Forest and Stream. 



A Weekly Journal of the Rod and Gun. 



TKRMB.^y^iocTs.ACoPY.^ NEW YORK, SATURDAY, AUGUST 24, 1895. \ 



For Prospectus find Advertising Rates see Page vii. 



SNAP SHOTS. 

 In a recent issue we exploded the story that millions of 

 wild duck eggs are collected by Indians in Alaska and 

 other northern regions for importation into this country 

 for the manufacture of albumen. The Seattle Argus, 

 commenting on our exposure of the canard (which is 

 French for "duck" and English for "duck-egg fake") re- 

 marks that it is very much to the discredit of the Forest 

 and Stream that "it should take this action without 

 proper investigation." The fact is quite the opposite. 

 We were the first and up to date the only ones to investi- 

 gate the truth of the story, and we found out and declared 

 that there was nothing in it. 



The Argus, whose remarks we give elsewhere, says that 

 it "can produce affidavits to the effect that this traffic 

 does exist to an enormous extent." "We have written to 

 the Argus to send us the affidavits and we too will print 

 them. We will print any and every stitch of evidence 

 that anybody at any time anywhere may have to offer to 

 controvert our statement that the duck-egg story is an 

 empty and silly yarn. 



We may add that it appears to us to be incumbent upon 

 the officials of the National Association for the Protection 

 of Game, Birds and Fish, who have made a calamity cry 

 of the Alaska duck-egg destruction, to explain their part 

 in the view-with-alarm outcry. If they fool the people 

 once, how shall the people know that they are not fooling 

 them when they start another game protection "issue"? 

 The youth who cried "wolf" when there was no wolf, was 

 not believed when there actually was one. There is so 

 much to be done for the cause of game and fish preserva- 

 tion in America that it is a tremendous pity to waste 

 breath and fool the public on imaginary issues. As for 

 the Argus, it perhaps is promoting a $5,000 good thing for 

 some patriot who wants a trip to Alaska at Uncle Sam's 

 expense. 



The report on "Birds as Protectors of Orchards," con- 

 tributed by Mr. E. H. Forbush to the Bulletin of the 

 Massachusetts Board of Agriculture, is of so great im- 

 portance that we direct special attention to it. The 

 value of the services insectivorous birds render to agri- 

 culture is generally accepted as an abstract principle; 

 here are concrete facts, which present and illustrate and 

 emphasize the principle in an extraordinarily convincing 

 manner. This report of ornithologist Forbush ought to 

 be circulated by the million copies all over this blessed 

 land. It would go far toward correcting the ignorance, 

 stupidity, stubbornness and heathenism that now wage 

 war on the birds. 



The angle-worm has prompted a vast amount of writ- 

 ing, chiefly of the things that happened before and after 

 the bait was put on the hook. Weightier, if less impor- 

 tant, contributions to literature have been devoted to this 

 humble creature. Darwin devoted years to the study of 

 earth-worms as soil makers; and now comes a monograph 

 by a British naturalist on the Oligochaeta, the order of 

 worms to which the common angle-worm belongs. 

 There are in the order fourteen families, more than 100 

 genera and over 600 species, so that the earth-worm tribe 



may well furnish material for scientific research and for 

 bulky volumes. The more than 650 titles quoted in this 

 new work hint of the attention given to earth-worms by 

 students; and if the author had only consulted angling 

 literature he might have quoted as many more not so 

 scientific. 



Speaking of angle-worms, the occasion is timely for 

 passing along the suggestion which Mr. George T. Angell, 

 president of the American Humane Education Associ- 

 ation, sends out this month "to the editors of about 

 twenty thousand newspapers and magazines," to this 

 effect: He says that "humane persons may kill fish 

 worms instantly by plunging them in a dish of boiling 

 water, and so giving the fish cooked worms instead of 

 raw." That strikes us as a happy thought and a helpful 

 hint for the twenty thousand editors if they are all worm- 

 fishermen. If the trout positively won't take the worm 

 raw, give it to him cooked — anything to get fish when the 

 camp is hungry. 



A writer in a humane journal carps at "a good Phila- 

 delphia mother," who had sent her son into the Adiron- 

 dacks with one of the best guides of the woods "that he 

 might shoot a deer, because she trusted 'that Divine Provi- 

 dence would protect him.' " The humane writer is horri- 

 fied at the thought that a mother should trust in Providence 

 for the care of a deer-hunting son; he manifestly does 

 not recognize as belonging to the scheme of creation the 

 adaptability of the young man to hunt deer and of the 

 deer to be hunted by the young man; he does not con- 

 sider that deer hunting can have Divine approval, nor that 

 a mother may rightly invoke the care of Providence in 

 behalf of a hunter. Our own notion is that the young 

 man was blessed in having such a mother, and the mother 

 in having such a son. Deer hunting is a perfectly legiti- 

 mate pursuit for young men whose loving mothers are 

 wont to commit them to the care of Providence. If the 

 exercise of maternal solicitude and faith were never re- 

 quired in behalf of sons engaged in less innocent employ- 

 ments than hunting deer, the world would be nearer the 

 millenium than it is to-day or will be for ages to come. 

 All this is said of course without authority, and subject to 

 correction by any one who knows all about Providence 

 and is cock-sure that despite a mother's trust Divine 

 Providence will let a young deer hunter go to smash be- 

 cause he is engaged in something awfully wicked. 



Majestic Liberty held aloft her torch in the harbor of 

 New York last Sunday night to light to snug anchorage 

 within its rays Valkyrie III. , come across the seas to try 

 conclusions with her cousin of American birth. The voy- 

 age was uneventful, and the boat reached port in good 

 condition. No one can foretell the result of the races to be 

 sailed next month; but one thing is certain, the winner, 

 whichever one it shall be, will have defeated a good boat. 



Just as we go to press comes a dispatch from our Chicago 

 staff correspondent announcing that the Kewanee cold 

 storage game case has been ended with a conviction of H. 

 Clay Merritt, who was fined $805. This is not a large 

 sum when compared with the rumored fines running from 

 $23,000 to $680,000, but it really is a good round figure to 

 pay for having frozen game stored away, and a penalty 

 amply sufficient to vindicate the law and to teach a lesson. 



The most suggestive feature of this Kewanee cold 

 storage case is the amount of frozen game shown to be 

 in stock. The birds piled in the vaults were the over- 

 supply from the last open season. A cold storage estab- 

 lishment full of game means that more game was slaugh- 

 tered in the season for killing than could be used in that 

 time for food. In other words, the market-shooters are 

 not restricted to supplying the demands of the hour; they 

 kill multitudes of birds in exoess. What is true of this 

 one storage establishment is true of scores of others. 

 There are to-day tons and tons of dead game packed away 

 awaiting consumption. This is where our game is going 

 to; and such facts as these furnish the abundant occasion 

 for the Forest and Stream's Platform Plank— the sale 

 of game should be forbidden at all seasons. 



The summer meeting of the American Forestry Asso- 

 ciation will convene Sept. 3, at Springfield, Mass., at the 

 time of the forty-fourth meeting of the American Asso- 

 ciation for the Advancement of Science. Recent forestry 

 legislation, water supply, protection of road-side trees, co- 



operative forestry, sea-coast and river-bank planting, 

 municipal parks, etc., will probably form the chief topics, 

 as well as the national forestry interests. The Associa- 

 tion has now over 700 members, distributed through the 

 United States and Canada. 



It has been pointed out by us more than once that what- 

 ever of game protective provisions and agencies we have 

 in this country, all are due to the activity of sportsmen. 

 They are the prompters and promoters of the laws; they 

 originate and put into operation systems of executing and 

 enforcing the statutes; they provide the ways and the 

 means. For a new instance illustrating these facts note 

 the action of the St. Louis Kennel Club, reported in our 

 game columns, which has come forward to the financial 

 support of the State game warden. The last Legislature 

 having neglected to make an appropriation for the pur- 

 pose, these St. Louis citizens stand ready to supply the 

 sinews of war. They do this not for their own particular, 

 personal, selfish benefit, but to promote a cause which is 

 of direct and immediate advantage to the commonwealth. 

 That in brief is the story of game and fish protection dur- 

 ing one stage of its development in every State in the 

 Union. 



If a genuine bull-fight, Spanish, Portuguese or Mexican, 

 were to be given within convenient reach of any of our 

 large cities, the only problem the promoters would find a 

 perplexing one would be to provide standing room for the 

 10,000 spectators who would rush to see it, and who 

 would pay such prices for the privilege as to insure the 

 fortunes of everybody connected with the enterprise. 

 There is not a shadow of question that bull-fighting would 

 be a popular "sport" with large classes of the community, 

 and there is not a whit more doubt that public sentiment 

 would never toierate it. We note that the Colorado 

 Humane Society, through Secretary Thomson, has ap- 

 pealed to Gov. Mclntyre to issue a proclamation forbid- 

 ding the proposed Mexican bull-fight at Gillet, in the Crip- 

 ple Creek district, on Saturday, Sept. 24. 



If bull-fighting cannot go on unmolested in the wilds of 

 Colorado, it certainly cannot be promoted in the East. 

 The announcement of the managers of the Atlanta Ex- 

 position that they proposed to have among their attrac- 

 tions an outfit of bulls and bull-fighters from Mexico and 

 genuine combats, has provoked such a storm of protest 

 and opposition, that now the Exposition authorities have 

 given out that their show will be only a sham. Whether 

 the people who would pay to see a real fight will pay to 

 see a sham remains to be determined. The interesting 

 fact is that public sentiment on bull fights is to-day where 

 it was fifteen years ago when it squelched a similar pro- 

 ject in this city. The opposition was then led by Henry 

 Bergh; to-day no Bergh is needed to lead it. 



It would take a Philadelphia lawyer to tell what a 

 legislature is driving at sometimes when it sets about re- 

 vising the game laws. In this State, for example, the 

 law now protects meadow hens on Long Island between 

 Aug. 16 and Jan. 1; and permits them to be killed from 

 Jan. 1 to Aug. 16. Most people who know anything 

 about meadow hens assume that the intent of the law- 

 makers was to provide seasons just the opposite of those 

 named. That perhaps is a charitable view to take of it. 



There is another muddle in Minnesota, where, by an 

 error of designating the sections of the game law, it ap- 

 pears that the hunting of birds with dogs is forbidden. 

 The Attorney-General has just given an opinion that the 

 prohibition of using dogs must be deemed to apply to 

 deer. As given in the Game Laws in Brief, the enumera- 

 tion of the sections is such that the provision as to dogs 

 does apply to big game. We assume that if taken into 

 court the Attorney-General's view would be sustained, 

 and that the perspicacity of the Briefs revisory methods 

 would be vindicated. 



In Wisconsin too the Attorney General has been called 

 on to give his opinion on a mooted point. The law forbids 

 killing mallard, teal or wood-duck between Dec. 1 and 

 Aug. 20 following; but in another section forbids killing 

 "any wild duck of any variety" between May 1 and Sept. 

 1. The Attorney General and the State Game Warden 

 have united in interpreting the conflicting provisions as 

 opening the season for mallard, wood-duck and teal on 

 Aug. 30. 



I Forest and Stream Water Colors I 



|[ We have prepared as premiums a series 'of four artistic | 



\\ and beautiful reproductions of original water colors, \ 



|f painted expressly for the Forest and Stream. The \ 



Vi subjects are outdoor scenes: 



* Jacksnine Coming In. "He's Got Them" (Quail Shooting:), i 

 || Vigilant and Valkyrie. Bass Fishing- at Block Island. \ 



v [ SEE REDUCED HALF-TONES IN OUR ADVT. COLUMNS. $ 



* ' - 



H The plates are for frames 14 x 1 9 in. They are done in I 



$ ? twelve colors, and are rich in effect. They are furnished | 



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



II Forest and Stream one year and the set of four pictures, $5. ; 

 I \ Forest and Stream 6 months and any two of the pictures, $3. ^ 



5 : Price of the pktiires alone, $1.50 eaeh | $5 for the set. 



* i Remit by express money order 01 postal money orde* \ 

 |i Make orders payable to | 



U FOREST AND STREAM PUB. CO., New York. \ 



