Terms, Poor Dollars a Year. I 
Ten Cents a Copy. I 
ZHE AMER ICAN SPORTSMAN'S JOURM fl. 
Volume lO.-No. 0. 
No, 111 Pulion M„ n.Y, 
That, trout and tnrnips are akin, you cannot well deny 
Since every body knows that both are taken with the n’y. 
But dies at all times will not do, though Turton’a self should dub. 
And so the better to get through, we start well stocked with grub. 
The wisdom of oor ancestors -a well-known fact I’m statlng- 
Thought bulls and bears as well as hooks were suitable for baiting • 
But now this most degenerate age destroys half our resources, 
we've nothing but onr hooks to bait unless we bait our horseo. 
We dearly love the finny tribe, and covet with all our powers • 
Presenting silks and feathers 100. to win them to be ours 
We don’t indeed by word of mouth say, Trout, will you be mine ? 
The way we pop the question Is to drop the fish a line. 
The trout from Derwent's rocky shelves their answer never send 
For when the fish yield to our wish they always come themselves’ 
So now I've sang you all to sleep, and when for home you’re stealing 
m&mmm 
Waller Tnd u » mcnester rme from Col. 
lected \tToM; I 
^lVu^teSt®“ e t00k SSSSSlf ,£ S VC T r f lizati0U of , a " Utopfaa dream £ 
mf n >rS°iS th MdT° P9 l0DS ^‘ofind a Congress- 
n i he . w “ P roailslQ g himself a hearty he would change the mournful death-song iu^BuSnal 
ieffiif tTthe TS U oT e .l.T b r t0 f- s 0Wn <; bagriD aad lia “ refrain, forit is written that “ true S^pSSs SSbg “ a 
the sea, but with Ins head down in the water. I should cer 
tuinly have plunged in and waded out to him, but the wind 
sweeping down, and the tide flooding with the current of a 
mill-St.rPflm fljP f'Alllltop f/ .pnno . . i . . ... 
Like some full breasted swan 
That, fluting a wild carol ere her death, 
Bullies her purp, cold plume and takes the flood 
With swathy ebbs."— Tennyson. 
COME unsentimental, practical sportsmen, scarcely deserv- 
^ ing to he classed higher than mere pot-hunters, have de- 
clared that the music of the dying swan is the fantastic crea- 
tion of poelic fancy; and it is doubtless because the "wild 
carol" of the poor bird, when transfixed by the hunter’s bul- 
let, is not a strain to be compared with the lays of the muse 
as our modern ears are taught. But you must remember thai , . , • ulu lue wma 
when that piteous, flutelike dirge was called music it was in ^, e , ep . ,Dg and the li(le flooding with the current of a 
the days when the young shepherd was taught the ’divine art [J® couuter forces immediately took the bird 
on the w, 0Jr by P„„ , and «he ™ £ Tn Sf M ^uMSS'uKSi S&SX 
its notes to the 
ters when he 
I remember once shooting mallard along the great Arkcn- 
dale Marsh on the Potomac, when suddenly my faithful re- I " A while-sailed bark, launched on a tjillowy track, 
triever, a red terrier, stopped and cocked his ears and tail t , '‘ “a^oremydearest hope and ne’er came back.” 
and there, in one of those serpentine “ guts " that wind m •’ ^ USt * Aad worked the boat out of her bed of ice and 
.... p enune guts, that wind their | across the sand into the water, and lmd shipped the oars, I 
For Forest and Stream and Rod and Gun. 
DUCK SHOOTING ON THE TENNESSEE 
RIVER. 
o ) tuvi tiacii 
tortuous way through great marshes, was a majestic swan, 
snow white, and winged by a shot, swimming down toward 
the open river with wonderful speed, and trying to get to the 
mouth of the tide stream before me. Running up to the 
mouth of the gut, I awaited him with my gun cocued— an 
eight calibre, “ silver steel ” weapon, made by Geoffreys of 
London. Seeing the little tints of blue on him, I knew that 
the shade of Lucullus could not desire a better temptation 
to visit this world again than that bird properly roasted and 
served with red Burgundy of Volney — bon vieux sang de 
“ u fy° i» e , as the old Boldin minstrels called it. My doc 
Boh trembled all over and whined in anticipation of my own 
hf. for be i9 , t0 .° 9 atue a d °g to eat game himself. But 
oeiiold ! my royal bird came up within twenty feet, and when 
■t raised my gun to give him a quietus, he suddenly began to 
rcle round, making that flute-like dirge with such a piteous 
accent that, though as a youngster 1 had been nursed in the 
amp and with all the horrors of war, I could not so harden 
my heart as to give that bird the death shot. And seeing me 
■akedown my piece, he presently half spread bis snowy 
' ngs, and taking the wind directly aft, sailed majestically 
out into the open water, while Bob looked first at him, then 
i me, and then began to bark, as much as to say, “ What can 
the matter with that gun ?” 
snaK Ve known tbe Aardest professional “duckere" to have 
Vn . eXperience3 with this bird >‘ and il goes to prove the 
naS and , poetry of bi9 mature, which caused the ancient 
uius to make the swan the type in mythology of the lapsing 
lu^ ma . pu f 10D ’ j u8t 119 tb0 9tory of Psyche and Cupid il- 
as vn 8 lbe la P 81u g of ethereal love by an inverse principle, 
“ read in that q uaint old curiosity of literature, 
EpoB»i, { „ en .^ 88 ’" wri tten by Apulius, aud translated into 
- ,u m a style more classic than the original. 
was aware of a voice that hailed me through the storm and 
there was old Fitz standing on the bluff above, hallooing 
through his hands, trumpet fashion, " Go it, old boy I'm 
betting on the swan.” And again, as l pulled out, “ Two to 
one ou the swan.’’ But though the bird was by this time a 
mile out, I was sure of overhauling the prize, for the wind 
and tide operated on the boat just as on the drifting swan 
and I had only to 6teer up against the wind, and with little 
exertion my speed was sufficient. In about twenty-five min- 
utes I was withiu 100 yards of him, and had measured his 
proportions with delighted eye moredhan once. But, alas ! 
in the midst of highest hopes disaster doth ever await us p-ior 
mortals, just * * 
J »Luuuosn! mnT, wuu ns nue, fer- 
tile hanks, affords to ducks capital feeding grounds, which 
they seem to thoroughly appreciate, judging from the num- 
her that are ever floating peacefully ou its beautiful body of 
But when and how to get at them is a question which, un- 
less one knows, is hard to be solved. There is hut oue suc- 
cessful time for hunting these birds, and that is after the fiver 
has overflowed its hanks and is well up among the branches 
of the large willows which are so thickly studded along the 
water s edge. Ou uccount of the swiftness of the flood cur- 
rent, the ducks are forced to hug close to the baoks and swim 
among the branches of the lnuudatcd trees. These floods 
moreover, are of very frequent occurrence since the river 
has made its c nine between the mountains which so thor- 
oughly cover the eastern part of Tennessee. 
While paying a risit to this part of the country, I expert- 
( ’PM fllP niMQf AniAi'ilRIii nn.l iti/ili... i’ . • . - 
ment see any j 
ward of my — , — — •» »vu iui^m, a nucau^ 
in fancy, seemed to hold him up before my host in triumph, I luck which inVariahlv ntrendVh'is"duek hums. Eagerly" ac- 
and then take him to the kitchen to show the cook how to cepting one of his kind offers "to give the ducks a turn^’ 
roast him in the tin kitchen on a spit (more Virginiemti). one early morning in January, after afarge flood tide, we, to- 
In the midst of this delightful dream I was st-.nled by a getlier with a steersman, pushed off in an ordinary row-boat 
series of loud reports right ahead, which sounded something from the footof K. s principal street into the sweeping current 
like a flle-flre of musketry, and, lookmg around, there I be- of the Tennessee. The weather u-as hut a trifle’ cold, which 
held a rakish fishing schooner, just iu stays, with her can- we remedied by placing a small charcoal stove at our feet 
vas flapping aud cracking. I was just thinking why such a The peep of day was just dawning, and far around we could 
pretty craft should lull to get away at once on the other tack, hear the long haying of the hounds and the clear call of the 
when all at once I noticed that my swan was drifting right up hunter taking his dogs from their nightly coon bunt causing 
to the schooners weather-side, and before I had time for a the cliffs to catch up their sound until the echoes finally lo‘t 
thought the damnable, diabolical skipper leaned over the rail, themselves iu their countless repetitions. We continued 
grabbed my bird with a piratical baud, and hauled him in- noiselessly drifting down the river, and hugging closelv the 
hoard with a demoniacal chuckle; and then, as I stood up in I ™™iiib honir Th» dnv hrnnkin<T «... “’. 3 . ... . 
