62 



FOREST AND STREAM. 



[Feb. 19, 1885. 



THE DEER HOUNDING BILL. 

 ^PHE bill introduced into the Assembly by Gen. N. M. 

 -*- Curtis provides for the abolition of deer hounding in 

 this State at all seasons. The Full text of the bill is as fol- 

 lows: 



Section 1. No person shall hunt or pursue any wild deer in 

 this State with any dog or bitch. If any dog or bitch shaU be 

 found so hunting or pursuing in the State, it shall be prima 

 facie evidence of the violation of the foregoing provision of 

 this section by the owners of, or person or persons having or 

 harboiing such dog or bitch. Any person offending against 

 any of the provisions of this section shall be guilty of a mis- 

 demeanor, and in addition thereto shall be liable to a penalty 

 of fifty dollars for each and every such violation, to be sued 

 for and recovered as provided by chapter five hundred and 

 thirty -four of the laws of eighteen hundred and seventy-nine, 

 as amended, for the recovery of the penalties thereby im- 

 posed. 



Sec. 2. No person shall be excused from giving evidence 

 upon an investigation before a grand jury, or before any 

 officer or officers authorized to conduct an investigation or 

 examination as to the commission of any offense undar this 

 act, or under any of the provisions of chapter five hundred 

 and thirty-four of the laws of eighteen hundred and seventy- 

 nine, as amended, or upon any prosecution therefor, or in any 

 action to recover any of the fines or penalties in either of said 

 acts mentioned, on the ground that the evidence might impli- 

 cate, or tend to implicate, or convict, or tend to convict him 

 or her of a crime or misdemeanor; but such evidence shall not 

 be received against him or her in any civil or criminal action 

 or proceeding. 



Sec. 8. This act shall take effect immediately. 



This bill has been referred back from the Committee on 

 Game Laws, and it is hoped, will soon be brought up for a 

 vote before the Assembly. It should receive prompt atten- 

 tion and hearty support. The residents of the Adirondacks 

 and the intelligent visitors to that region are urgent in de- 

 manding such a law as that proposed by Gen. Curtis. 

 Among all the game bills at Albany this is the one that 

 should without any hesitation or needless delay be sent to 

 the Governor for his signature. 



All possible outside influence should be brought to bear in 

 favor of the passage of the Curtis bill. Let it be made 

 known to the members that while on other points of game 

 legislation there may be diversity of opinion, on this one 

 subject, the abolition of deer hounding, there is practical 

 unanimity. 



The Curtis bill ought to become a law. 



DOGS, DEER AND FAWNS. 



LOOKED at in almost any aspect, the hounding of deer 

 in the Adh*ondacks is abominable ; but in one particu- 

 lar light it is peculiarly atrocious. This is in its effect upon 

 the natural increase of the game. 



Guides and old visitors to the North Woods say that the 

 proportion of barren does to those with fawns is constantly 

 increasing. To-day the relative number is very greatly in 

 excess of what it was ten years ago. This is due to hound- 

 ing. Hounding is practiced in the breeding season. The 

 does are in a state of constant excitement and fear of the 

 hounds. Under such conditions, according to a principle 

 well-known to all physiologists, and familiar to all stockmen, 

 the does will not conceive. There is no speculation about 

 this. The facts are well established, and are recognized by 

 breeders of horses and cattle. Gen. N M. Curtis, who was, 

 we believe, the first person to recognize that this law holds 

 good with respect to deer, is himself a successful stock 

 raiser. When his attention was first called to the practice 

 of Adirondack deer hounding, he at once saw here the ap- 

 plication of the principles governing a stock farm. Some- 

 what extended investigation has since proved the correctness 

 of his views. It is beyond cavil that the barren does are in- 

 creasing, and equally beyond question that the practice of 

 hounding is responsible for it. 



Common sense demands that hounding should be forbid- 

 den by law. m 



THE GAME DEALERS' RILL. 



THE game dealers have huge refrigerators in which they 

 can store game and keep it indefinitely. They are 

 very anxious now to have license to cram these warehouses 

 with all the game they can secure in the open season and 

 then to sell it in the close season. 



They are also anxious to arrange the laws so that the cold- 

 storage warehouses can be utilized to cloak the traffic in 

 game killed out of season. 



When they gain the right to load up their refrigerators 

 with the spoils secured by the market-hunters in the open 

 season, and the opportunity to receive and dispose of game 

 killed wherever it can be killed by the market-hunters in the 

 close season, they will be satisfied. 



They set out to do this some years ago. The services of 

 a New York lawyer were secured. He was ostensibly an 

 ardent game protector; and under his engineering the 

 famous, or infamous, refrigerator amendment was put for- 

 ward as if coming from the Long Island sportsmen. This 

 was a cunning scheme, but we exposed the nature of the 

 bill, and it was killed. The next year a like bill was pre- 

 sented, and this was also killed. 



The other day the game dealers, apparently distrusting 

 their "sportsmen" allies, formed a society of their own, 

 and in a half-horse and half-alligator title for it an- 

 pounced that it was for the protection of game and game 



dealers. The game protection part was rank hypocrisy. The 

 game dealer protection part was sincere. They subscribed 

 a fund of money, hired a lawyer, and have prepared a bill 

 which was introduced by Mr. Church, of Queens, last Tues- 

 day. This makes it allowable to sell game all the year 

 around, provided it be killed outside of the State. The latter 

 clause is intended to blind the public. With such a law the 

 game of this State will be sold whenever it can be captured. 

 The Adirondack deer, the Long Island woodcock, the grouse 

 and the quail will be given no rest until exterminated. The 

 Church bill is iniquitous. It ought never to comeback from 

 the committee. 



A Forestry Convention will be held at Utica, N. Y., 

 next Saturday. It is called by a number of well known 

 gentlemen, who are awake to the urgent necessity of some 

 action for securing forestry reform. President White of 

 Cornell will preside, and a number of gentlemen will speak. 

 The secretary of the committee is Mr. B. E. Fernow, 13 

 Burling Slip, New York city. All who are interested in 

 the subject are invited to be present at Utica. 



Dr. Arnold's Gibe at Walton for having fished 

 through the turmoils of his time might be applied to our 

 correspondent "Wawayanda," who forsook the battle 

 ground last year and went off to fish in the backwoods of 

 Canada. 



Long Island. — A bill has been introduced at Albany, by 

 Mr. Otis, prohibiting non-residents in Queens and Suffolk 

 counties, not owning lands therein, from shooting game 

 there except by permit of a justice of the peace and $10 

 license. 



Thunder Before Bain. — Messrs. Carver and Bogardus 

 have been having a tremendous newspaper war. They have 

 been lavish of thunder, so that the rain (of shekels into thdr 

 pockets) may be bounteous. 



Death of B. B. Hotchkiss. — A cable dispatch from 

 Paris on Saturday last announced the death in that city, of 

 Mr. B. B. Hotchkiss, well known in connection with fire- 

 arm invention. 



Notices sent to the A. K. B., if intended for the Forest 

 and Stream, should be sent to the latter on separate sheets 

 of paper. The two publications are separate and distinct. 



National Gcn Association. — As will be seen by refer- 

 ence to our Trap columns, the National Gun Association 

 was organized at New Orleans last week. 



The Michigan Association Meeting was erroneously 

 announced in our last issue to have been held Feb. 10. 

 Instead, it was postponed to Feb. 17. 



Don't Boll Manuscript. Fold it. 



THROUGH TWO-OCEAN PASS. 



IV.— hot springs and paint pots. 



OUB first camp on the lake was to be the headquarters, 

 from which various minor excursions into the sur- 

 rounding country were to be made. The longest and most 

 important of these was to be undertaken by Mr. Hague, who 

 proposed to cross the Continental Divide to the Pacific 

 slope, follow down one of the forks of Snake Biver to 

 Jackson's Hole, and then return by an unexplored route over 

 Two-Ocean Pass to the lake. With this party I was to go. 

 Our first camp after leaving headquarters was to be at the 

 hot springs at the head of the West Arm, about eighteen 

 miles further on. The wagon road ends at Topping's cabin, 

 but there is a good trail leading along the shore of the lake, 

 the general direction being southward and westward. 



About four miles from the main camp is a natural bridge 

 spanning a brook, insignificant in summer, but which in 

 spring carries considerable water. The stream has burrowed 

 its way beneath a dyke of lava (rhyolite) at right angles to 

 its course, and is bridged by a nearly perfect arch of this 

 rock, which is about six feet thick above the keystone. From 

 the top of the bridge to the stream bed on the lower side is 

 about sixty feet. The bridge is perhaps twenty-five feet long 

 and the arch fifteen in width. The lava stands in vertical 

 layers from one to four feet in thickness, having apparently 

 separated in cooling into these thin plates. Beyond the 

 bridge the trail led for the most part through the pleasant 

 green timber. 



During the day's march we saw a practical illustration of 

 the importance of forest preservation, which was no less 

 striking than instructive. About midday we passed over 

 several hogbacks from which the timber had been burned 

 off. This had taken place long ago, for almost all the tree- 

 trunks had mouldered away and only a few charred frag- 

 ments of the resinous and almost indestructible roots re- 

 mained on the ground. For some reason no young growth 

 had sprung up to replace the old, and the ground was bare of 

 timber. And not of timber alone. Exposed for years to the 

 full force of the weather, the rains and melting snows had 

 swept away all the humus, or soil, leaving only the coarse 

 rhyolitic sand, composed wholly of inorganic matter, and so 

 affording no support for any vegetation. These hogbacks, 

 dry and desolate, resembled, therefore, some of the arid 

 wastes of thirsty Nevada. The tract was a little desert in 

 the midst of the pine forest. This is what may be expected 



if the fires, easily kindled and so common in this region, are 

 allowed to destroy the timber, The forest gone, it follows 

 that the waters sweep from the surface of the ground, first 

 the forest floor and at length every particle of soil, without 

 which neither tree nor shrub nor grass nor weed can grow. 

 The land becomes barren. Springs and brooks first, and 

 then lakes and rivers grow smaller, and at length disappear, 

 and the great farming regions on either side of the mountains 

 which are largely dependent on irrigation, by means of the 

 streams which flow from them, become valueless to the 

 settler. 



About eight miles beyond the natural bridge we turned off 

 from the main trail to the left, and followed a little stream 

 down to the lake shore. From the top of a high sandbluff 

 above the beach we looked out upon a most lovely view. To 

 the left was a quiet lagoon, scarcely ruffled by the fresh 

 wind, while without its bar the whitening waves dashed 

 themselves against the beach with a tumultuous roar. Be- 

 yond, the waters were deep, dark blue, like those of the 

 ocean beyond soundings. To the east, southeast and south 

 were the mountains ; the Sierra Shoshone, the nearest and 

 most clearly seen, heavily patched with snow and rough with 

 ragged, saw-toothed ridges, Next came the mountains of 

 the Upper Yellowstone, then Sheridan superbly white, and 

 far away to the southward, just visible through a notch in 

 the mountains, a portion of the huge mass of the Teton 

 Bange, with one of the Grand Needles in sight. Far to the 

 right could be seen the white jet of steam from the boiling 

 springs, toward which we were journeying. Everywhere 

 over the lower land, and often creeping up adventurously to 

 the very feet of the snowdrifts, was the smooth, dark green 

 of the pines. On the blue water to the left, a snowy pelican 

 was gliding along smoothly and majestically, while nearer 

 still, and just without the line of white surf, floated a flock 

 of redhead ducks. Above in the blue sky three ospreys 

 swung to and fro in broad circles, and screamed to one- 

 another in plaintive tones. 



Over the most of this trail travel is very good, and it needs 

 little more than cutting out to make a good wagon road 

 About four miles from the springs, however, there is a high 

 and steep hill which is rather hard for the horses, but about 

 which a good road might be made. 



The hot springs at the head of the West Arm of Yellow- 

 stone Lake are an interesting and very considerable group. 

 These resemble in all their essentials those of the Geyser 

 Basins, but there are not, so far as known, any considerable 

 geysers among them. The number of the active springs, 

 however, is very great, and the area covered by them is large. 

 This group once evidently extended much further into the 

 lake than it now does, and the beach and lake bottom near 

 the shore is composed wholly of fragments of shining white 

 geyserite, Against this white bottom, as we rode toward 

 camp, we could see many trout, each a foot or more in length, 

 lying at rest. In some places the waves have worn away 

 the shore line so that frequently the bluffs of geyserite ten 



to twelve feet in height are scalloped thus ~ =->. and 



eaten away at their base to a depth of four or five feet. 

 Quite a number of the springs are situated on points of rock 

 which extend some little distance out into the lake, and such 

 points, that is those where active hot springs exist, do not 

 seem to be at all affected by the action of the waves of the 

 lake, as is the rock where the springs have become extinct 

 In one of these springs, which is sometimes known as the 

 Fishpot Spring, and which has been figured in all the guide 

 books of the region, one of our company performed the often 

 described act of catching a trout from the lake, lifting it out 

 of the water, and without removing it from the hook, drop- 

 ping it into the spring, where it was to cook. After being in 

 the water for a few moments, the head had boiled away and 

 the skin split, and when it was then removed, it was found 

 to be thoroughly cooked for more than one-quarter of an 

 inch in from the skin. We all agreed that it was an experi- 

 ment not to be repeated, for the fish seemed to suffer for a 

 minute or two before it died, and for a little while longer 

 there were occasional convulsive struggles or quiverings as 

 if the creature were still alive. These were probably mere 

 muscular contractions, however, for the temperature of the 

 water was 165° Fahr, 



A part of the next day was devoted to an examination of 

 the hot springs. Most of them are within a few hundred 

 yards of the lake shore, and the openings of several are out 

 in the lake under water. They are various in character, 

 some of them being merely large, quiet pools of heated water, 

 while others, usually smaller, boil vigorously at irregular 

 intervals. There is also a group of mud puffs not far from 

 the lake shore. 



The temperature of the different springs varies greatly. Of 

 those extending out into the lake, the largest to the east 

 has a temperature of 130° to 133° Fahr. A very small boil- 

 ing spring to the west of this with a double orifice formed 

 by a bar of geyserite stretching across its mouth, gave a 

 temperature of 195°. This spring boils almost constantly, 

 and the water is usually above the bar, but sometimes sinks 

 three or four inches below it, and then rises suddenly, throw- 

 ing out jets to a height of two feet or more. It thus seems 

 quite like a tiny geyser, and in its operation reminds one of 

 the Fountain of the Lower Basin, though on so much smaller 

 a scale. During one ebullition the water was sent up con- 

 stantly to a height of 15 or 18 inches, with occasional jets 

 twice as high. The force appeared to be central, and the 

 water spread out in the shape of an umbrella. This display 



