Forest and Stream. 



A Weekly Journal of the Rod and Gun. 



Terms, 94 a Ykab. 10 Cts. a Copy. I 

 Six Months, $2. j 



NEW YORK, SATURDAY, JUNE 23, 1894. 



j VOL. XLTT.-No. 26. 



( No. 818 Broadway, New York. 



CONTENTS. 



Editorial. 



Will Illinois Follow New York. 

 Side-Fishing for Count. 

 Snap Shots. 



The Sportsman Tourist. 



Forest and Stream Yellowstone 

 Park Game Exploration. 



Natural History. 



At a Dollar Apiece. 



Black and Gray Woodchucks. 



Serpent Suicide. 



Game Bag and Gun. 



My First Turkey and my Last. 

 Quail and Locust. 

 Stories of Ezra— in. 

 Stop the Sale of Game. 

 Wild Turkeys and Squirrels. 



Sea and River Fishing. 



On the North Shore of Lake Su- 

 perior. 

 Trout Tickling. 



Niagara County Club's Outing. 

 A Bull Story Told in Confidence. 

 News from the Fishing Waters. 

 Is the Fishing Gone Forever? 

 Fishing on the Shenandoah— II. 

 Boston Men in Maine. 

 Canadian Angling Notes. 



Fishculture. 



Relation of the Community to 

 the Fisheries— ii. 



The Kennel. 



After Wildcats on a Creole Pony 

 The Dams of English Setters. 

 That "Mossback Robber" Rule. 

 Philadelphia K. C. Derby Entries 

 Dog Chat. 

 Kennel Notes. 

 Kennel Answers. 



Yachting. 



Prizes in Yachting— Challenge 

 Cups. 



The Royal Victoria Cup. 

 Vigilant Abroad. 

 Valkyrie's Passage. 

 Yachting News Notes. 



Canoeing. 



Mr. Howard's Canoe. 

 Canoeing Notes. 



Rifle Range and Gallery. 



Dominion Off -Hand. 

 Rifle at San Antonio. 

 Club Scores. 

 Rifle Notes. 



Trap Shooting. 



The State Shoot at TJtica. 

 Iowa State Association. 

 Wilmington Tournament. 

 Drivers and Twisters. 

 Matches and Meetings. 



Answers to Queries. 



For Prospectus and Advertising Rates see Page 548 



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. 



WILL ILLINOIS FOLLOW? 

 In our report last week of the convention and tourna- 

 ment of the Illinois State Sportsmen's Association at Chi- 

 cago, the familiar complaint was repeated that the tour- 

 nament interests had crowded out those of game protec- 

 tion. President Low, it was said, "gave the Association 

 the imnual roast on its inefficiency as a protective body, 

 and this the Association bore placidly, calmly and mildly 

 as is its wont. Mr. Low thought trap-shooting should not 

 occupy all the attention and time of the body, and that 

 the Association ought to 'do something or disband.' " 



The failure of the Illinois Association as a game pro- 

 tective force does not of necessity follow from an indiffer- 

 ence on the part of its members toward that cause, but is 

 to be found in the nature of its organization, in the form 

 of its constitution. There unquestionably exists in the 

 rank and file of the Association a sound and healthy sen- 

 timent, which, if given adequate opportunity of expres- 

 sion and activity, would prove a potent force. But any 

 possible game protective activity is now smothered by the 

 trap-shooting interest, and it is thus smothered because 

 the constitution of the body makes no provision for its 

 separate, unhampered exercise. 



When the constitution of the Illinois Association was 

 framed the authors recognized the dual purpose of the 

 organization — game protection and trap-shooting. They 

 provided for both, but for both at the same time; and 

 here was their mistake. The average man cannot suc- 

 cessfully engage in work and in play too; if he attempts 

 it one or the other must suffer; usually it is not the play. 

 An association of average men cannot take part in the 

 work of game protection and in the play of trap-shooting 

 at the same time; if they attempt it one or the other must 

 be slighted; and trap-shooting never is. This is strictly in 

 keeping with human nature; and sportsmen are very 

 human. As most other State associations which attempt 

 to combine trap-shooting and game protection, the Illi- 

 nois Association has long been and now is in the condi- 

 tion of the New York State Association for the Protection 

 of Fish and Game, prior to its reorganization in 1892. 

 And as here, the remedy, we apprehend, is to be found in 

 a modification of the constitution by which the two inter- 

 ests shall be accorded equal recognition and opportunity of 

 development. In this the New York Association has 

 shown the way. Others would do well to follow. 



At the risk of rehearsing facts which may be familiar, 

 but whose study cannot fail of instruction, we give in 

 brief the story of what has been done in New York. 



The New York Association was formed in 1S59 by dele- 

 gates from different counties, who had met in response to 

 a call for "a convention for the purpose of discussing and 

 devising means for united action throughout the State for 

 a revision of the present senseless and inefficient game 

 and fish laws." This business occupied the time and 



attention of the meeting; a bill was drafted, and subse- 

 quently, through the efforts of the Association, was 

 adopted by the Legislature. Though the engrossing pur- 

 pose of the meeting was that named in the call, never- 

 theless, at this very first convention two trap-shooting 

 matches were engaged in as a diversion after the weightier 

 concerns had been given their due attention. 



As one annual meeting followed another, the trap- 

 shooting features grew apace, and engaged more and 

 more the attention of those in attendance. In time club 

 delegates came to be chosen not because of their interest 

 in game and fish protection, but because of their expert- 

 ness at the trap. They attended the convention not to 

 represent the fish and game interests of the home clubs, 

 but to maintain their prestige in shooting, and to win 

 prizes and trophies. The prizes multiplied and grew in 

 value. In the end trap-shooting monopolized the entire 

 attention of the annual convention, and this calne to be 

 known as the "State Shoot." 



Such a departure from original purposes was watched 

 with extreme regret by those who appreciated the oppor- 

 tunities of usefulness open to the Association, and who 

 recognized the obligations it owed to the public, There 

 were not wanting Jeremiahs to bewail the people's fol- 

 lowing after strange gods. But protests and criticisms 

 and exhortations were ineffectual. The real fault lay in 

 those provisions of the constitution which called for the 

 holding of a deliberative convention and a trap-shooting 

 tournament at one and the same time, and the remedy 

 was not found until the constitution itself was changed. 



At length, in the winter of 1892, in a special meeting 

 called by Gen. D. H. Bruce in Syracuse, a committee was 

 named to devise a way to restore the Association to its 

 original purpose. The committee made its report at the 

 next annual meeting, in July of that year, and suggested 

 a reorganization, with a new constitution. The essential 

 features of the report are outlined in these paragraphs: 



The plan of reorganization recognizes and makes ample provision 

 for the two purposes of the Association — game protection and trap- 

 shooting. In the practical conduct of the Association each one of 

 these interests is given its own place, but the two are kept entirely 

 separate. Provision is made for the fullest activity in each, but 

 neither one is permitted to conflict with the other. Two meetings are 

 provided for annually, one in the winter for game protection interests 

 only, and one in the summer for trap-shooting and other competi- 

 tions. 



The summer toun.am.ent is retained in all essential details as now 

 conducted. The management of the Association tournament is en- 

 trusted to one of the local clubs, to be named from year to year. This 

 club is given full charge of the meeting, assumes the financial respon- 

 sibility and reaps the profit or bears the loss. The present mode of 

 selecting the place, time and club remains unchanged. The officers 

 of the managing club are made ex officio the officers of the tourna- 

 ment and the tournament convention. 



The plan was adopted and has been in operation for 

 two years with most satisfactory and gratifying results. 

 The annual winter conventions have been well attended 

 and influential; the summer tournaments have lost none 

 of their interest and importance. The reorganized Asso- 

 ciation is in every way stronger than ever before. It has 

 solved the problem of combining in its membership all 

 the diverse elements whose union forms a powerful 

 whole. Each element; — the protective and the tourna- 

 ment — has fullest scope; there is no clashing of interests; 

 neither suffers at the expense of the other. 



Now that the New York Association has found so 

 happy a solution of the problem which formerly con- 

 fronted it, and which now confronts the Illinois Associa- 

 tion, would not Illinois do well to make trial of a like 

 scheme of reorganization ? 



We commend the plan also for general adoption by 

 State associations. Copies of the New York constitution 

 will be furnished from this office on request. 



home because she might be beaten abroad, and if they do 

 not appreciate the pluck and boldness of the yacht's new 

 owners in purchasing the one yacht whose position as a 

 representative American vessel is beyond question, and 

 fitting her out in the best possible manner, and sending 

 her forth boldly to meet anything afloat. 



The venture of the Gould brothers has nothing of that 

 flavor of so-called "practical yachting" which leads a 

 man to avoid a race in which the chances are not wholly 

 on his side; but it savors more of the spirit which in the 

 early part of this century sent out from all the Atlantic 

 ports a fleet of little schooners and brigs under letters of 

 marque, with no thought of their small size and inferior 

 armament, but simply with the resolve to do the best 

 they could against any odds. 



There is no doubt that Vigilant, whether repeating the 

 triumphs of Wenonah and Wee Win, or only moderately 

 successful under conditions for which she was never in* 

 tended, will carry the American flag with credit on the 

 Clyde, the Irish Sea and the Channel; and whatever 

 meed of success she may finally attain, her owners are 

 deserving of nothing but praise for their spirited and 

 patriotic action in assuming the offensive rather than de- 

 fensive position in international yachting. 



SIDE-FISHING FOR COUNT. 

 Last week we reported the fishing contest of the 

 Honeoye Falls Anglers' Association; to-day is recorded 

 that of the Niagara County Anglers' Club. The members 

 divide up into rival companies and each fishes to outscore 

 the other side. Such competitions have long been popu- 

 lar in Great Britain. The signs appear to indicate that 

 in time they will be quite as common here. With their 

 development one of two results will follow; side-fishing 

 contests will seriously impair the fishing in waters where 

 the stock is susceptible of depletion, or else the fishing 

 competitions will so stimulate popular interest in angling 

 as to provide for requisite restocking and protection. 



VIGILANT, 



The arrival of Vigilant in British waters puts an end to 

 the long-di6puted question as to whether America was 

 called oh to take other than a defensive part in interna- 

 tional racing; and henceforth American yachtsmen need 

 concern themselves only with Vigilant's actual perform- 

 ances against the British fleet. The policy of sending a 

 representative American yacht abroad has long been con- 

 demned by many who consider themselves good sports- 

 men but are unwilling to assume any chances not abso- 

 lutely forced upon them, and the same objections have 

 been made to the plans of Messrs. Gould this year as in 

 the case of Mr. Carroll and Navahoe last season. 



We are much mistaken in the feelings of Americans as 

 a nation if they endorse in any way that cold, practical 

 spirit of mug-hunting which would keep Vigilant at 



SNAP SHOTS. 

 A band of conquistadores under the leadership of Mr, 

 C. M. Coen, sailed from this port on Thursday of last 

 week and took formal possession of a new country out 

 beyond the Sandy Hook Lightship, eleven miles from the 

 Long Island shore and seventeen miles from New Jersey. 

 The site is known on the charts as the Cholera Banks; it 

 is 12J fathoms under water, and lying beyond the three 

 mile limit is outside the jurisdiction of the United States 

 or of any other country. The new principality was 

 christened Atalantis. Here, the projectors say, they 

 will build a palatial hotel, supported on pillars of iron 

 and cement rising from the ocean floor. All sorts of 

 international complications will arise in connection with 

 the founding of a new principality within sight of our 

 shores; but some folks are more interested in fishing than 

 in extradition treaties. The Cholera Banks are famous 

 fishing grounds, and when Mr. Coen shall have completed 

 his $4,000,0,00 hotel, Atalantis will be a Mecca for salt- 

 water anglers. 



Special Deputy Benjamin Snuth, agent of the Pittsfield 

 Rod and Gun Club, caught a trout fisherman named 

 George Kenney, of Adams, Mass., the other day attempt- 

 ing to sell a lot of 500 trout all under the Massachusetts 

 legal sales limit of six inches. The justice fined Kenney 

 $20 and costs, which was perhaps not excessive, when it 

 is considered that at about the same time a Vermont man 

 for starving his wife to death was required to pay a fine 

 of $1,000. 



Professor Garner, who claims to have been camping out 

 in an iron cage among African gorillas, says he knows of 

 < 'nothing in the way of sounds that can inspire one with 

 so much terror as the voice of a big gorilla near at hand 

 in the lone and silent hours of the night." Evidently the 

 professor has never heard the woof of a grizzly in the 

 chaparral, or he would not consider it necessary to go to 

 the Dark Continent to be well scared. 



The Evening Post of this city has been discussing what 

 may be meant by the book publishers who advertise their 

 works as "summer reading." The ideal summer read- 

 ing, "grateful and comforting" in humid June, is the 

 story of the Forest and Stream expedition amid the 

 snows of the Yellowstone. 



The portrait on the next page is given to fill a long-felt 

 want. 



