Forest and Stream. 
a Weekly Journal of the Rod and Gun. 
Copyright, 1901, by Forest and Stream Publishing Co. 
Terms, $4 a Year. 10 Cts. a Copy. 
Six Months, $2. 
NEW YORK, SATURDAY, JUNE 1, 1901. 
VOL. LVI.— No. 22. 
No. 846 Broadway, New York 
I wish I had long ago started, on a big plan, a series of Forest 
AND Stream scrap books for articles, just as I did for illustrations. 
1 have material now cut out and piled up which would fill several 
big folios, but \mless I break my leg I fear I shall never have a 
chance to put together these scrap books. The four big ones that 
I made of the Forest and Stream pictures, which I once de- 
scribed to you, are a thing I am proud of, and my little boy values 
among his choicest possessions. A. 
COLD STORAGE GAME. 
The seizure of unlawful game by Protector Overton in 
the cold storage vault of the Arctic Freezing Warehouse 
in this city is the most notable affair of the kind since the 
memorable confiscation of the Racey birds, more than a 
quarter of a century ago, which gave us the important 
Phelps-Racey game law decision. Protector Overton's 
rummage of the cold storage vaults has already disclosed 
n^any thousands of birds, and at this writing is still in 
' progress. The- complete statistics of the seizure cannot be 
given until next week. Nor can it now be foretold what 
the result of the prosecution will be in the amount of 
penalties recovered. The sum in which these law breakers 
are liable would, according to the strict letter of the 
statute, run into tens of thousands of dollars, but, of 
course, an attempt will not be made to recover any such 
maximum. It is customary in such cases to bring suit for 
a part only of the entire liability, and to inflict a penalty 
which while severe enough to fulfill the purpose of the 
law will still commend itself as reasonable and just. In 
this specific instance, with the evidence of their law 
AHolation so abundant and conclusive, the offenders' should 
be punished so severely that the}^ may be discouraged 
from persisting in defiance of the statute. 
The cold stprage warehouse people have in published 
interviews sought to evade responsibility for possession 
of the contraband articles by explaining that as receivers 
of sealed packages for storage they were not aware of the 
contents of the packages. This may very well be true in 
.some cases, but on the other hand the circumstances 
which led to the detection of the game by the protector 
go to show that in this instance at least the freezer 
people did know what they were .storing. It is reported 
' that the protector was sent by a dealer from whom he had 
bought a half-dozen birds to the warehouse to get the 
birds; and that they were delivered to the protector at 
the warehouse out of a lot of birds which the warehouse 
was storing for the dealer. Moreover, the well-known 
facts as to the general practice of certain game dealers 
in this town go to sustain the supposition that the cold 
storage concerns know perfectly w^ell that they are so 
storing game in the forbidden season, and are thereby 
making themselves parties to the offense. For in this 
town game may always be had at any time of the year and 
in any quantities asked for, and as it is kept during the 
close season in cold storage the dealer can supply it to the 
customer only by going to the cold storage warehouse and 
taking therefrom the amount of game required, or, as in 
this case, sending the customer to the warehouse for it. 
It is utterly preposterous for the cold storage people to 
pretend that they do not know that they are storing for- 
bidden game, and it is difficult to perceive any important 
distinction between receiving and holding contraband game 
and receiving and holding stolen goods. In eithics the two 
things are the same. 
There is good reason to assume that the game in the 
Arctic vaults is in a double sense illicit. Not only is 
it held unlawfully in close season, but never at any season 
could it lawfully have been shipped to market and become 
subject to possession by New York game dealers. The 
laws of the several States now so generally prohibit the 
killing of game for sale, or its export to market, that 
the presumption as to game exposed for sale in New York 
city always is that it has come there -illegitimately arid in 
surreptitious ways. In this State the law forbids the 
transportation of woodcock, grouse and quail from the 
county wherein killed, except in limited numbers and 
accompanied by the possessor. The intent of this law, and 
its operation, so far as enforced, is to stop the marketing of 
New York game. To get such game, certain of the city 
dealers send to they- country correspondents instructions 
for packing it and shipping it with false labels, so that 
it m-ay come through to New York without detection. 
When a dealer gets such a package of game he has in 
hand something to which he can no more legitimately 
have title than the Bowery fence can have to the booty 
he receives from the sneak thief. The laws of the 
States around New York, Conecticut. New Jersey, Penn- 
sylvania and of other States near and far forbid the ex- 
port of their game; and whatever game reaches New 
York from these States is contraband, and may not be 
dealt in by an honest man. In part at least the game 
seized in the Arctic warehouse belongs to this category, 
and the men who have come by it by devious means and 
are now deprived of it by the act of the protector deserve 
no sympathy for their loss. 
Nor is there anything in the representation made by 
the. storage people that the dealers finding themselves 
stocked up with game at the close of the season have no 
other recourse than to put the surplus into storage. The 
answer to this is that they need not get stocked up. The 
law provides a certain season for the sale of game. The 
dealer knows what the season is and knows perfectly 
well that after a given date he may not lawfully have game 
in possession. Knowing this he can regulate his buying 
of game, and a-cquire only such a supply a$ he can dispose 
of. Failing to exercise this ordinary, every-day business 
precaution, he lays, himself open to the penalty for game 
in possession in close time. The real reason for over- 
stocking with game, however, is to have it for sale the year 
around, and it is kept for this purpose in the cold storage 
freezers, with the complicity of the proprietors of these 
concerns. 
INTERNA TIONAL TRAPSHOOTING. 
Since the inception of target shooting at the traps, the 
intervening years are not so many that^one needs to be old 
to remember it. In the latter part of the '70' s, the doings 
of Capt. k. H. Bogardus and others in feats of glals ball 
shooting were the marvels of the shooting world, although 
as compared with some of the modern performances at the 
trap they are commonplace indeed. The Bogardus 
patent glass ball trap, which was a piece of plank with a 
cross piece at each end, to which was fastened by one 
end a curved piece of steel which servetl as an arm to 
throw the glass ball, price $12, was soon superseded by 
more, ingenious and efficient mechanical devices for throw- 
ing the glass, and the glass balls, which sold at first for 
$2.50 per 100, were superseded by the clay and composi- 
tion disks now used. It will be noted that the prices in 
the early days were far higher than they are now. How- 
ever, the inanimate target shooting of the world had its 
origin in those simple and crude beginnings. 
The sport grew rapidly in popularity. The game re- 
sources of the country were becoming scarcer, and in 
such sections as contained game in abundance it afforded 
sport through but a relatively short season. Live bird 
shooting at the traps was expensive, and owing to the 
area of ground required for traps, boundary, etc., it was 
difficult to arrange near theJarge cities. The inanimate 
target filled the shooting wants of the masses better than 
anything else. Target shooting soon became a form of 
national sport, both as a means to acquire skill in the use 
of the shotgun and as a test of skill in competition. 
Astonishing perfection has been attained in this form of 
shooting. The records of continuous runs, formerly meas- 
ured by tens, are now measured by hundreds. 
The sport has at length grown in interest from the 
national to the international, as evidenced by the arrange- 
ment of an international series of matches between Eng- 
land and America and the departure of the American 
team on last Sunday for England, to be there in time to 
commence competition on June 11. The purse is, in 
amount. $S,ooo, or $2,500 a side. 
Great as has been the growth of this form pf sport, there 
is no doubt that the international contest will greatly 
stimulate interest in it and add to its healthful growth. 
It is to be hoped, however, that the future international 
contests of this kind, should there- be such, will be on 
even terms, for the Englishmen enter into it confessedly 
inferior, by the acceptance of a handicap — that is to say, 
they have the use of two barrels, while the Americans 
have the use of but one. Should the English win, it would 
not be classed as a perfect win, and should the Amer- 
icans lose, they would still feel that they were not beaten 
on even terms. However, this match is much to be 
desired, and it may be hoped is the prelude of many more 
wherein neither give nor take a handicap. In any case, may 
the best men win. 
The Forest and Stream has arranged to have the trip 
and the shooting fully reported by Mr. Edward Banksj 
one of the best trapshooters and newspaper men in the 
countrj^ His weekly letters will cover the whole time 
from the date of the team's leaving New York till its 
return home. In view of the very widespread and general 
interest in the contest, the publication of this report will 
cause the Forest and Stream to be read more extensively 
than ever in the trapshooting world, both here and 
abroad. 
BETWEEN CASTS. 
OuK supplement illustration this week is from a drawing 
by W. P. Davison, who gives us an admirable picture of 
a trout stream. It is a moment of rest, when the anglers 
have stopped to quaff a draught from the cool stream and 
to make a change of ca,sts. It is just such a scene and 
such a stream as many a one who looks on the. picture 
can recall in meinory, and better still, just such a spot as 
one may hope again to look upon in the reality on some of 
these June days of 1901. The picture will have an added 
interest for those who can recognize in the features of 
the older angler a portrait of Mr. J. L. Davison, who 
has for many years been known to readers of Forest and 
Stream as a contributor to our natural history columns. 
This is the third picture in the current series of illustra- 
tion supplements ; the others being : April 6 — ^The Trap- 
per's Camp; May 4 — Rap Full, and July 6 (to come) — 
The Home of the Bass. 
SNAP SHOTS. 
After a protracted correspondence between the New 
York Yacht Club and Mr. Thomas W. Lawson, announce- 
ment is made that Independence will be given an oppor- 
tunity in the trial races to compete for the defense of the 
America Cup. The -one point upon which the whole con- 
troversy hinged — namely, the qualification of the Boston 
boat-by being put under the control of a member of the 
club — was so simple that a reading of the correspondence 
fails to disclose any sufficient reason for its voluminous 
bulk. One effect of the discussion has been vastly to 
stimulate interest in the trial races and the final selection 
of the boat which shall have the honor and responsibility 
of meeting Shamrock II. Until the relative merits of 
Constitution and Independence shall have been settled 
there will be much livelier speculation concerning the 
result between these two boats than about the final out- 
come of the race for the Gup, for no one questions that the 
record of 1901 will be of another victory for the American 
vacht. 
We reprinted from Science last week an article by Dr. 
C. Hart Merriam calling into question the course of the 
California authorities in their destruction of the sea lion 
as a consumer of food fishes. To-day we take from the 
last ref)ort of the California Fish Commission a letter 
addressed to the head of the national Fish Commission, in 
which is set forth the other side of the case. This forms 
part of a somewhat voluminous correspondence between 
the California Commissioners and the Treasury Depart- 
ment and others, but the case is essentially summed up 
in the letter which is here reprinted. The California 
authorities claim that instead of having acted ignorantly 
and precipitately, they did not move for the war on the 
sea lions until after deliberate consultation with -such 
authorities as Messrs. Jordan and Gilbert, and they 
say that while the sentimental side of the question appeals 
to them as strongly as to any one, they have been impelled 
by stern necessity to undertake a reduction of the sea 
lion suppl)''. 
The last session of the New York Legislature em- 
powered the Game Commissioners to acquire by gift or 
purchase a stock of moose for restoring the sjiecies to the 
Adirondacks, and an appropriation of $5,000 was made for 
the purpose. Just what steps will be taken the Commis- 
sioners have not made public. The problem of acquiring 
the live moose is much simpler than that of protecting 
them after they have been put out. There are among 
the Adirondack guides incorrigible rascals who stand 
ready to kill the moose whenever opportunity offers, and 
the villainy of these human brutes is thp only serious 
obstacle the Commissioners have to meet. Whenever the 
gam? can be assured protection, moose will be given to 
the State by the owners of private game preserves- ' 
