Forest and Stream 
A Weekly Journal of the Rod and Gun. 
Tkrms, 94 a Yicab. 10 Ots. a Copt. I 
Six Months, J2. f 
NEW YORK, SATURDAY, JUNE 13, 1896. 
{ 
VOL. XLvX— No. 24 
No. 846 Broadway, Nkw "Xobb. 
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THE ZOOLOGICAL GARDEN SITE. 
When the Managers of the Zoological Society applied 
last month to the Commissioners of the Sinking Fund for 
a site for the Zoological Garden in Bronx Park, the request 
was referred to a committee of three for report. Since 
then the daily papers have printed statements, said to 
have been made about this application by the Mayor and 
the City Chamberlain, which we presume these gentle- 
men never expressed. 
It may very well be that neither the Mayor nor Gen. 
McCook knows anything in particular about zoological 
gardens, their purposes or their requirements; but it may 
fairly be assumed that each possesses a fair measure of 
that sense which is called "common," perhaps for the 
reason that it is so very rare. It is not likely then that 
these gentlemen ever talked as they are said to have done 
about the danger of turning over to a private corporation 
the portion of Bronx Park for which the Zoological Soci- 
ety asks, for of course they know that a number of the 
great educational institutions of similar character in this 
city are in the hands of private corporations, and are 
managed by their Trustees purely as a matter of civic pride 
and without hops of any personal reward other than that 
which comes from the approval of their own consciences 
and the satisfaction of benefiting their fellow citizens. 
It must have occurred to the Mayor and the City Cham- 
berlain that the city gave to the Metropolitan Museum of 
Art — a private corporation— a site in the Central Park, 
and there ejected buildings in which are collected choice 
treasures of art, gathered from all lands, to which the 
public are freely admitted and which interest, instruct 
and elevate the public and so benefit the city. 
They could hardly have forgotten that the city has 
given for a site to the American Museum of Natural His- 
tory — a private corporation — Manhattan Square, a large 
and very valuable tract of land in the geographical heart 
of the city, and that on this it has erected and is now 
building magnificent edifices, in which are shown col- 
lections of the highest educational value, collections sur- 
passed in magnitude and interest nowhere in America, 
except at the National Museum in Washington. 
These collections are freely shown to the public, and 
high and low, rich and poor, go there to view and to 
study the works of nature gathered from sea and shore 
and mountain and forest in many lands. The educational 
work done by these collections cannot be overestimated. 
Persons who care nothing for reading about nature may 
delight in the spectacle of a group of birds or animals 
which reproduces nature and nature's scenes, in which 
the wild creatures seem to be living their daily lives. In 
these institutions even those who cannot read may, for 
the mere pleasure of looking, learn of the wonders of 
realms that otherwise would forever remain unknown 
to them. 
Just as a picture will convey to the mind an impression 
far more clear than a written description can ever give, 
so the observation of specimens tells the observer, 
whether he be educated or ignorant, far more than de- 
scription or picture. The plan of the Zoological Society 
is to do just what is being done by the American Museum 
of Natural History— to show bits of nature, but of living 
nature. But to the great public the collections of the 
Society, when ready for exhibition, will be more attract- 
ive than those of the Museum. We all of us, great and 
small, like to see living things, things that move, and a 
hundred people will stand and gaze at a live animal for 
one that will stop to look at a stuffed one. The crowds 
that gather about the few cages in the Central Park on 
these summer days show very clearly how popular a real 
Zoological Garden, with real collections and ample space, 
would be with the inhabitants of this city, rich and poor. 
The Zoological Society is by law compelled to give to 
the public free access to its collections on four days of 
each week, and in view of the very slight revenue which 
could be hoped for on the other three days the Society 
has determined to make two additional days in each week 
free, reserving only one day in seven when the collections 
shall not be open to the public, and when artists and 
students may work about the animals without interrup- 
tion by crowds. From what we know of the character of 
the Managers of the Zoological Society it may be assumed 
that they have at heart only the city's good, and that it 
is their aim to make their Zoological Garden an institu- 
tion as successful, as useful and as great as the American 
Museum of Natural History and the Metropolitan Museum 
of Art. 
The tract of land asked for by the Zoological Society is 
in a park which is now distant from the city's center of 
population, and the land is as yet wild and unimproved. 
It is the Society's purpose to establish here collections 
which will attract many thousands of people to this out- 
of-the-way region, and this will tend to open up a quarter 
of the city which is now almost unknown. For six days 
out of the seven this portion of the park will be open and 
free to the public, and on these six days its attractions 
will be far greater than those of any other park within 
the limits of New York. 
Since the city authorities have given land to the Metro- 
politan Museum of Art, to the American Museum of Natu- 
ral History and to the Botanic Garden — all private corpor- 
ations, but using the land assigned them for the public 
benefit — there seems to be no logical reason for denying 
the application of the Zoological Society, which also will 
use the land granted it for the public good. The site that 
it asks for should be given it. 
WATERS FAR AND NEAR. 
Our angling columns to-day report the opening of the 
Canadian salmon season. Mr. Lowry sends us the story 
of the first Cascapedia salmon, a noble fish of forty pounds, 
well calculated to give pride to a fisherman even so old a 
hand as our correspondent. Everything promises for this 
season an unusually generous supply of fish, and unless 
the salmon has lost its game qualities, as some people 
contend, there is abundant sport in store for those who 
are fortunate enough to have the opportunity of enjoying 
it. Salmon fishing is now restricted to the few, rivers are 
limited in number and in pools. Fishing privileges are 
held high. An expedition for salmon involves expense of 
time and money to be compassed only by those who can 
break their business chains when the wire brings the 
message that the fish are in the river. Such conditions 
must long prevail on this continent. The enterprise of 
restocking rivers like the Hudson, the Connecticut and 
the Merrimac may well enough excite fond fancies in the 
breast of the fisherman, but for generations now on the 
stage salmon fishing in these waters can be nothing more 
than an iridescent dream. 
In striking contrast with the reports from the camps in 
Canadian salmon rivers is the story, which Mr. Avis 
sends us, of quiet fishing on a Connecticut farm. For 
one fisherman who can enjoy the privilege of salmon 
fishing in distant waters there are thousands who could put 
in a day or a half day with great satisfaction on the home 
stream; and, as we have frequently pointed out, no prob- 
lem of fish protection is of more importance from an 
angling standpoint than the protection of the small 
streams on our own farms and near to our own towns 
and villages. 
Quite as noteworthy as the record of the forty-pound 
salmon from the Cascapedia is this relation of a fortunate 
day's fishing in a stream at home. It is deemed remarkable 
that in a country like Connecticut, where the waters are 
supposed to be for the most part barren and to give scant 
reward, fish one never so faithfully, Mr. Avis could have 
gone home with such a string of trout to show with pride 
as the proof of his work on the old farm. And yet this 
is something which should be within the command of 
thousands of fishermen, if only a wiser economy had 
conserved the natural resources of nearby waters. It is 
not too much to say that if every farmer controlling land 
through which trout streams flow were himself a trout 
fisherman, the interest in the sport and in husbanding the 
material for it would be so widespread that the supply 
would be maintained in a measure generous enough not 
only for the owners of the streams, but for others too. 
The depletion of brooks and rivers has been permitted 
mainly by callous indifference on the part of those who 
might have interfered if they had cared anything about 
maintaining the supply. The number of anglers is con- 
stantly increasing, and interest in fishing is more general 
now than ever before. We believe that this means a cor- 
responding growth of sentiment for protection. The time 
is coming when the resources of local trout and bass 
waters will be as well understood and as carefully cared 
for as one now protects his pasturage and his sugar bush. 
AUSTIN OORBIN. 
Mr. Austin Corbin, the president of the Long Island 
R. R. , and one of New York's most successful business 
men, died last week at his summer home at Newport, N. 
H. He was thrown out of his carriage by the running 
away of the horses, and so severely injured [that he died 
the same day. The driver of the carriage was killed, and 
the other persons in the vehicle, a physician and Mr. 
Corbin's grandchild, were very seriously injured. 
Mr. Corbin was a man of large wealth, which was 
chiefly acquired in successful banking and railroad enter- 
prises. He is best known to readers of Forest and 
Stream through his establishment of the largest and most 
successful game preserve on this continent. He took the 
greatest interest in his park at Newport, and gave much 
time and thought to its management and to the task of 
stocking it. In it are found specimens of almost all 
species of North American game which will endure the 
New Hampshire climate, and neither trouble nor expense 
were spared in securing desirable additions to the collec- 
tion. Certain species of animals were imported from 
Europe, but the most interesting species found in the park 
are American; buffalo, moose, elk and deer. 
Mr. Corbin was a man of great public spirit, and only 
a short time before his death had arranged to ship a por- 
tion of his herd of buffalo to New York for public exhibi- 
tion in one of the large parks here. If the project thus 
set on foot by him shall be carried out, this herd will 
long continue an active reminder of Mr. Corbin's broad- 
mindedness and of his generosity to his fellow-citizens. 
1 In establishing his great game preserve, Mr. Corbin set 
an example which has been followed on a smaller scale by 
many other wealthy men, and to him must be given the 
credit of having inaugurated in this country a plan for 
game preservation which we believe will be of great 
service to science, and without which certain species of 
our larger ruminants could not have escaped absolute 
extinction. The system is new, but it will surely grow, 
and as it grows will prove more and more useful. It 
might not yet have had any being if it had not been for 
the breadth of mind of Austin Corbin. 
Although the artificial propagation of black bass by his 
methods so successfully practiced with many other fishes 
is impracticable, the Michigan Fish Commission has 
demonstrated that a system of preserved ponds may bb 
devised for giving the fry hatched naturally such protec- 
tion as to insure a large supply of young fish for trans- 
planting. We print in full the very instructive paper on 
the topic read by Mr. Seymour Bower, of the Michigan 
Commission, before the American Fisheries Society, and 
we trust that the success therein detailed may prompt 
other commissions to adopt the methods so well de- 
scribed. 
The proposition recently put forward in these pages 
that the salmon is losing its game qualities falls properly 
into the classification "important if true." There are 
some who adduce reasons for the claim. They say that 
the fish of late seasons failed to show the mettle and dash 
of the storied salmon of a less degenerate age — all of 
which is extremely alarming, if there is anything in it; 
and we would like to hear from some of the fishermen 
who are on the streams this season. 
