Forest and Stream 
A Weekly Journal of the Rod and Gun. 
Copyright, 1904, by Forest and Stream Publishing Co. 
Terms, $3 a Year. 10 Cts. a Copy. I 
Six Months, $1.50. j 
NEW YORK, SATURDAY, DECEMBER 30, 190B. 
J VOL. LXV.— No. 27. 
(No. 346 Broadway, New York. 
The object of this Journal will be to studiously 
promote a healthful interest in outdoor recre- 
ation, and to cultivate a refined taste for natural 
objects. Announcement in first number of 
Forest and Stream, Aug. 14, 1873. 
NOTICE TO SUBSCRIBERS. 
Beginning with Jan. i, 1906, the subscription price 
of “Forest and Stream” will be $3.00 per year; or 
$1.50 for six months. 
All subscriptions now on our books which have 
been paid at the $4.00 rate, and which run for any 
period into 1906, will be extended pro rata to con- 
form to the changed price. 
ANNOUNCEMENT. 
With the issue of January 6, which will be the first 
number of the sixty-sixth volume, several important 
changes will be introduced in the style of Forest and 
Stream. In keeping with the- pronounced tendency of 
the day we shall adopt a page of reduced size and one 
which has been determined upon not only because of its 
much greater convenience in the reading, but because it 
is more adapted than the present one to purposes of illus- 
tration. Of illustrations there will be largely increased 
use. That, too, is in line with the progressive journ^isin 
of the hour. The subjects to which the Forest and 
Stream is devoted offer abundant scope for illustrating, 
and with the new departure it will be our ambition to 
make the pictorial features a fitting complement of the 
reading columns, and thus to give the paper a new and 
added interest. 
In its changed form the Forest and Stream will be a 
regular weekly issue of forty pages, with the issue of the 
first week of 'each month increased to fifty-two pages. 
This will give two volumes per year of 1,112 pages each, 
or 2,224 pages for the year. 
Beginning with January i the subscription price will 
be $3.00 per year. 
These changes are all in the way of a better, brighter, 
handsomer paper. The new Forest and Stream will 
be received as an acceptable and appreciated advance 
over the old. 
Among the illustrated papers which will appear in 
early issues will be: 
An Elk Hunt in Wyoming. 
A Trip with Reindeer in Lapland. 
Rattlesnake Lodge— A North Carolina Mountain 
Home. 
Sporting in China. 
Trees in Winter— A Series of Simple Studies of our 
Familiar Trees. 
Indian Snowshoe Making. 
The Log of a Sea Angler. 
The Birds of Death Valley. 
A Dance at San Juan. 
Ski Running. 
A Winter in Florida. (In the issue of Feb. 3, which 
will be a Florida number.) 
Climbing Mount Popocatepeti,. 
Pictures of Cheyenne Life. 
PRIZES FOR GAME HEADS. 
The Forest and Stram offers three prizes of $20, $10 
and $5 respectively for the best moose heads secured in 
the year 1905 in the hunting grounds of the LTnited States 
and Canada 
It offers also' three prizes of $15, $10 and $5 respectiveh- 
for the best white-tail deer heads taken in the hunting 
■ ssasoa of 1905 in the United States or Canada. 
The heads will be judged from photographs submitted 
t(5--thg Forest and Stream. In estimating their merits 
the two qualities of size and symmetry will be taken into 
consideration. With the photograph of, each head must 
be sent a m.em.orandum of the place and the time of its 
taking and the name of the person taking it. The compe- 
- ('ition.will be open to amateur hunters only ; and with thi-s 
h single restriction it will be open to the world. There are 
no entrance fees. The photographs submitted will be the 
' ptogerty of Forest and Stream. Entries, for the compe- 
fjtiof/jntist be ?nad9 hot lat« than Jan. 15, 
THE FINE ART OF FLINCHING. 
Flinching is a common affliction among shooters, field 
and trap. It is a very serious handicap to the afflicted 
one who is performing at the traps. When he flinches he 
comrnonly scores a miss, although there are some men 
who, from long experience in flinching and quick recov- 
ery of position, instantly readjust themselves for another 
attempt, then not infrequently succeeding in scoring a hit. 
However, the odds against a successful shot are many 
in the greater number of cases. By it much important 
time is lost. Not the least circumstance of the ensuing 
delay is the much greater distance gained by the target 
and the, increasing change of flight when it is in the last 
part of its parabolic curve. The long shot, if success- 
fully made after a flinch, is quite likely to be spectacular 
and to- win the applause of the onlookers, but, neverthe- 
less, it is not good nor winning trapshooting. 
Good form at the traps consists in breaking the targets 
at the earliest moment possible after they take flight at 
the call of “pull.” By practice, the shooter acquires a 
habit of firing when the targets are at a certain uniform 
distance from the traps, and also with a -certain uniform 
degree of quickness, which is called his “time.” Some 
shooters, the experts in particular, may have the same 
quick time for any flight, right, left, straightaway, high 
or low. Some fairly good performers have a kind of 
mixed time, dwelling a trifle longer on some one particu- 
lar flight than on others, generally the right quarterer, if 
the shooter be right handed, the left quarterer, if the 
shooter be left handed. 
The “time” of a shooter as a whole is referred to as 
slow or quick, accordingly as he breaks the targets far 
from or near to the traps. Owing to differences in nerve 
force, physical power, and keenness of vision, some shoot- 
ers can aim and fire much more quickly than others. Nearly 
every shooter is sharply distinct from every other in his 
shooting mannerisms such as position, holding, “time,” 
etc. Now, let the shooter acquire the pernicious habit 
of flinching and his organized methods are disrupted. 
His “time,” so essential to good performance, is shat- 
tered; his position is modified or changed, which intro- 
duces another element hostile to success; his temper, 
however, equable under ordinary conditions, is likely to 
rise to the torrid point, and his vocabulary is likely to be 
enriched by strange words of marvelous emphasis. 
Many causes are attributed to the instantaneous shrink- 
ing called flinching, which occurs at the moment when the 
shooter pulls the trigger, or at the moment when he at- 
tempts to pull it. Although, the shooter may be strong 
as a Hercules, his trigger finger may absolutely refuse to 
respond to his will if he flinches. Communication then 
between brain and finger are the same as if severed. The 
shooter himself is frequently not aware of the trigger 
finger’s disobedience till the attempt to fire is completed, 
as shown by his leaning forward smartly to take the ex- 
pected recoil, and the loss of balance forward when there 
is no explosion and therefore no recoil. Sometimes, 
quickly recovering, the shooter will make a second at- 
tempt, resulting, perhaps, in a second flinching. If the 
trigger finger obeys the dictates of the will, coincidentally 
with the pull of the trigger, the whole body may flinch, 
and the shot, though well aimed up to the moment of 
firing, may fly .wdld of the mark. In bad cases, the 
.shooter almost buckles up, and then the load may go into 
the gi’ound a few^ feet ahead of him, or wide of the mark 
at all events. Thus there are various degrees, from mild 
to severe. 
The causes of it have many times been the subject of 
earnest discussion by trapshooters. Inasmuch as the 
trigger finger refuses to. act at the moment it should do 
so. in re-sponse to thi command of the will, it is a direct 
and plausible inference- %hat. the trigger is not properly 
adapted to the peculiarities;,, of, the finger, hence the 
abundance of advice, enjoining that the trigger be 
straightened or crooked.' Or it may be that the diagnos- 
tician locates the trouble in the gun stock, which then 
needs to be made longer or shorter, or the comb needs 
building up or cutting down. Nevertheless, the flincher 
continues to flinch. 
The true cause of flinching is the punishm.ent inflicted 
on the shooter by a gun, which is ill-fitting; or by a load 
which is too powerful,., and the recoil consequently too 
punishing fpr the shooter, to withstand without severe 
attd barinful shock. Men whose physique is powerfnl 
and whose nervous system is vigorous and steady, can 
withstand much more punishment or shock than others 
not so endowed ; but, in any case, the amount of pun- 
ishment they can endure is relative. There is no shooter 
who will not flinch if hurt enough or shocked enough to 
make an impress on his nervous system. 
The remedy lies in removing the cause. If the gun 
is ill-fitting and pounds the face or finger of the shooter, 
the stock should be changed till the evil is eliminated. 
If the load is so great that the shooter cannot withstand 
the recoil without flinching, then it is obvious that he 
should use a lighter load. In short, if the cause of pun- 
ishment is removed, the cause of flinching goes there- 
with. - - , 
PROTECTING THE FOREST RESERVES. 
The River Improvement Commission of the State of 
New York has lately been holding hearings in rela- 
tion to the attempts to dam certain Adirondack rivers, 
and so to overflow parts of the State Forest Reserve 
for the purpose of supplying power to private parties. 
Such overflowing would result in the destruction of the 
forests on the lands so overflowed. Two members of 
the State Legislature, Senator Malby and Assembly- 
Merritt, both of St. Lawrence county, have appeared 
before the Commission as attorneys for the power^ in- 
terests. A number of individuals and representatives 
of corporations have appeared before the Commission, 
urging the view that it has no authority to grant 
privileges of this nature. The case appears to be 
clc3-i* * 
When the people of New York, by their delegates 
assembled, ' revised the Constitution of the State m 
1894, they prohibited, by Article VII. of the Seventh 
Section, any use of State lands for such purposes. ^ The 
language of the provision referring to this particular 
matter is as follows; “The lands of the State 
constituting the Forest Preserve, shall be forever kept 
as wild forest lands, * * * nor shall Uie timber 
thereon be sold, removed or destroyed.” This language 
would seem to be unmistakable, and insusceptible of 
more than one interpretation; and it may be assumed 
■ that if the matter goes so far the courts will hold to 
the plain common sense interpretation of the consti- 
tutional provision. 
The Hon. Joseph H. Choate has submitted an 
opinion on behalf of the Association for the Protection 
of the Adirondacks, which is exactly on these lines. 
He says: 
“Nothing could be more plain, explicit and conclusive 
than the language used in this constitutional provision. 
Upon its face and in actual substance it was plainly 
designed as a restraint upon the power which had 
previously existed in the Legislature and was carefully 
contrived for the effectual protection of the Forest 
Preserve and the timber thereon from just such inroads 
as are indicated in the question submitted, under legis- 
lative authority, whether direct or indirect. 
“It is not possible to mistake the meaning of the 
language used, nor is it capable of more than one in- 
terpretation. Any improvement attempted [under the 
law creating the River Commission] which prevents 
the lands of the State from being kept forever as wild 
forest lands and necessarily causes the destruction of 
timber thereon is absolutely prohibited, and under no 
plea of necessity or change of policy or. public welfare 
can the effect of the constitutional provision be evaded. 
The people assembled in convention in their funda- 
mental capacity in framing the amendment and in its 
subsequent adoption must be deemed to have taken all 
those thing « nto consideration and to have determined 
that, so long as the constitutional provision lasted, its 
terms should be obeyed and the policy embodied 
followed.” • ' 
This opinion is of the greatest interest to all the 
friends of the Adirondack region. It was generally be- 
lieved that the measures taken at the time of the con- 
stitutional convention in 18^4 had resulted in safe-guard- 
ing the Forest Frefisferves to the State of New York, 
but while it is i^j^ey^dent that only eternal vigilance 
will protect them, it is alsQ evident that the persons 
interested in th^ir preservation are growing rnorp 
pumcrpns day.by day. 
