Forest and Stream 
A Weekly Journal of the Rod and Gun. 
NEW YORK, SATURDAY, AUGUST 2 9, 1896. 
Tbbmb, *4 A Ykar. 10 Ots. a Cofst. 1 
Six Months, |3. { 
J vol.. XLVn.-No. 9. 
I No. 346 BROADTTAy, Njcw York. 
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SNAP SHOTS. 
Otto Lilienthal, the German aeronaut, who was killed by a 
fall from the air with one of his flying machines the other 
day, was a firm believer in the practicable adoption of flying 
as a sport, and in the speedy development of flying appa- 
ratus which would not fail to follow from competition in the 
sport. The only way to learn to swim is to get into the 
water and swim. The only way to fly, said Lilienthal, is to 
take to the air and fly; the theories have been worked out; 
what is needed is practical experience, systematic and ener- 
getic practice in actual flying experiments. The way in 
which he hoped to bring this about was by inducing sport- 
loving men to take up as a sport that phase of flying which 
he had demonstrated by personal experience to be practicable, 
and which under certain observed restrictions he contended 
should be ranked as a safe amusement. 
Lilienthal had devised and brought to a high state of per- 
fection an apparatus of wings for soaring or sailing over in- 
chned surfaces, launching himself into the air from the 
summit of a hill, and sustaining his flight for long distances. 
"It is in the wind," he wrote in the Aeronautical Annual, 
"that this practice becomes so exciting and bears the charac- 
ter of a sport, for all the flights differ from each other and 
the adroitness of the sailing man has the largest field for 
showing itself. Just as it is in sports on the water, so it is 
in sports in the air, that the greatest aim will be to work the 
most startling results. The machines themselves, as well as 
the adroitness of their operators, will vie with each other. 
He who succeeds in flying furthest from a certain starting 
point will come forth from the contest as conqueror. This 
fact will necessarily lead to the production of more and more 
improved flying apparatus. In a short time we shall have 
improvements of which to-day we have not the faidtest 
idea." Competitive flying races, he suggested, would excite 
intense public interest; the enthusiasm with which success- 
ful runners and riders and yachtsmen are greeted would be 
not less in the case of the sportsmen flapping their wings and 
balancing their soaring machines in the air. There was no 
fallacy in this reasoning. Encourage flying competitions, 
and you stimulate experiment, gain the experience which 
teaches, and secure development and perfection of the imple- 
ments of the sport. 
Lilientbal's indorsemept of flying as a'perfeotly safe sport 
is to be considered anew in the light of the unfortunate 
aeronaut's own fate. Men in quest of a new amusement will 
accept with caution claims for its harmlessness put forth by 
one who in the end meets his death by it. There are some, 
however, who affect to believe that a dangerous sport is 
more manly and more to be commended than one which is 
perfectly safe, and who give added honor to a sportsman if 
he has risked his neck. To such we commend the sport of 
flying. 
Senator Quay is credited in the press dispatches with the 
capture of a 3631b. tarpon at St. Lucie, Fla., on Aug. 17. 
If the reporter who sent the dispatch did not add a hundred 
pounds, this is the biggest tarpon on record, not only for 
this year, but for all years and for all fishermen and fisher- 
women. Up to this time Mrs. George T. Stagg, of Louisville, 
Ky., has been high hook with the fish caught in May of 
1891 and weighing 2051bs., which was shown in the Fokest 
AKD Stream's exhibit at the World's Pair. Mrs. Stagg took 
the fish with rod and reel; from the description a correspond- 
ent sends of the fishing at St. Lucie we infer that Senator 
Quay took his fish with a hand line. 
As to mere bulk, bigness and ponderosity, this Florida 
fish is outclassed by the California jewfish of 4051bs., taken 
by Mr. Frank S. Daggett, who tells us of the feat and sends 
us a photograph of the monster as a specimen of what 
Pacific waters have to offer. But if we are to have a big 
fish rivalry between the Atlantic and the Pacific, California 
with her 4051b. jewfish must yield to Florida with her 6251b. 
swordfish, taken in the Caloosahatchie Eiver last winter 
by Mr. N. M. George, of Connecticut. The fish was caught 
with tarpon tackle, rod and reel, and was brought to gaif in 
one hour and twenty minutes. Shall we coimt this as the 
largest fish on record taken with hook and line? If any 
claimant has a larger one to his credit, he should not be 
modest about claiming high hook. 
The Maine game season has not opened yet, but already 
the papers are reporting from the Maine woods the killing of 
men for bears and deer. Last Saturday on the banks of the 
East Branch of the Penobscot a sportsman making his first 
trip into the woods, and the veteran guide, Charles Potter, 
were making up their camp for the night. The tent had 
been pitched and the guide stepped into the surrounding 
woods to Qollect balsam for the bed. The sportsman saw 
the movement in the woods made by the guide, took it into 
his foolish noddle that it was caused by a bear and blazed 
away with his rifle, killing Potter. This is one of those 
cases in which comment cannot add much to the bald facts. 
The only safe rule for a man armed with a death-dealing 
weapon is to hold his fire until he actually knows — not 
guesses— what it is he proposes to shoot at, in other words 
to kill. One might better by holding his fire lose a million 
bears and deer and moose and wild turkeys than by prema- , 
ture shooting to kill one of his human kind. 
Does it "just happen so" that so many of those distressing 
casualties are chronicled in the open season? Most human 
beings killed by mistake for game are sacrificed at the 
hands of ignoramuses, or reckless, wanton shooters, or men 
actually engaged in violating the law as to close time. That 
is to say, the man-target is .less frequently shot at by actual 
sportsmen, for actual sportsmen are not afield with guns in 
the close season. A correspondent suggests that we might 
well adopt as a new platform plank the declaration that 
firearms should be kept out of the woods in the close season. 
Undoubtedly such a rule would prove a most excellent sys- 
tem, and would accomplish wonders for game preservation 
as well as for the saving of scores of human lives. We may 
come to it some day, or to something approaching it. The 
way in which such a system would work is well illustrated 
in the Yellowstone National Park. When one goes into the 
Park his gun is either retained by the authorities or is sealed 
and subject to frequent inspection to insure that the seal 
shall not be broken within the Park limits. The result is 
that the Park game is safe, and more than that, a member 
of a camping party may venture into the woods without 
running the risk of being killed for a bear by the man who 
shoots at a rustling in the cover. 
A law forbidding the carrying of guns in the game country 
in close time would be capital in theory, but in actual prac- 
tice it would not amoimt to any more than any other theo- 
retically excellent law now a dead letter on the books. We 
said last week that the bird seasons of a State should opea 
on one and the same date for the several species of game. 
But even so good a system as that means nothing, if every 
Tom , Dick and Harry is left to work his own sweet will and 
shoot when inclined, without respect to open dates. Th 
Connecticut season on upland game begins on Oct. 1. What 
does the law-abiding sportsman find when he gets out 
early on the morning of the long looked for opening 
day? A scarcity of game with abundant evidence that some 
one has been there before him. Who is it that has been 
there? The thrifty Yankee gunner who has for a month 
been shipping grouse and quail to New York markets. 
This trafiic goes on in spite of close seasons and of a non- 
export game law. The New York market is consuming the 
game bhds of Connecticut; hunting for export to this city is 
a well organized industry, and it appears to move without 
hindrance or interruption. Most of the exported grouse are 
killed in September, and no special effort is made to keep 
the business secret ; indeed as to shipping to market, there 
appears to be a belief in some localities that the last Legisla- 
ture of Connecticut repealed the law forbidding the export 
of game. What has become of the farmers' and sportsmen's 
game protective society which once did such excellent work 
in Connecticut? It is to be hoped that the members have 
not given up the fight for good. 
After the torrid heat of early August come now the cool 
breezes which suggest the approach of the changing season. 
It will not be long now before the ripening leaves begin to 
tarn yellow, and ,the grass each morning is whitened with 
light rime. Already men have polished up their guns and 
set off to make war on the woodcock, the rail, the prairie 
chicken and — in this State alas ! — on the ruffed grouse. The 
chicken trials soon begin in the Western States and in a very 
short time the shooting season will be in full blast. The re- 
ports which come in from all sides indicate that this season 
birds will be more than usually plenty. From some locali- 
ties, where for years no game birds have been known, we 
hear of broods which now promise something like the old 
time plenty. We must not let this make us too hopeful, how- 
ever, for we know how often this promise of the late summer 
fans of fulfillment when the law is oft', and the gunner 
tramps in vain covers which only a few weeks before were 
noisy with rising birds. There seems a promise, however, 
that in many places the shooting this year will be better than 
for some seasons past. 
The death of Henry C. Ford, President of the Pennsyl- 
vania Fish Commission, removes one who has long been 
identified with fish cultural and angling interests. . Mr. Ford 
died in Philadelphia on Tuesday of last week, Aug. 18, aged 
sixty years. From boyhood he was a fisherman; and in the 
course of his life he had fished for every kind of game fish 
and in most of the well-known angling waters of the conti- 
nent. In 1887 he was appointed to the Fish Commission and 
was made its president, an office which he held to the day of 
his death. His experience as a practical fisherman, knowl- 
edge of ichthyology, and ability as a man of affairs and 
pronounced Ipublic spirit, combined to give him a peculiar 
equipment for the place. It is not saying too much to affirm 
that the development and usefulness of the work of the Com- 
mission were primarily due to his administration. He was 
devoted to the work, he had such means that he could afford 
to devote himself to these public interests, and he served not 
only devotedly, but honestly and well. His death means a 
distinct loss to fishdulture in Pennsylvania. Mr. Ford was 
one of the founders of the Pennsylvania Fish Protective 
Association and always one of its most loyal members; he 
was for a term treasurer of the American Fisheries jSociety, 
and again its president. 
The sale of fishing tackle by the great department stores of 
this city appears to have proved not a marked business suc- 
cess. The prices which the dry goods men put on their 
tackle were extremely low ; they offered the people an oppor. 
tunity to buy fishing rods at exceedingly cheap figures. The 
trouble was, as the customers soon discovered, that the tackle 
itself was cheap, cheaper, in fact, than the price. We heard 
of a case the other day where one buyer of department store 
tackle had exchanged his first cheap and worthless purchase 
for one slightly more expensive and superior, this one in ttu:n 
for another, and so on until in the end he had expended 
enough money to have bought a legitimate rod iil a legitimate 
tackle store. And with it all, he did not get a rod he could 
use, so he went into another department of the same store 
and traded the fishing tackle for a baby carriage 
