Forest and Stream. 
A Weekly Journal of the Rod and Gun. 
NEW YORK, SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 8, 1898. 
Terms, a Year. l(t Cts. a Copy. 
Six Months, $2. 
J VOL. L.-No. 6. 
't No.. 846 Broadway, NEw YoRkw 
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 for 
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. 
Readers are invited to send us the names of friends who 
might he interested in a current copy of the Forest and 
Steeam. We shall be glad to forward a specimen nuniber 
0 any person whose address may he furnished us for that 
purpose. 
MUISANCES IN YELLOWSTONE PARK. 
A DISTINCTLY retrograde step has been taken during 
the past season in the management of the Yellowstone 
National Park, and this has been done not by the super- 
intendent nor any official directly connected with the 
Park, but by the Department of the Interior, which ap- 
pears to have disregarded the reports of the superin- 
tendent and to have cared more for the pleadings of 
paid attorneys of private persons eager to make money 
out of the Park than for the convenience and comfort 
of the general public. The matter in question was prob- 
ably never brought directly to the attention of the Secre- 
tary of the Interior, or, if it came before him, it is 
not to be supposed that he is sufficiently informed as 
to the conditions prevailing in the Park to be able 
to determine as to what is or is not desirable. However 
this may be, it is certain that action was taken in direct 
opposition to the recommendations of the superintendent 
of the Park, whose knowledge, judgment and experience 
may be assumed to be better than that of an official 
in distant Washington. 
Here are the facts. Several years ago one Wylie, 
known jn parts of Montana as "Professor" Wylie, be- 
cause he is a superintendent of schools, started a cheap 
transportation route through the Park. His charges 
were much less than those of the ordinary transporta- 
tion company. He did not stop at the hotels, but car- 
ried with him tents, in which his customers slept at; 
night, cooking out of doors. This was very well, and 
afforded many persons who might not have felt able 
to make the trip with the more expensive transportation 
companies an opportunity to see the Park. After this 
had gone on for a year or two, Wylie made -application 
for a license to establish permanent camps. This having 
been granted him, he erected a number of flimsy board 
outbuildings and later other very temporary shacks, log 
cabins, or huts, in which his passengers might sleen. 
The superintendent of the Park declined to allow this, 
and Wylie appealed to the Interior Department. The 
superintendent very justly objected that to establish such 
permanent camps, and above all to allow buildings to 
be erected by a man who had not secured a lease of 
ground from the Interior Department, would be alto- 
gether unjust and wrong. Moreover, it would practi- 
cally be impossible to police such permanent camps prop- 
erly, and the litter which would inevitably collect around 
them would be an eyesore and an offense to all travelers 
through the Park, whether riding in private convey- 
ances, or on the wagons of the transportation company, 
or on horse, or bicycle, or shank's mare. 
When Wylie made his appeal to the department he 
promptly secured the services of an attorney in Wash- 
ington — Mr. Lamar, of Washington, nephew of the late 
Secretary Lamar— to represent him before the depart- 
ment. Mr. Lamar is from Mississippi, as is also Mr. 
Sims, the clerk in the Interior Department who had 
charge of National Park matters. Smarter still, Wylie 
came on to New York and hired a lawyer here — James 
A. Blanchard, a politician — to go to Washington and 
to argue his case before the department. On the ex 
parte statements of these attorneys the written objec- 
tions of the supetintendent were overruled, and Wylie 
received permission to establish along the roads in the 
National Park a series of permanent edifices, which can 
be compared to nothing so well as to the buildings of 
the old-fashioned shanty town that once existed on the 
rocks in New York city in the neighborhood of the 
Central Park. Such small settlements, surrounded by 
all the debris of camps ancient and modern, would be 
nothing less than a disgrace to the National Park. It is 
difficult to understand how any official having due re- 
gard for the proper care of this wonderland, and the 
slightest consideration for the convenience of that por- 
tion of the public who visit, it,,-. coilld. eonsent to. such 
defacement of . the Park.. . . ~ . . 
It may safely be stated that if. Col. Young's opinion 
should be sought in this matter by the Secretary of the 
Interior, he would be found bitterly opposed to the 
nuisances which Wylie intends to establish, and of which 
the Department of the Interior approves. 
This winter a number of new transportation-hoter com- 
panies, encouraged by Wylie's success, have applied 
for privileges such as have been granted to him. If 
these are to be given them; if they are to be allowed 
permanent occupancy of a piece of ground, whether for 
camps, shanties or hotels, they should at least be obliged 
to take out leases and pay for the privileges of holding 
this ground to the exclusion of other visitors to the Park. 
It will be remembered that Secretary John W. Noble 
took away transportation rights from the hotel company 
on the ground that a single corporaticm should not carry 
on both kinds of business. Now, Wylie is given pro- 
tection and authority to do both without the payment 
of rental and without incurring any expense for perma- 
nent structures. 
The whole matter is one which should be further 
looked into by the Interior Department, We trust that 
before the opening of another season in the National 
Park such permission as has been given to Wylie, jvill 
be revoked, and that he will be obliged to get along 
as other people do — either to sleep in tents or to lease 
ground and erect buildings which will not be offen- 
sive either to the eye or the nose of the tfaveling public. 
SNAP SNOTS. 
The National Fishery Congress at Tampa, Fla., ad- 
journed on Tuesday of last week, having resolved itself 
into an International Fishery Association, embracing 
the whole earth, with officers as follows: President, Dr. 
Alexander Agassiz, United States; First Vice-President, 
-Mons. Perrier, France; Second A^ice-President, A. Nel- 
son Cheney, New York; Secretary and Treasurer, Dr. 
Hugh N. Smith, Washington, D. C; .Executive Com- 
mittee (a few countries have not yet had delegates named 
for them), W. S. Fish, Commissioner ex-officio; A. A. 
Adee, Assistant Secretary of State; W. E. Meehan, 
Pennsylvania; Clarence B. Mitchell, Massachusetts; L. 
T. Carlton, Maine; Dr. W. R. Capehart, North Caro- 
lina; F. C. Zacharie, Louisiana; Dr. Theo. Gill, Wash- 
ington, D. C; Eugene Blackford, New York; Prof. 
Jacob Rigard, Michigan; Prof. S. A. Forbes, Illinois; 
Prof. D. S. Jordan, California; M. J. Kinny, Oregon; 
Gov. W. D. Bloxham, Florida; Chow Tsz Chi, China; 
Capt. E. B. del Arbol, Spain; Adolf ■ Neilson,' New- 
foundland; R. B. Marston, England; Sir-Spencer Wal- 
pole, England; S. Jafife, Germany; Raveret-Wattell, 
France; Alex Heinz, Finland; B. Oopzoon, Holland; 
K. Ito, Japan; Anton Dohrn, Italy; Karl Zogt, Swit- 
zerland; M. Saville Kent, Australia. 
The congress was a most happily successful affair in 
such respects as it was possible for it to be. The con- 
vention gave a welcome opportunity for the fish com- 
missioners of arboreal climes to visit the charming West 
Coast country of Florida, to pluck the midwinter rose, 
sail on sunny waters, and listen to the mocking-bird 
singing o'er 'the lea. Needless to say that the excur- 
sion was a delightful one,' and that the delegates en- 
joyed themselves to the full, even after it had dawned 
upon them that the congress was likely to be in effect 
more of a boom for Tampa Bay hotel interests than 
for fishculture and fish protection. Probably most of 
the visitors would be quite willing to go again; but now 
that the national congress has been expanded into an 
international association we beg leave to suggest to First 
Vice-President Perrier, of France, that the next meeting 
should be held in Paris. 
In our fishing columns is printed a note from the 
Martinsburg, W. Va., Democrat, reporting a recent iiight 
fracas between George M. 'Bowers and his brother John, 
in which Brother Johii cattie 'off second best, BrotHeif 
George inflicting upon him a wound "extending from, 
ear to ear." Mr. Bowets is, the Detrtoct-at adds, "the 
same gentleman" who is a candidate for United States 
Fish Comm issioner. We have b.eeii • at ..seine ^ p&ins pd . 
verify the truth of the item, which sheds new light ort . 
the character of the candidate. Mr. Bowets may not 
know a red herring from a catfish, but his performance 
in a night brawl demonstrates that he has executive 
ability of a high order; and the subordinates in. a fish 
.commission with the Martinsburg disciplinarian at the 
head of it might safely be counted upon to toe the ttiark 
lest their own heads should be Cut from ear to ear. 
The fisticuffs incident is illuminative to the public, 
which has had scant information of Mr. Bowers," except 
that he was an ignorant and unfitted candidate for an 
important* Government position. But .Senator Elkins 
cannot be wanting in full and ample knowledge ,of the 
man's character. He must know Bowers from A to Z; 
and what a disgraceful thing it is that he should at- 
tempt, through the good offices of President McKinley, 
to foist such a man upon the country. It is inconceiv- 
able that the Senate should consent to such a degrada- 
tion of the Commission. 
.\t a meeting of the executive committee of the Penn» 
sylvania Fish Protective Association the other day, 'a 
memoriat was adopted of which the text reads as fol- 
lows : 
To the President of the United States,' 
The public press lias recently announced a contemplated change 
in the office of the United States Commissioner of Fish and Fish- 
eries. The Pennsylvania Fish Protective Association, fully recog* 
nizing the usefulness and high state of efficiency to which the 
work of this department of the Government has been brought, 
would respectfully ask that in making any appointment due 
regard should be had to a compliance with the provisions of 
the statute providing for the proper qualification of such Com- 
missioner. We are, very respectfully, 
E. Hagert, President, 
M. G. Sellers, Secretaj-y. 
Copies were forwarded to the President and to Con- 
gress, and' the memorial has been given large circula- 
tion in the press. The example set by the Philadelphia 
society should be followed by every other association 
in the country especially interested in this matter. Those 
Senators who may be depended upon to oppose the 
nomination of Mr, Bowers should know that there is 
a widely prevailing sentiment throughout the country 
indorsing their, stand. 
■ The House of Representatives last week considered! 
the new game bill for the District of Columbia, the 
mos't important feattire of which -is a clause forbidding 
the sale of game in close season, whether the game was 
killed within the District or elsewhere. The bill passed 
the Hou^e and has gone to the Senate. 
The actual product of the conference was a series of 
valuable papers on fishculture and allied interests. One 
cf these, by Mr. Cheney, on the Hudson River salmon, 
we printed last week. Next week we shall give Mr. 
Livingston Stone's reminiscences of the early days of 
fishculture/in America, and other papers will follow. * 
The debate on the measure was interesting and 
illuminative chiefly because it showed that those 
who spoke in opposition knew little or nothing 
of the principles involved. At this stage of the 
world's history it is ridiculous for Congressmen to 
talk in the vein of Mr. Ray, of New York, -or Mr. 
Fleming, of Georgia. These gentlemen not only be- 
trayed gross ignorance of the legislation of their own 
States, but of the well-recognized principles of game 
protection, principles embodied in the existing laws of 
every State whose Legislature has not been controlled 
by game dealers' lobbies, and enunciated by numerous 
decisions of lower courts and by the Supreme Court of 
the United States. We congratulate the District of Co- 
lumbia Fish and Game Protective Association upon the 
progress of the measure. If the Senate shall give its 
indorsement, the National Capital will be relieved of the 
odium which now attaches to it as a market for game 
unlawfully shipped from the several States. We referred 
last week to Senator Teller's bill to restrict the inter->' 
state transportation of game in violation of State .pro- 
hibitions. The adoption of this new law for the Dis" 
trict would be directly in line with the purpose soxjght 
to be attained by Mr. Teller, 
