Forest and Stream 



A Weekly Journal of the Rod and Gun. 



Teems, $4 a Year. 10 Cts. a Copy. I 

 Six Months, $2. j 



NEW YORK, SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 30, 1895. 



j VOL. XLV.-No. 22. 



j No. 818 Broadway New York. 



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. 



THE BANNOCKS AND THE GAME. 



For the first time in the history of the Bannock Indian 

 hunting troubles in Wyoming, the matter has been taken 

 into court and a legal decision respecting it has been 

 made. The point at issue was as to the right of the Ban- 

 nock Indians to kill game on the unoccupied lands of the 

 State in contravention of the game laws as to seasons. 

 The Indians claimed that they had such a right, and last 

 summer some of them set about exercising it in the vicin- 

 ity of Jackson's Hole. Thereupon the settlers of the 

 Hole, constituting themselves judge, jury and execu- 

 tioner, apprehended certain of the Indian hunters and 

 killed them. Having executed the penalty of death upon 

 them, they then instituted the customary procedure to 

 determine the guilt or innocence of the individuals they 

 had shot down. 



To make a test case, one of the Bannocks, named Race 

 Horse, was arrested by the State authorities on the 

 charge of having violated the Wyoming game laws, 

 and he was tried in the United States Court at Chey- 

 enne, where Judge Riner has just given an opin- 

 ion, which finds that the right of hunting was con- 

 ceded by the treaty made between the Bannocks and 

 the Government, and that treaties having been declared 

 by Congress to be the supreme law of the land, this one 

 could not be abrogated by the State of Wyoming, nor has 

 the State any power to enforce laws which conflict with 

 or restrict in any way the full rights guaranteed the 

 Indians by treaty. To alter the existing privileges of the 

 Indians with respect to hunting on unoccupied lands in 

 the State of Wyoming is solely within the province of the 

 United States Government, and until action shall be taken 

 at Washington to purchase from the Bannocks their pres- 

 ent rights, Wyoming is powerless to restrict them. How- 

 ever unfortunate may be the conditions which have 

 arisen, the opinion of Judge Riner commends itself as a 

 sound ' exposition of the law. There the matter rests. 

 Attorney Gen. Fowler and Judge Van Deventer, counsel 

 for the State, have given notice of an appeal to the 

 Supreme Court of the United States. There is little rea- 

 son to believe that the decision just given will be 

 reversed. 



THE VERMONT LEAGUE. 



An argument that is very generally advanced in favor 

 of protecting fish and game is that we should preserve 

 them for the benefit of those who are to come after us, as 

 well as for our own future use. The argument is certainly 

 a sound one, and in many States is really about the only 

 plausible one. In Vermont, however, a solid business- 

 like view is taken. The State has a magnificent lake 

 and some lovely fishing rivers, and mountains and valleys 

 well wooded and eminently fitted for the purposes of 

 rearing and fostering of furred and feathered game in 

 large quantities. The scenery is grand, and the climate 

 during the summer and early months of the fall, added 

 to her natural beauties, make Vermont a favorite resort 

 for a vast number of visitors during that season. This 

 friendly invasion is a good thing for the State. Every 

 individual visitor means money expended in her borders 

 and the sum total left in Vermont each year by her tem- 

 porary visitors cannot be computed with any degree of 

 accuracy in cold dollars. The Vermonters are by no 

 means slow people; they have recognized in their lake 

 and rivers, in their forest-clad mountains and valleys, a 

 fruitful source of revenue if properly looked after and 

 cared for, correctly surmising that if the hunting and 

 fishing shall be improved, the number of annual visitors 

 will proportionately be increased. 



At present the Vermont Game and Fish League is en- 

 gaged in looking closely after the game now in the State, 

 and is doing its best to prevent violations of the existing 

 game laws. The State hatchery, under the able care of 

 Superintendent Titcomb, is also doing great work in 

 stocking the waters of Lake Champlain with game fish. 

 Efforts are also being made, as will be apparent by a 

 perusal of a report of the proceedings of the recent annual 

 meeting of the League, given elsewhere, to introduce new 

 game birds into the State, with a view to making a day's 



hunt in the forests of Vermont the more attractive by 

 reason of the variety of game that shall be obtained. The 

 League is therefore doing good work in behalf of fish and 

 game protection, perhaps from neither a semi-selfish nor a 

 purely philanthropical motive. There is a solid business 

 motive at the bottom, but we cannot see that its work is 

 any the less commendable; it is working for the best in- 

 terests of the Commonwealth. 



The supply of deer in the State is yearly increasing very 

 satisfactorily. The penalty for killing a deer is severe 

 and the laws in this respect are well observed. From 

 most reliable sources we have heard of deer being seen in 

 certain favored sections with a frequency that augurs well 

 for the first open season, that of 1900. With five more 

 peaceable breeding seasons before them, the number of 

 deer now in existence should be very largely increased. 

 What the people of Vermont must now look to is the 

 preservation of those deer from total extinction as soon 

 as "the law is off." It should not be a case of a colored 

 man's dog after a hog-killing— full as he can stick for two 

 weeks and half starved the remaining fifty. A short open 

 season, say from Oct. 15 to Nov. 15; non-shimnent of deer 

 out of the State; a limit placed on the number of deer to 

 be killed by each hunter — all such restrictions will be of 

 incalculable benefit when it comes to protecting the deer 

 from extermination in 1900 and the succeeding years. 

 The Vermont Fish and Game League may be trusted to 

 see to it that these points will not be overlooked when it 

 comes to framing a law in regard to the legal killing of 

 deer. 



THE FO URCHETTE BUFFALO. 



For a long time it has been an open secret among cow- 

 men in Montana and travelers through the State who 

 are interested in such subjects that there were still left on 

 the Big Dry Fork of the Missouri River, and perhaps on the 

 heads of Big Porcupine and Little Porcupine, a very few 

 buffalo. The country is one of extreme difficulty, being 

 exceedingly rough with bad lands and almost waterless. 

 The few buffalo left there were the remnants of that last 

 remnant of the great northern herd which furnished to 

 Crees, Blackfeet, Assinaboines and Gros Ventres 50,000 

 hides in the year 1883, the last considerable shipment of 

 buffalo hides which went down the Missouri River. 

 Later it was into this same desolate and forbidding coun- 

 try that Hornaday went to secure specimens of the buf- 

 falo for the National Museum; and later still Dr. Daniel 

 Gerard Elliott, now Curator of the Field Columbian 

 Museum in Chicago, but then connected with the Ameri- 

 can Museum of Natural History, New York, made an 

 expedition thither in behalf of the last named institution. 



Buffalo were there, but so few in number and so ex- 

 ceedingly wary that it was almost hopeless to attempt to 

 find them. At the same time we have known that from 

 time to time within the last few years an occasional buf- 

 falo has been killed in that country. 



At first these animals were seen only by twos and 

 threes, later we heard of a bunch of half a dozen, and 

 later still of eight, one a calf. For the last two or three 

 years it has been stated that the cattle owners, whose 

 herds range in this country, have been protecting these 

 buffalo. This they did in two ways, namely, by denying 

 to inquirers that there were any buffalo in the country, 

 and by threatening with death any one who should dis- 

 turb the animals. It is known that within the last two or 

 three years the cowboys have branded a number of 

 calves, and it is said that last summer the iron was put on 

 «,t least four. 



It had been hoped by many residents of Montana that 

 this system of protection might ultimately result in a 

 herd of semi-domesticated buffalo ranging on tributaries 

 of the Missouri from the south. Unhappily this hope 

 seems now in vain. It is now reported that this little 

 band of buffalo, sometimes known as the Four chette band, 

 have been killed off by the vagrant Cree half-breeds, 

 who, finding Canada too hot to hold them at the collapse 

 of the Riel rebellion, crossed the boundary line at that 

 time and have since made Montana their home. These 

 people are inveterate hunters, and since their invasion of 

 the State they have probably killed more game 1 han all 

 its other inhabitants put together. As they are known, 

 and as their acts are known to the authorities, it is diffi- 

 cult to see why the law is not set in motion and why 

 some of them are not punished for the illegal killing of 

 game of which they are so frequently guilty. It is some- 

 times said that because they are citizens of Canada the 

 State of Montana has no right to punish them for offenses 



against the game law, but we fancy that no such explana- 

 tion would be given if these people had been guilty of 

 murder or of cattle killing, or of any one of a hundred 

 other offenses which more nearly touched the people of 

 the State, and we are inclined to think that the inertness 

 of the authorities must be due to a carelessness about the 

 enforcement of game laws, rather than to any doubt of 

 their ability to punish these people. 



The laws of Montana prohibit absolutely the killing of 

 buffalo and fix a penalty for the same. These laws are 

 sometimes enforced against white men and more fre- 

 quently against Indians. It is not so very long ago that 

 three Assinaboines on the Missouri River were imprisoned 

 for killing game illegally, nor since half a dozen Indians 

 in Flat Head county, captured with elk skins and heads 

 in their possession, were promptly locked up. If this is 

 good medicine for our Indians, it should be good medicine 

 for Canadian Indians guilty of like offenses if they can 

 be captured on our soil and the offense proved against 

 them. 



SNAP SHOTS. 

 An obliging correspondent who writes anonymously 

 sends as marginal commentary on an Adirondack deer 

 hunting note, recently printed in the Forest and 

 Stream, this comment: "The rankest, meanest pot- 

 hunter in the State; ' preaches God's law Sunday and 

 breaks State laws. Hunts out of season. Is a meat- 

 hunter, and a disgrace to the cloth and to the name of 

 sportsman." Such an indictment as that deserves authen- 

 tication by the name of the person preferring it. The 

 uselessness and ineffectiveness of anonymous letters is 

 understood by most intelligent persons. If this anony- 

 mous accuser can make good his charge, we trust that he 

 will make an opportunity to communicate with the game 

 protector. A straightforward statement of facts, given 

 to the proper authorities, will accomplish something. 

 No-name letters are not worth the paper they are written 



This is not to question the perfect good faith and 

 right motive of the sender of an unsigned letter or of one 

 signed "Justice" or "Veritas" or other substitute for a 

 real name. In many cases "Justice" or "Veritas" may 

 have actual knowledge of game law violations, and in- 

 formation and evidence which would prove amply suffi- 

 cient to convict offenders, and which it is his duty as a 

 good sportsman to lay before the authorities. Resort is 

 had to anonymous writing only because the writer fears 

 to give his name; he is apprehensive of the vengeance of 

 the guilty; he thinks that his barn would be burned, or 

 his cows would be killed, or his dog poisoned. What 

 course he shall pursue under such circumstances is for 

 each one to determine for himself. It is reasonable to 

 conclude, however, that in every case where an inform- 

 ant will substantiate the information he has to give by 

 coming out in his own proper person, the editor or the 

 game protector or the army officer will respect his com- 

 munication as confidential. 



Mr, N. P. Leach, chairman of the committee on intro- 

 ducing new kinds of game into Vermont, has recently 

 received a lot of Mongolian pheasants. He reports that 

 the birds arrived in good shape, are bright and lively. 

 They will be kept in a suitable inclosure and their eggs 

 distributed among the members of the Fish and Game 

 League, with instructions how to set the eggs and care 

 for the young birds, etc. Mr. Leach expects very soon a 

 lot of ptarmigan. These birds in the spring will be re- 

 leased on Mount Mansfield and other bald-top mountains 

 in the State. 



There are compensations. The world is full of them. 

 Only one must have the correct philosophy, and look for 

 them in the right spirit. Sometimes they are to be angled 

 for with a fishing rod, sometimes hunted for with a shot- 

 gun. The weapon matters little, provided the spirit is 

 right. Here is a man who looks on the bright side. 

 "The Blanktown Times" he writes, "will suspend pub- 

 lication until next year. I will now devote the most of 

 my time to hunting, and will keep you posted about the 

 sport in this section." There are many editors who would 

 suspend if they could put in mo3t of their time in hunt- 

 ing in Virginia. 



The twenty-second reception of the Cuvier Club, of 

 Cincinnati, on the evening of Nov. 20, was an occasion 

 of pleasant reunion and review of the year's pleasures 

 with rod and gun. ». 



