Lave been more than kind, albeit the warmth of their 
friendship is tempered by mint juleps. The only coldness 
between us rests on ice. 
What a host of sportsmen arc congregated here this week ! 
There are more brethren of the angle and trigger than I ever 
saw before at one time -more Southern sportsmen than one 
would suppose could have survived the distress of the past 
two decades. Among them the Forest and Stream has a 
large and loving constituency ; and I am convinced that a 
return of prosperous times is all that is necessary to quadru- 
ple the circulation of that paper in the South. The Louisville 
Gun Club, of which J. V. Cowling, Jr., is President, and W. 
J. Watkins Secretary, comprises a hundred good men aud 
true who are always ready to book their record at the trap 
or elsewhere. I am indebted to many of its members for 
courtesies, and especially to Mr. Cowling and his big brother, 
the Doctor, (there are three brothers of them, who average 
six feet two inches in height,) who is editor of the Louisville 
Medic* 1 Nem; to Horace Scott, Esq., .of the Louisville and 
Indianapolis .Railroad ; and to M. Lewis Clarke, Jr., Presi- 
dent of the Louisville Jocky Club. The race course, ’a short 
distance from town, is one of the finest in the country and 
occupies a most picturesque location. It is easily reached by 
carriage and horse cars. The Club has a refectory on the 
grounds for theexclusive use of members, and all the appoint- 
ments are of the best order. Outside of Jerome Park I have 
never seen gathered together at a race such a respectable 
company of gentlemen and ladies as here. So conspicuously • 
absent are all the objectionable features of a course that 
Moody could pitch his tabernacle on the infield without mis- 
givings, and the most pious circuit-rider of the Methodists 
measure paces with the jockeys, in the same delightful har- 
mony which will prompt the millennial lamb to hobnob with 
the lion. I wonder now why I have not visited Kentucky 
before. Her beautiful “blue-grass” waves such a welcome 
that it has become a synonym for hospitality and social inter- 
changes. Her deep-cut streams flow through rolling lands of 
bucolic beauty, penetrating to far-off Edenal retreats which 
that simple child of Nature, Daniel Boone, loved so much. 
On a thousand hills the choicest herds are gathered, and the 
blood of Berkshire, Southdown, Jersey and Mambrino fills 
their veins. Baronial demesnes, with grand old homesteads 
and huge modern granaries, diversify the landscape, while 
the clik of the harvester and the hum of the thresher make 
musical the ingathering of fulsome crops. Underlying this 
upper realm are innumerable subterranean lakes, and 
an independent fluvial system whose pulsations and 
circulating flow are sometimes felt in the land above, 
manifested by mysterious ebbs and unaccountable re- 
cessions of waters long deemed stable or immutable. Eyeless 
fish swim in their depths, and sable gondoliers glide like 
wraiths along arched corridors and covered channelways, 
whose echoes are more sensitive to whispers than the Venetian 
Bridge of Sighs. Great grottoes extend for miles and miles, 
from whose lofty roofs weeping stalactites hang, like the 
drapery of mausoleums; and the tears of pre-Adamite mourn- 
ers which drop to the floor, congeal into pavements, to be trod 
by the present living. New mammoth caves are discovered 
before one half the labyrinths of the old have been investi- 
gated ; and if we could only remove the tellurian crust we 
should find the revelations of our subterranean world not less 
startling than those we are taught to look for heaven-ward, in 
the coming days. 
Hospitality spreads itself all over Kentucky like an unction. 
The dairies arc wreathed with golden smiles, and the glory of 
shining tins surrounds each farm-house with a halo. The 
tide of milk and honey is always at the flood. The low of 
kine is moo-sio to the wayfarer, nor will the baa-carols of the 
sheep debar the visitor from wishing to come again. 
Because this fair and teeming State was untrodden ground 
to me I made a wide detour to visit it at this unseasonable 
season. Besides, my usual routes to the West had become a 
familiar story. The passes of the Alleghanys by the Pennsyl- 
vania Central, os well as the highways by the seaboard and 
lake shore, were like the romances of the masters, not less 
void of interest by reason of frequent perusal, but to be en- 
hanced by comparison with others. I do not like beaten paths 
of travel. Any place revisited is doubly attractive, but the 
senses will tire of repetitions in time, and I often wonder that 
summer saunterers who make no haste, do not more frequently 
vary their routes than they do, and thus dispel that ennui 
which accompanies stated rounds of aestivation and makes 
“ pleasure ” a misnomer. My choice this time was by the 
Old'Dominion Steamship Line from New York to Richmond, 
and thence by the Chesapeake and Ohio Railroad, across the 
parallel ranges of the Blue Ridge and Alleghanys, to the 
pastoral banks of the Ohio River. What a shifting panorama 
of most varied beauty lies along this route 1 What comfort 
attends the passage by the sea, in comparison with the dusty 
tour by rail ! I was surprised to hear that the heaviest travel 
by this steamship line was during the months of July 
and August, showing that the luxuries of pure air, an 
excellent table, and cool refreshing slumber, are ap- 
preciated at least by those who have learned to come 
this way. The journey is by no means tedious or mo- 
notonous. For instance, we cast off from the pier at three 
o’clock p. m. on Saturday. Our state rooms have been en- 
gaged two days previously, and with prompt attendants at the 
ship to secure baggage checks and care for small parcels, one 
goes aboard as little flustrated as need be, and quietly contem- 
plates the wharf-tenders who cast off the hawsers and let the 
big craft glide into the stream. ’Then follows the panorama 
of the busy harbor, the guarded Narrows, the shifting lower 
liel^we nd f H ,° 0k U,Ul thG raccdin K Highlands. By twi- 
oSvnl , i yatiCa aUd rUDni0g cl08e 10 » l »». f °r the 
rr, PlaClda V lakCaud lhevo >' u S e is hke a yacht 
vunsarh's 77/ lcn tbousand Ji ghte gleam from the cara- 
, v , 8 , 7 UaeeS at Branch ’ and we hear faint- 
y the sounds of music which the west wind waits from the 
Ocean House Evening and morning follow, and I cm fairly 
make out with my ghrss familiar places along the Maryland 
V lrginm shore, which successively come in view. I have 
one of fnend Waldstein’s best marine glasses, and as I sweep 
tue line of the Sinepuxent beach where Ocean City stands, I 
can fancy lbat 1 S ce t he hotel and the little shooting-box on 
the point near by, where I have been quartered by invitation 
of i s proprietor, the Hon. Stephen Taber, on my goose and 
duck shooting expeditions in the fall. Further on is the 
Ckincoteague Light-house, which flanks Cliiucoteague Bay 
and the outlying island, twenty-five miles in length, famous 
or us snipe and woodcock shooting. Outside is the 
Tive * athom Light-ship, at which we toss a sealed packet of 
papers for the case-hardened sailors to pick up and peruse in 
the leisure hours of their lonely watch. Our course is parallel 
with that tongue of land cut off from the domain of Maryland, 
which comprises the Virginia counties of Accomac and North- 
ampton. Its extremity is Cape Charles, which, with its rw- 
Cape Henry, are the flankiug outposts of the Chesapeake 
Bay. We are passing some of the finest and least visited 
sporting grounds of the seaboard, and can distinctly distin- 
guish llog Island, Cobbs Island and Mockhorn Island, locali- 
ties which initiated sportsmen have visited for years in a quiet 
way, bagging more snipe, woodcock aud ducks in a week than 
their less fortunate or less venturesome friends can do else- 
where in a season. In summer there is the best kind of sheeps- 
head, perch and rock (striped bass) fishing, and on the main- 
and are quad, plover and rabbits. Nowadays easy access is 
had by way of the Old Dominion steamers to Lewes, Del. 
and thence by rail, or by all rail via Wilmington, Saulsbury’ 
etc. The country is vastly more picturesque and accessible 
than the Currituck region, and the promise of good re- 
turns is more positive. One of these days sportsmen 
will wake up to a realizing sense of the fact. 
If they do not, it will not be the fault of the writer, or of the 
Fobest and STREAM-the telephone which repeals his ut- 
terances from far-off places. I make it my business to inves- 
tigate for my constituency, and although the exploration is a 
pleasure to me, I am conscious that my efforts are saving them 
much time, money, and many hard knocks. 
Crossing the mouth of the Bay, we reach Norfolk by three 
o’clock p. m. (twenty-four hours after leaving New York), 
and while the vessel is discharging and receiving freight have 
ample time to vi B it the ancient city and the Navy Yard at 
Portsmouth. Meanwhile we have passed Fortress Monroe, Old 
Point Comfort, the Rip Raps, and Oraney Island, the scene of 
the first iron-clad combat. When the gaslights begin to gleam 
in the city, the vessel gets under way and heads for the mouth 
of the James River. Richmond is ICO miles distant. In the in- 
terval taken for sleep, the tourist misses little which is worth 
seeing, for the banks of the river are low and uninteresting, 
and its bed flows with a liquid of a coffee-like color, caused 
by the washings of the red clay soil. One should be on deck 
at daylight. For the next four hours, until the destination is 
reached, at nine o’clock, the scenery well rewards the sight- 
seer. The tourist who is willing to devote three days or more 
to Richmond will be well repaid. It is the most beautiful of 
Southern cities. 
H one wishes to travel the entire route of the Chesapeake 
aud Ohio Railroad by daylight, he should take the morning 
train and proceed no farther than the White Sulphur Springs. 
Two nights and one day at the Springs will suffice. Between 
this place and Kanawha Falls, a distance of 105 miles, the 
mountain region is brimful of romance to the lover of scenery, 
and of every satisfaction to the angler. The best points for 
trout fishing are at Quinnmont, Hawk’s Nest and Kanawha 
Falls. At the latter place are also large bass, wall- eyed- pike 
and white perch. The hotel accommodations are good, and 
the fishing places quite accessible. 
If eastern tourists have not yet selected their route for sum- 
mer travel, they will do well to take this one for a change. 
I will defer a description of this mountain region for my 
second letter. The materials at hand would exhaust the 
space of three letters. Hallook. 
rees embraced its aristocratic streets. Next to Washington 
l am inclined to vole Richmond the most beautiful city the 
,Inmn 119 ” al " ral ^res make it so. Behold iu 
Jaunt the Second. 
Robert's Rest, Neenab, Wis., July 10. 
Dear Brethren : How we can overcome distance and 
space in these modern times 1 It was actually more of a task 
to reach the Wisconsin wilderness forty years ago than it now 
is to compass the globe. I dated my first letter nt Louisville, 
July 3. In twenty-four hours afterward I was set down 
here, at a point 400 miles due north. I move faster than my 
pen can follow. The record of my trip is hardly begun ; and 
to do justice to the attractions by the way I must pick up my 
back trail at Richmond, while I sit here nt Nccnah in the cool 
shade which rests on the banks of beautiful Wjnnebago Lake. 
The heated term is past and the air is cooled by repeated 
showers. Grass and foliage gleam with a vivid green. 
It was hot in Richmond, but the summer sun had not yet 
sered the garniture of spring. The dark-lcnved magnolias 
were magnificent in the full glory of their bloom. Roses 
filled the gardens and terraces with their perfume. Bright 
hues of parti-colored flowers contrasted with the fresh verdure 
of variegated shrubbery and closely-cropped lawn. Overarching 
bills ; the extended sweep of their undulating 
tic flow of the winding James, broken by wooded islets Ld 
oanung rapids ; the far-reaching expanse of bottom-lands and 
Art and 8 J W,dch *»<* tributary stress 1 
Art and the necessities of commerce have laid upon these an 
oTof V ‘the w n-’ 0t ! ding DeW ChanU8 and uti lizing the whole. 
cal w n ’ S UlC COn8tAnt rivcr th< * have ,ed a 
canal which follows its sinuous bank in a deep and quiet flow 
L nvml m :nd : rf baViDg Perf0nued offices turning 
manj mills and factories, aud floating out freights from the 
‘~r d W* " relU ™‘‘ r >ver “,o, 
ea l on. h WatCr which bea " ^rge vessels to the 
hth btufff S ge f, Cr0SS lhG rapid8 lu n,,mero ” a spans ; 
high bluffs make the river panorama picturesque ; park aud 
8 F“. S i , ! are ' aDd ^-course diversify the settled town- 
streets which were once laid in ashes are now flanked with 
sokd ranges of substantial stores; imposing structurTcrown 
«ich separate hill; and from the rounded crest of Capitci 
Square, where the bronzed heroes of Virginia streteh forth JLiJ 
honored hands, the stately old legislative hall lifts up its Co 
more 1 ? COl, ™ nSand overlook8 the whole. Nothing can be 
more agreeable than a morning or evening drive through the 
streets and 9ubllrba Qf Richmond after one has lauded from 
he ocean steamer. The traveler by rail arrives from a long 
menMLT^ , a , Dd di8iuclincd ! b,lt contrast of eujoy- 
W?ffs fro M C u r08t 0f a Sca and the bracing 
whiffs from the salted sea. And this is why I have recom 8 
mended the summer traveler toward the West to take the Old 
ChZ l T er8 fr ° m NeW Y0rk t0 Richmond and the 
Chesapeake and Ohio railroad from thence to the Ohio River 
This is why I chose this route myself. 
Of course I saw the boys at Richmond. We sportsmen al- 
ways speak of each other as “ the boys." No masonry or 
secret order is bound by such golden links as the fraternity of 
sportsmen We are social, ardent, considerate, liberal mind- 
ed, sympathetic, benevolent. We bear each other’s burdens 
share each other's joys, respect each other’s confidences, de- 
end each other’s good name, exchange photographs, and di- 
vide our last biscuit and ammunition. Sometimes wo shoot 
over borrowed dogs; and herein, let me whisper, lies the only 
danger of breaking the entente cordial*. If the borrower is not 
prepared to concede at the outset that his friend’s pointer is 
the staunchest dog he ever saw ; that ho will draw on game 
drop to shot, retrieve better and work up the out field quicker 
and more thoroughly than a D y other dog ; then let him not 
borrow. The only way to cement a link so broken is to pass 
the flask, acquit the dog, and declare that your own stupidity 
was the fault. I saw good dogs in Richmond ami good guns 
It is gratifying to note the increase of the little luxuries and 
conveniences of a sportsman’s outfit at the South since the 
war. At the close, only the negroes enjoyed the privilege of 
carrying guns ; now clubs of genuine sportsmen are multiply 
mg throughout the land. At first, Virginia was alow to rnove- 
but skehas since organized a most efficient State Association 
with an energetic president (Clios. A. Palmer, Esq , of Rich- 
mond,) and numerous subordinate nnd independent clubs, de- 
voted to the protection and propagation of game and fish 'and 
incidentally to the taking thereof at the proper seasons. The 
Old Dominion is rapidly assuming a front place, and will very 
soon be foremost as a conservator of the species. She is at- 
tending strictly to business, and taboocs all pigeon-popping at 
sessions and deliberative conventions os wholly irrelevant and 
out of place. I tkiuk we can all learn wisdom from the 
Mother of States. The result of her missionary work, es- 
pecially among the mountains, is most gratifying, impelling 
from the lawless a fear of combined organization, if not a re- 
spect for the law itself. Common sense is taking the place of 
hereditary heresies, and fish and game are consequently in- 
creasing in quantity. The press is an earnest coadjutor and 
disseminator of information. The venerable editors of the 
Richmond Whig and Richmond Dispatch, Messrs. Cowardin 
and Mosely, are foremost in the good work. I was honored 
by marked courtesies from these gentlemen, aDd by Messrs. 
Ott, Palmer, aud other prominent conservators of game Air 
Macdonald, who has succeeded Col. Mosely as Fish Commit 
sioner, is a most competent and well-informed officer, whose 
services arc much valued. Socially, Richmond is’ whole- 
souled and unaffected. Heropeu bund is extended, and the 
worthy may consider themselves honored by its grasp I 
passed one pleasant afternoon at the 200 yard range of the 
Rifle Club. It is located by the James River, below the city. 
A few of the members drove out to give me an opportunity to 
inspect the grounds. We fired a few rounds at the Creedmoor 
and Wimbledon targets, for practice, the host scores falling to 
Messrs. J. W. Jenkins, Cbas. F. Stokes and Win. Euker, the 
latter making 48 out of a possible 50 points. (He euchred us. ) 
The Richmond Rifle Club has a goodly membership and a fair 
attendance at the range on practice days. Altogether, Rich- 
mond is a most desirable place to visit, and iu° the fall tho 
sportsman will be sure to fill his bag from the neighboring 
marshes, fields and river bottoms. Should he wish larger 
game than quail, ducks and snipe, the Chesapeake and Ohio 
railroad is at hand to convey him to the Blue Ridge Aloun- 
tains, where he will find deer, bears and turkeys in abundance 
to say nothing of cats, opossums and raccoons. 
If the summer tourist has time to examine the scenery along 
the entire line of this romantic thoroughfare, he will do well 
to take the morning train at Richmond, which will drop him 
at the White Sulphur Springs by supper time. The next day 
