Forest and Stream 
A W 
eekly Journal of the Rod and 
, Copyright, 1902, by Forest and Stream Publishing Co. 
G 
UN. 
Terms, $4 a Year. 10 Cts. a Copy. (_ 
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NEW YORK, SATURDAY, MARCH 22, 1902. 
j VOL. LVIII.-No. 12. 
■) No. 346 Broadway, New York 
The Fork st 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 
nages 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, $2 for six months. For club rates and full 
particulars respecting subscriptions, see prospectus on page iii. 
A GAME REFUGE BILL. 
The agitation begun more than a year ago by Forest 
and Stream in behalf of the establishment of game 
refuges in the forest reserves has brought forth fruit 
in a bill recently introduced in the House of Representa- 
tives by the Hon. John F. Lacey, of Iowa. It is entitled 
"A bill to transfer certain forest reserves to the control 
of the Department of Agriculture to authorize game and 
fish protection in forest reserves and for other purposes."' 
The first section authorizes the President to transfer 
by executive order any of the forest reserves to the 
control of the Department of Agriculture, whenever the 
Secretary of the Interior and the Director of the 
Geological Survey shall certify that the boundaries of the 
reserve have~been examined and are by them deemed 
to be substantially the permanent boundaries. 
In Section 2, the President is authorized to set apart 
such forest reserves or parts thereof as he may deem 
proper for fish and game preserves, and the Department 
in control of the reserve shall make such rules and regu- 
lations as may be necessary for the protection and care 
of the animals, birds and fish therein, and may provide 
for their being taken or killed. But no forest reserve 
shall be set apart for this purpose within any State 
unless the Governor of such State shall in writing request 
this action. 
Sections 3 and 4 provide that the department having 
charge of the reserve shall assist in the enforcement of 
the game and fish laws of the State or Territory in which 
the reserve is situated. The Secretary of the Department 
controlling the reserve may establish preserves for the 
breeding and perpetuation of the bison or other American 
animals, and may transfer to that preserve any native 
game animals which he may deem in danger of extermina- 
tion. Persons violating any Federal or departmental 
regulation concerning forest reserves, or game or fish 
protection thereon, may be arrested without warrants 
either at the time of the first commission or "in hot pur- 
suit thereafter," and taken -before the most convenient 
United States Court or Commissioner for trial. 
Sections 6 and 7 provide penalties for violation of the 
regulations, including fine and imprisonment or confisca- 
tion of goods or all three. Sections 8 and 9 have to do 
with costs and expenses and with the jurisdiction of the 
local officers as to offenses other than those prescribed in 
the department regulations. 
Many of the provisions of this bill are excellent, and 
even if it does not go so far as some game protectors 
would like, it probably very fairly represents the existing 
feeling on the subject. It is of the greatest importance 
that a public sentiment in support of this bill should 
be created throughout the land, and especially in that 
portion of the West where the reserves lie, and among 
the people who live nearest them and so will be chiefly 
affected by the changes proposed. Persons interested in 
the matter should write their Representatives in Congress 
urging favorable action on the bill (H. R. 11,536). 
Another bill introduced by Mr. Lacey empowers the 
Secretary of Agriculture' to authorize the importation of 
eggs of game birds for propagation and to prescribe the 
necessary rules and regulations governing the importa- 
tion of the eggs of said birds for such purpo=° 
This is an admirable measure. 
It will be recalled that a number of years ago Congress 
enacted a law forbidding the importation of the eggs of 
wild birds. This law was passed as a result of the 
grotesque yarn put in circulation by a number , of sup- 
posed game protectors to the effect that millions, ship 
loads and train loads of wildfowl eggs were annually 
gathered in Alaska and British America and shipped to 
points in the East, where they were made into egg albu- 
men cake. As a matter of fact, there never was any 
such traffic, and the whole matter was exposed by the 
rest and Stream in the year 1895. The law having 
gone on the statute book, however, it has for seven years 
or more, been impossible to import from European coun- 
tries the eggs of pheasants, partridges, black game or 
capercailzie, to' be hatched out here for the stocking of 
American preserves. It is high time that this oppressive 
law should be repealed, and that under proper regulations 
people should be permitted to import these eggs, as Mr. 
Lacey' s bill provides may be done. 
MOUNTAIN SHEEP AND DOMESTIC SHEEP. 
'About this time" one sees in the newspapers the not 
unfamiliar statement that our old friend Buffalo Jones 
is about to start off to capture some wild animal which 
he proposes to domesticate. This time he is said to be 
going to Colorado to capture mountain sheep, which he 
intends to cross with domestic sheep in the hope of mak- 
ing a mutton animal more valuable than the one we have 
at present. Sheep are protected in Colorado, but the 
protection seems to read only against the killing, and 
since by the statute all wild game is distinctly asserted to 
be the property of the State, it seems probable that the 
Game Commissioner has the power to grant permits for 
the capture of wild sheep for purposes of domestication 
and perhaps for export alive from the State. There are 
some States which specifically forbid the export of moun- 
tain sheep, dead or alive, for any purpose whatever. 
The superabundant energy and vitality of Mr. Jones 
will find a fitting outlet in the business of capturing moun- 
tain sheep, but we could wish that he would capture them 
for a better purpose. We have seen in our time a con- 
siderable number of hybrids between the domestic and the 
wild sheep, and they have invariably been animals with 
the good qualities of neither parent. As a rule they are 
rather leggy animals, slightly taller than the domestic 
sheep, but nowhere nearly approaching the mountain 
sheep in beauty, size or weight. The coat is largely of 
hair, but a few ragged flocks of wool— in the summer 
season — dangle from the little animal's sides. The horns 
are slightly larger than those of the domestic ram and 
offer no suggestion of the great head of the mountain 
sheep. 
The experiments proposed, if they should ever be 
carried out, would be of great interest; and it is barely 
possible, though, in our view, by no means probable, that 
they might have some practical results. 
THE ADIRONDACK FORESTS. 
Senator Brown's bill providing for an amendment of 
the forestry section of the Constitution passed the Senate 
of the New York Legislature last week, presumably by 
the votes of a number of members who had no proper 
appreciation of the meaning and effect of the measure. 
The text of the proposed amendment is this : 
The Legislature may authorize the sale and removal of hemlock, 
spruce, pine, balsam or other soft woods, if more than ten inches 
in diameter three feet from the ground. The proceeds of such 
sales shall be set apart in a separate fund, known as the forest 
preserve fund, and shall be used only to care for and extend the 
forests of the State in the forest preserve. Koads may be built 
in the forest preserve, but franchises shall not be granted for rail- 
roads or street surface railroads upon or across any part of the 
forest preserve, nor shall such railroads be maintained. 
In a published statement of the reasons which he 
thinks should justify this step in the public mind, Senator 
Brown says that there is on the State lands a vast supply 
of forest products "which man has a natural right to 
acquire and enjoy at its market value," and that the 
waste of these products is unjustifiable unless essential 
to prevent the destruction of the forests. And he thinks 
that the time has now come when the soft woods may he 
utilized without injury to the forests, because public in- 
telligence has been awakened with respect to the forests, 
and the people could be depended upon to constitute a 
committee of safety to control legislation and to prevent 
forest waste, depredation or injury. The pertinent reply 
to this reasoning is well put in the memorial addressed to 
the Legislature by the New York Board of Trade and 
Transportation, which we print elsewhere. The answer 
is that eternal vigilance on the part of the people is the 
price of their forests, and the people forget to exercise 
that eternal vigilance. It is just here that the danger 
lies; and under these conditions the people of New York 
can much better afford to lose a possible revenue from 
soft woods and keep their forests intact, than to receive 
an income from the pulp industry at the cost of the ruin 
which will follow in the wake of lumbering operations. 
Senator Brown's bill, if carried into effect, would turn 
the lumbermen loose in the North Woods to cut "hem- 
lock, spruce, pine, balsam or other soft woods, if more 
than ten inches in diameter three feet from the ground." 
There is no hint of any official control of the lumbering 
operations; and what results would ensue every man, 
woman and child who has seen Adirondack "lumbered" 
tracts may picture. The proceeds derived from the sale 
of this lumber and set apart for the forest preserve could 
not begin to repair the damage inflicted — it would be irre- 
parable. 
No such proposition as this should become law. The 
public interest demands the defeat of the Brown bill. 
The Forest and Stream's position with respect to Mr. 
Brown's measure is not in conflict with its advocacy of 
a scientific administration of the State lands. 
NEW YORK ZOOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 
A bill recently passed by the New York Legislature 
amends the charter of the New York Zoological Society, 
and grants it enlarged powers. It is now permitted to 
"control zoological parks, gardens or other collections 
for the promotion of zoology and kindred subjects, and 
for the instruction and recreation of the people. Said 
corporation may collect, hold and expend funds for zoo- 
logical research and publication, for the protection of 
wild animal life and for kindred purposes, and may 
promote, form and co-operate with other associations 
with similar purposes, and may purchase, sell or ex- 
change animals, plants and specimens appropriate to the 
objects for which it was created." 
This enlargement of the powers of the Zoological So- 
ciety is eminently proper and is for the advantage of 
the association, and so of the New York public. As is 
well understood, this corporation is substantially a 
charitable institution, which is managing its park and 
its collections solely for the public benefit. It carries on 
no money-making business, its funds come chiefly from 
contributions by its members, and are expended in such 
a way as to give instruction and pleasure to the residents 
of this city and to those people who may visit it. Its 
managers are animated by public spirit, by a desire to 
give to New York a zoological park which shall be worthy 
of the city, and by an enthusiasm for zoological research 
which makes it appear to them of the highest importance 
to get together as rapidly as possible a collection of living 
wild animals which all may admire, and some may study. 
THE NEW YORK AQUARIUM. 
The capacity of the New York Aquarium as a place ot 
popular entertainment and instruction, and as a laboratory 
for the study of marine life has been as yet by no means 
fully developed. Under the direction of Dr. Tarleton H. 
Bean, the Aquarium was administered in a most admir- 
able way to secure the first of these ends — public enter- 
tainment and instruction; but Dr. Bean's term of service 
was too brief for him to carry into practical effect all that 
he had planned to make the Aquarium as a. station for 
scientific research. It is a familiar story how the 
Aquarium was made the spoil of politics by the deposi- 
tion of Dr. Bean to make room for a political heeler. 
There now appears to be a prospect that it may once more 
come under a control which shall be enlightened, intelli- 
gent and public spirited, and that the institution may 
be restored to its former condition and may take its place 
among the important marine laboratories of the world. 
We suggested long ago that the Aquarium should be 
under the direction of some body wholly independent of. 
politics, as, for example, the Board of Trustees which 
controls the American Museum of Natural History. Just 
such a desirable condition will be attained if the bill which 
was introduced into the Legislature on Monday of this 
week to put the Aquarium in charge of the New York 
Zoological Society shall become a law. The bill provides 
that the Board of Estimate and Apportionment of the 
City of New York may appropriate a further sum of 
$50,000 for the use of the Zoological Society, provided that 
an agreement shall be entered into between the Society 
and the city for the adequate maintenance, extension, 
preservation and exhibition of the Aquarium, and for 
furnishing opportunities for study, research and publica- 
tion in connection with the collection. The passage of 
this bill will put the Aquarium in the hands of that 
best fitted to administer it, 
