Forest and Stream. 
A Weekly Journal of the Rod and Gun. 
Terms, |4- a Year. 10 Cts. a Copy. 1 
S;x Months, $i. f 
NEW YORK, SATURDAY, JANUARY 7, 1899, 
i VOL. LTT.-No. I. 
1 No, 846 Broadway. New York. 
The Forest aud Stream is the recognized medium of entertain- 
nient, instruction and information between American sportsmen. 
The editors invite communications on the subjects to which its 
pages are devoted. Anonymous communications will not bt 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. 
Cbe forest ana Stream Platform PlanK. 
'^T/ie sale of game should be forbidden at all seasons. 
— Forest and Stream, Feb. 3, 1894. 
Taking the average of shooting companions, 
however (except to beat a double hedge-row, or 
divide what could not be seen on both sides) , I 
should pardon any old sportsman for saying that 
he would rather have their room than their 
company. CoL Hawker. 
EXTENDING THE NATIONAL FARlC. 
Early in 1898, Col. S. M. B. Young, then acting super- 
intendent of the National Park, submitted to the Secre- 
tary of the Interior a bill for the enlargement of that 
reservation. This bill was intended to give exact ex- 
prescion to nnp of the rpcnmmendations made by Col. 
Young in a report made to the Secretary at the same 
time. In due time the bill was submitted to Congress 
and introduced in the Senate. Since then petitions have 
been received by the Department of the Interior from 
residents of the 5tate of Wj'oming, asking that certain 
lands to the south of the present Teton forest reserve be 
added to it, and that this territory be constituted a new 
National Park, to be managed separately from the Yel- 
lowstone Park. 
The boundaries suggested in Col. Young's recommen- 
dation would extend the limits of the Yellowstone Na- 
tional Park so as to include the Yellowstone timber land 
reserve, and all that poi"tion of the Teton forest reserve 
lying east of the summit of the Teton range, together 
with two small unreserved tracts at the southwest • and 
the northwest corners of the National Park. The sum of 
these areas is about 3,260 square miles, and the addition 
if made would thus come near to doubling the area of 
the National Park. 
In the country proposed to be added to the Park there 
are a few settlers and a few undeveloped mines. It is 
chiefly a timbered mountain country, and does not run 
far enough south to take in the real winter range of the 
southern elk herd. It is, however, a country abounding 
in game and in fine timber, and so is well worth preserva- 
tion and improvement. Its addition to the Yellowstone 
Park would greatly increase the range of the game and 
would work no hardship to any bona fide settlers, whose 
claims might easily be adjusted at a later day. 
Should such an enlargement be sanctioned by Con- 
gress, considerable additions ought to b^made to the 
force of troops now caring for the Yellowstone Park. A 
permanent post — ^though not necessarily a Targe one — 
should be built somewhere near the southern boundary of 
the Park, since the patrols who work during the winter 
should not be obliged to make the long journey on foot 
from the Mammoth Hot Springs to the southern bor- 
ders of the reservation. These regular troops, while no 
more perfect than other men, still constitute the most 
efficient guardians that can be had for the Yellowstone 
Park. The Commissioner of the General Land Office 
says, "The superior discipline of regular troops makes 
a more effective patrol than the civil forest officers, and 
cavalry can cover greater extent of territory with more 
expedition and is better able to cope with trespassers 
than are forest rangers." The first part of this state- 
ment is undoubtedly true, but the la.st does not take ac- 
count of the fact that the trespassers most to be feared 
work in winter, at a time when cavalry is not available. 
On the other hand, a cavalry force is much better 
equipped to fight fires than are civil forest officers under 
present conditions. 
The importance of protecting these forest reservations 
and the game which ranges in them is recognized alike 
by residents of Wyoming and by sportsmen all over 
the land. Both these classes are agreed that this ought 
to be done. If Congress shcy.dd enact such a measure, 
the protection of game in the Park would, of course, be 
left, as now. to the general Government, while on the 
residents of the settlement of Jackson's Hole and its 
vicinity must fall the burden of protecting the game 
which migrates south during the winter to feed in the 
warm low country where the settlements are and be- 
yond. We believe that this task may safely be left to 
those residents. Many of them are thoroughly alive to 
the importance of enforcing the law and caring for the 
game on general principles, and many others who take a 
narrower view are well aware that the destruction of the 
game would result in depriving them of a considerable 
income which they will receive each year from visiting 
sportsmen, so long as game can be had in their vicinity. 
In view of the short time th^at remains of the present 
session of Congress, it is not likely that action will be 
taken on this bill unless a concerted effort shall be made 
to bring it forward both by sportsmen and by residents 
of Wyoming. The views of the latter are likely to have 
more weight with Congress tiwn those of even a larger 
number of men scattered ^o\W the country, because the 
inhabitants of Wyoming are more immediately con- 
cerned in it than others. Whatever action may be taken 
looking to the pressing of this measure should not be 
delayed, 
SNAP SHOTS. 
Some months ago came a disquieting rumor of the death 
of old John Gomez, of Panther Key, off the Gulf Coast 
of Florida. Now Tarpon writes us from Tarpon Springs 
that the yacht Maud, Com. Knapp, has just returned 
from a cruise to Miami, and having called at Panther 
Key, found Gomez not only alive, but spry and vigorous, 
notwithstanding his 117 years. He still paddles his 
own canoe, and manages his. boat for himself when 
fishing and turtling. "It is easy to see that he has failed 
somewhat," says Com. Knapp, "but his courage is such 
that he will not admit any weakness." Good fortune to the 
old man ; to bespeak for him long life were superfltious. 
Our Boston correspondence reports that a movement is 
on foot among Maine guides to form an organization for 
mutual benefit. As we have pointed out, there is much 
which might be accomplished for the betterment of the 
guides, should an organization prove practicable. For ' 
one thing, some way ought to be devised to distinguish 
between competent guides and the incompetents. Under 
present conditions, as the guide license law works, all 
guides are put on a level with respect to the license sys- 
tem. And jtist as tinder the Maine medical regulations a 
worthless charlatan may buy a physician's license and un- 
der its authority start in and kill people, so under the guide 
law an incompetent and ignorant and not always sober 
bar-room loafer at Kineo is free under shield of 
his license to engage himself as a guide to uninformed 
sportsmen, take them into a country where they would not 
see game in a thousand years, keep them in camp for the 
stated period, and in the end rob them by taking their 
money for services not rendered. As we have said in the 
past, the efficient and honest guides should devise some 
way to rid the craft of these fellows for good and all. 
The guide license idea is taking hold in the West; 
it is a feature of the elaliorate riieasure proposed by Mr. 
Beaman for Colorado. If a license were evidence of 
capability on the part of the one holding it. the system 
would be warmly approved by non-resident sportsmen. 
The purist is on iiand again with his fanciful grievance 
over the use of the term "hunting" for "shooting." There 
is a distinction between the two, but one not commonly 
observed in this country, where hunting covers ever3rthing 
from the pursuit of the grizzly or the moose to the shoot- 
ing of quail and hares. In years to come sports may so 
develop in America that we shall be required to observe 
the niceties of speech in referring to them ; but it will be a 
long time before the word hunting shall be limited to the 
practice of riding to hounds. For the most part that 
use of language to describe field sports is best which is 
simplest and least affected. The technical distinctions 
between flocks and bunches and herds and gaggles are 
hardly known to the present generation. Pedantic writers 
have written learnedly and oracularly of correct sport- 
ing diction, but for the most part their well intended 
efforts to reform the language have been dissipated ia 
the upper air, leaving no spoor behind. 
There was one circumstance in the early history of 
William and Mary College which our Boston contributor 
might well have added to the notes he sends of that 
historic institution. In the early days of the Colony of 
Virginia deer were extremely abundant, and one of the 
industries first developed by the settlers was the gather- 
ing of deer skins and their preparation for export to the 
mother country; and when William and Mary College was 
founded one source of revenue for its support was pro- 
vided by the imposition of a tax on deer skins. This York 
River country of which our correspondent writes is one of 
the most interesting on the continent for its historical 
associations, running back to the time of sturdy Capt. 
John Smith. 
When the Maine moose season was shortened by the last 
Legislature, complaints were made that the time allowed 
was so short as to be extremely inimical to the interests 
of guides and sportsmen. The statistics of the year, how- 
ever, show that in iSgS more moose were killed than in 
any one of the five years preceding ; and any endeavor to 
provide a more extended season is likely to be discouraged 
hy these figures. There is good reason for apprehension 
that the Maine railroads are overdoing the game killing, 
and promoting an* injudicious drain on the native re- 
sources of Maine forests. Certain it is that vast moose 
districts are being cleaned up; the permanent camp has 
been established in more than one district, where the re- 
sult is that the game may no longer be found. 
This promises to be an active sea.son in game legisla- 
tion. In numerous States the laws will be practically 
new throughout if the plans of projected changes shall go 
through. It is probable too that there will be less- of 
freakishness and more of mature common sense protection 
than is usual. 
The naturalist Ramon Lista years ago described a 
strange animal he had found in the interior of Santa Cruz 
as a form of the sloths or ant-eaters. But in proof of the 
creature's existence Lista never had anything tangible to 
show ; for though he reported that he had pursued it fre- 
quently and had shot at it, he never succeeded in secur- 
ing a specimen ; and by many who read his accounts it was 
believed that the strange Santa Cruz creature wae a myth. 
The receipt of a specimen from South Patagonia by an 
Italian natui-alist has vindicated the truth of the state- 
ments made by Lista, and established the existence of an 
animal whose characteristics are such as to commend it 
to those who, like Dr. Blaisdell, of Macomb, III., are in- 
tent upon stocking this continent with desirable gaoie 
animals from abroad. The Neomylodon listai, as it has 
been named in honor of Lista,Js of the ant-eater family. 
It is a red furred animal, and has under its hair an armor 
of bony plates imbedded in the sldn "like paving stones," 
slightly less than an inch in thickness and so tough as only 
to be broken in with an axe. Moreover, it travels only at 
night. Thus by its integument and its nocturnal habits the 
creature would prove admirably adapted to take care of it- 
self with or without the protection of a close season. 
A few weeks ago we printed a note from New Bruns- 
wick on the horns of a caribou, in which the plow meaa- 
ured thirteen inches at its widest part. This, it was inti- 
mated, was a recoi'd measurement for this tine of the 
antler in the caribou. It is interesting to learn that the 
head of the great bull caribou killed in British Columbia 
by Mr. H. G. Dulog, and figured in Forest and Stream 
of December 24th, was still more remarkable ; the plow- 
measuring sixteen inches, and thus being the largest of 
which we have as yet any knowledge. 
"Fancy trapped quail" are quoted on the "seasonable; 
marketing" lists of New York dealers at $3 per dozen. 
Where do they come from? From what district may 
trapped quail lawfully be had ? 
