Forest and Stream 
A Weekly Journal of the Rod and Gun. 
Terms, $4 a Year. 10 Cts. a Cot>t. 
Six Months, 82. 
NEW YORK, SATURDAY, OCTOBER 2, 189 7, 
I VOL. XLVIX.— No. 14. 
I No. 346 BROADvrAt, NkV- YoRji. 
NOTICE .TO SUBSCRIBERS. 
The address label on the wrapper shows the date of 
the close of the term for which the subscription is 
paid. The receipt of the paper with such dated ad= 
dress label constitutes the subscriber's receipt fot- 
money sent to us. 
Subscribers are asked to note On the wrapper the 
date of expiration of subscription ; and to remit 
promptly for renewal, that delays may be avoided. 
For prospectus and advertising rates see page iii. 
Sit Walter Scott is most interesting- m his char- 
acter of a sportsman. He looked on field sports 
with the eye of a poet^ ever on the watch for pic- 
turesque effects. The blackcock spring^ingf from 
the thicket^ the salmon leaping; from the pool^ the 
glossy-necked mallard rising from the reedy moss, 
all lent additional touches of color to the scene be- 
fore him and filled his mind with images which 
enriched both his poetry and his prose. It is to be 
observed that in none of his novels does he ever 
give a description of any field sport, pure and sim- 
ple, and wholly for its own sake. It is always 
coupled with a picture, sometimes highly finished, 
sometimes a mere sketch, consisting only of a few 
strokes, but in each case serving to remind us that 
our sportsman is an artist, and that he neither 
shoots nor angles merely for the sake of killing so 
many birds or landing so many fish, but for the 
sake also of all the surroundings of the sport. 
Spectator. 
AUDUBON BIRD PLATES. 
In our next issue will be given the seventh of the series 
of half-tone reproductions of Audubon's famous bird por- 
traits, from the rare first edition. It will be of the Shoveller 
Duck. The list of plates already printed and to come in- 
cludes: 
The Black Duck, Sept. 26, 1896; 
The Prairie Chicken, Oct. 24. 
The Canvasback Duck, Nov. 21. 
The Willow Ptarmigan, Dec. 19. 
The American Golden Plover, Feb. 27, 1897. 
The Redhead Duck, July 10. 
The Shoveller Duck, Oct. 9. 
The Purple Sandpiper. 
THE WEST WINDS JOURNEY. 
It has traveled a long way — the west wind — and has 
seen many lands and rnany peoples. When it first 
reached our shores, the timbered mountains of Washing- 
ton or British Columbia, it carried a heavy load, tons 
upon tons of water, which it had gathered while it crossed 
that wide expanse of ocean misnamed Pacific. And yet, 
notwithstanding the weight of its burden, it flew along 
merrily, now high, now low, sometimes dragging with it 
huge masses of heaped-up, snowy cloudbank, or again 
whistling through the rigging of some majestic ship, rais- 
ing a turmoil on the ocean's surface, scattering the spray 
from the wave crests far ahead of the hurrying billows 
and bearing the helpless sea gulls, fulmars -and petrels' 
away to leeward. But after it had traversed some thou- 
sands of miles of sea, it tired of this sport, and looked for- 
ward to more varied scenes. 
When the land was reached and it struck the moun- 
tains of the coast, it dropped at once a part of the 
load it had been carrying and the lower lands were 
drenched with rain, while the peaks of the mountains 
became white with snow, which grew thinner and thinner 
down the mountain side, until at last it was hidden in the 
timber. The wind whistled through the valleys and among 
the great trees, and twisted ofi" the tops of some of the tall- 
est, and overthrew others, some of them long since dead 
and whose hold upon the rocky soil had been weakened 
by years of decay. It tossed the branches of all, and 
rocked the nests on which the mother bird sat to keep 
her precious eggs from being thrown out, yet with all its 
force it could not penetrate deep into the heart of the 
forest, and here there were little lakes and sheltered 
pools, whose surface it could not roughen and whose 
dwellers it could not disturb. 
Over these mountains of the coast the wind hurried 
without stopping. Often before it had tried its strength 
on their forests, and it knew well that it had no power to 
level them to the ground. It could break a few branches 
ruffle the coats of bear and wolf, and perhaps snatch a few 
locks from the shaggy fleece of the white goat, but the 
giant forests of the coasts could defy it. 
At a gentler pace it slipped down the eastern slope of the 
ranges and out over the heated plain^ gray with sage, the 
home of the long-tailed grouse and gray, long-eared hares, 
big and little, of coyote, and here and there of deer; trod- 
den, too, by range cattle and horses as wild as the creatures 
native to the soil. Here, too, there are farms now and 
then, deep hidden in the great cracks in the dry soil 
through which flow mighty rivers, always bearing their 
burden toward the sea. The wind mounted higher over 
these plains, and traveled more slowly, yet it blew briskly, 
stirring the stems of the, short bunch grass with a quiveiing 
motion, bowing the tasseled blossoms on the sage-brush 
and greasewood, and sometimes taking up little clouds of 
dust, which it twisted into, little funnel-shaped whirlwinds 
which walked quickly over the plains. When it came to 
a little pine-clad butte it sighed softly among the branches 
of the trees and tossed the twigs swinging the Clark's 
crows and. the woodpeckers up and down so that they 
have to hold on tight. 
And now it comes to another mountain range, up the 
western slope of which it moves with an ever increasing 
speed, and when it reaches the top it is blowing a gale. 
Here it meets cold gray rocks, and wide- barren plateaus 
where no grass grows, and great fields of snow and ice 
and when it reaches these it is chilled and forms somber 
gray clouds, and again lets fall a part of the moisture which 
it carries, whitening anew the rocks and the dust-laden 
snow-banks, adding to the thickness of the glaciers, and 
filling bank full the streams which flow down the slopes 
toward the Atlantic. Whirling down through the small 
timber of the mountain slopes it hurries on over the bare 
plain across- the ranges where once the buffalo blackened 
the prairie and now the cattle feed, pushing fiercely 
against the lodge where' the Indian camps bv the stream, 
boring the fields of the white man's grain, scattering the 
hay in his fields, and humming a monotonous air on his 
telegraph wires. 
And now it has reached the land of houses and farms of 
thick settlements, and all know the pranks that the west 
wind plays there. 
rules, but to form an organization Which will enlist the 
interests and sympathies of clubs and individuals, leading 
them to work together harmoniously at the serious task 
of improving the general conditions of yachting. The 
experience gained in the local work of the different asso- 
ciations promises similarly good results in the more 
ambitious experiment, the work being largely in the 
hands of those who have been most prominent in the 
formation and management of the local associations. 
SNAP SHOTS. 
Anent the Jackson's Hole elk case. Secretary E. K. 
Whitehead of the Colorado Humane Society has written 
a le ter expressing his opinion that the Wyoming statute 
which forbids the taking of live elk should not be held to 
apply here, nor in other cases when the game is "pre- 
vented from starvation." His notion is that laws are not 
intended to be applied impartially as they stand, but that 
their application is to be in each individual case as it 
comes up purely a matter of discretion. It is not made 
clear who is to exercise this discretion, but the implica- 
tion is that, as in the Adams elk case, the man who breaks 
the law is to be his own legal adviser, judge and jury. 
Under the present constitution of the social organization, 
sheriffs, game wardens, prosecuting attorneys and courts 
are accorded no such discretion; their oaths of office re- 
quire them to enforce the laws without discrimina- 
tion against all violators. Mr. Whitehead's plan 
carried to its logical development would supersede 
the existing system of the executive machinery of the 
law and disorganize society. The letter of the Denver 
Humane Society officer is, as the game warden murder- 
advocating editorial of the Providence Telegram, quoted 
last week, chiefly significant as an indication of the grow- 
ing disregard for law. When those who affect to be 
leaders and teachers preach defiance of the statutes, what 
can be expected of the classes who are accustomed to fol- 
low their guidance? 
THE NATIONAL TAGHTING UNION. 
Throughout the past summer the special committee of 
yachtsmen appointed at the May conference in New York 
has been steadily at w'ork, and the result of its labors is 
seen in the proposed articles of association and saUing 
rules made public this week. As noM"^ arranged, these ar- 
ticles and rules will be in the hands of the clubs and boat 
associations' for over a month, at the end of which period 
a general meeting of delegates will be held in New York 
for the purpose of formally organizing a national associa- 
tion for the promotion of yachting and yacht racing. 
The necessity for such an organization has existed for 
many years; the Forest and Stream has long recognized 
it, and has labored for its establisbment; the scheme has 
found earnest advocates among individual yachtsmen, but 
the prevailing lack of harmony and clashing of petty in- 
terests among the clubs locally and the different yachting 
centers have proved insurmountable barriers. 
Within the last three or four years a material change 
has taken place. The clubs in each of several localities 
have fallen into the way of working harmoniously to- 
gether, and finally have united in tho establishment of 
local associations whose rules are generally recognized. 
A further step has more recently been taken in the estab- 
lishment of intimate relations between these different 
associations; and so far has this gone that the final step — 
the formation of a- national union — seems now easily pos- 
sible. 
It is not to be denied that there are difficulties— and 
serious ones, too — that must be dealt with before the union 
can become a permanent success. It is no easy matter to 
deal with the necessary parties to such a scheme — the 
local associations, the clubs, large and small, and detached 
or affiliated with the associations, and the individual 
yachtsmen. The first steps must be few and simple, and 
largely experimental, leaving it to the future to develop 
and perfect the entire plan. 
The work thus far has been carried on in accordance 
with this idea; it is not proposed to start with a complete 
and extensive scheme of organization, government and 
The law which Mr. Whitehead quotes respecting aban- 
doned animals is not pertinent; there is a well-recognized 
distinction between wild and domestic animals as to their 
legal standing; this particular statute was never intended 
to apply and does not apply to wild game. There is, on the 
contrary, in Wyoming a specific law forbidding the cap- 
ture of elk alive; that law, under pretext of pity for the 
game, Mr. Adams violated by the capture of a 
band of elk; and has continued to violate by 
holding the game in possesssion after its release has 
been demanded by the game warden. If by reason of 
the complacent acquiescence of the authorities he is per- 
mitted to retain the game, there is no good reason why 
every other ranchman who has a pull and a corral should 
not follow suit. With the snowfall in Wyoming next 
winter, we may look for an emotional surge of pity which 
shall land a thousand rescued elk behind corral bars, and 
Eastern agents may be. trusted to find game preserve 
markets for them. 
The most important enterprise open to the New York 
Association for the Protection of Fish and Game is to 
secure the repeal of Section 249 of the game law, which 
keeps open the game market throughout the year; and 
this subject is one which well may have attention at the 
executive committee meeting of the Association in Syra- 
cuse this month. It is a significant circumstance that since 
the enactment of that section such an official as a State 
game protector has been unknown in New York city. 
Under existing conditions the best intentioned protector 
could accomplish nothing. The law is an effectual shield 
for illicit game dealing. So long as Section 249 shall re- 
main in force the shipment of snared birds and of birds 
killed out of season will give business to the express lines 
from country to city. 
In our Chicago and the West correspondence this week 
comes the gratifying news that by official intervention of the 
authorities at Washington, the market hunting so long car- 
ried on in Minnesota under shield of assumed Indians' 
rights, will be stopped. This settles another one of the 
many perplexing problems encountered by protectors of 
game protection in their dealings with the Indians and the 
hunting privileges claimed by the Indians under their 
treaties. We congratulate Agent Fullerton upon the suc- 
cessful issue of his recourse to Washington. 
