
FOREST AND STREAM. 
329 
oe eSs——S 
instinct. -When such animals get accustomed to the sound 
of the voice, it is indeed a great pleasure and instructive 
recreation to shoot over them. The case of the English 
Champion Pointer ‘‘Belle,” is an exception to the above 
rules of excellence and beauty combined, as she is acknow- 
ledged even by her opponents, who differ with Mr. Price 
as to strain, breeding and training, to be the handsomest 
and best working dog they ever saw, having a chest and 
neck like a Flanders mare. We know of one pointer more 
especially, who is extremely ungainly looking; his color is 
like dirty brick dust and yellow; his head is poorly put on, 
with a fairly well-shaped and strong-scenting nose; but his 
hind quarters show form of action, and working powers in 
the field, especially when drawing on game, which is un- 
surpassed by any animal that has come under our notice. 
We are firmly impressed that this dog would give ‘‘Belle” 
a very severe trial if the points for ‘‘Drawing” in the lave 
fleld trials in England were raised to 10 points and ‘‘Break- 
ing” reduced to 15 points. We feel assured that this homely 
looking dog would beat with ease on these particular 
points the justly celebrated English pointer. The great 
desideratum in the purchasing of these animals, which is 
devoutly to be wished by all true sportsmen, is the grand 
combination of form, beauty and symmetry; and above all,a 
staunch, steady, energetic animal. Give us the imported 
Red Irish setter, crossed with many American bred dogs 
we could mention, the puppies of which, when well trained 
on the silent system, we believe would excel in fair open 
field trial any dogs that the world could produce. 
Se ee eS 
THE WAR DEPARTMENT AND RIFLE 
PRACTICE. 
SS : 
T is most especially to be hoped that the rifle movement 
so successfully inaugurated by the National Rifle Asso- 
ciation will have the widest development. Now that the 
winter prevents rifle practice, it behooves the numerous 
National Guard organizations throughout the country to 
talk over and discuss their plans for having ranges of their 
own, or to affiliate with the National Rifle Association. 
There is no reason why, with the excellent material they 
have in the west, at Chicago or St. Louis, that one or both 
of these cities should not have ranges constructed after the 
model of Creedmoor for the use of their soldiers and 
sportsmen. We can assure them that the managers of the 
National Rifle Association would give them all the help and 
advice in their power. We even entertain the hope that 
the inauguration of a range in the west will not be far dis- 
tant. 
This question has been on our minds for some time. 
Why are not some steps taken to make the National Rifle 
Association a national institution? The rank and file of 
the United States army want instruction in rifle practice 
quite as much as the National Guard, if not even more. 
Why cannot Congress authorize the offering of prizes, on 
behalf of the United States, to be given to each regiment 
in the regular army, with a certain amount of prizes to be 
distributed annually to the best regiments or their teams in 
the militia of the different States, together with a valu- 
able prize to be shot for at Creedmoor once every year, the 
contestants being the best shots, taken from among the 
regulars and the militia of the United States? 
This would be simply following an example which has 
been found abroad to be of the utmost value. The Queen’s 
prize at Wimbledon places the regulars and the volunteers 
together on the rifle range, and brings together two thou- 
sand of the best marksmen that can be found in England 
or the colonies. What good reason can there be why a 
similar prize cannot be offered by the War Department of 
the United States? Although we may be in a period when 
people are clamorous that all Government expenses must 
be retrenched, the expenses for such an undertaking would 
amount to little or nothing. 
Of the use of such practice it is hardly necessary for us 
to state the great advantages to be derived from it. Let us 
take our late trouble with Cuba as an example. Had there 
been war with Spain, an immediate call would have been 
on the militia for the defense of our coast. How much 
more secure we would have felt had we been assured that 
all our volunteers were skilful with their weapons. As to 
regulars, the Modoc campaign might never have occurred, 
or would certainly have have had a more rapid and less 
sanguine termination, had our regular troops been better 
acquainted with their rifles. It was a contest between say- 
ages who knew how to use their guns and regulars who had 
no practice with their rifles. 
We believe that most of the officers of the United States 
army think with us as to the necessity of their men apply- 
ing themselves more thoroughly with the use of their wea- 
pons, and at least for the present we can hardly imagine a 
better method, or one better calculated to engender brisk 
rivalry than to pit the National Guard against the regulars 
on the rifle range. 
General Ord, who seems to most fully appreciate the 
value of the rifle practice, and who has always given every 
encouragement to Creedmoor, in one of his orders to his 
troops instructed them ‘‘to use the Government timber in 
making targets,” and added this most pithy sentence, ‘‘that 
it was cheaper by far to use up the wood in this way than in 
making coffins.” 
If the use of arifle range has already worked wonders 
among our own National Guard, developing an esprit de 
corps and stimulating the men to excel—rifle practice re- 
lieving them somewhat from the monotony of the drill— 
what might not intelligent rifle practice, fostered by Gov- 
ernment aid, do for the privates in the regular service? It 
seems now to be the bane of the regular service. 
would while away the tedium of many a soldier's irksome 
hour, and inculcate a love for their profession, and thus do 
away with that indifference and consequent desertion which 
Nay, 
more, the self-reliance acquired by the soldier in the reg- 
ular service on the rifle range might often save his own life 
and allow him to triumph over his foe. 
— 
THE AMERICAN CENTENNIAL. 
mee gts 
S 1873 passes away, and ’74 commences its career, but 
two years anda half intervene between to-day and 
the great American Industrial Exhibition to be held on 
July the 4th, 1876, at Philadelphia. The time then for the 
preparation of this enterprise of untold granduer and mag- 
nitude will be but short. If the ways and means to be 
found, some $10,000,000, require a certain period of time, 
the huge extent of buildings to be erected, to cover some 
thirty-five to forty acres of ground, even if they were to be 
commenced to-day must take fully two years to complete. 
The permanent building is to cost alone somewhere be- 
tween two and three millions of dollars, and the machinery, 
horticultural and agricultural halls, $500,000 each. The Cen- 
tennial Board of Finance who have heretofore confined 
their operations to Pennsylvania, have had already $3,500,- 
000 subscribed. 
“The event to be commemorated,” as was stated by Mr. 
McKean, one of the Philadelphia Board of Finance, ‘‘is the 
grandest in the political history of the world.” The-expo- 
sition will show the progress made in art, agriculture and 
manufacture during the first one hundred years of our 
national life. If Pennsylvania is supposed to be the manu- 
facturing State, New York has more manufactories than 
the Keystone State. It is then not impossible to sup- 
pose, that from her proximity to Philadelphia, New York 
alone will require more space than was occupied by all 
France and England at the late Viennese exhibition. 
We sincerely trust that the expression of sympathy, not 
given by words but by action on the part of the City and 
State of New York, and from all other sections of the 
country will be the best disavowal of all ideas of local 
rivalry, and that there will be a recognition of this most 
noble endeavor to perpetuate the memory of our Independ- 
ence in its fullest and broadest sense. From abroad, the 
prospects are of the most encouraging character. The 
great German, Prince Bismarck, has recommended the ac- 
ceptance of the invitation and has advised the appointment 
of a commissioner for each state of the German Empire, 
and that a resident Plenipotentiary be sent to Philadel- 
phia to reside there until the close of the exhibition. France 
and Belgium have shown, too, a friendly alacrity in decid- 
ing to participate in the exhibition. Even far off China 
and Japan will send:.their wonderful goods, and a grand 
Turkish Bazaar rivalling that of Constantinople is promised. 
Amid this forthcoming avalanche of goods and chat- 
tels, the work of all the brains and genius of a civiliz- 
ed world, though we may be driven to madness amid 
this chaos of wonderful things, we too of the Forest aNnD 
STREAM, must take alarge interest. Where will we find but 
in this coming Centennial a collection of all the sporting 
attributes, the guns and fishing implements of the world? 
A large and spacious quarter of the exhibition devoted to 
this purpose alone would excite untold curiosity, and 
afford a wonderful amount of instruction. 
The whole scheme is a colossal one, and the Centennial 
no doubt will be made worthy of the great event it cele- 
brates. 
i or 
THE United States Commissioner of Fish and Fisheries 
has lately received through the agency of Messrs. Middle- 
ton, Carman & Co., the well known fish dealers of Fulton 
market, very fine specimens, in perfect condition, of the 
English turbot, brill, and sole, which have been carefully 
cast in plaster and added to the collection of casts of food 
fishes and deposited by the commissioners in the National 
Museum at Washington. 
This collection, which we had the pleasure of examining 
a short time ago, while visiting Washington, is one of ex- 
treme interest and importance, and is altogether unique in 
its character, embracing already some three hundred speci- 
mens, of various sizes, from the smallest up to fish that 
weighed originally 750 pounds. 
The fish are cast on slabs and framed. They are painted 
‘in oil by an accomplished artist, so as ta seem an almost 
exact reproduction of the original fish as just taken from 
the water. Among the specimens shown to us are the 
California and Maine salmon of both sexes and of various 
stages of growth and condition, numerous sharks, skates, 
rays, flat fish, herring, shad, mackerel, etc. 
We would advise any of our readers who may happen to 
be in Washington not to omit calling at the Smithsonian 
Institution to inspect this beautiful collection, or such por- 
tion of it as is on exhibition. 
aoe. gg 
—The veteran angler and author, Thaddeus Norris, Esq., 
of Philadelphia, well known to every lover of the ‘‘gentle 
art” through his ‘“‘American Angler’s Book,” has been 
spending a few daysin Washington as the guest of Mr. 
Wilkinson, of K street, who gave him on the 23d inst. a 
little complimentary dinner, at which were present the fol- 
lowing friends of the rod and the fish, viz.: Prof. Gill, of 
the Smithsonian Institution, Mr. Miller, Deputy U. S. 
Commissioner of Fisheries; Dr. Frank Reilly, of the Bu- 
reau of Marine Hospitals; Dr. Yarrow, Surgeon Naturalist 
of the Wheeler expedition, and Judge Thacher, Assistant 
Commissioner of Patents. Charles Hallock, of New York, 
editor of the Forest anD SrREAM, who was an invited 
guest, was hurried off to Philadelphia by business a day or 
two previous. 
Sporting ews from Abroad. 
HAT! Has a regular challenge, in all its accepted 
forms, been absolutely thrown out by the English 
House of Commons to the august House of Lords, the for. 
mer to contest with the latter in a steeple chase? Land 
and Water distinctly states that the challenge (so they un 
derstand) has been given or will be given by an Honorable 
mernber of the House of Commons, who represents one of 
the midland counties of England. If the English Parlia 
ment makes the Derby a dies non, why should they not be 
willing to devote another day toa regular stiff cross-country 
race, Certainly such an event would attract more atten- 
tion than even one of their most stirring debates. Lords 
and Commons as contestants in pigzon matches and ritle 
shooting, though not distinctly stated as sporting rivalities 
between the two branches of her Majesty’s government, 
have been quite common. If such a steeple chase should 
take place among the younger members of the House, we 
are inclined to think the Lords would carry off the honors. 
If the English nobleman who sits by prerogative of birth in 
the House of Lords, is passably haw-haw, and makes but 
poor and indifferent speeches, all the talent of England 
being in the lower House, very probably in field sports the 
Lords are the superior of the Commons. A hunting and 
coursing prestige belongs to the Lords, and did we wager 
on sporting events, we would give odds in favor of the 
House of Nobs. Fancy sucha proposition as the above 
emanating from an American source! Think of it, ye 
grave members of the Senate, or ye more boisterous ones 
of the House of Representatives! A challenge, en regle, 
between Messrs. Blaine, Dawes and Bingham and Conklin 
on one side, and Messrs. Butler, Sumner, Schurz and 
Thurman on the other, to mount horses and to ride five 
miles out at full speed, over ditches, plowed fields, artifi- 
cial and natural obstacles. How elegantly Mr. S. S. Cox 
and Mr. Fernando Wood. would act as starters, and then 
for judges we might have Messrs. Edmunds and Morton. 
Alas, we are afraid that no matter how carefully every pre- 
liminary of the Washington steeple chase would be ar- 
ranged, it would after all take a decided political bias,_and 
that the steeple chasers, the flyers, and the representative 
jocks, instead of each one sporting his respective colors, 
and trying to win for the fun of the thing, would all be 
marshalled under two sets, the Kepublicans and the Demo 
crats, and that the best rider on the best horse would make 
the winning post the stepping stone to some Presidency in 
the future. There is howevera good strong and healthy 
tendency towards field sports in both our Houses which we 
trust in time will be better developed, and it is exactly 
to this element that the Forrsr anp STREAM looks for aid 
and support in those measures for the preservation of our 
forests and the founding of public parks which we so 
strenuously urge. 
—The question of deer vs. sheep in Scotland seemsto 
have been most carefully investigated by the recent Game 
Laws Committee, and the conclusion arrived at was that 
deer can live and furnish food where sheep cannot even 
exist. It was shown to the committee that ona certain 
grazing farm, 2,000 head of deer could be kept, which 
might carry 6,000 sheep, but that the former would yield 
38,640 pounds of venison every vear, while the quautity of 
mutton furnished would be less, while the expense of keep- 
ing the deer was nothing, whereas the sheep had to be fed 
during the winter. Of course all arguments in favor of 
having deer on Scotch ground would not hold for a mo- 
mentif the land could be tilled and planted, but it seems 
to be quite conclusively demonstrated that in most of the 
cases where land has been given up to the deer that it was 
soil of the most worthless character and unfit for cultiva- 
tion. 
—The great coming event in England in coursing is the 
Waterloo cup, and so far no less than sixty-four entries 
have beenmsde. It may be a long time before such a grey 
hound as Lord Lurgan’s Master McGrath will be found, 
and all English coursing devotees regret the retirement of 
Lord Lurgan from the field in consequence of his ill health. 
To have bred and owned in a lifetime one such wonderful 
dog as Master McGrath is honor enough. 
—The London Field has a most clever correspondent who 
writes of chamois stalking in the Tyrol. The huntsman 
was among the Tyrolese Alps, and pluckily follows a cha- 
mois down a precipice. The Field correspondent being be- 
lated, passes a night in the piercing cold winds, some 9,000 
feet above the sca, and barely escapes freezing to death. 
Of course this is one of the chances of this arduous chase. 
It is the conclusion which quite interests us. The chamois 
hunter says: ‘“‘Kight hours afterwards I was safely shel- 
tered in my country inn at Schwaz. Leaving by the night 
express, I sat, sixty hours later, before a comfortable fire in 
my lodgings in London, and nobody could have imagined 
that three nights previous I passed twelve hours, which at 
that time seemed to me an eternity, high up inthe Tyrol- 
ean Alps.” Most pleasantly written is this, and one can 
imagine the writer to the Fveld seated cosily, in slippers 
and dressing gown, in his own snug quarters, may be meer- 
chaum in mouth, scarcely able to realize himself, in this 
rapid locomotive era of ours, how, in so short a time, the 
transition was made between the dreary Alps and his own 
comfortable quarters. Of course one may tire of pointing 
out the wonderful means we have now at our command of 
running from place to place over the world. Here seated 
in our editorial rooms we can leave in a train in just twenty 
minutes,and in seven hours’ travel from 103 Fulton, street, 

