Forest and Stream 
A Weekly Journal of the Rod and Gun. 
Thbms, $4 A Ykae. 10 Cts. a Copy. 
8rx Months, f2. 
NEW YORK, SATURDAY, JULY 4, 1896. 
VOL. XLVIL— No 1 
No. 846 Broadway, Nhw yoRK. 
For Prospectus and Advertising Rates see Page x. 
I Forest and Stream^Water Colors \ 
^ ^ We have prepared as premiums a series of four artistic I 
1^ and beautiful reproductions of original water colors, | 
% painted expressly for the Forest and Stream. The 
^ subjects are outdoor scenes: 
Jacksnipe Comingr In. "He's Got Them" (Quail Shooting:). 
Vigilant and Valkyrie. Bass Fishing: at Block Island. 
The plates are for frames 14 x 19 in. They are done in 
twelve colors, and are rich in effect. They are furnished 
to ola or new subscribers on the following terms: 
^ Forest and Stream owe year and the set of four pictures. $5. 
Forest and Stream. 6 vionths and any two of the pictures, $3. 
Price »f the pictures alone, $1.50 eaeh ; $5 for the set. 
% Remit by express money order or postal money order. 
H Make orders payable to ^ 
I FOREST AND STREAM PUB. CO., New York. I 
FOREST AND STREAM OFFICE 
346 Broadway 
NEW YORK LIFE BUILDING 
Present Entrance on Leonard Street 
SNAP SHOTS. 
The Michigan license system for deer hunting applies 
to both residents and non-reeidents. The fee for residents 
is 50 cents and for non-residents |2o. One purpose of 
the law, as we understand it, was to discourage non-resi- 
dents from invading the State for deer. The statistics 
gent to us by State Game and Fish Warden Osborn seem 
to show that the law had this effect, for while 15,877 deer 
hunting licenses were issued to residents, only twenty- 
three were given to non-residents. This is an astonishing 
showing, when we consider the loud and long-continued 
complaints that the deer of the State were being extermi- 
nated by non-residents. If the figures given show the 
actual number of those who went deer hunting or thought 
that they might want to go deer hunting, the supply of 
venison was destroyed, if destroyed at all, by citizens of 
the State. The number of resident licenses in itself is 
surprising in the revelation it gives of the extent of the 
interest in deer shooting in Michigan. We are accue- 
tomed to complaints of the decrease of the game supply, 
but that which is really remarkable in Michigan and in 
all our covers is that with such a numerous army ever in 
pursuit of the game there should be any of it left. Each 
license authorizes the holder to bill five deer in a season. 
If every one of the 15,900 licensed hunters of 1895 had 
got their full quota of venison, the deer killed in one year 
would have been 79,500, But perhaps some of them did 
not get their full five deer. Mr. Osborn tells us that 
although the Michigan statute is inconsistent and incom- 
plete in certain portions it has worked very well, and it 
will probably be made more effective by changes in the 
next Legislature. The license system has taken such a 
hold in Michigan that the law doubtless will be amended 
so that all kinds of hunting and shooting will be included 
in it. 
We print in our game columns this week the first in- 
stalment of our third annual report of game parks in this 
country. As there pointed out, the facts given are of 
special interest because they show the success of rearing 
game in confinement Every year is giving its quota of 
experience in this field, and game preserves are rapidly 
passing beyond the stages of experiment. The game 
park is now a recognized institution of this country, and 
it is one which we believe will fill a larger place in the 
sportsman's economy of the future. 
Minnesota was prompted by the terrible Hinckley forest 
fire experience to adopt a system of forest fire protection. 
The work is assigned to the State auditor as forest com- 
missioner, and its practical conduct is in the hands of a 
chief fire warden, by whom local wardens have been ap= 
pointed to the number of 1,000 or more. A systematic 
study has been undertaken of the causes of forest and 
prairie fires and the best means of preventing them. Very 
strict fire laws have been adopted, one provision of which 
relates to the kindling of fires and the use of other than 
incombustible wads for firearms: 
Sec. jo. Any person who shall kindle a Are on or dauKeroualy near 
to forest or prairie land and leave it unquenched, or shall be a party 
thereto, and every person who shall use other than incombustible 
■wads for firearms, or who shall carry a naked torch, firebrand or 
other exposed light in or dangerously near to forest land, causing risk 
of accidental fire shall be punished by a fine not exceeding one hun- 
dred dollars ($100) or imprisonment in the county jail not exceeding 
three (3) months. 
From September, when the season opens on feathered 
game, through the autumn months the fields and woods 
are frequented by thousands of sportsmen and campers, 
and the presence of each one of these individuals is a 
menace to prairie and woodland. Under these condi- 
tions the Fire Warden points out that extreme care 
should control every gunner and camper. The stump of 
a cigar cast upon the dry ground may start a fire destruc- 
tive of property and life; the embers of an abandoned 
camp-fire may be fanned into a holocaust. Some of the 
local wardens urge as preventive measures that in dry 
seasons hunters should be prevented from going into the 
woods. This would not be practicable; but it is not un- 
reasonable to ask that every hunter should appreciate the 
danger of forest fires started by carelessness, and that he 
shall exercise the utmost precaution to prevent the 
kindling of the flame. 
In reading the fugitive literature of the day we see fre- 
quent examples of how language is made, how gradually 
one word may come to be substituted for another, which 
originally had an entirely different meaning. One of the 
most common examples of this in the literature of sport 
is the way in which the proper name Winchester lias come 
to be almost synonymous with rifle. Sometimes the mis- 
use of terms leads one into ridiculous blunders. It fre- 
quently results in absurdities. The New York Sun is now 
running a series of articles by Cy Warman which profess 
to tell of the adventures of one Nat Creede, after whom 
the town of Oreede in the Cripple Creek mining district 
was named. These stories are founded on real events, 
but the hero of them was not Creede, although he had a 
real existence, being known at that time as Billy Harvey, 
and being a good scout, though rather too lazy for any 
use. In one of the most recent of these stories is 
given an account of a certain fight in which two 
white men and five Pawnee scouts were surrounded 
by Sioux, and the writer in telling of the shooting of 
the surrounded party speaks of the "Winchesters bark 
ing." Now at that time the Winchester rifle had 
hardly begun to be manufactured, and there were no 
Winchesters on the plains. The individuals who partici- 
pated in th 8 fight were in Government service and were 
armed with cavalry carbines, which, of course, were sin- 
gle-loaders. Another example of this sort was seen during 
the Centennial of Washington's inauguration in this city, 
when the firm of R. J. Dunlap & Co. had on exhibition, 
before their store in Fifth avenue, a large and very hand- 
some picture, which represented the landing of Columbus. 
One of Columbus's soldiers, who stood prominently in the 
foreground of the picture, was armed with a Winchester 
rifle and wore a belt of cartridges. If newspaper writers 
continue to grow careless and to write such twisted 
history, we may expect before long to read of the way in 
which Lewis and Clark and their men fought the grizzly 
bears with their Winchesters while they were crossing the 
continent, in the very first years of this century. 
We are gladdened to note in a late issue of the Fort 
Meyers Press that a party of excursionists cruising in May 
among the keys of the Gulf Coast of Florida found on 
Panther Key the Forest and Stream's ancient friend 
Juan Gomez, hale and hearty, and but for certain rheu- 
matic twinges still holding to the buoyant faith that life 
is worth the living, even when one has attained the ripe 
old age of 118 years. Gomez has more than once figured 
in these columns in the records of parties who have 
cruised in those sunlit waters and among those favored 
Florida isles. As a boy in France he saw Napoleon on 
dress parade; came to Charleston, S, C, when he and the 
century were both young together; lived in St, Augustine 
when the Spanish flag waved over the old Fort San Marco; 
and now when the '903 are almost done is continuing his 
even-tempered and uneventful existence on Panther 
Key, gaining year by year an accession of new fame for 
his wonderful longevity. A few years ago, when we had 
occasion to allude to the old man, we claimed for him a 
place in the very front rank of the aged; but there came 
several competitors who claimed a more venerable an- 
tiquity than his own. That was years ago. Now it is 
time to call the roll once more. How many persons are 
there in all North America who can count more winters 
and summers than this Juan Gomez, of Panther Key 6t 
the Gulf Coast? One of the most pathetic things we ever 
printed was a description of the wife of Gomez as she 
stood one day on the shore of the lonely key and watched 
the receding sail of a party of ladies and gentlemen who 
had come into her life for a few brief hours to break up 
the monotony o f the island solitude. 
The Duke of Portland has a shooting preserve of 80,000 
acres or 125 square miles. It is reserved exclusively for 
his own gun and for such friends as he may invite to share 
his sport. We would like to see more than one such game 
park in this country, not owned by a single individual, nor 
by an association, but by the State. The provision of a 
game preserve on a large scale is not an enterprise to be 
left to individual control; it should be undertaken by the 
people for their own benefit. There is not a State in the 
Union where large areas of wild lands might not be set 
apart, to be stocked and protected. The expense would 
be inconsiderable; the benefit, present and future, would 
be incalculable, Maine should be one of the first to move 
in this direction. What has become of the project of 
making a State game park of Katahdin? The protective 
system of Maine is inadequate to put a stop to big game 
killing out of season; the summer butchery goes steadily 
on. But it might be profitable to protect with efficiency 
and complete success a limited area set apart and warded 
by a special force of wardens. This would prove a haven 
of refuge, and from it the supply would overflow into 
other parts of the State. 
The newspapers often give us examples of the meanest 
man in the world, and the last one hails from Montana. 
There are two of them in the persons of two poachers, 
who by this time have been tried for and we hope con- 
victed of killing game in the strip of the National Park 
lying north of the Yellowstone Eiver. These men were 
employed in the Park last autumn as Government scouts, 
and so, of course, were at liberty to come and go within 
the reservation and to learn all that they could about the 
haunts and the habits of the game there. Having se- 
cured this information while in the Government pay, 
they proceeded, as soon as they were discharged, to poach 
in the Park and to slaughter the game. It is to be hoped 
that they have been convicted and that they may be sen- 
tenced to a term of imprisonment as well as to pay a 
fine. Leniency is wasted on men of this sort. It is use- 
less to try to appeal to their better feelings. This is a 
where the extreme penalty should be applied, and these 
unworthy scouts be shut up where for the time they can 
do no harm. 
The address of the Forest and Stream is No. 346 Broad- 
way; but when one seeks that number he is likely to be 
confused by finding there the under surface remains of a 
demolished building. We are in the New York Life 
Building, which is now in course of construction. When 
completed it will front on Broadway and extend through 
to Elm street. The entrance for the present is on Leon- 
ard street. Our friends who come to town are invited to 
call and to look out from the Forest and Stream's 
windows upon the landscape of brick and mortar and tin 
and tile. 
The salmon are in such supply this season in the Cana- 
dian rivers that we hear of club members returning home 
long before their anticipations, because they have already 
taken their quota of fish permitted by the club rules. 
Moreover, those fishermen who were publishing libels on 
the salmon's game qualities are making haste to enroll 
themselves again among those who trumpet the praises of 
the king of game fishes. 
It is foolish and silly to stock the Hudson with salmon 
and then to neglect the provision of fishways for giving 
the fish access to their spawning grounds. Who is re- 
sponsible for the delinquency in this? 
