Forest and Stream. 



A Weekly Journal of the Rod and Gun. 



Terms, $4 A Year. 10 Ors. A Copy. I 

 8ix Months, $2. ( 



NEW YORK, SATURDAY, JULY 20, 1896. 



I VOL. XLV.— No. 3. 



\ No. 318 Broadway New York.. 



For Prospectus and Advertising Rates see Page vii. 



Forest and Stream Water Colors 



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We have prepared as premiums a series of four artistic 

 and beautiful reproductions of original water colors, 

 M painted expressly for the Forest and Stream, The 

 subjects are outdoor scenes: 



Jacksnipe Coming: In. "He's Got Them" (Quail Shooting). 

 Vigilant and Valkyrie, Bass Fishing- at Block Island. 



SEE REDUCED HALF-TONES IN OUR ADVT. COLUMNS. 



The plates are for frames 14 x 19 in. They are done in 

 twelve colors, and are rich in effect. They are furnished 

 || to old or new subscribers on the following terms: 



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 Forest and Stream 6 months and any two of ihe pictures, $3. 



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FOREST AND STREAM PUB. CO., New York. 1 



GAME NOW ON SALE. 



We print two interesting papers on the New York 

 game law. One is from the pen of President F. J. Am£- 

 den, of the New York State Association for the Protection 

 of Fish and Game, who is also a member of the Associa- 

 tion's Law Committee; and the other comes from Mr. Geo. 

 R. Peck, of Auburn, who has long been known as an 

 active and intelligent worker in the cause of protection. 

 A careful reading of these two papers will show that 

 there is among organized sportsmen more of a diversity 

 of opinion than Mr. Peck is willing to grant. We have 

 no doubt that there is a large number of those who, as 

 Mr. Peck, considering the new law inexpedient, would 

 have opposed its adoption; and we believe that such a 

 number would represent nine-tenths of the sportsmen of 

 the State; whereas the Association's Law t Committee 

 urged the Governor to approve the measure. They 

 contended that, though imperfect in some respects, as a 

 whole it was an improvement on the old law. As this 

 committee represented the Association, the present law 

 may correctly be said to have had the Association's 

 sanction. We do not mean to say that the committee or 

 the Association defends that section which relates to 

 game sale all the year around, but the Association is on 

 record as having declared through its law committee that 

 the new law is an improvement on the old. 



We cannot accept this view of the advantages of the 

 new law. In it we look in vain for any improvements 

 over the old statute which would begin to compensate for 

 its reactionary features. There were in the old system no 

 evils which could not have been endured for another year 

 at least much more advantageously than to have opened 

 the markets to the sale of game. Nor do we share the 

 rosy expectation of those who aver that it will be a 

 simple matter to repeal this Sec. 249 immediately upon 

 the asembling of the next Legislature. If the game pro- 

 tective forces of the State found it impossible to keep that 

 section out of the amended law, they will find it no child's 

 play to remove it, now that it is on the books. 



The paper by President Amsden was read by him be- 

 fore the meeting of the American Fisheries Society. Upon 

 the conclusion of Mr. Amsden's remarks, Mr. B. P. Doyle, 

 at that time secretary of the New York Commission of 

 Fish, Game and Forests, took occasion to defend the 

 game selling feature of the law. This was to be expect- 

 ed, for both Secrotary Dole and President Davis of the 

 Commission were active in their championship of the 

 Wilks bill, which was afterwards merged with the game 

 law as this Sec. 249. Now that Mr. Doyle is no longer 

 connected with the Commission, it is not worth while to 

 discuss his stand toward the opening of the markets for 

 the sale of game; but the activity of President Davis in 

 behalf of the dealers is significant and may well excite 

 apprehension. If the officials appointed to protect our 

 game do what they can to secure its destruction, as 

 President Davis did by his influence in this special in- 

 stance, we have to cope not only with the forces of 

 destruction which have hitherto been recognized as 

 hostile, but with new agencies within the ranks. 



Game is now on sale in this State. We learn of shoot- 

 ers who have been out for woodcock to supply the res- 

 taurants, although the season on that game will not open 

 until the middle of next month. 



Last week we printed an outline of the laws prevailing 

 in nearly thirty States against the export of game to 

 market. By opening its game stalls for twelve months in 

 the year New York puts a premium on crime in every 

 State tributary to her markets. To urge that New York 

 game dealers do not know that they are receiving illicit 

 goods is puerile. To give tbem license to carry on the 

 traffic in this game smuggled from sister States is an out- 

 rage, against which a game commissioner should never 

 cease to protest. 



the bank of the Delaware River, in Bucks county, forms 

 a basis of a new species called by Mr. Rhoads Bison ap- 

 pcllachicoius. 



ABOUT BUFFALO. 



Within the past two or three years frequent notices 

 have appeared in the Forest and Stream of a small herd 

 of plains buffalo, which still range along the Rio Grande 

 and the Pecos River in Texas, and in the State of Chihua- 

 hua in Mexico. These are the last survivors of the old 

 southern herd, from which Buffalo Jones captured a num- 

 ber of calves seven or eight years ago. This little buncb , 

 when first discovered, numbered only about twenty, but 

 it is believed that it has now increased to forty or there- 

 abouts. The newspapers state that an attempt is soon to 

 be made by Dr. J. B. Taylor, of Tom Green county, Texas, 

 to drive these buffalo on to his range and to hold them 

 there in a state of domestication. It is said that all 

 arrangements have been made to find the herd and drive 

 it to Dr. Taylor's ranch. 



It is to be hoped that the efforts will be successful, and 

 that the animals may prove as amenable as the projector 

 of this enterprise appears to believe they will. Certainly 

 none of them should be killed, and certainly no attempt 

 should be made to capture any adults or even yearlings. 

 Past experience clearly shows that while adult buffalo 

 may be run down, captured and tied up, they will 

 not live, even for a short time, in captivity. We 

 have frequently talked with Mr. Jones on this 

 subject. He captured a considerable number of young 

 cows, but invariably found that after being caught and 

 hobbled, they died almost within the hour. Others have had 

 a like experience. While there is no question that buffalo 

 can be run down, it is very doubtful whether they can be 

 driven, as is proposed in this caso, 150 miles in any partic- 

 ular direction. If a bunch of buffalo make up their minds 

 to go anywhere, they will go there, unless some insuper- 

 able obstacle interposes itself. A horse>nd his rider do 

 not present such an obstacle; but if in the way will be 

 run over. In years past we have too often seen buffalo 

 run over cut banks, into impassable morasses and against 

 railroad trains, to feel any doubt as to their obstinacy and 

 blindness when once started. They are like stampeded 

 horses or cattle ; they think altogether of the danger be- 

 hind them and nothing of what may be in front. The 

 results of Dr. Taylor's buffalo driving enterprise will be 

 looked forward to with much interest. 



Under the title, "Distribution of the American Bison in 

 Pennsylvania, with Remarks on the New Fossil Species," 

 Mr. Samuel N. Rhoads has published an interesting paper 

 in the Proceedings of the Philadelphia Academy of 

 Natural Sciences. Mr. Rhoads alludes to the fact that the 

 most easterly range of the bison was in Pennsylvania, 

 quoting Dr. Allen's statement that the last buffalo killed 

 in Buffalo Valley, near Lewisburg, in Union county, Pa., 

 was shot by Col. John Kelley about 1790 or 1800. Among 

 some bones, found forty-five or fifty years ago in the cele- 

 brated Carlisle cave in Pennsylvania, were teeth— now 

 lost— supposed to belong to buffalo, and the molar tooth 

 of a bison was found at Pittston, Lucerne county, in asso- 

 ciation with the remains of the mastodon and the fossil 

 horse, which was identified by Dr. Leidy as belonging to 

 the extinct Bison latifrons. This tooth, Dr. Rhoads 

 thinks, is probably an abnormal tooth of the American buf- 

 falo. Two other specimens in the Philadelphia Academy 

 came from Lucerne county and were identified by Dr. 

 Leidy as of buffalo, which identificatio i is confirmed by a 

 later examination of the specimen by Mr. Rhoads. An- 

 other specimen, consisting of a lower jaw of the last molar 

 tooth of the bison, was found in Hartman cave, Monroe 

 county, and is now in the collection of the Academy. It 

 was pronounced by Dr. Leidy Bison amerieanus, and Mr. 

 Rhoads believes that the animal formed part of the feast 

 of some Delaware Indians in comparatively recent times. 

 This record extends the wanderings of the buffalo as far 

 as the Delaware Valley. 



A horn core with a small portion of the frontal bone, 

 taken from a closed limestone crevice in Durham cave, on 



It is said that buffalo in England do badly; that they 

 are not healthy and do not breed. We should be glad to 

 receive some notes of the animals sent over there within 

 the past few years, telling of their condition and whether 

 they have increased or not. 



CHALLENGER AND DEFENDER. 

 By the end of this week the ninth competitor for the 

 America's Cup should be on her way to New York, and 

 the question of what she is becomes daily of greater 

 moment. 



Unlike Genesta, Galatea, Thistle and Valkyrie II. , the 

 third Valkyrie has done no continuous racing at home; 

 but at the same time she has sailed often enough against 

 Britannia and Ailsa to give a fair idea of her powers. 

 Unfortunately the reports from the Clyde are largely un- 

 reliable and misleading; some are written by the Scotch 

 correspondents of American papers, and are so obviously 

 intended to please American readers that they are of no 

 possible value. Others show the partisanship of the 

 writers for Ailsa or Britannia and are thus equally 

 worthless. The most that can be gleaned from a care- 

 ful review of the many different reports is that Valky- 

 rie III., in her preliminary trials, and with little 

 chance for working up, is very fast in ordinary racing 

 weather. That she is over rather than under canvased 

 cannot be doubted, and it is possible that some small re- 

 duction of spars and sails may yet be made; but from 

 what is known of her beam and draft there are good 

 reasons to distrust the reports of undue tenderness. What 

 she may do in a hard blow is quite uncertain, but there is 

 little doubt that in the usual weather of the cup races, 

 for which she was specially designed, she will be very 

 fast. Her beam is about 26ft., or a medium between the 

 two American yachts Vigilant and Colonia. Her draft 

 is at least 18ft., and is "probably quite adequate both for 

 stability and windward work. In construction both hull 

 and rig are fully up to the times, and are probably fully 

 strong, and reasonably though not extremely light, and 

 she has an excellent suit of canvas. Judging from the 

 models of Vigilant and Colonia there is every opportunity 

 in the dimensions of Valkyrie III. for a designer to turn 

 out a high-powered boat of moderately easy form, and the 

 photos indicate that Mr. Watson has done this. 



Of the actual performances of the defender nothing is 

 known up to the present time save that she is fairly fast 

 and lively in light airs; her behavior under a clubtopsail 

 in a breeze, or under a jibheader, is still a matter of con- 

 jecture. In dimensions she is very little wider than Val- 

 kyrie II., the unsuccessful challenger of 1893, but with 

 proportionately more draft, an extreme of about 19ft. 

 Of her construction, all new and experimental, nothing 

 definite is known, and only time can tell whether the 

 designer's expectations of ample strength combined with 

 extreme lightness have been fully realized. From all that 

 has thus far appeared, it seems probable that much of the 

 unknown and unreliable aluminum has already been 

 removed and replaced by plain, honest steel, thus reduc- 

 ing the intended gain in lightness; while it is still a ques- 

 tion whether further strengthening may not prove neces- 

 sary after a real trial under sail. 



In view of her extreme dimensions, even allowing for 

 the heavy and low hung keel, the question of her stability 

 cannot be considered as settled without a thorough prac- 

 tical test,' and it is still doubtful whether she can carry 

 sail as previous successful Cup defenders have carried it. 

 Like the hull, the sails are an experiment, as yet untried, 

 and of doubtful merit, judging from the reports of sim- 

 ilar sails on the 20-raters Niagara and Isolde. 



After all the glowing reports of the Bristol correspond- 

 ents, it must be admitted that the new boat is one big 

 question mark, possibly a great success, but quite as 

 possibly requiring time and labor before that success is 

 attained. 



Mr. JohnMandel of Ottawa, Canada, nephew of the 

 late Allan Gilmour, has presented Mr. Chas. Hallock 

 with a handsome souvenir of the Old gentleman. Mr. 

 Gilmour had some stock in Forest and Stream during 

 Mr. Hallock's incumbency, and this testimonial of Mr. 

 Manuel is a very graceful recognition of the friendship 

 then existing between the two anglers. 



