Forest and Stream. 
A Weekly Journal of the Rod and Gun. 
Tkbms, $4 a Tear. 10 Ors. a Copt 
8 ix Months, $2. 
} NEW YORK, SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 29, 1896 
VOL. XLVI.— No. 9. 
No. 318 Broadway, New York 
For Prospectus and Advertising Rates see Page v. 
SETTLEMENT, SAVAGERY, SELF. 
The American sportsman who grumbles over the rapid 
decrease of game must put himself in an attitude of hos- 
tility to the material advancement of the country. It is 
an elementary proposition that the larger the number of 
people which a given tract will support, the smaller the 
number of wild creatures to be found in it. Civilized 
communities afford poor shooting; where the settlements 
are sparse there is more game; in the land of the savage 
game is abundant. When the buffalo roamed the plains 
in unnumbered thousands, the few men who traveled 
there always had food at hand ; now people are plenty 
there and cattle feed where the buffalo thundered. Acres 
that once produced a robe now produce a fat steer or two. 
Is it better or is it worse? 
Sport is recreation, the light side of life, rest, pleasure; 
the seasoning which adds zest to the average man's round 
of toil, and which helps him to get through with it more 
effectively than if his life were all work. That human 
nature needs this rest and recreation has been recognized 
since the beginning of time, for did not the Creator rest 
upon the Seventh day, and have we not all been exhorted 
from childhood to do likewise? The importance of this 
rest and recreation is the gospel which Fobest and 
Stream preaches, and to which, happily,, it has made 
many converts. 
But what does the American sportsman want? He 
growls faithfully about the destruction of game and its 
consequent scarcity, but would he like to see the plains 
depopulated, the cattle replaced by the buffalo and the 
cowpuncher by the Indian? Or take it nearer home: 
would the dweller in the city like to have the farmer and 
his boy, the mill operator in the small -manufacturing 
town, the telegraph operative at the little railroad station, 
all deprived of their shotguns so that there may be birds 
enough for him and for his friends to shoot? 
We growl and growl. Game is getting scarcer; game 
laws are broken; the cold storage warehouse is at the 
bottom of the failing game supply. But who is there 
among us who, if he has the luck to find good shooting 
for a day, stays his hand while there are birds? If he 
starts a good brood of quail and they scatter in the long 
grass, he kills as many as he can there, congratulating 
himself the while that this is like old times again; then 
the few that are left he follows into the swamp or the 
woods and tries to kill them there. Or if he goes duck- 
ing and by some [remarkable combination does have 
birds come nicely to him, does he stop shooting so long 
as his ammunition holds out? Does he not rather kill all 
he can and try to equal some famous score made in earlier 
days. 
And all the time the game is growing scarcer. 
SNAP SHOTS. 
The Forest and Stream will very shortly remove to 
new and handsome offices in the New York Life Building, 
No. 346 Broadway, corner of Leonard street. This is two 
blocks north of the present location. The offices will be 
on the eighth floor, reached by the elevator at the Leonard 
street entrance, 
A very large proportion of the contributions printed in 
our columns is of letters which have no signature or 
which are signed with pseudonyms. Many men now 
write for the Forest and Stream under a nom de plume 
who for various reasons would not contribute under their 
own name. As a rule, these communications lose none of 
their value in being unsigned with a real name. Many of 
our old-time contributors are quite as well known by their 
pseudonyms as they could have hoped to have been by 
their real name, and their communications have just as 
much interest, vivacity and weight as they would have if 
signed by the real name of the writer. 
The prospects are that the forthcoming Sportsmen's 
Exposition next month will exceed in interest the one of 
last year. The spaces have nearly all been taken and the 
displays will be elaborate, varied and instructive. The 
Forest and Stream is making preparations to do its share 
of the week's entertainment. 
the promotion of high principles among its members. 
The guides are powerful for the enforcement of the game 
laws. If they care to take into their hands the duty of 
seeing that visiting sportsmen scrupulously obey the laws, 
they can have absolute control of the situation. We be- 
lieve that there is a constantly growing sentiment among 
the guides of the Adirondacks in support of the game 
laws. There is a better understanding now than ever 
before that the interests of the guide are protected and 
made permanent by a provident use of the game supply. 
This holds not only in the Adirondacks, but in Maine and 
elsewhere. Commissioner Henry O. Stanley, of Maine, is 
our authority for saying that there is a growing sentiment 
in support of protection among the guides and residents of 
his State. They are coming to recognize more clearly 
than ever the value of the fish and game as a source of 
wealth to the State and of income to themselves, and 
although the number of sportsmen is constantly increas- 
ing the violations of the law are coming to be looked upon 
with less indulgence by the guides than ever before. 
In almost all sections readily accessible to the hunter, 
the big game of the West was swept out of existence in a 
few years' time. And it was not until it had ceased to 
exist that people realized that it was gone. Up to the 
very last years of the existence of the buffalo,, the cry was 
that it could never be exterminated, which of course 
meant that those then living would never see its end, and 
to-day we still hear residents of the West marvel at the 
suddenness of the animal's disappearance. One day they 
were abundant and the next there were none. In 1883 
the Red River half-breeds, Crees and Blackfeet brought 
into Carroll, Mont., 50,000 robes, the year following they 
brought none, 
While the speedy destruction of buffalo and elk was 
caused largely by greed, it was also due in a measure to 
men's thoughtlessness, coupled with the desire which 
seems inherent in many civilized minds to "kill some- 
thing." Buffalo were run for fun; men tried their rifles 
on elk, antelope and deer and made no use of the slain. 
So long as the animals were very abundant the effect of 
killing was scarcely noticeable, but as they became fewer 
in any locality the destruction began to count. The effect 
was cumulative. Hunting parties from the East and 
from Europe as well as local hunters were alike responsi- 
ble for work of this kind, and the grand total must have 
been very great. 
The Adirondacks Guides' Association is a body which is 
capable of very efficient service for game protection and 
Within the pastjf ew years, since^game has become scarce 
in the West and since the taking out of hunting parties 
has become a recognized vocation in the West, there has 
arisen a decided change in the sentiment of the better 
class of residents in regions where there is still some game 
left. This change is due in many localities to the influence 
o£ good and true sportsmen, either from the East or the 
West, who have visited the game country, killed in 
moderation, preached to their companions and guides the 
doctrines of legitimate sport, and shown them how and 
why it is for the interest of everyone that the animals 
that are still left alive should be protected. The influence 
of such missionary work has been felt in many sections 
of the West and it has resulted in much good. Men who 
take out parties recognizing that wholesale destruction 
means the end of their business now discourage needless 
killing by both local hunters and by men from a distance 
who employ them as guides. Of course there are still 
many individuals who hunt for hides, and slaughter — so 
far as they can— with the same recklessness that they 
displayed in the oldtdays of game plenty, but on the other 
hand there^is a good^leaven of the game protective spirit 
among residents of the farther West and this leaven is 
working all the time. 
It is evident, however, that no material increase in the 
numbers of our game can take place in regions where 
new settlementsare being made and which^are constantly 
being hunted. Absolute protection over considerable 
areas is required for such increase, but given such pro- 
tection, the multiplication^ of the animals will be rapid. 
We have had one such particular locality— the Yellow- 
stone Park— for many years, and there are others — the 
recently established forest reservations which should be- 
come similar refuges and resorts of our great game, and 
which will be such if Congress shall ever give the legisla- 
tion necessary to that end. 
themselves by holding public meetings to agitate for the 
repeal of the fish and game laws. In tile good old days 
of the fathers, they reason, before such things as a closed 
time and restricted methods were known, game and fish 
were found in great supply. There was enough for all, 
and no one need bother himself about the law. If we 
could only get rid of the statutes, reason these sapient 
agitators, the good times would come again: there would 
be enough for everybody; wildfowl would darken the 
sky, quail would whistle from every field, the streams 
would be choked with fish, and the Sussex farmers would 
fare as sumptuously as did the Israelites when they were 
fed on quail in the wilderness. Outside of Sussex county 
this may not commend itself as strictly logical; irreverent 
critics may even suggest that the Sussex farmers have 
gone clean daft. 
Writing to Mr. J. B. Burnham in comment on his 
game photographs made in Maine last summer, a Boston 
correspondent recalls having hunted over the same terri- 
tory in 1875, when, he says, there were not a dozen deer 
to a township; and now they are there in thousands. 
The increase he rightly calls phenomenal. We are so 
accustomed to dwell upon the darker side of the picture 
that we give less than due note to the many instances of 
a replenished and restored game supply. The wilderness 
of Maine is perhaps the most striking example of such an 
improved condition, where, owing to various causes f 
natural and artificial, a country once practically barren 
of game now yields its deer annually by the thousands. 
And speaking of replenished game supplies we must 
not forget the opossum on Long Island. Whether or not 
the creature was indigenous there is a mooted point, the 
probabilities appearing to be that it was introduced. 
There are several claimants for the credit of having 
added the opossum to the game store of that country; 
and some of the claims run back to the year 1850; but it 
was not until the later 80s that the number of opossums 
had become so great as to attract attention. As is well 
known, the opossum preys upon poultry, game birds, 
hares and other animal life; and the opopsums of Long 
Island have become so numerous in some sections as to 
be a decided nuisance in this respect. We have before 
now printed complaints from correspondents who have 
been plagued beyond endurance by ravages of the noc- 
turnal prowlers. In some towns bounties are offered on the 
vermin and the authorities pay at the rate of 35 cents for 
each pair of opossums' ears brought in. It is a curious fact 
that rewards for vermin in nine cases out of ten stimulate 
trickery and dishonesty, and it is not surprising, there- 
fore, to hear that the youthful genius of Long Island, with 
wits sharpened by the opossum bounty, has discovered in 
the skin of the domestic cat a prolific source of revenue. 
The papers recorded last week that a youngster of East 
Patchogue had been assessed a fine of $10 by a justice of 
the peace for having collected bounty on cat skins cut 
into small pieces trimmed to resemble opossums' ears. 
Why is it that people who in other affairs of life are con- 
scientious and honest will resort to such tricks and de- 
vices when the authorities may be bamboozled by false 
evidences of the destruction of vermin? It is a problem 
' whose solution we must leave for those who can tell us 
why it is that a conscientious and high-minded woman 
thinks she is doing a cute thing and one highly commend- 
able if she can cheat a customs officer. 
The farmers of Sussex county, N. J., are entertaining 
Capercailzie and black game have attracted so much 
attention in this country that one may confidently fore- 
tell their introduction as game birds, although there may 
be many more failures before success shall be attained. 
Undismayed by the miserable outcome of a previous en- 
terprise in this line in Maine, the Fisheries and Game 
Commissioners of that State are now bringing over from 
Sweden a lot of capercailzie and black game, which are 
expected to arrive in New York by an early steamer. 
They will be put out in New Sweden among the Swedes of 
Aroostook county, and another importation following 
later will be sent to the Rangeley district. 
If the guides of a game country could be banded to- 
gether in an agreement neither to violate the laws them- 
selves nor to allow a sportsman under their guidance to 
violate them, the game problem would practically be 
solved, 
