Forest and Stream. 
A Weekly Journal of the Rod and Gun. 
Copyright, 1899, by Forest and Stream Publishing Co. 
Tbrms, $4 A Year. 10 Cts. a Copy, 1 
Six Months, $2, ) 
NEW YORK, SATURDAY, JUNE 3, 1899. 
j VOL. LII,— No. 32. 
I No. 844 Bhoaowat, Nbw 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 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. 
NOTE ANP COMMENT. 
The picture which forms our illustrated supplement 
this week is of an old-time scene in the Indian country. 
It complements the illustration in our issue of April i 
of the Indian women cutting up the meat after the 
hunt. The picture to-day tells its own story. It is the 
return to camp with the meat. It is a leaf out of the 
past; but there are still many who can summon for them- 
selves just such scenes from their memory of old days 
in the West, and they will testify to Mr. Deming's happy 
reproduction of a typical incident of plains life. 
In those days the h'unt was arduous. The people who 
killed buffalo before the white man came did so exclus- 
ively for subsistence. It was hard work, and while they 
knew something of the excitement and stimulus the mod- 
ern sportsman finds in the pleasure of the chase, the 
purpose then was purely utilitarian, to provide the fam- 
ily supplies. And as here shown, the women of the 
household had their part in the work as well as the men. 
To them fell the task of butchering and packing in; 
what our more modern civilization leaves for the men 
was in those days performed by the wives and mothers 
and sisters. 
If we may believe the old accounts of buffalo hunting in 
the period before the advent of the horse, it was not 
only arduous, but hazardous. We have a picture of it 
in Pere Marquette's journal of his expedition to dis- 
cover the Mississippi River. Like all the Jesuit mission- 
aries who explored the continent in advance of other 
white men, Marquette gives familiar insight into savage 
life and ways, and takes pains to record not only his 
observations of the people, but of the fish and game as 
well. On his way down the Mississippi River he saw 
vast herds of pisikious or wild cattle "more corpulent" 
than the cattle of France, having great humps, and 
manes which falling over their faces gave them a 
hideous appearance and obscured their vision. They 
were scattered over the prairie like herds of cattle. Mar- 
quette counted one band of 400. "They are very fierce," 
he writes, "and not a year passes without their killing 
some Indian. When attacked they take a man with their 
horns if they can, lift him up and then dash him to the 
ground, trample on him and kill him. When you fire at 
them from a distance with gun or bow, you must throw 
yourself on the ground as soon as you fire and hide in 
the grass, for if they perceive the one who fired they 
rush on him and attack him." 
This was in 1673, before the firearms brought into 
the country by the fur traders had become common, and 
when the usual weapon of the chase was still the 
bow. Under these conditions we may well understand 
how the buffalo was a formidable creature, and how the 
savage who hunted afoot verily took his life in his hands. 
When horses were acquired by the tribes, and feeble 
man became a centaur, the situation was changed. From 
this new apparition the buffalo fled in terror. When the 
white man appeared on the scene the fear of human kind 
grew with experience. From the undaunted creatures 
which, when attacked, "if they perceive the one who fired 
rush on him and attack him," the game stampeded at the 
sight of their pursuers; and the most vivid and most last- 
ing picture of the American buffalo, as we recall it to- 
day, is of herds in retreat, a whole species "on the run," 
enveloped in the dust of the retreat, and vanishing into 
' oblivion. 
We could make no announcement which would give 
more genuine satisfaction than the promise of a new 
series of chapters from the pen of Rowland E. Robinson, 
descriptive of nature and human nature in Vermont. In 
this story Mr. Robinson goes back to "Pioneer Days," 
when Josiah Hill was, but Danvis was not. As a writer 
who is ever felicitous, whether his theme be of the 
woods and the wild creatures that dwell in them, or of 
men and women with their mingled virtues and frailties, 
Mr. Robinson has won for liiitiself an unique and secure 
place among the authors of his time; and in this new 
story will be found the qualities which have made the 
other Danvis series so popular. The first chapter is 
printed to-day; the second will follow next week. 
^ ■; 
A whole volume might be written on the relations, 
happy and unhappy, which exist between the visiting 
sportsman and those he visits, whether his host be an old 
friend, a chance acquaintance, or just a camp keeper or 
hotel man pure and simple. The letters which are pub- 
lished in our shooting and angling columns have in them 
from time to time many pretty illustrations of 
the added satisfaction one finds if his associations at his 
house of entertainment be of a pleasant nature. A fish- 
ing or shooting trip is all tlie more memorable, if it means 
the forming of new friendships or the strengthening of 
those already established. The pursuits of the field have 
in them, too, a broadening influence, the effect of which 
is more extensive than the limits of individual applica- 
tion. The sportsman as a traveler who gets out of the 
rut of home surroundings, and goes abroad into the 
world to study its people and their ways, must be liberal- 
ized by the experience. Thus travel in pursuit of sport is 
a foe to sectionalism. The man from the East who goes 
West for his shooting, the man of the West who comes 
East for his fishing, the Northerner who visits the Caro- 
linas for quail, and the Southerner who seeks trout 
in Michigan, each and all return home with a better 
knowledge of the people they meet; and from the better 
understanding of one another comes, as of course, the 
closer sympathy. Your much-traveled sportsman tourist 
is tolerant and cosmopolitan; no civil war growing out 
of sectionalism could ever disturb the serenity of a people 
devoted to the recreations of the field. 
Dr. Tarlton H. Bean, who is in charge of the Fores- 
try, Hunting and Fishing, Group 9, of the American ex- 
hibit at the Paris Exposition, tells us that there is every 
promise of an excellent representation by the United 
States in these special fields, particularly as to forests. 
America is so far in advance of Europe in the making of 
fine fishing tackle that a display of this industry in the 
United States, if fairly representative, would be certain 
to surpass that made by any other country ; and we trust 
that Dr. Bean may be successful in securing the co-opera- 
tion of our tackle makers and in gathering for Paris a 
creditable exhibit. 
The Paris Exposition will open April 15 and close 
Nov. S, 1900. The grounds are located in the center of 
Paris, on the banks of the River Seine, and include an 
area of 336 acres, or less than one-half of the extent of 
grounds occupied by the Columbian Exposition in Chi- 
cago, in 1893. The forestry exhibit of the United States 
will be located in the Palace of Forestry, Fishery and 
the Chase, near the junction of the Avenue de Suffren 
with the Seine, and in the annex to that building. 
The amount of space available for forestry is small, 
and for that reason the exhibit must be chiefly collective; 
but individual space will be allotted to manufacturers, 
corporations or associations, local or State, so far as cir- 
cumstances will permit. Every exhibitor in a collective 
exhibit will receive the same consideration from the 
jury of awards as if he were exhibiting in space allotted 
to him as an individual and covering a large area. In- 
formation may be obtained from the offices of the Com- 
mission, in the Auditorium Building, Chicago, or the 
Equitable Building, New York, by persons who desire 
to become exhibitors. This explains the relations of the 
exhibitors to the United States Commission and to the 
French authorities. 
Those who remember Mr. Hofer's account of his cap- 
ture of beaver in the Yellowstone Park for transferring 
to the National Zoological Park in Washington, will be 
interested to know that the beaver have established them- 
selves in their new home. We give an illustration taken 
from the current report of the Secretary of the Smith- 
sonian Institution showing a beaver dam in' the Park. 
Owing to the sequestered situation of the beaver colony, 
few who visit the Park have an opportunity of seeing 
the animals or their secluded retreat. It is certainly an 
extremely interesting phase of wild life here exhibited, 
that close to a large city these retiring creatures should 
have settled down to build homes as in their original 
wilderness surroundings in the Rockies. Some of the 
beaver wliich escaped from the Park, we believe, were 
afterward discovered in a home which they had estab- 
lished for themselves on one of the neighboring streams 
near Washington. 
Superintendent Baker's report shows that the National 
Zoo is in a promising condition. The collection of living 
animals used for purposes of exliibition during the year 
comprised 549 specimens, embracing 124 species, the value 
of the animals belonging to the Government being esti- 
mated at $25,000. The magnificent possession wliich we 
have in this Zoological Park is not appreciated as it 
should be by the public. Those who are interested in our 
native American wild life should not fail when visiting 
W^ashington to make excursions to the Park. It is readily 
accessible by trolley lines, and in the magnitude of the 
area, the natural beauty of its contours, the number and 
variety of the specimens, and the admirable provision 
made for showing them, one will find entertainment for 
an hour, a day or a week. 
Dr. Jos. Kalbfus, Secretary of the Pennsylvania Game 
Commission sends us the text of the new game warden 
law, which we publish in full, both for the benefit of 
Pennsylvania readers and of others who may see in this 
system something worthy of adoption elsewhere. There 
is no good reason why in every case the laws intended to 
protect the fish and the game should be set apart from 
other laws by taking their enforcement out of the hands 
of the regulai'ly constituted executive agents. The plan 
adopted by Pennsylvania of making constables ex-officio 
game wardens, and not only this, but prescribing pun- 
ishment for them if they do not perform their duty, is 
one which we shall watch with much interest, because 
it seems to us to offer a solution of what is often a per- 
plexing problem. 
What an extraordinary picture that is which is drawn 
by our correspondent, J. B. D., writing from Bingham, 
Mich., where he is encamped on the shore of Carp Lake, 
famous as an old-time resort of the Kingfishers. Carp 
Lake is the chosen nesting ground for wildfowl. Under 
ordinary conditions of savagery, let us say, the birds 
would find there an unmolested refuge for their nests and 
young. The same harbor would be accorded to them un- 
der any decent civilized system of shooting and regard 
for the game; but under the Michigan regime, which 
has just been put into operation by the enactment of a 
law permitting spring shooting. Carp Lake is now in- 
vaded early and late in the day by shooters who harry 
the fowl on their nesting ground and kill the ducks, 
which should be left to lay their eggs and rear their 
young. We cannot imagine any reasonable defense for 
this spring shooting under the conditions here de- 
scribed. It is wrong in its very essence, for it is a 
crime against nature. Our correspondent very perti- 
nently puts the inquiry whether the spring shooter is the 
only one in the State whose interests are to be con- 
sidered. 
Mr. J. S. Hunter, writing from Nebraska, records that 
he has just obtained a natural history specimen rare in 
that country, being nothing less than a young python 
about three feet in length. The snake came in a bunch 
of bananas from some Central American port. Such 
accidental importations of exotic species are not infre- 
quently chronicled; some of them are referred to in the 
paper given in another column by Mr. T. S. Palmer, of 
the Biological Survey. Mr. Palmer has collected and 
summarized information covering a very wide field, of 
the introduction and acclimatization of exotic species in 
various lands; and his paper is not only an interesting 
contribution to natural history, but a presentation of facts 
and principles which have economic value for the warning 
and instruction contained in them. 
Owing to the observance of Decoration Day this issue 
goes to press a day earlier than usual; and much news 
matter which otherwise would have appeared has of neces- 
sity been put over. 
