Forest and Stream. 



A Weekly Journal of the Rod and Gun. 



NEW YORK, SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 17, 1894. 



Tjerhs, $4 A Year. 10 Cts. a Copt. ) 



Six Months, $2. j 



I VOL. XIH. — No. 7. 



| No. 318 Broadway, New Yoke. 



CONTENTS. 



Editorial. 



American Game Preserves. J 

 Snap Shots. 



The Sportsman Tourist, j 

 Danvis Folks.— xxn. 

 Canadian Speech. 



Natural History. 



Malevolence in Lower Animals, i 

 Albino Specimens. 

 Groundhog Day. 



Game Bag and Gun. 



American Game Parks. 

 A Suggestion for Game Pre 



serves. 

 The Powder Test. 

 Vermont Game. 

 Chicago and the West. 

 That Plank. 

 Sauce for the Gander. 

 Grouse Trapping in South | 



Dakota. 

 Game Destruction in Montana. 

 Oregon Notes. 



Sea and River Fishing. 



To Seize Private Property. 

 Angling Notes. 



The Coast Fishery Conference. 



I The Kennel. 



| Heavy Mastiffs. 

 ■ Canadian K. C. Meeting. 

 Southern Field Trials. 

 Specialty Club Secretaries. 

 Dog Chat. 



Answers to Correspondents. 



Janoelng. 



News Notes. 



Vachtlng. 



Com. Center in Philadelphia. 

 Small Boats on the Delaware. 

 Designs for a Centerboard Sloop. 

 Canoe- Yawl Construction. 

 News Notes. 



rtifle Range and Gallery. 



German- American Riflemen. 

 The Revolver Championship. 

 Club Doings. 

 Trap Shooting, 

 Connecticut State League Meet. 

 McMurchy's Protective System 

 Three Straight for Rochester. 

 Texas Trap and Rifle. 

 Matches and Meetings. 

 Drivers and Twisters. 



Answers to Queries. 



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. 



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. 



AMERICAN GAME PRESERVES. 

 We give to-day a report on the game which has been 

 introduced into American game parks. The information 

 may be accepted as authoritative, because it comes di- 

 rectly from the persons who are engaged in the several 

 enterprises notedf and so far as it goes the record is 

 brought up to date of publication. As the title indicates, 

 this review is intended to be the first one of a series of 

 annual reports, in which the development of the preserve 

 system shall be summed up. 



The facts recorded are interesting and suggestive. That 

 our native deer and elk will thrive and breed in captivity 

 has been demonstrated repeatedly, as in the well known 

 Illinois deer paddocks, in which Judge Caton studied the 

 ways of this game. But here are recorded the first steps 

 in the confinement of American large game in parks 

 which are so limited in bounds as to be within the control 

 of individual owners and are jet so wide in their areas 

 that the game has practically a range as free and unob- 

 structed, and remains quite as wild, as in the limitless 

 wilderness. No one who cares for the perpetuation of 

 our native stock of large game can regard without pro- 

 found interest the bringing of buffalo Lo the hills of New 

 England, the transplanting of elk to the Catskills and 

 the Adirondacks, and the sheltering of deer in a district of 

 New Jersey where the last survivor of the native race 

 was long ago dogged to its death. 



The report is suggestive, too, because it marks the 

 beginnings on this continent of the European system of 

 game preserving — a system which, as every careful 

 observer must foresee, is here to develop with giant 

 strides. To the sportsman of the future game preserves 

 will be familiar, and this first Forest and Stream review 

 of the year 1893 will be referred *to curiously as possessing 

 an historic interest.— IJntil the present, in this country, 

 we have depended upon game protection by the State for 

 • the benefit of the citizen, and it must be confessed that 

 for the most part things have been going from bad to 

 worse. Now has come this new plan of game preserving 

 by the citizen for his own benefit, and for the individual 

 who can afford it the system is a success. Whether it 

 will prove a public good or an evil will depend not only 

 upon the extent to which it shall be carried, but also 

 upon the effeciency of public game protection. If game 

 protection for the community shall be made a farce by 

 the public the game supply will in time be confined to 

 the private preserves. If reasonable game laws shall be 

 observed in practice there will always be game enough 



for all outside of private parks. If the game which 

 belongs to the public were preserved on the same com- 

 mon sense plan as that of individual owners of fenced 

 ranges there would be no lack of a due allowance for all. 



This reminds us of a little story which is apropos here. 

 The owner of an extensive and well-stocked game park, 

 having accorded to a sportsman permission to hunt deer 

 within the park confines, enjoined upon him as the sole 

 restriction of his sport, an observance of the rule laid 

 down for all guests alike, that each hunter should kill two 

 deer only. Then wishing him true aim and the home- 

 bringing of worthy trophies of his skill, the generous host 

 bade his guest good-speed; and the guest with his guide 

 rounding a bend in the stream passed from sight. 



In due time the two deer permitted by the host had 

 been brought down. But the guest, his appetite whetted 

 by success, did not pause there. Forgetful of those re- 

 straints of hospitality, which though delicate as gossamer 

 should bind every high-minded man as with chains of 

 steel, scouting the will of his host, in contempt of man- 

 hood and in defiance of very decency, the occasion pre- 

 senting itself, and no park guardians being by, this un- 

 worthy guest killed other deer; and did not stay bis greedy 

 hand until opportunity ceased. And more than this. 

 For, coming out of the park with the shameless evidences 

 of his misdoing, he boasted of his work; made light of the 

 hospitality outraged and the rights of other guests im- 

 paired; and flaunted the booty of his success in the very 

 face of his host. 



An impossible story, do you say? Not so. It has been 

 enacted a thousand times, if not in detail, in spirit as 

 gross. For the game park was the public woodland. The 

 owner was the State. And the offending guest — his name 

 is Legion. 



The photographs from which our illustrations have been 

 reproduced demonstrate that the preserve affords excel- 

 lent opportunities for the still-hunter with the camera. 

 The deer pictured by Mr. Pierrepont are not in any sense 

 tame; they are almost as wild as in their native haunts; 

 and it required the exercise of all the still-hunter's skill to 

 creep within focus range. 



We all know the old story — it has been told ever since 

 the days when they used cross-bows for hunting the deer 

 — of the master, who, having boasted that he had shot a 

 deer through a hind hoof and an ear at one shot, called 

 in his servant to corroborate the tale, and with ready wit 

 to. explain the feat by declaring that the deer had been 

 killed in the act of scratching its ear. Afterward the 

 master was taken to task by the servant for having put 

 the wounds so far apart. In a Georgia rice field version, 

 recorded by the late Charles C. Jones, in his collection of 

 'Negro Myths," the conclusion runs: 



Arter de gentemans done gone, de serbant call eh Mossa one side an 

 eh say: "Mossa, me willin' fnh back anyting you say 'bout hunt an' 

 kill deer, but lemme bague you nex' time you tell 'bout how you shoot 

 um, you pit de holes closer. Dis time you mek um so fur apart, me 

 hab big trouble fur git um togerruh." 



It is an old yarn, but we have improved the telling of it; 

 for here in one of Mr. Pierrepont's photographs is a 

 veritable picture by "an artist on the spot" of the deer in 

 pose for the credulity -taxing shot; so that if any reader of 

 Forest and Stream may care to father the tale as origi- 

 nal with himself, he will have no need of calling in the 

 butler or the camp cook to make it good, but may produce 

 this picture and say, "Here is how I photographed the 

 game before I shot it." A sorry pass, indeed, if we can- 

 not nowadays tell bigger stories than of old and clinch 

 them more solidly. 



SNAP SHOTS. 



Among the foolish freaks of game legislation is a bill 

 (No- 94) of the Assembly at Albany, which gives towns 

 authority to acquire by purchase private ponds, brooks 

 and other bodies of water for the purpose of making 

 public fisheries of them; and in case the owner refuses to 

 be bought out, empowers the town to condemn the 

 property and seize it by right of eminent domain. The 

 difficulty of considering such a measure with seriousness 

 is that it flies in the face of those universally accepted 

 principles of property, upon which are based the holdings 

 of our fields and homesteads. If the town may climb 

 over our fences and take possession of our ponds and 

 brooks for a public fishery, it may likewise take our 



fields for a public shooting, our milk springs for trout 

 hatcheries, our barns for winter quail sanitariums, and 

 our houses for fishing lodges and shooting boxes; it 

 may even by a vote in town meeting impress any luckless 

 one of us into service as town game carrier, dog handler 

 or fish fryer. Mr. Gerry says that this bill is of question- 

 able constitutionality. We should say as much, and that 

 its author is as likely as not non compos mentis. 



The proposed adoption of discriminations against Cana- 

 dian shooters in New York waters is an appeal to the 

 principle of tit for tat. What is sauce for the goose is 

 sauce for the gander. Nevertheless we would gladly see 

 the lines which divide sportsmen thrown down even 

 between the States and the Provinces, as well as between 

 individual States and counties and towns. They are not 

 in accord with the spirit of the age, and we should find a 

 way to secure the desired ends without them. 



One commendable feature of the Forest and Stream's 

 Winans Revolver Trophy contests is that they bring 

 about a very pleasant acquaintance between the contest- 

 ants. Dr. Fort did not carry home the prize the other 

 day, but he proved himself possessed of a generous spirit 

 which recognized in Mr. Petty a good shot and a worthy 

 competitor. The meeting was in every sense promotive 

 of good feeling; and we trust that the Trophy may be the 

 means of bringing about many another occasion equally 

 felicitous. 



We conclude to-day the report of the discussion at the 

 recent coast fishery conference. The proceedings as 

 printed have been considerably amplified by the addition 

 of papers and remarks written out in extenso, but not 

 spoken at the time. The report, then, is of decided value, 

 for it may be accepted as giving the two sides presented 

 more carefully and with fuller detail than would be 

 possible extemporaneously under the conditions of a con- 

 ference. The testimony here offered and the views 

 expressed must be referred to in all future discussion of 

 the questions at issue. The official report by Secretary 

 Doyle has been reprinted in pamphlet form and will soon 

 be ready for the subscribers. 



JOHN E. LYON. 



John E. Lyon, for many years one of the foremost citizens 

 of Oswego, N.JX^, died in that city Jan. 23, aged 80 years. 



Born in Onondaga county, near Syracuse, in 1813, Mr. 

 Lyon as a child was taken to what is now Fulton, N. Y., 

 and a little later his father moved to Oswego. As a young 

 man he lived for some years in Cleveland, Ohio, and then 

 returned to Oswego, where he resided continuously for more 

 than fifty years, during all that time being engaged in suc- 

 cessful business pursuits. 



Mr. Lyon was a man of superb presence. He was cast in 

 giant mould and towered high among his fellows. Physi- 

 cally and intellectually he was of the highest type. His 

 strong character impressed itself on those about him and his 

 opinions carried great weight in the community in which he 

 lived, for he was universally respected and honored, and by 

 all who knew him deeply loved. 



In his younger days Mr. Lyon had been an ardent angler. 

 In 1838 he fished the Sault Ste. Marie River, casting the fly 

 from a canoe in those grand rapids, and he was a pioneer in 

 fly-fishing in that country. For many years he fished the 

 country about Mackinac and the south shore of Lake Super- 

 ior at a period when it was difficult to secure canoemen 

 without the acquiescence of the Hudson's Company's 

 authorities, who then had more control than the Amer- 

 icans over the Indians. Long after increasing years had 

 made it impossible for Mr. Lyon to fish the brooks, he still 

 took great aelight in reading and talking about his favor- 

 ite pastime. No one could discourse more fluently or more 

 entertainingly of the art of fishing, and it was a keen pleas- 

 ure to listen to his angling talk. A man of positive ideas 

 and unswerving convictions, he was withal so gentle and 

 kindly that it was not easy to declare and hold views opposed 

 to his. He was the most genial and lovable of men. His 

 whole life was a lesson to those with whom he came in con- 

 tact. Cheerful and happy himself, he made others so by the 

 mere force of his association with them, diffusing content- 

 ment from his sweet nature without effort, as naturally as 

 the flower gives forth its perfume or the sun its heat. 



A nature so well rounded and complete is most rare, and 

 if the world is poorer now for the loss of such a man, it is 

 richer f or all the good done in his long and happy life. We 

 have no standard by which we may measure that good, yet 

 we know surely that the blessed influences of a career like 

 that of John E. Lyon do not end with one's presence here* 



