Forest and Stream 
A Weekly Journal of the Rod and Gun. 
Copyright, 1901, by Forest and Stream Publishing Co. 
Terms, $i a Ybar. 10 Cts. a Copy. I 
Six Months, $2. f 
NEW YORK, SATUHDAY, JANUARY 26, 1901. 
J VOL. LVI.— No. 4. 
( No. 346 Broadway, New York 
GEORGE A. BOARDMAN. 
The death of Mr. Boardman, recorded in another col- 
umn, removes from the list of Forest and Stream's sub- 
scribers, contributors and readers one of the very oldest. 
Mr. Boardman was for a large part of his life an active 
business man, but like many of those who work hardest in 
the world's' business, he made time to pursue what was 
his pleasure as energetically as he did his business. For 
more than fifty jears he had been a naturalist, and had 
done work with and aided some of the most eminent of 
ihe naturalists of this country. Audubon, Agassiz, Baird, 
Downs and others were, among the men with whom Mr. 
Boardman was associated, to whom he freely gave of the 
interesting facts that he had collected, and among whom 
to some extent he distributed the collections which he had 
made. 
Notwithstanding this generosity, he was able to gather 
together a very large museum which, as might be sup- 
posed, represented with singular completeness the fauna 
of eastern Maine. Mr. Boardman was thus naturally one 
of the first authorities on the fauna of the extreme North- 
eastern United States, and it was to him that application 
was first made for information on that subject. 
Besides his fondness for nature, he was a keen sports- 
man, and above all, an enthusiastic salmon angler, and 
very many of the older and better known anglers of the 
Eastern United States used to visit him and fish with him. 
Mr. Boardman was, it is believed, the second subscriber 
on the list of Forest and Stream when it was started in 
1873, and from that time to this he had taken it with- 
out a break. 
SNAP SHOTS. 
We print in Another column an opinion from a member 
of the bar of this State that the meaning of the recent 
decision of the Court of Appeals in the case of The People 
vs. BuflFalo Fish Company cannot be interpreted as a re- 
versal of the ruling in the Phelps-Racey case that it is 
competent for the State to forbid the possession in close 
season of game killed outside of the State. 
This same point came up in Chicago the other day in a 
suit brought by the Audubon Society against a bird dealer 
for having in possession in his shop live mockingbirds, 
cardinal grosbeaks and other song birds, which, as he set 
for defense, had been lifought from Louisiana. But Jus- 
tice Everett found for the prosecution, holding that the 
Illinois law applied to any wild bird in possession without 
reference to the source of its capture. 
The Massachusetts Fish and Game Protective Asso- 
ciation is extremely happy in its choice of a secretary for 
the current year. The re-election of Mr. Henry H. 
Kimball means that the work of the Association will be 
prosecuted in an efficient manner. Mr. Kimball has been 
highly successful in promoting the special interests of 
game and fish protection with which the Association and 
the Central Committee are concerned; and his success 
has been due to an earnest and devoted personal service. 
We print elsewhere Secretary Kimball's report of the 
undertakings and accomplishments of the year. 
As an earnest of the practical accomplishment of the 
purpose of the recently organized association for restoring 
moose to the Adirondacks, Assemblyman Price has intro- 
duced a bill which empowers the Forest, Fish and Game 
Commission to '"acquire by gift, purchase or capture a 
suflncient number of wild moose to stock the Adirondack 
region," and to care for, herd and yard the moose tem- 
porarily and liberate them when and where it may be most 
conducive to the game's probable subsistence and increase. 
And to insure the protection of the moose, the bill adds 
to the fine of $ioo a further penalty of imprisonment for a 
term of not less than three nor more than six months. 
The bill carries an appropriation of $5,000 for the pur- 
chase of moose. 
This present moose restoriag enterprise has grown out 
of the personal aciivity and persevering work of Mr. 
Harry V. Radford, who has succeeded not only in enlist- 
ing the support and co-operation of a large number of 
well-known sportsmen, but has also awakened an interest 
among the Aiciirondack guides and residents. The B^6^im's 
Tract Gvfi^^s ^t their meeting: last iveek indorsed th^ 
project of restocking the woods, and it is reasonable to 
assume that their attitude is that of the Adirondack guides 
in general. It is manifest that to acquire the parent stock 
of moose by gift or purchase is the simplest part of the 
undertaking; that which it would be more difllicult to 
secure, in default of a supporting public sentiment, would 
be protection for the game after its putting out. If the 
Adirondack people w-ill giye the moose a chance to live, 
increase and multiply, we shall once more see the wilder- 
ness inhabited by its noblest native game. 
The letter frorti Capt. Kelly about the barking deer of 
Mindanao, Philippine Islands, published in another col- 
umn, will convey real news to many. Capt. Kelly com- 
mands a garrison at Dapitan, Mindanao, and some time 
ago came into possession of the little deer which is com- 
monly tethered on the grass near his quarters. As is 
well known, the cry of the munt jacks is a sharp bark, but 
any such vocal effort from a deer seems strange to one 
who is familiar only with our American forms. Capt. 
Kelly has written to the Adjutant-General, requesting 
authority to ship the deer to the Washington Zoo, and it 
is understood that the necessary authority will be given. 
Evidently, however, such an animal could not endure the 
outdoor climate even of Washington, and would have to 
be caged during the winter. 
As a measure of safety in the woods a correspondent 
recommends doing away with high-power rifles in the 
woods and taking up again the smooth bore of a more 
primitive stage of hunting. Such a plan probably would 
effect also a very material reduction in the number of 
big-game hunters, for the perfection of firearms — the 
hunting made easy — is one of the factors that has crowded 
the forests with deer shooters. To make it harder to get 
a deer would be to keep at home many a sportsman who 
is now attracted by the simplicity of the thing. 
That appeal to Vice-President-elect Roosevelt to use 
his influence to secure a Federal law protecting wildfowl 
is chiefly interesting as an expression of the very com- 
mon and perhaps universal conviction among sportsmen 
that it would be of the highest advantage if Congress 
could legislate for migratory game. There is much of 
reason in the view that the wild geese and the wild ducks 
which pass from State to State might be considered as 
being within national control, just as the local game 
which passes from one person's land to that of another is 
under the control of the State; but we question very 
seriously that such a view would stand the test of judicial 
examination. After all, as the authors of the petition to 
Mr. Roosevelt themselves concede, the chief trouble with 
our wildfowl protection is not in the existence of con- 
flicting laws, but in the lax manner in which the laws 
are enforced. 
We have always considered that sea gulls come under 
the protection of that clause of the New York game law 
which relates to wild birds other than those for which a 
close season is provided, and hence that they might not be 
killed at any season ; but it now develops that Chief Game 
Protector Pond classes the sea gulls as "web-footed wild- 
fowl," and therefore construes the statute as giving them 
protection only in the close season for ducks and geese. 
It would not be difficult to show from the use of the term 
"web-footed wildfowl" in the law that its intent is to in- 
clude game birds only, for the further restrictions as to 
modes of hunting and as to sale and possession clearly have 
to do only with what is game. Moreover, the terms "wild- 
fowl," "wild-fow4er" and "wild-fowling" have in common 
usage a universal application to game water fowl and their 
pursuit. No one would think of a gull plumage hunter 
as a wild-fowler. We opine, however, that Protector 
Pond is governed by a consideration of the strict interpre- 
tation of the words of the statute, and is of opinion that 
under this phraseology an action for gull killing would 
not lie. Under these circumstances the law should be 
amended in such manner as clearly and definitely to for- 
bid the killing of sea gulls. 
A five-years' clftse season for antelope is proposed in 
Mfljntana. The chief purpose of the measure is the pro- 
tection of the antelope of the Yellowstone National Park. 
In the winter, when the snows drive the antelope down 
on to the Gardiner flats, the garne strays out of the Park 
into Montana, and a certain number of animals are killed 
for food by the people of the town of Gardiner. Under 
present conditions, such killing, if confined to the Mon- 
tana open season, is perfectly lawful, for when once the 
game has left the Park bounds it is no longer subject to 
the Park law. In view, however, of the lessening num- 
ber of the Park antelope, the superintendents in charge 
have with good reason exerted all their influence to dis- 
courage the killing of the game when it has thus strayed 
beyond their jurisdiction. They have held that the Mon- 
tana people near the Park line should give the game im- 
munity ; but they have been powerless to secure this under 
the present law. A five-years' close time would solve the 
diflSculty, and for the sake of the National Park antelope 
we trust that "the Montana Legislature will adopt the ex- 
pedient. As for the antelope in other parts of the State, 
the conditions now prevailing will probably hold good, 
close time or no close time. The antelope that are killed 
are taken as a rule, by settlers for food, and the settler 
who kills for a meat supply gets his venison without any 
particular regard for whatever law exists. 
For one more season by the law of 1897 deer hounding 
will be prohibited in the Adirondacks. In expressing 
the conviction that the non-hounding law should be re- 
enacted and hounding forbidden permanently, Lieut.-Gov. 
Woodruff gives voice to the opinion commonly held by 
those who are conversant with the conditions prevailing in 
the North Woods, and Avho are sincerely concerned to see 
the stock of deer maintained. And as Mr. Woodruff 
points out. the deer are not the only big game we must 
now consider as belonging, or about to belong, to the 
Adirondack forests, for the moose is to be added, and the 
elk, too, may be given a place. Considering the future of 
the North Woods, then, the hounds should be kept out. 
The State may well adopt for the care and possession of 
its game the measures which owners of private preserves 
have proved to be so profitable. If it is to the advantage of 
Mr. Litchfield and other owners of game preserves to 
keep the dogs out absolutely and permanently, it certainly 
is for the advantage of the people to do the same with 
their deer. That part of Mr. Woodruff's letter which 
■ gives his experience in feeding the deer in winter is in- 
teresting and instructive. 
It is gratifying to learn that the New York Associa- 
tion for the Protection of Game is prepared to take 
active steps to urge before Congress the enlargement of 
the Yellowstone National Park, so as to take in the forest 
reserve on the south and east. Every new recruit willing 
to do battle for this good cause is warmly welcomed by 
the friends of the Park, and the influence of the New York 
Association is great and will be of much assistance. We 
have long urged the importance of the extension of the 
Park as stated, and hope that the time is not distant when 
the change will be made. Older readers will remember the 
long fight made by Forest and Stream to preserve the 
integrity of the Park and to insure its better protection; a 
fight which culminated in the year 1894 in the passage by 
Congress of the bill introduced by Mr. Lacey, of Iowa, 
which has proved quite as effective in practice as its 
friends had hoped it would. 
Charles Plath, an expert gunsmith and long a dealer in 
fishing tackle in this city, died Jan. 13 in the seventy-sixth 
year of his age. Mr. Plath was born in Germany, and 
taking part in the uprising of 1848, was obliged to flee. 
He come to New York in May, 1849. Very soen after 
his arrival he was employed as foreman by Hall, then a 
noted rifle maker of New York, whose factory turned out 
great numbers of "Kentucky" rifles, which were then in 
great demand dn the Western frontier. In 1852 Mr. Plath 
began business on his own account, manufacturing guns 
and rifles for the trade, which then included such lead- 
ing firms as Blunt & Simms, Schuyler, and Herman 
Boker. This business he continued up to and duringr the 
Civil War, but after its close, on account of cheaper 
labor, the introduction of machinery into country factories 
and for other reasons, gun making became unprofitable in 
New York, and Mr. Plath embarked in the general sport- 
ing goods business. In 1884 his sop became a partner in 
the business, apd the firm of Charles Plath & Soq, deder^ 
in fishing tackle, has cootiiiued nf to the present tifT?f| 
