Forest and Stream 
A Weekly Journal of the Rod and Gun. 
Terms, $4 a Ye.'R. 10 Cts: a Copy. I 
Six Months, $2. f 
NEW YORK, SATURDAY, FE^RtJARY 19, 1898. 
j VOL. L.-No., 8. 
I No. 34G fiRoADw.\Yi New York. 
the Forest and Stream is the recognized medium of entertain- 
thent, insfiiiction and information Between American sportsmen. 
The editors invite communications on the subjects to which its 
pages are devoted: Anonymous communications will not be re- 
garded. While it is intended to give wide latitude ill discussion 
of current topics, the editors are not responsible for the views of 
correspondents. 
Subscriptions may begin at any time. Terms:. For single 
copies, $4 per year, $2 for six months. For club rates and full 
particulars respecting subscriptions, see prospectus on page iv. 
Cbe forest ana Stream's Platform PlaitK. 
" T/te sale of game should be prohibited at all seasons 
NAILS DRIVEN IN 1898.— No. I. 
Resolution adopted at the Interstate Convention of 
Game Wardens, at Chicago, Feb. 8: 
"Resolved, That it is the sense of this meeting that 
the several States here represented pass laws looking 
toward the final prohibition of the sale of all game pro- 
tected by law." 
THE FISH COMMISSION DEAL CONSUMMA TED. 
Last Monday the Senate confirmed the nomination 
of George M. Bowers, of West Virginia, to be United 
States Commissioner of Fish and Fisheries. This con- 
summates the deal by which the President has turned 
over an important office to the politicians as spoil. It 
expresses also the Senate's acquiescence in President IVIc- 
Kinley's violation of the statutory provisions, governing 
the appointment. Commissioner Bowers has been put 
into the place in defiance of law; and it should not be 
forgotten that despite his appointment to the commis- 
sionership he has no legal right to it. He holds the 
place only because in fulfillment of a political deal the 
President elected to violate the statute, and the Senate 
elected to uphold him in the violation. 
The immediate future of the Commission will depend 
in a measure upon the course Mr. Bowers may pursue 
with respect to the employees in the several divisions. 
Long before his nomination he made promise of places 
in the Commission to certain personal friends who were 
working for him, and whose ciualification for these places 
was that they were working for liim. It is not to be 
^upposed that one who "lias secured his own appoint- 
ment in the way the new Commissioners came to him 
will be squeamish about dismissing trained and experi- 
enced men from the force to make way for his own 
personal friends, however wanting in fitness they may 
be. There is, however, a bare hope that in this respect 
Commissioner Bowers may follow the course of Com- 
missioner Brice, who, when he realized the magnitude 
of the work of the Commission and his own incompe- ' 
tence to deal with it, actually had not the courage to 
carry out certain prearranged deals and deprive himself 
of the saving services of experts. What has been ac- 
complished under Commissioner Brice has been the 
work of his subordinates, and work achieved in spite 
of their chiefs lack of qualifications. If the new in- 
competent shall have the sense to retain Jilie old men in 
their places, they may be trusted to withstand the utter 
demoralization of the Commission's affairs otherwise to 
be expected. 
YELLOWSTONE PARK EXTENSION. 
Col. Young, Acting Superintendent of the Yellow- 
stone National Park, has prepared a measure which Sec- 
retary Bliss has sent to the Public Lands Committees of 
the House and Senate, to enlarge the boundaries of the 
Park. The proposed extension would include the present 
timber reserve in Wyoming east and south of the Park, 
the Teton Forest reserve set apart by President Cleve- 
land in 1896 and including the Jackson Hole game coun- 
try, a tract of low land at the southwest corner of the 
Park, and a mountainous strip in Montana to the north- 
west. The enlargement as projected is a step which 
has been urged in these columns for many years, and it 
is one which has the cordial support of all persons fa- 
miliar with the game conditions of the Park and con- 
tiguous territory. One reason for the extension is, in 
brief, that such a change of boundaries would include 
tracts of country now infested by gangs of poachers who 
raid on the Park game supply, and by their removal 
would insure the better protection of the Park itself. 
Another consideration is that the proiJosed territory to 
be reserved includes sorne of the thost importaht inter- 
ranges of Rocky Mountain game, which might, well be 
constituted Government refuges. 
SNAP SHOTS, 
The question of the public control of dogs in large 
cities, always a perplexing one, has been considered 
settled, in a way, in this State by the operation of a law 
which intrusted that control to the Societies for the 
Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, or to the Humane So- 
cieties. Under the system, which has been in effect for 
some years past, owners have been required to pay a 
license fee to the local society of $1 for each dog, receiv- 
ing in return from the society a metal tag to be attached 
to the dog's collar. Dogs found in the streets without the 
license tag have been taken by the society, and if un- 
redeemed have been killed. The system, while meeting 
some individual opposition, has been generally accept- 
able. The public welcomed the efficient and decent ser- 
vices of the societies' agents always in grateful contrast 
with the thieves, thugs and murderers who in large part 
constituted the old force of licensed dog-catchers. So 
general, in fact, was the satisfaction with the new order 
of things that at first no one thought of inquiring into 
the constitutional aspect of the law, and this phase of 
the subject has only just now come up for consideration. 
The unconstitutional character of the law has just been 
determined in a case decided in the Appellate Court. 
Frederick Fox and Melvin L. Evans, of Albanj'-, brought 
suit in the Supreme Court against the Hudson River 
Humane Society to restrain the society from destroying 
their dogs, for which licenses had not been paid. Their 
contention was that the law was unconstitutional, and the 
Supreme Court finding against them, they carried the 
case up on appeal and secured a reversal. The Court 
held, in an opinion by Justice Landon, that in this State 
dogs are property, and may not be destroyed without 
due process of law; and that the grant of a license be- 
ing the exercise of a sovereign power, the right to exact 
a license may not be delegated to a private corporation. 
We quote: 
"The important question here is: Suppose he refuses 
to take out a Ifcense for his dog, can the dog be sum- 
marily killed or confiscated without any process of law 
whatever? When the law of the State was that dogs 
were not prima facie property, but must be proved to be 
valuable before they could be treated as such, it fol- 
lowed that the killing or confiscation of a dog, prima 
facie, affected no property right, and was no legal griev- 
ance. But now dogs in this State are property (Mullaly 
versus People, 86 N. Y., 365), and, of course, within the 
laws for the protection of property. * * * Now, it 
is plain that whether a dog is licensed or not does not 
affect its character. A good dog is none the less so 
though it wears no collar. The statute of 1896 does not 
declare the keeping of an unlicensed dog a misdemeanor, 
nor does it declare that the dog that wears no collar is 
presumptively a nuisance. .The plaintiff does not put his 
dogs to an improper use. They are neither vicious nor 
dangerous. There is, therefore, no ground upon which 
we can assume that the plaintiff's dogs are a niri- 
sance, and hence the defendant's right to kill them must 
rest upon some other basis, or be denied altogether. 
* * * If we assume that the killing or confiscation 
of the plaintiff's dogs is the penalty prescribed for his 
disobedience of the statute, then the same reasons which 
entitle him to his day in court before a penalty in 
money can be exacted apply before the penalty in dogs 
can be exacted. In neither case can he be deprived of 
his property without due process of law. The currency 
in which the penalty is exacted cannot affect the prin- 
ciple. * * * Under the act of 1896 no dog in the city 
of Albany has a prima facie right to live unless it wears 
a collar of the defendant. * * * The grant of a license 
is the exercise of sovereign power. To require the in- 
dividual to pay a private corporation for a sovereign 
favor seems to be contrary to the fundamental principles 
of popular government. * * * have no doubt 
the defendant is a most worthy institution, but however 
great its merits, they cannot obscure the vice of such 
legislation." 
This, then, abolishes the existing system of caring for 
the dog population in great cities; but the societies 
wiiicli have done the work so effectts dly and well shotild 
in some way be empowered to continue it. We must 
have dogs, the supply must be controlled by some license 
system, and there must be some machinery for enforcing 
the piii'poses of the license. Experience has shown that 
the best machinery is that provided by the S. F. P. C A. 
and its kindred organizations. 
The New York State Museum Bulletin for 'October is 
devoted to the subject of "Road Materials and Road 
Building," which is treated in a comprehensive, masterly 
style by F. J. H. Merrill, Ph.D., Director New York 
State Museum. There is no one who will deny the 
utility of good roads and the great need of them in this 
country, but there are few indeed who know how good 
roads should be constructed, or where the best ma- 
terial for them can be obtained. The preparation of 
such a bulletin as the one in question represents a vast 
amount of effort. There was an enormous amount of 
detail to investigate and arrange so as to be. available 
as matter for instruction and reference. In respect to 
the material available in the State of New York* Director 
Merrill communicated with nearly 2,000 quarrymen, the 
information obtained being condensed into forty-two 
pages of letterpress, to which are added fourteen full- 
page diagrams and half-tones showing the manner of 
constructing first-class roads, the different stages of con- 
struction being so clearly illustrated that any one with 
ordinary ability can understand perfectly how the roads 
are built, and in what their excellence consists. The 
maps which accompany the bulletin admirably supple- 
ment the work. The front pocket over contains one 
of New York, showing the distribution of rocks most 
useful for road material, and the back cover contains 
a large map showing the whole State on a scale of lin. 
to twelve miles. It gives an accurate location of every 
stone quarry used for building and road metal. By 
means of colors and symbols the quarries with crushers 
are shown, and the bluestone, sandstone, limestone, trap, 
granite and slate are distinguished, A short review of 
the history of roads is presented as an introductory, and 
the important reasons for road improvement throughout 
the country are set forth as follows: "First, the de- 
sirability of reducing the cost of hauling; second, the 
importance of making most of the reads fit for pleasure 
driving, thereby attracting to the rural districts in sum- 
mer thousands of people who create a market for vari- 
ous farm products; third, the economic principle of 
preventing the great waste of labor which is now fruit- 
lessly expended in making bad roads." 
The topics principally considered are the Problem of 
Road Improvement in New York, Natural Roads, Road 
Construction, Earth Roads, Construction and Mainte- 
nance, Road Materials and their Distribution, Tests of 
Road Material. 
In the construction of roads the essential points to be 
considered are set forth as being a hard, smooth, water- 
proof surface and a thoroughly dry foundation. Little 
as the general public knows of these principles, it is 
pointed out that they were known to the Romans 300 
years before Christ. The road, moreover, must be built 
of sufficient strength to resist the weight and wear and 
tear of heavy traffic, and the surface must be smooth, so 
that there will be no undue strain ou vehicles and no 
undue expenditure of force in drawing them. 
The very fact that the Illinois Sportsmen's Association 
has held a midwinter convention for the consideration 
of game and fish interests is in itself full of significance 
and promise, for it means that the concern and activity 
of the organization are not longer to b^ restricted to trap 
tournaments. 
If Mr. Henry Talbott and his committee associates of 
the District of Columbia Association shall carry out the 
programme he has laid down - of a comprehensive and 
exhaustive investigation into the subject of river pollu- 
tion, they will perform a service of national scope. The 
task is of such magnitude, however, that it might well be 
intrusted to a Government commission. The interests 
involved are of importance beyond computation. Public 
health, water supplies, manufacturing industries, the fish- 
eries — all these are concerned. 
The index of Volume 49 is sent with this issue to all 
subscribers, and will be supplied on application to others 
who may wish it for bound volumes, ^ - 
