Feb. 1, 1896.] 
FOREST AND STREAM 
97 
west of Pasadena. Lift your eyes and look to the west. 
Green hills billowy in rank growth of grain, grass and 
flowers melt away into the verdant plain that stretches 
away to the surf of the Pacific thirty miles distant, and 
over the blue waters, Santa Catalina Island, the fisher- 
man's earthly heaven. Turn to the east and you survey 
the famous valley of the San Gabriel, while your vision 
is at last limited by the great San Bernardino range, 
11,725ft. in the clouds, white with snow and profound in 
ma jestic solitude. 
Where are the dogs now? We cannot hear them. No 
fault of theirs. Wait a few moments. There they come 
up the Main Oaiion, Pilot singing his sturdy baritone to as 
fine an accompaniment as was ever played. Mr. Bandini 
said that the big cat was looking for a tree. He proved a 
true prophet, for soon the musical train swept into a side 
oafion, the melody was at an end, and only the ow! owl 
owl of the excited dogs as they jumped at the body of a 
tall, smooth sycamore was left to indicate that the last 
act in the drama (it proved a tragedy) was ready for the 
audience. 
The emotionless watch marked the chase at two hours 
and fifteen minutes, but had I written from unaided 
recollection I should have omitted the two hours. 
The play demanded and received a hearty, soul-felt 
encore. The dogs drank from the brook, rolled in the 
sand and straightway set out, new worlds to conquer. 
Presently the leader gave the signal, the orchestra struck 
up and we were off again. This cat trusted to his superior 
craft, even refusing a tree of refuge at the last. Mis- 
guided lynx! his doom was sealed in his very confidence, 
for with his companion in defeat he too was finally 
strapped on behind our saddles, and we came riding into 
town at 1 o'clock with 751bs. of as good cat meat as ever 
was brought into camp. Oar homesickness is better. 
Benj. M. Page. 
California. 
CHICAGO AND THE WEST. 
Around the Yellowstone. 
Chicago, 111., Jan. 18.— Mr. E. Hofer writes from Gar- 
diner, Mont., on the Park line, that the winter is passing 
away without much snow. The Park buffalo are not 
much banded up. There have been four buffalo seen in 
the corral built for them on Hayden Valley, and it is 
hoped some more will go in and get acquainted. The 
Yellowstone River is full of ducks. 
Mr. Hofer was to come East with a lot of animals from 
the Park for the National Zoo, but the weather grew cold 
for freight car shipping, and some of the animals were 
sent by express, so Mr. Hofer was not lucky or unlucky 
enough to make the long trip as planned. 
He was Surprised. 
The State game warden of Colorado is said to have been 
surprised last week when told by a Denver dealer that 
the latter had lately sold thirty-five tons of Colorado 
game. The warden just confiscated half a ton of illegal 
venison himself. Chicago gets it. What Chicago is afraid 
to keep in stock here goes East, to the delectable 365-days' 
market in New York City. And would you wonder men 
want new shooting grounds these days? 
Chicago Bear Dead. 
The most popular bear the Chicago parks ever had was 
Old Bob, the big grizzly whose death at the teeth and 
claws of another bear was chronicled in these colums some 
years ago. The bear which killed Old Bob was known as 
Jake, and he was always spoken of as "the murderer." 
He was an ill-natured cinnamon, and is said to have killed 
two men before coming to the pits at Lincoln Park. This 
week Jake died, for no known reason except such as may 
have been satisfactory to himself. Jake weighed 5001bs. 
after death. Old Bob, his victim, was nearly twice as 
large as Jake. 
Wisconsin Fish. 
The daily dispatches give the following showing of the 
work of the Wisconsin Fish Commission: 
"Madison, Wis., Jan. 11. — Superintendent James Nevin, 
of the Wisconsin State fish hatcheries, has submitted his 
annual report to the State Fish Commission. It shows a 
largely increased distribution of fish during the year 1895 
over previous years, about 2,000,000 more fish having been 
distributed in the State last year than in 1894. The total 
number distributed was 65,152,895, at a cost of about 
$15,000. The fish distributed during the year were as fol- 
lows: 
Wall-eyed pike 23,000,000 Rainbow trout 1,470,000 
Lake trout 22,000,000 Black bass 116,300 
Whiteflsh 16,000,000 White baBS, full grown . . 2,345 
Brook trout 2,556,000 Carp 6,250 
"The Madison hatchery has now 3,221,000 eggs of the 
brook trout, and anticipates a successful hatch. At the 
new hatchery at Bayfield some 3,000,000 of lake trout eggs 
have been laid down, and there are 17,000,000 of whitellsh 
eggs now in process of incubation at the Milwaukee hatch- 
ery. The State fish car has traveled over 23,000 miles 
distributing fish during the year." 
Willing to Arbitrate. 
The latest diplomatic advices in regard to the war situ- 
ation between this country and England are at hand in 
the form of the opinion of a gentleman learned in inter- 
national law whose home is in New York. He writes: 
"In regard to Mr. Noel Money's English leather riding 
clothes I am disposed to think that your special message 
was too belligerent and likely to provoke an evasive 
reply. As Mr. Money had occupied the territory within 
the boundaries of those trousers and had exercised 
sovereignty over them without any dispute until the 
recent invasion, I think all the principles of the law of 
nations would maintain his claim. However, friendly 
arbitration might hasten a settlement, and to that end 
you and Mr. Divine might appoint a commission to survey 
and investigate the disputed territory and make due re- 
port later." 
Rather than see these two countries bathed in gloom, 
I am entirely willing to arbitrate the matter as proposed, 
and hereby appoint myself one-half of the commission 
above mentioned and Mr. T. A. Divine the other half. 
When we meet Mr. Money we will sit on him, and if in 
our judgment he is occupying the mooted territory in 
contravention of the amity hitherto existent between these 
two powers, we will take forcible possession of the terri- 
tory. It shall never be said of us that we were not willing 
to arbitrate. 
Something about " Desperate Days." 
Life is too brief and business too pressing for the most 
part to dispose one to pay any attention to comment on 
writing done in the course of newspaper business. Noth- 
ing is less conclusive or more disgusting than a newspaper 
controversy, for one side or the other is practically sure 
to try to be sarcastic or crushing, and sure to succeed in 
being unjust and illogical. I am so sure of this that I am 
reluctant to deviate from my usual custom so far as to 
notice recent comment of one or two anonymous parties 
on my statement of the Wisconsin deer situation printed 
in Forest and Stream of Dec. 21 under the heading 
"Desperate Days in Wisconsin." 
"In Forest and Stream of Dec. 21 1 have just read Mr. 
E. Hough's article headed "Desperate Days in Wisconsin," 
in which he says that never in the history of Wisconsin 
have there been so many hunters from Ohio and Indiana — 
pot-hunters, oh yes! from Ohio and Indiana — pot-hunters 
because they came from outside the State. And they 
hunted illegally, certainly, because they came a good way 
to hunt. 
"Well now, I know of several cases of illegal hunting 
in Wisconsin; and it was not done by outsiders either," 
etc., etc. 
The above statements do well as a sample. They are all 
right except in one fundamental point— they are not true. 
In this they differ from the statements which they criti- 
cise, which were true in all regards, and which gave the 
news of the situation exactly. This news I gave is taken 
from letters and local papers from Wisconsin. If there 
be heat or caustic comment in those, blame those at the 
origin, not this writer, who reprints them. I have not 
entered upon any crusade against the hunters from Ohio 
and Indiana, or any other State. 
It is of course absurd to credit all the illegal killing of 
Wisconsin deer to the non-resident hunters, be they from 
Ohio, Indiana or any other State. This is so absurd that 
of course I never thought of making such a statement — 
nor had I until now thought any one absurd enough to 
suppose any such absurdity. I think reference to past 
columns of Forest and Stream will clear me of any dis- 
position to shield illegal shooting by Wisconsin men or 
any other men, resident or non-resident. 
It is of course absurd to charge me with making out a 
list of accidents and attributing them to Ohio and Indiana 
hunters, or to any other non-resident hunters. I charged 
them to the crowded condition of the Wisconsin woods, 
and I told the truth about it. 
In short, the whole criticism of my resume of the 
crowded condition of the Wisconsin woods — this "scram- 
ble of all sorts of hunters," as I called it— is equally absurd 
with the above misstatements. If my unknown friends 
will allow me to be undignified with them for a moment, 
I would like to say that their toes must be very sore, or 
they would not have imagined them stepped upon. There 
has been no attempt to step on anyone's toes, and no at- 
tempt to show non-resident hunting wrong when carried 
on with respect for the laws of the State where the hunt- 
ing is done. I regret if any gentlemen are sore-toed, but 
I am not responsible for it. They should read twice before 
they criticise once — a plan simple in its nature, but one 
which will often save a world of chagrin. In effect, these 
gentlemen accuse me of stepping on their toes. In reply, 
I must ask them to believe that the sensation is rightly to 
be traced to the subjective and not the objective sense of 
feeling; or, to be more plain, they thought they were 
hurt, but were not. In the dark they struck back. In 
the dark one may strike a friend. I have no enmity to 
these unknown gentlemen. 
Here is where the Enmity is. 
But I have enmity for any man or men — be they from 
Ohio, Indiana, Wisconsin or anywhere else — who unduly 
hasten the clearing out of such few spots as we have left 
supplied with game. How few these spots are and how 
soon they are cleared out, I am, perhaps, in~a better posi- 
tion to say than my unknown critics who, perhaps, do 
not make a business of getting at such knowledge. But I 
shall waste no space on them, and shall make one of my 
critics talk for me. He says: 
"Twenty-five or thirty years ago there were a good 
many deer in the western part of Ohio, and hunters came 
from outside of the State to hunt; and they were welcome, 
too, as long as they hunted in season; and if they killed a 
deer they took it outside of the State, too, for it certainly 
was their property if legally obtained. But alas! the deer 
are nearly all killed, and Ohio hunters will have to go to 
wilder places to hunt." 
The history of the Ohio deer is the history of the Wis- 
consin deer. I imagine that both residents and non-resi- 
dents will combine in the latter case as they did in the 
first, to exterminate the game. If you look on one picture 
you will see the other. I have merely sought to call atten- 
tion to the painting of the latter picture. In my work, 
do I tread on the sore toes of the pure selfishness and sus- 
piciousness of my unknown friends? 
"American" Ways. 
The record of extermination being what it is, the bulk 
of the shooting population of the United States to-day 
would have no shooting if they did not shoot as non-resi- 
dents. No one, so far as I am aware, has attempted to 
pronounce such shooting wrong when done legally and 
decently. We are told that it is an "American" idea for 
the non-resident to shoot where he likes. True, it is 
American. The American idea has nearly stripped this 
country of game. There is a scramble for what little 
there is left. While I am able to write of these things I 
shall protest at that scramble when it becomes indecent 
and illegal. I am an American, and my family have 
been Americans, I may say, for hundreds of years, but not 
all things "American" seem right to me. I know too well 
the "American" hoggishness which has meant and is 
meaning the annihilation of the game real Americans 
ought to be proud to keep alive on this continent. Be it 
American or un-American, there is no escape from the 
inevitable conclusion that unrestricted non-resident shoot- 
ing means a scramble for the game of the few good game 
countries, a scramble too often illegal and indecent, and 
a scramble whose end is one part more of the same old 
"American" record of extinction. You pay your money 
and you take your choice. You can be "American" and 
butcher the rest of the game, or you can restrict the kill- 
ing of game, and so keep it longer — keep it forever if the 
restrictions are correct. 
The Michigan License Law. 
There is no doubt that the Michigan license act drove 
out many non-resident hunters into Wisconsin — so many 
that the complaint was general and just all over the State. 
I do not pretend to say whether the Michigan law is con- 
stitutional or not, whether it is American or not, nor do I 
care. What is plain is the fact that numbers of Michigan 
deer were saved which otherwise would not have been 
saved. If Wisconsin should pass a similar law it would 
be her privilege, and for one I should be glad to see that 
or any other kind of measure which would make it harder 
to kill a game bird or animal by resident or non-resident 
shooters. 
Any antagonism to this sentiment is more theoretical 
than practical, though it might be popular. Any such ob- 
jection presupposes eiiher a wish that the game be exter- 
minated, or a belief that under the present system it will 
not be exterminated. This is reductio ad absurdam suf- 
ficient for any well-posted and thinking man who is also 
a sincere man. He can admit this and still not declare 
the State license act the solution sought for. One need 
say no word as to that. He need only point to Ohio, to 
Illinois, to Indiana, to Iowa, to Minnesota, to Dakota, to 
Wisconsin. If commentators know what the game situa- 
tion there has been and is to-day they will go a trifle 
slow, perhaps, with their generalizations and their abstract 
theories. For my part, I am tired of theories. I am in 
favor of anything that will save the game. 
A Great Subject. 
This subject is a great one, and it is its greatness and its 
closeness which dispose me to allow myself to be carried 
along so far with it — much further than a wish to "set 
myself right" with my unknown critics would take me. 
I do not care for that, for I have been right with the facts, 
and hence could not be set wrong in any question where 
it could make any difference to me. But I just wish in 
closing to take up one of the theories of one of my un- 
known critics, and show him what he means when he 
says what he does. Perhaps he is not willing to follow 
this to its logical conclusion. Perhaps he is afraid to face 
the unwelcome truth. A great many men are. But this 
is what he says: 
"If a man is a citizen of the United States and wants 
to hunt in any State of the United States in season, and 
kills game, it is unquestionably his, and he should cer- 
tainly be allowed to take it anywhere in the United States 
according to the Constitution. This State right business 
cost this Government millions of dollars about thirty 
years ago. So I think if a man hunts in season he should 
not be legally restrained from hunting in any State of the 
Union." 
Our friend is very wise — much wiser perhaps than the 
Supreme Courts of Michigan, Illinois and Ohio, which 
have all taken opposite grounds to the above dictum. 
This hypothetical citizen may be a market-hunter, and he 
may rob the people of an alien State of thousands of dol- 
lars' worth of their goods. If a head of game once killed 
by him is his, and has about it no vested police regulations 
which the people of that State may enact for it, then of 
course our "citizen" may ship it and sell it. Of course, 
then, he convejs title with it, and it continues to be abso- 
lute property. If it is such, the dealer who buys it has 
the same rights as the shooter who killed it, and the State 
has no right to impose police regulations here any 
more than where it was killed. Hence, as prop- 
erty, that game can be sold the year round, 
free of any of these odious police regulations 
which our friend does not like. Hence we are to 
have open game markets, not in some cities, as we 
do now, but in all cities; not open for part of the year, as 
they are in Chicago, but open for all the year, as they are 
in New York. This is what my unknown critic and my 
wise man means — exactly and fairly and actually what 
he means — when he says a non-resident should hunt 
where he likes without restriction, and that the game he 
kills is "unquestionably his." 
It Unquestionably Isn't. 
It unquestionably isn't. Forest and Stream says it 
isn't when it says "Stop the sale of game." That very 
sentiment is the highest statement possible of the police 
powers of the several States over their heritage of game. 
Forest and Stream and every man connected with it, I 
am sure, would like to see every man, whether he hails 
from Ohio, Indiana or Wisconsin, have a good time 
where times are best; yet would none the less like to see 
any fair and impartial remedy suggested which would 
make such non-resident shooting legal and decent, and 
which would yet assure the States still having game that 
their property was not to be hurriedly and wantonly de- 
stroyed. Perhaps one help to the attainment of such an 
ambition may be a continuance in the habit of printing 
the truth where found in regard to what is going on in 
the game fields. I much regret if in the effort to do this 
in regard to the Wisconsin deer-hunting country there 
was offense given in any specific quarter, for such could 
not be the wish. I beg my unknown friends who have 
wrongly thought this to be in future more careful in how 
they read and more thoughtful in what they say. 
Early Geese. 
Jan. 2Jf..— Wild geese were reported seen this week in 
the Kankakee marshes of Indiana. They are said to 
have come as far north as Cairo, 111. I think it more 
likely that many of them have never been much further 
south than that, as the winter has thus far been mild for 
most of the time, with a week of quite warm and rainy 
weather. E. Hough. 
909 Security Building, Chicago. 
A Stray Shinplaster 
Comes to us once in a while for a copy 
of "Game Laws in, Brief;" but shin= 
plasters nowadays are scarcer than Moose 
in New York; and 25 cents in postage 
stamps will do just as well. 
