A Weekly Journal of the Rod and Gun. 
Terms, 84 a Year. 10 Cts. a Copy. 
Srx Months, $2. 
NEW YORK, SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 8, 1894. 
1 
VOL XLHL— No. 10 
No. 318 Broadway, New York. 
CONTENTS. 
Editorial. 
Ducks with Eggs. 
The Woulds. 
A Lesson in Forestry. 
An American Fly-Fishers' Club. 
Snap Shots. 
The Sportsman Tourist. 
'A Terror of a Ride." 
The Singing Mouse Stories.— v. 
Natural History. 
An Angler's Day in Birdland. 
A Flying Squirrel. 
A Wisconsin Heronry. 
Game Bag and Gun. 
Beaver Trapping with Penobscot 
John. 
The Problem of the West. ' 
The Moose Call. 
In Colorado Hills. 
Shotgun Loads. 
Braggadocio. 
Ohio Game Outlook. ' 
An Adirondack Hunting Trip. 
Chicago and the West. 
Sea and River Flshlngr. 
London Anglers and Their 
Doings. 
A Fly-Fishers 1 Club in America. 
Chi jago and the West. 
Texas and the Southwest 
1 Trouting on the West Canada. 
Fishculture. 
New York Game Legislation. 
Enforcing Minnesota Laws. 
Fishculture. 
Fishculture Notes. 
The Kennel. 
A Reporter's Duties. 
A Run with the Awashonk 
Beagles. 
Bone Producers. 
Points and Flushes. 
Dog Chat. 
Kennel Answers. 
Hunting and Coursing Notes. 
Dogs and Bathers. 
Higher Entry Fees. 
Yachting. 
Vigilant and Satanlta. 
The Cannes Regattas of 1895. 
Beverly Y. C. 
Fall Regattas. 
Yachting News Notes. 
Canoeing. 
Wawbewawa War Canoe Asso- 
ciation, 
A Win for Mr. Howard. 
News Notes. 
Rifle Range and Gallery. 
Golden Gate Rifles. 
Zettler's Bi- Monthly. 
Club Scores. 
Rifle Notes 
Trap Shooting. 
Drivers and Twisters. 
All- America vs. Piainfleld. 
The Soo Gun Club. 
Answers to Queries. 
For Prospectus and Advertising Rates see Page viii. 
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He- • * ' § 
A LESSON IN FORESTRY. 
The story of the destruction of life and property bj 
forest fires in Minnesota, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania and 
New York is the melancholy repetition of a warnirag; 
often given before. A great area of forest land hasfee<°jm 
burned over, vast quantities of timber have been destroyed, 
nourishing towns, prosperous farms, and the little cabins 
of the latest settlers have been wiped out of existence;, 
and worse than all this, men, women and children have 
perished by hundreds— victims of the flames that swept 
over the dry forests. Hundreds of lives and millions of 
dollars have been lost, and the people and the newspapers 
unite in lamenting a catastrophe whose like has not been 
known for a dozen years; All are eager to contribute to 
relieve the present suffering, and we read of train loads 
of provisions, tents and blankets being sent to the desti- 
tute pc opie, contributed by the generous citizens of neigh- 
boring towns. 
There is something curiously and sadly human about all 
this. We all stand about and raise our voices in lamenta- 
tion over what is really a national misfortune, but we 
none of us appear to recollect that this calamity has eoine 
upon us entirely through our own neglect of those' pre- 
cautions which should have been taken many years; ago. 
It is perfectly well known that wood will burn s that a 
country that has been or is being lumbered over is pecu- 
liarly exposed to foTest fires, that such fires when started 
among coniferous— or even among deciduous trees in a 
time of drought— cannot be checked when once they have 
got fair headway. All this being known, it is the business 
of each State which contains extensive forests, or where 
lumbering is an important interest, to guard against the 
danger of forest fires, by providing and enforcing a system 
of laws for the protection, not only of their forests, but 
what is of far more importance, the lives of the citizens 
who dwell within the limits of those forests. Such laws r 
properly enforced, would prevent disasters like those 
which have just taken place. 
A proper system of forest guardianship could not be 
had for nothing. If it were efficient it would cost some- 
thing. But if it is worth while for a city to support a 
paid fire department to prevent loss within its limits, 
why should it not be worth the while of a State to sup- 
port a system of forest guards to protect its citizens, jjheir 
dwellings and its own standing timber? The taxes for 
the support of such a force should naturally be borne in 
large degree by that portion Of the community whose in- 
terests are especially to be served by the prevention of 
fires. While the inhabitants of the State at large should 
pay a part of the tax, a very considerable portion 
should be paid by the lumbermen. They are the ones 
most directly benefited by the protection of the forests, 
and yet too often they are the very ones who start such 
conflagrations, if not by their own carelessness with fire, 
at least by the accumulations which they leave behind 
them as they work through the woods. 
The subject of forest protection is one about which 
much has been written, but as yet with very trifling re- 
sult. We have in Washington in the Department of 
Agriculture a Bureau of Forestry, and we have in various 
parts of the country a number of forest reservations, but 
these things are names only. The Bureau, with the best 
will in the world to accomplish something, has no money 
and no men, and the forest reservations are being plun- 
dered and destroyed in a way that shows clearly enough 
how little effect the name has on the adjacent population. 
No adequate measures for forest protection will ever be 
taken in this country until some intelligent interest 
in forestry shall be felt by the public at large, and it 
is the duty of every one who now feels such an interest, 
and is alive to the importance of the subject, to do his 
part to educate his neighbor on this point. 
'AN AMERICAN FLY-FISHERS' CLUB. 
We heartily second Mr. A. N. Cheney's suggestion that 
there be formed an American Fly-Fishers' Club. The 
material for the organization is abundant and of the best 
quality; the advantages to come from such an association 
of kindred spirits are. substantial; the club would be a 
success from the start. 
Is it too much to say that the proposal now made will 
be put into early execution? Shall we not open the new 
year with a fly-fishers' club well established? 
THE- WOULDS. 
Theke are in this world two sorts of men, those who 
fish and those who don't. 
The don'ts are divided into those who would if they 
could but can't, and those who could if they would but 
won't. 
The won'ts are still further divided into those who are 
quite contented that they don't want to, and those who 
are dissatisfied with themselves because they lack the 
taste. 
When we get as far as this we reach the man who 
could if he would but won't, and would if he could but 
can't. 
Talk to him about it, and he will tell you something 
like this: "Yes, I know that it is a great thing to go fish- 
ing. There is my partner. He is a fisherman, says it's 
fun, and by the way he sticks to it and leaves me here to 
take care of things, I guess likely it is fun— for him. 
But as for me, I can't fish. I've tried it, faithfully; have 
sat in a boat half a day at a time; have tramped miles of 
stream; have gone through the motions, and caught fish, 
too; but that is not fishing; it does not give me the enjoy- 
ment it does others. I am not a fisherman, when I see 
how others like it, how much good it seems to do them, 
and how it brightens up the world for them, I often wish 
I did like fishing. But I don't and never shall." 
That is what the woulds say. Just such cases have 
come under the notice of almost every fisherman. For 
there is this about field sports, that while most people are 
quite ready to recognize what they do for those who 
follow them, the taste for their true enjoyment is born in 
one and is with difficulty acquired in mature years. It 
may lie long latent; and one may take to fishing or to 
shooting late in life; but he must have had in him, though 
dormant and unsuspected, the capacity of enjoyment 
with the rod or the gun. Not infrequently people take up 
in late life the fishing rod which has been idle for years, 
or go shooting once more after a decade of forgetfulness 
of the field. They renew the sports of their early days, 
and with them awaken again the youthful spirit, and 
restore health and strength and courage, and fortitude. 
T ° J^^-. p °!££S£^_2 f such tastes is a_blessing often too 
lightly"esteemed. TheTaTfcher7who^dows*his son, in the 
care-free days of boyhood, with a liking for these sports 
of the field, is equipping him for life with resources of 
healthful enjoyment. 
DUCKS WITH EGGS. 
. The Senate Committee on Game Laws of the New York 
Legislature held a meeting in Rochester, last week, which 
is reported on another page. Senator Guy has a scheme 
of dividing the State into three parts — like ancient Gaul — 
with a separate law for each district. We are free to say 
that we do not think much of the plan. There is no like- 
lihood that the task of the game protectors would be any 
lighter under such a system; nor is there any real reason 
for adopting it, except to yield to mistaken estimates of 
local interests. It is contrary to the growing tendency of 
progressive protection, which is in the direction of uni- 
form laws for an entire State and for groups of States. 
If Senator Guy would think a little more deeply on the 
subject of spring shooting asked for by certain Long 
Island people, he would understand that their interests 
are not diverse from those of the sportsmen in the central 
and western counties, who ask for the abolition of spring 
shooting. The purpose of forbidding the destruction of 
game birds which are making their way north to nest is 
to give them an opportunity to multiply and replenish the 
supply. A wild duck, with developing eggs, flying to the 
breeding grounds to deposit and brood them, should be 
given free passage and safe conduct,whether she fly nest- 
ward by the Long Island air line or that over Lake On- 
tario. The law of nature is the same in either event. 
The only reason that some people cry for spring shooting 
while others demand its abolition is that they do not un- 
derstand the merits of the question, or if they do under- 
stand they are not willing to concede something of their 
individual, local and immediate interests for the larger 
and more permanent interests in which they too might 
share. 
If there is any good reason for the protection anywhere 
of nesting birds and birds about to nest, that same reason 
holds everywhere and would hold all over the State of 
New York, even if there were a hundred.and ten different 
districts with a separate duck law for each. 
SNAP SHOTS. 
The long and severe drought which has affected so wide 
an area has brought about conditions which make upland 
shooting anything but an enjoyable sport. Covers are 
wilted, the ground is parched; and the view is obscured by 
a depressing haze. Game has been driven from its accus- 
tomed haunts; food is scarce, and the birds are in poor 
condition and ill-fed. There is less attraction than usual 
to invite one afield. And yet there is some satisfaction 
after all in going once more through the old covers; and 
the sound of the shotgun is heard everywhere in the land, 
affording ample testimony to the undaunted field-going 
of the hosts. 
Some hint of the popularity of prairie chicken shooting 
is given by our exchanges from the chicken country which 
report that on the opening day every private vehicle and 
livery "rig" was impressed into service by the gunners. 
Birds in the neighborhood of Jamestown, North Dakota, 
are reported to be earlier in the wheat stubbles than 
usual, and to be abundant in supply. If we are to judge 
from the printed reports of the bags made, the law limit- 
ing one shooter to twenty-five birds per day does not 
amount to anything. 
Do not forget that where the drought prevails there is 
real and serious danger of field and woods fire; and that 
a smouldering gun wad, cigar stump or pipe ashes, or 
camp fire carelessly abandoned or unprotected, may 
Mndle the destruction. Indeed there are districts where 
not a gun should be fired, where the danger of fire is so 
imminent that hunting would be almost criminal. 
At a. meeting held last week it was definitely determined 
that the projected sportsmen's exposition should be. held 
in the Madison Square Garden, in this city, in May, 1895, 
It will extend through a week. 
