184 
FOREST AND STREAM 
A WEEKLY JOURNAL, 
Devoted to Field and Aquatic Sports, Practical Natural History, 
Fish Culture, the Protection op Game. Preservation op Forests, 
and the Inculcation in Men and Women op a healthy interest 
in Outdoor Recreation and Study: 
PUBLISHED BY 
Rarest mid gtremif publishing §ampm\g, 
-AT- 
17 CHATHAM STREET, (CITY HALL SQUARE) NEW YORK, 
and 125 SOUTH THIRD STREET, PHILADELPHIA. 
Terms, Five Dollars a Year, Strictly in Advance. 
A discount of twenty per cent, for five copies and upwards. Any person 
sending us two subscriptions and Ten Dollars will receive a copy of 
Hallock’s “Fishing Tourist,” postage free. 
Advertising Kates. 
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extra. Where advertisements are inserted over 1 month, a discount of 
10 per cent, will be made; over three months, 20 per cent; over six 
months, 30 per cent. 
NEW YORK, THURSDAY, APRIL 30, 1874. 
To Correspondents. 
All communications whatever, whether relating to business or literary 
correspondence, must be addressed to The Forest and Stream Pub¬ 
lishing Company. Personal or private letters of course excepted. 
All communications intended for publication must be accompanied with 
real 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 Names will not be published if 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 us with brief 
notes of their movements and tr. •'■sactions, as it is the aim of this paper 
to become a medium of useful auu. reliable information between gentle¬ 
men sportsmen from one end of the country to the other ; and they will 
find our columns a desirable medium for advertising announcements. 
The Publishers of Forest and Stream aim to merit and secure the 
patronage and countenance of that portion of the community whose re¬ 
fined intelligence enables them to properly appreciate and enjoy all that 
is 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 virtuous 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 o the paper that 
may not be read with propriety in the home circle. 
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money remitted to ns is lost. 
Advertisements should be sent in by Saturday of each week, if possible. 
CHARLES HALLOCK, Managing Editor. 
WILLIAM C. HARRIS, Business Manager. 
THE CHANGES AT WIMBLEDON. 
A S might have been expected, there is no end of com¬ 
ment in England in regard to the changes made at 
Wimbledon. Conspicuous among the numerous cor¬ 
respondents is a pretty strong protest from Lord Elclio, 
which appears in the last number of the Volunteer Service 
Gazette. His lordship objects not only to the whole new 
system of targets, but to the material, (canvas,) and 
states that he believes lie only expresses the general feeling 
of the Volunteers. Lord Elcho thinks that the change of 
targets will be hurtful to the position of the English 
National Rifle Association. His letter mentions that there 
are numerous other ranges in England and Scotland, and 
that either the new systems of targets must be adopted at 
great cost by other ranges in order to be like those recently 
adopted at Wimbledon, or that by adhering to the old plan 
those using them must be permanently out of gear and 
harmony with the National Rifle Association. 
In our issue of April 2d we gave a full description of the 
new targets. The method , of marking we will now en¬ 
deavor to explain. The targets are made in duplicate, one 
above, one below, like the upper and lower frames of a 
window sash, and work in the same way, either by weights 
Or levers. The upper target of canvas is the one shot at. 
The lower one is in the trench, and under supervision of 
the marker. It is in every respect like the upper one, save 
that it is covered over with a wire netting. Now the fol¬ 
lowing is about the modus operandi: The real target has a 
ball sent through it anywhere, say in the bull’s eye. It is 
then lowered, and sliding down comes precisely in the front 
of the false target. Where the perforation exists in the real 
target a red disk is hung on the wire netting of the exhibi¬ 
tion target. The exhibition one is then raised up. During its 
examination by those using the range, a piece of paper is 
stuck in the hole made by the bullet in the true target. 
The real target, having had its hole stopped, is then raised, 
the sham one lowered and the shooting goes on. The ob¬ 
jections seem to be that the marker might occasionally miss 
a shot, as the perforation might escape lxis notice. Another 
fault found with the canvas target is, that the peculiar thud 
made by the ball, perfectly appreciable not only by the marker 
but by the marksmen of certain ranges, where the present 
iron target is used, is lost when canvas comes into play. 
The Volunteer Service Gazette expresses as yet no decided 
opinion in regard to the change. It states, however, that 
marking can be mucji more rapidly done by the new 
method and that there is even less chance of danger. We 
have before this expressed our decided opinion that any 
changes in our present system, sufch as is used at Creed- 
moor, should not be entertained for a single moment. It 
will be time enough for us in five years from now, perhaps 
sooner, to make changes. But we must be satisfied with 
creeping first before dancing. What we do believe is, that 
American ingenuity will devise a method of telegraphing 
when the balls strike the target, which can be read instantly 
by means of a dial placed right along side of the marksman. 
Between, however, facilitating the method of marking 
and tlie change of the target, there is a wide difference. 
Let us then, at least for the .present, be quite conservative 
in regard to Creed moor. If ties are of too frequent occur¬ 
rence, which may not be at all an impossible event this 
coming season, the Committee of our N. R. A. can readily 
solve the difficulty. For the present, as far as the targets 
go, we are for the old system. 
7 DESTRUCTION OF BUFFALO. 
A MONTH ago Congress passed Col. Fort’s bill for the 
protection of buffalo, prohibiting the killing of these 
animals for their hides only, and forbidding whites to kill 
cows. The act as passed is good in its intent, and will no 
doubt accomplish something toward stopping the slaughter. 
If it does, generations of sportsmen will remember Col. 
Fort as a public benefactor. Still, we doubt if it succeeds 
in any great measure, and we shall now proceed to give 
our reasons for such opinion. Some of our readers may 
recollect that we advocated in a previous number of this 
journal (Vol. 1. No. 25) the imposition of a special stamp 
lax of one dollar upon all raw buffalo hides offered for sale 
during the close season designated by law, the effect of 
which would be to render it impossible for those who killed 
out of season to compete in the sale of hides with those 
who killed at the proper time. We wrote to Col. Fort, 
begging him to incorporate this provision in his bill, and 
were encouraged at the time to expect that it would be 
done. We regret that it was not done, for the act as it 
now stands does not meet the case, and we fear will be 
found impracticable to enforce. Of one thing we are con¬ 
vinced, it will be difficult to educate the buffalo hunters 
and prairie trappers to prefer “poor bull” to “fat cow.” Bull 
meat is always thrown aside, except the tongues and cer¬ 
tain selected parts of the carcass. 
Wishing to obtain all available facts to enable as to write 
intelligibly upon this subject we addressed special inquiries 
to officers of our frontier posts throughout the buffalo tange, 
believing them to be disinterested, and therefore more 
competent to speak impartially than civilians. We cannot, 
perhaps, present the matter in plainer or more positive 
terms than to print verbatim one of the letters that we have 
received. The writer is the commandant of a post located 
in the Indian Territory, where he can see “just how the 
thing works.” First, he premises that to connect the In¬ 
dian question, or rather its solution, with the buffalo is 
simply absurd. He says: “Were every buffalo on the 
southern plains to be killed to. day, our Indian troubles 
would go on to-morrow, so long as poor Texas affords its 
tempting offers of horses and cattle, and the government 
follows its present policy of feeding the Indian; the buffalo 
is no longer an absolute necessity to the Indian, but simply 
a luxury; he kills for robes, not to wear, (for the govern¬ 
ment gives him blankets), but to trade ; he kills for meat, 
not that he needs it, for he is fed beef, but because he 
relishes it. So, the visionaries’ solution of the Indian 
question by “killing all the buffalo,” may as well be cast 
aside as nonsense, for it is surely to be hoped that before 
many years, a just, honest and efficient policy may be pursu¬ 
ed towards the Indian, and that we can conscientiously aid 
in the increase of the buffalo instead of furthering its foolish 
and reckless slaughter.” 
Herewith we append the body of his letter:— 
few instances in which even the hide was saved bv s- 
men sportsmen. The sole idea seems to be, to kill a 
I am glad, however, to state that but little needless sin i 
ter goes on in this territory, it being unoccupied by whV 
nor is there much of it slaughtered in upper Texas th I<3F ’ 
I know of an instance in Texas of a man offering’ fD? U ^ 
two barrels of tongues, and I am certain that this ma 1 " ? 
not cure over ten robes, or a ton of meat. You can calc 1 1 
how much waste of meat there was in that instance U ate 
“Do Indians slaughter needlessly?” They both do 
do not, which anomalous answer needs some explamt' 
The Indian in his natural state does not “kill the jr' 
that lavs the golden egg.” He is too true and natifrn? 6 
sportsman to do that, but contact with whites and civil ' a 
tion has engendered many unnatural tastes, to 8nT !5 lr 
which they kill for robes solely with the view ’of trad' ^ 
The articles are many of them useful, but many are simnf' 
luxuries, and some useless, including canned fruits" mu 
canned milk, umbrellas, and all ft im agin able knick knack 
It may surprise many of your readers to know that th 
wild Comanche buys his clothing, his eatables, and' even 
his buckskin; that he produces nothing that he can purcha 
with robes, that he seldom kills deer, and never soft dress- 
the skin, in fact, for the purchase of these things the In S 
dian kills many times the amount that he needs, but th’ 
he considers one of his inalienable rights, and I "believe it 
impossible to prevent this useless slaughter so far as the In 
dian is concerned. 
“Do either Indians or whites kill out of season for skins 
only?” There are two seasons for killing for robes by In 
dians; one in the summer, in the breeding season. When 
the hair is short, they kill for lodge skins. A lodge lasts 
but two years and must then be replaced. Then they kill 
again in the winter for robes for use and traffic, killing- 
always , cows in preference, and right here you have a great 
if not the greatest cause of diminution; the Indians always 
kill cows in preference for both meat and robes, and this 
during the time that they are heavy with calf. ’ It is only 
at these times that the Comanches, Kiowas, Cheyennes^ 
Arrapalioes, and Osages kill, except occasionally in small 
quantities for meat. To the killing of the cows, I attribute 
the fact of running across so many more bulls. It, is an 
odd notion that the younger bulls drive the old fellows 
away, and mind you, I do"not deny that the reason we see 
so many old fellows on the outskirts of the buffalo range 
is due to that fact, but that will not account for the fre 
quent herds of twenty, fifty or several hundred, andaWfadfo 
which you come across. It is only when you get to the 
very largest of the herds that you ever see a cow or calf. 
The whites as you are aware are slaughtering them to-day 
in Kansas and farther north by the thousands, and green 
and undried skins are sold for a dollar. 
“Where is wasteful slaughter greatest?” Along the line 
of the Kansas Pacific and Union Pacific, handy to trans¬ 
portation. 
According to the Indians, there are two large gangs of 
buffalo, divided by the Platte River, the gang south of it 
moving that far north in the summer, and back south 
again in the winter, as far as the Concho in Texas, and the 
other gang north of the Platte remaining there. This is 
the idea of the Comanches; they always speak of the two 
different lots showing that there is probably some basis for 
the idea. The range of buffalo here is getting very limited, 
barely coming east of 99tli meridian, and going west only 
to the edge of the Staked Plains, a belt of country not 
much over one hundred miles and getting less and less 
constantly. Two years ago numbers of them still grazed 
near and east of the 98tli meridian. Bison. 
Fort Sill, G. T., April, 1874. 
EXTERMINATION OF THE SEAL. 
N EW and rapid methods of locomotion, weapons of 
greater accuracy and the incentives of commerce, 
are certainly tending every day more and more towards the 
extinction of certain of God’s creatures. There is not the 
least doubt that many of the marine mammalia are doomed 
to entire extinction. It is by no means difficult to make 
out a list of those which have almost entirely disappeared. 
The manatee is now limited to a few rivers. The right 
whale of Greenland, the walrus of the St. Lawrence, the 
smaller whales of our own coast, are no more. On the 
islands of Ascension, Tristan d’ Acunha and the Crozettes, 
the gigantic sea elephants were once found in abundance. 
“Taking the 99th meridian as a line, and the crossing of 
Red River as a point, the buffalo begin to make their ap¬ 
pearance in early fall in numbers, though a few straggling 
bulls, and even small nerds, may be found at any season. 
The herds cross this territory and into Texas in early win¬ 
ter, moving again north in March. They drop their calves 
from middle of April to middle of May. 
Now comes a strange question of yours, which shows 
that even you, who have traversed the prairies in years 
past have no idea how greatly they are being diminished. 
You ask “how does the prairie look after they are gone, 
cropped clean, buffalo skulls, bones, &c., much stamped 
and dusty?” And the answer is no to every point in the 
question. There are not enough of them to leave such evi¬ 
dences. Where a few years since a broad black seething 
mass of living flesh passed across the prairies, leaving such 
evidences, you now see at the utmost a few thousands to¬ 
gether. I think five thousand would cover the largest num¬ 
ber to be seen at any one time in this territory,"and I am 
sure I have put the number at a high mark in saying that. 
Horace Jones, the interpreter here, says that on his first 
trip along the line of the 100th meridian, in 1859, accompany¬ 
ing Major Thomas—since our noble old General— they 
passed continuous herds for over sixty miles, which left so 
little grass behind them that Major Thomas was seriously 
troubled about his horses, that he has since been over the 
same country, and that five thousand would be a large num¬ 
ber to see at any one time.” This shows what slaughter 
there must have been in the past ten years. 
The skins are in season, in colder months, beginning the 
new coat in October, and best in January. The best meat 
is calf; then after that, I should say two to three years olds, 
and cow always in preference. Bull meat, except when 
young, say three years or so, is not good, tougher than beef, 
and but little except hump, tongue, tenderloin, liver, &c., 
are ever used unless from necessity. I believe five hundred 
pounds of meat are wasted for every pound eaten. 
“Do whites slaughter needlessly?” It is the exception 
and very rare at that, for them to slaughter any other way. 
They simply kill for the love of killing. I know of but 
To-day not one is to be seen. It is not man’s power to con¬ 
vert all animals to his use, which can be doubted, but it is 
the abuse of this power which is to be dreaded, and the 
slaughter of creatures in too great quantity and at improper 
seasons. 
Some time ago a correspondent to a leading English 
journal wrote as follows:—“Who can read of the butcheries 
which are yearly perpetrated on the breeding seals of the 
ice-floes in the North Atlantic,as are recorded with more or 
less zest in the newspapers without feeling that the same 
fate, utter extinction, awaits the seals as has already over¬ 
taken so many of their fellow-denizens of the deep?” 
The question of seal hunting in the British Provinces by 
means of steamers, we have dwelt on casually before. We 
think that unless legislation be directed toward this method 
of capturing the seals, limiting the trips of the steamers or 
defining the seasons when they will commence business, 
even fixing definite rules as to the number, the size, the 
quality of the seals they shall take, before long the seals 
will be entirely exterminated on the Northern Atlantic 
coast, or else the business will have to be prosecuted amid 
the ice-floes of the extreme north with more danger and 
diminishing profit. We puLlish a letter forwarded to us 
from Washington, written by one of the best authorities in 
St. John’s, which tends to show' that in a short time, from 
pure exhaustion of the seals, the business is likely to cease 
entirely. We believe, as does the writer of this letter, that 
excessive killing and worrying of the seal by steamers, 
must eventually deprive the British Provinces of one of 
their most important industries. It is the old story of kil¬ 
ling the gooso*wliich lays the golden egg:— 
“We know enough of our sealing lottery this spring to be aware tha 
we are to draw a big blank. For six years past steamer after steamer, 
each caie a size larger than the last, has been built to slaughter seals, 
