Forest and Stream 
A Weekly Journal of the Rod and Gun. 
Copyright, 1901, by Forest and Stream Publishing Co. 
Terms, $1 a Year. 10 Cts. a CoPYi 
Six Months, $2. 
NEW YORK, SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 16, 1901. 
( VOL. LVI.— No. r. 
} No. 346 Bro-adway, New 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 be 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 iii. 
MAKE FOREST PRESERVES GAME PRESERVES. 
The continued diminution of North American big game, 
due to hide hunting, to over-killing \>y so-called sports- 
men, but especially by the continual settling up of the 
country, has been a subject of concern to far-sighted 
people for many years. Yet the average sportsman, and 
even the average big-game hunter, appears to interest 
himself very little in this diminution. The letter from 
Mr. Wells, published elsewhere, brings the subject once 
more to the front, and shows how obvious it is that unless 
some active steps are taken to move the Government 
authorities, it will before long be too late to do any- 
thing. 
Almost by accident, the Western country, where the 
big-game remnants chiefly exist, is prepared for legis- 
lative action which shall set aside game refuges that maj' 
exist always, and about whose borders hunting may be 
had for generations j'et to come, provided only that proper 
steps are taken now. 
In this Western country there have been set aside a 
number of forest reservations extending almost from the 
southern boundary of the United States to the northern 
boundary, and covering the greatest variety of country. 
They include low-lying valleys and towering peaks, forest 
and prairie, arid desert and water-soaked mountain side. 
Within the boundaries of these reservations, if properly 
protected, almost all the large game of North America 
could flourish forever, just as it used to exist in the old 
West, before the white man — ^greedy for dollars — ^pene- 
trated the unknown fastnesses where it fed. 
We have already an example of such a game refuge in 
the Yellowstone National Park, where the animals, being 
protected, do well, and in autumn furnish to hunters on the 
Park borders practically all the big-game hunting that 
is to be had in the West. For many years the Yellow- 
stone Park has been protected by troops, but for many 
of these years the only service which the troops performed 
was to arrest or to drive out persons who violated the 
regulations established by the Secretary of the Interior. 
Then, in the year 1894, a law was enacted by Congress 
which provided an actual form of government for the 
Park, and substituted sometliing tangible for the vain 
threats of the Department of the Interior — an official to try 
offenses, a mode by which offenders should be tried, 
penalties for killing game or defacing natural wonders 
and a place where offenders should be confined after con- 
viction. When this had been done, depredations in the 
National Park ceased. 
The Secretary of the Interior has been authorized by 
Congress to make regulations governing the forest re- 
serves, but such authorization is not enough. Courts have 
decided that in making these regulations the Secretary 
of the Interior is usurping legislative functions, while his 
own are merely executive. What is required now is 
action by Congress on lines similar to those laid down 
in the Yellowstone National Park Protective act, which 
shall apply to all the forest reservations. Such an act 
must be carefully considered, because there are settlers 
on many of the forest reservations, and their rights must 
be carefully safeguarded. 
It is time to take this matter up, and before the opening 
of the next session of Congress to arouse an interest 
which shall demand the passage of a law protecting the 
game and the timber on these forest reservations. 
By proper protection the National Park and the forest 
reservations already existing, and those which shall here- 
after be set aside, may become not only forest preserves, 
but game preserves as well. Within their boundaries are 
to be found to-day every species of large game known 
to the United States, and if they can be protected all 
these great and interesting indigenous mammals may be 
perpetuated in full supply for all time. Unless such pro- 
tection is afforded certain species of American large game 
will before long become as nearly extinct as is the buf?^l6; 
It is time that an intelligent effort for the protection of 
these reserves Avere made. Make the national forest pre- 
serves game preserves as well. 
TO KEEP THE GUN OUT. 
In Maine they are talking of a law to forbid the taking 
of firearms into the woods in the close season. 
This is a radical proposition, and would be a novelty for 
Maine. But it is an old rule in some European countries. 
There, when the shooting season ends, the gun is laid 
away, and one may go afield with it only at the risk of 
paying a penalt}^ This means that when the shooting sea- 
son closes it closes. 
American sportsmen who have traveled in Brittany 
and have seen there the absolute confidence manifested by 
the wildfowl during the close season, ascribe this to the 
system of keeping the guns at home. The game recog- 
nizes the close season, and lives and breeds in security. 
We have been for so many generations in this country 
accustomed to the fullest freedom with gun and rifle that 
a law like that proposed for Maine would provoke decided 
opposition. But on second sober thought might we not 
recognize the justice and utility of such a system? In 
the Yellowstone National Park the possession of guns is 
forbidden, except of guns ofScially sealed by the author- 
ities, and we all know that game protection in the Park 
is effective. It would not be effective if visitors were 
permitted indiscriminately to equip themselves with arms 
and ammunition. In Massachusetts to have firearms in 
the game cover on Sunday is construed as prima facie evi- 
dence of violation of the law against Sunday shooting, and 
the system has materiallj' simplified the problem of sup- 
pressing the Sunday shooter. If shotguns and rifles were 
absolutely prohibited from the game covers during the 
close season, the effect upon the game would be most 
beneficial, and the observance of the close season would be 
promoted. 
In the quail and grouse covers, at least, there can be no 
excuse for having firearms in close season. A law for- 
bidding the carrying of arms there, and providing a stiff- 
fine for penalty, with the guns to be seized and held pend- 
ing the payment of the fine, would be a wise and desirable 
and effective addition to our game code. In a big-game 
country like Maine the case is somewhat dift'erent, for 
there many men go into the woods before the opening of 
the season, and without intent to kill game before the 
season opens, yet who, for convenience, carry their guns 
for use at the proper time. It might be practicable to 
develop a system which would give such persons per- 
mission to have their guns, while yet shutting out the 
summer shooters. 
To forbid the possession of guns in the woods is only 
to go a step beyond the existing laws which prohibit the 
possession of jacklights and of dogs in the deer country. 
ABOLISH SPRING SHOOTING. 
There is a measure now before the New York Legisla- 
ture to close the wildfowl shooting season for the State at 
large on March i instead of April 30, as now, and for 
Long Island on March i instead of May i as now. The 
change is one which should be made. The spring shooting 
of wildfowl should be prohibited. It should be forbidden 
for several good reasons. Among them these: 
I. Under existing conditions, with spring shooting 
permitted, the birds are being destroyed at a faster rate 
than they breed, and the stock is in consequence steadily 
diminishing. 
II. The present law, while purporting to protect the 
wild ducks, does not actually give them protection, be- 
cause the close season which is prescribed is such that it 
does not go into effect until a large proportion of the 
birds have passed north. As a matter of fact, under the 
present law the birds may be pursued and killed as long 
as they are within the limits of the State. 
III. The birds should be protected in the spring, be- 
cause at that season they are on their way north to their 
breeding grounds. Game laws are made to protect game 
in the breeding season. This rule should apply to wild- 
fowl precisely as it does to other game birds and game 
animals. Wild ducks should be protected in the spring 
time just as other game birds are protected in the spring, 
because that is the breeding season. 
IV. Now being harassed and pursued by spring shoot- 
ing, the ducks arp driven north and ^o not remain iij ^ivy 
numbers to nest in New York territory; but under other 
conditions, if given security, several species would tarry 
within the State and nest here. New York has extensive 
stretches of marsh lands which are admirably adapted to 
become again the breeding grounds of vast numbers of 
wildfowl, as they were formerly before the prevalence of 
spring shooting drove the birds away. Give the ducks a 
chance and they will come back to their New York breed- 
ing grounds again. This is not theory; it is the actual 
experience of other States which have adopted a close 
season in the spring for their wildfowl. 
V. The abolition of spring shooting will mean not 
only the return in the fall of a larger number of birds 
from the North, but will mean the restoration to New 
York State of a native supply of birds which will give 
better shooting in the fall of the year. 
VI. The interest of the people at large would be served 
by the abolition of spring shooting, and these interests 
should be considered as against the advantage which any 
limited number of individuals may reap from shooting 
the birds in the spring. A game law should be framed 
on the principle -of the greatest good to the greatest num- 
ber. The greatest good of the greatest number demands 
the abolition of spring shooting. 
They have started a movement in Ticonderoga, N. Y., 
which has behind it an excellent idea. In various parts 
of the country we have been considering legislation as a 
remedy for the careless shooting of human beings for 
game, and penalties of various degrees of severity have 
been advocated to deter the man killer. The Ticonderoga 
plan is to combine all the users of guns in the neighbor- 
hood into a club, the one obligation of which is that 
each member shall pledge himself never to shoot at any- 
thing until he knows certainly what it is. "Always know 
what you aim at." That is platform plank, constitution 
and by-laws of the Ticonderoga Club, and human life 
ought to be more secure wherever the club's influence ex- 
tends. A voluntary pledge of this nature will be quite 
as efficient as any possible law making could be. We 
ought to have Ticonderoga clubs wherever there are 
shooters who need the restraining influence of a pledge 
to stay their hands from a heedless shot. 
The increased interest in forestry matters in the United 
States is shown in a variety of ways. Besides the con- 
stantly growing demands on the resources of the Division 
of Forestry at Washington, there has sprung up an in- 
quiry for the services of trained foresters and persons 
familiar with forest and game preserves. Such a demand 
is sure to be supplied before long. While as yet the 
number of men competent to attend to such matters is 
not great, there are a few such, and some of our uni- 
versities, like Yale and Cornell, are training young men, 
who before long will be able to fill such places. New 
York city already has one practicing forester, trained in 
the schools of Germany, in the person of Mr. F. Von 
Hoffmann, who has established himself in the St. James 
Building. 
We have received the Fourth Annual Report of the 
Commissioners of Fisheries, Game and Forests of the 
State of New York, which was the commission preceding 
the present board. The report is for the year ending Sept. 
30, 1898, and is another in the series of superb volumes 
which have a place by themselves in the official literature 
of fish and game. The illustrations of birds and fishes 
colored to the life by Ridgeway and Denton respectively 
comprise the mallard duck, male and female ring-necked 
pheasant, upland plover and spruce grouse; shad, weak- 
fish or squeteague, yellow perch, tomcod or frostfish, 
mackerel, dogfish or bow-fin, eel and lobster; and other 
colored plates illustrate insects injurious to vegetation. 
In addition to the reports of the several departments o£ 
fishculture, game protection, forestry, etc., the volume 
contains a number of special papers. 
That is a curious condition which is described, by Secre- 
tary Kalbfus as existing in the Pennsylvania Game Com- 
mission. The people who have given into the hands of 
their appointed representatives the trusteeship of the game 
interests have a right to look for the intelligent and un- 
selfish safeguarding of those interests. If there is in the 
present board any member who does not comprehend the 
responsibility of the office, or who is lukevi^arm in his sup- 
port of efforts looking to the better protection of Penn- ' 
sylvania game, he should give place to some one dsCo ' 
