Forest and Stream 
A Weekly Journal of the Rod and Gun. 
Terms, f4 a Ybar. 10 Cts. a Copy. I 
Six Months, $3. f 
NEW YORK, SATURDAY, JULY 11, 1896, 
VOL. ZLVIL— No. 2. 
No. 348 Broadway, Nkw York. 
.jFor Prospectus and Advertising Rates see Page x. 
FOREST AND STREAM OFFICE i 
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SMALL YACHT RACING. 
Now that the racing season is well under way, it is evi- 
dent that the absence of the ninety-footers is by no means 
equivalent to a total cessation of yacht racing, but that on 
the other hand the sport as a whole is very well off with- 
out the sensational and disappointing experiences of 1893 
and '95. That there is no lack of keen racing is shown by 
the many reports published by us each week; and even 
these by no means represent the extent of yacht racing 
throughout the country. The great number of yachts, 
■each representing from two to ten yachtsmen on the 
average, which take part in the numerous races, give 
most satisfactory evidence of a widespread and wholesome 
Interest in yachting. The many races sailed about New 
ITork this spring have brought out large fleets, from thir- 
ity to sixty yachts at a time, and the same is true about 
iBoston, The present is not a "cup race" or a syndicate 
:year, but it is none the less a prosperous year for yachting 
in all its branches. The result of the season's racing will 
ibe to strengthen the classes of smaller yachts best suited 
to the amateur yachtsman of moderate means, to the 
amateur designer and builder, and to the younger class 
of Corinthian sailors in general. 
The attention of all yachtsmen last season was centered 
on the few and very disappointing races between Vigilant, 
Defender and Valkyrie III. — duels of the most unsatisfac- 
tory nature save in a very few instances. This year the 
yachtsmen about New York are treated to real racing in 
the every-day work of the special thirty-foot class, with 
its large fleet of evenly matched yachts, and the close rac- 
ing among the still more numerous fifteen-footers. 
About Boston there is a keen and lively interest in the 
many small classes, and the new yachts of the past year 
or so show a marked advance on the older ones. On the 
Lakes, from Ontario to Michigan, yachtsmen are unusu- 
ally active, spurred on by the promised international races 
between the Chicago and Canadian champions. On the 
St, Lawrence River, from the Thousand Islands down to 
Montreal, the fifteen-foot class is coming into high favor. 
Throughout the West, on the many small fresh- water 
lakes, racing is flourishing, with many new yachts, the 
work of the more noted professional designers, coming 
into competition with that of local men. 
The influence of last year's racing was to narrow the 
sport to two designers and a small number of millionaires 
in rival syndicates. The tendency this year is to bring 
yacht racing of the highest quality within the reach of 
all who have suitable water at hand, and to encour- 
age a healthful and beneficial competition among owners, 
designers and builders. 
BILL BOARD BLOODHOUNDS. 
On July 1 there died in Hartford, Conn., one of 
America's most noted writers, Mrs. Harriet Beecher 
Stowe. Her great fame rests chiefly on one work, 
"Uncle Tom's Cabin," the theme of which, the evils of 
slavery, was so interwoven with the sectional strife of the 
day of aboUtioH and anti-abolition, and the consequent 
evolution of political reforms which profoundly affected 
the destinies of the whole country, that it gained an ex- 
traordinary circulation by reason of association with those 
events. Intrinsically a work of fiction, it was neverthe- 
less largely accepted as being a realistic portrayal of slave 
life. The passing away of nearly half a century has 
done but little to correct its exaggerations, and of these 
none are greater than the parts where dogs form the 
interesting action of the story. These creatures were 
described as being most ferocious and unrelenting in their 
pursuit of the runaway slave when once upon his track, 
and were credited with perpetrating horrors of deaths and 
mutilations well calculated to inspire hatred of all who 
practiced or incited such barbarities. 
TJie book was 'dramatized, and old Uncle Tom's Cabin 
shows wandering through the land gave extravagant and 
sensational exhibitions of the ferocity of the bloodhound. 
The plot rested on blood spattered about; poor negroes 
torn apart in their gentle, defenseless strife for freedom ; 
large, savage-looking dogs, with pricked ears and ferocious 
aspect. The so-called bloodhounds were mongrel Great 
Danes or other large dogs ^having the requisite aspect of 
ferocity, and the flaring sensational posters with which 
the towns of the United States were placarded, showing 
the demon dogs tearing the down-trodden negro to pieces, 
conveyed a false idea of the treatment of the slave and 
cast a stigma on the bloodhound which still exists at this 
day. The general ignorance which prevailed in respect 
both to the breeds of dogs and to the state of slavery aided 
greatly in establishing the exaggerations as facts. Slavery 
as an institution had no just defense, but the canine mon- 
sters of the Uncle Tom's Cabin shows were no part of it. 
As a matter of fact, the bloodhound is an entirely dif- 
ferent dog from the ferocious curs of Uncle Tom's Cabin 
drama, and the bloodhound of the story of Uncle Tom's 
Cabin did not exist at all outside of imagination. The 
dogs used for slave chasers were the common foxhounds. 
They served the purpose of following and finding the 
runaway slave, which was all that the pursuer desired, as 
he was thus enabled to capture the fugitive. As a negro 
was worth from $1,200 to $2,000, it is clearly absurd to 
assume that an owner would desire to have dogs which 
would mutilate or kill his property. The dogs would fol- 
low and bay the slave, when the owner coming up would 
recapture him. It is doubtful if there was a genuine 
bloodhound in the whole South in slavery days, yet for 
many years to come the big, fierce- eyed and ferocious- 
looking brutes of fiction will be accepted as the kind of 
dog which harassed the slave and tore him to pieces, or 
checked his efforts for freedom. 
HORNLESS BUCKS. 
The recent record in Forest and Stream of the killing 
of two hornless male Virginia deer suggests the inquiry 
whether in other species of American deer the males are 
sometimes without horns. We do not know that anything 
has been written on this point, yet the question is one 
worth looking into. 
In a note appended to the record of the hornless male 
deer, which we printed some weeks ago, it was remarked 
that the male of the European red deer was sometimes 
found without horns. This condition no doubt occurs 
more frequently than is realized, and these hornless stags 
are perhaps not so uncommon in the Scottish forests as is 
generally believed. The shooter who is looking over a 
herd of deer usually strives to select the finest head of 
horns, and pays little attention to the females and the 
younger males. It is not strange, therefore, that these 
hornless males are not noticed. Their presence in the 
forests is well known to close observers. It is said that 
these hornless males are good fighters, and that — fighting 
altogether by striking with the forefeet — they are often 
able to drive off their rivals which seem to be much better 
armed. 
On the frontal bones of these "hummels" there are 
usually found two slight excrescences of bone covered with 
skin and hair, which occupy the position of the stumps 
which support the horns in the normal stag, but present 
no appearance of ever having borne horns. In some 
parts of Germany these hornless males occur, and there 
they bear the names huffel, plattkopfe, hermits and per. 
haps others. In these forests they are usually killed 
wherever met with and so are now seldom seen. 
Although in the Highlands of Scotland such animals are 
reported to be as large, strong and well nourished as 
others of their kind, yet in Germany the lack of horns is 
attributed to insufficient food and to close inbreeding. It 
may be questioned whether this is the true cause. The 
German records of such deer go back as far as the early 
part of the present [century. In these forests there are 
also single-homed stags, known to the foresters as "mur. 
derers." The European roe, which is normally horned, is 
also sometimes found hornless. 
The two recently recorded specimens jf hornless male 
deer seem to have been Virginia deer, but it would be 
extremely interesting to learn whether hornless males of 
other species have been met with by any of our" readers. 
It may be assumed that, if they occur, hornless stags are 
very rare, and the chances of their being seen and recog- 
nized would be very slight. 
It is well known to geologists that the deer of the lower 
Miocene were all without horns, and that in the upper 
Miocene deer are found with simple spike horns or at 
most with a single prong. In the Pliocene, however, 
the antlers of deer become more compkx. Hornless 
skulls of the Irish elk have several times been found. 
It may be that the occurrence of these hornless stags is 
an example of reversion to an ancestral type. 
Has any one of our readers ever seen a hornless male 
moose, elk, caribou or deer killed during the season when 
these animals usually bear horns? If so, we should be 
glad to learn of it with all possible detail of time, place 
and circumstance. The subject is a new one and obser- 
vations are needed. 
SNAP SHOTS. 
The Asian, published in Calcutta, declares that there is 
such a close connection between wild ducks and pho- 
tography that "every silver print made has a tendency to 
diminish the supply of wildfowl," Albumen, it explains, 
is an indispensable adjunct to photography, and as the 
eggs of poultry possess special value in all countries, 
"the eggs of wildfowl are l^id under contribution in 
countless numbers, and the diminishing supply of these 
birds on some parts of our coast, especially in the 
Scottish Hebrides, must, in some measure, be due 
to the considerable demand for albumen." This 
is interesting because it shows the wide distribution 
of the wild duck albumen myth. From Alaska to the 
Scottish Hebrides and from Canada to India the duck egg 
story has been given currency and credence. It would be 
instructive to get at the actual origin of the fiction. Men 
have devoted their lives to the study of comparative folk- 
lore, and nothing in their investigations is more surpris- 
ing than the wide dissemination of some of the most 
simple and familiar tales. Very many of these folk fables 
have been traced originally to India. If photography 
was among the lost arts, it may be conjectured that in 
their day and generation the sportsmen of 1896 B. C. 
viewed with becoming alarm the conversion of duck eggs 
into albumen. 
One of the most interesting of the game park enter- 
prises we have described is that conducted by M. Henri 
Menier, the millionaire chocolate manufacturer of France, 
who is engaged in an endeavor to convert Anticosti 
Island into a great game preserve. He proposes to stock 
the island with red deer, moose, caribou, elk and beaver. 
Oar correspondent Mark West suggests that while the 
scheme is a very beautiful one it may prove impractica- 
ble because of the terrible pests of flies which make Anti- 
costi uninhabitable for these larger animals. The Cana- 
dian Government and private individuals have tried to 
stock the country with game, but they have failed because 
all excepting fur-bearing animals are killed by the Hies. 
"One tough resident told me," says Dr. Morris, "that he 
had kept a cow on Anticosti through one year, but the 
cruelty of it made him sick," The files will also prove a 
serious pest to the settlers in their endeavor to cultivate 
the barren soil of Anticosti, What with the hosts of 
black flies, gnats and mosquitoes we apprehend that the 
devoted French colonists and the imported game are 
destined to have a hard time of it on this island in the 
north. 
James H. Dudley, who died at his home in Poughkeep 
sie, N. Y., on Tuesday of last week, at the age of sevt- nty- 
nine, was one of the great Forest and Stream family, as 
he himself was wont to say. His contributions to the 
entertainment of others through our columns extended 
over almost the entire term of publication from lb73 to 
the present, Mr. Dudley's was a singularly sweet and 
winning disposition. In all our acquaintance with him 
only once did we ever hear him speak harshly of another, 
and even then it was under great provocation, for the 
mf.n had stolen from him a ducking point by bringing a 
steam yacht to anchor in front of the blind where lie 
knew Mr. Dudley was ensconced. Mr, Dudley was 
among the first visitors to the Adirondacks, away bac k 
in the days whea the Northern Wilderness was a wildtr- 
n^ss indeed. He was accustomed to ascribe to these out- 
ings the vigor and good health of old age, and he never 
wearied of preaching the doctrine of outdoor recreation. 
