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. 
Si'X Months, $2. 
f 
NEW YORK, SATURDAY, DECEMBER 28, 1901. 
( VOL. LVII.— No. 26. 
(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 
copies, $4 per year, $3 for six months. For club rates and full 
particulars respecting subscriptions, see prospectus on page iii, 
FOREST AND STREAM 
CHRISTMAS READING. 
This is the Christmas issue of Forest and Stream. 
And what a number it is in the wealth, variety and quality 
of its contents. There is here page after page of sketch 
and story, all together giving material for hours of enter- 
tainment. To the man or the woman, who in a tale well 
told likes the flavor of the wild wood fragrance, and for 
whom the printed page is the brighter if it reflects the 
glint of the sunlight on the water, the mail this holiday 
week can bring nothing more acceptable nor more to be 
enjoyed than this notable Christmas number, pervaded . 
throughout with the characteristic qualities of Forest and 
Stream. Here is the list of good things which are pro- 
!/ided to-day, and with them from editors to readers go 
the good wilLand the good wishes of the season: 
N Lusty Manhood Charles Hallock. 
Selling the Bear's Hide Chas. S. Davison. 
A. Man o' the Woods Fayette Durlin. 
5ea Rack William Edward Aitken. 
"asey's Wildcat ...Francis Moonan. 
The Tale of Laulu's Hunt. .Llewella Pierce Churchill. 
ucK WITH A Meat Gun Ransacker. 
'aithful Fido M. M. 
APE Horn .Paul Eve Stevenson. 
J. S. VAN CLEEF. 
The news of the death of J. S. Van Cleef, who died at 
lis home in Poughkeepsie, on Tuesday of last week, came 
o his friends with all the greater shock because the event 
vas so entirely unlocked for. It had been only a few 
lays before that Mr. Van Cleef had sent us the graceful 
ittle tribute to John Burroughs, which was printed in 
)ur last issue; and in his letter accompanying it there 
lad been no intimation of anything to prepare us to look 
or the end which was so near. For more than twenty- 
ive years Mr. Van Cleef contributed out of his rich ex- 
lerience and abundant knowledge of angling and anglers 
ccasional papers for Forest and Stream, and its readers 
lad come to look for the articles with his s'gnature or 
he familiar initials J. S. V. C. He was one of the 
irst fishermen on Catskill Mountain streams, the Wille- 
/emoc and other waters which have since become famous ; 
nd his experience in fishing club affairs and the care 
nd protection of fishing waters was perhaps unequalled, 
le was a man of fine instincts and in his sportsmanship 
f high ideals. His contributions to the work of securing 
3r New York wise fish and game laws were of recognized 
alue ; it was his pen that wrote the game and fish code 
dopted by the legislative committee of 1896. Mr, Van 
"leef's winning personal traits, his great fund of angling 
eminiscences and his broad culture made him a delightful 
ompanion ; and his friendship was one which those who 
/ere privileged to enjoy it learned to value more and 
lore as the years went by. 
To record in these columns to-day the passing of our 
lend is to give to this Christmas number the note of 
adness which with most of us as we grow older and the 
ears of the past with their memories rush in upon us 
lakes up more and more the real spirit of the Christmas 
reek — not the joyousness and the festivities, but the ten- 
et memories, the unavailing regrets and the longings to 
:e once again the vanished faces and to hear once more 
J? voipes that are still. 
A WINTER MORNING. 
The morning is clear and cold, but a light gray mist — 
which is not a fog, but yet obscures the rising sun — 
hangs over the landscape. One may see a long way, yet 
distant objects, which in a clear air would be plainly 
visible, are hidden now. It is bitter cold, the. mercury 
standing just above the zero point, but the air is still. 
From the borders of the ponds in front of the house a 
white sheet of snow-covered ice extends out a few feet 
from the shore, and beyond that is the intense black of 
still water — or possibly of smooth ice. 
On such a morning one may well enough start out to see 
what is astir in the fields and woods. It is too cold for 
much movement in the animal world, yet now and then a 
distant crow may be seen fanning its slow way across the 
sky, or a faint echo of its voice may draw the eye to 
where the dark bird sits perched on the topmost bough 
of some giant chestnut. 
The season for shooting has closed, yet from force of 
habit the observer will tuck his gun under his arm. Then 
he plows his way through the light snow across the 
fields, through the run, and after climbing two or three 
fences he enters the woods and reaches the great warm 
spring which never freezes. Here the water plants always 
grow fresh and succulent, and here always some black 
ducks may be found. This morning there- are none; 
perhaps because the woodchoppers are working a hundred 
yards away, and shout to their patient oxen, which drag 
the creaking sled over the crisp snow ; or the resounding 
blows of axes may have driven the birds from this 
favorite resting place. 
The walker follows down the stream through the 
swamp, parting from before his face the interlacing twigs 
of birch and alder, for on a morning sharp like this, a cut 
from one of these snapping twigs leaves a sting which is 
long felt. For the most part the brook is open, but here 
and there little gravelly points run out from the banks 
over which the flowing water has frozen, and through the 
thin, gray ice, white air bubbles are seen passing down 
over the shallow in a continual procession, and the faint 
ringing of the ice shell is heard as these bubbles escape 
from beneath its edge. Progress through the swamp is 
noiseless, for the dead sticks are avoided and the snow 
mufiles the footfall; yet now and then over some moist 
place the ice breaks with a loud hollow crash and the 
foot sinks through into the oozy mud beneath. 
Here is the place where two partridges have crossed the 
swamp; their footprints are obscured by the lightness of 
the snow ; but the long sweep of the dragging middle toe 
is shown. A little to one side of them is the track of 
the cunning red fox. Well he knows the hopelessness of 
trying to steal upon the ruffed grouse, yet he remembers 
that once in a hundred times this may be done, and he can- 
not resist the temptation to follow the grouses' trail. It 
would profit him more to turn aside and hunt for the 
field mice, whose tracks are numerous at the edges of the 
.woods, unmistakable by their double row of footprints and 
the mark of the dragging tail between. 
Until the ponds are reached no life is seen save now and 
then a belated trout which darts wildly up or down the 
stream, and a solitary bluejay standing in a lone cedar 
tree and looking almost white against his somber back- 
ground. The ponds are frozen over, and what looked 
like open water is black ice three inches thick, but so clear 
that one may look through it as through a water glass, 
and detect each leaf and stone and bit of vegetation on the 
bottom of the ponds. 
Crossing other fields, climbing other fences, he comes 
to another part of this same brook. Here are more trails 
of rabbits and partridges and foxes, and here while in 
the thickest of the alders and slowly making his way 
along the brook, a splashing in an unseen reach beyond 
causes him to stand at a ready, and presently, two hun- 
dred yards away, a great and glorious mallard duck 
swings by, his head shining green and gold in the morning 
sunshine that by this time has dissipated the gray mist 
It is fine to see the great bird fly off on robust wing, and 
the disappointment of not getting a shot at him is not 
hard to bear. He disappears at last in the distance. 
Though it is still cold enough, the continued exercise 
has warmed every part of the body, and the Wood courses 
briskly to the tips of fingers and tO€s. The sky is clear, 
the sun bright, th^ air windless; absolute silence '\s all 
about and it is very ples^sant to be abroad- At length a 
foad is r^ch^, the brook crossed, and followed up on 
the other side. Other swamps are entered, some cold, 
dark and gloomy, others bright with sunlight, which 
plays on the brilliant snow beneath the naked branches of 
the tall forest trees. Here there are other signs of the 
life that was astir last night, or in the early morning, and 
at one place two black ducks startled by a neighbor's 
dog rise from the brook far ahead and swing about and 
go off unshot at. 
And when a little later the house is reached, one ieels 
that the hours spent in the swamp have not been wasted. 
CORNELL'S ADIRONDACK FORESTRY. 
The Association of Residents on Upper Saranac Lake 
in the Adirondacks has, through counsel, petitioned the 
Attorney-General of New York to institute proceedings 
to prevent the further destruction of the timber on the 
tract*of forest land in the Saranac region which was pro- 
vided by the Legislature in 1898 for the use of the Cornell 
College of Forestry. This land was bought by the State 
specifically for the purpose of experimental scientific 
forestry by Cornell. It consists of 30,000 acres in Frank- 
lin county. In July of 1900 Cornell entered into a con- 
tract with a cooperage company for the sale of the tim- 
ber on the land, the contract to extend for a period of not 
less than fifteen years, and the company has erected near 
Tupper Lake a stave and heading factory to utilize the 
logs, and a wood alcohol plant for the cordwood. A rail- 
road has been constructed to transport the lumber, neces- 
sitating the clearing of a tract of over four miles long and 
25 yards wide. Logging operations on the tract were be- 
gun in July of Jast year, and in his last report to the 
Legislature Director Fernow stated that 500 acres of land 
had been denuded and 75 acres had been planted. 
In their petition the Adirondack protestants review what 
they claim to be the destruction of the trees and the de- 
struction of the forests as a water reservoir; and they 
demand that the further work of the College of Forestry 
be prevented. They ma.ke the point that the acquirement 
of the land by the State for Cornell was unconstitutional, 
because the State Constitution provides that neither State 
credit nor funds shall be used in aid of corporations 
or private undertakings. It is urged further that inas- 
much as the appropriation by the Legislature for the pur- 
chase of the land was made to continue "the acquisi- 
tion of lands in the Adirondacks," the tract thus acquired 
must come within the provision of the Constitution which 
protects the wild lands owned by the State and forbids 
the cutting of any timber on them. 
In reply to this petition of the Adirondack residents, the 
authorities of Cornell say that they are actually carrying 
out on the territory under consideration a scheme of 
scientific forestry, the benefits of which, while not to be 
reaped by the present generation, nor possibly by that 
which is to follow, will in time prove of the highest use- 
fulness and practical good to the State by demonstrating 
the system of forestry best adapted to the Adirondack 
region. They contend that while it is true that they are 
selling the lumber, they are obliged to do this because the 
State has intrusted to them the task of this experiment 
in scientific forestry without having provided sufficient 
means for its operation, and that the cutting of timber 
has been done wisely and with a single view to the ulti- 
mate advantage of the region as a forest preserve. And 
they add that the constitutional points involved have 
already been determined in the courts in a way which 
sustains the Legislature in having devoted the lands to 
this purpose. 
There are men whose only dissatisfaction with their 
lot is that' they were born too late in history to have an 
opportunity to hunt buffalo. They got here after the 
buffalo had gone. There is a new ten-dollar bill which has 
on its face the buffalo pictured as he pranced on the plains 
of the past. To those who repine because they may not 
hunt the buffalo on the prairie might be recommende<i 
for alleviation of their discontent a pursuit of this buffalf 
on the bill, iritespective of seasons or limitations as 
number taken in one season. ' 
Next week we shall print what its contributor charac 
terizes as "the most remarkable story that has ever cot^ 
out of the Maine linnting woods"— an estimate in whj^ 
the reader will CopcUT« ^ 
