Forest and Stream. 
A Weekly Journal of the Rod and Gun. 
I NEW YORK, SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 14, 1896. 
Tkbms, f4 A Tkar. 10 Cts. a Oopy. 
Six Months, $2. 
j VOL, XLVn.— No. 20. 
( No. 346 Beoadwat, Nbw \ose.. 
For Prospectus and Advertising Rates see Page x. 
FOREST AND STREAM OFFICE 
346 Broadway 
NEW YORK LIFE BUILDING 
Present Entrance on Leonard Street 
THE FOREST BELONGS TO THE PEOPLE. 
The propoped amendment of the forestry section of the 
New York Constitution, to permit the leasing of the State's 
wild lands in the Adirondacks to private parties, was re- 
jected on Tue-day of last week hy an overwhelming vote. 
The official figures have not yet been given out, but the 
majority against the amendment is estimated at three hun- 
dred thousand. 
If any one has been cherishing a lingering doubt of public 
sentiment respecting the Forest Preserve, he must have had 
his uncertainty dispelled by such a verdict. We should 
think that even the president of the Forest Commission him- 
self might now have some slight inkllmj of how the people 
regard their forest possessions and how they mean to defend 
these possessions. "We believe the amendment a desirable 
one, and officially recommend its adoption," wrote President 
Davis in his officious manifesto. The people's answer to 
that was given in their vote of three to one against the 
impudent job. Under ordinary conditions, with public 
attention not so thoroughly engrossed in great national 
issues, the three hundred thousand would have been a 
million; the vote would have been practically unanimous. 
The question of who is to own, occupy, control and enjoy 
the Forest Preserve may now be considered settled for this 
generation at least. The safe rule, which before the election 
was embodied in the Constitution, remains unchanged 
to-day. It is "Worth while reading that declaration again; 
here it is: 
Forest Preserve. — Sec. ~. The lands of the State, now 
owned or hereafter acquired, constituting the Forest Pre- 
serve as now fixed by law, shall he forever kept as wild forest 
lauds They shall not he leased, sold or exchanged, or be 
taken hy any corporation, jjublic or ijrivate; nor shall the 
timber thereon be sold, removed or destroyed. 
FATE OF THE FUR SEALS. 
A CRISIS has come in the life history of the fur seals of the 
Pribylov Islands. The United States and Great Britain hav- 
ing failed to come to an agreement for an adequate system 
of protection, and the report of the investigating commission 
sent out by the United States showing that under existing 
conditions the seals are doomed to extermination, three 
courses are now open. The first is to permit the slaughter 
to go on as it is now proceeding, the seals being killed 
on land and at sea; this means the certain extermination at 
no distant day. The second course is the heroic solution, 
proposed in Congress at the last session and not yet 
acted upon, to kill off all the seals on the islands, male and 
female, sell the skins for what they will bring, and so have 
done with the seal problem now and forever. As we have 
said before, this would be nothing short of a humiliating con- 
fession that the most advanced civilization of the day is not 
competent to deal with the simple problem of protectmg a 
wild species. The third course is by renewed effort and in 
the light of the latest investigations to come to an under- 
standing by which the United States, Great Britain, Eussia 
and Japan shall unite for common protection of their seal- 
ing interests and to devise and abide by a system which shall 
conserve the parent supply. ' 
All that has been charged against pelagic sealing is sub- 
stantiated by the investigations made by Dr. David S. Jor- 
dan and the other members of the Behring Sea Commission 
for the study of the seal question. A statement of the re- 
sults of the work of the Commission, given out by Dr. Jor- 
dan, says: 
Dr. Jordan and Mr. Lucas report that they are well satisfied with 
the work of the summer. Every phase of the hfe and history of the 
fur seal has been ci-idcaUy studied, and all points heretofore in dis- 
pute have been settled beyond cavil. The first detailed census of fur 
seals has been made and the first complete examination of the vari- 
ous causes of their deaih. The conclusions reaeued last year by Mr 
Townsendm the study of killmg seals at sea have been confirmed in 
every particular. A detailed report of the work of the sunamer will 
be sent at once to the Treasury Department. 
There ia still a vast body of fur seals on the islands, more than the 
Commissioners were first led to expect, but the number is steadily 
declining. Tbe only cause of this decline is the klli.i g of the females 
through pelagic sealing. The females are never n olested on the 
islands, but three-fourths of those killed in Behring Sea are nursing 
females. Tbe death of the mother causes the death of the yoimg on 
shore, so that for every four fur seals killed at sea three young pups 
starve to death on shore. As each of those females is als" pregnant, 
a like number of tmborn pups is likewise destroyed. 
.Pelagic sealing as an industry has already cut its own throat, as 
the fleet this year will not pay expenses. The killing of surplus 
young males, as provided for by law, has always been a benefit to 
the herd The Commissioners believe that the way is open to an 
honorable and amicable settlement of this question in a manner 
highly satiisfactory alike to the United States and England and to 
Canada There can be no longer any difference of opinion as to any 
facts in question. 
The high cbaracter of the gentlemen selected by the British For- 
eign Office and their unquestioned ability give reason to believe that 
England will favor a prompt and equitable adjustment which wil' 
give ample protection to the fur seal herd. But the duty of the pres- 
ent Commission closes with the statement of facts in question. 
It is announced that Russia and Japan will join the 
United States and Great Britain in any efforts that may be 
made to secure protection for the seals. With the co-opera- 
tion of these four powers, pelagic sealing could be stopped, 
and unless it shall be stopped it is clear that the seals must 
perish. 
A TEXAS CRAZY QUILT. 
When the newly organized Texas Game Protective Asso- 
ciation was forming, we suggested that it could perform a 
valuable public service by securing the repeal of those special 
exceptions by which more than one hundred counties are ex- 
empted from various provisions of the law. The most seri- 
ous of these exemptions is that relating to the netting of 
quail. This constitutes an extensive industry, and is tre- 
mendously destructive. As our columns have reported, the 
outlook for quail in Texas was extremely bright at the 
beginning of the season. Now, as a direct result of netting, 
in certain localities where these birds were then most numerous 
scarcely any are to be found. They have been sent to 
market. The Association's secretary, Mr. Turner Hubby, 
reports that his efforts to enforce the law against the netters 
are seriously impeded by the difficulty of proving that net- 
ting was done in counties where it is illegal, and not in 
adjoining counties exempt from the law. The State of 
Texas, says Mr. Hubby, is checkered like a checkerboard 
with exempt counties, and it is almost impossible to disprove 
the netter's claim that he took his birds where the law says 
he may. 
The checkerboard figure is a happy description. We have 
looked up the exempt counties on a map of Texas and have 
indicated them roughly in a diagram printed in another 
column, the portions of the map in black indicating the ter- 
ritory to which the game law, as to some of its provisions, 
does not apply. The result does not look very much like a 
checkerboard ; it is more of a crazy quilt. 
Checkerboard systeme of game protection can never 
amount to much. A crazy quilt system is more worthless 
yet. We trust that the Protective Association may be so 
successful in its efforts to break up present conditions in 
Texas that the Forest akd Stbbam may be privileged to 
print a new diagram of the State which shall be white 
throughout. 
TECHNICAL TERMS, 
"Pakadisb" is the conventional designation employed to 
signify a region rich in game or fish when spoken of in the 
rosy, superlative and flamboyant language of the sportsman. 
No term significant of perfection in a less degree will answer 
the requirement. Paradise it is, and nothing short of it. 
We reckon that the word is used in the Forest and Stream 
more frequently than in all the lay papers put together; we 
guess that no other word will be found to take its place; and 
we calculate that its use will grew rather than diminish. 
"Boss fisherman" is an expression enjoying still wider 
vogue, although of infrequent occurrence in the Forest and 
Stream. It is terse, robust, vigorous, and more expressive 
than elegant. There are occasions when no less significant 
term would take its place. One such instance was the meet 
of the Fremont Fishing Club, of Maryland, the other day, 
wheo the members took part in an oyster eating contest, 
Mr. Patrick Baylis eating five pecks to his highest com- 
petitor's three pecks. If Mr. Baylis is not the "boss fisher- 
man" of the Fremont Club, and of Maryland for that matter, 
by what other and more fitting title shall we herald his name 
find fame? 
is a term given official recognition by the Vermont Fish 
Commission in their report for 1896. It is used to describe 
the method of fishing whereby one man uses from four to 
twelve poles in one boat. The practice has been forbidden 
by law in Vermont, as in New York and elsewhere, by 
limiting the mode of fishing to angling, and defining angling 
to mean, as the New York statute reads, "taking fish with, 
hook and line and by rod held in hands, and does not in. 
elude set lines. In fishing from boats, rods and lines not 
exceeding two in number may be used by any one person." 
WHO OWNS THE GUIDE'S GAME? 
When a sportsman hires a guide, and the guide takes part 
in the shooting or the fishing, to whom does the game or the 
fish secured by the guide belong? The question has just 
come up in a case related by a correspondent who returned 
last week from a ruffed grouse shooting trip. He tells us 
that he cut short his intended stay, although birds were 
abundant, because of a misunderstanding respecting the dis- 
position of the birds killed by his guide when in company 
with him in the field. The guide being in his employment 
and being paid by him, he had assumed that in conformity 
with the unvarying custom followed elsewhere throughout 
his shooting experience of thirty years the birds killed by the 
guide would belong to the employer. It appears, however, 
that this was not the understanding held by the host, wha 
advised his guests that the birds killed by the guides be- 
longed to the house and would be sold at so much a pair if 
the sportsmen wished to retain any of them for taking home. 
This was regarded as an imposition, and our correspondent's 
stay was thereupon terminated. 
We believe it to be the invariable rule that, unless a differ- 
ent understanding is had in advance, the product of a guide's 
services in the field, as of a boatman's on the water, belongs 
to the man by whom he is employed and paid. We have 
never heard of an instance before this one where a sportsman 
was expected to pay wages and then in addition to buy the 
game secured by the guide while in his employ. We would 
be glad to hear from any one who has knowledge of a con- 
trary custom. 
. GOOD THINGS EVERY WEEK. 
We would be perfectly willing to abide by the estimate of 
the merits of Forest and Stream as a sportsman's journal 
if the finding were to be based upon the record of the latest 
six issues, or of the six before those, or of any six still fur- 
ther back. The fact is that we have been providing in these 
pages every week the most generous, varied and entertain- 
ing literature of the field ever put into print in a single pub- 
lication, 
And there are just as many good things to come in the 
weeks that shall follow. Mr, Fred Mather will continue to 
entertain us with his charming reminiscences of the men he 
has fished with. Mr. S. T. Hammond, the not forgotten. 
Shadow of earlier years, will write of some companions he 
has hunted with in famous covers of Massachusetts. King- 
fisher is under pledge to tell of some of the recent camps, or 
forever after 10 hold his peace. There will be given, under 
the title of Stories of the Heroic Age, a series of chapters of 
advehture on the frontier m the Indian days. The next Au- 
dubon plate, that of the "Canvasback Duck," will be con- 
tained in the issue of Nov 21. 
Thus the Forest and Stream has in store for its readers 
good things every week. 
^'Porcupine fishing" and "angling." Porcupine fishing 
WHY DOES THE BOY TAKE THE FLY? 
Columns and columns of space have been consumed in 
the angling journals in an endeavor to show why the salmon 
takes the fly. Some say that he does it because he is hungry, 
others because he is in sportive mood, and others again because 
he is enraged and snaps at it in anger as the bull dashes at 
the red flag. After all have had their say, we can only fall 
back on the one certitude, that the salmon takes the Qy be- 
cause it is salmon natu. e to take flies. 
Why does the email boy take the fly? Let a butterfly, 
moth or miller venture into the plaza of City Hall Park or 
into any of the down town streets where boys congregate, and. 
on the instant caps come off, arms are wind-milling in air, and 
there is the wildest excitement to capture the insect. Why 
and what for? An idle question. There is no reason. It is 
just boy nature. We have humane societies engaged in well- 
meant endeavors to educate the boys not to chase butterflies; 
they may achieve their most commendable purpose in in- 
dividual cases, but the boy will go on chasing butterflies as 
long as boys are boys and butterflies fly. 
