394 
put her in a sea some twenty-five degrees lower in tempera- 
ture than that tepid Oceanic water, and she would shortly 
cry ‘‘ enough.” 
—With gambling we have nothing to do, save record the 
suicide of some poor wretch at Monaco, the modern Euro- 
pean hell, where Messieurs Benazet and Blanc now hold 
high carnival, and to draw the sad moral from this miser- 
able death. The Meld has a carefully written editorial in 
regard to gambling, where it asserts ‘that gambling in 
England is to a great extent done away with.” Of course it 
exists to a certain extent in London just as it does in New 
York, and perhaps more money is lost at sober whist in the 
clubs in London than in New York. If however, we at pre- 
sent can claim no superiority in this way, how long gam- 
bling may continue in the present quiescent condition in the 
United States we cannot state. Perhaps in time Saratoga 
may flaunt its gambling claims more brazenly and may even 
rival puny Monaco. It is not impossible to imagine that 
before long the crack of the suicide’s pistol may be heard 
resounding in that most frequented American resort, and for 
a moment aspasm of conscience be felt, which the whole 
press of the United States will descant upon, and no end 
of well-written quiverings (in editorials), he eliminated 
therefrom. When a poor devil had lost his last piece of 
money at Baden, and then blew his brains out, lest it 
should be said that Rouge et Noir had killed him, agents at- 
tached to the establishment used, it is said, like buzzards 
scenting out the dead mar, to place a sum of money in the 
pocket of the victim. Of course the world was made to be- 
lieve that loss of money at the gambling table had not 
caused the death. Our contemporary states how this 
worked very well, until a canny Scotchman (Yankee?) 
learned the dodge, and fired off continually blank cartridges 
in retired spots of the Coursall, then ‘‘laid him down to dee’ 
in a most composed way. Then would hasten one of the 
attaches of Benazet and pop a roll of gold into the 
breeches pocket of the pseudo suicide, who-as soon as the 
coast was clear, would immediatelv get up again and walk 
off with his gains. 
—Of the Australian cricket match, sbort mention of 
which was made in our last, w» have as yet but meagre de- 
tails. The Victorians were first at the bat and made a total 
of 267. The Gracé eleven were beaten. Zand and Water 
‘“presumes that Mr. Grace saw the whole side out in the 
first innings, for he carried out his bat for 51, and made 33 
in the second, or 84 out of the total 247 runs.” The second 
match at Ballarat against 22 had just reached England ; 
here the English team were the conquerors. The Grace 
team scoring 470, of which the Leviathan made 126, very 
much over the third of the whole score. 
—Some very curious facts in regard to the breeding of 
ostriches, we take from the publications of the Paris Ac- 
climatization Society. The number of eggs laid by the 
female averages about eighteen, though she does not hatch 
out the whole number, some of them being preserved by 
the hen bird as food for the ostrich chicks. Curious as 
this may seem, nature seems to point to such a peculiar 
kind of nourishment as necessary, because in the midst of 
the: desert, where the young birds are born, there is no 
food. Both male and female help to make the nest, which 
is.a simple hollow in the sand. Experiments seem to show 
that the organ of hearing is singularly defective in the 
ostrich. Adult birds consume 3 pounds of grain a day. 
—<p0t 
WHAT OUR ENGLISH FRIENDS THINK 
OF CREEDMOOR. 
—___ 4 


rom the London Volu~teer Service Gazette, an admirable 
F paper, devoted to the interest of the Volunteer Service 
of England and the official organ, we take the following 
most flatteriug review of the late Creedmoor campaign. 
Some of the suggestions conveyed in the article which we 
copy may be of use to our riflemen. We fully appreciate 
the good feeling evinced by the Volunteer Service Gazette, 
and trust that we may soon welcome some of the repre- 
sentatives of the Wimbledon range at Creedmoor. 
THE UNITED STATES RIFLE ASSOCIATION, 
There is something particularly curious and interesting in 
the perusal of the full report which we took last week from 
a New York contemporary, of the Prize Meeting of the 
newly-established United States Rifle Association. It is 
pretty obvious that after all these years our American cous- 
ins are guing in with a will for military rifle shooting, and 
we may now hope to look forward to much pleasant rivalry, 
Major Leech, the indefatigable promoter of Irish rifle shoot- 
ing, having set the ball rolling by offering to take an Irish 
team over to compete with the Americans on their own 
ground. As we have often said, international matches of 
this kind are open to none of the objections which are at 
least possible with regard to greet promiscuous gatherings 
nearer home, and we may fairly look for Yankee teams be- 
ing frequent and welcome guests at Wimbledon, and Eng- 
lish, Scotch, or Irish teams at Creedmoor, 
In reading the account of the origin of the Creedmoor 
Range, we are at once struck with respectful astonishment 
at finding that the State of New York contributed five- 
sixths of the purchase money of the range, besides promis- 
ing prizes! The range itself, situated on Long Island, is 
‘as level as a billiard table,” and affords accommodation 
for twenty targets, all available up to 500 yards, and most 
of them up to 1,000 yards. A committee of officers was 
sent to England, and they seem to have taken back with 
them a false comprehension of our system. One advan- 
tage that the range of Creedmoor has over that at Wimble- 
don is that it appears to be available at all times; and we 
are told that no less than 4,000 men practised at it during 
the month preceeding the prizemeeting. ‘There were at 
the meeting twelve competitions at our accustomed, Wim- 
bledon ranges (one of them at 1,000 yards). Most of the 
cempetitions were confined to ‘‘National Guardsmen,” but 
some were open. One of them may give a hint to the 

FOREST AND STREAM. 
- =~ 4 
Council of our National Rifle Association. It was a match 
open to representatives from any regular newspaper or pet- 
iodical, each required to be a bond fide employe thereof. 
There were five or more competitors, and the prize was 
won by Ex-Governor Hawley, of the Hartford Courant, 
whose score is recorded as 86 at 400 and 500 yards, five at 
each, any rifle. There were, we are glad to see, two 
“‘team” matches, and the Remington Rifle seems to be the 
favorite military arm. The shooting was very fair, even 
in the military matches; and in the so-called Sharpshooters’ 
at 800 and 1,000 yards, the prize was carried off, as we have 
before mentioned, by Mr. Adam, of the Canadian Volun- 
teers, with the score of 48 out of 56. A New York guards- 
man, Mr. Roux, came next with 41. An excellent paper, 
something like our Meld, called Forrest anp STREAM, from 
which we take our reports, gives, as will have been seen in 
our last number, all sorts of details of new prizes given by 
newspaper proprietors, by gun-makers, and many others. 
The meeting is described as having been excellently con- 
ducted, without any instances of intoxication or gambling. 
Some parties, we are told, were on the ground early, intent 
on starting pools, but such requests were promptly denied 
and squelched on the spot. Of course this refers to betting, 
and not to such pool as we know at Wimbledon, which 
the United States Rifle Association will, if it extends its 
operations, probably find it necessary to organize as soon as 
possible. : 
The new Association has, if it pleases the American peo- 
ple, a great future before it. It is started with all the 
benefit of over fourteen years’ expevience at Wimbledon, 
and untrammelled by many of our dificulties. What we 
would warn our friends on the other side of the Atlantic to 
cling to is the generally military character of the meeting. 
It is this character, we are convinced which imperfectly as 
it has been preserved at Wimbledon, has alone prevented 
rifle shooting from degenerating into an ignoble game, with 
all the concomitants of a race-course or a pigeon maich. 
If the National Guards of the United States learn the use 
of their Remingtons at Creedmoor as the Volunteers of 
Great Britain have learned the use of their Sniders at Wim- 
bledon, they will soon reach the Regular troops, who are de- 
scribed as looking on with some curiosity at the matches— 
that a soldier’s firearm is intended for something else than 
the manual exercise. We may also hope that the proverbial 
Ingenuity of the Yankee will not only be devoted to im- 
proving, if that be possible, the rifle itself, but to solving 
some of the problems as to marking and scoring, which are 
becoming every year more troublesome at ‘Wimbledon. 
We shall be very much surprised if the Americans are long 
contented with our clumsy iron targets, with their rude di- 
visions, and their unsatisfactory marking; and we can give 
them every assurance thnt we shall not be in the least too 
proud to adopt any improvement which may come to us 
from over the water. We cannot help, before concluding, 
expressing our regret that the United States Association has 
not had the courage to prohibit the use of mere target-rifles 
in any of its matches. They never were contemplated 
originally here, und only came into use in consequence of 
the lax way in which the rules were drawn. A rifle should 
be an instrument which can be used with some hope of suc- 
cess against either a soldier or a wild animal, and our old 
friend, which we used to call par excellence the ‘‘small-bore,” 
certainly did not fulfill either of these conditions. 
—<> 6 
Det or Livinesrone.—From England comes a dis- 
patch announcing the death of Dr. David Livingstone, who 
succumbed to fever in Central Africa. The news seems to 
be fairly anthentic, and the information goes so far as to 
state that the body of the most distinguished traveler of 
the country is now en route for Zanzibar, to be sent 
to England. Born near Glasgow in 1815, bred as a mis- 
sionary, Livingstone followed the adventurous and peril- 
ous course of exploring Central Africa, and of giving spir- 
itual aid to its benighted inhabitants. For over thirty-five 
years Dr. Livingstone has led this erratic life, and it has 
been a wonder to all how the man could have lived through 
all the dangers of climate and barbarous surroundings, 
The world is indebted to Livingstone, not only as one who 
has nobly strived to advance Christianity, but as an ex- 
plorer, endeavoring to open the interior of Africa to the 
commerce of the world. We trust, though noticing some 
incidents in Dr. Livingstone’s wonderful life, it may not 
be, after all, his obituary. 
eo - 
TRIBUNE CORNER-STONE CELE®RATION.—All American 
journalism congratulates the New York Tribune on the lay- 
ing of the corner-stone on which their new handsome 
building is to be erected. But it is not the fact of the con- 
struction of a new building which we care for. Other 
structures may rise far grander, more imposing, in time to 
come, and pass unheeded. The Tribuue building serves, 
though, to perpetuate the memory of that bravest and most 
conscientious of men, Horace Greeley, who won renown and 
fame as a journalist, and that is why we, with so many 
others, chronicle the event. May the Tribune building 


long stand overshadowing Printing House Square as a last-- 
ing monument of the earnest life of its founder, Mr. Rip- 
ley and Mr. Whitelaw Reid attended the ceremony, and 
Miss Ida Greeley placed the stone in position, 
<< 
CoRRESPONDENCE.—The following accepted articles have 
been necessarily deferred:—A Buffalo Hunt; Reminiscen- 
cesof Lake Superior; Reminiscences of the Adirondacks; 
Random Gossip from a Sportsman; Duck Shooting; Big 
Clear, Adirondacks; Fishing and Hunting at Humboldt’s 
Bay, California; A Day at St. Augustine, Florida; A Cruise 
on the West Coast of Africa; A day on the Raquette The 
Sceptic Reproved; Hunt on Seneca River; Down the St. 
Lawrence; Albinoes; and many others Already acknowl- 
edged. 

<0 
—Our correspondents, Profs. Ew’d Palmer and Samuel 0. 
Clarke, are both en route for Florida for scientific objects. 
We shall hear from them betimes, 
eS Oo 
—Thanks to Prof. F. V. Hayden for Bulletin of the U- 
S. Geological and Geographical Survey. 


Che Gennel. 
THE MYSTIC SKETCHES. 
—_+—__— 
Questions Can Dogs Reason? 
Answer. T truly believe they can. 
Tread with much pleasure the article in No. 23 of FoREST AND STREAM, 
andIam glad to see such and similar enquiries made as often as they 
are. It isatrue index of the great value of the paper as a vehicle of 
valuable information such as very many would like to possess. While 
I admit “Dick” to have been quite asensible dog, and a perservering 
pointer, true to his natural instinct or reason, for he knew by some dog 
logic that there was no use in shooting that bird over again, consequent- 
ly he “went in to win and save ammunition.” To me this looks like 
reason, or highly educated-and well trained intellect. I have in my 
sporting days owned good dogs, and can still appreciate the good points 
of a good dog. 
I owned a fine cross of the terrier and the spaniel, who was a very in 
telligent, truthful dog; he never lied, and he was seldom guilty of ‘‘bark- 
ing up the wrong tree ” This dog woold, when not often shot over, go 
off on his own account hunting, and bring home rabbits, squirrels, 
woodchucks, and sometimes a big snake, (for he would kill snakes.) I 
have frequently known him to go out hunting, and be gore one hour or 
two, and return and go directly toa neighbor’s who owned a good hunt- 
ing dog. “Tip” would go straight up to ‘Lion,’ put their noses to- 
gether, shake their tails, and seem to be on the very best of terms, and 
in a minute or two both dogs would go off at agood round trot in the 
direction from which Tip came. This occurred several times, and I was 
ifiduced one day from the earnestness displayed by my dog to follow 
them,asI did. On arriving at the woods, neara pond hole, I found a 
former dwelling place of a woodchuck, two large holes quite near to- 
gether. At the mouth of one hole one dog was digging with all his 
might; at the other hole the other dog kept watch. One would work a 
few moments and relieve the other; both would dig at the same entrance. 
I seated myself at a convenient distance and awaited the end of this cu- 
rious dog hunt. Ihad not long to wait, for soon out came out an “old 
coon,” who was most summarily disposed of by the two dogs. This 
seems to me like instinct; and if it is a pretty good dog story, it has the 
merit of being true in every particnlar. I have-since heard of several in- 
stances of a like canine copartnership, which induces me to believe dogs « 
reason Or possess some means of communicating their desires, which 
seems very like it to me. Yours, L. Wyman. 



FOX HOUNDS OF VIRGINIA. 
aa 
WINcHESTER, Va., January 26, 1874. 
Epiror Forest anD STREAM;— 
In compliance with a promise made to you some weeks since upon the 
subject of the fox hounds, I now take up my pen to fulfil the same, 
though I fear that the information I have to impart will not fully meet 
all the requirements. . 
Our knowledge of the original importation of the fox hounds into this 
section is in a measure traditional. I have always understood, however, 
that the first importation of pure fox hounds into this part of our State, 
(the Valley, or Middle Virginia,) was made during Colonial times by Lord 
Thomas Fairfax, of Greenway Court, in the county of Clarke. Our 
present strain of dogsis supposed to be derived from these, with occa- 
sional crosses upon dogs brought from East Virginia and Maryland and 
others imported direct from England. Others also imported dogs in 
Colonial times, especially the family of the Wormleys; but our fox hun- 
ters have generally traced their best dogs back to the Fairfax strain. ae 
am unable to answer your enquiry as to the number of fox hounds in 
Virginia and the South generally at the present time. Fox hounds were 
very numerous in Middle and East Virginia anterior to the civil war, but 
were sadly thinned out during the prevalence of the strife, haying been 
seized and carried off by the invading armies. S 
As to the breed of dogs we prefer I will state emphatically that we pre- 
fer our native or acclimated dogs, as they invariably proved themselves 
superior in every particular to their 1mported English cousins. The 
same remark will apply to our native pointers and setters as compared 
with imported stock. 
As it requires a dog of the finest nose, speed and bottom to overhaul 
ared fox in our difficult country, we endeavor to combine those three 
most important attributes in as high a degree as possible in our breed- 
ing, A dog bred merely for nose and bottom, (as is the custom with the © 
English,) can never catch a full grown, empty red fox in this section; a 
fact that has fallen under my observation “Many times and oft,” In 
order to gain nose and foot I have known some sportsmen to cross the 
fox hound with the pointer, but this custom is generally reprobated in- 
asmuch as a dog of this mongrel origin will noi hang on like a pure fox 
hound. 
As we have never been accustomed to time our dogs, I am therefore 
unable to give you the precise rate of speed at which theyrun. The 
fact of their being able to pick up occasionally a full grown, empty red 
fox within the hour, may enable you to form some idea of their speed. 
A large dog is preferred for a flat country; a small or medium sized one 
for ground of an opposite character. Our sportsmen have no regular 
system, They usually feed their dogs on Indian meal boiled in pot 
liquor, together with offal from the dairy and butcher's stall. The dogs 
are generally kept up and fed on dry bread for some days previous to a 
chase, meat betng considered as injurious to the nose, though I am unable 
to vouch for the reliability of this popular opinion. 
Many sportsmen train the pups with their dams. The drag also is fre- 
frequently used, as it teaches the whelp to find and follow a trail, Some 
caution is necessary not to permit the whelps to go into a regular chase 
with the old hounds, as their inability to keep up with their seniors has 
a tendency to discourage them. @ 
I have never known a sportsman to shoot a fox. Ihave often known 
agunner to get a good sound “cussin” by a fox hunter for shooting his 
fox when in full chase. In conclusion, permit me to remark that neither 
fox hunting nor other field sports are followed to the same extent at 
present as they were before the war, owing to the general impoyerish- 
ment of our people consequent upon the civil strife, Dr. A. ¥, 
———_s+o—__ 
THE PROPOSED FIELD ARSENAL, 
ig ees 
Epiror Fortst anp STREAM:— 
Dear Srr:—I am much interested in the proposed field trials between 
American and English pointers and setters. If the Englishmen could be 
induced to bring their dogs to an Mlinois prairie, and try them on grouse, 
Ibelieve that dogs could be found in Chicago and St. Louis that would 
win the match. At least we had dogs there twenty-five years ago, when 
I was a shooter, that could not be easily beaten. There would also be 
this advantage that birds would be plenty, which I believe is not the 
case at present in Seotland. But I doubt if you could get the English- 
-men to give up the advantage of having the trial on that side of the water, 
I have no faith in English fair play. 
A friend of mine in Goston, many years ago, who broke his own dogs, 
and who was the most thorough sportsman Lever knew, onee sold a fayor- 
ite setter to an English gentlemen to take home with him. The English- 
man took the dog that year to the Scottish moors and tried him on grouse 
against a large field of the best dogs. Although the American setter had 
never seen a grouse before, he acquitted himself so well that it was ad- 
mitted by all present that only one dog in the field was hig equal in gen- 
eral work, and je did not possess the accomplishment of fetching dead 
game, which the American did. His owner had paid in America $100 for 
him, and was offered three times that sum on the ground. 
Saw. C, Crarkz 
