Forest and Stream 
A Weekly Journal of the Rod and Gun. 
\ NEW YORK, SATURDAY, DECEMBER 12, 1896, 
TitKMS, 94 A Ykab. 10 Cts. a CtoPT. 
Six Months, 92. 
j VOL. XLVn.— No. 24. 
1 No. 346 Broadway, Nkw \ obk. 
J^or Prospectus and Advertising Rates see jPag€ iii. 
Forest and Stream Water Colors i 
We have prepared as premiums a series of four artistic 
and beautiful reproductions of original water colors, 
painted expressly for the Forest and Stream. The 
subjects are outdoor scenes: 
Jacksnipe Coming- In. 
Vigilant and Valiyxie. 
'He's Got Them" (Quail Shooting:). 
Bass Fishing: at Block' Island. 
The plates are for frames t4x ipin. They are done in 
twelve colors, and are rich in effect. They are furnished 
to oia or new subscribers on the following terms: 
Forest and Stream one year and the set of fmir pictures, $5. 
Forest and Stream 6 months and any two of the pictures, $3, 
Triee of the pictures alone, $1,50 each ; $5 Tor tho let. 
Remit by express money order or postal money order. 
Make orders payable to 
FOREST AND STREAM PUB. CO., New York. 
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The Forest and Stream is put to press 
on Tuesdays. Correspondence intended for 
publication should reach us by Mondays and 
as much earlier as may be practicable. 
AUDUBON BIRD PLATES. 
The reproductions are to me most satisfactory; they lack 
color, of coitrse, hut in every other respect are the best we 
have ever seen, and I think I may say that those of the 
Audubon family still remaining are much gratified with 
the first of the series. M. R. Axjdubon. 
The Fobest and Stream's reproductions of some of 
Audubon's famous bird portraits in half-tone from the rare 
first edition are as follows, with dates of those already 
printed: That of the Willow Ptarmagan will be given in 
our next issue, Dec. 19. 
Black Duck, Sept. 26, 1896. 
Pkairie Chickeit, Oct. 24. 
Canvasback Duck, Nov. 21. 
Willow Ptarmigan, Dec, 19 (next week). 
Shoveller Duck. 
Redhead Duck. 
American White-ekontbd Goose. 
Purple Sandpiper. 
American Golden Plover. 
WANE OF THE EUROPEAN BISON. 
In the New World, as in the Old, the bison has become 
practically extinct. But a few years ago there were millions 
of what we call buffalo, now none are left. 
The European and the American bisons are closely allied 
and are the sole existing representatives of their kind. The 
European form once existed over a large area of forest- 
covered Europe, and the American over more than two- 
thirds of temperate JSTorth America. In Europe the only 
living wild specimens are found in the Caucasian Province 
of Kuban, though there are vague reports of the existence of 
some few individuals in Roumania and Wallachia. In 
America there are a few bison in Colorado, a few in the 
Yellowstone Park, and a few in the Peace River country. 
Besides these, the only living American bison are found in 
captivity, and these domesticated herds probably number not 
very far from 400 individuals. 
In the Old World there has been for many years a herd 
of European bison preserved in the imperial forests of Bie- 
lowitza, in Lithuania, Russia. And concerning this herd a 
paper written by Dr. Eugen Biichuer has recently been pub- 
lished in the Memoirs of the Imperial Academy of Sciences 
of St. Petersburgh. Dr. Biichner announces that his pur- 
pose is first to make a critical historical study of this herd, 
and then to find out what light this history may throw on 
the general subject of the extinction of the larger mam- 
malia. 
The early history of the Bielowitza herd is obscure, but 
since the year 1832 an official count has been made annually, 
and this count, while not an exact one, is sufficiently close 
to throw much light on the condition of the herd during the 
last sixty years, 
In 1833 these bison numbered 768, aod from this tirde on 
there was a gradual increase, until in the year l854 the herd 
numbered 1,824 individuals. In 1855 the number was the 
same, but the following year it dropped to 1,771, and in 1857 
rose again to 1,898. From this time on there was a gradual 
but irregular decline to 528 in 1872. From 1873 to 1892 the 
table of numbers is subdivided. One portion of the herd is 
in the Bielowitza forest, a smaller portion in the neighbor- 
ing forest of Swisslotsch, and a third, still smaller, in the 
zoological gardens at Bielowitza. The total of these sec- 
tions of the herd numbered 528 in 1873, but by 1880 had in- 
creased to 600. In 1883 it fell to 592, and in 1884 there was 
a loss of more than 200, the total reaching only 384. For 
the next three years there was a slight increase, but in 1889 
there wa9 another drop to 380, and between that date and 
1892 an increase to 491. 
These figures having been given, the question will naturally 
be asked, why is it that a herd so carefully protected as this 
one has been should show such a marked decrease? None 
of the ordinary dangers to which wild animals are exposed 
can affect these. They are protected from poachers, are 
rarely hunted, are seldom drawn upon to supply zoological 
gardens, are not known to be especially subject to any dis- 
ease, and have a great range where there is no likelihood of 
the food supply running short. Besides this they are meas- 
urably protected from the attacks of natural enemies. All 
these dangers put together ought not to cause the death each 
year of a number sufficient to wipe out the annual increase. 
Since 1802 the killing of bison except by special permission 
has been prohibited in the forest of Bielowitza, and the 
records seem to show that between 1832 and 1860 only nine- 
teen were killed. In 1860, however, an imperial hunt was 
organized in the forest, when twenty-eight individuals were 
killed. This killing seems also to have been followed by a 
serious diminution in the number of the herd, the count 
dropping in the next year from 1,575 to 1,447, a loss of 128 
head, A portion of this loss may be due to the death of 
wounded animals, but this would hardly account for the 
whole loss. From time to time specimens of the bison have 
been presented to various zoological gardens, and in Forest 
AjsD Stream a few years ago was printed an account of the 
capture of a number of calves in this forest for that purpose. 
The reduction of the herd from this cause cannot have been 
great, and the records give only thirty-one so captured up to 
the year 1873, since which time nothing is known of any 
having been sent away to supply zoological gardens- 
Poaching has done little to diminish the herd, for it is be- 
lieved that from 1873 to 1892 only thirty- six have been lost 
in this way. 
A more serious danger than any of these comes from the 
depredations of wild animals. Bears and wolves are said to 
kill the bison, while lynxes destroy the calves. Great hunts 
have been organized to reduce the numbers of these car- 
nivores; one such took place in 1855, another in 1861. In 
1870 forty wolves, one bear and five lynxes were killed, and 
in 1871 no less than sixty-three wolves, one bear and five 
lynxes were destroyed. In later years the results of the 
hunts have showtt that the wolves were almost exterminated. 
In fact, for the last twenty years the destruction of bison by 
wild animals has hardly been worth considering. 
Manifestly all these causes put together will not account 
for the rapid diminution of this herd. There is some reason 
deeper seated than any or all of these. Dr. Biichner con- 
cludes that the gradual waning of this herd is due to con- 
tinuous in-breeding. As long ago as 1830 Jarocki observed 
that the cows seldom calved more than once in three years, 
while often, it is said,, they will fail to produce young for 
several years, though later they may breed again. Often too 
a cow, having produced a calf, may be unable to rear it 
through lack of milk. This slowness of breeding and the 
very large percentage of bulls found among the Lithuanian 
bison are also clear signs of degeneration as a result of in- 
breeding ; for it has been shown that close in -breeding, like a 
reduced condition of nutrition, is favorable to the production 
of a high proportion of males. In addition to these evidences 
of an abnormal condition induced by continuous in^breeding 
are found certain physical signs, such as fatty degeneration 
of various organs and abnormal condition of portions of the 
skeleton. Some animals have thin, light fur, weak horns 
and are pale in color. 
All these indications point in one direction — to the ulti- 
mate and not distant extinguishment of the Bielowitza bison, 
a fate paralleled by that of the ancient wild ox of Europe, 
which disappeared in the early part of the seventeenth cen- 
tury, notwithstanding its careful protection. Dr. Buchner 
concludes that in-breeding is undoubtedly the cause of the 
extinction pf most large mapunals after their numbers be- 
come so redubed that they aire sepatated into isolated col- 
onies. 
If this fate has ah-eady overtaken the European feisou; which 
has been protected for many years, and which has always 
been more numeroiis than the American bison is now, vi^hat 
may we look forward to for our own species ih the wild 
state? Surely nothing less than a similar degeneration, but 
one more speedy, because the number of breeding animals is 
so inuch smaller. In one single respect ours has a slight ad- 
vantage over its European cousin in the fact that there are 
several herds of domesticated bison, whose owners, by ex- 
changing stock, may put off for a few generations the evii 
day which impends. But for the wild herds, few in num- 
bers, and left to themselves, there seems little hope unless 
some general interest can be awakened in the subject. 
MINNESOTA AND THE PLATFORM PLANK, 
No State in the Union has more at stake in the preserva- 
tion of its game supply than Minnesota, and the citizens of 
that commonwealth are fortunate in having good laws and 
energetic officials to enforce them. Executive Agent S. F. 
FuUerton has been alert, active and aggressive this year, 
and has made a record on seizures of unlawful game which 
we believe to be without a parallel in the history of game 
protection in this country. Up to the first of this month 
Mr. FuUerton and his deputies had confiscated about 7,500 
pounds of venison and about 300 dozens of birds illegally 
killed and shipped. Even these statistics pale into insig- 
nificance in comparison with the coup of Dec. 3, when 
at St, Paul Agent FuUerton seized thirty tons of venison 
claimed as UlegaUy shipped to parties in Chicago, New 
York and Boston. The fines involved, the press dispatches 
say. wUl amount to more than $40,000. 
Notwithstanding this successful intercepting of game, 
large quantities escape the vigilance of the wardens and are 
shipped to Eastern markets. The game dealers of Minne- 
sota are reputed to be shrewd by nature, and this innate 
smartness is developed and sharpened by the illicit phases of 
their trade; they acquire the cunning, readiness of resource, 
fertility of deception and general trickiness so common to all 
smugglers, receivers of stolen goods and moonshiners. Add 
to this that the managers of some of the railroads running 
East out of Minnesota help the commission men to cover up 
their tracks, aud it will readily be understood that the task 
of enforcing the game law is not child's play. 
The statute forbidding the shipment of venison to market 
has proved to be defective. Its terms provide that "it shall 
be unlawful to consign by common carrier to any commis- 
sion man or sale maiket deer at any time." This has been 
circumvented by the simple device of shipment by market 
kiUers to themselves ostensibly in St. Paul or Minneapolis, 
where they themselves or some agents of the commission 
houses acting for them are on hand to receive the con- 
signments. In this way it is estimated 5,000 more deer have 
been slaughtered for market this year than last, while the 
officials have been powerless to interfere with the traffic. 
Commenting upon this aspect of the problem, Mr. FuUerton 
declares his conviction: "Our only salvation, if we have 
another year like the present, with snow on the ground 
dvuing the deer season, will be the doctrine advocated by 
Forest and Stream, which meets with my hearty ap- 
proval—that is, stopping the sale of game altogether. We are 
going to have it added to our law this winter when the Leg- 
islature meets. We will have the opposition of the com- 
mission men and market-hunters, but we have no doubt but 
we wUl carry the point." 
SNAP SHOTS. 
Our game columns contain notice of an Ohio man who 
boasts in the local paper that his hunting party in Minnesota 
outwitted the game wardens and succeeded in bringing six 
deer out of the State, in violation of the game law and 
despite the watchfulness of the game wardens. Might not 
extradition proceedings here be resorted to with profit ? 
Now in the old days there were moose in the AdiroH° 
dacks; but in these later times when an Adirondacker wants 
moose he must make a far journey into Maine for them. 
Will it ever be recorded that the man of Maine must go to 
the Adirondacks for his moose? 
A copy of the first edition of Walton^s "Compleat Angler" 
was sold at auction in London last week for £415 or $2,075. 
With a few copies of this book in his library to faU back 
upon for auction purposes, one might afford now and then 
\o take a day off for going fishing. 
