Forest and Stream. 



A Weekly Journal of the Rod and Gun. 



NEW YORK, SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 2, 1896. \ No . • 



For Prospectus and Advertising Rates see Page in. 



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. 



The act of Congress, by which the United States Fish 

 Commission was established, provided that its work should 

 consist of two branches: first, investigation into the con- 

 dition of food fisheries; and second, the multiplication 

 and dissemination of the more important species. 



In the beginning it was a matter of course that the in- 

 quiry branch of the work should be regarded as of more 

 importance than that of propagation, and it was quite 

 natural too that those who followed Professor Baird in 

 the direction of the affairs of the Commission should de- 

 velop the work upon the original lines which he had 

 marked out. Without now entering upon any detailed 

 statement, it may be said that the development of 

 the branch of scientific inquiry and research has been 

 carried to an extent which has come to be recognized as 

 disproportionate to the actual work of fish propagation 

 and distribution. The present time when a new Com- 

 missioner is about to assumo control appears to be oppor- 

 tune for a modification of the activities of the Commis- 

 sion in such a way that the work of practical fishculture 

 shall assume the larger relative importance which it de- 

 serves. 



We are not among those who carp at science as a scare- 

 crow and all scientific inquiry as a squandering of public 

 funds. The Fish Commission never could have done the 

 important and magnificent work which it has accom- 

 plished had the line not been staked and the way cut for 

 it by science, no more than a railroad could be construct- 

 ed without the preliminary survey. But as after a rail- 

 road has been constructed, while the surveyors and 

 engineers may still prosecute their investigations for 

 feeders and branch lines, the main business of the direct- 

 ors of the road is to increase the passenger traffic and 

 the freight tonnage, so the chief business of the Fish Com- 

 mission to-day is to increase the supply of food fishes. 

 The Division of Fishculture should in effect constitute the 

 Commission itself. The new Commissioner should be a 

 man who, like Dr. Bean, formerly at the head of the Di- 

 vision of Fishculture, has had a wide and practical ex- 

 perience in this special field, and who is known to be in 

 sympathy with the fishcultural work of the Commission 

 and amply qualified to direct and control it. 



We are not discussing the utility of scientific inquiry in 

 general nor specifically of that which has been prosecuted 

 by the Fish Commission or is now in progress under its 

 direction. But the funds provided for such work should 

 be appropriated distinctly for scientific inquiry, and 

 should be wholly apart from and in addition to the pro- 

 vision which Congress makes for the Fish Commission. 

 They should be classed under a separate head of expendi- 

 tures. Investigation by the Fish Commission should be 

 restricted to that which is calculated to produce direct 

 material results for the advantage of the public who pay 

 the taxes. There is an abundant field for work in this 

 direction in the study of the habits, rates of growth, hab- 

 itats and life histories of our commercial food fishes, 

 their diseases and enemies, and the agencies which affect 

 them. 



SNAP SHOTS. 

 Kelpie has his say as to "true sportsmanship," and to 

 many his profession will be heresy. But is it not true, 

 perhaps, that in our discussions of "sportsmanship" we 

 constantly overlook the existence of that vast army of 

 those who kill game and fish for game and fish, and not 

 in any measure whatever for sport? If a man requires a 

 mess of pickerel for his home table, or a mess of quail, 

 and if he goes out to gather in the one or the other pre- 

 cisely for the purposes and with the utilitarian hunger- 

 appeasing motive that control him in digging potatoes or 

 wringing the neck of a hen that has ceased to lay, why 

 should he be denounced because of his unsportsmanlike 

 conduct? What is sport to him; or what is he to 

 sport? He has a perfect right to the fish and the 

 game, and should have the unquestioned privilege 

 of taking them in any way under heaven that 

 pleases him, provided only that the method he 

 chooses is not unreasonably destructive. The only excuse, 

 for instance, to forbid the trapping of game is found in 

 the practical experience which has demonstrated that 

 trapping so destroys the stock that the supply is depleted 

 to a point where no more birds are left for either shooter 

 or trapper. The gunner may very properly claim that his 

 way of taking game is of a higher grade than the trap- 

 per's way; but he can rightly have no quarrel with the 

 trapper because the man of the snare is wanting in sports- 

 manlike sentiment. As well might the amateur tooler of 

 the tally ho coach berate the unsportsmanlike spirit of the 

 driver of the ash cart. It is well and proper to hold a 

 professed sportsman in the exercise of his sportsmanship 

 strictly to the dictates and limitations of sport; but is it 

 reasonable to require that every person who takes game 

 or fish must do it for sport and after a mode recognized as 

 sportsmanlike? 



Now, here is an unreasonable citizen. He lives on 

 Fifth avenue, New York, near the menagerie of the Cen- 

 tral Park, and he has been making a fuss because he says 

 he is kept awake nights by the ' 'howling of the wapiti" 

 confined in the deer paddocks. That is a most extraor- 

 dinary complaint. Many a man would travel long and 

 far into the wilderness to hear once more in the night the 

 whistle of the elk. It is music which the connoisseurs in 

 such things assure us is of the finest in the world, in the 

 real world of the mountains. Sportsmen poets, like the 

 lamented H. P. IT. , have written prose poems about the 

 elk's whistle; and many another sportsman, without much 

 poetry in his soul, would go on a pilgrimage, even to 

 Central Park, if so it might be that the scrawny elk 

 penned there would deign to whistle for him. And yet 

 this unappreciative and cantankerous Fifth avenue man, 

 with an ear not attuned to the harmonies of nature, de- 

 mands of the Park Commissioners that they shall abolish 

 the "howling wapiti" as a public nuisance. We protest. 

 Abolish, if needs must be, the whistles of ferryboats, 

 the shrieks of locomotives, the roar of the elevated roads, 

 the clangor of bells, the uproar of milk wagons, the rattle 

 and thunder of fire engines, the barking of dogs and wail- 

 ing of cats; we could spare them all, yet with the whistle 

 of the elk would still be one grand, sweet song. 



Public men are inevitably the subjects of public com- 

 ment, favorable and adverse, and the more prominent a 

 man's position the more he is talked about and the more 

 ridiculous are the stories told about him. Mr. Theodore 

 Eoosevelt, who for some years has been much in the 

 public eye, has not escaped the common fate. People at 

 large regard Mr. Roosevelt as a public man of the highest 

 character, a successful author and a good sport3man. 

 Yet every now and then the public is amused by stories 

 to the effect that Mr. Roosevelt cannot ride, or cannot 

 write, or wears better clothes than he ought to, or has 

 good teeth. The stories told about him are always trivial. 

 So these tales only add somewhat to the amusement of 

 the nation, and especially tickle Mr. Roosevelt's friends. 

 The last extravagances about him originate in Chicago 

 and come from the lips of a man who seems to have been 

 recently taking a primary course in Western outdoor life. 

 If this man had had more experience he would probably 

 be less ready to repeat the stories with which the average 

 Western man delights to impose on the credulity of the 

 pilgrim. 



A correspondent, who is so fortunate as to be blessed with 

 a brother living in a fine game country in southern Mis- 

 souri, has been invited to spend a month or two there in 



shooting. But, ammunition bought, trunk packed and 

 all preparations made for an immediate start, he is con- 

 fronted by the Missouri game law, which makes it a 

 misdemeanor for non-residents to kill game anywhere 

 within the State. The question he asks is this: "Is there 

 any way in which I can have a little sport and still re- 

 spect the law?" The Missouri non-resident law is a dead 

 letter; so far as we can learn it is not observed by any 

 one; such sportsmen as George Kennedy denounce it; 

 multitudes of non-residents invade Missouri and kill 

 game in spite of it. Under these conditions what should 

 be the decision of the Philadelphia man with his brother 

 in a game district in Missouri, ammunition supplied and 

 trunk packed? Should he buy a ticket? 



The Maine enterprise of importing game birds from 

 other States and from abroad for propagation in confine- 

 ment appears to have been a failure. Whether this was 

 due to the inherent difficulties of the undertaking, or~to 

 the ignorance and incapacity of those who had the mat- 

 ter in practical charge, we leave for others to determine. 

 When Mr. Ames sent us the communication, which is 

 published to-day, telling of what he had found at Auburn, 

 we wrote at once to President E. C. Farrington, of the 

 Maine Fish and Game Association, who in turn applied to 

 the Augusta parties for particulars to send to us. UpXto 

 this date Mr. Farrington's intervention has not been 

 potent to secure for us any new information from 

 Auburn. The money spent on the capercailzie appears to 

 have been expended for experience, with no feathers to 

 show for it. 



The Massachusetts Association is considering the merits 

 of the several species of birds which have been imported 

 into this country. 



As a rule the effigies of dogs and cats and other brute 

 creatures are out of place in a cemetery and grate 

 harshly upon one's sensibilities; but now and then there 

 is an instance where the memorial of an animal's de- 

 votion appears fitting and graceful. One may hardly 

 question the motive which has prompted the placing of a 

 collie dog's statue in one of the cemeteries near New 

 York. The faithful creature was for years a useful mem- 

 ber of a Dakota ranchman's "outfit," and between dog 

 and master a warm friendship existed. When the man 

 died the dog was inconsolable, as dogs often are; made 

 daily visits to the tomb of its master; and finally died 

 with every evidence of a broken heart, to have its de- 

 votion commemorated by this marble memorial. 



Our correspondents from a number of different sections 

 have made mention that this year's crop of birds is of an 

 unusually late hatching, and the reports from some 

 sections indicate an actual scarcity, but whether the latter 

 was caused by excessive shooting or by weather condi- 

 tions we have not been informed. For two summers, 

 this summer and last, the rainfall has been exceedingly 

 light, thus causing a severe and prolonged drought, which 

 may have affected the bird crop for better or worse, 

 although a dry summer, according to common observa- 

 tion, is favorable. It would be interesting to have the 

 observations of others on these points. 



Have you mended your fences for Election day and 

 made every preparation for that important occasion? 

 That is to say, have you staked out the quail or partridge, 

 woodcock or prairie chicken country over which you 

 propose to shoot after you shall have dropped your bal- 

 lot? ^The calendar of the year shows many a date printed 

 in red to signify that it is a holiday, but not yet have we 

 so many days of freedom that any one of them may be 

 neglected for improvement to the full measure of what 

 opportunities it gives for carrying a gun behind a dog. 



Observers who are speculating about the scarcity of 

 song birds should turn their attention to the feminine 

 headgear now in style. Feathers are a fashion still, and 

 the fashion now is to wear more feathers than ever before. 

 Where one pair of wings sufficed before, two or three or a 

 half dozen are required. Now may we expect to have 

 birds in our fields and orchards and on hats and bonnets 

 too? 



Dealer— "What size shot will you have?" 

 Novice— "Give me No. 1 bird shot; I always want the 

 best." 



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I , 5 



| We have prepared as premiums a series of four artistic | j 



\\ and beautiful reproductions of original water colors, I 



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$ subjects are outdoor scenes: i\ 



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# Jacksnipe Coming In. "He's Got Them" (Quail Snooting). \ 



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