I 
1875 . 
Our Game Laws. 
Gansevoor, N. Y., ilay 17. 
Editor or Rod and Gun: 
I deeply impressed by the article* from the pen of Portia W 
^ ^ Aldrich id yoor issue of May 15th. He evidently is one of a larj^o 
■ .sV', clasj In onr country, who, while they honestly wish to, a d do re- 
• * sped our game laws, feel the injustice done by them to the poor 
man. This world was never made for any one set of men. yet 1 fear 
that we, as sportsmen, loo often foiget this fact; in proof, wilnes^ 
the spirit breathing through many of he “Letters from Sportsmen. ’* 
There is too often an outcropping of eelflshness in them too appa- 
rent to pass unnoticed. 
I admit, and contend with all good sportsmen that our game 
should be protected, protected more aid by better laws than it is a’ 
present, and it seems to me that now while the country is awake to 
the matter, is the proper time to see to it, that we secure good laws, 
laws that by their justness to both rich and poor, shall secure the 
hearty support of the “ detested market hunter,” as will as the rich 
“gentlemen sportsmen,” as this co-operation of all classes is nece 
sarytomakea game law effective in this country, lean assiire 
Mr. Aldrich that we have our “Duly Green'e“ about here, (and 1 
doubt not they can be found ail over the counlry,) whose wrath is 
their fortress behind w hich they can afford to, and do smile in de 
risioD at our game laws, as they slaughter our game m season and 
out of season, on week days and Sundays as fancy dictates. The 
legislation that makes this possible is but a mockery. 
There has been a great deal said pro and con. aboit summer 
shooting on Woodcock, and I hope 1 shall be excused il 1 sa^ m3 
say One correspondent raises the objection that the biras are not 
“fully grown,” yet in the hundreds that 1 have killed in July, 1 have 
never found one but what wus really, if not fully grown. Another 
objection that has been raised is that the birds by reason of theii 
weakness are incapable of presenting a suflicient dithcult murk to 
suit the ardor of the true sportsmau, but my experience is that th 
October cock, although stronger upon the wing, is as easily brought 
to bag as he whistles up through the leafless branches as is the July 
bird that is protected by the deiise foliage of his cboseu reireat. U 
'then that it requires “the eye of faith and the linger of instinct' 
to cut him down. Another objection, a very lame one I think, is 
that if they (the Woodcock,) are “ persecuted ” apou their breeding 
grounds, they are not so liable to affect the same place again. Now 
it is very evident that the survivors breed somewhere, so where U 
the lost to the country. 1 believe it it held by all true sportsmen, 
thatgamt should not only be used to afford legitimate sport, but a« 
au article of public wealth be economized to the wants of the coun- 
try. With us woodsock commands in the market from 75 cents to 
$1 25 per bird in the summer, and only 20 to 40 cents in the fall, and 
this difference in price is in a measure common to the whole coun 
try. Now, if the people of the country ask for woodcock as an 
ai tide of food in the snmmer, shall we insist upon their bavin; 
them in the fall only? To be sure if we allow’ summer shooting, it 
gives that awful “ market hunter” a chance; but can we who claim 
to tea fralernity of generous, whole-souled sportsmen, get our “fius” 
up without airing our selfishness and giving the lie to our preten- 
sions? 
If woodcock arc in danger of becoming exiinct (which I believe 
they will under existing laws) why not aboli^h woodcock shooting 
entirely fora number of years until the country is restocked; strike 
out the $5 penalty, and make it a crime puni^hable with imprison- 
ment only to kill them, or any other game, out of season, and aiter- 
warde g ve the fall shooters and the summer shooters au equal 
chance? There is too much of the “spirit of ’7G’ in the shooters of 
this country to brook any unfairness. Silvanus. 
155 
Field Trials of Doffs used with the tiun. 
After ten years’ experience of these trials in the different capaci- 
ties of successful competitor, reporter, and judge, we last year an- 
nounced our conviction that it was u^eless to continue them, and that 
opinion has now received a strong conflrmation sc the recent Devon 
and Cornwall, Abhrewsbury, and Kennel Club me. tings. Personally 
we yield to no on. in our admiration of ttie pointer and setter, ami 
to sec a flue brace of either of these dogs at work when well broken 
is to us the greatest treat which can be offered — in proof of whicb 
we may adduce the sopport we have given to the various trials up to 
1874. But exactly in proporlion to our love for dogs has been our 
tUsgust when we have seen ihi ir merits overlooked or concealed at 
the Dumeroos trials we have attended, whatever may have been the 
causes which have contributed to the errors committed. On some 
occasions gross ignorance of the animals themselves, and of their 
capabilities, has been displayed; in others the judges, in ihe ab- 
sence of the opportuniiy for a right judgment afforded by those ne* 
cesslMes, game and covirt, have jumped at their conclusions; w hile 
in a third category may be included those instances in w hieh extra- 
neous influences have bi.eu brought to bear, so as, either from expe- 
diency, favoriiism, or prejudice, 10 warp the decisions in a wrong 
direction. In most cates the disappointed competitors have quietly 
submitted to their undeserved defeats, owing in great inea.-ure to 
their having themselves been absentees from the trial ground, and 
to their want of reliance on the accounts given them by their keep- 
ers. On the other hand, it has sometimes happened that an unsuc- 
cessful competitor has complained without ju«t cause, and the more 
noisily in proportion to the total absence of this feature, which is 
necessary in order to attract the sympathy of the British public. 
But, be the cause what it may, the result has been, as we lu'-t year 
statsd. that these trials have become so little popular that the aver- 
age number of spectators seldom amounts to one hundred; w hereas 
in the days of Stafford, and the early ones of Shrew sbury, ten limes 
t lat number might be counted, and occasionally many more. 
Wbat, then, wus the chance of any improvement in fuiure? The 
sport, have had quite an opposite stfect, according to the geiura 
tebliinony of those who were present 
There are several essentials to th© success of these meetings— 
fir^l, a good wc king committee and secretary; secoiwliy, a suflicient 
entry; thirdly, capable, honest, and, beyond all, unyielding judges 
fourthly, good ground; and fifthly, some sound principles on whicb 
the dacis ons are to be based. Now, we unhesitatingly assert tbai 
at no meeting of J87ocan eve» two of these essentials b© said to 
have existed, and therefore the amount of failure may readily be 
understood. At Shrewsbury there was a great entry, but, as usual 
there, little game and no covurt; w hile at the Kennel Club meelino 
there was plenty of game and good lying, but the iudges could not 
agre© either on the principles to be adopted in forming their decis 
ions, or practically as to the fiats to be given. At the former placi 
many decisions were arrived at in live minutes, with an almost lota 
ab.-ence of game, which was grossly alisurd and unjust to the com 
petitors; while ar the latter two w hole days were consumed in de 
riding three small stakes, although there was an abundance of game, 
and ample lying to enable the dogs to find it, if only they were pos- 
sessed of that important element, a good note. Last year we were 
accused of hastily arriving at couclusions adverse to the Kennel 
Club management in particular and to the modes of conducting these 
meetings in general; and strong laiguage was used in reprobation 
of the line we took in resigning all connection with that club. The 
resolutions arrived at by the Kennel Club in secret conclave (for we 
had no notice of their intentions, and were consequently unde- 
fended) were wholly unworthy of our reply from that cause, if for 
no other; and, knowing lull well that we had only to give a little 
time for the anger we had arouted to subside, we w'ere content to 
w'ait the courte of events, which we felt confident would fli ally al 
low our conduct to be fairly estimated An interval of twelve 
months has now passed, during w hich we have quietly rested on 
our oars while three influeuiial bodies of gentlemen have been at 
work; and now we ask whetlier our anticip itions of decay have not 
been borne out, and whether or no the proceedings at Sleaford then 
complained of by as have not been repeated at Lintou and Horse 
heath, with slight variations. We had neither the w ish nor the 
power ibeiug fully en^agsd at the gnu trial) to be again present; 
but, from the accounts, oral and written, given by our representa 
live, ill whom we have every confidence, backed as they are by the 
descriptions of men of the highest experience and knowledge of 
shooting dogs, we can only come to the conclusion that, alter com- 
paring the small entries of 1^75 with the large ones of 1874, the d© 
cisions giveu in the former were even more bit- sed than those ol 
the latter. We repsat our opinion th« n published in 
that no absolute unfairness has been intended; but a man who loses 
his due is injured quite as much us if it is lost by the cardeisness or 
weakness of the individual to whom it is euiruslcd, as if bis prop 
erly were deliberately stolen by him —The London Field., May 15. 
Tub Rochester Denxcci at gives us the lollowlng account of a prac- 
tice detestable in the offenders and disgrtceful to the authorities. 
Poisoniug fish has been noticed along the Genesee liver from the 
Lower Falls to the lake. Vnder the direction of hclh Green, his 
brother, M. A. Green, and E. Marks, have made an examination of 
the facts. Their report Is as follows: 
Monday, May 10— The vats at the paper mills cleaned and their 
contents soul into the river. 
Weduesd.iy, May 12— Fish acting very strangely, h aping wildly 
and going asnore. Men and buys caught them in their bauds. 
Thursday, .Vlay 13— Dead fish noticed. 
Fnday, May 14— Number ul dead tisu increasing. 
bunday, May IG— The shores ol the river from the Lower Falls to 
the mouth were lined with d« ad fish. Noticed ibul most ol the lish 
had burst open and the btuddeis floated tree. There seemed to be a 
oloody matter all over the inside of the bodies of tiie fish. 
Thursday, May 18— A terrible stench from tue decaying fish. 
The first comment to make on this leport is one which is sug- 
gested by the observation of Seth Green. He has found that of fish 
dying, not more than one in twenty rises to the surface. This fact 
was ascertained by his experience at the haichmg-bouses in Cale- 
donia. The quantity of dead tish seen, therefore, hardiy begins to 
ndicaie the mortality. The fact seems to be that, Mr. Green ex- 
presses it, that the whole family of fish which visit the river in 
priijg to spawn have been kilUd off. The river cannot begin to be 
stocked as it w as in twenty five years, and $50,000 will not cover the 
loss. Most of the peeple living in the vicinity take advantage of the 
run of fish in the spring to lay in a keg or two for the season, but 
some of these have since discovered that the fish have spoiled in the 
kegs. The fact is, that ah the pike and bass which made tiieir home 
in the Lower Genesee, and other varieties w’h'ch visit the stream for 
spawning, have been destroyed, ll it an offence against the laws of 
the Slate to allow deleterious matters which poison fish to flow or 
be cast into a stream, and ii such a proceeding is found to have been 
the cause of the mortality of the fish, then the negligent parties 
ouglit to be i)ros« cuied. Somebody ought to pay the damage here 
done. It is about time that the laws of the State relating to this 
must important subject were enforced i»iomptly and decisively. 
Those Sparrow's. — The other day there were perched about in 
the center of our c erry tree a pair of beautilul and well-behaved 
orioles, evidently seeking an eligible location on which to hang 
their nest. The&e black and white and scarlet uecklaced 01 iol©s 
were welcomed by the owner of the tree, and the ©mire crop of 
cherries — not a very great promise judging from the scant blossom- 
ing — ^-as jiroiniird for their daily GeB.'7ert. Noon such a twittering 
came from that tree as only sparrows could produce and there were 
at least a ©core < f sparrows hopping from twig to tw ig, w ith con- 
stant accessions, esery sparrow’ cocking its e>c at ihese orioles. 
The sparrows offered no violence, but, like Hie Oberlin people, 
gave t lies© oricies to understand they were not welcome, and that 
they muei leave that tree. The orioles paid lit t e attention for a 
while, going.on in their preparations for house building, but public 
rmn items. 
I BY OUR OWN CORRESPONDENTS ] 
Chicago, .May 29. — Plenty of p geons despite the feet that we 
thought we were not goin^ to have any. They commenced coming in 
Saturday morning, when 40(1 w'ere received for the Gun Club shoot that 
ifternoon, and have continued ever since, as many as 3000 being re- 
ceived yesterday alone; and the managers of the Cleveland tourna- 
ment being among the fir^t and heaviest purchasers, until now they 
have 15,000 birds actually in coop, a large number apparently, but 
most of them will be needed; for as the time approaches, it is 
evident that everybody, and their neighbor, at least from around 
here, will be there. The Prairie club will be represented by at least 
ten members; the Keimicott by, I should say, liltecn, and the Gun 
Club probably by twenty; while from the interior of the Ntate 
enough will be present to raise the Illinois delegation to sixty, and 
if they don’t take home some of the money, it will be — well, because 
of their gcaerosity in letting their brother sportsmen win it. 
Talking about shooting, particularly at long range, I saw, on Satur- 
day, Mr. S H. Turrill with his new Abbey gun, kill the second bird 
• )f a pair, shot at 30 yards rise, at 85 yards by measurement; and in 
a tie, that he had gotten into, he killed a 1 of his nine birds at 31 
yards rise 
Y’ou doubtless have heard a little something about Col McCarthy 
who w as to do such wonders with the party of English noblemen that 
lie was going to bring over, and with whom he was to exiirminatc 
the buffalo, elk, antelope, etc. Well, yesterday, two English gen- 
tlemen. Messrs. F. G. Laine and James Secombe, w’ho accompanied 
McCarthy from England tu test the genuineness of certain state- 
ments he had made regarding certain immense copper fields con- 
trolled by him, and with w hich he proposed organizing a mining 
company, arrived in this city direct from Texas, w here they had been 
with the Colonel. They make grievous complaints about him. and 
telegraphed to England tLeir views about Ins schemes. Perhaps, 
however, you had best not publish anything, as McCarthy has 
throuttnedto take the editor of the Chicago T/ihune by the ear, 
lead him through the »treet8 with a revolver at his head to a notary, 
and obtain from him a retraction of sundry' staU'nients which Ih t 
paper saw’ fit to publish, and which seem to hurt the ColoneTs 
feelings 
Do you agree with “Medirus” that Ihe American wood powder is 
not injurious to the gun? Our sportsmen have tried it here very 
carefully, and the re.-ult is not at all satisfactory. Several of tho 
finest and best made of guns have been nearly cr quite ruined by its 
quickness; the targets very poor and uneven, az.d th© pcnelratii n 
considerably les© than of the common black powder. My own opin- 
ion, founded ou careful tests is, that at 18 yards in calm or heavy 
day it is of some help for the first bird in double bird shooting, but 
the loads should be light ; furtlu r back it is useless, the shot spread- 
ing so far as to make it luck if you hit the bird at all. In the field, 
however, it would answer adiiiirably— lor shooting blackbirds, if 
the flock were large and thick enough, and bat is all. As a sample 
of the tests, at 35 yarxs with 4drs. black powder, l)ioz. No. 8 shot 
into a target bxlO inches, 1 put 13U pellets; same distant • and 
chaige, wood powder, but 39, difference in favor of black, 100 pel- 
let©. In like tests 1 have always found approximately the same r©- 
ult, even when used with a concentrator, and hardly think th© 
small advantage of but little-smoke will pay for th© us© of it. 
Kennel Club has spared no pains or money to resuscitate this kind i ^^0 ©Iri'iig; they had too much company of a kind not 
of sport— for sport it is, of the highest character, in principle if not 
in practice. Mr. Chappel Hodge openly gave out that in 1S75, even 
to the extent of sptnding £10,000, be would ut the Devon and Corn- 
agree.nble. and after an hour or two our heauilfiil orioles succumbed 
and left to return no more . — Cleveland Ihrald. 
A fishing match for white-perch took place on the 8th at the Little 
wall trials, of which he is the secretary, falsify our predictions of Falls of th© Potomac, w here those fish are plenty. There w ere nine 
1874, and the Shrewsbury committee hunted up subscribers from all coii’esiants and three prizes. Joseph Paul took first prize with 
parts of the United Kingdom. But, alas! a dreadful failure has tw'enty-seven pounds of fish ; Thomas Naylor second, with twenty- 
been the result at all these meetings, and the field trials of sporltng four pounds, and Mr. Barrows thir I, w ilh twenty-one pounds. The 
dog© in 1875, instead of reetoring lind pvetliye lately lost by this number of fish caught w as 122:4. 
The Gerviantoicn Telegraph bas the following about the season 
in Northwestern Pennsjlvania:— As the month of May bas a*ain 
returned, many of our trout fi>hermen are once more looking up 
rods, lines, fly-books, etc., and wishing themselves on a g(;od trout 
stream. To those who are in the habit of fishirg in northern and 
nonhwTsteni Pei nsylvania, 1 would say don’t come by leu days or 
two weeks as soon as last year, as I find the iroui fi^hing, like the 
farm-crops, at U a>t tw o weeks or more later this season. 1 cast my 
flies ill two of our best streams on Saturday Hst, and caught but 
four fish in one and six in the other. (I did not try bait.) At this 
lime last year I caught in the same streams, in a half day's fishing, 
my creel full. To be sure our fishing is not now what it was beloru 
the days of railioads. still a can ful fisbi nnun will find many good 
streams in thec<>untiis of < learfield, ^IcKean, LycomiiiL', Jeflerton, 
Elk and Sullivan in this Slate that will well lepay him to visit m 
the right Reason with red and fly. I have for many years fished for 
trout in the above-named counties and know whereof 1 affirm. I 
will give you my experience as to the most taking kind of fl;es I 
have used. To the novice in this sport it may be of some benefit. 
To th© old fly-Cfister 1 have nolliing to say, as we all have our favor- 
ite casts. 1 find from long u^5 always good-taking fl cs the follow- 
ing:— Hare’s ear and yellow, whirling dun, w hite-winged coachman, 
yellow, sally, white miller, yillow jirofessor, qmen of the water, 
green drake, black gnat w ilh Icad-colored wing, the great red spin- 
ner, the fainou.-^ red back* I with peac<-ck hurl body, the ginger 
hackel, the a-^hy, the Clay Ily, a w bite hackel with a dark-red body 
and silver tinsel tail. All the whiie-w ingi d flies, Ihe Clay fiy and 
ginger hackle. I use in the early part of the n:orning and late in 
the evening. The others mentioned from about 10 o'clock, a. m., 
until five. r. si. Any of your leaders can get all the flies 1 have 
named at our friend John Krider's store, corner of Second and Wal- 
nut streets, and with a half dozen of each kind and a seven or eight 
ounce fly-rod, either icnt and glued bamboo, or of wood wiih a good 
click reel, a doubie-iuper oiUd-silk cusiing-liiu, i nd a )ai d.ng-net, 
you will be ready to lake the stream and try the “speckled heait- 
lles.” You may expect some draw backs as to the eceomnioda- 
tions you may find in the woo Is, and the never-failing eompunioi s 
of the angler, their gnats or punkies (piinky is the Jnd an nan e ) 
but even these lornieniing pests may almost be avoided by using a 
remedy an ohi Indian Hum the State of ^la:ne gave to me. He 
called it “Punky Med. cine,” which is— take three quarters olive oil 
icommonly called sweet-oil,) one-quarter of oil of tar, and one ounce 
of gun camphor; shake up well in a vial. By u.^ing this (*n the 
hands and face, a little at u time, you w ill save yourself many a bite 
ami perhaps kcc'p you from niukii g remarks that you would i.ot 
like your mother-in-Iuw to luar. 
“Dan,” said a li tic four-year old, “give rue sixpence to buj^ a 
monkey.” “We huve got one monkey .n the house now,*’ renlied 
the elder brother. “ Wlio is it. Dun?” asked the liille lellow. 
“You,” was the reply. “Tlieu give me Mxjience to buy the luuiikey 
some Duit.” The brother could not resist. 
