Forest and Stream. 



A Weekly Journal of the Rod and Gun. 



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

 Six Months, $2. 



NEW YORK, SATURDAY, FEBRUARY lO, 1894. 



j VOL. XLII.— No. 6. 



I No. 318 Broadway, New York. 



CONTENTS. 



Editorial. 



Prohibiting Traffic in Game. 

 Lead- Poisoned Ducks. 

 A Thirty-Pound Trout. 

 Snap Shots. 



The Sportsman Tourist. 



A Banquet. 



How the Sleepers Got Egg Nogg. 

 At Nightfall on a Side-Line. 

 My Four Pet Shots. 

 A Day at Maxom's. 

 "Podgers 1 " Commentaries. 



Natural History. 



Breeding Quail. 



Game Bag and Gun. 



Prohibit the Sale of Game. 

 Concerning a High Tax on Guns. 

 The .22. 



The Powder Test. 

 Lead-Poisoned Ducks. 

 Chicago and the West. 



Sea and River Fishing. 

 A Thirty-Pound Trout. 

 Black Ba*s in Finland. 

 Boston Fishermen 

 The Coast Fishery Conference. 



The Kennel. 



American Kennel Club Affairs. 

 Eastern Field Trials Club. 

 U. S. Field Trials. 



The Kennel. 



Nicholls vs. Mills. 



Bloodhounds. 



Points and Flushes. 



Blue Ridge Futurity Stake. 



Dog Chat. 



Answers to Correspondents. 

 Hunting and Coursing. 

 Hunting and Coursing Notes. 



Canoeing. 



The Racing Canoes Milwaukee 



and Avis. 

 Reforming the A. C. A. 

 News Notes. 



Yachting. 



American Yacht Clubs. 



Royal Canadian Y. C. House. 



Challengers for 1895. 



Single-Handed Yachting. 



News Notes. 

 Rifle Range and Gallery. 



Cincinnati Rifle Association. 



Young Rifle Shots. 



Jersevmen at the Targets. 



Club Doings. 

 Trap Shooting. 



Newark vs. Parkwav. 



West Jersey G. C. Tournament. 



Chicago Traps. 



Drivers and Twisters. 



Answers to Queries. 



In like manner, when we suggest this declaration, The and the bird through lack of nutrition speedily becomes 



For 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. 



sale of game should be forbidden at all seasons, as a 

 plank in the platform of that vast party of men scattered 

 in hosts over this country, interested in preserving the 

 game of the continent, the suggestion is made without 

 any optimistic delusion that such a system could be 

 effected at once. But we do hold that the principle of the 

 absolute prohibition of traffic in wild game is the true one, 

 that it is the only one which is adequate, and that it is the 

 one to which sportsmen as a class should be committed, 

 heartily, unreservedly,with determination, courage, stead- 

 fastness, patience and persistency. The campaign must 

 be a long one; but will it not be a campaign for that 

 which is wise, just, and of public advantage? 



THE ABSOLUTE PROHIBITION OF TRAFFIC IN 

 GAME. 



In Great Britain and various other countries artificial 

 game destruction is offset by artificial game production. 

 Birds are bred by the million, to be killed by the million, 

 marketed by the million, and replaced by the million. 

 The system is that of a gigantic poultry farm. The 

 supply is inexhaustible. Game in market is thus a 

 legitimate article of traffic. 



In America conditions are different. Here we are 

 wholly dependent upon the natural increase, unaided by 

 human agency, for the maintenance of the game supply. 

 And the natural increase is by no manner of means ade- 

 quate to withstand the augmented destruction. While 

 the game stock has been growing less and less, the drain 

 upon it has been growing greater and greater. Shooters 

 who pursue it for sport have multiplied a thousand-fold; 

 consumers ten thousand-fold. There is not to-day enough 

 game for the two classes. One or the other must surren. 

 der its claim in favor of the other. The sportsman must 

 yield to the game dealer or the game dealer must give 

 way to the sportsman. Which shall it be? 



Selfish and personal considerations aside, the answer is 

 readily found. That interest must give way which is of 

 least advantage to the community, and that one must be 

 preserved which is of paramount public importance. 

 This is to say that the game must be saved for the enjoy- 

 ment and benefit of those who pursue it for the sake of 

 the pursuit. A grouse which gives a man a holiday afield 

 is worth more to the community than a grouse snared or 

 shot for the market stalls. The game supply which 

 makes possible the general indulgence in field sports is of 

 incalculable advantage to individuals and the nation; bu^ 

 a game supply which makes possible the traffic in game as 

 a luxury has no such importance. 



If this be granted, public policy demands that the traffic 

 in game should be abolished. And if public policy de- 

 mand this, the commercial interests involved, although 

 of magnitude, are not to be considered. This is advanced 

 doctrine perhaps; it is radical; it goes to the root of the 

 thing. But as we have said, the time has come to take 

 an advanced position. When a political party formulates 

 its platform, it does not confine its declaration of 

 principle to the advocacy of such measures alone 

 as are susceptible of immediate attainment; but going 

 further than this, it commits every man who marches 

 under the party banner to the support of certain other 

 principles, the struggle for the supremacy of which must 

 be arduous and protracted, and the triumph in them 

 long deferred. The planks of the party platform stand 

 for the articles of party faith; they embody a declara- 

 tion of "the things hoped for," and which may not be 

 the achievement of one administration nor of a succes- 

 sion of administrations. 



thin in flesh and would not be marketable. 



It is evident that the condition of things described by 

 our staff correspondents as existing in the waters referred 

 to is one that is likely to grow worse instead of better. It 

 is true that the numbers of birds actually known to die 

 from this cause are not large, but the proportion of those 

 seen must be very small in comparison to those affected 

 and destroyed without coming under observation. Mr. 

 Ashley Corbell, a Currituck gunner of long experience, 

 has expressed to us the belief that during some seasons 

 five hundred geese alone, that have died from this cause, 

 have come ashore in his own locality. 



LEAD-POISONED WILDFOWL. 

 The accounts of the destruction of ducks, geese and 

 swans by lead-poisoning which are printed on another 

 page bring to public attention a new element of danger 

 to our wildfowl, and one for which a remedy will be hard 

 to find. 



It is easily to be seen how the birds collect the shot 

 which seems so fatal to them. The best shooting points 

 are on the feeding grounds, and so it is precisely on 

 these feeding grounds that the gunner ties out his decoys 

 and does his shooting, scattering the shot discharged 

 from his gun far and wide over the muddy bottom from 

 which the birds procure their food. Dabbling in the 

 mud for food or pulling up the grass, the fowl take in this 

 shot, which they cannot distinguish from particles of 

 sand or gravel, and which when, it passes into the gizzard, 

 is— up to a certain point — subjected to the same digestive 

 processes as the food eaten. 



The gizzard is a grist mill. Its tough, leathery walls 

 hold the fine gravel which is necessary to digestion and 

 the peristaltic action of the organ keeps these tiny mill- 

 stones moving against each other, and against the food 

 which enters the gizzard, thus grinding the grain, seeds 

 or grass into fine particles which are then readily acted 

 on by the gastric fluids. Just as the food is ground up 

 when taken into the gizzard, so the soft shot is ground 

 into fine powder. 



Lead as a metal is not poisonous, but it is readily acted 

 on by the gastric juices, and may thus be converted into 

 a violent irritant poison. In the human subject most 

 cases of lead-poisoning are caused by the acetate being 

 taken into the stomach, but there are also recorded many 

 instances in which the dust of metallic lead has caused 

 poisoning, and metallic lead is often detected in the tissues 

 of individuals so poisoned. It is evident that lead dust, 

 such as shot becomes after being subjected to the grinding 

 process of a bird's gizzard, would be much more readily 

 acted on by the gastric juices than the same quantity of 

 lead taken in larger pieces into the stomach of a mam- 

 mal. 



The chemical change which takes place in the lead, 

 converts it into a poison which produces acute corrosive 

 gastritis, to which very likely may be added a certain 

 amount of mechanical poisoning, caused by such particles 

 of the metal as have not been dissolved by the gastric 

 fluids, but have passed unchanged into the intestine. In 

 the geese and swan dissected in the South, the mucous 

 membrane of the gizzard was found to be corroded and 

 broken down and the intestines much inflamed, the veins, 

 gorged with black blood, showing plainly against the ex- 

 terior white walls of the intestines. • 



The symptoms of the sick birds captured agree with 

 those to be looked for in this poisoning. The birds are 

 dumpy, stupid and stagger in their walk, and have little 

 control over themselves; in other words, the brain is 

 affected. One specimen appears to have had convulsions. 

 All had difficulty in breathing; the respiration was inter- 

 rupted and hurried; vomiting took place; there was fever. 



Apparently not much has been written on this form of 

 poisoning in animals, yet in 1852 Dr. G. Wilson, in the 

 Edinburgh Medical Journal, states that he detected lead 

 in the organs of animals that had perished from the 

 effects of drinking water impregnated with carbonate of 

 lead from a neighboring manufactory, and of eating 

 grass in the blades and roots of which lead was ascer- 

 tained to be present. 



It may be conjectured that while wild birds which 

 have died from this cause are by no means fit for food, 

 there is little danger to human life from their consump- 

 tion. The poison acts quickly on the affected tissues, 

 paralyzing and actually destroying the digestive organs, 



As stated by our Chicago representative, the existence 

 of this disease has been known in the office of Forest 

 and Stream for a year, and the reasons which we had for 

 not mentioning it have only now ceased to exist. By a 

 curious coincidence the examination of the Currituck 

 wildfowl had been made only a few days, and the notes 

 on the cases had only just been written, when it became 

 possible to publish the interesting facts, and Mr. Hough's 

 manuscript was received at this office. 



The subject is one which is of the greatest interest to all 

 gunners; and the naturalist and medical man as well will 

 find in it food for thought. There are people who believe 

 the number of our wildfowl is reduced by the gathering 

 of their eggs for albumen, but here is an agent of destruc- 

 tion much more real and alarming. The actual facts, free 

 from speculation or fanciful and absurd theories, are now 

 for the first time laid before the public in the columns of 

 Forest and Stream. 



A THIRTY-POUND TROUT. 



We had from Dr. Nordqvist last year a little account 

 of the game fishes of Finland — the salmon', the black- 

 spotted and red-spotted trouts, the pike, pike-perch, yel- 

 low perch and other well known species. This week we 

 publish a translation of a trout fishing story by a Fin- 

 land angler. The charming illustration accompanying 

 the article has been furnished by Dr. Nordqvist for our 

 use; it was first published in the Fishery Journal of 

 Finland at Helsingfors. 



The trout described is the fish known in New York 

 and some other States as the brown trout, and at the 

 stations of the IT. S. Fish Commission as the Von Behr 

 trout (Salmo fario). The fish was far above the average 

 weight, so that the feeling of triumph naturally belong- 

 ing to Mr. Thesleff will be appreciated by American 

 anglers who delight in record breaking. The bait used 

 is a little whitefish allied to our so-called lake herring. 



This plain and straightforward account of an even- 

 ing's enjoyment will serve to remind us that "One 

 touch of nature makes the whole world kin." The 

 home of the birch, the May fly, the trout and the sal- 

 mon is a wide expanse, and the divinity that woos man 

 into this fair domain reigns over many lands. 



SNAP SHOTS. 



On many ducking grounds this has proved to be a great 

 year for game. The fowl have come in tremendous hosts 

 to localities where the supply has been wanting in recent 

 years. The fluctuations of years of plenty and years of 

 scarcity go far toward confounding some of the pet 

 theories about game and the measures which are advo- 

 cated as essential to provide for the maintenance of the 

 stock. 



Wanted in New York city— a live game protective asso- 

 ciation to hold up the hands of the district game protec- 

 tor and aid him in his campaign against the restaurant 

 proprietors who serve game out of season. The field of 

 activity is wide, there is much to do, and just now no 

 organization of the kind to do it. 



The negro with his cheap gun is an ever-present factor 

 to be reckoned with in maintaining the game supply in 

 the Southern States. Trespass laws intended mainly to 

 keep off negro shooters are in many sections extremely 

 severe. 



We have prepared and shall print next week an inter- 

 esting and suggestive report of the wild game which has 

 been introduced into the various game preserves of 

 the United States. 



