24 
FOREST AND STREAM 
THE UNITED FISH COMMISSIONERS. 
A WEEKLY JOURNAL, 
DBTOTro TO Ftbld and Aquatic 8ponTB, Ppactical N atitral History, 
Finn Culture, thb Protection or Game, Preservation of Forests, 
AND THE INQUXOATION IN MEN AND WOMEN OF A HEALTH T INTEREST 
in Out door Recreation and Study : 
PUBLISHED BY 
forest and §freanj flublifiliitig gam^atjg, 
IT CHATHAM STREET. (CITY IIALL SQUARE) NEW YORK 
[Post Oftiob Box 2832.] 
Termi, F1»* Dollar, a Year, Strictly Id Adranre. 
A duconnt of Iwenty percent, allowed for Are coplea and upwarda. 
A J.cr lining Katea. 
fn regular advertising colmnna, nonpareil type, 12 lines to the Inch, 2f 
oeni* pur line. Advertnwmenla on outside page. 40 cents nor line. Reading 
notices, 50 cent* per lino. Advertisements In double column 25 per cent 
extra. Where advertisements are inserted over 1 month, a discount of 
10 pur cent- will be made; ovor three months, 20 per cent 1 over 
tnonrh*. 80 per cent. 
NEW YORK, THURSDAY, FEBRUARY IS, 1876. 
To Correspondents. 
All communication* whatever, whether relating to business or literary 
emre-pondenco, mnst be addressed to Tux Forest and Stream Pud- 
LisifiNo Company, Personal or private letters of course excepted. 
All communlcaflnnslntcndcd for publication must be accompanied with 
eal name, as a guaranty of good faith. Names will not be published If 
Objection bo made. No anonymous contributions will be regarded. 
Articles relating to any topic within the scope of this paper are solicited. 
Wo cannoi promise to return rejoctcd manuscripts 
Socremnes of Clubs and Associations are urged to favor us with brief 
ne'e- of their movements and transactions, as it Is the aim of this paper 
to become a medium of nsefnl and reliable Information between gentle- 
men sportsmen from one end of the country to the other ; and they will 
And our columns a desirable raodlum for advertising announcements. 
The Publishers of Forest and Stream aim to merit and secure the 
patronage and countenance of that portion of tho community whose re- 
fined intelligence enables them to properly appreciate and enjoy all that 
l s beantlfnl In Nature. It will pander to no depraved tastes, no’r pervert 
tho legitimate -ports of land and water to those base uses which always 
tdiol to make them unpopular with the vlrtnon* and good. No advertise 
wont or business notice of an Immoral character will be received on an> 
orms ; and nothing will he admitted to any department of tho paper that 
mav not be read with propriety in tho homo circle. 
We cannot he responsible for tho dereliction of the mall service, If 
money remitted to ns Is lost. 
Advertisements should he sent in by Saturday of each week, If possible 
• 'HA ft l/EH 1 1 4L1/OCK, Managing Editor. 
\YII.M\M C. II Ml it 1 ^. Rnslnese Manager. 
THE INTERNATIONAL MATCH. 
T HE attention which is being attracted to this event 
on the oilier side of the water is shown in an official 
announcement to the effect that the North Bull Ranges, 
near I he city of Dublin, or Curragh, better known for its 
hist.-ricul associations in connection with racing, have been 
named as tin* locations, m one of which the return match 
between the Irish and American learns is to be shot. 
As the maicli is to occur during the annual meeting of 
the Irish Ride Association, and at the time of tho selection 
of nn “ eight" to compete for tho Elcho Shield at Wimble- 
don. it is expected that the Irish riflemen will muster in 
fon o, and that a team will be formed from among them 
which our men will find it difficult to defeat. 
The great prize of the Irish meeting is the Abercorn 
Cup, in competition for which the largest scores will in- 
fluence the selection of the team, and ns (lie present repre- 
tentative of royally, in the person of the Lord Lieutenunt, 
is Captain of the team and will be present, greater eclat 
will be given to the meeting. It must be remembered that 
the Irish team of lust year was selected from a very few 
w ho were qualified to compete, and who could also spare 
the time necessary for a journey to this side of the water. 
N"t only will our representatives have to meet a selected 
team from among a much larger number of riflemen, but 
on i heir own ground, which is a point not to bo under- 
raied The recent match at Creedmoor has given an im- 
petus to long range shooting throughout our own country 
and ii is no longer confined to this section. In the selec- 
tion of a team to visit Ireland it is not improbable that 
men from the South and West may appear, giving us, as 
well as our competitors, something new to think of and 
consider. 
One thing, however, is beyond a question— that is, that 
our men will meet with the warmest hospitality, and 
whether they win or not, a warm and cordial reception 
awm-s them. The public are looking with great interest 
f.r i he issue of Major Leech’s book, to which we have 
b tore alluded, for a detailed description of the experi- 
ence- of himself and companions while in this country 
W e have compiled with his request to furnish him with such 
d.u.i as lay m our power regarding the Western Hunt of the 
Insh roam, and are indebted fora proffer.of personal cour- 
iers to be extended during the anUcfpated visit of our 
representative team to Dublin. 
T HE meeting in this city last week of the Fish Commis- 
sioners of the different States and Canada, for the 
purpose of comparing notes on fish culture and determin- 
ing the best method for future procedure, will tend mate* 
rially toward systematizing their efforts to increase our fish 
food, and thereby give direct practical application to their 
efforts. Harmony of purpose, intelligent understanding, 
and unity of action are indispensable to positive success in 
the important undertaking in which they are engaged. 
With these in view, the title of “ United Fish Commission- 
bus” would be an appropriate designation for their honor- 
able and influential body. 
When the American Fish Culturists’ Association was 
first organized the best informed among its members had 
comparatively little knowledge, theoretical or acquired, of 
the business they had undertaken, and no conception of its 
difficulties or its magnitude. To learn first how to propa- 
gate fish in quantity, and then to restock our depicted 
waters, was the knowledge they hoped to acquire by nn 
interchange of views and experiences. The institution of 
State Fishery Commissions was a new thing then, and the 
number of those State officials very few, such Commission- 
ers constituting n miuority in the membership of the Asso- 
ciation, whose composition was made up chiefly of novices 
in fish culture and dabsters in ichthyology. A year ago 
its exclusiveness as a consociation of fish culturists was 
thrown off, and a vote was passe J to admit any person 
interested in, or identical with, its objects; and under this 
concession the membership lias largely increased. Al- 
though its functions arc of a specific character, its opera- 
tions and sphere of usefulness are necessarily limited, 
because, ns constituted, it is simply an advisory body. It 
can merely discuss, suggest, resolve, and recommend. It 
is a sort of Senatu s Comullum, by which the Commissioners 
of each individual State have been hitherto in a great 
measure guided. Such progress has been made of late, 
however, in the art of fish culture, and so extended is the 
knowledge that lias been acquired and imparted by the 
scientific investigations carried on under the direction of 
Ihe United States Fishery Commission, that this important 
interest has grown up out of its nursery just as the fry and 
fingerlings have outgrown the hatching house. The num- 
ber of State Fish Commissioners has increased largely even 
within a year, until now it aggregates no less than forty- 
nine, representing eighteen States. 
The general Government lias increased its annual appro- 
priation to an amount' proportionate to, if not commen- 
surate with, the growth of this interest. It. places vessels 
officers and apparatus at the disposal of the chief Commis- 
sioncr every year. The co-operation of the several Stales 
in the universal work of rcpopulation has, therefore be- 
come necessary. Something more than a merely delibera- 
tive and advisory association of promiscuous and irre- 
sponsible persons is required, and the consociation of the 
Fish Commissioners into an executive and administrative 
body is the natural outgrowth and result. The institution 
of this intelligent and honorable body is a guaranty of 
thorough work and complete success that is most gratify, 
mg and assuring. It marks an epoch and a long stride 
forward toward the attainable end. Complete success 
would not be possible without some such union and co- 
operation. The next movement must be toward a unifi- 
cation of the protective laws, so far as climatic conditions 
will permit; and where these laws cannot be made uni- 
form, they must be in reciprocal harmony. It will be a 
useless waste of time and money to restock our streams 
and forests with fish and game unless adequate laws are 
enacted for their protection and continuance. The whole 
country is indebted beyond estimation to those gentlemen 
who have instituted the annual meetings of the Fish Com 
missiouers. 
Arctic Days.- Were it not for proximity to human aid 
and human habitation, the dwellers in many portions of 
Ins so-called temperate zone of ours might, so far as me- 
teorological conditions and natural surroundings are con- 
cerned as well be in the Arctic circle, at this time, disport- 
ing with the playful seals or the great Polar bears. P In- 
deed, even here in New York a number of the former am- 
phibious creatures have, for the first time in many years 
paid us a visit and a few days ago a party were seen 
ascending the North River on an ice cake, vainly endeav 
oring to take their bearings from Trinity Church steeple. 
Our harbor, filled with ice fields and miniature icebergs 
b!>rini°^t fam, , f r t0 , Arctic explorers, while from neigh- 
boring States we hear of the thermometer indicating a tem- 
perature equaling in severity anything recorded in tho 
experiences of Drs. Kane and Hayes. The suffering 
?®° n J th .® ® re . ws of , the vessels of the fishing fleet haf 
been dreadful from lack of provisions and fuel and stress 
of weather. Thirty or forty schooners have been frozen in 
off Provincetown, Mass., and the revenue cutter Gallatin 
brought into Boston a number of the men whose hands 
and feet were so badly frozen as to render amputation 
necessary. One man was so firmly frozen to the digging 
as to be removed with difficulty, and he died before reach 
thf tr I Th ° ® all f a,,n has as j’ el been unable to regain 
he fleet to render further assistance, and we may expect 
o hear of further suffering. I n our own neighborhood 
the formation of frequent ice bridges across both North 
and Last rivers has been something unprecedented. 
QUAIL. 
nr HE severity of the weather and the ice-bound condi- 
1 tion of the earth having caused many anxious 
doubts as to the safety of the quail, the reports of tl IC 
teamsters, wood cutters, and fox hunters will be received 
with general satisfaction. Their concurrent testimony is 
that here, in the lower counties of New Jersey, tho birds 
are plenty, and, wherever seen, lively, and to all appear- 
aoces in good condition. This, however, should not dimin- 
ish the efforts to increase our stock by the importation 0 f 
birds from other sections. My experience has been that 
other advantages accrue beyond the mere increase of num- 
bers. In the Winter of 1871 a friend, a well known sports, 
man of Philadelphia, gave me fifty pairs of North Carolina 
quail. They were put (each pair in a separate box) in a 
large second story apartment, occupied as a drying room 
for the pots or crucible used in making glass. The mor- 
tality was trifling, and the birds, upon being turned out 
bred beyond the most sanguine hopes. Tho shooting tho 
following Fall was the best ever had in this neighborhood 
The progeny of these birds did not develop that fine in- 
stinct of self-preservation which prompts our Jersey quail 
to take to the thickest cover attainable; but in very many 
instances, on being flushed, scattered in the stubble and 
clover fields. Mr. W. B. Rosenbaum, late the President 
of the West Jersey Game Protective Society, to whom my 
friend sent, at the same time, a large number, found that 
these birds not only habitually fed farther from the heavy 
cover than the natives, but constantly affected the open 
country. This is a very important consideration, as it is 
well known to sportsmen that in seasons when scrub oak 
acorns are plenty our birds live almost entirely in the 
cover. This was the case in a marked degree last Full. 
The finest stubbles were hunted with little success, while 
the rabbit shooters were coustantly reporting that birds 
were plenty “in the scrubs.” 
In wintering birds, it is better to keep them indoors. 
This assertion is founded on a mishap which befel the wri- 
ter of this within a few weeks. In the latter part of last 
December I again became indebted to the friend formerly 
mentioned for fifty pairs of quail, obtained by him while 
shooting in North Carolina. The loss consequent upon 
transportation was considerable, but there remained, in- 
cluding fifteen pairs presented me by a friend in New 
York, ninety-seven birds. As the room formerly used was 
not available, I decided to build a coop, and to allow the 
birds to live upon the ground. It was built eight feet by 
ten in size, the top and three sides inclosed, the southern 
exposure having two rows of slats, one within the other, 
so near together that the openings were hardly three quar- 
ters of an inch wide. There was also a partition, making 
in the rear a withdrawing room, in which the birds inva- 
riably roosted. 
On the morning of the 13th of January “Charley,” the 
man who had charge of the birds, came to my house with 
the announcement that the quail were all dead. The name 
of a personage believed to be at the bottom of all such oc- 
currences arose almost to my lips, but I listened in sad si- 
lence to Charley’s story. A mink, weasel, or some other 
“varmint” had got into the coop and killed every bird. I 
visited ihe scene of slaughter, and examined both birds 
and coop. The former, but yesterday the prospective pro- 
gemtors of so many fine covies, lay stark and dead, not a 
feather ruffled, not an ounce of flesh removed. They were 
all found to be bitten either through the head or neck 
One of the slats was slightly gnawed, but it seemed in- 
credible that an animal capable of such an amount of de- 
struction could have entered the opening, much less es- 
caped, gorged with the blood of so many victims. After 
a week during which the premises bristled with steel traps, 
box traps, and choakers, and several respectable tom cats 
paid the penally of their adventurous dispositions, tho 
felon was caught. He proved to be the common mink. 
There had been a slight fall of snow the evening before his 
capture, and he was “back-tracked” to a cranberry bog 
more than a mile from the scene of the tragedy 
Although measures were at once taken to obtain a new 
supply, the loss will not be easily repaired, the birds hav- 
ing been in perfect health and condition, and promising to 
breed exceptionally well. I trust the recital of my ill for- 
tune may not prove unmstructive to your many readers, 
all of whom are interested in the preservation and propa- 
gation of the sportsman’s prime favorite, the quail. 
Winslow, N. J., February 2d, 1875. q jj 
viUe 0 Florida Uary5lU iC ° C ° VOred lhe fe Jackson- 
Game Protection in Illinois. -Th e executive com- 
b V he date’s Sportsmen Association of 
twentv Si, ? S ^ dU,y WelL They have about 
Z t y , , er 8 T a S ainst the commission men and 
eaaurant keepers for selling game out of season, but the 
latter ate now threatening to retaliate by stopping trap 
afraid 0 ^ ^ B u'° h ' , Neverlheless - «ie sportsmen are no^ 
law rfn th ‘ W li PU iS them t0 lbe walL The y have the 
law on their side, while tho dealers are without any. It is 
f lk J y that the Judicial decisions in Illinois will be dif- 
ferent from those rendered in New York as respects the 
sale of game of other States in season in those Slafes 
thJ^m/rWr SOft ? eMaryIand Associa ‘i°°are also after 
! r Xd Mr an ? ^taurateurs of Baltimore, and have 
Hmis^fnl T, UC LU , t e ' proprietor of Guy 8 Monument 
House, for violat.on of the game laws in furmshiDg his 
guests with game out of season. S 
cou» A ,i:f t rr sul r “ ra ' oM in 
