Forest and Stream 
A Weekly Journal of the Rod and Gun. 
Terms, $4 a Year. 10 Crs. a Copt. I 
Six Months, $2. | 
NEW YORK, SATURDAY, JANUARY 18, 1896 
f 
VOL. XLVL— No. 3. 
No. 318 Broadway, Nkw York. 
For Prospectus and Advertising Rates see Page v. 
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. 
Forest and Stream Water Colors 
We have prepared as premiums a series of four artistic 
and beautiful reproductions of original water colors, 
painted expressly for the Forest and Stream. The 
subjects are outdoor scenes: 
Jacksnipe Coming In. "He's Got Them" (Quail Shooting). 
Vigilant and Valkyrie. Bass Fishing: at Block Island. 
SEE REDUCED HALF-TONES IN OUR ADVT. COLUMNS. 
The plates are for frames t4x 19 in. They are done in 
twelve colors, and are rich in effect. They are furnished 
to old or new subscribers on the following terms: 
Forest and Stream one year and the set of four pictures, $5. 
Forest and Stream 6 months and any two of the pictures, $3, 
Price of the pictures alone, $1.50 eacb J $& for the let. 
Remit by express money order or postal money orde* 
Make orders payable to 
$ FOREST AND STREAM PUB. CO., N©w York. 
BENCH SHOW INTERESTS. 
Many years have come and gone since the improve- 
ment of the dog excited the interest of the 
dog fanciers of America, and since practical effort was 
directed to such improvement by the importation of the 
best blood and the best specimens obtainable, and since 
the public at large bestowed its approval, encouragement 
and support. And yet there are those who still advocate 
importation to improve the older breeds. 
Have the efforts of some breeders been a failure in 
whole or in part? We think not, although their teach- 
ings would lead to a different conclusion — the contention 
of those breeders who maintain that importation is the 
road to improvement. It is true that when a new breed 
is cultivated the best specimens can be obtained only from 
such sources as have them, but the breeds which have 
been carefully developed year after year by painstaking 
owners, and have been added to also by the blood of 
many importations year after year, should reach a stage 
of meritorious development at some time when they can 
"be bred properly at home. 
After breeding dogs for many years in succession from 
the best imported blood, to admit still that the improve- 
ment of the breed is contingent on the importations of 
good specimens for breeding purposes is to admit the 
superiority of the breeders abroad. 
Too much value is often attached to the dog bred 
abroad for the sole reason that he is a foreign production. 
Habit no doubt is a factor in such concession. When im- 
provement was started the value and superiority of foreign 
stock were conceded. From such education at the start 
favoring imported specimens they have held their place 
in popular esteem, to a partial exclusion of the fact that 
the home stock of many breeds has improved to a de- 
gree equal to the foreign. 
Let a specimen be ordinary, so that it be foreign there 
is a glamour of superiority and value about it which rests 
solely on the fact that it came from the vague limits 
beyond the national horizon, 
The exercise of judicious care in breeding will produce 
quite as good results here as abroad. Breeding largely is 
not necessarily judicious breeding. Breeding for market 
exclusively, with the purpose of quality and correspond- 
ing profit, is not the best manner of improving any breed. 
In breeding for market such features are likely to be con- 
sidered only as will catch the attention of purchasers- 
long pedigrees, performances of sires, etc. In breeding 
for improvement the selection of the best specimens, 
physically and mentally, is considered, with due regard 
to the family tendencies to transmit the best qualities, 
specimens which can perpetuate their species in the high- 
est degree. 
In each breed which has attained a popular footing in 
this country there are many specimens which are con- 
ceded to be excellent of their kind. The plea made now 
and then that improvement is dependent on foreign im- 
portation is not necessarily so important as its advocates 
There is one essential in the bench show world, how- 
ever, a need which has long existed — that is, of more 
bench show judges. Breeds have grown larger in num- 
bers, bench shows have multiplied throughout the land, 
and yet the list of judges has been added to but slowly. 
Even at this day of bench show development, of 
specialty clubs, of amateur experts, of uniform public 
interest, it is considered necessary to send abroad for 
judges. Is it not possible that the development of the 
judges' list has been checked by the too liberal denuncia- 
tion of judges by disappointed exhibitors, by the abuse 
which has been so incessantly hurled at a judge under 
the name of criticism? Is it not possible that some of our 
breeding systems can be improved by breeding on a better 
theory, and our judges' list can be augmented by a 
kinder policy? 
BUFFALO IN THE NATIONAL PARK, 
The campaign against buffalo killers in the National 
Park, which Capt, Anderson carried on last fall, was 
measurably successful. Two expeditions were dispatched 
to the southeast corner of the Park to watch for poachers 
and if possible to find out what they were doing. These 
expeditions found the carcasses of nine or ten buffalo 
which had been killed within a few months, and they 
also came upon a party of poachers and chased them out 
of the Park, killing one of their horses, but ^failing to 
capture the men. Late in October Capt. Anderson made 
an expedition down into this same country, where he saw 
some fresh signs of buffalo, and he believes that there are 
still some on the Mirror plateau, others on the hot ground 
near Fern Lake, and a few about Heart Lake. 
About the 1st of November the United States Marshal 
of Helena informed Capt. Anderson that some of the 
Henry's Lake poachers were negotiating with W. H. 
Wittich, of Butte, Mont., for the sale of buffalo scalps. 
Capt. Anderson had previously had detectives among the 
Henry's Lake poachers, and knew a good deal about them. 
When the United States Marshal offered to assist in the 
capture of the man having the buffalo for sale, Capt. 
Anderson swore out an information against the suspected 
parties and put it in the Marshal's hands for execution. In 
the course of time James S. Courtenay appeared in Butte 
with four scalps and one calf skin. He was arrested just 
as he was turning these remains over to Wittich, taken 
before a United States Commissioner, held in $1,500 bail 
and sent to the Mammoth Hot Springs for trial under the 
Park Protection Act. He was tried late last month and 
was acquitted on the ground that the spoils were obtained 
in Idaho, outside of the Park. 
This is the substance of Capt. Anderson's report to the 
Interior Department. He believes that the capture of 
Courtenayj has thoroughly alarmed the poachers, and 
that it will probably prevent them from making further 
efforts to kill the Park buffalo. He believes too that, 
while Idaho poachers have killed a good many buffalo, 
the number has been greatly overestimated, and thinks 
that they have not got more than ten this season. 
The entire failure of the Idaho Legislature to forbid the 
killing of buffalo within the State has often been adverted 
to in these columns, and the futility shown of any attempt 
to protect Park game so long as the butchers are at liberty 
to camp just outside the Park and make predatory excur- 
sions into it whenever opportunity may present. 
Elk, deer and antelope are now seen in unusually large 
numbers in the northern part of the Park, and as usual 
there are some mountain sheep on Mount Everts. The 
Park is full of coyotes, which are killing a good many 
antelope. These small wolves hunt in packs and find 
little difficulty in running the antelope down. Capt. 
Anderson is having the coyotes killed off as rapidly as 
possible. 
At last reports the buffalo had started for the Hayden 
Valley, but the snow-fall up to that time being light they 
had not yet been driven together in a single herd. 
would have us believe, 
_ i — —-z 
SNAP SHOTS. 
We print in another column the report prepared by Mr. 
J. S. Van Cleef, of Poughkeepsie, counsel to the Senate 
Committee of the New York Legislature intrusted with 
the task of inquiring into the special needs of the St. Law- 
rence Eiver waters for the protection of bass. The com- 
mittee had numerous conferences with the Canadian 
authorities, who are disposed to act in concert with New 
York to secure uniformity of season and restrictions as to 
fishing methods. It is proposed to set apart a por- 
tion of the St. Lawrence River region, between 
Tibbet's Point Lighthouse and the city of Og- 
densburgh, which shall be guarded by a special 
protector assigned to the district, and shall be 
governed by the special laws, the text of which we print 
in our angling columns. Only by concert of action on 
the part of the Canadian and New York authorities may 
the St. Lawrence waters be given protection. The agree- 
ment contemplated in the report of the Senate Committee 
will remove a long-standing source of irritation, and will 
promote both fish protection and the growth of friendly 
feeling between the fishermen of the two countries. The 
suggestions in the report will have the endorsement of all 
anglers concerned, and we trust that the provisions 
named in them may be put into operation. 
The County Treasurer of St. Lawrence county in this 
State received a check for $150 the other day, sent by a 
Boston sportsman as a self-imposed, conscience-impelled 
fine for a deer and a duck killed out of season twelve 
years ago. The game law violation, the Boston man 
wrote, had never been discovered, but the offender felt 
that he must square up. Now while we are talking on 
the sportsman and his ways, why not count this man in? 
Our compliments to him. More power to the conscience 
of every other man who is carrying around with him the 
secret knowledge of Adirondack deer or Maine moose 
killed out of season. If it would help the good cause 
along we would gladly supply a list of county treasurers 
covering all the game districts in the country. If every in- 
dividual who has killed his game out of season were to fol- 
low the Boston example the game protection funds would 
be so generous that there would be no need of appropria- 
tions for several years to come. 
Such a meeting as that at Syracuse last week affords an 
excellent opportunity to take note of public sentiment on 
questions relating to game interests. There could be no 
mistaking the opinion of the delegates as to deer hound- 
ing. An overwhelming majority was opposed to the 
practice, and the convention voted to recommend that 
both hounding and jacking should be prohibited. Quite 
as strong was the opposition to spring shooting. The date 
fixed upon by the convention for the close of duck shoot- 
ing was March 1 instead of April 1, as now, and this date 
was adopted for the entire State, including Long Island. 
Vice-President Robert B. Lawrence, who represented 
Long Island, declared that the sportsmen of the Island 
were almost unanimously in favor of forbidding the kill- 
ing of wildfowl in the spring. It is very clear that year 
by year we are coming nearer to the abolition of spring 
shooting. 
Senator Malby's bill to forbid the pollution of waters by 
sawdust, dyestuff and other factory waste will be pushed 
vigorously in the New York Legislature this year; and it 
is a satisfaction to know that under Mr. Malby's guidance 
it is likely to be made a law. The present statute forbids 
the deposit of deleterious substances in any waters "in 
quantities destructive to the life of fish inhabiting the 
same." Such a prohibition is ineffective and worthless, 
as nas been demonstrated over and over again when the 
fish protectors have attempted to enforce it. Some of 
these days the public will wake up to the fact that it has 
some rights in its own waterways, and it will learn how 
to reclaim and protect these rights. Then we shall see 
an end of the preposterous state of affairs in which indi- 
viduals and corporations are permitted to convert rivers 
and creeks into sewers and drains barren of food fish. 
The Arion Fish Company, of Tower, Minn., thinking to 
profit by the opportunities afforded by New York's 
iniquitous law permitting the sale of game at all times, 
unlawfully shipped a car of 3,000 grouse and a large 
supply of venison, billed for New York. The Minnesota 
game warden intercepted the game and sued the Arion 
people for the penalty. The case has just been settled by 
the payment of a fine of $2,000. The shipment affords a 
beautiful example of the way in which the New York 
refrigerator law works. The provision is embodied in 
Sec. 249, which allows at all times the sale of game 
brought from a source 300 miles distant from New York. 
The section must be repealed, and the sooner the better. 
President Frank J. Amsden, of the New York State 
Association, deserves a generous measure of appreciation 
for the hard work he has done during the year in the 
interest of the Association. He has given to the work 
time and money and intelligent direction, 
