the wilderness, they too are classed all alike 

 as "sports." In the Adirondacks the summer visitor from 

 town is dubbed "sport," though he may not know a gun 

 from a fishing rod nor woodchuck ragout from mountain 

 mutton stew. It is needless to say that the clear distinc- 

 tions, which some of us are endeavoring to popularize, 

 between "sport" and "sportsman" are totally unknown in 

 the woods. The single name does for all; it is broad 

 enough to embrace the respectable member of society who 

 has traveled to Florida this week for a shooting or fishing 

 excursion, and the gentry whose presence and perform- 

 ances there have disgraced the State. We can well 

 understand how a decent "sportsman" southbound might 

 have shuddered at being taken for a "sport." 



an examination of such tariff provisions proposed by them 

 may involve none of the vexed questions of home and 

 foreign manufacture, but may have to do only with the 

 preservation of the game supply. Such, for instance, was 

 the proposition of Commissioner Huntington of Ohio to 

 tax the eggs of wildfowl imported from the Northwest, 

 that breeding ducks and geese might not be robbed for the 

 supply of the albumen market. Another is the gun duty 

 scheme projected by a Michigan correspondent, which is 

 detailed in another column as having been suggested to 

 Chairman Wilson of the Ways and Means Committee. 



This is the season when those who are so fortunate as 

 to have opportunity for winter outings are looking toward 

 Florida and the South, and for their benefit we would 

 like to hear from correspondents who may point the way 

 to good fishing and shooting resorts. Information of 

 this nature printed in our columns is of direct profit to 

 many readers. Mr. Hough, of our Chicago office, is just 

 now on a visit to Texas and we may expect that in the 

 near future his "Chicago and the West" budget will 

 enlarge upon some of the favored game regions in the 

 Lone Star State. 



Our correspondents "O. O. S." and "Awahsoose" are 

 engaged in a lively discussion between themselves as to 

 the proper mode of dispatching the man in camp who 

 makes an unendurable nuisance of himself by talking 

 politics. They are agreed that to give him short shrift is 

 the only course open to his outraged fellows; but they 

 appear unable to determine which is the more sportsman- 

 like method of disposing of him, one holding that he 

 should be cast over a high cliff, if there happens to be a 

 cliff available, while the other contends for anchoring 

 him in seventeen fathoms of water, if there be a pond or 

 an ocean handy. 



Two topics which are to be avoided not less studiously 

 in these columns than in camp are politics and religion. 

 If, as has been said, a consideration of Sunday fishing 

 laws trenches perilously near upon religion, a tariff dis- 

 cussion comes quite as closely to talking politics. And 

 yet never is the tariff under consideration in Washington 

 but that sportsmen are on hand to make it serve in some 

 way their notions of securing protection for game, and 



The proposal is in short to increase the duty on fire- 

 arms and ammunition for the purpose of making these 

 articles more expensive, so that only rich people may 

 afford to purchase them, and that guns, becoming a 

 luxury, may be confined to the use of a few; all this to 

 the end that game may not be pursued by the owners of 

 cheap firearms, but may thrive and multiply and replen- 

 ish the earth, for the amusement of the rich, as aforesaid. 



There is no denying that cheap guns are responsible for 

 the dearth of game in many localities; nor that if these 

 arms were taken away from their possessors the covers 

 might teem once more. To cut off the supply of cheap 

 guns would, in theory, at least, be a factor in conserving 

 the game. If the imposition of an impost on imported 

 arms should prove inadequate for the attainment of such 

 an end, the advocates of a high tariff for game protection 

 only might proceed a step further and lay a good round 

 internal revenue tax on guns manufactured in this 

 country. Once let a Ways and Means Committee be 

 fully committed to a policy of game protection by taxa- 

 tion, and it need not halt at a duty on the gun alone, but 

 might tax the entire outfit, shooting togs, dog and dog 

 whistle, not exempting the tall talk the shooter indulges 

 in when he comes home. 



This is theory. As a matter of fact we question 

 whether any such expedient as making the sport of 

 shooting more costly will effect game protection. More 

 than this, we question whether game protection secured 

 at such a prcia would be a desirable thing to have. We 

 have no sympathy for nor confidence in any scheme 

 which means in effect, "The game for the rich — the poor 

 be hanged." We object to any plan which would deter- 

 mine a man's right to enjoy shooting by the relative big- 

 ness of his purse. We do not concede for the moment 

 that in this country the privilege of field sports is to be 

 accorded to the rich and to be denied to the man of 

 moderate means, or of limited means, or of no means at 

 all. 



game supply, there may be opportunity for all, without 

 regard to money distinctions. 



The preserve system is the one most easily attained. It 

 will come of itself readily enough if we continue to follow 

 a policy of laissez faire — "let things slide." To inculcate 

 and cherish a spirit of provident regard for the sportsmen 

 of the following generations, and to create a public senti- 

 ment which shall insure to them the privileges with 

 which we of to-day are blessed — this is an alternative 

 vastly more difficult of attainment, but it is the one 

 which should be adopted by every public-spirited and 

 patriotic American sportsman who is enjoying the oppor- 

 tunities of the present. 



Mongolian pheasants promise to be in demand for years 

 to come as game birds for stocking public and private 

 shooting grounds. For that reason the breeding of a sup* 

 ply to meet the demand might prove a profitable enter- 

 prise for some one having the facilities. Some of the 

 young men who write to us now and then asking for pro- 

 fitable trapping territory, might better turn their attention 

 to raising pheasants for gun clubs. The birds are prolific 

 and easily reared. 



Along about New Year's, when January is fairly under 

 way, here and there, in every city and village and ham- 

 let, may be found enthusiasts who begin to reckon up the 

 time that must elapse before the trout season will open. 

 They can tell you off-hand the precise number of days to 

 that auspicious date. About this time, if not earlier, they 

 spend hours over their fly-tying tables, putting together 

 their contrivances for the taking of fish on that first day. 

 And about this time, too, they begin to write to their fel- 

 lows reminding them of the important date and exhorting 

 them to let nothing stand in the way of the proposed re- 

 union on the stream. Thus angling is a pursuit which 

 extends its pleasures of retrospection and of anticipation 

 through all the months. And yet there are unknowing 

 folk who would measure the profitableness of a day on the 

 stream by the weight of the catch. But such reasonersare 

 not anglers, even though they may have gone fishing. 



More than this, we believe that such propositions as the 

 one under consideration, by which field sports are set 

 apart as the indulgences of the caprices of a privileged 

 class, are calculated to do more harm to the cause of 

 game protection than ever they can do good. There is 

 enough feeling on the subject already in many sections — 

 a sentiment very generally held by those who five in the 

 country particularly, that shooting and fishing are the 

 sports of a class, that the aim of protection and fish pro- 

 tection is not to secure the benefit of the people as a 

 whole, but of a favored few. This feeling, we may say, 

 and very truly, is mistaken and all wrong, and has no 

 basis in fact. But it exists, nevertheless. It is a very 

 real sentiment, held to none the less tenaciously for 

 being a fallacy; and it constitutes a powerful obstacle to 

 the right protection of game and fish, as every individual 

 or club or association actively engaged in the fight for 

 protection can testify. The true path toward game pro- 

 tection lies not in the direction of intensifying this pre- 

 judice-blinded sentiment; but of allaying it. The enlist- 

 ment of the masses in the cause of conserving the game 

 and fish supply is to be secured by teaching the masses, 

 and truly, that the cause is for the benefit of all, not 

 of a few. 



What the future has in store for the shooters and the 

 anglers who are to come after us, we may not foresee. 

 Some prophesy that America is by and by to be without 

 game save in the preserves of the wealthy. It may be. 

 Others are hopeful that with a growing appreciation of 

 the value of field sports, with a wider diffusion of infor- 

 mation and of common sense on the subject, and with a 

 corresponding regard for the common rights of all in the 



A genins who knows nothing about alligators avers in 

 an evening paper that an alligator on land cannot turn 

 about quickly because its legs are so short. On this prin- 

 ciple a snake cannot turn around at all, for it has no legs, 

 long or short. 



We are freqently given to understand that this is a 

 family journal, by such a note as this from a Scranton, 

 Pa., correspondent: 



By the way, we use articles from Forest and Stream to read in the 

 Out Door Department of our Chautauqua Circle and the ladies enjoy 

 them exceedingly.— J. H. F. 



And it has been told to us before now that the Forest 

 and Stream is regularly read aloud in many a home. To 

 betray the trust thus reposed in us by confiding friends, 

 and to admit into these pages anything to which excep- 

 tion might be taken would be a most grievous offense. 

 Prompted by such considerations we deem it only fair and 

 honorable to throw out a warning against the promiscu- 

 ous family reading of the lay sermon in this issue from 

 the pen of Rev. J. H. La Roche. The doctrines there ex* 

 pounded are calculated to make trouble for more than 

 one fisherman who has been used to bidding his family 

 good-bye upon leaving home for camp; for if Mr. LaRoche 

 shall have his way the family will refuse to have any 

 good-byes said. 



Is the assertion true that the average man shoots better 

 on paper than he does in the field, does more execution 

 with a pen than with a gun, holds with aim decidedly 

 more true when telling of it than in the doing, and 

 brings down his game at longer range in print than in 

 the air? Human nature has something to do with this 

 no doubt; and even the true sportsman is intensely 

 human, so human that he forgets the misses and recalls 

 only the happy shots. Mr. W. B. Mershon of the Saginaw 

 Crowd, whose doings in the Bad Lands were recently 

 chronicled, prides himself, we believe, upon having so 

 far overcome human nature as to give in his relation a 

 true account of the good shots and the misses of that ex* 

 pedition. This, he thinks, may have left in the minds of 

 readers an impression that the crowd was a party of pretty 

 poor shots; but if the truth were known they might 

 prove to have done about as well as the average. 



