Forest and Stream. 



A Weekly Journal of the Rod and Gun. 



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

 Six Months, $2. j 



NEW YORK, SATURDAY, APRIL 21, 1894. 



( VOL. XLIL— No. 16 



I No. 318 Broadway, New York. 



CONTENTS. 



Editorial. 



Familiar Acquaintances. 

 A Step Forward. 

 Snap Shots. 



The Sportsman Tourist. 



Arkansas Fruit, Fish and Game. 

 Reveries of a Dismal Man. 



Natural History. 



The Wolverine at Home. 

 Camp-Fire Fllckeringrs. 



Game Bag arid Gun. 



. That Vanishing Moose. 

 Field Permits. 

 Stop the Sale of Game. 

 Jim. 



The South Jersey Deer Drive. 

 Dixie Land — vii. 



Sea'and River Fishing. 



A Springtime Musing. 



The Ouananiche. 



On the North Shore of Lake 



Superior. 

 Angling Notes. 

 Trout Opening. 



My First Trouting Experience. 

 Fishing on Patriot's Day. 



The Kennel. 



Points and Flushes. 



Field Trials and Our Dogs in 



America. 

 Dog Chat. 



The Kennel. 



Answers to Correspondents. 



Hunting and Coursing. 



The Oaks Coursing Meet. 

 Hunting and Coursing Notes. 



Canoeing. 



The A. C. A. and Its Critics. 

 A. C. A. Membership. 

 News Notes. 



Yachting. 



Cruising in the Cy-Pres, 1893.-IV. 

 Modern Yachts as Sea Boats. 

 Yacht Racing at Atlantic City. 

 News Notes. 



Rifle Range and Gallery. 



National Snooting Association of 



the United States. 

 Ross— Dorrler. 

 How Do They Do It? 

 How They Do It. 

 Club Doings. 

 Notes. 



Trap Shooting. 



Paterson Defeats Elizabeth. 

 Baltimore Gun Club Tournament 

 Shooting in Hunterdon County. 

 Keystones at Springfield. 

 Texas State Shoot. 

 Drivers and Twisters. 

 Matches and Meetings. 



Answers to Queries. 



For Prospectus and Advertising Rates see Page vii. 



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. 



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A STEP FORWARD. 



At last Congress has taken action. On Tuesday of last 

 week a bill, introduced by Mr. John F. Lacey to protect 

 the birds and animals in the Yellowstone National Park, 

 and to punish crimes in said Park, and for other pur- 

 poses, passed the House of Representatives. Before tbe 

 Senate there is a bill introduced by Mr. Carey, of Wyo- 

 ming, which has the same purpose, and which will prob- 

 ably pass without opposition at an early day. These two 

 bills will no doubt be considered in a conference com- 

 mittee of the Senate and House, and such committee 

 should have no difficulty in agreeing upon a substitute 

 embodying the best provisions of both. 



Mr. Lacey's bill is printed in another column. The 

 measure is a long step in tbe right direction, yet it does 

 not specify all offenses which are likely to be committed 

 by visitors to the Park, nor do its provisions apply to the 

 forest reservation as they ought to. 



Mr. Carey's bill is more full than Mr. Lacey's, and 

 besides, covers some points which the House bill omits, 

 by providing that any person violating any rule or regula- 

 tion promulgated by the Secretary of the Interior for the 

 preservation "of timber, mineral deposits, natural curi- 

 osities or wonderful objects within the said Park," or for 

 the protection of birds or animals or fish, shall be deemed 

 guilty of a misdemeanor. But here the penalties pro- 

 vided are too small, being only a fine of not more than 

 $100, or imprisonment not exceeding six months, or both, 

 with the costs of the proceeding. Such penalties, while 

 appropriate enough to certain offenses, are by no means 

 heavy enough for some others. To kill one of the few 

 remaining buffalo of America or to fire the forests of the 

 National Park is a much more serious offense than to 

 knock away a piece of rock from a hot spring formation, 

 and while a fine of $100 would be an ample penalty for 

 the last offense, it would be absurdly inadequate for the 

 first-named. There is, however, material in these two 

 bills for a very satisfactory government and police law to 

 protect the natural objects within the Yellowstone Park, 



provided certain necessary amendments shall be made to 

 their provisions. 



It is very important that the provisions of any bill for 

 the protection of the Park should be made to apply to 

 the forest reservation on the south and east as well as to 

 the Park itself; for this forest reserve, as we have often 

 said, is practically, though not in name, a part of the 

 Yellowstone Park. 



However much opinions may vary on other points in 

 connection with this great reservation, there can be but 

 little difference of sentiment about the necessity of pro- 

 tecting it from injury. All can unite on a protective 

 measure, and every vote in both Houses should be re- 

 corded in its favor. It is to be expected that the Senators 

 from those States adjacent to the Park, who must feel an 

 especial pride in it, will give their strongest support to 

 such a measure, and a like enthusiasm for it may be 

 looked for it in the Western members of the House. 



The effort to protect the Park originated in the Senate. 

 Senator Vest, of Missouri, was the first one to take up 

 arms in defense of this reservation. He first entered on 

 the struggle many years ago and carried it on long and 

 successfully, and he may justly be regarded as the father 

 of legislation for the Park. In his efforts he was ably 

 seconded by Mr. Manderson, of Nebraska. For his prompt- 

 ness in drafting and putting through the House the first 

 bill for protection, Mr. Lacey deserves generous credit, 

 and Mr. Carey's bill, as we have said, is a wise one, pro- 

 vided certain strengthening amendments shall be incor- 

 porated in it. 



The news printed in Forest and Stream last week 

 shows how rapidly the natural objects in the National 

 Park are disappearing, and how vital to their preservation 

 is the passage of a protective bill. A good beginning has 

 been made, but it is of great importance that there shall 

 be no slackening of effort in this matter. The Senate 

 bill should be passed without delay, and as soon as possible 

 thereafter a substitute which will afford adequate protec- 

 tion should be agreed on in conference. There can be no 

 doubt that the measure, when passed, will receive execu- 

 tive approval. . 



FAMILIAR ACQUAINTANCES.— XIV. 



When the returned crows have become such familiar 

 objects in the forlorn unclad landscape of early spring 

 that they have worn out their first welcome, and the 

 earliest songbirds have come to stay in spite of inhos- 

 pitable weather that seems for days to set the calendar 

 back a month, the woods invite you more than the fields. 

 There nature is least under man's restraint and gives the 

 first signs of her re-awakening. In windless nooks the 

 sun shines warmest between the meshes of the slowly 

 drifting net of shadows. 



There are patches of moss on gray rocks, and tree 

 trunks and fairy islands of it, that will not be greener 

 when they are wet with summer showers, arise among 

 the brown expanse of dead leaves. The gray mist of 

 branches and undergrowth is enlivened with a tinge of 

 purple. Here and there the tawny mat beneath is up- 

 lifted by the struggling plant life below it or pierced 

 through by an underthrust of a sprouting seed. There 

 is a promise of bloom in blushing arbutus buds, a promise 

 even now fulfilled by the first squirrel-cups just out of 

 their furry bracts and already calling the bees abroad. 

 Flies are buzzing to and fro in busy idleness, and a 

 cricket stirs the leaves with a sudden spasm of move- 

 ment. The first of the seventeen butterflies that shall 

 give boys the freedom of bare feet goes wavering past 

 like a drifting blossom. 



A cradle knoll invites you to a seat on the soft, warm 

 cushion of dead leaves and living moss and purple sprigs 

 of wintergreen with their blobs of scarlet berries that 

 have grown redder and plumper under every snow of all 

 the winter. This smoothly rounded mound and the hol- 

 low scooped beside.it, brimful now of amber, sun-warmed 

 water, mark the ancient place of a great tree that was 

 dead and buried and all identity of its kind molderedaway 

 and obliterated before you were born. 



The incessant crackling purr of the wood frogs is 

 interrupted at your approach and they disappear till the 

 wrinkled surface of the oblong pool grows smooth again, 

 and you perceive them sprawled along the bottom on the 

 leaf paving of their own color. As you cast a casual 

 glance on your prospective seat, carelessly noting the 

 mingling of many hues, the brightness of the berries 

 seems most conspicuous till a moving curved and recurved 

 gleam of gold on black and a flickering flash of red, 



catch your eye and startle you with an involuntary re- 

 vulsion. 



With charmed eyes held by this new object, you grope 

 blindly for a stick or stone. But if you find either, for- 

 bear to strike. Do not blot out one token of spring's 

 awakening nor destroy one life that rejoices in it, even 

 though it be so humble an one as that of a poor garter 

 snake. He is so harmless to man, that were it not for the 

 old, unreasoning antipathy, our hands would not be raised 

 against him; and if he were not a snake, we would call 

 him beautiful in his stripes of black and gold, and of 

 graceful motion — a motion that charms us in the undula- 

 tion of waves, in their flickering reflections of sunlight on 

 rushy margins and wooded shores, in the winding of. a 

 brook through a meadow, in the flutter of a pennant 

 and the flaunting of a banner, the ripple of wind-swept 

 meadow and grain field and the sway of leafy boughs. 

 His colors are fresh and bright as ever you will see them, 

 though he has but to-day awakened from a long sleep in 

 continual darkness. 



He is simply enjoying the free air and warm sunshine 

 without a thought of food for all his months of fasting. 

 Perhaps he has forgotten that miserable necessity of exist- 

 ence. When at last he remembers that he has an appe- 

 tite, you can scarcely imagine that he can have any 

 pleasure in satisfying it with one huge mouthful of twice 

 or thrice the ordinary diameter of his gullet. If you 

 chance to witness his slow and painful gorging of a frog, 

 you hear a cry of distress that might be uttered with 

 equal cause by victim or devourer, for, as the Irishman 

 said, "They both has rayson to squale." When he has 

 fully entered upon the business of reawakened life, many 

 a young field mouse and noxious insect will go into his 

 maw to his own and your benefit. If there go also some 

 eggs and callow young of ground-nesting birds, why 

 should you question his right, you, who defer slaughter 

 out of pure selfishness, that a little later you may make 

 havoc among the broods of woodcock and grouse? 



Of all living things, only man disturbs the nicely ad- 

 justed balance of nature. The more civilized he becomes 

 the more mischievous he is. The better he calls himself, 

 the worse he is. For uncounted centuries the bison and 

 the Indian shared a continent, but in two hundred years 

 or so the white man has destroyed the one and spoiled the 

 other. 



Surely there is little harm in this lowly bearer of a 

 name honored in knighthood, and the motto of the noble 

 order might be the legend written on his gilded mail, 

 "Evil to him who evil thinks." 



If this sunny patch of earth is not wide enough for you 

 to share with him, leave it to him and choose another for 

 yourself. The world is wide enough for both to enjoy 

 this season of its promise. 



Some weeks ago we noted the prosecution of a member 

 of the Governor's Staff for unlawful shooting, as a gratify- 

 ing evidence that the game laws are intended to apply to 

 all men irrespective of the handles affixed to their names. 

 Another case in point, and teaching the same great truth, 

 is that of the Chief of Police of Poughkeepsie, who was 

 brought up with a round turn last week by Deputy Game 

 and Fish Protector Mase, of that city, and fined for net- 

 ting fish in a near-by lake. Every successful action 

 brought against individuals, who because of office or 

 position in the social scale may assume immunity from 

 the protective statutes, affords an instructive object les- 

 son, and commands respect for the principle of game and 

 fish conservation. 



The suggestions of Mr. Hallock and of Mr. La Roche 

 respecting the relations of sportsmen and land own- 

 ers are worthy of more than passing consideration. In 

 a word, the plea is for square dealing. It is a plea 

 which cannot be spoken too often or insisted upon with 

 too great emphasis. Read the two letters and tell us 

 what you think of them. 



The Fish Protective Association of Monmouth County, 

 N. J., has caused to be introduced at Trenton a bill to 

 regulate the employment of pound nets. The text of 

 the measure is printed in our fishing columns. 



We publish to-day the programme of the recently organ- 

 ized National Shooting Association for its initial shooting 

 festival in 1895. The formation of the Schuetzen Bund 

 points to a growing interest in rifle shooting; and in 1895 

 we may expect to witness something like the fervor of the 

 tournaments of Creedmoor days. 



