FOREST AND STREAM. 
89 

THE SARATOGA REGATTA. 
AD Ea Te Ye 
F some familiar names known among our amateur oars- 
men were wanting in this contest, the race itself was in 
every respect a model one, and well worthy of putting 
on record. Aside from the spirited nature of the struggle, 
there was one excellent element about it, the perfect har- 
mony with which everything went off, and the absence of 
all strife and bickering. The unpleasant feeling which was 
manifested in the Springfield race did not occur, and to the 
conquerors were instantly adjudged their well earned re- 
wards. Such accidents as may arise about stake-boats aad 
buoys, from ignorance of crews, and incompetency of 
judges, we trust will no longer mar the pleasures of our 
amateur contests. Saratoga Lake is, perhaps, one of the 
best waters in the United States for boating contests. 
Three quarters surrounded by woods, the wind has but very 
little effect, so that the water is rarely lumpy, and of course 
influences of currents are unknown. We again have to 
commend the fact that no gambling was allowed, and that 
the authorities had combined with the managers of the 
race to entirely exclude anything like pools. Efforts of 
this kind are in the highest degree proper, and must tend to 
elevate the sport to that high position which all gentlemen 
desire amateur boating should assume in the United States. 
There can be no possible grumble at the victory gained 
by the Messrs. Lamb. They showed themselves thorough 
oarsmen. ‘It is exactly by meeting rivals of this calibre 
that true proficiency will be acquired by our own men. Of 
course our amateur friends will do wisely to profit by the 
lesson they have received. 
With a little more are and judgment by beginners to 
train our boys at an earlier age to athletic sports, the 
time will come when we will put our English friends up to 
their mettle. 

a oS 
WHAT THE GERMANS SAY ABOUT 
WOOD CUTTING. 
tie ae 
HE Germans, who have made a science of arboricul- 
ture, with their admirable powers of scientific analy- 
sis, have determined pretty exactly how much water is pre- 
served by the soil covered by their forests. They do not, 
howeyer, indulge only in simple speculations in regard to 
this self-evident fact, but, in some cases, have brought the 
calculations down to a question of gallons. From the 
Ausland we translate as follows: ‘‘The woods, thicket, 
and herbage which cover the ground, we all know, hold 
the rain-water which falls on them. The sole reason for 
this is, that there is less chance of the water evapora- 
ting. The best idea that canbe had of what would be:the 
effect of cutting down the woods, would be presented by 
supposing we denuded the Spessant Mountain of its trees, 
which mountain rises in the right side of the Mein (Maine) 
on one side of the valley which divides it from the Oden- 
wald. The cutting of the wood on this single mountain 
would prevent the formation of a river as large as the Mein 
before Aschaffenburg, whose flow would be continuous 
during a period of sixteen days.” 
Here is shown, in that admirable practical way the Ger- 
mans have of imparting knowledge, exactly the facts the 
ForrEsT AND STREAM is so desirous of making public, in re- 
gard to indiscriminate, senseless wood cutting. Data of 
this character we think are essential, and if reiterated, must 
at last have their effect on the public mind. Cut down the 
Adirondack region, and it is no exaggeratiorto state that- 
the volume of the Hudson will be appreciably diminished. 

a 0 or 
TRESPASS. 
Bak hey 
VERY proper amount of prejudice exists in the Uni- 
ted States in regard to the stringency of the English 
game laws. As was justly remarked by a prominent Eng- 
lish statesman, ‘‘that miserable animal, the rabbit, has been 
the cause of more class-hatred in Great Britain than any of 
the most obnoxious a¢ts passed by Parliament.” If Herbert 
Spencer, in some of his admirable essays, has quite clearly 
proved that almost all the modern efforts of legislation have 
been directed towards diminishing the vigorous character 
of certain laws imposed on us by generations that have 
gone before, such arguments hardly hold good in this newer 
country of ours. Game restrictions in England may be 
sometimes rigorous, extending not only towards the game 
itself, but taxing pretty roundly those who carry guns; but 
without advocating any extreme measures we must never- 
theless animadvert if not to the singular laxity with which 
our game Jaws are administered, at least to the indifference 
in regard to trespass. . 
This matter of trespass seems to be now a growing evil, 
and the cases of individual injury are so frequent that we 
are in receipt of numerous letters requesting us to use our 
influence to prevent it. Each year, just about this time, 
men with guns (not sportsmen) assemble from every quar- 
ter of the United States and track the Western corn-fields 
and prairies in search of the pinnated grouse. They shoot 
right and left, without leave or license. The farmers of 
our prairies are as generous a set of men as ever lived, 
many of them good sportsmen, and, actuated by no dog-in- 
the manger motives, are now up in arms at this violation of 
their grounds. Every year they see their grounds de- 
stroyed, their birds slaughtered, and they can find no re- 
dress. They ask us what are they to do. Some even go 
so far as to intimate a desire to take the law in their own 
hands. Such measures we must deprecate. The redress 
lies in taking the laws made against trespass out of the civil 
courts, which is a ftedious and ineffective process of law, 

and of having cases of trespass tried by the more prompt 
action of the criminal courts. Privileges to shoot should 
be considered as property, and might be sold by our West- 
ern prairie owners, and without any idea of money being 
made out of them. With the proceeds of the sale of such 
licenses men might be employed to guard the grounds, who 
could prevent trespass. We doubt very much the efficacy 
of having State officials to attend to these duties, something 
like the French guarde de chasse. Such duties could be bet- 
ter undertaken by men paid for this purpose. That tres- 
passing, all over the country, is a growing nuisance is very 
certain, and that prompt measures for correcting this evil 
are necessary, is equally evident. 
toe 
MOCCASINS. 


EK have received some letters from friends en route 
for Nova Scotia and the Dominion of Canada, in- 
tent on moose and carribou hunting, who are desirous of 
obtaining some informatin in regard to moccasins. Such 
moccasins as we find at Saratoga, are only proper to use in 
a bed-room. The real hunting moccasins, which can stand 
any amount of usage are an entirely different thing. There 
are two kinds of moccasins used in the Canadas, one 
which may be called the shoe moccasin, low cut, fitted for 
going over smooth ground, the other coming up higher, 
proper for rough country, and where brambles are found, 
and commonly called the shoe-pack. Both kinds should be 
made of the hide of the carribou. The skin of the car- 
ribou contains within itself a great deal of natural oil, is 
remarkably tough and moderately elastic. The hide should 
be regularly tanned in oak bark; all preparations containing 
alum destroys its excellent qualities. The hide of the car- 
ribou, especially in the male near the neck, is almost an 
inch in thickness. The hair itself is very close and curly, 
looking like grey moss. In tanning, hide and hair should 
be cured together. In making a pair of moccasin boots, 
havethe sole broad and the heels low, and sew the seams 
with the sinews of the carribou. Moccasins dipped in the 
melted fat of the animal makes them almost impervious to 
snow and water. The boot should by all means have a 
tongue of carribou hide, not a thin one, but one which will 
fully cover the instep and ankle. It should invariably be 
laced with carribou thongs. If a boot of caribou hide is 
rubbed with the ordinary preparations of tallow and Bur- 
gundy pitch or dubbing, it seems to retain such substances 
longer than any other kind of leather. All village shoe- 
makers in the Provinces can turn out a servicable pair of 
moccasins, and know how to make a good fit. Never 
wear high boots in hunting moose or caribou; they make 
too much noise in those still woods. Besides boots are 
rapidly worn*out, going over the rocky ground, and be- 
come soon useless. An excellent sole is made, and a most 
lasting one, by taking a piece of hide with the hair on, 
doubling it on the skin side, leaving the hair outside, and 
then sewing it together. The durability of a sole of this 
character is remarkable. 
In camp when coming home from a wet hunt, never put 
either boots, shoes, or moccasins too near the fire. It is bet- 
ter to hang them up above your head, and let them dry 
slowly. The smoke of the camp fire seems to improve 
them. Sometimes moccasins may be frozen stiff; they must 
then be completely thawed out, and whilst not too near the 
fire rub deer fat into them. No one who has hunted in 
moccasins takes again to the boots or shoes of civilization 
without regret. In fact nothing can be made more unphilo- 
sophical than our boots and shoes, as to their construction. 
The writer has frequently shot on the prairies, for a whole 
season, following the grouse over the tough wiry grass, 
with a single pair of Canadian moccasins, while his com- 
panions have worn and cut out two pairs of ordinary 
hunting shoes in the same time. Perhaps, had the learned 
Chancellor of England, Erskine, known about moccasins, 
he might not have said, what Rogers declares he did say on 
his death-bed, which was: ‘‘ When that dread hour comes 
when all our secrets will be shown, then only shall we 
know the reason why shoes are always made so tight.”’ 
Hote —~ 
AMERICANISMS IN SHAKSPEARE. 
pene Aes 
ROM Dr. Charles Stearn’s clever book on the wisdom 
and knowledge of Shakspeare we select the following 
fragments, from a chapter with the above caption. Such 
fossil words as have remained with us should be treasured. 
Brought over here three centuries ago, they still defy all 
attempts to cover them over with the fresher alluvial de- 
posite. We note particularly these that follow: 
‘*Slyly fingered from the deck.” 3 Henry, VI. V. L— 
A similar use of the word ‘‘deck ” for a pack of playing 
cards is common at the present day throughout the West- 
ern and Southern States. 
‘“When I cried Ho! like boys in a muss.” Antony and 
Cleopatra, III. 2. Muss is a familiar word to Americans, 
as meaning a slight brawl, or disturbance. 
Then again flapjack, is Shakspearian, too, for what do 
the fishermen say to the ship-wrecked Prince Pericles? 
‘“Moreover, puddings and flapjacks,” that were promised 
him. ‘*Flapjacks,” are those broad, thin and extemporane- 
ously prepared cakes, now called pancakes, and consecrated 
in Old England to Shrove Tuesday, but which are yet known 
in New England by their Shaksparian name. In regard 
to horses, Dr. Stearns quotes from Macbeth to show that the 
Mexican stampede was not unknown to him. Dunean’s 
horses are said to have ‘‘ Turned wild in nature, broke their 
stalls, flung out, contending ’gainst obedience.” 
The critic says, ‘‘ this sort of panic is probably unknown 
in England at the present day, and could only have hap 


pened in parts of the country comparatively thinly settled. 
In a newly settled country, stalls for horses are little more 
than small sheds fenced about with wooden palings. Dun- 
can’s horses could not ‘‘ break ” or ‘‘ fling out,” from well 
built brick stalls. Again of Duncan’s horses: ‘’Tis said 
they eat each other,” 
Dr. Stearns states that ‘“‘this language, used of horses, 
sounds like poetical exaggeration. Yet it happens to be 
true. Horses when loose and engaged in deadly conflict 
with each other, use only their teeth, and aim to get at 
one another's throats, but never use their heels. They kick 
only when quarrelling, or if they are tired and hampered 
in some way.” 
$0 
KILLING A GRIZZLY BEAR. 
$ = Sh ee 
CORRESPONDENT of the Zribune on the Hayden 
expedition writes as follows: 
‘“*On this beautiful green meadow, all our three divisions en- 
camped. Not that it was wholly destitute before of an 
occupant and owner.. Unmistakable signs in great abun- 
dance and freshness showed at once that it was the pasture 
and play ground of a large bear. To avoid any strife as 
to the rightful possesion, one of the party shot his bear- 
ship yesterday. It was a good sized grizzly bear, old and 
tough beyond the average of his kind. His teeth were 
well worn, one or two of the front ones even giving way 
and decaying, and his scull was completely ball-proof. He 
was really killed by the first shot, one of Meigs’s explosive 
bullets taking effect just behind the head and blowing the 
first cervical vertebra to pieces; but as he stilled moved, 
two or three solid shots were, by way of precaution, fired 
through the head, as was supposed, from a good Reming- 
ton rifle at 80 yards’ distance, but they simply flatten- 
ed against the bone, without penetrating it or leaving a 
mark. People may look incredulous, but I have in my 
pocket one of the fattened bullets taken from between the 
skin and the maxillary arch, and the scull may be exam- 
ined by any one in the Smithsonian collection next winter.” 
A gentleman attached to the Hayden expedition has 
called on us, and on our asking about the flattening of the 
balls, when fired at this bear, he states that the gun used 
in this particnlar case was a ltght Remington sporting rifle, 
that it was loaded with the regular army cartriage, and 
that the distance was about fifty yards. He states that 
the balls struck the bear just where a heavy dense mnscle 
covered the grizzly scull, which muscle was fully four 
inches thick. The bear weighed 1,000 pounds, and being 
in prime order, was excellent food, He repudiates all 
stories of the stabbing a bear witha knife, insisting that 
the hide is so thick that no steel will penetrate it. 

oe 
THe UNITED Staves Fish Commissron.—The gentlemen 
named below comprise the United States Fish Commission, 
whose headquarters are at Peak’s Island, Maine. They all 
serve without any compensation whatever, and pay their 
own expenses. They give the Government the first choice 
from the specimens which they collect, and furnish gratuit- 
ously all professional services required of them. In return 
they receive merely the advantages of the outfit and the 
facilities thereby afforded for collecting. Science is always 
enthusiastic, generous, self-denying! The names are here- 
with given :— 
Prof. 8. T. Baird, Assistant Secretary Smithsonian Inst. 
Prof. A. E. Verrill, Professor Zoology, Yale College. 
Prof. 5. I. Smith, Assistant Prof. Zoology, Yale College. 
Prof. J. E. Todd, Professor Zoology, Tabor College, lowa. 
Prof. E. Y. Nelson, Ohio Weslyan Union, Delaware, Ohio. 
Prof. Wm. Rice, Wesleyan Union, Middletown, Conn. 
Prof. J. K. Thatcher, Tutor, Yale College. 
Mr. J. B. Goode, Curator Museum, Wesleyan, Union Mid- 
dletown, Conn. 
Dr. E. Pulmer, Curator, Smithsonian Institute. 
Mr. J. H. Emerton, Artist, Boston Soc. Nat. Hist. 
Mr. H. Benner, Student, Yale College. 
Mr. H. E. Rockwell, Phonographer, Washington, D. C. 
Mr. Spencer Biddle, Philadelphia. 
Dr. Scovil, Indiana. 
Dr. J. B. Holder, Central Park Museum, New York. 
—~<$ 0 — 
Tanti FieurEs.—The sale of the famous New York 
Mills stock took place on the 10th, three miles from Utica. 
The origin of the herd was the purchase made by Mr. Samuel 
Thorne of New York of several animals of the Duchess 
tribe at the famous sale of Earl Ducie in 1852, which he 
bought for his father, and for’Col. Lewis G. Morris. 
Among the English breeders present may be mentioned 
the Right Hon. Lord Skelmersdale, whose seat is near Liy- 
erpool; Mr. Halford, of Papillon Market Harbor; Mr. Cal- 
thrope; Mr. Richardson, who represents Sir Curtis Lampson, 
of Sussex; Mr. Berwick agent for Lord Dunmore, but who 
buys for Earl Bective, recently of Lord Kenlis, of Underly 
Hall, Lancashire, and Mr. Kello, agent for Mr. R. Pavin 
Davis, of Horton, Gloucestershire. Messrs. Cochrane, 
Christie, Miller, and Beattie of Canada were also present. 
The three year old bull, second Duke of Oneida, was sold 
for $12,000, to Mr. McGibbon of Cynthia, Kentucky. Firs( 
Duchess of Oneida was bought by Lord Skelmersdale, for 
430,000. The tenth Duchess found a purchaser, Lord 
Bective, at $35,000. Eleven cows of the same august 
family, $288,800. There were 111 animals presented, 
realizing $481,585 Some day we willsend horses and dogs 
to England. 

G0 
We understand that the manufacturers of the Ballard 
rifle have ceased making them, and sold their machinery, 
Messrs. Smith & Squires, 523 Broadway, purchased some 
time ago a large number, and have a few left. It is a good 
oportunity for those who desire one of these excellent 
breech muzzle-loaders to purchase one at once, as nO more 
will be made. 

