Forest AND Stream 
A Weekly Journal of. the Rod and Gun. 
Copyright, 1901, by Forest and Stream Publishing Co. 
Terms, $i A Year. 10 Cts. a Copy. 
Srx Months, $2. 
NEW YORK, SATURDAY, JUNE 29, 1901. 
J ' VOL. LVI.— No. 26. 
I No. 846 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 
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particulars respecting subscriptions, see prospectus on page iii. 
Cbc forest ana Stream's Platform PlanK. 
"TAe sale of game should be prohibited at all seasons^ 
NAILS DRIVEN IN 1901.— No. IX. 
MICHIGAN. 
H. B. No, 104, Laws 1901, Sec. 4.— No person shall by himself, his 
clerk, servant or agent, expose or keep for sale, or directly or indirectly, 
upon any pretense or any device, sell or barter, or in consideration of the 
purchase of any other property, give to any other person any of the pro- 
tected animals or birds mentioned in this act within the State of Michigan. 
THE INSECT HORDES. 
A CORRESPONDENT who is Seeking a territory favorable 
for trapping asks us to tell him of a district of the United 
States or Canada that is free from outdoor troublesome 
insects which go in, on, around, under, through, -aicross 
and over any mechanical or chemical obstructions which 
anybody places against them. This is a question which 
has vexed many another. How to get our shooting and 
fishing, and at the same time to avoid being driven mad 
by black flies or mosquitoes, is on occasion a most per- 
plexing problem. The extremely interesting chapter on 
the natural history of the mosquito, which Mr. Edward 
A. Samuels-published in our issue of last week, might be 
supplemented with another on the mosquito as an agency 
in preventing the settlement of certain districts by man, 
and as an active and very powerful factor in game and fish 
protection. An old Latin author discussing the insect pests 
of Asia says of the mosquito and the lion: 
Among the sedges of Mesopotamian rivers and the thickets 
of underwood, numberless lions prowl— always harmless in the 
gentle and very mild winters there. But when the summer is 
inflamed by the sun's rays, they are driven mad by the dogday 
heat, in those regions burnt up with torrid fervor— and also by 
the bigness of the mosquitoes, swarms of which infest everything 
in those lands. Now these pests go particularly for the eyes- 
moist and lucid organs— and, lighting on the quivering eyelids of 
the Uon, bite so that the beast, long tormented, comes to his end 
thus: either drowned in the streams, to which they flee for relief, 
or else losing their eyes, which they dig out by frequently scratch- 
ing at them with their claws, they go mad with fury. If this did 
not happen, the whole Orient would be overrun with lions. 
In something the same way Lieut. Schwatka once de- 
scribed in Forest and Stream the fate of the grizzly bear 
when attacked by the mosquitoes of Alaska : 
A fair wind made me think it possible to go hunting inland; 
but it died down after getting away two or three miles, and my 
fight batk to camp with the mosquitoes I will always remember 
as one of the salient points of my life. It semed as if there were 
an upward rain of insects from the grass, which became a deluge 
over the marshy tracts — and over half the land was marshy. Of 
course, not a sign of game was seen except a few old tracks. 
Indeed, the tracks of an animal are about the only part of it that 
could exist here in the mosquito season— that is to say, from the 
time the snow is half off the ground until the first severe frost, 
some three or four months later. During that time, all the living 
creatures that can leave ascend the mountains, closely following 
the snow line, and even there they do not get complete quiet, 
the exposure to the constant winds being of far more benefit 
than the coolness, due to the to the altitude, while the mosquitoes 
are left undisputed masters of the valleys. 
Had there been any game within good range and I had got a 
fair shot, I honestly doubt if I could have secured it, for these 
pests — not altogether because of their ravenous attacks on my face 
— and especially the eyes — but for the reason that they were abso- 
lutely so thick and dense that no one could 'have seen clearly 
through the mass in taking aim. When I got back to camp I 
was thoroughly exhausted with my incessant fight. I was com- 
pletely out of breath and had to recover it in a stifling smoke 
from dry, resinous pine knots. It is not unlikely that a person, 
especially of a nervous temperament, witheut a mask, or taking 
refuge out on the broad river, or in a closed house, would soon 
be killed by nervous prostration. I know that the native dogs are 
killed by them under certain circumstances, and I heard reports 
from persons so reliable that, coupled with my own experience, 
I have never for an instant doubted them, that the great brown 
"grizzly" bear of these regions at times is compelled to succumb 
to them. The statement seems almost preposterous, but the 
explanation is comparatively simple. Bruin, having exhausted all 
the roots and berries on one mountain, or finding them scarce, 
thinks he will cross a valley to another range. Covered with 
heavy fur on his body, his eyes, nose and ears are the vulnerable 
points fof the mosquitoes, and here of course they congregate ia 
dense swarms. Reaching a swampy stretch, they rise in myriads, 
until his fore-paws are kept busy striving to keep his eyes clear, 
and not succeeding, he becomes enraged, and, bear like, rises 
on his haunches to fight. It is now only a mere matter of time 
until his eyes are so swollen by the attacks that he is perfectly 
blind, and wanders aimlessly about until he becomes mired in the 
marsh and starves , to death. 
How the reindeer of Siberia are compelled by the mos- 
quitoes to migrate is told by Hartwig: ^ 
Millions and millions of mosquitoes issue from the swamps of 
the tundra, and compel the inhabitants to seek refuge in the 
dense and pungent smoke of the large heaps of fallen leaves and 
damp wood, which are kindled near the dwellings and on the 
pasture lands as the only means of keeping qfi those abominable 
insects. These tormentors, however, are not without use, for 
they compel the reindeer to migrate from the forests to the sea 
shore arid the ice, thus exposing them to the attack of the 
hunters, and they also prevent the horses from straying, on the 
plains and wandering beyond the protection of the smoke. 
The game of Alaska and Siberia kept moving from place 
to place by their winged tormentors have their human 
counterparts in the Arabs of the desert, if we are to accept 
the account given by Stephen Bonsai in his "Morocco as 
It Is," where he relates an amusing disillusionment : 
I had come upon a Berber chief and his suite of womankind by 
the great spring on the road to Mekinez where the River of Pearls 
springs out of a huge rock, clear and cold as though it flowed 
out from the heart of a glacier, and "after compliments," as we 
say in Morocco, I plied him with many questions, and as he was 
gracious and courteous, I even ventured to put a question which 
always before, at the sight of the picturesque Berbers, had died 
away on my Hps as unseemly. "Why," I said to the venerable 
sheik, "are thy people as restless as the sea waves? Why do 
they roam backwards and forwards, having no home save their 
tent; no country but the world," and, as I might have added, 
"no purpose in life but unwittingly to furnish copy to the poet?" 
I paused 'for the reply with my ear strained with eagerness and 
greedy to * learn the secret of their nomad life. Some lovely 
legend, I was sure;- a story of some primeval curse that still 
rested upon them. The venerable sheik shook his head sadly. 
"'Tis true," he said, "we are as restless as the sea waves, and the 
world is our country: but this nomad life is our fate, our destiny, 
not our wish. Often we troop into some pleasant valley, and fain 
would we tarry and fatten our cattle and grow rich and prosperous 
like other children of men, O Siranna! But it is not so written. 
When our tents have been pitched for a few weeks, there always 
comes over us a plague of insects, and we must strike our tents 
and away." So another long-cherished illusion went by the board, 
and I can only think with amusement of the squadrons of brave 
Berbers hunted from the Red Sea to the Atlantic, and from the 
Mediterranean to the Sahara by the insects. 
And as on the tundra and the desert, so in the jungle. 
Here is a graphic picture of the Malay forest as Swetten- 
ham describes it: 
It may be added as a minor but unpleasant detail that this 
tangle of vegetation harbors every species of crawling, jumping, 
and flying unpleasantness; myriads of leeches that work their way 
through stockings and garments of any but the closest texture; 
centipedes, scorpions, wasps, and stinging flies, caterpillars that 
thrust, their hairs into the skin and leave them there to cause 
intolerable irritation, snakes poisonous and otherwise, ants with 
the most mttrderous proclivities, and last, but not least, mos- 
quitoes that, when they find a human being, make the most of 
their opportunity. I have not exhausted the catalogue of pests, 
but only given a sample of what any traveler will meet in a day's 
journey through a Malay jungle. There is a wasp called "the 
reminder," a thorn called "Kite's talons," and an ant known as 
the "fire ant." The names are as apt as they are sug^stive. 
Indeed, one has but to turn to any book of travels in the 
wilderness to find that the insect bane is everywhere a 
curse to brute and man, biting, stinging, poisoning and 
causing to flee or driving frantic. 
SNAP SHOTS. 
It should be explained that the territory which our 
Staten Island correspondent describes as having been 
stocked with quail is within the limits of Greater New 
York, and this is only one of many illustrations of the 
opportunities for field spo'rts enjoyed by metropolitan 
citizens. 
Mr. F. Von Hoffmann, who wrote so entertainingly last 
week of capercailzie shooting, gives to-day a graphic pic- 
ture of stalking the blackcock. Both pursuits are such as 
to call into play the highest skill of the hunter and to tax 
his patience to the utmost. When the game is caper- 
cailzie or blackcock, the feat of shooting it from a tree 
or on the ground is one in comparison with which the 
wing-shooting of birds flushed before dogs is a minor 
achievement. Mr. Von Hoffmann is a practical sports- 
man and a practical forester, and his estimate of the 
adaptability of the game to be established in this country 
is entitled to a great respect. One provision of the Lacey 
Act empowers the Agricultural Department to introduce 
foreign game. A beginning might well be made with the 
capercailzie and the blackcock, for we have abundant ter- 
ritory which appears to be adapted to them. 
It was an ancient custom of the Indian tribes to burn 
over tracts of land in order that the new growth might 
afford better feeding for deer, and this was a prolific 
agency of forest conflagrations. It might be thought that 
a white man would have more sense than to resort to 
the Indian expedient of improving deer shooting amid 
surroundings where a fire once beyond control could do 
incalculable damage; but we find in the annual report of 
Chief Fire Warden Andrews, of Minnesota, the case 
of a hunter who fired lands tO' make pasture for deer, and. 
started a conflagration which required the strenuous 
effort of the fire fighters for eight days and nights to get 
under control. Of the 139 forest fires in Minnesota in 
1900, thirteen were credited to campers and hunters. 
The Baldwin-Ziegler Polar Expedition which sailed from 
this country to undertake the discovery of the North 
Pole is notable for the completeness of its equipment and 
for the well-matured plan of campaign. The expedition 
will have two ships, the America and the Frith j of, which 
will meet at Tromsoe, Norway. Thence the America will 
go to the White Sea to take on 400 Siberian sledge dogs 
and twenty Siberian ponies, while the Frithjof will be en- 
gaged in securing a large supply of walrus, seal and bear 
meat. The two ships will join in Franz-Joseph Land. 
Then the Frithjof, having served its mission as a game 
supply ship, will return to Norway, and the America will 
remain to be frozen in, it is anticipated, by the middle of 
November. With the ponies and dogs the supplies will be 
moved north in bulk, and a series of shelters will be con- 
structed of building material taken along, forming a line 
of permanent refuges, pushed further and further north. 
Thus carrying its provisions with it as it goes, the expe- 
dition will advance as far as possible until the Arctic 
night shuts down, and when spring comes a dash will be 
made for the Pole. Evelyn Briggs Baldwin, the leader 
of the expedition, was with the Peary party of 1893-4, and 
in 1897 went to Spitzenbergen to join Andree, but was 
debarred from the enterprise because there was no room 
for him in the baloon. William Ziegler, who is bearing 
the financial burden of the expedition, is a New Yorker, 
who was a few years ago among the most active and best 
known of the sportsmen of Brooklyn. 
The March number of the New Zealand Illustrated 
Magazine contains an extremely suggestive account of 
some capital fishing for rainbow trout in the hill streams. 
The fish — our American species — were introduced into 
these waters four years ago, and have multiplied and 
thrived prodigiously. Five-pounders and seven-pounders 
are not unusual for the rainbows in New Zealand, and a 
record fish of eleven pounds hints of the angling possi- 
bilities which the United States have contributed to the 
antipodes. 
Senator Edward S. Stokes, of Cumberland county, N. 
J., one of the managers of the Geological Survey of the 
State, is engaged in developing a scheme of forest and 
game reserves in the Highlands and Kittatinny moun- 
tains, in the southern pine country and elsewhere. There 
is abundant territory in New Jersey which is well adapted 
to the purpose. Senator Stokes proposes to present the 
scheme to the Legislature at the next session. 
We have been accustomed to regard tarpon fishing as a 
winter sport, whereas the fact is that it may be followed 
all the year around, and the elaborate paper Mr. Waddell 
has contributed to our angling columns on tarpon outfit- 
ting is not untimely. Tarpon fishing at Boca Grande, on 
the Florida Gulf coast, has been excellent this month, as 
demonstrated by the success of a party of Louisville, Ky., 
anglers, who have found the fishing at this season far 
superior to that of the winter months. 
Our next number, July 6, will contain a full-page illus- 
trated supplement, "The Home of the Bass," by W ' P, 
Davisori, 
