Forest and Stream. 
A Weekly Journal of the Rod and Gun. 
Copyright, 1901, by Forest and Stream Publishing Co. 
TsRMSj $4 A Year. 10 Cts. a Copy. I 
Six Months, $2. ( 
NEW YORK, SATURDAY, APRIL 27, 1901. 
VOL. LVI.— No. IT. 
No. 346 Broadway, 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. 
Whefefofe, Site, methinfcs that the best knowl- 
edge which one can have (after the fear of God) 
is to keep as and each man his neig-hbof in cheer- 
fulness by the practice of honorable pastimes, 
among" which I have found none nobler or more 
to be commended than the art of venery. — Jaq«es 
d« Fouilloax (J56J) to King Charles DC 
Oe forest ana Stream's Platform Plank. 
"Tj^e sale of game should be prohibited at all seasons." 
NAILS DRIVEN IN ipoi.— No. V. 
MINNESOTA. 
Chap. 3s, Laws 1901 —The sale of any quail, ruffled or sharps 
tailed grouse, prairie chicken, or ruffled grouse, sometimes known 
as partridge, or pheasant, wild duck of any variety, or any variety 
of wild goose, brant, any variety of aqu-itic fowl whatever, fs 
hereby prohibited and made unlawful. 
Chap. 229, Laws 1901.— No buck, doe, deer or fawn sha'l be 
o ffered for sale or sold at any time. 
THE ROYAL BUCKHOUNDS. ' 
The Royal Buckhounds have been an institution of 
British sport for nearly a century, having been estab- 
lished in the year 1812, when the Goodwood fox hovmds 
were presented to the Prince RoA'al. An antiquity yet 
more extended has been claimed for them, and un- 
doubtedly there were royal packs long before this one; 
for, as every one knows, stag hunting has been a chosen 
form of the diversion of kings from time immemorial. 
The royal pack, which during the life of Queen Victoria 
was maintained at Windsor, consisted of forty couples of 
hounds, and the hunts were chases after a carted stag— 
that is a tame stag which was carried out in a cart and 
turned loose for the hounds to follow. Because of this 
mode of hunting the royal pack has long been an object 
of opposition to the Humanitarian League, which based its 
attacks upon the ground of cruelty to the stag. By those 
who defended the hunting, it was contended, on the other 
hand, that the stag enjoyed the run as much as did the 
hounds and the huntsmen, and stories are told of one ex- 
perienced deer named Volunteer, which, on occasion, when 
inadvertently he was liberated from the cart near a pea 
field, would obstinately refuse to do his stunt until he had 
devastated the pea patch, for all the world like one of 
those crop-raiding Vermont deer the Blue Mountain 
farmers complain of. After the stag and hounds and hunts- 
men had had their run, and the stag had taken to water, 
it was the practice to capture the stag, put him in his cart 
and haul him back home to his paddock. The meets of 
the Royal Buckhounds being open to the public were 
participated in by a heterogenous company, who followed 
on horseback across country and along the roads in chaises 
and in various styles of vehicles after the manner of 
earlier times, as '.old m this Httle story of a hunt in the 
year 1728: 
Between Ten and Eleven in the Morning, their Majesties, to- 
gether with his Royal Highness the Duke, and their Royal High- 
nesses the Princesses, came to. New Park by Richmond, from 
Hampton Court, and diverted themselves with hunting a Stag, 
which ran from Eleven to One, when he took to the great Pond, 
and defended himself for about half an Hour, when being kill'd, 
and brought out by the Help of a goat, the Huntsmen sounded the 
French Horns. The Skin was taken off, and the Carcass given to 
the Dogs. His Majesty, the Duke, and the Princess Royal hunted 
on Horseback; her Majesty and the Priticess Amelia hunted in a 
Four-wheel'd Chaise; and the Princess Carolina in a Two-wheel'd 
Chaise; and the Pricesses Mary and Louisa were in a coach. Severfil 
of the Nobility attended, and among them Sir Robert Walpole, 
clothed in green, as Ranger. When the Diversion was over, 
their Majesties, the Duke, and the Princesses, refreshed them- 
selves on the Spot with a Cold Collatiofi (as did the nobility at 
same Distance of Time after), and soon after Two in the After- 
noon return'd for Hampton Court. 
But the Royal Buckhounds are flow- to be spoken of only 
as in the past, 'for among^^ the changes which have come 
vnth the succession of E<iwar4 VII. is the abojitioq of 
the pack. The committee on the King's civil list has 
recommended that the pack, with the Master of the Buck- 
hounds and other functionaries connected therewith, shall 
be dispensed with, and the £6,200, or $31,000, hitherto 
appropriated to their support shall be devoted to other 
purposes. 
ALASKA SALMON. 
Within the last few years attention has frequently 
been called to the wanton and wasteful destnxction of. 
salmon in Alaska, and to the fact that in many localities 
the canners tiow have to be satisfied with putting up only a 
portion of the capacity of their factories, because a full 
supply of fish cannot be secured. On the other hand, at 
times when there is an unusual run of fish, vastly more 
are taken than can be used, and no matter how hard the 
canners may work, a part of the catch turns soft and 
must be thrown away. We have been told that in the 
summer of 1900 a cannery on Prince William's Sound on 
one occasion threw overboard 60,000 fish, and at another 
time 10,000 fish. 
The report of the Special Agent of the Treasury on 
the Salmon Fisheries of Alaska, which has just appeared, 
indicates that the evils so long recognized still prevail. 
The Government professes to protect the salmon fisheries 
of Alaska, but its care of them is purely perfunctory. 
Officials make journeys over considerable portions of the 
fishing grounds and report on what they see, but they 
have no power to do anything more than report, and it 
is inevitable that weeks and more often months or a year 
elapse before these reports are received or can be acted 
on. By that time the damage for the season is done, the 
offenders against the laws have scattered and gone no one 
knows where, and any legal remedy against them is im- 
possible. 
It is, of course, a pleasant thing for the agents of the 
Treasury Department to make a summer cruise on a 
Government vessel through Alaska waters — under pay — 
but until the legislative and the executive departments of 
the Government reach a point where they will do sorrie- 
thing, instead of talking about doing something, the short- 
sighted and wasteful methods now practiced will not 
change and the salmon fisheries will continue to grow 
less valuable. 
It is illegal to obstruct the rivers of Alaska by dams, 
traps or other barricades, yet this is constantly done. The 
people who make money by catching the fish wish to 
secure the fish as easily and quickly as possible. Wash- 
ington and the Government are a long way off. The law 
is something vague and intangible, and above all has never 
been enforced. Very naturally the lawbreakers believe 
that it never will be enforced. If the fair weather agents 
of the Treasury Department had authority to remove the 
obstructions which they find and to arrest persons violat- 
ing the law, and were provided with, a force of men to 
do this work, the Alaska canners and others would very 
speedily learn that the laws with regard to the fishing 
were not mere abstractions, and would govern' them- 
selves accordingly. 
As if the methods ■ pursued on the free streams of 
Alaska were not bad enough, the whites have practically 
taken possession of the Island of Afognak — a Government 
reservation — and fish its streams in the calmest defiance 
of the Executive order which provides that no fishing shall 
be done on the island except by the natives for their own 
food. The Executive order forbidding fishing is thus an 
object of ridicule and contempt, and such feeble efforts as 
may be made by Government officials to enforce it are 
derided. From time to time we are told that the fishing 
on this Government reservation has been stopped, but 
such statements are untrue. Eye witnesses who spent 
some time on Afognak -Island in the summer of 1900 de- 
clare that during the season the canneries took fish from 
the island for their pack. 
The truth is that as yet there is Httle or no law in. 
Alaska, and it is due more to the good common ssnse of 
the American settler than to the efforts of the Govern- 
ment that conditibtts the^e are not much worse than they 
are. There is an old nearly forgotten saying to the effect 
that ''There's neither a law of God nor man runs north 
of fifty-four," and practically that is true to-day. 
The remedy for the wrong and wasteful practices which 
prevail in the Alaska salmon fisheries is to be found in 
Government control of the fishing and in a systematic re- 
placement by artificial propagation' of the annual Joss due 
to the cofflicnerci^! fisheries, 
Practically every stream in Alaska that is six inches 
deep is a salmon river, and nowhere can salmon be propa- 
gated so cheaply and easily as .here. In due time this 
work will no doubt be undertaken on a large scale, pref- 
erably under the auspices of the United States Fish Com- 
mission, which should have general charge not only of the 
public hatcheries, but also of those which will undoubtedly 
be established by private individuals or concerns. The 
great value of the salmon pack of Alaska emphasizes the 
importance of prompt and efficient action by the Govern^ 
ment to end the abuses which prevail there. 
SNAP SHOTS. 
Governor Crane of Massachusetts has vetoed two meas- 
ures designed to reduce the lawful length of lobsters that 
might be taken, and to permit the mutilation of lobsters, 
which is resorted to in order to conceal the actual length, 
The perpetually recurring discussion of the lobster law 
affords an interesting and instructive illustration of the 
characteristic short-sightedness of the fisherman. The 
perpetuation of the lobster depends upon its having such 
protection as to insure the pos ibiiity of its reproducing its 
kind. This is the whole purpbse of the law, and the lob- 
ster fisherman should be of all men the one most ready to 
observe the conditions essential to preserving the stock. 
As a matter of fact, he resents control, and if unrestrained 
would speedily destroy the lobster supply and his own 
livelihood along with it. 
Investigation by the United States Fish Commission in 
the waters of New England has established beyond ques- 
tion certain facts concerning the life history of the lobster. 
Among the ascertained data are these : That the female 
lobtser attains maturity when from eight to twelve inches 
in length ; that comparatively few lobsters under nine 
inches in length lay eggs (of one thousand egg -bearing 
lobsters collected at Woods Holl, less than two per cent, 
were under nine inches), and that by the time they have 
reached a length of ten and one-half inches most lobsters 
will have produced eggs. This length then it is concluded 
should be the minimum size permitted in the markets. 
Based upon these well-established facts of lobster life, 
the lawful limit of those which may be caught has been 
made in Massachusetts ten and one-half inches; in other 
words, the statute declares that no lobster may be caught 
until it shall have had a chance to Breed. The lobster 
fishermen have rebelled against this restriction of their 
industry; they have claimed persistently that ever3fthing 
should be fish that came into their traps, and it has been 
only by the exercise of vigilance on the part of the author- 
ities that the destruction of short lobsters has been in any 
degree prevented. As the stock has become less and less, 
the fishermen have demanded the right to take lobsters of 
smaller size, and their representatives in Boston this year 
put through a bill to reduce the lawful length to nine and 
one-half inches. The measure was most unwise, and the 
Governor has done a public service in .vetoing it. He 
could not well have taken any other course. Chairman 
Collins of. the Fish Commission and the members of the 
Massachusetts Association deserve great credit for the in- 
telligent and vigorous opposition with which they have 
fought the measure. 
Mr. N. M. George, of Danbury, Conn., has made a 
Florida tarpon record which goes beyond Mr. Edward 
vom Hofe's 310-pound fish, by the capture of a specimen 
weighing 213 pounds. The fish was taken at Bahea 
Honda, one of the kfeys lying south of Cape Sable. That 
tarpon fishing has a lasting attraction for those who fol- 
low it is demonstrated by the fact that the same names 
are found ye^r after ye^r on the lists of Flori4a fishern^ei^. 
The Cuvi^r Club of Cincinnati h^s promoted a very snp-r 
cessful cornpetitiop iri b'rd study amopg the pupils of the 
public schools of the city. Prizes were giveii \}y %he plub 
for essays on the t»hree subjects; Birds i^ the Cuvicf 
Club's coUeetien ; Why sjipul4 our song, insectivorous and 
game birds he protected? and the life study of our com- 
mon native birds. Widespread interest was taken in the 
competition, and i}o Ipss than 312 essays were subhiitted 
to the club's committee, the prize papers being published 
the daily press. _ ... 
