Forest and Stream. 
A Weekly Journal of the Rod and Gun. 
Copyright, 1901, bv Forest and Streatvi Publishing Co. 
NEW YORK, SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 30, 1901. 
'Tbsms, #i A Year. 10 Cts. a Copy. 
"Six Months, $2. < 
j VOL. LVn.-No. 22. 
(No. 846 Broadway, New York 
WORKING OF THE LACEY ACT. 
The report of the Secretary' of Agriculture for 1901 
summarizes tlie work of the Biological Survey under the 
Lacey Act, and the record is one which demonstrates the 
practical usefulness of the measure. An important branch 
of the work has to do with the control of the importation 
of birds and animals from foreign countries. Undc- the 
rules in force all importations are inspected by agents of 
the department, and the operation of the system has been 
successful in securing the main purpose of the law, which 
was to exclude undesirable species, such as the tnongoose. 
There were is.sued during the year 186 permits for im- 
portation, which covered 350 mammals and nearly 
to.ooo birds. The birds were most'y cage b'rds from 
Germany, China, Japan, Australia and Mexico. There 
is a large traffic in pheasants from Canada, which go 
chiefly to small pheasantries and to the stocking of game 
preserves. A business of which the proportions are not 
generally appreciated is that of bringing live quail from 
China to the San Francisco market for consumpt'on by 
the Chinese, who, it is not unlikely, relish the birds from 
their Asiatic home with something of the sentimental re- 
gard an American in China might feel for . Bob White. 
Tf the Chinese birds would make a desirable addition to 
the galiie supply of the Pacific Coast, it is manifest that 
here is an opportunity to secure the material for the ex- 
periment without much trouble or expense. 
A no less important division of the work is concerned 
with the regulation of inte-state commerce in game. It 
is said in tfie report that fifty-seven cases of illicit trans- 
portation have been inves igated, of which twenty-seven 
have been referred for action to the Department of 
Justice; but as a rule the evidence has been submitted to 
the authorities of the State concerned. "For the first 
time in the history of game protection," says the report, 
"■'it has been possible to secure convic ions in cases in- 
"volving illegal shipment of game months after the 
'ofienses were committed, and with evidence obtained a 
thousand miles or more from the point of shipment." 
The results attained in the operation of the Lacey Act 
have been due in large measure, it is popularly known, 
to the activity X)f Dr. T. S. Palmer, Assistant Chief of the 
Biological Survey, who has been the active agent in the 
•work. 
THE PHEASANTS OF ST. HELENA. 
A ROMANTIC incident of the acclimatization of the 
Chinese pheasant in various parts of the globe was its 
introduction into the island of St. Helena. In the six- 
teenth century St. Helena belonged to the Portuguese, and 
was even then used for a place of exile. Fernandez 
Lopez, of the Portuguese army at Goa, in the East Indies, 
deserted from his command and was banished to St. 
, Helena, with a band of negroes. They were supplied with 
roots and seeds and poultry and pheasants, which upon 
their arrival they put out. This was in 15:3. 
In the later years of the century, 1588, John Cavendish 
on his way from China home to England, called at St. 
Helena, and in the pages of Hakluyt he has left us a most 
enticing p'cture cf the island, with its valley, "marvellous 
sweet and pleasant, and planted in every place either with 
fruit trees or with herbs" ; the "fig trees which bear fruit 
continually and marvellous plentifully for in every tree 
you shall have blossoms, green figs and ripe figs all at 
once, and it is so all the year Icng." and in the same way 
the orange and lemon and the pomegranate and date trees. 
According to Cavendish, the island was a* r chly stocked 
game preserve; there was great store of swine, very wild 
and very fat and of a marvellous bigness, and which 
kept together upon the mountains and would very seldom 
abide any man to come near them. There were thousands 
of goats, very wild, and sometimes seen "in a flock a mile 
long," some of them "as big as an ass, with a mane like a 
horse and a beard hanging down to the very ground," and 
they were given to climb ng up the cliffs, "which are so 
steep that a man would think it impossible for any living 
thing to go there." Of birds there were "a great store 
pf Guinea cocks," and "a great store of partridges'* ; and 
of the pheasants introduced by Lopez it is noted: "There 
are likewise no less store of pheasants on the island, which 
are also mar%'elIous big and fat, surpassing those which 
are in our country in bigness and in numbers of a com- 
pany." 
' Three centuries later we find a like report on the 
pheasants in Melliss' "St. Helena," written in 1875, in 
which it is recorded that "they still exist abundantly and 
quite maintain the characteristics mentioned by Cavendish, 
They, are protected by game laws, which permit them to 
be killed, on payment of the licenses, fcr six weeks in the 
summer or autumn of each year, and hundreds of them 
are generally killed during one shooting season." 
Thus the desertion of a Portuguese sold'er from his 
command in the sixteenth century gave to St. Helena a 
stock of game birds brought originally from China, which 
has afforded sport to the inhabitants of that lovely spot to 
the present day. 
AMATEUR AND PROFESSIONAL. 
The American Athletic Union, by the promulgation of a 
recent ruling, the purport of which is to define what consti- 
tutes a professional trap shot and to govern him according- 
ly, has evoked a lively public interest, both in respect of the 
novel idea which the ruling embodies, and of the authority 
of that distinguished organization to make any such ruling 
at all. It is reported to be as follows: "Resolved, That a 
trapshooter who shoots for a sweepstakes is a professional 
athlete." 
The foregoing resolution has several distinctly sug- 
gestive features. It suggests more of the novice than of 
the amateur. It in a way is a possible attempt from a 
well-mean'ng body to benefit trapshooting. and it in a way 
may be a possible attempt of that body to benefit itself. 
Such inference is fairly to be drawn from the peculiar 
wording of the resolution. 
So far as it concerns trapshooting in general, it may 
fairly be assumed to have no significance of material irn- 
portance, and indeed, the m-re so for the reason that the 
A. A. U. does not assume that it can leg'slate on the sub- 
ject outside of its own membership. But, even under that 
limitation, as a matter of fair criticism, it is open to dis- 
cussion. To ascertain the value of the ruling, we may a-k 
some questions in respect to the causes wh'ch brought it 
forth and the manner of bringing it forth. 
It seems to have had its origin in a letter from Mr. 
r. H. Daggett, captain of the Boston Athletic Associa- 
tion Gun Club, to the A. A. U., in which he referred to 
the rap-d growth of trapshooting as a sport of amateurs, 
members of colleges and athletic clubs, many of whxh 
had teams in the field, and^ in that connection a^-king for 
advice on the question of what makes, a professional trap- 
.shooter. As a result, the A. A. U. ruled as quoted. 
Were the members of the committee who by rule so 
i-imbly transformed a trapshooter into a professional 
athlete for a possible ten-cent, ten-minute cause, thor- 
oughly conversant \yith the practical phases of the sub- 
ject? If they were not trapshooters or were not thor- 
oughly informed concerning all the details of trapsh-^ot-ng 
competition, it is poss-'ble that they were no better qualified 
to pass upon the true merits of the question of trapshoot- 
ing professionalism than they are to pass on the question 
as to the best route to reach the North Pole. 
If they, however, were ruling upon it purely as a Union 
matter— that is to say, for the furtherance of the organiza- 
tion in the matter of power, prestige, revenue and juris- 
d cticn — it has no particular technical significance even 
within Union limitations. Organization politics cannot^be^ 
truly representative of sportsmen's interest^; at large. 
Even within the A. A. U. jurisdiction the rui ng should 
have come from a committee represent'ng practical trap- 
shooting interests rather than from athletic academic 
theorists. From even the view point of amateurism, there 
should be an observance of what is correct and what is 
just to all. 
Considering for a moment the matter of accuracy of 
statement as set forth in the ruling, what is more absurd 
than solemnly to declare that a shooter, who shcots in a 
sweepstake, is a professional athlete? The subject and 
the pred-cate are not necessarily related, and in fact, in 
a majority of cases a trapshooter is not an athlete, either 
amateur or professional. The real significance seems to 
be that the A. A. U. in reaching out for a phantom peg 
whereon to hang a pretense of jurisdiction — ^and greater 
jurisdiction implies greater revenues — was forced to use 
the term "professional athlete" notwithstanding its self- 
evident absurdity. To have resolved that a trapshooter 
who shoots in a^, 8%veeps,take was a professional trap- 
shooter might, when so worded, at one© raise a question 
in respect to jtirisdietion. but if snch shooter was de- - 
dared a professional athlete, the A, A, U. nright risk the 
absurdity for the possible advantage of arrogating juris- 
diction. 
However, the question, stripped^of all the fancies, poli- 
tics, possible revenues and powers wiih which it in some 
places is encumbered, is exceeding'y simple. There is 
much long-time usage perta'ning to the subject and. in 
the present, much common sense, all of which concurs in 
this: That any shooter may contest in a sweep take with- 
out any prejudice whatever to his amateur stand'ng. so 
far as mere sweepstake circumstance alone is concerned, 
and this also without any danger to the amateur interests 
of the sport in general from the inroadi of profes- 
sionalism. 
The analogies of professionalism as they concern other 
sports and as they relate to trapshooting are so remote or 
unimportant that they are not sound data from which to 
make deductions -or rulings. 
If the A. A. U. can arrogate to itself supervision over 
any acts of its members which are competitive, simply by 
virtue of a resolution, then it would be an easy matter for 
the world at large to become athletes by asking the A. A. 
U. for a ruling on a game cf marbles or a game of euchre. 
Nevertheless, this new and peculiar plia-e of the ques- 
tion will not in the least affect trapshooting at large, as it 
concerns amateurism and professionalism, RIatters of 
trapshooting for a long while in the future will continue 
on the lines of the past and present. Until the trapshoot- 
ing world has a central trapshooting body, duly recognized 
as authoritative, no accepted ruling need be expected from 
anv other source. 
The directors of the iMaine Sportsmen's Association 
held a meeting in Augusta on M: ndny last to provide for 
a public meet'ng in Bangor on Jan. 7 to agitate for the 
imposition of a license fee of $10 on non-resident hunters. 
They manifestly have the not uncommon notion that the 
fore'gner is a "good thing" and should be taxed a ! the 
traffic will bear. They sustain their proposition by the 
assertion that the ncn-residents travel ou< "foreign rail- 
roads" bring in their own supplies, reiuse to employ 
licensed guides and cart away immense quantit'e of gime 
without leaving any money behind them. And ihc Maine 
people, these directors say. ought to get at least $10 cut 
of every visitor, and ought to make sure of it by collecting 
it in advance. 
Without wishing now to dispute the view here taken 
of the general unprofitableness of the Maine visiting 
sportsmen, we venture to point cut that the argument 
advanced is in direct conflict w'th the one upon which 
the Maine Commissioners have for years founded their 
pleas for fish and gam_e appropriations. Their contention 
has been (see their report for any 3'car) I hat the sports- 
men brought into Maine immen.se sums of money, and 
that because of this considerable and important revenue 
the Leg'slature would be warranted in appropriating 
generous sums for game protection. Was all this revenue 
to the Maine people a pure invention of Commissioner 
Carleton and his associates-? It niust have been if we are 
to credit this_new reasoning that the visitor leaves nothing 
behind^ifm and must be made to disgorge in advance for 
his license. 
H 
Numerous holders of real estate suitable for fi.sh and 
game preserves, who have u.sed the advertising colunms of 
Forest and Stream for bringing their properties to the 
notice of purchasers, have found the agency a very satis- 
factory one. To advertise in this journnl is the simplest 
and most direct way of getting into coiiiiiumication with 
the right parties. The demand for tracts cf land and 
water whi'ch may be used for sporting purposes is greater 
to-day than ever before, and it is continually growing. 
The owners of really desirable tracts may reasonab'y ex- 
pect to dispose of them to individuals and clubs. Many 
people, however, who have farm or wilderness territ-ry 
which is absolutely worthless from a game or fish point 
of view, appear possessed of the notion that when they 
can find no other use whatever for their land, they can 
work it off on sporlsmep for a preserve and I he |>rice 
expected in such cases is usually in inverse ratio to the 
\*orthIeasness of the property. There mu^t be s< incihing 
to a tract whether of land or water, &f»uie native aitriic- 
tion of scenery, md a wtll-detennined adaptability (o the 
support and barlioring gi game, if it is to coui«iend itbel| 
tQ the sportsiiian. - 
