Forest and Stream. 



A Weekly Journal of the Rod and Gun. 



f -f NEW YORK, SATURDAY, AUGUST 31, 1895. \ 



For Prospectus and Advertising Rates see Page vii. 



SNAP SHOTS. 



Of the New York World's five column attack upon the 

 United States Fish Commission, one day last week, not 

 much more need be said than that it was an instance of 

 malignant journalism. The charges were, in brief, that 

 the Commission's work had been wrongfully directed into 

 scientific channels, and that the public funds had been 

 squandered in useless investigation, None of the 

 charges were new; they had all been made before, and 

 had been investigated by a special committee of the 

 Senate, whose long and thorough report concluded thus: 



In view of the great importance to the country of the work of the 

 Commission, and the urgent necessity for its continuance, we ask a 

 careful examination of the testimony presented, believing that it is 

 sufficient to convince all fair-minded persons that there is no just 

 cause to criticise the policy of the Commission or the course of the 

 Commissioner in the matter of administering the affairs of the office, 

 but on the contrary he deserves commendation for the conscientious 

 manner in which he performed his work. 



The exhaustive character of the investigation and the 

 unreserved testimony it elicited in support of the honesty 

 and wisdom of the Commissioner left nothing whatever 

 of the attacks which had given occasion for the commit- 

 tee's work. A public officer might not ask for a more 

 complete exoneration from the slanders of his enemies, 

 nor for a more substantial indorsement of his course and 

 conduct. Commissioner McDonald is now ill and absent 

 from Washington. The World prefaced its attack upon 

 him by asserting that he was too ill ever to return to 

 Washington. If this be true the World's revamping of 

 these lying accusations at such a juncture is brutal and 

 inhuman. The only excuse for such an attack is the 

 truly journalistic one that it helps sell papers. Whatever 

 increases sales is in modern journalism justified and de- 

 fended. We cannot expect daily newspaper editors to be 

 more squeamish on these points than the showmen; and 

 honors are easy between the World man and the Asbury 

 Park genius who has made a cycloramic show of the 

 Crucifixion of Christ and charges only modest gate 

 money to see it. 



It is eleven thousand miles from New York to the Cape 

 of Good Hope; but the New York Legislature appears to 

 have traveled that course when it made a law for Long 

 Island meadow hens. The open season prescribed is Jan. 

 1 to Aug. 15, which includes the nesting season; and the 

 law of course is all foolishness for Long Island, but would 

 be quite sensible for Zululand, where the seasons of nesting 

 and maturity are reversed. Most persons probably think 

 of Africa as a wild country full of game, large and small, 

 which everyone is at liberty to kill as freely as Henry M. 

 Stanley used to butcher the human beings he encountered 

 in his explorations. But large territories in Africa are 

 covered by game laws, and shooting regulations are year 

 by year being drawn more narrowly. In Zululand, for 

 instance, game birds, partridge, pheasant, guinea fowl, 

 etc., may not be killed from Aug. 1 to March 31. Babbits, 

 buffalo, quagga, zebra, and various antelope and deer are 

 protected from Sept. 1 to March. A long list of animals, 

 including elephants, rhinoceros, hippopotamus, various 

 antelope and deer, with the ostrich and secretary bird, are 

 designated as royal game, and may never be killed except 

 with the rarely granted permission of the Governor. 



<J The Destructive Egg Hunters," cries the New York 



Times, in a headline. "Is there no way of putting a stop to 

 heir ravages?" Why, bless your simplicity, yes. The 

 Forest and Stream put a stop to the ravages all at once> 

 suddenly and forever, when it exposed the whole business 

 as a. silly fake. The Times gets its scare from the Chicago 

 Tribune, and the Tribune gets its scare from the Seattle 

 Argus, and the Argus makes its out of its own noddle. 

 And there you have it. So the duck-egg story is going the 

 rounds again, with Indians, albumen cake, Senator Mitch- 

 ell's speech, vanished buffalo, and all the other conven- 

 tional appurtenances. 



A letter just received from an Oregon correspondent 

 furnishes additional reason for the belief we have ex- 

 pressed that the promoters of the duck-egg story have 

 been working in the interest of iome one who wants a 

 $5,000 Government commission to go to Alaska. We be- 

 lieve that after the Forest and Stream's exposure of the 

 nature of the duck-egg campaign Senator Mitchell will not 

 suffer himself to be used for the promotion of such a steal 

 from the treasury. 



Governor Richards, of Wyoming, last Saturday wired 

 instructions to the prosecuting attorney of Natrona 

 county to cause the arrest of a party of Princeton stu- 

 dents who had reported the killing of antelope by them 

 while on a geological exploration in the northern part of 

 the State. According to the press dispatches, the Prince- 

 ton boys had already crossed the line and were safe from 

 pursuit by the Wyoming authorities. If they did kill 

 antelope, as they boasted, these young men may cross all 

 the State lines between Wyoming and New Jersey and 

 yet not escape the odium of their lawlessness. We hear 

 magnified stories of the killing of game by Indians, but 

 not so much about the butchery by certain Eastern 

 sportsmen and resident hunters. Governor Richards de- 

 clares that the game laws shall not be violated with im- 

 punity neither by Indians nor by whites. We trust that 

 the Governor may have the courage and the power to 

 make good that declaration with respect to the whites; 

 for if they can be compelled to respect the law there will 

 be no difficulty about maintaining a game supply. 



Over the Indians as hunters the Governor of Wyoming 

 has no jurisdiction. One result of the recent cold-blooded 

 murder of Bannocks by white men is the definition anew 

 of the Indian's hunting privileges. The Attorney- General 

 has advised the Commissioner of Indian Affairs that 

 under their treaty stipulations the Bannocks and Sho- 

 shones have an unquestionable right to hunt upon un- 

 occupied lands; and that the State of Wyoming has no 

 power by its game laws to abridge these privileges. Under 

 this advice the Indian Bureau will proceed to secure by 

 writs of habeas corpus the release of Indians now held or 

 in future arrested for violation of the game laws. At the 

 same time the announcement is given that the Indian 

 Bureau will discourage hunting by the Indians. 



The report of the legislative eommittee appointed one 

 year ago by the members of trie Pennsylvania State 

 Sportsmen's Association was presented at the fifth annual 

 convention last week. The text of the report appears in 

 our trap columns. It is instructive reading, for it shows 

 what can be accomplished by an enex*getic body of sports 

 men. Perhaps we should have said, what might have 

 been accomplished; for, as a matter of fact, game legisla- 

 tion in Pennsylvania is now exactly where it was. But 

 the labor of the committee has not been absolutely fruit- 

 less, and there are great grounds for hope that the next 

 Legislature of the Keystone State may realize that the 

 sportsmen who love the gun have at least equal claim 

 upon the State's exchequer as have their brethren of the 

 rod, for purposes of protection. 



The passage of a bill preventing the sale of game, 

 which gave every promise of speedily becoming a law, 

 was most encouraging. But Governor Hastings put an 

 effectual damper upon all such hopes for a period of at 

 least two years by placing a veto upon the bill. Never- 

 theless if the Association shall follow out the plans it has 

 laid out for a campaign of education, in the end it must 

 triumph. 



The value put upon the Forest and Stream as current 

 literature deserving of permanent preservation is indicated 

 by the increasingly large demand for the index, twice a 

 year, for bound volumes kept up by public libraries and 

 y individuals. There is a constant call for special num. 



bers which are wanted to complete files, while a sug- 

 gestive indication of the lasting value of Forest and 

 Stream advertising is afforded by instances, so frequent 

 as long since to have lost their novelty, of orders received 

 for goods advertised years ago. In a case brought to our 

 notice last week the call with the cash was for an article 

 which had been advertised seven years ago. What a 

 study there will be in those bound volumes in years to 

 come, not in the reading pages only, but in the advertis- 

 ing columns, where the whole art and appurtenances of 

 the craft will be set out. 



Give the "chained" a chance. The one man who has 

 twelve months in which to go fishing or shooting may 

 reasonably be left to look out for his own interests; but 

 we ought jealously to guard the rights and privileges of 

 the hundreds and thousands who have but brief opportu- 

 nity to get away from work and business. State Fish 

 Commissioner Wampler, of Kansas, shrewdly observes: 

 "If the pleasing occupation of angling is truly the delight 

 of the contemplative man, it is a lamentable fact that the 

 ignorant, lazy lout among mankind energizes himself to 

 prowl around every inviting locality where fish are re- 

 puted to abound." Whem that "lazy lout" cleans out the 

 fish, he is robbing some better man who will come after 

 him only to meet disappointment. By reason of the fish- 

 ing assiduity of the ' 'lazy lout" the contemplative features 

 of angling often consist only in a rosy contemplation of 

 what one thinks he is going to find when he goes fishing, 

 and a somber contemplation of what he does not find 

 when he gets there. This ought not s» to be. Give the 

 "chained" a chance. 



The principle applies in Kansas and in New York. The 

 resident gunners of Moriches on Long Island have awak- 

 ened to the wisdom of protecting the interests of their 

 "chained" friends in the city. These gunners derive a 

 substantial revenue from the town sportsmen who go to 

 Moriches for black duck shooting. Butpiratos from near 

 by districts have been accustomed to kill the fowl by fire- 

 hunting at night, until because of the lessened game sup- 

 ply the city shooters no longer think it worth while to 

 visit the Moriches. The guides have taken up arms. 

 They propose to put the night-shooters through a 

 course of sprouts. Their first step was to have one of 

 their number, a fearless and determined individual, made 

 Special Deputy Sheriff. The law gives such an officer all 

 the powers of a game protector. He is committed to a 

 rigorous course. The offenders will fltod no leniency in 

 the local courts. We undertake to assure the Moriches 

 reformers that they will have the backing of the State 

 authorities. Night shooting of ducks is not to be toler- 

 ated. It must be broken up. In effecting this the Long 

 Island gunners will give not only the "chained" but them- 

 selves too a chance. 



There is a little incident, which is every bit true and 

 carries its own teaching. Early in July, a hostess in the 

 country, near New York city, had upon her table at dinner 

 ruffed grouse. One of her guests asked her how it was 

 that she allowed t these out of season birds to appear, and 

 she explained that as>he ordered such birds when in town 

 in autumn and winter, she saw no reason why she should 

 not have them in summer. A brief explanation of the 

 natural seasons for game enlightened her ignorance, and 

 she is now a consumer who will not hereafter allow out of 

 season game to appear on her table. 



There are thousands of women who are just as ignorant 

 and thoughtless as this one was, and who have no one 

 tactfully to explain to them the rights and the wrongs of 

 this game out of season traffic. 



To offset in a measure the outrage of the Donaldson 

 game law, teach the women. 



The recent destruction of fish in the ponds of the New 

 York State hatchery, at Caledonia, was caused by a flow 

 of poisonous water from a mill pond on the stream above 

 the hatchery. The pond had long been low and stagnant. 

 When the water rose it flooded the hatchery ponds, from 

 which it could not be kept out; and killed the fish in them. 

 For this no blame whatever may justly be attached to any 

 of the hatchery employees. 



The world would not be nearly so interesting as a place 

 of abode if we all thought precisely alike, on the leaping 

 of the bass, for instance. He that converteth a dissenting 

 brother to his own way of thinking is a greater Kingfisher 

 than he that taketh a record breaker from the waters. 



j Forest and StremWater Colors j 



We have prepared as premiums a series of four artistic | 



and beautiful reproductions of original water colors, \ 



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 1 9 in. They are done in i 



\i twelve colors, and are rich in effect. They are furnished * 



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



\l Forest and Stream one year and the set of four pictures, $5. | 



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



Price of the pictures alone, $1.50 each } $5 for the aet. 



Remit by express money order or postal money ordei i 



Make orders payable to j 



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



