208 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
[Sept. 15, ifxto, 
they found, they only got about a dozen and a half of 
birds between them. A malicious daily paper of this 
city prints a two-column head story about their killing a 
tame white turkey for a prairie chicken, but this has no 
affidavits accompanying it, and nothing goes around the 
city hall except a petition or an affidavit. Both the 
Mayor and the ex-Ma3'or state that they are going back 
later after their revenge. 
Oswald von Lengerke, with two companions, who went 
to De Kalb county, had poor luck, only getting thirteen 
birds between them. They very likely were trailing 
sooners. Indeed, it has been much a question of the 
activity of the olcal wardens, and where the latter have 
done their duty the birds have been found in verj' reason- 
able quantities. Of course it was impossible that so big 
a region as the State of Illinois should have been absolute- 
ly patrolled, but it is gratifying to feel able to say that the 
work was done better than we thought it could be. and 
that the results are better than we could have hoped for. 
It has been proved that we can have prairie chickens if 
we only take care of them. Illinois has done her work 
fully as well, perhaps better, than some of her sisters 
further West, where the pressure on the ganie resources 
is less severe. 
Action of the Laccy Law« 
The United States statute known as the Lacey Law 
comes in thfs fall for its first proving out in regard to 
the shipment of game, and this early view of its effect 
would appear to show that it is destined to be of the 
greatest value in the preservation of our Western game. 
It is sure that it has caused our Chicago game dealers 
the greatest solicitude, and they are laying" their fences 
with far less of that careless arrogance which marked 
their attitude in the days of the fines, and perquisite 
wardens, when the street was practically wide open, and 
the devil caught only the delinquents on the street assess- 
ments for "protection." We used to protect the street in 
the old days. Perhaps after a time we shall protect the 
game. It is stated that this anxiety among the game 
dealers is shared also by the hardened . sinners, the 
dealers, of New York, who are at a loss what to do about 
their game supply for this coming winter. Even the 
game dealer is afraid to go against the long arm of 
good old Uncle Sam. At Buffalo. N. Y., one dealer, who 
had gotten in ten barrels of plover and cliickens from 
Missouri, labeled, as poultry, and who had started the 
outfit for Boston, was nipped to the tune of $1,000. This 
was in the middle of August, and it was hard luck for 
the dealer, who would have been all right a few weeks 
later, since Missouri is one of the few States from which 
game can be legally shipped now. In 1895 Missouri passed' 
a non-export law, but this seems to haA^e lapsed last 
June, What this means to the Missouri game covers 
this fall we may very well leave to the imagination. 
Nebraska is another State, and I think the only one 
other Western State, to let down the bars for the market- 
hunters in law, as she has long practically done, in fact. 
She repealed her non-export law. for what good reason 
it is impossible to surmise, unless it was at the in.stance 
of the old proverb that money talks. This fall she will 
reap her reward. Her covers will be combed for her 
game, and the latter will be hurried to Chicago. Boston 
and New York, because during her shooting season her 
game can be legally shipped. It Avould seem an easy guess 
that the sportsmen of Missouri and Nebraska, seeing in 
what situation they are placed, would at once hasten to 
pass non-export laws as once they did. If thev do not 
hasten, they vnll wake up with their game birds in cold 
storage. Such a policy of dilly-dallying is fatuous in 
these days. The market of New Yorlc alone could sweep 
the above two States clean of every living game bird this 
fall, and still clamor for more. 
E. Hough. 
Hastford Buimikg, Chicago. 111. 
The Minnesota Park. 
Mr. Charms Cristadoro writes in the St. Paul Pioneer- 
Press: \ 
Those working to secure a national park at the head- 
waters of the Mississippi river are certainly "building 
better than they knew." Every disinterested person will 
concede that the establishment by the Government of such 
a park within the borders of our State would attract many 
thousands of visitors annually. The publicity already 
given this Leech Lake region throughout the "Union bv 
the advocates of this park has already given the hotels at 
Walker and Cass Lake an overflowing patronage. The 
arguments to be put forth for the saving of the pine 
forests on the Chippewa reservation and tlic bequeathing 
nf same to the people for all time to come arc legion 
But above all is the plea that the denuding of the head- 
^vate^s pf this river will seriously affect the whole Missis- 
sippi River Valley. Every village, town aitd city along the 
banks of this river from St. Paul to the Gulf of Mexico 
is necessarily concerned and deeply interested in the sub- 
ject. The opening up of this reservation to settlement 
rneans simply a repetition of the Red Lake reservation 
timber sale, where the Government only realized on be- 
half of the Indians from the lumbermen '$rg8,ooo for tim- 
ber cut and removed and actually worth $1,500,000—3 
deficit of nearly $1,300,000 unlawfully gained and which 
■should be refunded to the Indians. Opposition to the 
establishment of the national Minnesota park is to-dav 
coming wholly from this smirce. It is with the people at 
large amd the Mississippi Valley particularly to say 
whether private interest shall prevail against the public 
good. 
And in its cqmment upon Mr. Cristadoro's urgent ai-gu- 
menf, the Pioneer-Press says editorially: 
_ Mr. Charles Cristadoro utters a voice of prophetic warn- 
mg against the denudation of our forests. The warning 
will not be heeded, we fear, until it is too late. As the 
years @o by vast breadths of forest will be mown down 
by the msatiable machinery of. the modern lumber camp 
as our wheat fields are mown by the modem harvester— 
t""* ^^o sower will come in the springtime to replenish 
the bare fields with the seeds of a new crop No new 
crop is ever planted to take the place of the forests swept 
away at the rgt? of many hundreds of millions of feet a 
year. Soon the whole forest region from the shores of 
Lake Michigan to the headwaters of the Mississippi will 
be stripped of its timber. At the rate at which this 
denudation is. progressing it will not be ten years before 
this whole forest region will be as bare of trees as the 
prairies west of the Mississippi. What then? Is it true 
that our rainfall will cease or be greatly diminished with 
the disappearance of our forests? That our lakes and 
rivers will dry up when the sheltering woods which stand 
guard over their sources shall have been swept away? 
That the wheat and cornfields of this granary of the world 
will become a desert like Sahara? Mr. Cristadoro is of 
that opinion, and he quotes the warning lessons of history 
in support of this theory of the dependence of the rainfall 
on the preservation of the forests. These warnings have 
been repeated many times, in many different ways, with 
abundance of historic illustration, but it has made no 
difference in the desolating march of the armies of axemen. 
The lumbermen are not considering the effect of their 
wholesale destruction of our forests upon the climate. 
But there is one thing which, at least in New England 
and in some other parts of the country, they are con- 
sidering, and that is the effect of this vast .annual whole- 
sale waste of timber upon the value of their property. 
Some of them at least are beginning to see that in this in- 
discriminate cutting away of all timber in their path they 
are wantonly wasting their capital, and that if their tim- 
ber-cutting was conducted on business principles they 
would so manage it as to keep in view the growth of a 
new tree in place of even^ old one cut down. If re- 
forestation is geiierally adopted in our wooded regions it 
must be through the efforts and co-operation of the lum- 
bermen themselves, acting not for any remote philan- 
thropic purpose or with_ any view to the future effect on 
the climate, but solely with a \Hew to the pecuniary profits 
which will result from a scientific system of reforestation. 
The friends of forest preservation must appeal to the 
interests of the lumbermen themselves. 
The Ohio Association. 
Columbus, O., Sept. Z-— -Editor Forest and Stfeam> 
As previously arranged, some of the representative sports- 
men of Ohio met in this city yesterday and organized the 
Ohio Fish and Game ProtectiA'c Association. 
We hope to establish an association that will be able 
to employ a few first-class fighting attorneys, who will 
especially inform themselves on the game and trespass 
laws and be prepared to aid any warden in convicting those 
who violate either the trespass or fish and game laws. 
' ■. We also hope to be able to encourage the passage of 
honest and equitable laws that will be acceptable to all 
sportsmen irrespective of their position in life or circum- 
stances. 
The necessity of such an association is now acknowl- 
edged by all fair-minded men on account of the ignorant 
and unreasonable laws now in force. 
At the meeting yesterday Chairman Judge O. B. Brown, 
of Dayton, occupied the chair. J. C, Porterfield was ap- 
pointed temporary chairman. The Committee on Con- 
stitution and By-Laws consisted of A. J. Hazlett. of 
Bucyrus; Dr. D. W. Boone, of Bellaire; B. F. Seitner, of 
Dayton. The Committee on Permanent Organization 
was made up of J. C. Porterfield, Columbus,; George Fal- 
loon, of Athens, and T. R. Smith, of Delaware. 
Mr. Seitner, of Dayton, offered these resolutions, which 
were seconded by Mr. Hazlett and unanimously adopted: 
Whereas, The birds, game and fish are the common 
property of the people, therefore be it resolved. That it is 
the duty of all good citizens to protect and preserve all 
song and insectivorous birds beneficial to agriculture and 
horticulture, and to protect and preserve all game, game 
birds and fish to the end that this valuable source of food 
supply be not destroyed or impaired, and that the right 
to hunt, pursue and capture and take game, game birds 
and fish in a lawful manner during proper seasons as a 
pastime or recreation or for food by the people, be not 
curtailed by class legislation. 
Therefore be it further resolved, That we, citizens of 
Ohio, interested in the protection and preservation of the 
birds, game and fish of our State, in convention assembled 
in the city of Columbus, declare it to be our purpose 
to associate ourselves together in a State organiza- 
tion for the protection of birds, fish and game, and to 
])rotect and defend our rights in this our common 
property. 
The constitution adopted provides that the name of the 
association shall be the Ohio State Game and Fish Pro- 
tective Association. Its objects are declared to be to 
secure co-oix-rative work by individuals and clubs of the 
State of Ohio for the protection of all game, game birds 
and fish, and also the protection of song birds and all 
insectivorous birds beneficial to agriculture and horti- 
culture; to procure the enaclment of judicious and effect- 
ive laws for such puriiosc, and to rigidly enforce the laws 
so enacted : to advocate the public game breeding pre- 
serves; to maintain a vigilant supervision over the public 
officers elected or appointed to carry into effect all laws 
enacted for the propagation and protection of birds, game 
and fish; to ascertain, defend and protect the rights of 
sportsmen, and to promote the affiliation of ail members 
of the Association throughout the State. 
The Association is composed of clubs, associations and 
individuals interested iu the objects. The annual dues 
are $1 for individual membership and $1 for each delegate 
a club or association may be entitled to. The annual 
meeting, composed of its officers, individual members 
and delegates from each club or association, will.be held 
on the third Tuesday in January of each year at such 
place as rnay be designated from year to year. Each club 
or association is entitled to one delegate for every twenty- 
ty members or fraction thereof. 
It is made the duty of each club or association _t« keep 
in communication with this association, to promote the 
cause of practical game and fish protection in their dis- 
tricts and to notify the secretary of this Association of all 
violations and prosecutions. 
The Committee on Permanent Organization reported 
for officers and Board of Directors the following, who 
were unanimously elected: President, Judge O B 
Brown, Dayton; First Vice-President, D. H. Moore 
Athens; Second Vice-President, T. R. Smith, PeTaware' 
Secretary, J. C. Porterfield, Columbus; Treasurer, Wm. 
F. Burdell, Columbus. 
Directors — E. Best, Dayton ; Dr. D. W, Boone, Bellaire ; 
L. A. Moore, Zanesville; George Haswell, Circleville; 
Frank Rochester. Logan; Major 'J. B. Downing, Middle- 
town. 
A Committee on Membership was appointed consisting 
of George Haswell, Circleville; A. J. Holloway, Akron; 
Dr.^ D. W. Boone, Bellaire. 
The Association will meet the third Tuesday in Janu- 
ary. TC)oi, in Columbus, O. 
J. C. Porterfield, Sec'y- 
Connecticttt Rail Shooting. 
MiLFOKi), Conn., Sept. 11. — Some years ago the rail 
shooting on the Housatonic River near Milford was very 
good, and sometimes there would be 110 birds to a boat, 
but for the past few years the birds have decreased in 
number, and twenty would be a big bag. 
This spring, however, there have been no high tides to 
destroy the nests, or hard storms to kill the young, and 
when the season opened there were a great many birds in 
the marshes. These are still all local birds, the ones from 
the north not having come yet. There have been but few 
l;)oats on the river, and they have brought in good 
bags, ranging thirty to fifty-five. 
No black ducks, teal or wood ducks have been killed, 
although one bluewinged teal was seen. 
Rutherford Page. 
Take Notice* 
The Game Laws in Brief and Woodcraft Magazine 
number dated July, 1900, contains the game laws of the 
United States and Canada, revised to this present date, 
Sept. 15, 1900. It is complete, accurate and reliable. Sec 
advertisement elsewhere. 
100 Spommers finds. 
Some of the Queer Discoverira Made hj Those Who Are 
Looking for Game or Fish. 
J8 
At Highland Falls. N. Y.. unusual excitement was 
caused by the report that a robber's hidden treasure bad 
been discovered by boys, who were hunting rabbits in 
the mountains. Investigation showed that John Hager, 
with two companions, chased a rabbit to a heap of rocks, 
and when they began to remove the stones a quantity of 
.silver was disclosed to view. The. boys carried it to tlic 
Iiome of Martin Hager. who at first thought it was 
Capt. Kidd's buried treasure, which is believed to be 
hidden somewhere on the outskirts of that village. When 
the silver was cleaned the engraving showed that most 
of it was the property of hotels, some of which went out 
of existence many years ago, and some belonged to, pri- 
vate families further down the river. 
19 
R. D. Durrett, an old-time resident in Panola county, 
Miss., while out on a coon hunting expedition found a 
large sum of gold in a hollow tree. The amount, accord- 
ing to one report, was $29,000, and according to another 
$40,000. It is said that the lucky finder has not made 
public admission of the fact, but the rumor has gained 
general credence and some say that he has acknowledged 
to his intimate friends that he found a considerable sum 
in gold coin. Some ten or twelve years ago Mr. F. M. 
Gilchrist, it is* said, found quite a sum of money while 
tearing down an old building near the place where Dur- 
rett fell into his forune. The money, it is thought, Avas 
hid away many years ago, either by an old man named 
Sattenwhite, who was regarded as a miset by his neigh'- 
bors. or else by a man named Hunt, who some years 
ago moved from Panola county to southern Mississippi 
and who is still living, although in a demented state. 
20 
At Millerton. N. Y.. Robert Dakin was hunting on 
Indian Mountain, somewhere in the wildest part. He 
discovered a cave. He crawled down and into the hole, 
struck a match and discovered tlial he was in <iuite a 
spacious room. Ho struck another match and found 
iminy relics, .such as pottery, turtle shells, teeth of ani 
mals and other things. He filled his game bag with the 
relics, crawled out, marked the spot and continued hunt- 
ing for squirrels. The pottery i,s especially interesting. 
Nobody knows how ancient it is. but it is probably of 
Indian make. 
2\ 
Chasing a I)ear in to the dense woods nf Pike county. 
Pa., a few miles from Dingman, a party of hunters came 
across a cave. On investigation they found it inhabited 
by Austin Seldon, who for fifty .years has occupied it as 
his home. The man was sick but refused aid, saying he 
was well able to care for himself. After much persuasioji 
Sheldon said: "Here I have lived for years and here I 
liopc to die. I want no other companA^ than these moun- 
tains and woods give itig, All I ask of my fellows is 
that they will leave me to folloAV in peace my own 
desires." When young Sheldon was married, his bride 
died after a few weeks and he left the world. Sheldon 
says he comes from Connecticut and his people are in 
good circumstances. He lives mostly on vegetables and 
chickens raised by himself. 
22 
Howard and Lucius Rightsell and James Barnett, while 
on a hunting expedition along Deer Creek, three miles 
south of Manhattan and fifteen miles east of Brazil, Iwd.. 
came upon what at first seemed to be a cave in a hili 
about 100 feet high. The opening at the base of the 
mound was found by their dog. The men enlarged it by 
iemoving some boulders and crawled in. They went 
down an inclined way of dry earth for about 15 feet and 
at the base found and explored fourteen passages, 4 by 8 
feet, each leading to a large room, from which a small 
air passage communicated with the surface of the hill. 
The rooms had been cut out of limestone and there were 
roof supports. Bones of men and of animals were found 
there, 
