Forest and Stream. 



A Weekly Journal of the Rod and Gun. 



Terms, $4 A Year. 10 Cts. a Copt. I 

 Six Months, $2. f 



NEW YORK, NOVEMBER 1, 1888. 



j VOL. XXXI.-No. 15. 



1 No. 318 Broadway, New Vork. 



CORRESPONDENCE. 

 The Forest and Stream is the recognized medium of entertain- 

 ment, instruction and information between American sportsmen. 

 Communications on the subject to which its pages are devoted are 

 respectfully invited. Anonymous communications will not be re- 

 garded. No name will be published except with writer's consent. 

 The Editors are not responsible for the views of correspondents. 



AD VERTISEMENTS. 

 Only advertisements of an approved character inserted. Inside 

 pages, nonpareil type, 30 cents per line. Special rates for three, six, 

 and twelve months. Seven words to the line, twelve lines to one 

 Inch. Advertisements should be sent in by Saturday previous to 

 issue in which they are to be inserted. Transient advertisements 

 must invariably be accompanied by the money or they will not be 

 inserted. Reading notices $1.00 per line. 



SUBSCRIPTIONS 

 May begin at any time. Subscription price, $4 per year; $2 for six 

 months; to a club of three annual subscribers, three copies for $10; 

 five copies for $16. Remit by express money-order, regi ered letter, 

 money-order, or draft, payable to the Forest and Stream Publishing 

 Company. The paper may be obtained of newsdealers throughout 

 the United States, Canadas and Great Britain. For sale by Davies 

 & Co., No. 1 Finch Lane, Cornhill, London. General subscription 

 agents far Great Britain. Messrs. Davies & Co., and Messrs. Samp- 

 son Low, Marston, Searles and Rivington, 188 Fleet street, London, 

 Eng. Brentano's, 17 Avenue de l'Opera, Paris, France, sole Paris 

 agent for sales and subscriptions. Foreign subscription price. $5 

 per year; $2.50 for six months. 

 Address all communications 



Forest and Stream Publishing Co. 

 No. 318 Broadway. New York City. 



CONTENTS. 



Editorial. 



Forests of the Rocky Moun- 

 tains, 



Co-operation in Fishculture. 



The Campaign. 

 The Sportsman Totthist. 



Quail Netting In Capri. 



St. Augustine as a Winter 

 Resort. 



Two Months a Cowboy. 



Sierra Notes. 

 Natural History. 



A Ruffed Grouse in Town. 



Gophers and Pouched Rats.-n 



Economic Ornithology. 

 Game Bag and Gun. 



The Campaign. 



Southern Massachusetts 

 League. 



About Sa.uirrel Shooting. 



Arkansas Resorts. 



Camp-Fire Flickering^. 

 Sea and River Fishing. 



Salmon in Puget Sound. 



Sport at Blooming Grove Park 



Canandaigua Association. 



Albany Fly-Casting Tourna- 

 ment. 



Striped Bass in Hell Gate. 

 St. Louis Anglers. 

 Trout at the Upper Dam. 



Pishcoxtitre. 



Salmon Hatching in this City. 

 The Kennel. 



American Coursing Club Meet 



National Coursing Club. 



Chesapeake Bay Dogs. 



St. Bernards at Richmond. 



Dog Talk. 



The Spaniels. 



Indiana Kennel Club. 



St. Paul Dog Show. 



Kennel Notes. 



Kennel Management. 

 Rifle and Trap shooting. 



Range and Gallery. 



The Trap. 



New York Suburban Tourna- 

 ment, 



That Carter— Graliam Match. 

 Yachting. 



Delaware River. 



New York Y. C. 



Ninety versus Forty Feet, 



Prospective Challenges for 

 the Cup. 



Clara. 



Tomboy. 

 Canoeing. 



My Thunder Storm Cruise. 



New Publications. 

 Answers to Correspondents. 



THE CAMPAIGN. 



OCTOBER has passed— October with its flaming foliage; 

 and November is here. The opening week of the 

 month finds tbe campaign in full blast. Our game 

 columns chronicle reports from many quarters of this 

 great land. Deer, grouse, woodcock and quail figure in 

 these reports. Taken as a whole what an index do they 

 afford of the magnificent plenitude of the field resources 

 of our continent. The notes are full of suggestions. 

 There is that one from western Massachusetts telling of 

 the failure of the woodcock flight; how general is that 

 failure, and what had the blizzard to do with it? Mr. 

 Lathrop is an experienced observer of the ways of the 

 woodcock, and his theories are worth discussion. Then 

 there are notes of the late breeding of quail, which appears 

 to have been the rule over a large territory this season. 

 And then comes up that old and ever pertinent theme, the 

 ravages of the market hunters. Would that some crafty 

 campaign manager might rise up to devise means to 

 circumvent the grouse snarers. The conflict between 

 market hunters and recreation hunters is irrepressible 

 and irreconcilable; but we risk nothing in playing the 

 role of a campaign prophet long enough to predict that 

 the recreation hunters will in time get the better of the 

 potters and carry the country by a big majority. 



Frosty nights, storms and gales are detaching the 

 leaves, and every new day finds the foliage less dense, 

 the cover more open and the upland shooting improved. 

 On the water the fowl are flying; from Dakota and the 

 Atlantic Coast alike come the reports of a great supply of 

 ducks. 



October is proverbially the sportsman's choicest season 

 of the year, but while an artificial notation of the calen- 

 dar may set bounds to the months, and give new names 

 to the divisions of the season, those who follow the dog 

 afield will find in the early days of November sunshine 

 just as bright and air just as exhilarating as ever in 

 October. 



FORESTS OF THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS, 

 is. 



COL. EDGAR T. ENSIGN, to whom was deputed the 

 task of investigating the forest conditions of the 

 Rocky Mountains, has taken considerable pains to collect 

 information and put it in presentable form. He gives us 

 estimates of the area of the region classed as forest, but 

 he cannot, of course, tell us what proportion of that area 

 is covered with timber, nor does he make any guesses as 

 to the amount of standing stock, nor the relative propor- 

 tions of the several species. According to the figures the 

 total area of the region is 640,155 square miles, of which 

 about fourteen per cent., say 90,000 square miles, is classi- 

 fied as forest area, distributed as follows: Idaho, 15,990; 

 Montana, 20,285; Wyoming, 12,000; Colorado, 12,025; 

 New Mexico, 12,500; Utah, 6,000. Of this 90,000 square 

 miles, or 57,000,000 acres, four-fifths of the whole, or 45,_ 

 000,000 acres, is said to be still owned by the general Gov. 

 eminent. 



In Wyoming, Montana and Idaho very little of the 

 forest land has been surveyed, and the present policy of 

 the Land Office is to discourage the making of such sur- 

 veys. The land is not wanted for settlement, and to 

 throw it open to settlement would simply be to place the 

 timber in the hands of the monopolists, instead of hold- 

 ing it open for a general scramble. 



The forests in this region are situated at elevations of 

 from 5,000 to 12,000ft. on the great Continental Divide, 

 which, being intersected here by a great transverse divide, 

 gives formation to four great basins; one sloping to the 

 northeast drained by the Upper Missouri, one at the 

 northwest drained by the Columbia River, one at the 

 southwest which is double, and discharges its Avaters into 

 the Great Salt Lake Basin and the Colorado River, and 

 one at the southeast drained by the Arkansas and Eio 

 Grande rivers and their affluents. 



This region is the source of the North Platte and South 

 Platte, the Big Horn, Yellowstone and Upper Missouri, 

 Numerous' tributaries of the Columbia carry its waters 

 westward to the Pacific Ocean. Here, too, is the source 

 of the Colorado and the numerous rivers which feed the 

 Great Salt Lake basin, the Rio Grande rivers and the 

 Arkansas — a broad network of rivers on whose waters 

 the region of the great plains and a considerable portion 

 of the area of Washington and Oregon is dependent for 

 the irrigation of the soil. Treating of the forest condi- 

 tions of this region, Col. Ensign says: "It embraces a 

 wide expanse of wooded ranges, foothills, valleys, parks 

 and plateaus. Naked and often snow-clad crests and 

 peaks, rocky slopes, barren surfaces, deep defiles and 

 swift-running streams. * * * * Upon the mountain 

 ranges are irregular masses of coniferous trpes separated 

 by wide spaces— the latter treeless or sometimes clothed 

 with a growth of aspen. Bordering the streams are Cot- 

 tonwood, willow, alder and other deciduous trees of minor 

 importance." Pine, spruce and fir are the principal lum- 

 ber trees of the region, all very useful for economic pur- 

 poses, but there is nothing to guide us to a conclusion as 

 to the percentage of the so-called forest area occupied by 

 them. The above extract from Col. Ensign's description 

 of the region is consistent with the assumption that per- 

 haps less than five per cent, of the area is stocked with 

 useful timbers. 



Heavy inroads are being made upon the existing stock 

 for local requirements, and Col. Ensign always employs 

 figures to aid us in forming ideas, but in spite of the labor 

 they have cost him, he is constrained to admit that they 

 are not very reliable. He gives the annual consumption 

 of timber in the region as from 150,000,000 to 200,000,000 

 of native timber and 40,000,000 to 50,000,000 of imported 

 timber, B. M. Then there is the drain upon the forests 

 for railway construction and maintenance. At the close 

 of 1887 the mileage of railroad track is given at 10,000 

 miles, estimated to have used up 200,000,000 cubic feet of 

 timber in the course of construction, and to require 

 25,500,000 cubic feet annually for their maintenance. 



But what avail figures? We know nothing of the area 

 actually stocked with timber, nor of the possible yield 

 per acre per annum, and in the absence of these data, we 

 cannot pretend to calculate how long the forests will last. 

 Some portion of the area burned and cut over has been 

 taken possession of by the aspen, which, although it has 

 little market value, serves to. save the forest floor from 

 erosion, and to hold possession until, in the course of cen- 

 turies, perhaps hi a state of nature, young pines get pos- 

 session of the soil and crowd the aspens out. But this is 

 a result which cannot by any means be relied on. The 



bared forest floor baked in the sun is either destroyed by 

 fire, or if on steep slopes it is subjected to the erosive 

 action of floods until its restoration becomes both difficult 

 and costly. Reproduction is not an item to be counted on 

 where forests are recklessly exploited. The most we can 

 hope for is that some of the area may be spared in a fit 

 condition for reconversion into forest. The timber stock 

 is reduced by the amount taken out and wasted, the 

 "irregular masses of coniferous forest" disappear one by 

 one, and "the wide treeless spaces" which separate them 

 grow ever wider. The region is essentially a mining 

 region, and this industry involves the consumption of a 

 considerable amount of timber and charcoal. One min- 

 ing camp in Montana, Butte City, is estimated to use not 

 less than 40,000,000 feet of timber B.M. per annum, and 

 30,000,000 cubic feet of fuel for charcoal. 



It will be evident then to those capable of assessing the 

 facts at their just value, that the drain upon these forests 

 for utilizable material, supplemented by the reckless 

 waste everywhere apparent, and by the ravages of period- 

 ical fires, must be making considerable inroads upon the 

 existing stock. 



Colonel Ensign collected his information as to the state 

 of the forests principally by means of circulars addressed 

 to the civil engineers and other well-informed persons in 

 the several counties of the region , and in reply to the ques- 

 tion, "Is there danger of the timber supply failing?" he 

 received twelve answers in the affirmative and nine in 

 the negative. From these undecisive opinions of intelli- 

 gent and well-informed men we may turn to the logic of 

 facts. Until recently native timber was relied on wholly 

 for telegraph and telephone poles, and countless numbers 

 of smaller trees were and are used in the mines for "lag- 

 ging;" but the superintendent of the Western Union Tele- 

 graph Company at Omaha, Neb., writing to Colonel 

 Ensign, says, "We are not now using any native poles, 

 but for what renewals are made, and new lines built, 

 white cedar poles are shipped from the East." And as 

 regards lagging timber, Colonel Ensign says, "Much of 

 that used in Utah and Montana is now imported from the 

 Pacific slope, as the home supply of good-sized or accessi- 

 ble timber is exhausted." These facts alone are quite 

 sufficient evidence that the forests are in process of rapid 

 exhaustion. 



Colonel Ensign, in his report, touches on the relation of 

 forest to agriculture by their conservation and distribu- 

 tion of moisture, and collects some very interesting data 

 as to the expansion of the irrigation system, with the con- 

 sequent development of farming and other dependent 

 industries, giving carefully compiled statistics of the 

 population of the region, the assessed valuation of real and 

 personal property for the year 1887, amounting in round 

 numbers to three hundred and fifty million dollars; of its 

 manufactures, its wool growing, stock-growing, agricul- 

 tural and mining industries, all in a flourishing condition, 

 many of them dependent for their prosperity on the 

 facility of procuring forest products locally, and all of 

 them dependent for their persistence upon the proper 

 regulation of the water supply of the region, the main- 

 tenance of which can only be secured by the conservation 

 of the forests, which, it is properly argued, are the pivot 

 on which the future prosperity of the State hinges. 



On the subject of forest policy the worthy Colonel 

 waxes warm, and is ready to exclaim, "Policy! God 

 bless you, there is no such thing, sir." 



"Alleged trespassers," he tells us, "are often prosecuted 

 but rarely convicted. No forests are saved from fire, and 

 few, if any, from the ax. The policy of withholding 

 from survey the public timber lands in certain parts of 

 the Territories, is worthy of commendation, and is likely 

 to prevent, for the time being, the entry or sale of such 

 lands, but not the spoliation of the timber on the same." 



This is a very depressing outlook, and in his despair, 

 the Colonel addressed letters to all sorts and conditions 

 of representative men asking for suggestions for reform, 

 and in reply received a mass of most absurdly contradic- 

 tory suggestions, which fairly indicated the popular com- 

 prehension of the subject of forestry but which certainly 

 did nothing toward alleviating his perplexity, if they did 

 not aggravate it. We quote one which indicates the 

 manners and customs of tbe charcoal burners, and the 

 shrewdness of the writer: "It would be better to allow 

 charcoal burners, and the cutters of mine timbers to take 

 living timber from the public domain under proper re- 

 strictions, than to encourage the destruction of the for- 

 ests by fire, in order that they may cut the deadened 

 timber as they please." 



