84 



FOREST AND STREAM. 



A WEEKLY JOURNAL, 

 Dj»otkdtoFiki.d and Aquatic Sports, Practical M. 



FtSa.Ul'LTHRE, TV.A PROTECTION OF GAJiE,PRS9: 



Afro caz tMcmoATiOM in Men and Women or 

 m Oot-doob Keokkation and Stody : 



PUBLISHED ST 



Rarest and §tresn\ publishing $om$nx\g t 



IT CHATHAM STREET, (CITY HALL SQUAUK) NKW YOKE, 

 [Post Office Box 2832.1 



Tormt, Four Dollnri • Year, Strictly In Adraari. 

 Twenty-five per cent, off for Clubs'of Tbrec or more, 



AdrertlHlxig Uaien. 



Inside pages, nonpareil type, Sn cents per line: outside page, SOce 



Special rates for three, sis, and twelve months. Notices in editorial 

 columns, 40 cents per line. 



V* Any publisher inserting our prospectns as above one time, with 

 brief editorial noiice calling attention thereto, and sending marked copy 

 to tia. will receive the Forest and Stream for one vear. 



FATE OF THE BUFFALO— ITS SUCCES- 

 SORS. 



NEW YORK, THURSDAY, MARCH 15, 1877. 



To Correspondents. 



All coram nnlcatlons whatever, whether relating to ouslnese or literary 

 eorrespondence, must be addressed to The Forest and Streak Pub 

 Liesijw Company. Personal or private letters of course excepted. 



All communications intended for publication must be accompanied with 

 teal name, as a guaranty of good faith. Names will not be published if 

 objection be made. No anonymous contributions will be regarded. 



Articles relating to any topic within the scope of this paper are solicited 



We cannot promise to return rejected manuscripts. 



Secretaries of Clubs and Associations are urged to favor ns with brief 

 notes of their movements and transactions, as it is the aim of this paper 

 to become a medium of useful aud reliable information between gentle- 

 men sportsmen fro-o one end of the country to the other ; and they will 

 find onr columns a uusirable medium for advertising announcements. 



The Publishers of Forest and Stream aim to merit and secure the 

 patronage and countenance of that portion of the commnnity whose re- 

 fined intelligence enables them to properly appreciate and enjoy all that 

 1b beautiful in Nature. It will pander to no depraved tastes, nor pervert 

 the legitimate sports of land and water to those base uses which always 

 tend to make them unpopular with the vlrtuone and good. No advertise- 

 ment or business notice of an immoral character will be received on any 

 terms ; and nothing will be admitted to any department of the paper that 

 may not be rend with propriety in the home circle 



We cannot be responsible for the dereliction of the mail service, if 

 money remitted to us Is lost. 



Advertisements should be sent in by Saturday of each week, if possible. 



f^~ Trade supplied by American News Company. 

 CHARLES HALLOCK. 



Editor and Business Manager. 



The Florida Stak.— Messrs. W. II. Coe, C. H. Coe, 

 and W. A. Coe(we might say Coe & Co.), have just com- 

 menced the publication of the Florida Star at. New Smyr- 

 na -a monthly periodical devoted to agriculture, immigra- 

 tion, and !he material irjteres-ts of the Stale. The publica- 

 tion is a creditable one, and will be useful to nil who read 

 it, whatever may be tlie pecuniary success of the proprie- 

 tors. In the hope of great future emoluments, they now 

 charge subscribers but 50c. per annum, or about the cost 

 of blank paper and postage. While we do not encourage 

 the venture, we certainly wish it every success. 



Conlin's Gallery.— It is wilh great regret that we an- 

 nounce to out out-of-town readers, the destruction by fire 

 of Mr. Conlin's rifle and pistol gallery. This unfortunate 

 (•vent, by which we lose (temporarily only it is hoped) a 

 popular place of resort, occurred on Sa'urday night last, 

 and Mr Conlin's loss is quite a severe one. Some friends, 

 including Messrs. Lane, Blydenburgh, Cheever, and many 

 others, propose getting up a benefit match, the proceeds of 

 which will assist in fitting up a new gallery, The riflemen 

 of New York owe much to Mr. Conlin, as lie has been the 

 instructor of many of our lending long range and off-hand 

 shots, and we trust that when the occasion arrives, due no- 

 tice of which will be given in these columns, such a 

 "bumper" will be given here as will show him indisput- 

 ably the position his many genial and manly qualities have 

 made for him in the hearts of the riflemen of this vicinity. 



— The Twenty-second Regiment enjoyed one of its agree- 

 able reunions yesterday evening, at their Armory in Four- 

 teenth street, wilh a full dress parade promenade concert, 

 and dancing. Affairs »f this kiDd constitute the bright 

 side of "sojering." 



— Parlies desiring plants or seeds are referred to the an- 

 nouncements of several responsible dealers in our adver- 

 tising columns. 



— The mean noonday temperature at New Smyrna, Fla., 

 for the month of February was 59 degrees; highest, 73 de- 

 grees; lowest, 42 degrees. 



-»♦*- 



— Some of the city bars serve their c jttomers wilh blue 

 glass tumblers; and when brandy is l.urned in them, the 

 toper has only to imagine the rest. 



THE buffalo will soon exist only in the annals of the 

 past. As the day of extinction approaches it is a 

 matter of satisfaction that his history has been written. 

 iNor is it a mere dabbler in science, who has detailed to us 

 the past and foreshadows the future of the American bison, 

 but one ot the ablest naturalists of America. Mr. Allen, 

 not only gives us the fullest possible account of the habits 

 aud peculiarities of our well known existing species, but 

 relates as well all that is Known of the gigantic individu- 

 als of its race which existed in prehistoiic ages. Bison lat- 

 ifrons, the largest of these early forms, must have been a 

 giant indeed, for the horn cores of one individual are 

 thirty-two inches in length from the base-to the extremity, 

 and when in position must have measured seven or eight 

 feet between the tips. When covered with horn their ex- 

 tent could hardly have beeu less than ten or twelve. As 

 the same measurement in Jjiion ame? icanus is but fifteen 

 inches, the reader can readily imagine that the former, in 

 size, must have been a fit companion for the Mastodon or 

 those enormous sloths, ellegalonyx and Mylodon, which in 

 Post Pliocene times inhabited our continent. 



All writers agree that the day is not far distant when the 

 buffalo in a state of nature will be unknown on the broad 

 prairies of the west, which for so many centuries have 

 been its boundless pasture. We have but to consider for 

 a moment its former range to be convinced of the justice 

 of this conclusion. The Great Slave Lake once marked 

 the limit of its migrations on the north, on the south Mex- 

 ico, Oregon and California, on the west with Pennsylvania, 

 Virginia and the Carolinas as the eastern boundaries. Over 

 this vast extent of territory the bison roamed in great 

 herds comparatively unmelesled. By the end of the first 

 quarter of the present century it had been driven entirely 

 west of the Mississippi, and the species is now confined to 

 the region of Texas, Colorada, Kansas and the Indian Ter- 

 ritory on the south, and Montana, Athabaska, Lesser Slave 

 Lake, aud the Saskatchwan on the north. But even from 

 these circumscribed feeding grounds it is fast being driven. 

 A gentleman who has recently returned from Western 

 Kansas, where he had been in camp for eight months, in- 

 forms us that there are at present no buffaloes whatever in 

 that section of the country. During alt the lime that he 

 was in the field he saw but one solitary individual. Only 

 one herd iskuowu to have crossed the Smoky river during 

 the past year. This consisted of about three hundred in- 

 dividuals, and passed near Monument Station on the Kan- 

 sas Pacific Railroad; by the time it had reached the Saline 

 it was discovered by the Otoe Indians and ihe white hunt- 

 ers, and in a few clays was absolutely wiped out of exist- 

 ence. 



Mr. Allen's recent work has awakened a widespread in 

 (crust in this subject, and again we advance our protest 

 against Ihe indiscriminate slaughter of the buffalo, and 

 urge that some Immediate action be taken in the matter of 

 buffalo protection. A few individuals of the European 

 representatives of the genus still inhabit the dark forests 

 of Lithuania, thanks to Imperial protection, and if the 

 American bison is to be saved from absolute extermina- 

 tion governmental interference must speedily be exerled 

 in its behalf. In the Yellowstone National Park we have 

 the necessary territory, and it is already stocked; but the 

 skin hunter, that ruthless destroyer of game, must be kept 

 at a distance, if we would hope to save this species. This 

 section of territory is by law forbidden ground to the 

 hunter, and could the stalut : be enforced the buffalo, 

 which at present exist in considerable numbers in this re- 

 gion, would have an opportunity to increase, and might 

 endure there long after Iheir recent prairie range has be- 

 come a region of smiling wheat farms and well-stocked 

 cattle ranches. The bill setting aside the Yellowstone 

 Park as a Government reservation says that the Secretary 

 of the Interior shall "provide against the icanton destruction 

 of the fish and game found within the park, and against their 

 capture or destruction for the purpose of merchandise or profit;" 

 ami in a recent report on this region by Col. Win. Ludlow, 

 Corps of Engineers, important suggestions and recom 

 mendations are made, which, if followed out, would ac- 

 complish the end so much to be desired. After speaking 

 at some lenglh of the outrageous and wanton destruction 

 of game, which at present takes place in this Government 

 Reservation, Col. Ludlow concludes wilh these pithy sen- 

 tences: "Visitors should be forbidden to kill any game. 

 Hunters should have Iheir arms and Bpoils confiscated, be- 

 sides being liable to prosecution." 



But this is not the only means by which the buffalo may- 

 be preserved. An animal which in all essential respects 

 agrees so closely wilh the domestic cattle must surely 

 prove of vast importance to the farmer and stock raiser, 

 if its domestication were but systematically attempted. 

 We have at various times seen in Montana, Nebraska and 

 Kansas young buffaloes running at large with the herds of 

 domestic cattle, and in their actions resembling in all re- 

 spects their tame companions. With the cattle they would 

 wander off for days or weeks to distant parts of the range, 

 returning from time to time, and being quite ts gentle and 

 docile as the other individuals of the herd. When these 

 calves approach maturity, what more natural than that, the 

 bull should be broken to the yoke? The owner is not slow 

 to avail himself of their enormous streuglk, and teams of 

 young bulls are by no means uncommon in the vicinity of 

 the buffalo range. A Montana settlor told us a year or 



I two since that a yoke of these animals which he had until 

 recently possessed could pull more than "any two of cattle 



on the place." Their power and endurance are undoubt- 

 ed, though their temper is not, perhaps, of the best. In 

 fact it is said that if they desire to go in any particular di- 

 rection, or not to go at all, nothing that the driver can say 

 or do will have the slightest effect in changing their deter- 

 mination. Such little eccentricities as these, however, 

 would no doubt be overcome after a generation or two of 

 domestication, or might, be more immediately modified by 

 a cross of domestic blood. 



The experiment of cross breeding the buffalo with our 

 domestic stcck is said to have beeu successful in the high- 

 est degree wherever it has been attempted. The progeny 

 seem to be very hardy; the milk of the cows is exceedingly 

 rich, and the supply bountiful, and the flesh is in no re- 

 spect inferior to the best beef. Gallatin stales that ninety 

 years ago both pure and half bred buffalo were common in 

 Virginia, the calves being frequently captured with dogs 

 and brought into the towns to be reared. Mr. Robt. Wick- 

 liffe, writing to Mr. Audubon, in 1843, mentioned that for 

 thirty years he had bred the pure and mixed stock with 

 success. Ultimately, however, through luck of care, the 

 race of the bison has in all cases been merged into that of 

 the domestic stock. In the West the experiment is now be- 

 ing tried once more, and we earnestly hope that it may 

 succeed. 



It is an accepted fact that the buffalo on the plains is to 

 become a thing of Ihe past, but there remain these bound- 

 less prairies, their former feeding grounds, still covered 

 with the richest of pasture. Already these are becoming 

 immense stock farms, over which range hundreds of thou- 

 sands of the broad-horned steers of Texas. The old buf- 

 falo ranges are filling up with cattle, aiul by the imporla 

 tion of blooded bulls the quality of the stock is being con- 

 tinually improved. From these plains a large poriion of 

 the beef for eastsrn and European consumption will ulti- 

 mately be deiived. Before the buffalo wholly disappear 

 some intelligent effort should be made for interbreeding 

 on a large scale, so that ere the last of the shaggy wild 

 brutes have yielded up his life there shall have been in- 

 fused into our western cattle the hardy blood of their ob- 

 literated relatives. 



Thus the plains and bluffs will not be tenantless. Long 

 after the dark, serried, and resistless masses have disap- 

 peared, and the thunder of a million hoofs lias died away, 

 there will remain a new race blending the best qualities of 

 our present slock with those of the buffalo. So may these 

 sturdy half-breeds wander over and draw fat subsistence 

 from the same hills which were once blacuened by the 

 dusky hordes of their untamed ancestors. 



SKATING. 



KOLLEIt SKATING IS EUROPE. 



The perusal of a long letter from Mr. J. L. Plympton, 

 the American roller skate patentee, whose name in 

 London affords an opportunity to give some interesting in- 

 formation on the subject of the progiess of the new Amer- 

 ican exercise in popularity in Europe. When Mr. Plymp- 

 ton first introduced his new roller skates he had them pat- 

 ented in Europe as well as in America; but it was not un- 

 til he himself had succeeded in making the Yankee exer- 

 cise fashionable in London aud PariB that he encountered 

 any opposition from infringers of his patent right As 

 usual this came from men whom he had specially favored. 

 For Ihe past two years he has been in litigation with in- 

 fringers in the principal cities of Europe, and in many in- 

 stances has he plainly established his patent right. The 

 work has beeu costly, however, his expenses exceeding 

 $73,000. The battle, however, bus been won at last, and 

 now all is plain "sailing" for him. 



Besides fighting with infringers on his patent rights he 

 has had to oppose a system of management of established 

 skating rinks which he has found to be damaging to the very 

 best interests of roller skating as an unobjectionable recre- 

 ation. Mr. Plymptou's prinoiple in the running of roller 

 skating halls or riuks has been to govern them in such way 

 only as to make them peculiarly attractive to the best class 

 of society, as resorts for the enjoyment of a recreative ex- 

 ercise morally as well as physically healthful. His idea 

 of the management of a rink is to keep it free from any- 

 thing like the vulgar performances of a public place of 

 amusement. For this reason he has opposed the plan of 

 management which has characterized some of the London 

 rinks, and notably those of Paris, in which nightly bills of 

 special performances, by professional actors, on roller 

 skates, are prepared the same as at a varieties theatre. All 

 this kind of thing Mr. Plympton regards as entirely out of 

 the legitimate sphere of a recreative exercise designed for 

 family and social enjoyment. lie says in the letter in, 

 question: "Having succeeded, after many years of hard 

 work and at great expense, in m»king roller skating fash- 

 ionable and popular in England, and having recently seen, 

 the greatest damage done to its permanent success in Paris 

 and on the continent, by inexperienced and short-sighted 

 management, I wish to guard against anything of the kind 

 happening in America." 



Referring to his success against infringers of his rights 

 he says. "Of the nineteen successive injunctions granted 

 against infringing parlies in England since our sweeping 

 verdict against Malcolmson, thirteen have come up and set- 

 led handsomely, and many of them were strong companies, 

 having lords, members of Parliament, and high titled per- 

 sonages as directors; and the six remaining cases have just 

 been consolidated by order of the Court, and my rights 

 wilL soon be as fully here as did the Kemball cam 



