Forest and Stream 
A Weekly Journal of the Rod and Gun. 
TfeHtis, 84 A Year. 10 Cts. a Copt, i 
Six Months, $2. \ 
NEW YORK, SATURDAY, MAY 8, 18 97, 
VOL. XLVin.— No. 19. 
No. S48 Broadway, New YorkI 
notice to subscribers. 
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For prospectus aiid advertising rates see page iii. 
If a bird's nest chance to be before thee in the 
way in any tree^ or on the gfround, whether they 
be young: ones^ or eg-gfs^ and the dam sitting upon 
the youngs or ttpon the egfgs^ thou shalt not take 
the dam with the youngf ; but thou shalt in any 
wise let the dam gOf and take the youngf to thee ; 
that it may be well with thee, and that thou may- 
est prolong thy days. Deuteronomy xxii: 6-7. 
tbe forest ana Stream's Platform PlanK. 
"T/ie sale of game should be prohibited at all seasons." 
NAILS DRIVEN IN '1897.— No. i. 
Act of Marcli 33, 1897.— Sec. 1. Tliat it shall be unlaw- 
ful for any person to export quail, dead or alive, out of 
the State of Tennessee for five years from and after the 
passage of this act. 
CAMPS. 
Eetukning spring, wild flowers, song birds, budding 
woods and open waters remind the summer camper that 
his days of outing are drawing near. In imagination he 
already sees his white tent gleaming in the greenery of 
pleasant shores, or the smoke of his newly-kindled fire 
drifting from the chimney of the painted cottage which he 
calls a camp. 
In one or the other, after being held for long months by 
stress of ungenial weather to the frivolities and proprieties 
of civilization, he is about to enjoy the freedom of camp 
life, with little deprivation of his ordinary conveniences 
and luxuries. His food will be cooked in and upon a 
stove, eaten off a napered table with a knife and fork. 
He will sleep as soft as at home, will dress as neatly, but 
he will be camping out, as he believes. 
There are campers of another sort, who have not waited 
for spring, but have been invited more by the morose 
moods of nature than her gentler ones, who have been 
. most cordially invited when most repelled. Some are 
trappers and some are hunters, who brave peril and en- 
dure hardship and discomfort for hope of gain or love of 
sport. Mr. Hough has told us something of the winter 
camp life of the fur trapper, and the veteran woodsman 
Mr. Hardy gives a realistic picture of the camp in 
Avhich he found his friend Rufus, and of his entertainment 
there. 
I traveled over fifty miles on snowshoes to visit him and introduce 
another hunter to him. I foimd his partner first, who had not seen 
him for a week, but undertook to pilot me. We traveled some twelve 
miles, and found him in a hole in the snow. He had built a little 
camp of split fir in the fall just large enough for himself, and the 
snow was then four to five feet deep around it. He was wonderfully 
glad to see us and made no apologies, but did the best he could for us. 
His whole outfit for cooking tools and for dishes to eat on were a 
shallow tin plate and a pint dipper. This for four men was not ex- 
tensive, but he brought water in a birch bark dish, mixed his bread 
in another bark dish, rolled it out on a sheet of bark with a roller 
made of a maple sprout, and baked it in the tin plate. Then he fried 
moose meat in the same plate, and kept frying till we finished 
eating. He made tea in the pint dipper and roasted beaver on a 
stick. 
The camp was so narrow that when we lay down we all had to lie 
on edge as there was not room to lie flat. We stayed and visited the 
next day and feiUed two moose. The nest day we all went back to his 
home camp. 
Doubtless there is more comfort enjoyed in the perfectly 
appointed camp in which one sleeps soft, dines and sups 
daintily and lives luxuriously, than under the rude shelter 
of boughs or bark or a strip of canvas, with only evergreen 
twigs and a blanket for a bed, a dipper, a tin plate and a 
forked stick for cooking utensils and on one's knee for a 
table, and some makeshift to be contrived for every emer- 
gency; yet so one gets nearer to the primitive condition of 
man, which is the real, if not always the recognized, mo- 
tive of all camping, and he is closest to nature who lies 
cloaest to mother earth with the least intervention between 
him and the sky, no black wall of iron shutting him from 
the cheerful companionship of his fire. 
What this man needs he invents, if the woods do not 
supply. What the other lacks, he buys or does without. 
The poorer this man is the richer he is, being the less 
burdened in body and mind. The richer the other the 
poorer, being most dependent. 
Yet one does not envy the other, nor would either 
change places, for what one enjoys most the other would 
enjoy least. To both, akin with one touch of nature, let 
us wish the best that each desires. 
SNAP SHOTS. 
Congress, which for years refused to enact a law by which 
poachers in the National Park could be punished, is of 
course responsible for the destruction of the last consider- 
able herd of wild buffalo in the United States— those 
which ranged in the Yellowstone Park. Three years ago 
Congress passed a law which made protection possible in 
the Park, but of course this law had no effect in the adja- 
cent States. For some years Wyoming and Montana had 
had laws protecting buffalo, and Idaho remained the only 
one of the States bordering the Park which left this species 
uncared for. 
A considerable portion of the Park herd ranged in the 
southwest corner of the reservation, in what is known as 
the Falls Eiver country, and often crossed the border into 
Idaho, and the section of the State bordering the Park be- 
came a resort for poachers and outlaws, who at every op- 
portunity invaded the national pleasure ground and killed 
the buffalo. Strong efforts were made by persons inter- 
ested in the Park to induce influential people in Idaho to 
urge the passage of protective laws. Letters were written 
to members of the Legislature, to successive Governors 
and to United States Senators, but so strong was the in- 
fluence of the lawless element — or so weak that of the law- 
abiding — that nothing was ever done. 
At last, however, after five or six years of effort, a law 
absolutely protecting the buffalo, has been enacted, 
though it may well be feared that it comes too late to do 
much good. Reports made this spring concerning the 
buffalo show that the numbers in the Park are not under 
thirty nor over fifty, and conservative people believe the 
smaller number to be nearer the truth. This stock is too 
small to warrant the hope that the Yellowstone Park herd 
will ever re-establish itself 
The Idaho law, which was approved March 4, this year 
forbids the killing of buffalo, the transportation of any 
parts of such animals, and the pursuing them with dogs. 
It provides that a violation of the act by any individual 
shall be punished by a fine of not less $100 nor more than 
1300, or by imprisonment in the county jail for a time not 
exceeding three months, or by both fine and imprison- 
ment. Having in possession a bison or any part of such 
animals shall be deemed prima facie evidence of a viola- 
tion of the statutes. One-half of all the fines collected is 
to go to the county school fund, and one-half to the com- 
plainant. The act is to take effect immediately. 
The clam is by nature a silent creature, but all clams 
large and small ought to cry out against the decision, 
given by Judge McAdam, in the Appellate Court of this 
county, the other day in the Astor House clam case. The 
action was one brought by a game protector to recover the 
penalty for possession of clams of less than the lawful size. 
The statute provides (Sec. 191) that "no hard or round 
clams less than one inch in thickness shall be caught or 
possessed; but, if caught, shall be returned to the water 
from which they are taken without imnecessary injury ."^ 
"Whoever shall violate the provisions of this section"' 
shall be liable to a penalty. The Court held that 
the penalty for possession could apply only to the 
clam fisherman who actually took the clams, or tO' 
the immediate employer for whom he was fishing, and it. 
was argued that this was clearly the intent of the law, in- 
asmuch as the dealer, into whose possession the clams, 
might subsequently pass, could not return them to the 
water from which they had been taken. We believe this 
ruling to be erroneous. It is directly in conflict with the 
repeated decisions of the courts bearing on the point, de- 
cisions, it may be said, upon which is baaed the entire sys- 
tem of prohibiting possession of game and fish in close 
season. The phraseology of the statute differs in no es- 
sential particular from the language employed in other sec- 
tions, and the meaning, we believe, cannot here be different 
from that of the law in general. The case is one which is 
likely to go to the higher courts. 
Of the several hundred bills left in the hands of Grov 
ernor Black, of New York, by the Legislature^ which ad- 
journed last week, a number relate to fish and game, aild, 
as the fate of these measures at the hands of the Governor 
is not yet known at the time of our going to press, it is ina* 
possible to give this week a summary of the work of the 
session. The general bill, introduced by the State Asso. 
elation, failed to pass, as did that repealing the law which 
permits the sale of game the year round. No measure of 
general importance in the line of further protection was 
adopted by the Legislature, except one relative to deer 
hounding, which has not yet been signed by the Governor. 
As a rule, the legislation of the session was reactionary 
and in the interest of local claims and of individuals who, 
dissatisfied to abide by the general law, go to Albany for 
special legislation in their own little individual interest. 
Michigan, too, is reactionary. The House has passed 
the Graham bill, so amended as to forbid quail hunting 
with dogs, and to permit market-hunting. These two 
features are clearly intended to discourage quail shooting 
as a recreation, and to promote it as a business. The 
outer who hunts his game in a sportsmanlike way is 
barred; the industrious hunter who "ground-sweats" the 
whole covey at one fell shot is to have things all his own 
way. We are glad to know that the sportsmen of Sag- 
inaw have taken the initiative in a movement to 
arouse sufficient right public sentiment to defeat the 
measure in the Senate. It is a bill which, as a law, could 
mean nothing but disaster to Michigan's game interests. 
Anglers and shooters visiting Canada will be pleased 
with the new regulations of the Customs Department 
respecting the duty on their equipments. When a sports- 
man enters Canada he is required to leave at the port of 
entry a deposit of the amount of duty due on guns, rods 
and other articles, which deposit is to be refunded to him 
when the goods shall have been brought out of the coun- 
try. The duty so required is 30 per cent, of the appraised 
value. It has been the rule that to secure a refund of the 
deposit, application must be made to the Customs Depart- 
ment at Ottawa, accompanied by an official certificate of 
identification and the usual evidences of exportation; and 
the system has involved much vexatious red tape and 
delay. By the new regulations the old rule of applying to 
the Customs Department for the refund is superseded by an 
arrangement, which provides that the refund will be paid at 
the port of entry, 10 per cent, of the deposit being retained 
for the expense of handling. 
The Maine game law amendments appear to have re- 
moved the provision of a close season for caribou. The 
statute as revised provides that between Oct. 15 and Dec. 
1 no person may kill or possess more than one caribou; 
but it omits to forbid killing and possession for the rest of 
the year. This is, of course, an oversight, and should be 
corrected at the first moment. 
Rarely has it been our privilege to publish a record so 
suggestive as the story of "One Man's Influence" told in 
another column by our contributor. Amateur. Read it, 
and let it stimulate to a personal, individual activity in 
game and fish preservation. 
The notes in our game columns on Western outfitting are 
written by an experienced guide, and will be of practical 
interest to those who are planning trips to the glorious 
Rockies. It is of first importance in undertaking such an 
expedition to have a definite understanding respecting de- 
tails of time, outfit and finances. Some folks, who are as a 
rule business-like and exact in the ordinary walks of life, 
become for some inscrutable reason lax and careless when 
they come to an outing enterprise, and appear to think 
that in their recreation they can do their business in an 
nnbusinesslike way. The only safe rule is to have every- 
thing stipulated in advance, that there may be less oppor- 
tunity for dissatisfaction, heartburning and all uncharitable- 
ness in the end. 
