Forest and Stream. 



A Weekly Journal of the Rod and Gun. 



1 NEW YORK, SATURDAY, OCTOBER 6, 1896. { No . 318 T &£Iri!2w 14 v, 



For Prospectus and Advertising Rates see Page iii. 



The Forest and Stream is put to press 

 on Tuesdays. Correspondence intended for 

 publication should reach us by Mondays and 

 as much earlier as may be practicable. 



LOUIS PASTEUR. 



On Sept. 28 Professor Louis Pasteur, chemist and sci- 

 entist of world-wide fame, died at Villeneuve after a 

 severely painful illness. As chemist and scientist he was 

 best known to the world, but if a life-long effort to ame- 

 liorate and cure the ills which afflict humanity is worthy 

 of a title, he was one of the world's greatest philanthro- 

 pists. 



Professor Pasteur was born at Dole, Dec. 27, 1822. His 

 origin was humble, his father being a journeyman tan- 

 ner, poor and patriotic, a soldier who had seen service in 

 war and had been decorated for deeds of valor. The in- 

 tense patriotism of the father was no less a characteristic 

 of the son. 



Professor Pasteur's early life gave no indication of his 

 later industry and greatness. His early school days were 

 not marked by industrious application to his studies or 

 interest in them. After a preliminary education under 

 the tutorship of his father, he began his classical s.tudies 

 at Arbois. Afterward he continued his studies at Besan- 

 con, where he took the degree of Bachelor of Letters and 

 was appointed a tutor. His capacity and inclination for 

 work had now developed, his ambition was aroused and 

 he studied earnestly to qualify for admission to the Ecole 

 Normale, where on the first examination he was admit- 

 ted. This stimulated his ambition still more. He went 

 to Paris, began new studies at the Institution Barbet, and 

 on a second examination in 1845 won fourth place. 

 After two years devoted to the study of chemistry at the 

 Ecole, in 1847 he was appointed a doctor, and the year 

 following he accepted the position of Professor of Physics 

 in the College of Dijon. Shortly afterward he held the 

 same position in the Faculty of Sciences at Strassburg. He 

 succeeded in 1854 in perfecting the organization of the 

 Faculty of Sciences at Lille. Three years later he was 

 one of the faculty of the Ecole Normale. Advancement 

 in the world of science followed rapidly. In 1865 he was 

 professor of geology, physics and chemistry at the Ecole des 

 Beaux Arts, and from 1867 to 1875 he was professor of chem- 

 istry at the Sarbonne. In 1862 he was elected a member 

 of the Academy of Sciences. The title of Doctor, be- 

 stowed on him by the faculty of medicine at Bonn, he 

 declined on account of sentiment relating to the Franco- 

 German war. He was made a foreign member of the 

 Royal Society of London in 1869, and in 1881 a member 

 of the French Academy. Oxford honored him with the 

 title of Doctor of Sciences, and he was made a perpetual 

 secretary of the Academy of Sciences in 1887, a responsi- 

 bility which his health and scientific labors did not long 

 permit him to assume. He was made honorary perpetual 

 secretary on his resignation after two years' service. The 

 French Government distinguished him with all possible 

 honors. He was made a Senator by royal intervention, 

 and in 1885 became a member of the Legion of HonOr. 



To the world at large he was best kno wn by his great 

 and valuable discoveries. His first achievement of note 

 in the scientific world was in relation to the properties of 

 fermentation. 



In 1849, an epidemic of such destructiveness that it 

 threatened the total destruction of the silk worm and the 

 valuable industries dependent upon its cultivation brought 

 consternation and despair to the silk growers in several 

 departments of France. Pasteur, out of compassion 

 for the people who were suffering so much misery, went 

 to Alais, where the destruction was greatest. His investi- 

 gations proved that the disease was caused by germs, and 

 that by simply separating the diseased eggs from the 

 healthy ones the destruction could be checked. His suc- 

 cess brought him fame and the gratitude of the nation. 



But the discoveries which made him most famous were 

 in connection with inoculation for the prevention or modi- 

 fication of diseases other than small-pox. His experi- 

 ments and discoveries in connection with hydrophobia, 

 and the curative and preventive properties claimed for 

 the attenuated virus of rabies, are well known. The Pas- 

 teur treatment for hydrophobia has been earnestly ad- 

 vanced and quite as earnestly opposed as a proper treat- 

 ment for hydrophobia; yet it has gained ground in so 



much that a number of Pasteur institutes have been 

 established. 



Professor Pasteur had, since the epidemic of 1892, made 

 experiments in vaccination against cholera, in which it is 

 said he had made positive success in his experiments on 

 animals. 



Under the disadvantages which come with humble 

 origin and limited means, burdens which overwhelm 

 most men, he deservedly rose from obscurity to the 

 greatest fame and honors by the very force of his in- 

 dustry and genius. 



SNAP SHOTS. 

 At a meeting held last week in Cheyenne, of represent- 

 atives of the Government and the State authorities of Wyo- 

 ming, a plan was agreed upon for determining the right 

 of the B tnnock Indians under their treaty to hunt on 

 public unoccupied lands. Two Indians are to be put on 

 trial for test cases, that the courts may decide the ques- 

 tion of their hunting privileges. If it shall be shown that 

 the Indians have a right to hunt, Governor Richards will 

 undertake to protect them in the exercise of that right. 

 If it shall be decided that the Indians have no right to 

 hunt in violation of State laws, although their treaty 

 gives them that right, the Government, on its part, will 

 undertake to secure a modification of the existing treaty. 

 At this distance from Wyoming on the one side and 

 Washington on the other, it appears that such a judicial 

 determination of the question might well have been made 

 years ago. 



Gov. Culberson, of Texas, who has just convened the 

 Legislature in extraordinary session to take action on a 

 projected prize fight to be held in that State, would have 

 earned the thanks of the community, too, if he had in- 

 cluded in the purposes of the session the enactment of a 

 new and improved game law. If Texas is solicitous for 

 the good opinion of the world, and for that reason resents 

 giving harbor to the bruisers, she might with equal fore- 

 sight mend her fences as to quail and deer. 



Having reached the. age entitling him to relief from 

 duty, Lieut.- Gen. John M. Schofield was retired last 

 Monday from the command of the Army and from active 

 service; and on Wednesday, no longer being chained to 

 business, he went to Peale Island, Ohio, for a fortnight of 

 fun with rod and gun. Gen. Schofield has earned the 

 right to go fishing; we wish him many an October day 

 crowded to the full of the pleasures of care-free life on 

 the waters. 



While the manufacturers of sporting gunpowders have 

 been cudgeling their brains to produce an explosive 

 smokeless and free from noise the Government officials 

 have been looking for the combination that would make 

 the most noise for sunrise and sunset salutes to the orb of 

 day and for occasional salutes to certain gold-braided 

 luminaries who sail the sea and walk the land. For this 

 particular saluting purpose a brand has been adopted 

 which makes a tremendous noise when it goes off, and 

 rolls imposiug clouds of glory after it. One charge of it 

 in a woodcock cover would shake the earth and veil the 

 landscape in smoke. 



In this country a game killer who should erect a monu- 

 ment to perpetuate an extraordinary record of birds killed 

 would perhaps gain dubious honor from the shaft. It is 

 different in Great Britain, where shooting for a record is 

 prevalent, and where the man who scores the most birds 

 in a given time is held in envied repute. On an English 

 moor some years ago a shooter achieved a performance 

 on birds which he thought worthy of being perpetuated 

 in stone, so he set up a shaft of Aberdeen granite in- 

 scribed with his phenomenal score of ninety-six brace of 

 grouse killed in twenty-three minutes, together with the 

 figures of the day's bag of 1,035 brace for six guns. The 

 total for the week for six guns was 4,000 brace; and the 

 monument also gave the total for the season as more than 

 17,000, or, to be exact, 17,060. The monument was 

 erected on the exact spot occupied by the shooter when 

 he killed his ninety-six brace in twenty-three mmutes, 

 but subsequently, as it was found to interfere with the 

 flight of the birds for other record hunters, it was removed 

 to another moor. 



If such a memorial erected by an American shooter to 

 record his bag of prairie chickens or quail might not be 



regarded as particularly creditable, nevertheless it is cer- 

 tain that there would be a vast army of gunners who 

 would envy the man his luck. For talk as we may and 

 write as we may, there are hosts who rejoice in a big bag 

 or a big catch, and who have not much eye for anything 

 else nor thought for anything except number and weight. 

 Very likely there are enough shooters and fishermen ani- 

 mated by such sentiments to make up an army of pil- 

 grims who would journey to a Mecca with such high-hook 

 Caaba. 



The man who fishes for count not only misses much 

 that another finds in fishing, but very often makes him- 

 self uncomfortable and unhappy because of his unreason- 

 able ambition to outdo some rival fisherman. We have 

 known anglers who were envious, petulant and childish, 

 simply because they had been taken possession of by an 

 overmastering ambition to get ahead of some one else. 

 Your count fisherman will put in a whole season of wak- 

 ing hours and dreams by night, planning to outdo his 

 competitor, and when he fails in this, he is inventing inge- 

 nious theories to belittle the luck enjoyed by the one who 

 gets ahead of him. This is not angling, for an angler 

 rejoices in his own good fortune, and though he may look 

 with wistfulness on the more fortunate success of an- 

 other he does not begrudge it. 



At the recent meeting of the American Forestry Associ- 

 ation, Prof. Dwight Porter, of the Massachusetts Institute 

 of Technology, read a paper on forests and water supply 

 which went to disprove the accepted theory that cutting 

 off the forests affects the flow of streams. Prof. Porter 

 discussed the flow of the Connecticut River as recorded 

 by figures kept for a quarter century. At two points on 

 the river, at Hartford and Holyoke, continuous observa- 

 tions of the water supply have been made and recorded, 

 and the Hartford records, available for study, run back 

 for fifty years. The Holyoke records date only from 1880. 



The commonly accepted principle is that the cutting of 

 the forests is injurious to the flow of the streams whose 

 basins - are thus denuded; but the figures recorded at 

 Hartford do not bear this out with respect to the Connec- 

 ticut; the tributary area there is of 10,200 square miles, 

 and the statistics are given by Prof. Porter as follows: 

 "The average height of the Connecticut at Hartford be- 

 tween 1841 and 1849 was 20.6ft.; between 1850-1859, 

 20.5ft.; 1860-1869, 21.2ft.; 1870-1879, 21.7ft.; 1880-1889, 

 18.9ft.; 1890-1895, 19.6ft. These figures disclose no per- 

 manent change. The highest freshet was in 1854, the 

 lowest in 1858, and only twice has the height of 21. 7ft. 

 attained in 1801 been exceeded. Apparently there was a 

 gradual increase in the average height down to 1880, 

 while there was at the same time a marked and steady 

 decrease from 1854-1880 in the heights of the more ex- 

 treme freshets. The Ho'yoke diagi-am displays a general 

 improvement from 1880 to 1893. This may be due to in- 

 creased reservoir facilities on the tributaries of the main 

 river. So far as the lower river is concerned there is no 

 change for the worse in twenty- five years." 



Sometimes it happens that when a person writes much 

 for Forest and Stream of his days in the field, those who 

 read his stories may come to think of him as always play- 

 ing and never working, and for the most part, too, such a 

 conclusion is as far from the truth as Greenland from 

 Terra del Fuego. We have always contended and Stan d 

 up for it against all comers, that they are most deserving 

 of fun afield and enjoy it most heartily whose lives are 

 busiest. They, too, wield the pens which give us the most 

 charming, rollicking and enticing chronicles of their out- 

 ings. The man who amounts to something in the work- 

 a-day world is the one to whom the pleasures of play days 

 are fresh and stimulating and inspiring, and he is the one 

 to write of them for the edification of those fortunate 

 enough to read the record. 



We learn with deep regret of the death of Thaddeus C. 

 Banks, of the Montgomery (Ala.) Advertiser. Mr. Banks 

 began his newspaper service with the Forest and Stream 

 years ago, and this office had watched with something of 

 paternal pride his successful career as a journalist. His 

 nature was one that endeared him to his associates, and 

 although the term of his life was not long, it sufficed to 

 demonstrate once anew that true worth of character is 

 the quality that is honored of the world 



