286 



FOREST AND STREAM. 



[May 7, 1885. 



game, or firing the forest, he has no power to do more 

 than to order him to cease his work of destruction. To 

 have him arrested, he is obliged to ride off to the nearest 

 Justice of the Peace, obtain from him a warrant, find a 

 constable and bring him back to the spot where the offense 

 was committed, and then see that the constable arrests the 

 individual— if he can. To do all this may require from 

 fifty to one hundred miles of riding, occupying a couple of 

 days, and it is very evident that the chance of apprehending 

 the culprit at the end of this time is small. 



If it had not been for the enlightened action of the Terri- 

 tory of Wyoming, even this weak attempt at enforcing the 

 law would be impossible. Almost the whole of the Park 

 lies within Wyoming, and at a recent session of the Legis- 

 lature of the Territory, funds were appropriated to build a 

 jail, and to pay justices and two constables for the Park, so 

 that, as a matter of fact the local government of the reserva- 

 tion to-day depends on Wyoming, and not upon the United 

 States, which professes to own and preserve it. That such a 

 state of things exists is surely a disgrace to Congress. 



The appropriations annually made for the Park are very 

 inadequate. Last summer the sum available for engineer- 

 ing work, including the building and mending of roads 

 and bridges amounted to about $2-7,000. The bill au- 

 thorizing this appropriation was passed July 7, and on ac- 

 count of red tape at Washington, it probably was not avail- 

 able for a mouth after this date. At all events the engineer 

 officer in charge of the work had not reached the Park the 

 last of August, and up to that time, we understand, not a 

 stroke of work had been done. Travel may be expected to 

 cease about Sept. 15, but even if it should last into October 

 it is evident that three months out of the four during which 

 work can be carried on in the Park, were, wasted by the 

 dehry in furnishing the funds. It has been clearly shown 

 that the mending of the roads should be done as early in the 

 summer as possible, since the spring floods from the melting 

 snows and rains do a vast amount of damage to roads left in 

 good condition in the autumn. Much of the work completed 

 in the fall is undone by the elements before travel sets in 

 the following summer. The meagre appropriations are thus 

 expended in the most wasteful manner ; not through any 

 fault of those who have the work in charge, but solely be- 

 cause Congress fails to appreciate the necessities of the case. 



their home would render them enthusiastic in guarding it 

 from injury and would insure their fidelity to the trust com- 

 mitted to their charge. At the same time it may be said that 

 a number of the present assistants have now been stationed 

 for a couple of years in the Park, and have no doubt learned 

 a great deal which makes them better fitted for the position 

 than any new men from the East would be. 



An absurd condition of things exists here so far as the 

 Superintendent and his assistants are concerned. The former 

 is the nominal head of the Park, but has control of no money 

 and no men. He has no laborers to keep things in order, no 

 buildings in which to store supplies, no tools. There is no 

 one under him to carry out his orders. If a bridge breaks 

 down, or a lot of trees fall across a road, or a washout 

 occurs, there is no one that he can send to repair the dam- 

 age or remove the obstructions, and if there were any one to 

 send, he has no spades nor picks nor axes nor saws to be used 

 in the work of repair. If an assistant chooses to ride off to 

 some camp or hotel, borrow some tools, and attempt the 

 work, he can do so, but he has no Government property 

 which he can make use of for such a purpose. 



The Superintendent is thus at present a mere figurehead, 

 occupying an office which ought to be important, honor- 

 able and responsible, but which under the present state of 

 affairs is merely nominal. If the Park is to be properly cared 

 for there must be some one man who shall be responsible for 

 the way in which things are attended to there; some one 

 on whom the blame for neglect, or the credit for good work, 

 should rest. No such responsibility is incurred by the 

 Superintendent at present. He should have in his own 

 hands the nomination of his assistants, who should be re- 

 movable at once on his recommendation. Thus with an 

 honest and efficient Superintendent, the assistants would 

 feel that their continuance in office depended on the prompt 

 and faithful performance of their duties. At present the 

 positions of assistants are filled by appointment of the 

 Secretary of the interior, and several of those occupying 

 this office are relatives of members of Congress. This, of 

 course, would be nothing against them if they were com- 

 petent men, but many of them are not. On the contrary, 

 a number of them are men from the East, wholly 

 unacquainted with the region and its requirements, its 

 game, its natural features, its forests. They cannot 

 find their way about, and are utterly helpless when they 

 get off the roads and trails. They do no good whatever. 

 We do not mean to do injustice to any of these officials who 

 are conscientiously striving to carry out their instructions. 

 We know that there are among them several who are good 

 men, and who are thoroughly in earnest in their efforts to 

 do all that they can in protecting the reservation, but they 

 are terribly handicapped in their work because of their lack 

 of power and of material to work with. 



This is all wrong, The proper men for the positions of 

 assistants are those who are familiar with the country and 

 competent to travel through it, to look after themselves and 

 to care for the natural curiosities, the timber, and the game. 

 There are many such men to be found in the neighborhood 

 of the Park— old mountaineers who have lived there for 

 years, and who know the country well. Such men— although 

 they do not often express it— have a real enthusiasm for the 

 Park and its wonders, and would value, and most acceptably 

 till, such positions. They would be thoroughly competent, 

 and their love for the beautiful region which has long been 



The whole government and management of the Park, as 

 at present constituted, are radically wrong. The Park should 

 not be under the immediate control of the Secretary of the 

 Interior. Any one who will think about it for a moment 

 will see that it is impossible for this official to give the sub- 

 ject the attention which it requires. The Secretary's duties 

 are enormously numerous, and subjects even more important 

 than the guardianship of the Park are constantly claiming 

 his attention. Even if he had the time to give to the matter 

 the consideration which it requires, it is impossible that he 

 should do so. He is too far off. It is absurd to think that 

 every time the Superintendent feels the necessity of taking 

 certain action he should be obliged to send to Washington 

 for an authorization to carry out his plans. The conditions 

 which govern the Park are constantly changing, and we do 

 not yet know what is required there. The government of the 

 Park is now, and will be for a loug time, made up of a hun- 

 dred matters of detail, which can only be determined by one 

 who is on the spot, and the proper person to have control of 

 all these details is the Superintendent, who can then be held 

 to a strict accountability for all his actions. Give him plenty 

 of power and some money to spend, so that he may accom- 

 plish something, and then if he does not do his duty, off 

 with his official head and replace him by a better man. 



ents, or at least those of them who are sufficiently interested 

 in the Park to be anxious to do their duty by it, would no 

 doubt be willing to accept these Territorial appointments and 

 to serve without pay. The men who would not do so should 

 be replaced by others who would. 



But there must clearly be some men or some body of men 

 over the Superintendent, for he must be looked after more 

 sharply than can be done by the Secretary of the Interior. 

 The readiest way of accomplishing this would be to give 

 the control of the Park to a Board of Commissioners, 

 who might be styled the Commissioners of the National 

 Park. The Commission should consist of at least five 

 individuals, and probably this number would be better than 

 any larger one. It would seem fitting that the Governors of 

 Montana and Wyoming Territories should ex officio be mem- 

 bers of this Commission, and in the same way the engineer 

 officer, who is for the time being the Chief of Engineers of 

 the Department of the Missouri, should be one of its number. 

 A scientific man familiar with the Park ought by all means 

 to belong to it, and the position is so important, that it 

 should be held by one of the Chief Geologists of the United 

 States Survey. The fifth member should be some intelligent 

 man, not iu politics, who takes an enlightened interest in 

 the reservation, in timber preservation, and in game pro- 

 tection. Such a man would not be difficult, to find, and 

 would be a very useful member of this body. 



Such a Commission of five individuals would not be so 

 large as to be unwieldy, and at the same time it would be suf- 

 ficiently numerous to insure a proper inspection of the Park 

 at frequent intervals. Several of the members beiug experts 

 upon the various subjects of most importance iu the conser- 

 vancy of the Park, a wise supervision would be exercised 

 over the roads and ways, the uatural curiosities, the timber 

 and the gam?, and suggestions and advice would be given to 

 the Superintendent as to all these matters. 



The Commission would no doubt be willing to serve with- 

 out pay, but their expenses should be paid to the Park, and 

 transportation furnished them through it, by the Govern- 

 ment. They should visit the Park once or twice each year, 

 and by December 1 report to the Secretary of the Interior as 

 to the condition of the reservation and the improvements 

 most necessary to be made. They should look after the 

 Superintendent and his assistants, and see that they perform 

 their duties properly, and should have the power to recom- 

 mend the removal of any and every official connected with 

 the Park in case it appears to them that such changes would 

 be for the benefit of the reservation. In fact they should be 

 the ones to whom the public should look for the proper 

 supervision and care of this whole region. 



To sum up, then, the National Park should be placed under 

 the control of five Commissioners, who should be responsible 

 for its care, and should make annual reports with recommen- 

 dations to the Secretary of the Interior, who would thus be 

 relieved of all detail work in connection with the reservation. 

 All he would have to do would be to carry out the recom- 

 mendations of the Board, To these Commissioners should 

 be transferred most of the powers now vested in the Secre- 

 tary. They should be authorized to lease lands, to grant 

 licenses to run stage lines and pack trains, and to give per- 

 mits to erect buildings and corrals. They should have 

 authority to recommend the cancellation of any lease for 

 cause, or the revocation of any license or permit, They 

 should be the source from which the assistants appointed by 

 the Supeiintendent should receive their commissions, and 

 should be at liberty to refuse to issue the same at their dis- 

 cretion. 



The Superintendent should be directly responsible to the 

 Commission, on whose recommendation the Secretary of the 

 Interior should remove him in case he does not appear to 

 them the proper man for the place, and who should nomi- 

 nate to the Secretary his successor. 



The powers of the Superintendent should be considerably 

 enlarged, and a reasonable portion of the annual appropria 

 tion placed at his disposal. He should have authority to 

 hire laborers and to make requisition on the engineer officer 

 in charge of the roads for Government property— tools and 

 supplies — to a reasonable extent. He should watch the 

 Government tenants in the Park, and promptly report to the 

 Commission any violations by them of the Park regulations. 



The engineer officer in charge of the roads and bridges 

 has an important part to perform iu the Park. It is not 

 necessary that his powers should be enlarged or curtailed; 

 but he should certainly have more money given him, and it 

 should always be ready for him by June 1, so that he may 

 begin work just as soon as it is possible to get into the Park. 

 In this way he can make his work show for something, and 

 the visitors to the Park will be ahle to travel over good roads. 



Finally, the assistant superintendents who are appointed 

 in the future ought to be Western men; not loafers about the 

 towns, but men who live away from them and out in the 

 open air, who know the country and its needs; who can 

 follow the trail of the man who fires the forest and kills the 

 game until they have caught him, and then— just bring him 

 into camp. 



Take the offices in the gift of the Commission out of poli- 

 tics, and let that body manage the Park economically and 

 well, as they would manage it if it were their private 

 property, 



This matter is one requiring careful thought and attention 

 to detail, but the plan here outlined is one which can be car- 

 ried out. If it be adopted the future of the Park is assured. 



The failure of Senator Vest's bill has put off for a year the 

 extension of the Park and the providing of adequate laws 

 for its government. The delay will prove an expensive one, 

 and the culpable neglect of Congress on this matter is dis- 

 graceful, and on all accounts to be deplored. Whether the 

 next Congress will be equally remiss cannot be told, but it is 

 discouraging to those who have for years labored in behalf of 

 the people to save the National Park from ruin, to see all their 

 efforts go for naught. That these efforts will eventually be 

 appreciated at their proper worth cannot be doubted, but in 

 the meantime the old work of irreparable destruction, of 

 forest burning, and of game slaughter will go on. As things 

 are now, it is only by vigorous action of the Territories that 

 anything can be done to save the most interesting features 

 of the Park. 



One step which should be taken without delay by the ex- 

 ecutives of the Territories of Idaho, Montana and Wyoming 

 is to appoint the assistant superintendents of the Park 

 constables or deputy sheriffs for those Territories. This 

 would give them the power to make arrests themselves, in- 

 stead of being obliged, as is now the case, to hunt up a con- 

 stable. The appointments need not entail any expense on 

 the Territorial governments, for the assistant superintend* 



THE BUCKTAIL IN FLORIDA. 



v. 



I WRITE you from the Oak and Pine— a curiosity worth 

 going many miles to see. There are two trees, one a 

 low, sturdy, spreading live oak with three heavy, horizontal 

 arms, gnarled and crooked, and the other a tall, umbrella- 

 topped Florida pine growing up between two branches of 

 the oak and firmly embraced by the angle of the strong 

 limbs. And the two trees have become welded or grafted 

 together by some strange chance, until the union seems per- 

 fect and indissoluble. The graft or weld is two and one- 

 half feet in length perpendicularly, and seven feet in circum- 

 ference at the junction, and the trees seem in perfect health. 

 There is no apparent reason why they should not remain so 

 for a century. Of course it will not be claimed that a tree of 

 the genus quercus drains sustenance from a resiuous conifer, 

 or vice versa, but it looks like it. Hundreds have visited the 

 trees the past season, and only one man claims to have seen 

 anything like it before, and that on a smaller scale and much 

 less perfect. The trees, including the camp, were photo- 

 graphed a few days ago, and I shall send you a copy of the 

 same. 



My last letter left us— Tarpon and the writer— about to 

 explore the inlet of Lake Butler, called Brooker Creek. We 

 had made camp on the west shore of a bay at the head of 

 the lake and south of the narrows, and in going to the mouth 

 of the inlet we headed north through the narrows, then 

 turned to the east, skirted a shore lined with Jily-pads, and 

 soon came to a high, arched opening in the swampy forest 

 where, under the meeting limbs of moss covered cypresses, 

 the inlet debouched. It all had a decidedly tropical look, 

 except the lily-pads, which I do not remember to have seen m 

 the tropics. But the cabbage palms, palmettoes, vmes, etc., 

 looked much as they do on a Brazilian cano. 



As the Captain quietly paddled under the lofty moss- 

 covered trees he suggested that I get a leathered spoon in 

 order, and take bass enough for dinner, as it might take us 

 all day to explore the stream to the head of navigation, while 

 he went ahead with the gun. So I, being all ready with 

 Henshall rod and a gaudy silver and scarlet spoon with a 

 showy tail of ibis feathers, got good headway on the canoe 

 and sent the tinseled cheat far out on the port quarter, away 

 from the lily-pads. It was short work. Hardly had the 

 spoon got down to regular twirling than it was savagely 

 snapped- and, as I don't lose time monkeying with a good 

 fish where roots and lily-pads are handy, I reeled m at my 

 best oait. He pulled hard and leaped out of water franti 

 callyfbut 1 kept him coming until he had little more than 

 ten feet of line, and then I drew him rapidly back and forth 



