Forest and Stream 
A Weekly Journal of the Rod and Gun. 
Copyright, 1903, hv Forest and Stream Publishing Co. 
Terms, f4 a Year. 10 Cts. a Copy. 
Six Months, S2. 
[ NEW YORK, SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 14, 1903. 
i VOL. LX.— No. 1. 
I No. 846 Broadway, New York. 
THE FUR SEALS. 
For several years there has been before Congress a bill 
empowermg the President of the United States to en- 
deavor to reopen negotiations with the British Government 
for the purpose of putting an end to pelagic sealing and 
affording better protection to the fur seal herd of the 
Pribilof Islands. A bill (H. R. 133387) entitled "An Act 
to Prevent the Extermination of Fur-Bearing Animals in 
Alaska and for other purposes," with amendments, 
authorizes the President to open negotiations with Great 
Britain to conclude a modus vivcndi with that Govern- 
ment, whereby the killing of fur seals on land or sea 
hy subjects of either Government shall be prohibited — 
except a few hundred young male seals annually for the 
food of the natives — and if these negotiations shall fail 
and a modus vivendi shall not be concluded, and regula- 
tions to preserve the Alaskan seal herds shiill not be put 
in operation, then the President is authorized to kill all 
the fur seals on the Pribilof Islands, except ten thousand 
females and one thousand males. The bill passed the 
House last week. 
The ground taken by the advocates of this measure is 
that by pelagic sealing — ^^vhich means the killing of 
females and the annual starvation of many thousands of 
pups— the Alaskan fur seal herd is being surely exter- 
minated ; that the completion of this process is near at 
hand and that it will be more humane to destroy the herd 
at once than to let it perish by driblets, and in large part 
by the cruel method of starvation. Incidentally, it appears 
to be believed that the threat to kill off the seals will force 
Great Britain to negotiate for regulations which will bet- 
ter protect the seal. 
The bill appears to be permissive, not mandatory; and 
if it should become law it would be for the President to 
decide what action should be taken in the matter. 
What the fate of the bill will be when it reaches the 
Senate cannot be known, but in view of the nearness of 
adjournment, it may be doubted whether any action will 
be taken on it. 
PIGEON SHOOTING. 
It is a fact that from the trapshooter's viewpoint the 
sport of trapshooting is likely to have added legal limita- 
tions. The outlook for it in the United States, so far as 
tests, of skill on live birds at the traps are concerned, 
seems to be exceedingly cloudy for the year 1903. 
The Legislatures of some of the States are bestirring 
themselves actively against it, while others view it askance 
with unfriendly ej'e. 
If we consider that Legislatures, as a rule, voice the 
sentiments of the people, the fact cannot be ignored 
lhat there must be some profound public sentiment forc- 
ing and supporting the legislative hostility and activity 
in reference to pigeon shooting at the traps. The hos- 
tility is most persistently in action, and is spreading over 
ever increasing areas. Forces are at Avork which are con- 
stantly active and uncompromising in this matter. - Vic- 
tory in one State does not end the matter. It is but a 
stepping-stone to victory in several other States. 
To one who has given the subject any thought, it is 
self-evident that the purpose of the anti-pigeon shooters 
is the abolition of live bird shooting at the traps through- 
out the United States. The hostile forces are powerfully 
org^ized and powerfully supported. The S. P. C. A. 
Societies of the different States are the central organiza- 
tions, vested with legal powers which give them great 
prestige and force in accomplishing their purposes. They 
are reinforced with a strong public sentiment, as shown 
ty the unanimity of the daily press in denouncing the 
sport of pigeon shooting, and warmly indorsing legislation 
against it. While some of the opposition to live bird 
shooting has its source in demagogism, there is undoubt- 
edly much of it which is genuine. When an issue grows 
from local into national interest, persisting from year to 
year, it is absurd to maintain that it is insincere, or unim- 
portant, or ephemeral. 
Last year live bird shooting at the traps was practically 
made illegal in the State of New York by the repeal of 
the law which specifically sanctioned it. The issue had 
been carried over from the Legislature of the previous 
year. The anti-pigeon shooters won. . 
Last year the New Jersey Legislature had the matter 
of live bird shooting at the traps under consideration, 
byt np 4w4ed action was taken on it. This year tlie 
anti-pigeon shooters had an anti-pigeon shooting bill be- 
fore the New Jersey Legislature almost as soon as the 
.session began, and it has now progressed so far as to be 
considered by the committee which has it in charge. 
Several other States have the matter under consid- 
eration more or less formally, or informally, and are 
likely at any time to prohibit it. 
So long as the trapshooters remain unorganized po- 
litically or as trapshooters, they cailnot hope to make 
good their contention when opposed by organized bodies, 
by public sentiment and by the daily press. 
The history of past struggles on this issue shows that the 
trapshooters do not consider the matter important enough 
to make of it a P9litical issue. In fact, many of them, 
who jipprove of it, would not care to make it a matter of 
public discussion at all, as while they believe in the 
sport as being good, they do not consider it important 
enough to make of it a political issue. If it is prohibited, 
there are still many other forms of shooting left. 
Without any formal organization or general unity of ac- 
tion, the trapshooters whose fancy is competition on live 
birds as obj ects on which to test their skill, cannot hope to 
stem the tide of public sentiment as shown by the hostile 
action of State Legislatures. If the lawmakers suspend 
action at one session of the Legislature concerning live 
bird shooting, it is simply a postponement of the issue 
lill the next session, if history concerning this matter is 
true data by which to judge. 
REFUGES FOR BIG GAME. 
The importance of preserving from utter extinction the 
large mammals of the world is coming to be more and 
more appreciated. In this country it is at present a senti- 
ment cherished only by certain advanced thinkers ; but in 
portions of Africa, ruled by the British, it has already 
become an established fact. We in America who call our- 
selves a practical people are usually found far behind the 
British in matters which relate to the protection of game 
and fish. In certain portions of Africa, it is true, some 
great and marvelous mammals, like the white rhinoceros 
and the elephant, have become absolutely extinct, just as 
on the western plains our buffalo has been exterminated; 
but the disappearance of the African species stirred the 
British to action, positive and definite; while we Ameri- 
cans, who prate constantly of our practicality, only talk 
about what ought to be done. We would rather have a 
thousand buffalo robes to-day than the herd of a thousand 
l.uiffalo and all the increase they would give us through 
all the coming generations. In this we resemble the 
Indians and other primitive people. 
That we here in America have ready to our hand a 
means of preserving practically every species of large 
mammal that is not actually extinct is well understood. 
In the vast area of our western forest reservations, which 
have been wisely set aside by Presidential proclamation, 
there is room for a number of game refuges, which, if 
wisely chosen, would afford ample room, and give summer 
and winter range for all the species of great game in- 
digenous to this country. The abundance, the tameness, 
and the rapid increase of game in the Yellowstone Park 
furnishes perpetual argument in favor of establishing in 
all our forest reservations refuges where game should be 
absolutely safe from pursuit by man, and where, if pro- 
tected from that pursuit, they would increase with mar- 
velous rapidity; and, as they increased, would overflow 
into the surrounding country and furnish hunting to 
American riflemen for all time to come. 
If the facts as to the increase and tameness of game in 
the Yellowstone Park are not convincing, many similar 
examples might be cited of the rapidity with which large 
mammals, even though slow breeders, increase when not 
pursued by man. 
An example of this in Forest and Stbeam only a few 
weeks ago was cited in the rapidity with which the horse, 
a large mammal, without natural enemies, increased dur- 
ing the first two and a half centuries of its existence on 
this continent, spreading as it did over almost all portions 
of North and South America that were best adapted to 
its mode of life. On many of the islands of the western 
and southern seas, fur seals formerly occurred in num- 
bers too vast for estimate; but as soon as the destroyer 
man got among them he slew them in so wholesale a 
manner that from most of their haunts they soon disap- 
peared. In a few places, however, their taking, being in 
a measure regulated by th? goyeriiment owning the 
islands, they have continued to exist in niimbers almost as 
large as ever; and so long as only the surplus non- 
breeding seals were killed the supply always kept up. At 
the time of the transfer of the Pribilof Islands from Rus- 
sia to the United States, there was a short period when 
there was no law enforced, and during this time there was 
?. rush of hunters there, which, if they had not fought 
among themselves, would have resulted in the extinction 
of the fur seals there. As it was, they were killed down 
very low ; yet after a few years of protection they became 
once more as numerous as ever. Other cases have 
occurred where the seals have apparently all been killed 
off from some hauling ground that once contained great 
numbers, which has therefore been deserted by sealers for 
a number of years ; and later visitors have found that 
some small surviving remnant being undisturbed have so 
greatly increased as once more to furnish large catches 
of skins. '■ 
In certain restricted localities in South Africa, even the 
greatest of mammals has shown what protection will do 
for it. South of the Zambesi and Cunene rivers the 
African elephant is practically extinct. Ivory hunters, 
the natives, and cold-blooded butchers, who loved - to 
slaughter the vast brutes, have swept that country, in 
which they once abounded, absolutely bare of these great 
beasts. But about the year 1830 the British Government 
prohibited the killing of wild elephants in Cape Colony. 
There is no known animal against whose increase and 
survival so much might be urged as the elephant. Its 
vast bulk, the length of time that it carries its young, and 
the fact that it produces but a single offspring at a birth, 
would lead us to imagine that this was the one anitnal that 
it was hopeless to try to protect. Nevertheless, in Cape 
Colony, in the great forests which exist within a few miles 
of the towns of Port Elizabeth and Mitehagen, great 
troops of wild elephants are found to-day, although "after 
leaving there one may travel to the northward fifteen hun- 
dred miles without seeing a single elephant track. This 
is the result of absolute protection, and if this protection, 
is continued it is not to be doubted that Cape Colony will 
have elephants long after they have become extinct over 
most parts of Africa. ~ 
In our game birds, and in some of our fur-bearing ani- 
mals, we have many similar examples of what freedom 
from molestation by man will do for a species. In certain 
of the Eastern States the quail or the partridges . period- 
ically are hunted down so near the point of extinction 
that it is impossible to get them. The gunners having 
learned after a year or two that there are no quail in the 
locality, cease to go out to look for them and wholly 
abandon their pursuit. No longer being molested, the 
birds increase in numbers, and suddenly the gunners be- 
come aware of the fact that there are more birds in the 
neighborhood than there ever were before. Then the 
pursuit is resumed, the birds are once more killed down 
almost to the point of extinction, and are again neglected 
until they have again increased. 
There has never been so good an opportunity as the 
present offers to establish in the mountains and on the 
high dry plateaux of the West, refuges for big game 
which shall insure for future generations the existence 
of the animals that we in recent times have known so 
well. Such refuges should be set aside by Presidential 
proclamation, and their boundaries should be determined 
by competent authorities. There is now before the Senate 
a bill authorizing the President to do just this thing; and 
if this bill shall pass, we may feel sure that he will act on 
it just as promptly as possible. Himself a keen sports- 
man and ardent game protector, and the founder of the 
Boone and Crockett Club, he, better than most men, ap- 
preciates the importance of doing at once something for 
the preservation of game. Moreover, he himself has so 
good a knowledge of portions of the western country, 
and so good a knowledge of the men most familiar with 
the various parts of the West, that we may feel sure of 
the wisdom with which he would act in this matter if 
Congress should give him the power to act. 
There remain but a few days of the session, and it is 
perhaps too much to hope that in those few days Congress 
should take any action on a matter of this kind; yet we 
are convinced that but a short time will elapse biefore this 
will be done, to the very great benefit of sportsmen at 
large, and to the still greater benefit of every State and 
Territory in which one »f these garne r?fug^| sh^U havf 
been establishcfl 
