Forest and Stream. 
A Weekly Journal of the Rod and Gun. 
^ix Mr™5?''- } NEW YORK, SATURDAY, MARCH 26, 1898. {no. si,l''ik^7^Ao.K. 
The Forest and Stream is the recognized medium of entertain- 
ment, instruction 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 in 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. 
If a man walk in the woods iot the love of th«in 
half of each day^ he is in danger of being regarded 
as a loafer; hut if he spends his whole day as a 
speculator, shearing off those woods and making 
earth bald before her time, he is esteemed an in- 
dustrious and enterprising citizen. Thoreau. 
REPEAL SECTION 24g. 
The purpose of the New York game law to forbid 
and prevent the destruction of game by market hunters 
in the close season is in large degree nullified by the 
operation of Sec. 249, which reads as follows: 
Sec. 249. No person or persons shall be deemed to have violated 
any law or ordinance by reason of his or their selling, exposing for 
sale, transporting or possessing, or attempting so to do, the body 
or a part of the body of any wild animal or bird in the close season 
for such animal or bird, provided it be proved by him or them by 
production of proper invoices and freight or express receipts, 
that such wild animal or bird was shipped from a point at least 
three hundred miles distant from the State of New York. For 
the purpose of the proper enforcement of this section the package 
containing this wild animal or bird shall be marked plainly "game," 
and the place of shipment and destination shall also be plainly 
marked. All transportation companies which shall transport the 
same shall keep books plainly showing the receipt and delivery 
of such packages of game, and dealers in the same shall keep books 
of account showing the number of birds or animals received, 
sold or delivered by them, and shall, at all times, permit any 
authorized agent of the Commissioners of Fisheries, Game and 
Forest to examine their books of record for purpose of establishing 
the right of such possession or transportation in close season. 
The practical working of the provision is to open 
the market of New York city and of lesser towns 
throughout the State to an illicit traffic in game the year 
around. The results of this are twofold; one is the 
wrong and injury inflicted upon the game interests of 
New York State; the o'her is the wrong and injury in- 
flicted upon other States. 
The proposition has the force of dn axiom with those 
who understand these matters, that so long as there is 
an opefi market for the receipt of game the supply will 
be furnished to meet the demand. A law which per- 
mits the sale of game outside of a 300-mile limit opens 
the door wide to trade in game killed in our own covers. 
This is not theory; it is the demonstration of practical 
experience. The 300-mile limit is a blind for traffic in 
New York game. No system has ever been devised or 
will ever be devised which can efficiently conserve our 
game resources in the face of an open market law. 
The New York open market is a standing source of 
wrong to many other States because it encourages the 
shipment of game from those States in violation of their 
statutes and contrary to their interests. New York mar- 
kets are the dumping grounds for game forwarded by 
the market hunters and commission merchants of the 
West. Throughout the West non-export laws very gen- 
erally prevail; and the system is extending. The East- 
ern markets constitute the gravest problem involved in 
the enforcement of a non-export law. With those markets 
closed the operation of the laws would prove compara- 
tively simple. This is recognized by game commission- 
ers and wardens and executive agents. In a recent con- 
vention of these officials in Chicago resolutions were 
adopted to petition the Legislature of New York to 
modify the law, and thus do its share in solving the 
vexed problem of protection. There should be among 
Senators and Assemblymen at Albany a sentiment of 
State pride potent enough to relie\'^e New York of the 
unenviable character it now maintains as a fence for 
stolen goods. 
If the honest conviction of the Legislature on the sub- 
ject were expressed in the disposition of the Weeks 
bill to repeal Section 249, the measure would become a 
law. More encouragement is afforded just now that 
the law may be repealed than has been given at any 
other jtmcture since the section found its way by trick- 
ery upon the statute books. Mr. Weeks' repeal measure 
has passed the Assembly; it is expected to pass the 
Senate. If it shall reacji the Governor, ev'ery influence 
should be exerted to show him the righteousness of the 
repeal, and insure his approval of it. 
POTOMAC RIVER POLLUTION. 
The executive committee of the Game and Fish 
Protective Association of the District of Columbia 
met on Wednesday, March 16. The preliminary 
report of Mr. Talbott, Chairman of Committee on River 
Pollution, was presented, approved and by unanimous 
resolution made the basis of a memorial to the United 
States Senate in support of Senate Bill 2,905, providing 
for the investigation of the pollution of rivers where 
the sanitary condition of the people of more than one 
State or Territory is affected. 
The memorial is signed by W. S. Harban, Chalrinan; 
W. P. Young, Secretary-Treasurer; Richard Sylvester, 
Warden; I. Walter Sharp, Rudolph Kauffmann, Joe H. 
Hunter, Frank B. Curtis, Charles H. Laird, Plarrison 
Dingman, Jesse Middleton and DeWitt Arnold, Exec- 
utive Committee of the Association. 
On March 17 Mr. Vest laid the memorial before the 
Senate, and it was referred to the Committee on Public 
Health and National Quarantine having charge of the 
bill, and was ordered to be printed. 
There is hope now that if Congress will but take steps 
toward the prevention or regulation of pollution, or 
its investigation only, it will encourage the friends of the 
rivers and fish throughout the States to renewed efforts 
in favor of reform. If a general movement can be inau- 
gurated, if only in the direction of study, a great work 
will have been accomplished. 
The committee's report includes a communication from 
the United States Fish Commissioner on fisheries de- 
stroyed or injured by pollution; a letter from Prof. F. 
H. Newell, Chief Hydrographer for the Geological Sur- 
vey, whose valuable report on the Potomac River has 
just been published by the Senate (Doc. 90); and a paper 
by Dr. George M. Kober, formerly Special Sanitary In- 
spector for the City of Washington, which treats of pol- 
lution from the sanitary standpoint. 
GAME SUPPLY FLUCTUATIONS. 
Thk astounding success which has attended efforts 
toward the artificial reproduction of fishes have led many 
a man to wonder why attempts to artificially propagate 
birds and mammals might not be attended with like suc- 
cess. As yet, however, not the first step has been taken 
in this direction. We have learned much about the de- 
struction of game and a very little about the way in which 
it increases in a state of nature. This is all. Except 
in preserves, the end of most of our large game is very 
likely in sight, but the case may be very different in 
respect to feathered game. As we have more than 
once pointed out, in many localities the numbers of any 
species are likely to sink very near to the vanishing 
point, and then, in consequence of the failure to pursue 
it, owing to its scarcity, it may increase again. Any 
marked increase, however, will be followed by a re- 
newal of pursuit, which will again be abandoned as the 
numbers again diminish. Such fluctuations may continue 
for many years. Meantime it is to be hoped that our 
game laws may be improved and better enforced; that 
exotic birds may be introduced in constantly increasing 
numbers; that the sale of game may be prohibited. 
A familiar example of what may be done by the pro- 
tection of exotic feathered game, where all the conditions 
are favorable to its increase, has been seen in the devel- 
opment of the Asiatic pheasant on our northwest coast. 
Nineteen pheasants were turned loose on Vancouver Isl- 
and near Victoria in 1881, and having been rigidly pro- 
tected for five years, increased in that time so greatly that 
it was estimated that during the first open season a thou- 
sand birds were killed without any perceptible decrease 
in the numbers of the pheasants. The next season a still 
greater number were killed, but during the open time 
the birds which at first were very tame had learned to 
regard man and his dog as enemies, and had become 
much more shy and far better able to take care of them- 
selves during the shooting season. 
While the fluctuations alluded to will always be most 
noticeable in the case of feathered game, the principle 
applies to mammals as well ; although, owing to the slow- 
er reproduction of large animals, the increase is more 
gradual and less readily seen. With the settling up of a 
new country predatory beasts are in large measure killed 
or driven off, and thus the numbers of the natural ene- 
mies of afay other species are greatly decreased. This ob- 
viously tends to lessen the destruction of that species, 
so that if it were not for the killing by man its numbers 
would markedly increase. This very thing is occurring 
to-day in the case of elk in the Yellowstone Park, where, 
in many places, protection is absolute, and the death of 
animals occurs only from old age or injury by accident. 
So great has been their increase that persons familiar 
with the Park say that in winter, when the ground is part- 
ly covered with snow, the bare tops and sides of the 
hills, where only the elk can graze, are so closely fed 
down and so cut up by the hoofs of the animals that 
numbers of the elk perish from starvation. 
A few years ago in portions of Maine and the Adi- 
rondacks the beavers were thought to be exterminated, 
but the few survivors— protected by the very paucity of 
their numbers — ^have so far increased that in some 
plages they have become a most interesting feature of 
the life of the woods. In early days the Galapagos Isl- 
ands were a favorite resort and breeding ground for a 
species of fur seal which occurred there in great num- 
bers. As has been the case with the fur seal wherever 
its rookeries were discovered, it was pursued down to 
the last animal, and for several years has. been thought 
to be absolutely exterminated. Yet a few survived, and 
in the year 1897 their numbers had so increased that not 
less than 230 skins were taken by a commercial sealer. 
The tendency of nature is to reproduce her species, and 
this tendency can only be overcome by the constant 
interference of man, whose whole efforts are devoted to 
fighting nature. From examples such as have been 
cited above, the P'ame protector may learn many a les- 
son and derive much encouragement. 
The supply of Norwegian reindeer moss brought over 
with the last consignment of reindeer ran low before 
Seattle was reached, and the question arose as to what 
the animals should be fed. In this dilemma Mr. L. S. 
Kelly, who was with the reindeer, suggested that they 
be trieid on alfalfa clover. The suggestion Was acted on, 
and the deer took kindly to the clover. When they 
reached the coast they were taken to Woodland Park, 
a. few miles from Seattle. Here they are turned out to 
graze and enjoy the green clover. When first turned' 
out they rushed into the lake and swam out a long way 
from shore. They are capital swimmers, their broad, 
spreading hoofs enabling them to make good headway. 
The animals are interesting, but it was never other than 
a waste of money to import them, as has been done and 
for this purpose. 
We gave last week a comprehensive outline sketch 
of the magnificent exposition given by the New England 
Sportsmen's Association, and how in progress. To-day 
we add notes on some of the many features. The Me- 
chanics' Building is to Boston what the Madison Square 
Garden is to New York; and the Association has brought 
together within its great halls such an aggregation of 
attractions for sportsmen as has never before been seen 
tmder roof. Those to whom we owe the inception and 
execution of the enterprise are deserving of the warmest 
congratulation for its liberality of scope and perfection 
of detail. It is a genuine, dignified and altogether credit- 
able achievement. Boston has set the mark by which 
all future sportsmen's expositions must be measured. 
It was inevitable that the New York and Boston 
shows should be contrasted; but between two enterprises 
so distinct in purpose and character comparisons may 
hardly be made. The New York show was primarily 
and almost exclusively a trade exhibit of sporting goods. 
The Boston show was in its original purpose and is in 
realization an exposition of the sportsmen's side, the 
field and lake and forest and camp; the trade features 
do not dominate. It is understood that the New York 
shows have been profitable to those interested in them. 
The great success of the Boston show was assured 
from the first day. 
Ill our issue of March 12 we alluded to a widely 
copied newspaper story, purporting to be told by a 
retired army man, of a Sergeant Richardson, who was 
credited with having killed in February deer and elk in 
Maine. The Game Commissioners of that State have 
investigated the story, and have proved it to be a wholly 
baseless fabrication. This sustains the opinion we ex- 
pressed at the time, that the yarn was spun of imagina- 
tion. As for Sergeant Richardson, there is such a person, 
but at the time, instead of being off shooting, he Vas 
chained to business at Fort Popham. ,^ 
