Forest and Stream 
A Weekly Journal of the Rod and 
CopvEiGHT, 190!? BY Forest and Stream Publishing Co. 
Gun. 
Terms, f4 a Year. 10 Cts. a Copy. 
Six Months, $2. 
i 
NEW YORK, SATURDAY, JANUARY 17, 1903. 
VOL. LX.— No. 8. 
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 whicii its 
cages are devoted. Anonymous communications will not be re- 
garded. While it is intended to give wide latitude in discussion 
of current tonics, the editors are not responsible for the views of 
coiTespondents. 
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. 
THE YELLOWSTONE PARK. 
Foti some weeks inlerviews credited to one James Ful- 
kfton, "of Montana," making charges of mismanagement 
of affairs in the Yellowstone Park, have been going the 
rounds of tke pBJ?erSt These charges, so far as printed, 
arc crrtirely A^ague and without particulars. At the same 
lime they may, perhaps, make some impression on people 
Linfamiliar with the Park and its history, and should 
therefoi"e receive attention. Fullerton is reported to have 
written a letter to the President, repeating to him the 
charges so liberally scattered about in the newspapers. 
As it happen.s, Fnllcrton, a long time before he got into 
the new.spapers, visited the office of Forest and Stream 
and made verbally the charges that have since been 
printed. He talked with ns freely and at length. We 
l:ave been familiar with the Yellowstone Park for be- 
tween twenty-five and thirty years, have kept close watch 
on the reserva,tion. have crossed it many times in all 
directions, aiid up to within a few years perhaps knew it 
as thoroughly as almost anyone. Fiillerton's statements 
abon't mismanagement on the part of army officers sta- 
tioned in the Park and as to abuses existing there were 
general; questiojis' were^asked him, and when an effort 
was made to bring him down to specific statements of 
fact in detail, it was found that he had no facts to give — 
that he was talking of matters of which he knew nothing. 
He talked like a man without any knowledge whatever of 
the reservation, but who had picked up a lot of the old 
gossip that continues to float about in the neighborhood 
of the Park, or like one who had been primed with a lot of 
old stories by some one whose feelings were hostile to the 
Park or to those who are administering it. 
The Forest and Stream has been deeply interested in 
the Park and in its preservation since the year l88o or 
ibercaliouts. It is anxious to have the reservation well 
administered, and it wishes to know if anything is going 
wrong there. And while the utmost surprise was felt that 
any criticism should be made • of officers of such high 
standing and such eminent abilities as Major John 
Pitcher and Capt. H. M. Chittenden, nevertheless a patient 
effort was made to learn from Fullerton just what he 
knew. At the close of an interview lasting some time the 
conclusion was forced upon us that Fullerton knew 
nothing, that he was repeating a lot of traditionary 
gossip, much of it many years old, and was telling about 
things that are reported to have happened between the 
years iS8o and 1890. 
Among the foolish statements made by Fullerton was 
one that Soo elk had been killed for their teeth, at one 
time and in one place, in the Park. Such a statement 
carries its own contradiction to anyone who knows any- 
thing of the habits of elk or of the possibilities of killing 
them. 
The whole matter is one of absolutely no importance, 
the charges being made b}^ a person Avho is entirely un- 
worthy of credit or attention. Yet, since these charges 
have had a more or less wide currency it seems best flatly 
to deny their truth and to declare the irresponsibility of 
the person who made them. Major John Pitcher and 
Capt. Chittenden are, as is well known, men of the high- 
est standing and need no backing from ani^one. 
F.ach of them can stand on Ha own record. At the same 
time it is fitting that public witness should be borne to the 
admirable work that each has done in his own line in the 
Yellowstone Park. Major Pitcher has succeeded in 
changing the sentiment of the inhabitants of Montana and 
NV^yoming near the Park from one of destructive hostility 
to the Park to one of pride in it. They now wish to pro- 
tect it and to support the authorities there. In the engi- 
neering work Capt. Chittenden has done the utmost pos- 
sible with the means at his command. If engineering 
mistakes have been made in the past — prior to his ap- 
pointment in charge of the Park roads— it has not been 
due to any fault on the part of the engineering officers in 
charge there, but to the parsimony of Congress, which 
has refused to provide funds to build proper roads, 
making it necessary to construct makeshifts. 
A VIRGLYL4 NON-EXPORT LAW. 
Among the game protective bills in the Virginia Legis- 
lature is a measure to prohibit the exportation of game, 
except that the non-resident sportsman may carry with 
him a reasonable amount, to be accompanied by him in 
transport. The anti-export law as here outlined would 
be inost admirable, and in adopting the system Virginia 
would be following the examples of numerous other 
States, in all of which the limitation of the export privi- 
lege to the owner of the game has been of very great 
benefit. To cut off the marketing of game, as experience 
has proved wherever the plan has been tried, is the most 
effective expedient of game protection. Stop the sale of 
game, prevent its shipment to market, and on the instant 
the problem of protection is so simplified that the solution 
■"is easy. The killing for market consumption is a factor 
.so considerable that to suppress it is to accomplish ninc- 
tcnths of the work of protection. This is not theory; it 
is a simple statement of what has been demonstrated in 
the actual experience of more than one Stat.e. If Vir- 
ginia shall adopt the plan, and make necessary provision 
for enforcing the law, the same beneficent results will fol- 
low there. 
We learn that an effort has been made to have wild- 
fowl exempted from the application of the non-export 
Ifw. To do this would be to commit a great mistake. 
A-^irginia wildfowl demand protection quite as much as 
any of the other species and should be given full benefit 
of the anti-export law. The ducks are in a peculiar de- 
gree the prey of the market-hunter. The destructive de- 
vices of big-gun and night-light are employed by the gun- 
ners who slaughter fowl fur export to the game dealer. 
The enforcement of the non-exportation law as ap- 
plied to wildfowl would go very far to suppress the use 
of big-guns and the night-shooting which are among 
the chief abuses with which the authorities have to cope; 
it would accomplish this end because when the market- 
ing is done away with the chief incentive to these modes 
of slaughter is removed. 
We trust that Virginia may adopt the proposed non- 
export game law, and that its provisions inay be extended 
to wildfowl. 
A movement is on foot to improve the guide service in 
the Laurentian district north of Quebec. The guides there 
are Indians, half breeds and French Canadians, and they 
are not educated up to a standard of proficiency that com- 
])ares with that of Maine guides. A few who do con- 
siderable hunting and trapping in the winter months are 
good hunters and fairly familiar with the handling of a 
canoe, but the majoritj^ are simply carriers without 
knowledge of the countr}^ or a canoe, and sadly lacking 
in what may be termed "guide duties." 
There are some fifteen clubs in this district, the rights 
being leased to ,them by the government. The Triton 
Club, leasing some seven hundred square miles, about 
one hundred miles north of Quebec, has appointed a com- 
mittee whose duties are to raise the standard of men who 
serve as guides in that district. It is the scheme to have 
committees appointed by each club and to have these 
committees w^ork together under a general plan. 
Success will be slow in coining even under the best of 
conditions, but the movement is a good one and should 
receive the hearty support of all the clubs of that district. 
Every club member should take a personal interest in 
this step forward. 
Communications from any club members, bearing sug- 
gestions or criticisms will be thankfully received by An- 
drew G. Weeks, Jr., No. 8 Congress street, Boston, acting 
for the committee of the Triton Club. 
H 
The statistics of the deer shipped from the Adiron- 
dacks last year appear to show an increase in the supply 
there. The shipments of carcasses and saddles in 1900 
were 1,109; in 1901, 1,165, and in 1902, 1,477. This means, 
if the figures are correct, that the conditions which now 
rule in the North Woods are favorable for the continu- 
ance of the deer supply, and the tabulation prepared 
by Secretary Whish demonstrates what has recently been 
shown on Long Island, in Vermont and Massachusetts, 
that if the deer is given the necessary immunity 
the stock will replenish itself generously. Under right 
conditions we may breed our wild deer like our domestic 
sheep, and there is no good i-eason why the permanent 
and abundant supply of one should not be as well assured 
as of the other. It is safe to say thatj after the ex- 
perience of New York, Vermont, Massachusetts and Con- 
necticut in the protection of deer, and the repeated 
demonstration of the increase following protection, 
in all these States we shall have the species in pef- 
petuity. ^ 
Among the changes proposed for Michigan is an 
amendment which will give the non-resident sportsman 
the privilege of taking home a deer. Michigan is now 
among the States which exact a good round license fee 
from the shooter who crosses the line, yet churlishly de- 
ny him the satisfaction of carrying his game back with 
him. The plan now proposed is much more reasonable, 
and is nothing more than just. That it is not in conflict 
with good protection is sufficiently demonstrated by its 
operation in many States which permit the export of 
game in limited amount when accompanied by the owner. 
In his message to the New Y''ork Legislature, Governor 
Odell shows a want of clear understanding of the abuse 
of special game and fish laws. In one sentence he depre- 
cates the enactment of special laws and in another recom- 
mends that county supervisors, under direction of the 
commission, shall be given authority to make special laws 
at will. He says : 
Amendments to the game laws, special amendments to the 
charters of villages and cities, should be discouraged, and relief 
afforded through general enactments whenever and wherever prac- 
ticable. The Legislature could well afford, under the direction 
of the Forest, Fish and Game Commission, to accord to the 
boards of supervisors the right to regulate, under a general statute, 
the game laws for their own particular localities. 
The authority Governor Odell would confer upon super- 
visors is something they once had and used so well that 
they got the game and fish laws of the State into inex- 
tricable confusion. Local legislation became such a 
nuisance that in 1886 the State spent some thousands of 
dollars to pay for a codification of the statutes, and took 
away the authority of the supervisors. Since then the 
laws have been made at Albany, and the changed order 
has been satisfactory in its operation. To restore the old 
system of special legislation by the supervisors would 
mean to bring back the old confusion and insure a con- 
dition which the Governor himself justly deprecates. 
■t 
In his message to the IMaine Legislature, Governor 
ITill recommends the adoption of a non-resident license 
tax. Public opinion in the State has been in large degree 
influenced by the misleading figures put out by Commis- 
sioner Carleton, and is said to indorse the scheme of tax- 
ing the visiting sportsmen. Among many of the guides 
the feeling prevails that their patrons would be quite 
willing to pay a license fee, which would be a small item 
in comparison with the total outlay which an excursion 
to Maine already involves. The probabilities are that the 
Legislature will adopt the measure. Meanwhile the 
wholesale consumption of venison in lumber camps will 
g'O on ; and we may not \oo\ for any change in the quali- 
ties of a commission which reserves to itself the option of 
punishing game law violators or not punishing them, as 
the authorities may elect. One thing that would go far to 
advance the cause of protection in Maine to-day would 
be the existence of a game commission in whose absolute 
impartiality and official straightforwardness guides and 
the public and the visiting sportsmen could have implicit 
confidence. 
m 
The Department of Agriculture Biological Survey, 
v^hich is engaged in extensive study to determine the 
food habits of birds, has been devoting some attention to 
game birds "to ascertain the true economic position of the 
different members of this group in order to determine to 
what extent their preservation is demanded by reasons 
other than those founded upon their value as food or the 
desire to kill them for sport." Dr. Judd has been pursu- 
ing the investigation, and it is announced that a bulle- 
tin will shortly be~ issued detailing the results of his 
studies of the grouse and the woodcock. Other bulletins 
to follow will treat of the food of waterfowl and shore 
birds. 
