Forest and Stream. 
A Weekly Journal of the Rod and Gun. 
Copyright, 1899, by Forest and Stream Publishing Co. 
HK»:s, $t A Yrir, 10 Cts. a Copy. > 
S>a Months, $i. ) 
NEW YORK, SATURDAY, APRIL 8, 1899. 
( vol., 1 j|. No, U. 
( No. 846 UROAuWAt, N««r York. 
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 wiiich iis 
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. 
NOTICE. 
The New York Clearing House has adopted new regu- 
lations governing the collection of checks and drafts on 
banks outside of the city. This entails a collection ex- 
pense on those who receive such checks. Our patrons 
are requested, therefore, in making their remittances to 
send postal or express money order, postage stamps, or 
check or draft on a New York city bank, or other New 
York current funds. 
AMERICAN GAME PARKS. 
We continue in this issue our fifth annual review of 
American game preserves. The first report of this 
series was printed in the number for Feb. 17, 1894. In 
1895 articles were printed May 11 and 18; in 1896, July 
4. II and 18; and in 1897, July 24, 31 and Aug. 7. 
In the five years which have passed since the first 
report was published, the number and scope of Ameri- 
can preserves have increased tremendously. Previously 
to 1894 the preserves had not attracted much attention 
among sportsmen, nor otherwise. Of the fenced pre- 
serves, Mr. Corbin's great Blue Mountain Park had only 
been stocked with game four years, and Mr. George 
Gould's Furlough Lod<~e Preserve, and Mr. Rutherfurd 
Stuyvesant's Tranquility Park about the same length of 
time, while Litchfield Park and Ne-ha-sa-ne Park were 
only a few months old. The period marked the transition 
from the shooting club, which exercised an often pre- 
carious control over leased lands, to the preserve which 
acquired ownership and set to work on an entirely new 
basis, not only to protect the game already existing 
on the land, but to increase it, often by the importation 
of animals, birds and fish which were not then to be 
found in the neighborhood. 
This journal has chronicled the changing conditions 
not only in its park reports, but also in such articles 
as that published some time since, showing the great 
extent of preserved holdings within the limits of the 
Adirondack State Park, and also in the articles on 
Western preserves. The new order has undoubtedly 
come to stay, and though at the present time a falling 
ofiE in the number of new parks is noticeable, the halt 
is apparently only temporary, and one may confidently 
count upon a steady increase in the number of new en- 
terprises of this character from year to year. 
The conditions which favor preserves are cheap land 
with attractive natural features and trespass laws which 
are clearly defined and easily enforced. In this country- 
there are large areas of hunting country, where either 
State laws, public sentiment or natural conditions efifectu- 
ally operate against preserves, and it is not likely that 
the system will ever attain the predominance enjoyed 
in European countries, where the wealthy classes effectu- 
ally monopolize the shooting. 
An interesting feature in connection with these pre- 
serves, and one which has attracted little attention, is the 
business of securing and rearing game animals for 
stocking them. 
Elsewhere will be found a letter from a man who has 
given his entire time for years to this business. The 
original animals which formed the nucleus for the pre- 
served elk herds have come chiefly from the country ly- 
ing in the immediate neighborhood of the Yellowstone 
National Park, either in Wyoming or Idaho. The buf- 
falo came from Texas, Nebraska, Colorado and Mon- 
tana. The moose from eastern Canada, and the deer from, 
nearly every State in the Union. The various game 
animals have certain commercial values, which» however, 
vary considerably from time to time, according to 
supply and demand. 
Here are a few prices quoted from the letter of a 
dealer in wild game: Canadian beaver, $50 per pair, de- 
livered; buflfalo, $1,000 per pair, delivered; whitetail deer, 
$50 per pair; fallow deer, $50 per pair; wild turkey, 
$15 per pair; moose, offered $175, asked $250 apiece. 
The writer of the letter says: "Moose bring $350 each 
on the steamer dock at any port in England or Germany. 
I do not know much about Caribou; . never had them 
offered to me lower than $200 each." 
Elk are not quoted in this letter, but are said to 
be worth about $75 apiece, delivered. 
In certain parts of the country farmers and others 
have taken to raising game as a business. They have 
begun with the intention of supplying game parks with 
acclimated animals for stocking, but it is likely that 
some at least will look for a market for their surplus 
animals whenever possible by butchering them and 
selling the meat. Elk and deer can be raised in cap- 
tivity with good management almost as readily as the 
ordinary farm stock. The chief requirements are 'suit- 
able fences and a liberal amount of shade and water, with 
plenty of grass. Pound for pound, they are worth sev- 
eral times as much as cattle, and are just as easily cared 
for. 
The possibilities in buffalo raising are much greater. 
In six years the buffalo in the Corbin herd increased 
threefold. There is no more valuable stock in existence. 
When Forest and Stream took its census of the buf- 
falo two years ago it was estimated that there were only 
about 600 American bison in captivity. The wild bison 
are certain to be extinct in a very few years, and their 
number at the present time is so small as not to affect 
the general result. A certain demand for buffalo can 
be counted upon from zoological gardens in various 
parts of the world, and also from owners of preserves. 
The greatest need of buffalo breeders at the presfent 
time is the infusion of new blood into their'herds. As 
Forest and Stream long ago pointed out, a buffalo 
stud 'book is very desirable. It would not be a difficult 
task to record the pedigree and history of every known 
animal, and such information would be of incalculable 
value in governing future breeding. The stock now in 
existence was secured from both the Northern and South- 
ern herds of wild buffalo, and there is ample opportunity 
for the intelligent selection of strains. 
EARL Y SPRING. 
This is no zephyr that comes tearing up from the 
south, threshing the naked boughs as if it would destroy 
the last bud before its chance of bursting, and out-roaring 
the brooks' boisterous rejoicing over their new freedom, 
yet there is a sweet promise in its gusty breath— a promise 
that we cherish and believe in, for it has been often given 
and always soon or late redeemed. 
These are not musical notes that the crows utter as they 
are tumbled and tossed along before it in disorderly 
flight, but they are notes of rejoicing, and also a promise 
of sweeter voices that shall presently be heard. 
There is a hopeless look in the fields hemmed with 
soiled drifts and untidy with the flotsa:-i and jetsam oE 
winter storms. No less so is the forest, its once unsullied 
floor bestrewn with tatters of bark and last year's leaves, 
yet we see beyond all dreariness of present desolation 
what has been again and again revealed to us. 
Even now we may see where the raccoon and the 
woodchuck have writ down their faith in the coming 
resurrection of life with their tracks on the solid page, 
and we hear it declared by the trumpets of the geese and 
the shrill pipes of "small fowl making noise" of rejoicing. 
In the shallow pools of the meadows the blue of heaven is 
reflected, the whiteness of its clouds, and at night its 
stars, where by and by shall be the bloom of violets and 
daisies and dandelions, and bees shall hum to and fro be- 
tween them in sweet traffic, and fill the empty mouse- 
nests with brown comb. 
Through the roar of the wind and the dash of branches 
we catch the jubilant song of bobolink and lark and 
oriole, the call of the cuckoo, the bells and flutes of the 
woodland thrushes. Finer than the angry turmoil of the 
brook's yellow overflowing flood we hear its babble of 
green fields where happy anglers wade ankle deep in luih 
grass, and the banished kingfisher has come to his own 
again. 
Through the dun of fields and the gray of woodlands 
as through thin veils we see green grass springing and 
the bourgeoning of branches; ledges, blushing with the 
bloom of honeysuckles; the brown floor of the woods 
dappled with moose-flovver and squirrel-cup. The birds 
are busy with nest building, from his freshly swept-thresh- 
old the woodchuck regards the growing clover, and the 
chipmunk sits at his door in the sun, clucking his con- 
tentment. 
So often have we seen this miracle of spring wrought, 
that with the eye of faith, more than of fancy, we see it 
repeated, and in spite of all delays and relapses of the 
fickle weather, we hopefully await its fulfillment. 
AN INCIDENT OF THE BAD LANDS. 
To HIS intimates the late Prof. Marsh was known not 
only as a scientific man of great ability and world-wide' 
reputation, but also as a delightful companion, quick and 
witty, with a keen appreciation of humor, and a narrator 
of capital stories. One of these, which he used to tell 
of himself with great effect, dealt with a small adventur? 
had many years ago in the Rocky Mountains. 
The first month or two of the trip had been spent on 
the plains of Nebraska and Wyoming, at that time the 
hunting ground of Sioux and Cheyennes, who were 
bitterly hostile, and signs of whose presence near the 
command were often seen. The whole party realized 
that they were irt a dangerous country, and all hands 
were constantly on the watch for enemies and were care- 
ful not wander far from the command; or, if two or 
three fossil gatherers did go off from the main body, 
they took with them a number of soldiers to stand guard 
while they worked. After leaving this dangerous region 
the expedition moved on to the bad lands near Fort 
Bridger^ where there were but few Indians, and those 
friendly ones, and the work of gathering fossils went on. 
One day Prof. Marsh was hard at work on his knees 
in the bottom of the narrow ravine, digging away the 
soil from a bone which stuck out of the bank. He was 
entirely absorbed in his task, and noticed nothing of 
what was going on about him, until the brilliant sun- 
light, which poured down on him, was cut off by a dark 
shadow, and he looked up to see standing above him 
a great grim Indian warrior, holding his rifle at a ready. 
The Professor's heart leaped into his throat. He for- 
got where he was. He strove to utter a propitiatory 
"How," but his dry lips refused to form the word, and he 
could only swallow trying to get rid of the lump in 
his throat. Suddenly the savage bent toward him and 
spoke: "Have I the honor of addressing Prof. Othneil 
Charles Marsh, the eminent paleontologist of Yale 
College?" he inquired. The revulsion of feeling was 
almost too much for the Professor, who was now even 
less .able to speak than he had been before. 
It developed that the Indian, as a small boy, had been 
sent East, Christianized, educated, taught the elements 
of theology, and sent back to the West to civilize his 
tribe; but he had not carried the civilization very far. 
That is a curious notion expressed by ^Tr. Mather, but 
by no means peculiar to his holding, that when a fish.:r- 
nian catches a fish from pub.ic waters he has an absolute 
"right" to do with it whatever he may elect, the law to 
(he contrary notwithstanding. The well-established prin- 
ciple is, on the contrary, that the taking of fish or game 
carries with it absolutely no "right" except such as the 
."Statute itself confers in express terms, or such as may be 
inferred from the silence of the statute. Thus, referring 
to the specific case in point, for perfectly good and suffi- 
cient reasons the State of New York has enacted that nO 
one may take trout from public waters for the purpose of 
stocking private waters, A moment's consideration will 
show the reasonableness of this. The trout in public 
ivaters belong to the people for their fishing for fun and 
hod. To preserve them for this purpose the men wh6 
vrould "skin out" a. stream of its trout for their own pri- 
■ ate waters must be restrained. Experience has proved 
1 lis. The law provides this restraint by forbidding the 
■(..iking of fish for that purpose. The fish belong to -he 
^stace; it is for the State to say whether they may be taken 
at all; and, if so, in what times, in what ivays^ for wiiat 
purpose, and what use may be made of them. All this is 
so clearly set forth in the famous United States Supreme. 
Court decision in the Geer vs. State of Connecticut case 
that we advise those who talk of , fishing "rights" to 
study it, . , ■ , 
