Forest and Stream 



A Weekly Journal of the Rod and Gun. 



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NEW YORK, JANUARY 2 9, 18 8 5. 



I VOL. XXIV.— No. J. 



I Nos. 39 & 40 Park Row, New York. 



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Nos. 39 and 40 Park Row. 



forest and Stream Publishing Co. 



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CONTENTS. 



Editorial. 



The Care of the National Park. 



The Adirondack Forests. 



Rifle Definitions. 



Non-Residents in New Jersey. 



Through Two Ocean Pass.-i. 

 The Sportsman Tourist. 



Camp Flotsam.— xii. 

 Natural History. 



Snapping- Turtles. 



The Birds of Michigan. 

 Game Bag and Gun. 



Some Remarkable Shots. 



Battery Shooting. 



The Game Dealers. 



Captain Bond. 



Mr.fEMr-hnwAf.t.s Association. 



Frozen Ducks. 



Adirondack Beer Hounding. 



Open Rifle Sights. 

 Sea and River Fishing. 



Large Catfish and Pike. 



Snelling Hooks. 



Sea Trout Fishing. 



The Best Panfish of the West. 



A Challenge to Fly-Casters. 



Draa: and Click Reels. 



The Most Killing Flies. 



FlSHCTJLTURE. 



Vitality of Carp. 

 Growth of Carp. 



Stocking Pennsylvania Streams 



The Kennel. 



Eastern Field Trials Club. 



The Highland Colley. 



English Kennel Notes.— xxiii. 



Notes from New Orleans. 



Pointer Breeding. 



The Lincoln Memorial Fund. 



Kennel Notes. 

 Rifle and Trap Shooting. 



Military Rifle Shots. 



Range and Gallery. 



The Trap. 



Boston Gun Club. 

 Canoeing. 



A Canoe Club in Brooklyn. 



The Western Canoeists and the 



A_ O. JL. 



The Hudson River Meet. 



Canoe Fittings. 



Sunbeam. 



Elections of Officers. 



Notes from the Exposition. 



Toronto C. C. 

 Yachting. 



A Scheme for Club Quarters 



Race Fixtures for the Year. 



Cutter Principles "Way Down 

 East." • 



The Sail Plan of the Cruiser, 



Awake at Last. 



Elections of Officers. 

 Answers to Correspondents. 



THE CARE OF THE NATIONAL PARK. 



SENATOR VEST'S bill, relative to tile Yellowstone Na- 

 tional Park, is still in the hands of the House Commit- 

 tee on Territories. It will be remembered that this bill pro- 

 vides in its second section for an increase in the area of the 

 reservation, as recommended by Mr. Arnold Hague in his 

 letter to Senator Vest, published in Forest and Stream 

 of March 13, 1884. This second section is as follows: 



Sec. 2. That all of the territory embraced within the limits of the 

 Park as herein established shall be reserved and withdrawn from 

 settlement, occupancy or sale under the laws of the United States, 

 and dedicated and set apart as a public park or pleasure ground for 

 the benefit and enjoyment of the people of the United States; and 

 said territory so set apart shall be under the control of the Secretary 

 of the Interior, and subject to all the provisions of sections numbered 

 twenty -four hundred and seventy-four and twenty -four hundred and 

 severity-five of the Revised Statutes of the United States, except as 

 herein otherwise provided. 



There has been some prospect that local feeling between 

 the Territories of Montana and Wyoming might endanger 

 the passage of the bill, which provides, notwithstanding that 

 the changed boundaries of the Park would bring it wholly 

 within the Territory of Wyoming, that it should be subject to 

 the laws and under the jurisdiction of Moataaa. The fact 

 that there are some mines, though unimportant ones, near the 

 northeast corner of the Park, still further complicates matters 

 by furnishing to a few men a certain excuse for urging the 

 building of a railway through a portion of the reservation. 

 As a consequence of these disturbing features of the subject 

 the delegates from Montana and Wyoming are understood 

 to have been opposed to the bill as it passed the Senate. 



The urgent need of the passage of some bill which shall 

 provide for adequate measures of protection for the Park as 

 well as for all the contingencies in regard to violations 

 of law and rules which must constantly arise in a large 

 reservation, practically without any government, is recog- 

 nized by all who are interested in the National Park. 



During the present short session of Congress it had been 



thought almost hopeless to attempt to press the bill to a vote, 



but the friends of the Park have been active in the matter, 



and the bill has been so modified that the principal opposi- 



■ tion to it has been silenced. The changes which have. 



been made in the original Vest bill will not be relished 

 by those who have hoped to see this importaut sub- 

 ject treated in a broad, statesmanlike manner. They are 

 unsatisfactory because they limit the usefulness of the bill, 

 materially reducing the area proposed to be added to the 

 reservation, and throwing open to settlement a portion of 

 the territory originally set aside by the act of 1873. 



The modifications of the Vest bill we understand to be sub- 

 stantially these. The jurisdiction of the Park is placed wholly 

 under Wyoming Territory, and the northern boundary of the 

 Park is so changed that it shall be the 45th parallel, from the 

 111th meridian east to the Yellowstone River, thence shall 

 follow the north or east bank of that stream to the East Fork, 

 thence up the north bank of the East Fork to the intersec- 

 tion of that stream with the meridian of 110° 10', thence 

 along a line running due east to the meridian of 109° 30'. 



The change proposed leaves the mining district, of which 

 Cook City is the center, wholly without the Park, and must 

 cut away from beneath those interested in that region all 

 ground for opposition to the bill. There are some advan- 

 tages in making the river a boundary of the Park, since it 

 is a natural barrier which all will recognize, and about which 

 there never can be any mistake. If a highway should ever 

 be required to the country east of the Park, it can follow the 

 north bank of the Yellowstone and its East Fork, and will 

 thus lie wholly without the Park. The propriety of placing 

 the Park under the jurisdiction and laws of Wyoming is also 

 apparent since, as has been said, the reservation lies within 

 that Territory. 



At the meeting of the House Committee on Territories in 

 which this subject was considered, no other business was 

 transacted, and it was agreed to make a unanimous report, 

 and to urge upon the House the prompt passage of the bill as 

 modified. Should the House consider the bill and pass it. 

 it would go back to the Senate. It seems probable that in 

 view of the difficulties and delay, if not the impossibility of 

 passing the original bill, Senator Vest would accept the 

 amendments and urge a vote on the bill by the Senate. 



We have no hesitation in declaring that the amended bill 

 promises so much less than we had hoped for, that it is a 

 real disappointment. At the same time it is so great an im- 

 provement on the present law, or lack of law, that it should 

 pass without delay. We have seen during the past few years 

 the impossibility of properly looking after the Park, owing to 

 the absence of any laws fixing the responsibility of its care 

 on any one individual or set of individuals, and it is high 

 time that there should be something in the shape of a govern- 

 ment more definite than the loosely-framed acts and regula- 

 tions, which have hitherto hindered rather than helped the 

 efforts made for the protection of the natural wonders, the 

 forests and the game of the reservation. 



The possession by the Government of the Yellowstone 

 Park, should be a matter of pride and exaltation to every 

 citizen of the Union. No country in the world has so large 

 a park, and nowhere are there so varied and magnificent 

 natural wonders as are here to be seen. These wonders 

 should be protected from destruction by selfish or careless 

 visitors. Many of them are of such a character that if in- 

 jured now, they will be destroyed forever, or at best can only 

 be restored after a lapse of many years. 



The forests of the Park protect the heads of two of the 

 most important rivers of North America, one, the Snake, 

 flowing into the Pacific, the other, the Yellowstone, finding 

 its way into the Atlantic. These streams after leaving the 

 mountains flow for long distances through arid regions 

 which are only cultivable by means of irrigation, and should 

 the forests about the heads of these rivers be cleared away, 

 their volume would be so diminished that the farmers, who 

 now and in the future will depend on them for their water 

 supply, would be absolutely unable to raise crops. It is 

 only by means of a law of Congress that these forests can be 

 preserved from fire and from the axe of the lumberman. 



The indigenous wild animals of Western America are 

 surely worth preserving. It is becoming well known that 

 the large game of the Rocky Mountains is disappearing at a 

 rate which is so rapid as to pass the belief of those who have 

 not closely watched the subject. The buffalo are all gone, 

 that is to say those within the United States borders are to. 

 day to be counted by hundreds, where ten years ago they 

 could be numbered by hundreds of thousands. The elk, 

 killed in enormous numbers for their hides, are passing away 

 only less rapidly than did the buffalo, and the deer and ante- 

 lope are following the same road. If moose and mountain 

 sheep are not killed in similar great quantities, it is only be- 

 cause the accident of their haunts makes it a difficult matter 

 to slaughter them by wholesale. It is worth our while to try 



to preserve this game. Call it a sentiment if you will— though 

 it is more than that— still it is a subject which deeply inter- 

 ests a large and constantly increasing number of our 

 American citizens, and one which should receive attention 

 before it is too late to remedy the evil done by the wasteful, 

 the selfish, and the unscrupulous. It is in the Yellowstone 

 Park, if anywhere on this continent, that these different 

 species must survive, and it is here that they should be con- 

 served to be a benefit to science and the people, long after 

 they shall have become extinct everywhere else throughout 

 their former range. 



Finally, the Yellowstone Park and the territory now pro- 

 posed to be added to it is absolutely valueless to the settler, 

 and therefore the passage of the bill in question can by no 

 possibility work injustice to any citizen. Its altitude, aver- 

 aging nearly 8,000 feet, makes it a region of cold. "Nine 

 months winter and three months very late in the fall," about 

 expresses the conditions of the climate. Frosts occur every 

 month, almost every week, in the year. The agriculturist 

 can never settle here, for crops will not grow. For the same 

 reason it is forbidden ground to the stockman. The deep 

 snows which for more than six months of the year cover the 

 ground, render it impossible for range cattle to live here. 

 There are no mines within the reservation, nor are any likely 

 to be found. The only possible industry which could be 

 carried on in the Park, even temporarily, is lumbering; but 

 as we have pointed out, one of the strongest reasons for mak- 

 ing laws for the Park, is to protect the forests and so the 

 great streams which take their rise here. 



Since then there are abundant reasons why the Park should 

 be cared for and enlarged, and none at all against such a 

 course, we urge most strenuously the passage of the Vest 

 bill as we understand it to have been amended by the House 

 Committee on Territories. Each season that the matter is 

 delayed an amount of damage is clone in the Park which can 

 only be repaired by the expenditure of years of time and 

 great sums of money. The careless camper fires the forest, 

 the meat butcher kills the game, the tourist breaks down a 

 ton of the beautiful and delicate geyser crater or hot spring rim 

 to get a few pounds of "specimen." The appropriations are 

 small, the guardians few in number, many of them ap- 

 pointed through political influence, and even if desirous of 

 performing their^duties, ignorant of their powers to arrest 

 and bring to justice. All this should be changed, and a 

 proper and efficient system of guardianship inaugurated. 

 This will be done by the bill under consideration, which we 

 hope to see become a law without delay. 



This bill commends itself to all who are interested in the 

 Park from purely unselfish motives. Its provisions are ap- 

 proved by Mr. Arnold Hague, of the U. S. Geological Sur- 

 vey, whose acquaintance with the Park is so extensive as to 

 entitle his opinion to the greatest weight. It is most im- 

 portant that the bill should receive the unanimous vote of 

 the House, and that before the close of the session it should 

 have received the signature of the President. 



One Thing at a Time.— It is hoped that a non-hounding 

 clause may be incorporated into the New York game law 

 this winter. This can be accomplished only by persistent 

 effort and, as experience has amply shown, by confining that 

 effort to the single point to be gained. Will individuals and 

 associations, who think that other changes in the law should 

 be made, please stand aside this year and refrain from mud- 

 dling the mind of the average legislator by a multiplicity of 

 contradictory suggestions? By sticking to one thing the 

 amendment may be carried. If a dozen different bills are 

 presented, it is probable that just a dozen bills will be de- 

 feated. 



The Brooklyn Gun Club is circulating a petition asking 

 the Legislature to refuse the demands of the dealers for a 

 longer open season. The list of signatures includes many 

 well-known names, among them being those of Judge C. E. 

 Pratt, James L. Hill, late District Attorney of Schenectady 

 county, and F. H. Smith. The Brooklyn Gun Club is con 

 spicuously active in sensible work. Its members have put 

 out a number of quail on Long Island, and we presume that 

 they are naturally somewhat incensed to think that the pot- 

 hunters want more time to market those very birds. 



Michigan Venison.— It should not be forgotten that 

 much of the venison that the dealers complain cannot be 

 sold comes from Michigan, whence it has been shipped in 

 violation of the law. Michigan needs an organized State 

 game warden system to provide for the seizure of the con- 

 traband goods and the punishment of those engaged in the 

 illicit traffic. 



