Forest and Stream. 
A Weekly Journal of the Rod and Gun. 
Copyright, 1899, by Forest and Stream PuBi.rsniNn Co. 
IirTHsl^?^^ ^^"^ [ NEW YORK, SATURDAY, JUNE 17, 1899, Uo. ml'S^-Ji'A^o.. 
COLUMBIA AND DEFENDER. 
The successful launch of the new Columbia nearly four 
months before the date of the Cup races marks another 
step in what promises to be the most systematic and 
scientific defense of the trophy that has ever been made. 
In designing Defender, Mr. Herreshoff made wide de- 
partures from his previous yachts, Navahoe, Colonia and 
Vigilant, and under the influence of his visit abroad with 
- the last, and of his experiments with small yachts, has pro- 
duced a new type. The design and construction of De- 
fender were radical experiments in their way, though very 
successful ones. 
In the. new boat there has been comparatively small need 
of experiment, but the designer has been able to work 
with comparative ease and certainty in changing one detail 
and another of the form and construction of Defender. 
All that is known about Columbia — and in spite of the 
strenuous efforts at utter secrecy almost everything of 
value is known — goes to show that she will be a marked 
improvement on the Defender of 1895. 
If this were all it would give a promising assurance of 
the successful defense of the Cup, but in addition De- 
fender herself is likely to prove much faster than in her 
first season. During the winter she has been thoroughly 
overhauled, all weak places strengthened, and her sail 
plan increased, until to-day sh^ is probablj' much faster 
than in 1895. While Columbia will be manned hy a 
Maine crew. Defender will be manned by ScandinaA'ians, 
a bit of international rivalry that tends to make the 
racing of the two of greater interest and practical value. 
If all goes well, the end of this month at the latest will 
see these two sister yachts, each in the best possible con- 
dition, racing against each other day by day with an im- 
provement in the speed of each which it is impossible to 
estimate. 
It is doubtful whether the average fast racing yacht in 
the "large classes, with her very limited opportunities for 
racing with her equals, realizes her greatest possible 
speed b}'^ a very large margin ; at least in her first season 
or two, after which she is probably outbuilt. In the pres- 
ent case, however, it seems probable that by the end of 
September both Columbia and Defender will be as near 
to perfection as is possible in yacht racing. 
SNAP SHOTS. 
The milldam in Iowa is just what the milldam is any- 
where else, an obstruction to fish. But in Iowa it is more 
than this, for the law declares it to be a nuisance, subject 
to be abated if the owner makes no provision for the pas- 
sage of fish by providing suitable fishways. The statute 
has been vigorously resisted, as so many others are which 
prevent a man from overriding and destroying the in- 
terests of other people, on the ground of constitutionality. 
A Mr. Wm. Beardsley, in Mahaska county, dammed 
the Skunk River in a way to obstruct the passage of fish, 
and held out for his right to do so, through the lower 
courts, until the case at length came up in the Supreme 
Court, where it has just been decided. The decision was 
against him. The Court sustains the fishway law in these 
words : "Were we to hold the present law unconstitu- 
tional, so as to open the way for a riparian owner, whose 
land is on both sides of a stream, or two abutting owners, 
to, by a dam or other obstruction, prevent the passage 
of fish up the stream, and thus deprive riparian owners 
and the public of privileges as ancient as civilized history, 
the way would be well opened for innovations and sur- 
prises as to rights long enjoyed and of untold security. 
The streams and lakes are the natural abiding places for 
the fish. In them they cast their spawn and multiply their 
species. They constitute an important and valuable article 
of diet for the rich and the poor, and, with the ways open 
that nature has provided, they are accessible to both. If 
the lowest riparian owner of . a stream may legally block 
the way of their migration, the consequences to result to 
the thousands are readily imaginable. The law that would 
permit it would be the entering wedge by which the few 
would profit at the expense of the many. Before we 
sanction such a rule its existence should clearly appear. 
The Legislature has kept itself within the settled rule, for 
that the act of obstructing the passage of fish against in- 
dividual and public interests would raise a legal presump- 
tion of damage is too clear a proposition to be debat- 
able." 
This might almost be called an Adirondack num- 
ber, since the North Woods furnish for it so prolific a 
theme. Mr. Hastings writes of a trouting trip into the 
wilderness, and between the lines of his story we may 
read what the North Woods, with their opportunities for 
recreation and their speedy approach, mean to a New 
York business man. Mr. McHarg gives a gratifying re- 
port of the fishing conditions, with a picture of an Adiron- 
dack trout catch, notable for the size of the fish. Mr, 
Spears writes of the influences and agencies which are 
menacing the woods and the public interest in them. 
There is also a report of the decision of the Court of Ap- 
peals holding invalid the statute making the Moose River 
a highway, the Court having based its opinion on the 
ground that the opening of the stream for the floating of 
logs was essentially for private advantage and not for the 
public good. Taken all in all, these several Adirondack 
papers have in them much suggestion of the condition of 
the North Woods as they are to-day, and as they will be 
in the near future. Whether or no Mr. Spears is pessimis- 
tic in his review of the situation, we do not share his 
apprehension respecting the danger of the woods being 
fired by men who feel themselves aggrieved because shut 
out from hunting or fishing districts. There are things 
which the average man may not demean himself to, no 
matter how urgently he may be spurred by revenge; and 
we refuse to believe that the Adirondacks have nurtured a 
breed of men who would fire the woods to "get even." 
If there is any one privilege a human being might claim 
as an inalienable right, although not guaranteed to him by 
the Constitution of the United States, it is to enjoy the 
breathing of pure fresh air when he goes fishing. In fact, 
fresh air is one of the good things we are constantly talking 
about as among the advantages of our anting excursions ; 
and it would seem as if there could be no excuse nor war- 
rant for institutions which constitute themselves nuisances 
and poison the atmosphere for miles around, in those par- 
ticular spots made by nature for a fisherman's outing. 
The salt water fishermen of New York city who resort to 
Jamaica Bay and adjacent waters on the Long Island 
shore have for many years been subjected to the outrage 
of a most unbearable stench from Barren Island. This is 
a bit of land near Rockaway which is devoted to the 
rendering of carcasses of horses, dogs, cats, goats" and 
other animals from New York city, so that the fisherman 
in search of balmy breezes and exhilarating airs is often 
overcome by the abominable odors, and his fishing excur- 
sion is wrecked. A measure was introduced into the last 
Legislature providing for the abolition for this Barren 
Island nuisance. It passed both Houses and went to Gov. 
Roosevelt, who disapproved it because he thought the 
time allowed for the measure going into effect would not 
suffice for the municipal authorities to provide other 
means of disposing of the city waste. Although thus 
temporarily defeated, the endeavor to rid the Jamaica Bay 
district of this nuisance should not be abandoned. 
Mr. Andrew J. Price wrote for the Forest and Stream 
not long ago an entertaining paper about the custom 
which prevails in some districts of the South of cutting 
off the shirt of the hunter who misses his deer; and 
among other incidents narrated was one of a moot-court 
where the culprit was duly tried before receiving the 
penalty. In his notes to-day on mountain trout Mr. 
Price tells of a West Virginia fisherman who, when he 
saw a mother raccoon feeding trout to her little ones, con- 
stituted himself prosecutor, judge, jury and executioner, 
and incontinently slew her for what he was pleased to 
construe as theft of trout. Now if we had our way we 
would convene a moot-court to hear the cause of Raccoon 
vs. Man, and to determine righteousness in the case, 
whether the action of the raccoon in seeking sustenance 
for its young from the fish specially claimed for his own 
use by the creature who was given dominion over all liv- 
ing things was an offense which warranted an infliction of 
the death penalty. As Mr. Price shows approval of the 
action of the executioner, we should appoint him to de- 
fend the man; and the cause of the coon we should give 
into the keeping of Mr. Lewis Hopkins, while for judge 
we should nominate our Mississippi correspondent, 
Coahoma, unless it could be shown that his judicial poise 
had been marred by the coons which whicker in his corn- 
field of nights. 
When is a trout caught? When you have him safely in 
your creel, of course, and the lid fastened down securely 
on top of him. A simple question and readily answered. 
But not so simple after all ; for in one of the Pennsylvania 
courts they are in a judicial snarl over it. The 
Pennsylvania law says that "no person shall at any time 
catch or kill any speckled trout with any device save only 
with rod, hook and line, except for the purpose of propa- 
gation, under a penalty of $25 for each offense," It ap- 
pears that two Philadelphia anglers, Mr. J. Price Wetherill 
and Mr. W. T. Elliott, were recently fisliing near Strouds- 
burg, when one of them was seen to land a trout with a 
landing net, whereupon information was laid against him" 
for having violated the statute quoted, and trial was had 
before the local justice. Two witnesses swore that it 
would be impossible to land an average trout without 
the use of the net; and the angler's counsel argued that 
the hooking of the trout was "catching" within the mean- 
ing of the law, and that a landing net was "of the same 
class of fishing apparatus as a reel on a rod." The prose- 
cution, however, contended that the mere hooking, or hav- 
ing a fish on a hook, was not catching within the mean- 
ing of the law ; but the use of the landing net as acknowl- 
edged by the defendant was an employment of it for 
"catching" the fish, and that therefore the statute had 
been violated. The case went against the fisherman, and 
■it is reported that it will be appealed to a higher court. 
Until this case was brought to our notice it had never 
occurred to us that a Pennsylvania trout fisherman, who 
pretended to fine art in the game, would attempt to fish 
without a landing net. In fact we do not profess to under- 
stand how a fly-fisherman could get along without the 
net, that is to say, if he were using light tackle and the 
fish were sizeable. There are two classes of trout fishing 
with a rod. One is to use a pole and strong tackle with 
which the trout may be derrickcd from the water over 
the head into the brush behind. This is a method which 
does not involve the use of a landing net. The other is 
to use a light rod and light tackle, and to match one's 
skill of handling against the strength of the fish, and to 
save the trout by maneuvering and strategy, rather than 
by brute main force; and in this practice, as has been 
said, if the fish is a large one a landing net is absolutely 
essential. We are curious to know whether the landing 
net is not a recognized article in the equipment of the 
trout fisherman everywhere, the Keystone State included. 
Mr. Hofer's report of the Montana winter lingering in 
the lap of spring recalls a National Park story told to 
illustrate the amenities of the Yellowstone climate. In 
a Livingstone court a woman witness deposed that she had 
been living in the county "most of the winter," and 
pressed further replied that she had "been here a little over 
eleven months." It has been a hard winter on the game, as 
Mr. Hofer's notes have shown. Yet severe climatic rigors 
the elk and antelope and sheep have always had to con- 
tend with. No matter how severe this natural tax on the 
vitality of native species, the game will take care of it- 
self. For mild winters alternate with severe ones; nature 
preserves the equilibrium. 
What the game of the Rocky Mountains cannot stand 
is such a drain as is made upon it by lumber companies 
who find elk meat cheaper than beef for their lumbering 
crews ; and by communities which systematically and con- 
tinuously violate the protective statutes. If the reports 
which come to us from Jackson county, Wyoming, are 
well established on fact, as they appear to be, there is gross 
dereliction on the part of the authorities there. We invite 
the attention of the warden of Uinta county to the com- 
munication in our game columns to-day. 
The Ontario authorities have promulgated an ordef 
prohibiting net fishing in the waters of Georgian Bay from 
Saw Log Point to Bustard Islands, the line running on an 
average from two to three miles from shore. As is well- 
known to those familiar with the district, the protected 
waters are the spawning grounds of fish, and the tem- 
porary privations complained of by the net fishermen will 
certainly be more than compensated for by the increased 
supply of fish the new regulation will insure. 
