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. 
Six Months, |2. 
NEW YORK, SATURDAY, AUGUST 24, 1901. 
VOL. LVII.— No. 8. 
No. 346 Broadway, New York. 
A. N. CHENEY. 
Albert Nelson Cheney died at his home in Glens 
Falls, N. Y., Saturday morning, Aug. 17. His death was 
sudden, having been caused by heart disease, and the 
intelligence of it comes to his friends with all the 
greater shock because he had been apparentl}' in the 
most robust health, and there was no premonitory illness 
to prepare them for the event. 
Born a farmer's boy in Glens Falls, about fifty-five 
years ago, Mr. Cheney acquired at a very early age that 
passion for angling which abode with him through life, 
and had a determining influence upon his career. He 
was not only a fisherman but a student of fish life and 
of other phases of natural history. He was among the 
first persons in this country to give attention to the pos- 
sibilities of fishculture, and his aid was sought by the 
United States Fish Commission, when suitable sites were 
to be selected for Government fish hatchery stations. In 
1895, when the New York Fish Commission was re- 
organized and the office of State Fish Culturist was 
created, Mr. Cheney was selected to fill the place, and at 
once demonstrated by the efficient discharge of its duties 
the wisdom of the appointment. In all that related to the 
practical work of fish propagation and stocking of waters 
lie was in a large sense the Commission. The members 
of the board recognized his ability and confided in it, 
throwing upon him the responsibility of the several enter- 
prises decided upon and undertaken, and, wisely giving 
him untrammelled control of his work. The vast infor- 
mation respecting all phases of fish life, the practical 
knowledge of methods of fishculture and the interest, en- 
thusiasm, executive ability, sterling integrity and con- 
science which he brought to the work, all combined to 
make his administrati'on of the office successful and valu- 
able in an extraordinary degree. A. N. Cheney's record 
of six years as State Fish Culturist is one of splendid 
services rendered to New York. 
Always an accomplished fisherman , with a special 
fondness for the trout stream and the salmon river, Mr. 
Cheney was among the earliest contributors ta the Forest 
AND Stream/ and for a number of years, up to the time 
of his death, was regularly associated with it as a con- 
tributor of those "Angling Notes" which have been an in- 
valuable feature of the paper. He was an extremely 
-vigorous and able writer, and drew the material for his 
notes from an inexhaustible store of information, so that 
in reading them one felt that here was a master of his 
subject. The "Notes" covered an extensive field, having 
to do now with the methods of fishculture, and again with 
some delicate question of angling ethics, with a new 
observation in the life history oi fishes, and again with 
the mechanical construction of a fishway! He often told 
us that he ^yrote his "Angling Notes" because he enjoyed 
the writing, and found in it grateful diversion from 
regular work. His prolific contributions to the Forest 
AND Stream, those which were contained in the New 
York Fish Commision Reports, and other papers, made 
him widety known as an authority on fish and fishing; 
his reputation was international, and his name was al- 
most as familiar to the anglers of Great Britain as to 
those of America. He had an extensive, and at times 
fairly overwhelming, correspondence with anglers the 
world over; probably no other single individual in this 
country, certainly no other one of his generation, has 
been of practical help to so many people seeking informa- 
tion on angling and fishery subjects. Among the fishing 
societies and protective associations with which he was 
identified were the American Fisheries Society and the 
World's Fisheries Congress; he was President of the 
M.ohican Rod and Gun Club of Glens Falls, Secretary of 
the Eastern New York Fish and Game Protective Asso- 
ciation, associate member of the New York Association 
for the Protection of Fish and Game, honorary member 
of the Fly- Fishers' Club of, London, the Anglers' Asso- 
ciation of the St. Lawrence River, the Vermont Fish and 
Game League, and the Northern New York Association 
for the Protection of Fish and Game. 
Mr. Cheney had a winning personality. His friendships 
were many, his friends devoted and true. They were 
bound to him not only by the charm of his presence, but 
by a recognition of those sterling qualities of the man 
which commanded admiration and respect. 
THE BUFFALO REMNANT. - 
It is a good many years since the first article was writ- 
ten, entitled "The Last of the Buffalo," and there are 
still wild buflfalo, though to-day they are pitifully few in 
number. No matter how they may decrease, there will 
still be found murderous spirits, who, for a few dol- 
lars of gain, would kill the last buffalo, just as if we had 
angels here on earth they would pluck the feathers from 
their wings to sell. 
For many years there have been known to be a very 
few buffalo in Lost Park in Colorado. Protected by 
law. their feeding grounds have been respected by most 
decent people, yet it has been known that sometimes 
buffalo have been killed, and smuggled out of the State, 
occasionally by the ordinary routes of travel, and more 
often through the mountains into Wyoming. 
News has just been received that the Lost Park herd 
has been practically exterminated. It is said that the 
authorities know of the killing of five animals that have 
been surreptitiously taken out of the State and are now 
in Chicago, while last week four more carcasses were 
found by the game wardens and seized. 
Game Commissioner Harris is quoted as saying that 
he believes, from what he can learn, that there are only 
two buffalo left alive of the Lost Park herd. The event 
marks the destruction of one of the two little bands of 
wild buffalo in the United States, outside of the Yellow- 
stone Park. The location of the other band is well known 
to many people, but -it is fairly well protected by the 
country which it inhabits. To-day its numbers probably 
do not exceed fifteen or twenty, if they are so many. 
It might be thought that a State which has within its 
borders a little band of wild buffalo would do its utmost 
to cherish and protect them, and this, no doubt, Colorado 
has done. It is melancholy to learn of the failure of the 
effort. Four men are reported to have been arrested in 
connection with the affair, and it may be hoped that, if 
found guilty, they will be dealt with to the fullest extent 
of the law. 
SMALL-CALIBER RIFLE IN WAR. 
Some years ago, when small-caliber rifles came into 
vogue for use in game shooting, there was quite an 
active discussion among hunters as to their effects on 
game, and especially as- to the differing results which 
followed the use of the soft-nosed and full-mantled bul- 
lets. Various experiments were made by hunters to de- 
termine these matters, but without very satisfactory re- 
sults. Other experiments, careful and scientific, have 
been made by Prof. Bruns, of Tubingen, Germany. There 
were some reports of surgeons in the Spanish-American 
war, but little that was satisfactory. 
In a volume recently published, giving certain medical 
and surgical experiences in the South African war, 
Messrs. Bowlby and Wallace have given a series of ob- 
servations on the use in war of modern firearms, which 
the big-game hunters will greatly value. These writers 
had many opportunities for comparing wounds made by 
the Mauser and old Martini rifles, which were used by the 
Boers, with the later Lee-Metford rifles used by the 
British. Their observations teach that the full-mantled 
small-caliber ball causes less shock than the old large bul- 
let, and that the danger of blood poisoning is much less. 
On the other hand, at short range, the effect of this bul- 
let is very disastrous; the injury is not confined to the 
immediate track of the ball, but extends far away from 
it. Moreover, when bones are struck, the ball produces 
great shattering, and even pulverizes the bone..- 
On the other hand, at long range, the effect of the 
bullet is slight; it pierces flesh and bone, but does not 
injure tissues at a distance from its path. So true is 
this that a certain proportion of patients shot through 
the brain at long range completely recover, while in the 
case of men shot through the brain at close range, the 
whole brain is disintegrated. Bones penetrated by balls 
at long range were not extensively fractured ; they were 
merely pierced. 
Messrs. Bowlby and Wallace saw nothing to lead them 
to believe that the full-mantled bullet ever alters its 
shape within the body. When such change of shape 
appeared, it seemed always to be the result of contact 
with some hard substance outside of the body. 
Another important conclusion is that the soft bullets 
do not upset or mushroom when striking the soft tissues, 
but only when they meet with hard bofte. This, we be- 
lieve, has not been the experience of sportsmen, but, on 
the other hand, it is suggested that the hair and hide of a 
big-game animal is compact enough to cause the mush- 
rooming of a soft-nosed bullet, while the human flesh is 
not. 
While these observations are perhaps not of much prac- 
tical use to the big-game hunter, they are very interest- 
ing, and well worth knowing. 
SNAP SHOTS. 
The sailing for America of the Irish rifle team, which 
is to compete at Sea Girt, N. J., with the team repre- 
senting the New Jersey State Rifle Association, recalls 
the bid international rifle matches of twenty years ago. 
The greatest popular interest was taken in those con- 
tests, and biographies of the members of the team, their 
doings and the targets they made, claimed a good share 
of the public attention. Since that time the interest in 
rifle shooting has steadily diminished, and of late years 
the place of this sport has been t^ken by a variety of 
others, which require less time and preparation. Never- 
theless there is no finer, more manly, sport than that of 
rifle shooting, and it may be hoped that the coming of 
this Irish team and the competition which is to take place 
at Sea Girt may mark the beginning of a new interest in 
it. Except for the work of a few individuals, rifle shoot- 
ing is now confined to members of the National Guard 
and to a few societies of German-Americans. It should 
have a wider vogue. 
"I saw not a buffalo nor a grizzly on the way acrose 
the continent," writes one who has just made one of 
many trips from the Atlanticno the Pacific, "nor. even 
any antelope where they used to be so abundant. Prairie 
dogs and sage hens were the only 'game' in evidence." 
Manifestly at this stage we mjuld not expect to see 
buffalo or grizzly from the ear window; but the utter 
disappearance of the antelope from vast stretches of 
country where it was not so long ago a familiar feature 
of the landscape, sets one to thinking of the wild life 
which helped to make the West and give it novelty and 
attraction as seen through Eastern eyes. We are told 
about the passing of the Western big game, and we read 
of it, but not until one goes over the ground for himself 
and compares the new conditions with the old can he fully 
appreciate the change. 
The pot-shooting Italian is again in evidence. As Mr. 
Samuel Verplanck and his wife were driving on the 
Wappinger Falls road near Poughkeepsie, N. Y., the 
other day, they were wounded by charges of bird shot 
from an unseen source. The affair was at first supposed 
to be a murderous attack from ambush, but investigation 
showed that the shooting was done by some members of 
a colony of Italians living in the neighborhood, who have 
been accustomed to potting squirrels and robins, and on 
this occasion had no intention of . filling Mr. Vanplanck 
with stray shot. This appears to be a case where the en- 
forcement of the game law might save the lives of some 
of the valuable citizens of Dutchess county. If the pot- 
hunting squatter must have a human victim, let it not 
be the chance traveler taking a drive on the highway 
with his wife, and all unsuspegtipg of gunners and dan- 
ger, but rather let it be the district game protector 
valiantly endeavoring to do his duty by tackling the o^^ 
streperQUs pot-huntirig, robin-popping son of Italy. 
