Forest and Stream 
A Weekly Journal of the Rod and Gun. 
Terms, $4 A Year. 10 Cts. a Copt. 
8rs Months, $2. 
NEW YORK, SATURDAY, MAY 23, 1896. 
VOL. XLVL-No. 21 
No. 346 Broadway, New \ork. 
For Prospectus and Advertising Rates see Page viii. 
FOREST AND STREAM OFFICE 
346 Broadway 
NEW YORK LIFE BUILDING 
Present Entrance on Leonard Street || 
THE BEAVER. 
Fact and fable cluster thick about the beaver and com- 
bine to render him one of the most interesting of our wild 
creatures. From childhood we hear about him as tree 
feller, mason, house builder and engineer. His industry 
end perseverance have passed into the proverbs of the 
land. If civilized man, who derives his knowledge of 
the beaver's admirable qualities merely from what he has 
read and heard about him, respects the beaver, not less 
does the savage, whose life is spent near the animal's 
home and who is more familiar with his ways than most 
white men ever can be. By him the beaver is highly 
regarded and is credited with intelligence of a high 
order— sometimes even with supernatural powers. The 
trapper, too, who pits his art and experience against those 
of the beaver, holds him in great esteem. He knows that 
in the beaver he has an antagonist that will call forth the 
highest skill that he possesses. 
Mr. Hofer's account of his experience in catching 
beaver for the National Zoological Park is a suggestive 
paper. Many of the notes on the beaver's habits, which 
the writer has here set down, are, we think, wholly new, 
and some of them are very curious. The action of the 
animal, which drove away from the water the band of 
horses that wished to drink at the pond he lived in, is 
enough to justify the legends of the beaver's wisdom 
which we used to read as boys. 
Along with this interest, great as it is, comes the melan- 
choly reflection of how rapidly the range of all our wild 
animals is being circumscribed, and how, little by little, 
the species one after aD other are taking their places be- 
hind iron bars or behind wire screens and are being 
domesticated or caged. The range of the beaver was 
once as wide as that of almost any animal on the conti- 
nent. It extended from ocean to ocean, and from near 
the limit of timber on the north, south to Mexico; but 
over how great an area has it been exterminated! It is 
still found in eastern Canada in small numbers and in 
occasional places in the Maine forests. There are re- 
ported to be a few in the Adirondacks, and a law has just 
been passed to protect them there; but from New York 
west to the great plains, almost to the foothills of the 
Rocky Mountains, there are none. Vague rumors of 
beaver in West Virginia reach us from time to time, but 
we believe that there is no tangible evidence of their ex- 
istence there. A few are still found in Texas, but they 
are very scarce. 
In the mountains of the West there are still many 
beaver, though there are but few in any one place and 
their numbers are kept down by trapping, bo that only 
the cunningest and the most wary survive. It is not now 
as it used to be, when sometimes the traveler might sit on 
a high hill and overlook many square miles of territory, 
all of it occupied by beaver, which, undisturbed, lived 
there and when their time came died and knew no fear. 
Such a territory, once looked over, is long remembered. 
One such, seen long ago in Colorado, was thus described 
by a staff correspondent of Forest and Stream: 
"I was well repaid for my scramble up the hill, however, for in the 
valley at my feet, stretching away to the west for seven or eight 
miles, and to the north and south for fifteen, lay the largest beaver 
meadow that I have ever seen. I presume that there were 500 dams in 
sight, most of them kept in good repair. The water set back by these 
dams flowed through a thousand little canals and ditches, and the 
whole from the height looked like a silver net spread over an enor - 
mous carpet of emerald velvet. Through my glass I could count 
hundreds of beaver houses, and could even distinguish the green wil- 
low leaves on the branches recently used in repairing the works. 
Beyond this meadow was a narrow strip of brown prairie, and then 
the green pine timber began, and with it the foothills of the Snowy 
Range." 
For the knowledge of such a spot — the exclusive knowl- 
edge—the old-time trapper would have bartered his all. 
Here indeed one could have set his traps all through a sea- 
son, and could have reaped a rich harvest of fur. 
Out on the wide plains, where beaver were, it is true, 
not so good— yet were good enough — the last fur brought 
in at the close of the season was sometimes taken in a less 
worthy way than by the trap; for the trapper took unfair 
advantage of the circumstances of the poor beasts, and 
when the spring floods rushed down the valley and the 
high water drowned the beaver out of houses and holes, 
and they sat miserable and blinking on the bank, the old 
man, floating down the stream in a canoe, drifted close to 
the poor beasts, and with a lightly loaded rifle carrying a 
tiny ball shot them through the head, gathering in one 
after another until the canoe would hold no more. 
The large beaver dam near Obsidian Cliffs in the Yel- 
lowstone National Park, which is shown this week, is per- 
haps as fine an example of the modern beaver dam as can 
be seen to-day, and its appearance is of course familiar to 
many of our readers. 
Like many of the fur-bearing animals whose pelts bring 
a good price, the beaver is continually pursued by the 
trapper, and in many localities this pursuit has brought 
about a change in the animal's habits. Not often in these 
later days do we see the great haystack -like houses that 
the beaver used to build; for now — except where they are 
protected in the National Park — most beaver have become 
bank beaver and have their homes in excavations 
in the banks of the streams in which they live. Often 
now they do not build dams, recognizing that these struc- 
tures at once and unmistakably betray their presence in 
the water. 
In several States of the Union laws forbidding the kill- 
ing of beaver stand on the statute books, but they are 
seldom regarded or enforced. Yet certainly they ought 
to be protected, and especially in those regions where 
once they were abundant and are now extremely few in 
number. 
We hope that the time is not very distant when, in all 
the large game preserves of this country, there will be 
colonies of beaver, whose curious habits, unflagging in- 
dustry and remarkable works will be among the most 
interesting of the examples of wild animal life that are 
gathered there. 
THE BEARDS LEE TROUT. 
1 It 'is a new trout, named by Dr. Jordan in honor of 
Admiral Beardslee, who discovered it, and another new 
fish with it, in Lakes Sutherland and Crescent, up in the 
mountains, sixteen miles back of Port Angeles in Wash- 
ington. The other fish was named, on Admiral Beards- 
lee's request, the Crescent Lake trout. Dr. Jordan has 
determined both as new forms. The Crescent Lake trout, 
or Salvw crescentis, is a blueback ; the Salmo beardsleei a 
speckled trout. The discovery of these two new forms 
Piseco is disposed to regard as the climax of his angling 
career; and as for these twenty years and more he has 
shared his fishing experiences with the readers of Forest 
and Stream, he now has written out for them .the story of 
the new fishes, and we shall give the first chapter in our 
next issue. 
From the relation it will be seen that in size, beauty 
and game qualities the Salmo beardsleei is worthy to bear 
its newly bestowed name, and his brother anglers will 
heartily congratulate Piseco on his having so happily 
found a place for himself in the books wherein are en- 
rolled the names of fishes and the discoverers of fishes. 
SNAP SHOTS. 
The members of the Forestry Commission recently ap- 
pointed by the National Academy of Science at the re- 
quest of the Secretary of the Interior are likely to begin 
their work in the West before very long. It seems prob- 
able now that the members of the Commission will leave 
here aboutr July 1, and will spend the summer and early 
autumn in the forest regions of the West. They will 
devote especial attention to the Rocky Mountains, the 
Cascade and the Coast ranges, and are likely to return 
East early in November, It is earnestly to be hoped that 
all the members of the Commission will make this trip. 
Each one is a specialist in some direction or other, and 
the absence of any member will take away something 
from the excellence and completeness of the Commission's 
work. It is believed that a plan will be formulated by 
this Commission so plain, practical and wise that it will 
appeal strongly not only to the authorities in Washington, 
but also to the common sense of the people at large, 
whether residents or not of the forested areas under con- 
sideration. It is high time that this country made some 
forward steps toward intelligent, economic forestry, and 
the prospects for such advances have never been so bright 
as they seem now to be. 
The twenty-fifth annual meeting of the American 
Fisheries Society will commence on May 20, in the Aqua- 
rium, Battery Park, New York. On the following day, 
May 21, the second session will be held in the Biological 
Laboratory, at Cold Spring Harbor, Long Island, by in- 
vitation of the New York Commission of Fish, Game and 
Forests. The steamer John H. Starin is engaged for the 
members, and will take them to Cold Spring Harbor, 
where, besides attending to the purposes of the meeting, 
they will view the State fish hatchery. The meeting prom- 
ises to be most interesting. Many of the members have 
signified their intention to contribute papers on live sub- 
jects, and others who have not yet been heard from will 
undoubtedly contribute also. Mr. J. E. Gunckel, Toledo, 
has promised a paper on the late Judge Emory D. Potter. 
Mr. H. P. Frothingham, secretary of the New Jersey Fish 
Commission, will report on the protection of fish and 
game in New Jersey. Dr. Bushrod W. James, Phila- 
delphia, has prepared a paper on the interstate protection 
of food fish. Mr. H. "Whittaker, of Michigan, has prom- 
ised a paper, the title of which was not given. Mr. Fred. 
Mather will contribute a paper on natural food for trout 
fry. Dr. Tarleton H. Bean, superintendent of the New 
York Aquarium, will read a paper on pond culture of 
California salmon in France. 
It has been decided that the Corbin buffalo shall be 
located at Van Cortlandt Park and the fence is now being 
erected about the space which has been allotted to the 
herd. This inclosure is roughly triangular in shape and 
lies between the main line and the Yonkers branch of the 
New York & Putnam Railroad, which bound it on the 
east and west, and Mosholu avenue on the north. The 
southern end of the inclosure is only a short distance 
north of Van Cortlandt Station, and so the northern end 
of Van Cortlandt Lake is included within the park, and 
Tibbett's Brook, which feeds that lake, runs through the 
inclosure. Thus in most respects the location is an ideal, 
one, for food, water and diversified scenery are all present. 
It is uncertain when the herd will be removed from New 
Hampshire, but probably not for some little time yet. 
It is to be noted of frogging that when one writes of 
the pursuit it is with a certain apologetic or deprecatory 
flavor, if not with absolute shamefacedness. The capture 
of the lowly prey, whether with lure of red flannel or 
with bullet, is written of as a form of sport not to be 
classed with a salmon bout or a trophy- winning moose 
hunt. And yet one might say much in defense of frog- 
ging. The bullfrog, though intensely musical, does not 
come within the protection accorded song birds; and its 
flesh is a delicacy fit to rank with other game, as the 
prices which follow the entry of frogs' legs on restaurant 
bills of fare amply attest. Also the frog hunter has the 
sanction of recognized authorities, as witness this 
paragraph from "Woodcraft," in which manual, by the 
way, Nessmuk more than once recurs to the taking of 
frogs for fun and food: 
I hope no aesthetic devotee of the fly-rod will lay down the book in 
disgust when I confess to a weakness for frogging. I admit that it is 
not high-toned sport, and yet I have a good deal of amusement out of 
it. The persistence with which a large batrachian will snap at a bit of 
red flannel after being several times hooked on the same lure, and the 
comical way in which he will Ecuttle off with a quick succession of 
short jumps after each release; the cheerful manner in which after 
each bout he will tune up his deep bass pipe, ready for another 
greedy snap at an ibis fly or red rag— is rather funny. And his 
hindlegs, rolled in meal and nicely browned, are preferable to trout 
or venison. 
Mr. Charles H, Ames spoke before the Appalachian 
Mountain Club, of Boston, last week on the "Preservation 
of Game," relating the great destruction which has over- 
taken the wild animals of this continent, and making a 
strong plea for an awakened public sentiment to protect 
what is left. As his frequent contributions to our columns 
have shown, Mr. Ames belongs to that growing class of 
men who are taking increased interest in restocking and 
restoring, instead of depleting, the fields and the woods 
with native and exotic game. This is the class to whom 
we must look for the saving of our really wild creatures 
in this country. There will always be game in preserves; 
but that which is to survive outside of fenced parks and 
posted tracts will be owed to the public spirit of conserva- 
tive men, who recognize the situation and have the energy 
and the tact to undertake the work of conservation, 
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