Forest and Stream. 
A Weekly Journal of the Rod and Gun. 
Copyright, 1900, by Forest' and Stream Publishing Co. 
Terms, $4 a Year. 10 Cts. a Copy. 
Six Months, $2. 
NEW YORK, SATURDAY, AUGUST 11, 1900. 
1 VOL. LV.— No. 6. 
I No, 846 Broadway, New York- 
The Forest and Stream is the recognized medium of entertain- 
ment, instiuction and information between American sportsmen. 
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garded. While it is intended to give wide latitude in discussion 
of current topics, the editors are not responsible for the views of 
correspondents. 
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particulars respecting subscriptions, see prospectus on page iii. 
Some men and dogs are g«n shy, but the talc is 
otherwise. The boy baby tends toward a gan 
with a native drift and instinct. There are people 
who, failing to catch the whooping cough in 
childhood, are caught by it late in life. These 
have it "hard." So with shooting;. A man may 
lead a blameless existence until the white dust of 
the road of life is in his hair, and then fall. The 
gun malady will utterly possess him. 
— Myron "W. Reed, Locusts and "Wild Honey. 
THE SIMPLICITY OF CAMP LIFE. 
The peculiar and beneficeHt charms of an outing in 
camp are hardly to be separated into distinct parts and 
nicely defined, yet as a whole they are well known and 
well appreciated by every one who has been so fortunate 
as to enjoy them. If asked to define the pleasures oi 
camping, no doubt the average camper would maintain 
that, on the one hand, they consisted in freedom from 
superheated houses, crowded and sweltering humanity, 
eternal din and wearisome business cares; and, on the 
other, the enjoyment of the unconventional style and 
simplicity of detail, the approximation to the most natural 
^nd healthful manner of living which can be adopted 
during the days of recreation, and the enjoyment of 
the most beautiful in nature in her most winsome seasons. 
No doubt there is much of good in the generalities, but 
there is also much of good in the little things, the par- 
ticulars which excite so much of interest in the passing 
moments and are so soon forgotten when the outing is 
ended. From morning till evening there is an endless 
succession of trifles which occupies the mind of the 
camper, and to worn and weary minds the change brings 
restfulness and repair. 
The little things of camp life are the themes of it. 
What engages the attention of the campers? What are 
the topics of their conversations ? Little things ; the 
sweet gong of a bird in the early morning, or its beautiful 
plumage; the grave consideration of whether or not some 
other point has not many better advantages for a camp 
site than the one at present occupied ; the rumor that 
some one in some other camp caught a bass which weighed 
eight pounds; the fear that the wood supply may run 
short, or whether the wood of one particular tree makes 
a better fire than some other tree or trees ; the considera- 
tion of whether it is better to shoot at a target or go 
fishing; the fears as to whether a bait supply can be 
obtained; the wonderment as to how the loae frog in 
the spring obtains a food supply; the debate concerning 
the bright-colored snake found dead; the conjectures as 
to what wild land may lie beyond the distant house; the 
conversation concerning the little ground squirrel which 
timidly watches the strange beings who have come to 
live in his domain; the curious flights of the feathered 
creatures ; the wonderful wild flowers — these and innumer- 
able other little things occupy the attention and divert the 
mind to its great benefit. 
The man who, in business, has his mind wracked and 
burdened with ceaseless cares, finds in the little things 
of camp life enough to engage his interest, yet only of 
sufficient interest to be wholesomely diverting. They 
are as necessary to existence in camp life in a way as are 
the more serious problems of the business and social 
world. 
To sit in camp in the evening, listening to the deep bass 
of answering frogs, or earnestly debating how the big 
fish was lost, or how the shot at the big buck was made 
or missed, or whether the fish are gamer and fight more 
fiercely and better in the lake to the north than in the 
lake to the south, com.es under the head of little things, 
yet camp life is made ap of them. Remove them from 
cimp life and that life w'otir4 be stripped of its greatest 
cltairms. 
While there is- good health in the pure, fresh air, abun- 
dant sunlight and active exercise incident to huniung, 
rowing, fishing and tramping, they are merely the great 
things on which the superstructitre of little things is built, 
and from the standpoint of completeness are but a half of 
the whole. The little things of camp life contain its true 
greatness. The camp-fire's halo is of little things; the 
woods and waters had their greatest interest from the 
trifles of the passing moment, yet they all contributed to 
the rested mind, the elastic step, the clear eyes and the 
ruddy cheeks, the good results of little things. 
NATURE AND HAIR REN EWERS. 
From Wisconsin comes the wail of a camper, who has 
most excellent reason to feel outraged and robbed. 
"Here am I on my old camp site," he writes, "and across 
the narrow arm of the lalce, on the face of the bluff 
directly facing my cabin door, in huge yellow letters is 
the sign 'Try McGuffy's Hair Renewer' — or words to 
that effect. I have sent for a case of brown paint to 
match the shade of the rock, and I shall attend to that 
yellow sign instanter." We sympathize in his indigna- 
tion and commend his spunk, which promises to abate 
what is one public nuisance among a thousand. 
The degradation of the beauties of natural scenery by 
impudent and staring advertising signs is progressing 
at a rapid rate in the country. Go where we will in the 
suburbs of the town, up and down the rivers, by the sea- 
shore and amid the mountains, the advertising man has 
been there before us and left the bold, impertinent, ob- 
trusive triumphs of his skill. On all sides we are con- 
fronted by announcements of pills, plasters, blood puri- 
fiers, whiskies, baby foods, rheurrsatism cures, soaps, 
pickles, cigars, beer, liniments, baked beans, bicycles, 
sewing machines, bitters, cough drops, oatmeal and wash- 
ing compounds. 
It is said, and there is some consolation in the fact, that 
we are not so badly off here in America as in some of the 
European countries; but Europe is awakening to the 
necessity of a reform, and it is high time that we were 
followiiag the lead. In Switzerland the Cantonal Councils 
of Uri, Grisons and the Valais have made official declara- 
tion : "We will no more allow these advertisements on 
our rocks than on the white cross of our flag." We have 
laws in several of the States against the prostitution of 
the flag to advertising purposes ; why might we not go a 
step further and protect our natural scenery against the 
advertising sign nuisances? Meanwhile, in default of 
recourse to official suppression, the individual has it 
within his power, and in many instances quite- within his 
right as well, to take the matter into his own hands, as 
our Wisconsin friend has done, and blot out the offending 
sign. The truth, however, appears to be, as pointed out 
by Mr. John DeWitt Warner in a recent number of 
Municipal Affairs, that these advertising affronts are 
tolerated because the public at large has no resentment of 
them. In other words, a mammoth pill sign on the face 
of the Palisades of the Hudson produces no general senti- 
ment of disgust. The public taste tolerates it. We have 
these advertising atrocities simply because, as a com- 
munity, we do not object to them. And we shall continue 
to have them just so long as this complacence shall last. 
Not until popular taste shall be cultivated to a point where 
it shall demand that natural scenery be unadorned by the 
art of the sign painter may we hope for an improvement 
in this respect. There are many encouraging evidences 
that such an improvement will come. For one thing, 
there is the society of Scapa, an organization devoted 
specially to correcting the sign nuisances. Then the 
various associations for the preservation of sites of his- 
torical interest and beauty are cultivating taste. Individ- 
ual effort can accomplish much. We ought not to be 
obliged to make extended journeys into the wilderness 
to see nature in its pristine beauty ; and certainly when 
we have gone into the wilds we may reasonably ask that 
we shall not be stared out of countenance there by huge 
yellow-lettered announcements of hair restorers. 
is shy, and it will not remain near any disturbing element. 
To supply the place of the caribou, the Nova Scotia 
sportsmen are importing the Virginia deer, which appear 
to do well. The moose supply is believed to be holding 
its own. The Nova Scotians are given to moose snaring ; 
year after year the Society has made cases against the 
snarers, and despite the well-demonstrated proclivity of 
the snarers to stand together and perjure themselves in a 
common defense, convictions have been secured and the 
practice has gradually been abated'. The introdtrced 
pheasants are reported to be doing well. 
SNAP SHOTS 
Secretary George Piers, of t'- 
Inland Fishery Protection P 
bou is practically extirr' 
tributing af^' 
Mr. Piers submits a consideration against the sale of 
snared hares and partridges which we do not recall having 
seen before. "I think it a great disgrace," he writes, "that 
snared hares and partridges are allowed by law to be 
sold in our markets, when it is distinctly forbidden in 
the New Testament to eat the meat of any animal that 
has been strangled." And he clinches his statement by 
reference to Acts 15 :20, 29, and 21 :25, where the pro- 
hibitions against eating what has been strangled will be 
found. On the other hand, it might be urged that our 
modern rul&s of practice with respect to taking game 
are not governed by biblical injunctions. For instance, it 
is enjoined in Deuteronomy 22:6-7, "If a bird's nest 
chance to be before thee in the way on any tree, or on the 
ground, whether they be young onfes, or eggs, and the 
dam sitting upon the young, or upon the eggs, thou shalt 
not take the dam with the young; but thou shalt in any 
wise let the dam go, and take the young ; that it may be 
well with thee, and that thou mayest prolong thy days." 
Nowadays, on the contrary, when we come upon a game 
bird's nest, we take neither the young nor the dam ; but 
let both go until the shooting season. 
The Mosaic rule was based upon the very principle in 
natural history which is commented upon to-day by 
Coahoma in his notes on the nesting habits of birds 
whose first clutch of eggs has been stolen or destroyed — 
if the eggs or the young of the mother bird were taken 
from her she would straightway set to and lay another lot. 
The case of the hawks, described by Mr. Swain, has a 
parallel in one which came imder our observation this 
spring. A song sparrow had nested in an Irish juniper 
and had laid her four eggs, when a storm broke the 
juniper and destroyed nest and eggs. Thereupon the 
bird built a new nest, and laid a new quota of eggs, which 
in due time developed into young. The domestic hen sup- 
plies the most familiar example of persistent laying when 
thwarted of her ambition to sit. 
The Hawaiian Islands are some two thousand miles 
distant from America, yet according to notes by Mr. H, 
W. Henshaw, in the July Auk, several species of the 
birds of this continent have found their way across the 
vast watery expanse and have been observed on the 
islands. The glaucus gull follows vessels from San Fran- 
cisco to Hilo. The hundreds which follow the ship out 
of the Golden Gate as a rule turn back after the first one 
hundred rniles, but once in a while an individual bird 
will follow the ship for the whole distance, roosting upon 
the yards at night. Brown goonies too follow the ships 
across, feeding on the scraps thrown overboard and roost- 
ing upon the vessels' yards at night. Other American 
birds noted by Mr. Henshaw as occurring more or less 
frequently on the islands are the red-breasted merganser, 
the red phalarope, the sanderling, Wilson's snipe, curlews, 
plovers and turnstones. 
Press dispatches from Helena, Mont., on Tuesday of 
this week reported a great fire raging in the Yellowstone 
National Park in the timbered region between the Upper 
Geyser Basin and Yellowstone Lake. So soon as the fire 
was discovered the troops and the road gangs were hur- 
ried to fight it, but it was soon beyond their control, and 
was sweeping everything before it for a line of ten miles. 
The conflagration threatet?- ' worst one known in 
the ^' " ' ' ' ' to the careless- 
