Forest and Stream 



A Weekly Journal of the Rod and Gun. 



NEW YORK, SATURDAY, DECEMBER 7, 1895. 



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

 Six Months, $2. f 



I VOL. XL V.— No. 23. 



I No. 818 Broadway Nkw York. 



For Prospectus and Advertising Rates see Page iii. 



T*he 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 YELLOWSTONE PARK REPORT. 



The last report of the Superintendent of the Yellow- 

 stone National Park, from which we make copious 

 extracts elsewhere, is an interesting and encouraging 

 document. In most respects it shows a continuance of 

 the improvement in Park matters which has been taking 

 place there since the present Superintendent took charge, 

 and its only discouraging feature is the game killing 

 which takes place in and near the southwest corner of 

 the Park, and which can be prevented only by furnishing 

 to the Superintendent a larger force of men. 



To those who recall the frequency with which the 

 forests of the Park were ravaged by fire ten years ago, 

 it is interesting to learn that'during the year just passed 

 no fires of any great importance have taken place. This 

 is in large measure due to cautionary warnings given to 

 all travelers by the Superintendent and to a patrol 

 system which he has established, by which his men visit 

 daily during the season all the different camping places 

 and put out any camp-fires that may have been aban- 

 doned unextinguished by tourists. It cannot be doubted 

 that this efficient system of patrol has done more than 

 anything to protect the forests of the Park. The greatest 

 danger to them has always been from neglected camp- 

 fires. 



As often recommended by Forest and Stream, the 

 control and management of the road work was last year 

 turned over to the Superintendent of the Park. The ad- 

 vantages sure to result from such a change of control had 

 long been evident, and the event has justified our recom- 

 mendations. Since the change was made roads have been 

 more promptly and cheaply mended, and new roads have 

 been built at an expense considerably less than before. 

 The officer responsible for the work is on the ground and 

 able to watch it from day to day, so that all work is done 

 to the best advantage, and there has been a saving of 

 money and an improvement of the roads. 



The few bison remaining within the Park still attract 

 the head-hunter, and the small force at Captain Ander- 

 son's disposal makes it most difficult to keep them out of 

 the Park. 



We have frequently called attention to the fact that in 

 Idaho there is no law forbidding the killing of buffalo, 

 and to the further fact that, as the western boundary of 

 the National Park is in Idaho, that State has become a 

 gathering ground for lawless characters, who take advan- 

 tage of this absence of law to kill the buffalo that wander 

 from the reservation into unprotected territory, or even 

 enter the Park and there destroy the animals, which are 

 then at once carried out of the Park and into Idaho, where 

 the depredators feel safe. No longer ago than last July 

 we again urged the recommendation by the Governor to 

 the next Legislature of the passage of a law protecting 

 this species. 



It is manifest that the few troops now stationed in the 

 Park — no matter how earnest and energetic they may 

 be — cannot efficiently patrol a boundary line nearly sixty 

 miles in length, and that unless assistance is rendered the 

 Park officials by the State of Idaho, the killing of the few 

 remaining buffalo will be continued until all have been 

 destroyed. Even now dispatches are being published in 

 'the newspapers telling of the slaughter of some buffalo in 

 the Park, and of the arrest of one Courtney for the offense. 

 The specific charge against him is the killing of five buf- 

 falo within the Park, and Courtney is said to have had 

 companions, for whom the United States officials are now 

 looking. It is stated that there are only ten head of buf- 

 falo left in the Park, and, while it is not to be supposed 

 that this is true, there appears to be no doubt that they 

 have been frightfully diminished within the past two or 

 three years, and that unless some action is promptly 

 taken by the Idaho authorities, either more troops must 

 be stationed in the Park or the buffalo must be wholly 

 exterminated. A note from a Utah correspondent, 

 printed in another column, tells something of the prac- 

 tices of the poachers in that region. 



We have reason to believe that at the next session of 

 the Legislature Governor McConnell, of Idaho, will 

 recommend the passage of such a law as we have indi* 



cated. In the meantime, the only action that can be 

 taken would seem to be the stationing of scouts along the 

 borders of the Park, with instructions to capture poachers 

 found entering the reservation, and to bring them in, 

 alive, if possible, but at all events to bring them. 



The condition of things along this Idaho line is an im- 

 pressive object lesson to those people who have believed 

 that the northeast corner of the Park should be thrown 

 open to settlement, and that the Yellowstone Eiver should 

 form the boundary of the Park. If a segregation bill 

 were to pass and that river were made the Park bound- 

 ary, it would bring the game butchers close to the winter 

 feeding ground of the elk, and they could cross the stream 

 anywhere along its length with but little difficulty or 

 danger, just as these Idaho butchers now cross the Park 

 line on the west. The herds of elk now wintering along 

 the Yellowstone Valley would exist for a short time only, 

 if expobed to the attacks of such marauders. 



The fishing within the National Park has greatly im- 

 proved, and many streams which in old times were with- 

 out fish, having now been stocked, afford splendid angling 

 to the tourists. Capt. Anderson's suggestion that no fish 

 under 6in. in length should be taken is a wise one, and 

 such a regulation should at once be put in force. 

 ) Too much praise cannot be given to the Superintendent 

 of the Park for the energy, earnestness and good judg- 

 ment that he has displayed in his administration of its 

 affairs. He took hold of it at the precise time, when it 

 became most difficult to protect; when the lawless ele- 

 ment of the adjacent States had come to believe that the 

 regulations established by the Secretary of the Interior 

 were a mere formiila, and that an infraction of these 

 regulations carrieJ with it no penalty. He has fought 

 the law breakers v^fth all his strength, and he did much 

 to secure the passage qf the law for the protection of the 

 Park and to defeat the project for segregation. 



The record of Capt. Anderson's work here will 

 always be an important chapter in the history of the 

 Nation's pleasure gfound. 



STEELHEADS AS CANNED SALMON. 



Judge S. H. Greene, of Portland, sends us a copy of 

 the Oregonian of Nov. 20, which has this note: 



Dr. Tarlton H. Bean is being earnestly pushed for the vacant posi. 

 tion of president of the United States Fish Commission by the New 

 York Fishing Gazette. The doctor contributes an article on salmon 

 to the current issue of the Gazette, in which he says of the steelhead: 

 "A few years ago it was scarcely considered fit for use because its 

 bones are hard, and it is consequently not suitable for canning." 

 Columbia River packers, who have been putting up steelheads for 

 years, will be surprised not only to learn that they cannot can the 

 steelhead, but also the reason why they cannot. It is therefore a 

 little illogical that the Gazette should say editorially: "The article on 

 the first page by Dr. Tarlton H. Bean is evidence of vv. Bean's 

 knowledge of the fisheries, and disarms all crit ; cism for the support 

 given him by the Gazette for the position of United States Fish Com- 

 missioner. 1 ' 



Judge Greene comments: "For my own part, I think 

 Dr. Bean about the best equipped man we have to fill the 

 place made vacant by the death of Marshall McDonald. 

 He may be a little off on the Pacific coast salmon indus- 

 try, however." 



Knowing that Dr. Bean, by many years of devoted 

 study, has become well acquainted with the West coast 

 fish and fisheries, and has always tried by every means in 

 his power to promote the interests of legitimate fishery, 

 we take issue with the Oregonian for its criticism of his 

 expressed opinion on the steelhead's merits. It is well 

 known to every one who has access to the statistics that 

 steelheads constitute/1 less than one-twelfth of the pack in 

 1889, increasing to nearly one-sixth in 1892, the increase 

 being due chiefly to the growing scarcity of Chinook and 

 blueback salmon. 



Dr. Bean's statement, however, is that steelheads are 

 unsuitable for canning and should be marketed as fresh 

 fish. That is his individual opinion, and it is shared by 

 Dr. David Starr Jordan, as evidenced by the following 

 remarks on the steelhead in Section I. of "The Fisheries 

 and Fishery Industries of the United States," pages 474- 

 475: "Elsewhere than in the Columbia this species is 

 highly valued as a food fish. When taken in the Colum- 

 bia in spring little or no use is made of it. Its flesh is 

 pale, and its bones to© firm for it to be used in canning, 

 and at that season the old individuals taken are usually 

 spent and worthless." 



Again, in Section V. of the same work, Vol. I,, page 

 745, Dr. Jordan and Prof. Gilbert say of the steelhead: 

 "With the salmon in spring a large trout is taken {Salmo 



gairdueri, Rich.), known as the steelhead salmon. *,*• * 

 It has no value to the canner, as its flesh is pale and its 

 bones are not soft when boiled." 



If any further argument be needed on this point it is 

 to be found in the fact that canned steelheads are not 

 quoted under their own name, and are intended only to 

 supply a demand for cheap fish— a demand which has led 

 to the utilization of other pale-fleshed species such as dog 

 salmon and little humpbacks, to the great injury of the 

 trade in prime canned salmon. A fresh steelhead is worth 

 about twice as much as one of equal siz9 when converted 

 into canned salmon. 



We are inclined to believe further that Dr. Bean's at- 

 tempt to discourage the use of the steelhead for canning 

 grows out of his respect for the nobility of that fine trout 

 — for trout it is, although the Oregon law-makers have 

 classed it as a salmon. It belongs to the same race as the 

 rainbow or California mountain trout, the red-throated 

 trout, lake trout or salmon trout of the Columbia Eiver 

 region, the Waha Lake trout, the Lake Tahoe or silver 

 trout, the brown trout introduced from Europe and some 

 others. 



SNAP SHOTS. 



The annual meeting of the New York State Association 

 for the Protection of Fish and Game will be held in Syra- 

 cuse on Thursday, Jan. 9, and President Frank J. Amsden 

 advises us that he anticipates a large attendance and an 

 important business meeting. The amendments of the 

 law desired by various individuals and clubs are already 

 in the hands of the law committee. 



We assume that the Association will give first attention 

 to an effort to secure a repeal of the iniquitous Section 

 249, which is the market men's section, permitting the 

 sale of game in close se^on. This provision calls for Ihe 

 most determined opposition. So long as it continues in 

 force, New York cannot expect to protect her own game 

 covers, nor can she avoid doing injustice to her sister 

 States. We have seen i\intimated in print that the Com- 

 missioners of Fisheries a^rame have found Section 249 

 an impediment to the efficient enforcement of the law 

 which forbids the transportation of game to market. If 

 the State Association could have the undivided support of 

 the Commission in its opposition to Section 249, such a 

 combination of influence should prove effective at Albany. 



To put it in homely phase, the present New York Eish 

 Commission have not yet been able to make head or tail of 

 the accounts of their predecessors. A special committee 

 charged with an investigation of the books of Secretary 

 Doyle has made a report which is not altogether lucid, 

 and this lack of lucidity is accounted for by the fact that 

 the investigators were unable to find certain books of 

 account. The disclosures show at least one thing very 

 clearly, that it was time for making a radical change in 

 the Commission. 



We have no quarrel with M. de Montauban, who recites 

 his individual experience with a market-hunter of harm- 

 less sort; if all gunners for gain were as inoffensive, the 

 principle of prohibiting game would not form a platform 

 plank ; there would be no necessity of it. But the un- 

 happy reality is that the average market-hunter is not of 

 the idyllic character portrayed by our correspondent. 

 The industrious despoilers of the prairies and swales and 

 deer forests, who have piled up their tons upon tons and 

 carloads upon carloads of game in the markets are of 

 quite a different breed. They are the agents of wholesale 

 game depletion in this country , and their traffic must be 

 suppressed if we are to have any game left. 



Oregon has afforded another example of loose wording 

 in game and fish legislation. The law forbidding the sale 

 of mountain trout confines the prohibition to fish taken in 

 fresh water; and as the trout of coast streams resort to 

 the sea, and may there be caught, the dealers are making 

 the most of their opportunities, selling unrestricted 'lots 

 of mountain trout and claiming, with or without truth- 

 fulness, that the fish come from salt water. If Judge 

 Green and his allies are shrewd they may yet make a 

 case against some of the trout sellers. There is one infalli- 

 ble test of these fish as to the source of capture. If the 

 trout have the red spots they come from fresh water, for 

 in salt water the spots are lost. 



