Forest and Stream. 



A Weekly Journal of the Rod and Gun. 



Terms, U a Year. 10 Cts. a Copy. ) 



Six Months, $2. f 



NEW YORK, APRIL 17, 1890. 



( VOL. XXXIV.-No. 13. 



i No. 318 Broadavat, New York. 



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CONTENTS. 



Editorial. 



Burning Forests. 



To Codify the Game Laws. 



Snap Shots. 

 The Sportsman Tourist. 



To the Mayflower (poetry). 



An Old Pessimist. 

 Natural History. 



Birds of Gull Island, N. Y. 



A Captive Released. 

 Game Bag and Gun. 



Goose Shooting on the Arkan- 

 sas. 



Jumping Chickens in the Corn 

 In the Days of Mnzzleloaders. 

 To Codify the Game Laws. 

 Club Meetings. 

 Chicago and the West. 

 Wisconsin Game Law?, 

 Sea and River Fishinq. 

 Kentucky Methods. 

 An Editor Angles. 

 Sea Bass Fishing off Henlopen. 

 Aquaria Notes. 

 Trouting in the Blue Ridge. 

 Notes from Worcester. 

 Angling Notes. 

 Western Fishing. 

 Free Pishing Going. 

 Random Oasts. 



Fishculture. 



New York Fish Commission. 

 The Kennel. 



Buffalo Dog Show. 



Dogs of Any Day. 



Spaying. 



An Old-Pasbioned Coon Hunt. 



Dogs of the Day. 



Eastern Field Trials Club 



Rules. 

 Central Field Trials. 

 Kennel Notes. 

 Riele and Trap Shooting. 

 Range and Gallery. 

 The Trap. 



The U. S. Team Targets. 

 Kansas City Gun Clubs. 

 Canadian Trap Notes. 

 Brooklyn Trap Notes. 

 Canoeing. 

 1,500 Miles in an Adirondack 



Boat.— xvt. 

 Canoe Sails. 



Central Division Regatta. 



A. C. A. Regatta Programme. 



A Canoe and Skiff Race. 

 Yachting. 



St. Lawrence Y. C. 



International Racing. 

 Answers to Correspondents. 



BURNING FORESTS. 



ONE of the most important needs of the National Park 

 is an adequate police force. Such a force is re- 

 quired for the purpose of keeping order and protecting 

 the natural curiosities and the game, but its chief, and 

 by far its most important duty under existing conditions, 

 is to fight fire. 



Those who are unfamiliar with the pine-clad slopes of 

 the Rocky Mountains can have but little conception of 

 the destruction wrought by a fire which passes through 

 these forests. The ground is covered to a depth of a foot 

 or more with the pitchy accumulations of centuries of 

 forest growth. Pine needles, cones, dead branches and 

 the resinous trunks of fallen trees form a forest floor that 

 catches fire like tinder and burns like a furnace. A 

 spark from a camp-fire, pipe, or a cigarette, may ignite 

 this forest floor, which may smoulder for hours or days 

 before bursting into flame. This flame once started, the 

 tire moves rapidly before the wind, constantly finding, as 

 it moves along, new food in the debris upon the ground. 

 The foliage of the living evergreen trees burns as readily 

 as hay soaked in kerosene oil. Each tree, as the fire 

 touches it, becomes a huge torch, which flares up for a 

 moment and then goes out, but in that moment the tree's 

 life has been destroyed, and the thousand trunks of the 

 forest are left to stand for years, black monuments of the 

 tire's destructive force. Before a gale, such as often 

 rages in the mountains, a fire which has got into the 

 thick timber rushes onward with a fury which is inde- 

 scribable, and destroys in an hour timber that a century 

 of growth cannot replace. 



It is unnecessary to show that the chief value of the 

 forests of the Yellowstone Park lies in the fact that they 

 protect the sources of the Yellowstone and Snake rivers, 

 two streams which supply the water for irrigating a vast 

 area of the arid West. This has many times been demon- 

 strated. 



It is of the highest importance to preserve these forests, 

 and in order to preserve them they must be policed with 



men to protect them from the danger of fire. The greater 

 the number of travelers in the National Park the greater 

 the danger from fire; if there are 10,000 tourists in the 

 Park, it is certain that among this number there will be 

 very many who are ignorant of the damage that a fire 

 may cause, and a still greater number who, though they 

 may be aware of this danger, are yet so thoughtless and 

 careless that they may easily start a blaze, which may 

 sooner or later work terrible destruction. For this reason 

 it is of the utmost importance that the Park should be effi- 

 ciently patrolled and that all travelers should be watched. 

 This need not be done in an offensive way, but it must be 

 done. The presence of these fire guards is exactly like 

 the presence of the police in our city parks, whose duty 

 it is to prevent the careless, the thoughtless or the mali- 

 cious from doing any injury to these cultivated parks 

 which belong to the whole people, and must be guarded 

 for them. 



The Yellowstone Park is a wild region of great extent, 

 and it is well that it should be left in its wildness, but if 

 the flames are allowed to ravage it, its beauty and its 

 economic usefulness will be destroyed. It is for the 

 proper protection of the Park, for a government which, 

 by the authority of its laws and the agents for their en- 

 forcement, shall restrain criminals, malicious and thought- 

 less persons, that those most interested in the Park have 

 so long been fighting. With a government and with an 

 adequate force of troops and civilian scouts for patrolling 

 it, the forests of the Park can be preserved, and the 

 waters which they protect will always remain undimin- 

 ished. 



There were stationed in the Park last season two com- 

 panies of troops under the command of Captain F. A. 

 Boutelle. They are efficient, courteous and obliging to 

 tourists, and during the season of travel are very hard 

 worked. Last summer was a very dry one, and fires 

 were numerous. The good work of the troops under 

 Captain Boutelle's command is shown by the fact that 

 sixty-seven fires were fought and extinguished by the 

 troops last season. 



Besides these controlled fires — all with two exceptions 

 traceable to careless road makers, freighters, employees 

 of the syndicate and campers — there were three fires 

 abandoned as beyond control, one south of Lewis Lake, 

 one between Shoshone and Yellowstone lakes, and one 

 that jumped the river near the outlet of Yellowstone 

 Lake. These were large fires and probably burned over 

 in the aggregate twelve square miles of timber. 



Some of these controlled fires were fought for eight or 

 ten days by the soldiers, who worked at them with the 

 greatest energy and faithfulness, literalty eating and 

 sleeping by them. If it had not been for this unremit- 

 ting work, the destruction would have been far greater 

 than it is. 



There were other larger fires on the borders, but out- 

 side of the Park, which received no attention, and which 

 burned over a great deal of territory. Among these were 

 one on the north side of the Beartooth range, one on 

 Clark's Fork below the Canon, one on Upper Clark's Fork, 

 one on the mountains near Sunlight Basin, several near 

 Fail River Meadows, one in the timber near iEneas's 

 Lake. These must in the aggregate have burned over 

 many square miles of timber, and this destruction means 

 the drying up of many springs. 



The best purpose which the National Park can serve is 

 to furnish a place where people of all sorts and conditions 

 may go to return for a while to a life flhat is purely 

 natural. Let them go there and pitch their camps in 

 the secluded mountain valleys far from the dusty roads 

 crowded with tourists, there to rest and to live for a 

 while by themselves. In this wild and wonderful spot, these 

 campers, whether they come from the East or from the 

 West, may pass happy, restful days or weeks, living as 

 did our forefathers in close communion with nature. 

 There they can gain some conception of what life was in 

 the early days of American settlement, before all the 

 land was full of people and the rush and hurry of the 

 busy life of to-day had begun. But while this is true, and 

 while the Park is above all a place for campers, it must 

 not be forgotten that each camp adds something to the 

 danger from fires, and that a constant patrolling of the 

 region by intelligent fire guards will be ever more and 

 more needed. 



A larger force of troops is needed in the Park, and it is 

 earnestly hoped that the Secretary of the Interior will 

 before long call on the War Department to issue the 

 necessary orders for such an additional detail. 



TO CODIFY THE GAME LAWS. 



/^OVERNOR HILL has signed the bill providing for 

 " the appointment of a commission of three to revise 

 and codify the game and fish laws of this State. In sign- 

 ing this bill, however, he stipulates that no more legisla- 

 tion on game and fish, except that which relates to shad 

 and salmon, shall be pressed in the Assembly until this 

 Commission has acted. We print in another column the 

 full text of this bill, which all who are interested in game 

 and fish protection ought to carefully study. 



It will be observed that of the Commission, one is a 

 deputy attorney general, whose functions, it may be pre- 

 sumed, will be chiefly of a legal character, It is to be 

 hoped, however, that the gentleman appointed may be a 

 sportsman, as well as a lawyer, and may take an active 

 interest in game protection; that he may be something 

 more than merely the legal adviser of the Commission. 

 The member of the State Fish Commission and of the 

 New York Society for the Protection of Game who are to 

 belong to this Commission should be selected with great 

 care, for the work that they have to do is most important. 



This is New York's great opportunity. If the provis- 

 ions of this bill are wisely carried out, a series of good 

 plain, laws, providing for the protection of game and fish, 

 can be formulated which will not only add greatly to 

 her citizens' opportunities for recreation, but will also 

 contribute largely to the material wealth of this State. 

 It is not now necessary to set forth the points especially 

 needed to be covered, but it may be said that any bill 

 prepared by this Commission should not only provide for 

 the objects set forth in then - bills, but should do so in 

 such plain and simple language that the bills can be 

 understood by every one who reads them. 



The subject of codifying the game laws of this State is 

 one which requires the most careful consideration and the 

 fullest discussion. On many points there are, among 

 sportsmen, differences of opinion, which are almost 

 irreconcilable, but it may be hoped that such differences 

 will now be laid aside or so modified as not to interfere 

 with the preparation by the Commission of the best pos- 

 sible laws. Sportsmen could accomplish vastly more in 

 legislation if they were united and could present a solid 

 front. 



The stipulation made by Governor Hill, .that general 

 game and fish legislation shall not be passed in the 

 Legislature at present, makes it unnecessary to comment . 

 on any of the bills on these subjects now before that 

 body. 



SNAP SHOTS. 



A MEETING of the Public Lands Committee of the 

 House of Representatives was held on Monday to 

 further consider the National Park bill. It is understood 

 that after the hearing was ended the committee, in execu- 

 tive session, determined to recommend the passage of the 

 bill substantially as it came from the Senate, but also 

 granting a right of way t© a railway, under somewhat 

 strict conditions. Among these conditions is one that the 

 road shall be completed by Jan. i, 1893. We reserve 

 comments until we have a fuller knowledge of the action 

 of the committee, 



Senator Paddock's bill providing for the transfer of 

 the U. S. Fish Commission to the Agricultural Depart- 

 ment, has, as might have been supposed would be the 

 case, awakened a great deal of interest among anglers, 

 but especially among people engaged in commercial fish- 

 eries. There appears to be but one opinion about the 

 matter, and that is, that the proposed transfer would be 

 a national misfortune. The press of the country almost 

 without an exception condemns the bill, and mass meet- 

 ings of people engaged in the fish trade have been held 

 on the Atlantic coast and along the Great Lakes. At 

 such meetings resolutions have been passed approving 

 the work of the U. S. Fish Commission and condemning 

 any change in its control and management. No class of 

 men are more interested in this matter than those who are 

 engaged in the commercial fisheries; for no class of men 

 has the U. S. Fish Commission done so much, and no 

 class of men will be so seriously injured in their business 

 if the change proposed by Senator Paddock should be 

 carried out. It is too soon to predict what will be the 

 fate of this bill in the Committee, but it is reasonably 

 certain that even if it shall receive a favorable report in 

 the committee it will be killed in the Senate ; 



