Forest and Stream 
A Weekly Journal of the Rod and Gun. 
Terms, $4 a Year. 10 Cts. a copy. 
Six Moxths, $2. 
NEW YORK, MARCH 9,. 1895. 
( VOL. XLIV.— NO. 10. 
(No. 318 Broadway, New York. 
* Forest and Stream Water Colors 
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We have prepared as premiums a series of four artistic 
and beautiful reproductions of origina'. water colors, 
painted expressly for the Forest and Stream. The 
subjects are outdoor scenes: 
Jacksnipe Coming: Jr.. "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 1 4 x 1 9 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 tlie set of four pictures, $5. 
Forest and Stream 6 mon ths and any two of the pictures, $3. 
Price or the pictures alone, $1.60 each } $5 for the set. 
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FOREST AND STREAM PUB. CO., New York. 
PROMPTINGS TO PRIDE. 
The advertising manager has confided to us that lie is 
unoved to a distinct sense of pride in certain character- 
istics of the Forest and Stream's advertising. 
First. — Its large amount. 
Second. — Its high quality. 
Third. — Its value to advertisers. 
The large amount of advertising in this week's issue is 
an index, we are glad to believe, of the growth of business 
confidence. Ad vertisers do not advertise unless they ex- 
pect to sell goods. 
The trade representation contained in these announce- 
ments is such as for quality might well afford gratifica- 
tion to a publisher. The high grade of the Forest and 
Stream's advertising constituency comports in every re- 
spect with the established high grade of the paper itself. 
As the favorite medium for sagacious and experienced 
advertisers, the Forest and Stream gives a service un- 
equalled, and one which it is beyond the power of any 
other agency to supply. This is because it affords the 
most direct means of communication between the largest 
number of producers and tbe largest number of con- 
sumers, for all classes of goods that come within the scope 
of a sportsman's requirements, necessities or luxuries. 
An understanding of these conditions will make per- 
fectly clear the reasonableness of the advertising mana- 
ger's pride in those pages of tbe paper which are set in 
display type. 
MONGOOSE OYSTERS. 
This appears to be a case for the illumination of which 
rnay be cited the story of the man, the basket, the mon- 
goose and the snakes. 
On a ferry boat plying between^Sacramento and Oak- 
and, or New York and Brooklyn, as the story is told in 
the West or the East, a passenger holding a carefully- 
covered basket was seen to peep into it with manifest 
concern for the safety of whatever was inside. Asked 
by a curious observer what be had, he said that it was a 
mongoose, and explained that he was taking it home to 
kill the snakes seen by his brother, who was suffering 
from delirium tremens. "But those snakes are only im- 
aginary ones," objected the inquirer. "And it is only an 
imaginary mongoose," said tbe man, throwing open the 
empty basket. 
Secretary Doyle, of the New York Fish Commission, 
assures us that the purposes for which he has been said to 
have sent oj^sters to members >f the Legislature this win- 
ter, and the oysters themselves, are both purely mythical. 
They are figments of somebody's fecund fancy, altogether 
as imaginary as the mongoose and the snakes. He asserts 
that he has sent just one barrel of oysters to Albany this 
year; that this went to a personal friend, Senator Kil- 
bourn, and was regarded by both parties as a friendly 
treat; that it was not intended to affect action on the 
Donaldson bill, nor on any other bill; that he was not in- 
terested in the passage of that measure; that he did not 
suggest nor approve of the extravagance embodied in its 
items; that he did not expect to hold any office under it, 
nor to reap any benefit from it, if it should become a 
law; and that, in short, neither had he sent barrels of 
oysters to the Legislature, nor, if he had sent them, 
would they have been designed for any questionable pur- 
pose. 
One barrel of oysters is not to be considered as a sub- 
stantial foundation for the stories which have grown out 
of this one, Mr. Doyle's statement is so comprehensive 
and unequivocal that it may be taken as a sufficient con- 
tradiction of the reports it denies. Speculations having 
to do with the relation between measures in which Mr. 
Doyle was said to have been interested and the barrels of 
oysters which Mr. Doyle was said to have sent for the 
promotion of such measures are thus shown to have a 
close affinity to ratiocinations respecting what may have 
happened to the brother's imaginary snakes when the 
man got home with the imaginary mongoose. 
The oyster hypothesis no longer being available as a 
working theory, will some one explain what else it could 
have been upon which the promoter of that $23,500 fish 
commission scheme based their confidence that the Legis- 
lature would approve the job? gsd 
Since our comments upon the bill last week, the meas- 
ure has been so amended as to reduce the total of the 
salary expenditures, but the amount still called for is 
altogether out of proportion to public policy. The bill is 
bad in principle; its manifest design is not to reform the 
constitution of the Fish Commission by putting it on a 
business basis, but to increase the number of offices and 
places for political ends. It is not a measure which, if 
enacted, could do credit to Governor Morton's adminis- 
tration, for it is not a measure which is in the interest of 
the public. We had hoped, with the changes to come in 
Mr. Morton's term, to see the Fisb Commission recon- 
structed on a business basis, composed of men of ability, 
public spirit and interest in the work, and distinguished 
among all like commissions the world over for its effici- 
ency, usefulness and economy. This may still be achieved 
if the Fish and Forest Commission Consolidation bill shall 
be abandoned, as it should be, for the plan proposed in 
the game law code revision. This provides for a com- 
mission of three members, one of them to be designated 
by the Governor as tbe president, with a salary of $5,000, 
he to pay his own traveling expenses. The others receive 
their expenses, but no salary. There is a secretary with 
salary of $2,000. The commissioners appoint the game 
protectors. This is not a desirable feature of the bill, but 
the same provision is found in the other measure. 
POLLUTION OF WATERS. 
The problem of protecting fishing waters from pollution 
by factory waste and other detelerious substances is one 
of the most perplexing with which fish protection has to 
deal. The question is one of comparatively recent recog- 
nition. Until a late period in this country a stream that 
could be made to furnish water power, or that could be 
utilized as a sewer to carry off sawdust or tannery flow 
or the waste from factories was taken advantage of for 
such purposes, with never a thought of the fish supply. 
Even now, though we have laws for the protection of the 
purity of such waters, the statutes are frequently and 
flagrantly disregarded; and those whose duty it is to en- 
force the laws are practically powerless to do anything. 
One obstacle to accomplishing their purpose is the lax 
construction of the average laws respecting pollution; 
they are so worded that their exact meaning is in doubt; 
and whenever there is a possibility that their intent may 
safely be evaded full advantage of the defect is taken by 
manufacturers and mill owners. 
This topic of fishing water pollution is one which 
might well engage the attention of the American Fishery 
Society. The Fish Commissioners of the several States 
have had many perplexing experiences in this field, and 
a general discussion of the subject could not fail to be of 
value. What are, the conditions to be overcome? What 
methods have failed to provide the remedy, and what, 
others have accomplished the end sought? 
One reason why tannery and factory waste is permitted 
to destroy the fish of a stream is found in the fact that 
the mill interest against the fish interest involves the 
direct personal interests of the individual mill owner 
against the general interests of the community. The 
mill man recognizes his own personal interests, and fights 
for them; the public does not comprehend what it has at 
stake, until some individual wiser than his fellows raises 
the alarm, and then it is too late. The mill man goes on 
destroying fish, and claims a right to do so because his 
father and his grandfather did it before him. Fish water 
pollution is as old as the century, fish protection is a new 
idea; there are thousands of communities in this country 
to-day that know practically nothing of it.] 
SNAP SHOTS. 
We announced last week the favorable report in the 
Senate on that body's amendment to the item in the Sun- 
dry Civil Service bill for the improvement of the National 
Park. This amendment changed the title of the item so 
that the appropriation, instead of being only for the im- 
provement of the National Park, read for its improve- 
ment and protection. It also increased the amount ap- 
propriated by $10,000, and in direct terms authorized the 
employment of extra scouts in the protection of the Park. 
In conference committee, however, the amount was again 
cut down to $30,000, and all mention of scouts was 
omitted. However, since the title of the item still reads 
"For the improvement and protection of the National 
Park," instead of for its improvement alone, there re- 
mains ample authority to use the small sum of money re- 
quired to pay a few scouts in addition to the single one 
now employed. Thus by slow degrees very gradually 
progress is being made in protecting the National Park. 
Every once in a while there comes into city offices a 
young fellow of swarthy face and the dress of a sailor, 
who avers in broken English and Spanish that the mys- 
terious package he bears contains cigars of rare quality, 
which he has smuggled and wants to dispose of at a bar- 
gain. He must find a market for his wares, or he would 
not stay in the business; but the smuggled goods are re- 
puted to be of domestic manufacture, or a regularly im- 
ported article not worth the price asked by the "smug- 
gler." Like tricks are played every day by purveyors of 
game out of season upon the smart folks who think il 
the correct thing to order birds out of season. A neat 
story from Boise, Idaho, reports an incident of this char- 
acter in that city. The tale is of a hunter dressed in 
buckskin suit, who came into town with a load of meat, 
which he said was antelope, and for which he found 
ready sale at fancy prices. His stock quickly sold out, 
the man of the mountains took his departure, then the 
buyers smacked their lips, looked queer, and decided that 
they had been buying mutton at gamy prices. t . 
The recent extremely severe weather has caused a 
great destruction of game birds, particularly in the 
Southern States. Something of the mortality among the 
quail in the latitude of Virginia is hinted in the com- 
munication from our correspondent who relates a mission 
of relief to the surviving flocks. President Polk Miller, 
of the Virginia Field Sports Association, has repeated 
his appeals of two years ago to the farmers, to feed the 
birds; and it is extremely gratifying to know that his 
action has now, as then, been the means of preserving 
large numbers of quail. 
Congress having adjourned, President Cleveland will 
go duck shooting. If a party were made up of President 
Cleveland of the United States, President |Faure of 
France and President Kruger, of the South African Re- 
public, there would be three good shots. 
THE ILLINOIS MARKETS, 
The Blow bill having been sent to limbo, the Illinois 
Sportsmen's Association has 'prepared a measure for 
consideration at [Springfield, which embodies, in a more 
wholesome, but we think still inadequate, degree prohi- 
bition of the sale of game. Here is the text in full of the 
sale section: 
Section L— When Unlawful to Sell or Have in Possession.— It 
shall be unlawful for any person, firm or corporation at any time 
to sell, expose If or sale or have in possession for the purpose of 
sale or transporting for Isale any of the game birds, fowl or ani- 
mals Or song and insectivorous birds mentioned in Sections 1 
and 2 of this Act and killed within this State, or to sell or have 
in possession for any purpose any of such birds or animals which 
have been illegally killed in or transported illegally from any 
other State, and it shall be unlawful between the 1st day of Feb- 
ruary and the 1st day of October of each and every year for any 
person, firm or corporation to sell, expose for sale, ship to any 
point within or without this State, or have in possession for any 
purpose any of the game birds or animals mentioned in Section 1 
of this Act, lawfully killed and transported from any other State 
Any Iperson, firm or corporation guilty of violating any of the 
provisions of this section shall on conviction be fined not less 
than §23 nor more than $50 and costs for each offense, and stand 
committed, to the county jail until such fine and costs are paid, 
provided that such imprisonment shall not exceed thirty days 
and provided further that each and every bird or animal unlaw- 
fully sold, exposed for sale, in possession for purpose of sale of 
transportation thereof for such purpose shall constitute a sep- 
arate offense. 
