Forest and Stream 
a Weekly Journal of the Rod and Gun. 
Copyright, 1908, by Forest and Stream Publishing Ca 
tkhms.i.^ayka.^^^^^^^^ new YORK, SATURDAY, MARCH 28, 1903. { no. 846''L'^,aowa;!'&kw- yc 
The Forest akd Stream is the recognized medium of entertain- 
ment, instruction and information between American sportsmen. 
The editors invite communications on the subjects to which its 
cages 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 
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particulars respecting subscriptions, see prospectus on page iii. 
THE DOOM OF THE ELK. 
In western Wyoming, in the country immediately about 
the Yellowstone Park, but chiefly south of it, are the only 
considerable herds of elk that exist in America to-day. 
Once these animals extended over almost the whole coun- 
try, from the Atlantic to the Pacific, but Hke so many 
other species of great game, they have been exterminated 
over almost the whole continent. Later than the 
year 1870 there were a few in Michigan, Minnesota and 
Iowa, and they were then very abundant over the plains 
of Nebraska. On the Upper Missouri and in the northern 
Rocky Mountains they lasted much longer. Only within 
a few years were they exterminated in Arizona. In Cali- 
fornia there is still a little herd rigorously protected by 
the owners of land they range on. A few are found in 
the Olympic Mountains, and a few on Vancouver Island. 
But nowhere are they abundant save in Wyoming and 
southernmost Montana. 
Most States now have fairly good game laws, which 
are generally fairly well enforced. There is no great 
danger that sportsmen, hide hunter or tooth hunter will 
exterminate, the elk ; and yet in Wyoming, outside of the 
Y'ellowstone Park, this extermination is destined shortly 
to come. It will take place, too, by wholesale. In a 
small way it will be like the destruction of the last herds 
of the plains buffalo, though from another cause. 
Thousands will perish in a week and their unskinned, 
dried irp carcasses will greet the cow-puncher as he rides 
over the hill, or the sportsman who visits the region to 
look— in vain — for game. 
The summer range of these elk is in the high timber- 
clad mountains of the main range. They feed there in the 
lovely grassy parks among the timber, or on the high 
mountain meadows, such as the mountain sheep often 
visit. But in winter the early snows drive them down 
from these heights, and as these snows become deeper 
they work their way to lower altitudes and toward the 
southern and more open country, where the snow fall is 
less deep and the fierce winds sweep the bald hills bare, 
leaving exposed the grass on which the herds can feed. 
Up to within the past few years each autumn saw a 
long procession of many thousand elk stringing down 
from the Yellowstone Park, and the country immediately 
south of it toward the Red Desert of Wyoming, which 
was their winter pasturing ground. But in recent years 
the settlements have crept further and further north; 
ranchmen have taken up and fenced places along the 
streams, and have blocked up and cut off the ancient 
roads, so long traveled by these great deer. Now, for 
many of them, it is impossible to follow these ancestral 
pathways, and they must remain in the snow country, 
striving as best they may, by pawing through the white 
drifts, to get at the vegetation buried beneath it. If the 
snow is too deep they cannot reach the food, or if it crusts 
over they are equally helpless. Then their only resort is 
to break into the ranchman's hay corral and feed on the 
crop that he has put up for the use of his own stock, and 
when this is gone or if they are driven away, starvation 
must ensue. 
This, we are told, is the situation of thousands of elk 
in Wyoming to the south of the Park to-day, and of a 
less number — though still some thousands — to the east of 
the Park. 
It is possible that during a winter or two of a mild 
character the elk may survive here, but it will surely hap- 
pen that a winter will come when — unless some outlet is 
found by which these elk can reach their winter range — 
all of them will starve, and there will then remain in 
northern Wyoming only the few animals found in the 
Yellowstone Park. When this shall happen there will 
be a destruction of the elk which will parallel that of the 
buffalo on tlie Laramie plains of what is now western Wy- 
oming which took place nearly sixty-five years ago. The 
story of this extermination! told us many years ago by an 
old trapper, Uncle Jack Robinson, who was young and 
brave and hardy in the old days when Bonneville and 
Ashley and Soublette and Wyeth were great personages 
on the then unknown western plains, was this: 
In the winter of 1840 there was a great still storm, and 
snow fell deep over all the country. It was so deep that 
nothing could move about; and as there was no wind, 
no portion of the ground was bare. A day or two of 
m.ild weather followed and the snow melted and settled a 
little, and then came a period of hard cold which formed 
a thick crust. Even the buffalo, powerful as they were, 
could not break through this, and over a vast stretch of 
country every ainmal perished of hunger. The next sum- 
mer, as Uncle Jack said, the plains were strewn with 
buffalo as thick as ever they lay after a big killing; and 
m.any years after the event, old weather-beaten skulls, 
crumbling to pieces and dotted with the yellow lichen 
which grow at that high altitude, could be seen, reminders 
of the devastation of that terrible winter's storm. 
Such a destruction, if it has not already taken place 
this winter, may be looked for among the elk of western 
Wyoming, unless the authorities shall find some way of 
opening and keeping open a road for them between their 
winter and their summer range. 
CHARLES E. WHITEHEAD. 
Charles E. Whitehead, of this city, died at Aiken, 
S. C, on Saturday of last week, March 21, at the age of 
76 years. By his death New York loses one of its best 
known and most beloved sportsmen. The younger genera- 
tion, in particular, owe him a lasting debt for the services 
he rendered the cause of game protection when its princi- 
ples were not so familiar to the public as they are in our 
day, nor so strongly supported by popular sentiment. Mr. 
Whitehead was one of the founders of the New York 
Association for the Protection of Game, and from the be- 
ginning had large share in shaping the policies, directing 
the activities and winning the victories of that organiza- 
tion, which has behind it an honorable record of half a 
century of achievement in its chosen field. To Mr. White- 
head's part in the work of the Association, Mr. Roose- 
velt bears testimony in his tribute on another page. The 
work was of the most substantial character; its results 
have been far reaching and permanent The game pro- 
tection of to-day is established in very large measure upon 
the sure foundation laid by the New York Association at 
the period when Mr. Whitehead was one of the guiding 
spirits in its councils. 
As a writer Mr. Whitehead was best known by the 
series of sketches originally contributed to the old Spirit 
of the Times descriptive of hunting and camping adven- 
tures in Florida in the '50's, and afterward collected in 
the volume entitled "The Camp Fires of the Everglades, 
or Wild Sports in the South." The chapters were per- 
vaded with a freshness and wholesomeness of spirit, a 
vivacity and depth of sentiment, a keen insight into nature 
and wild life, and a grace of style and expression which 
gave the volume a secure place among the classics of 
American outdoor literature. Who that has read it can 
ever forget that first paragraph of the opening chapter: 
A goodly sight is a tree! Its trunk supporting a thousand 
branches that interweave the blue air with their tracery; lithe to 
the wind, stubborn to the storm, the pillars bend, but do not 
break, in the leafy aisles of Pan's cathedral. Its roots, far-reach- 
ing, with tiny fibers probe the earth for moisture, and send the 
life-blood through the arteries to the fragrant blossoms and the 
topmost leaves that "clap their little hands in glee with one con- 
tinuous sound." To its shadows not only the beasts of the field 
come for shelter, but millions of insects seek a home under the 
fold of its bark, or weave their cradles in its rocking boughs. On 
its branches the birds build their nests, and in its hollows the 
squirrel and the hooting owl conceal their young, and the yirild 
bee stores its sweets, while both day and night the buds breathe 
their perfume, and the wind, the leaves, and its feathered guests 
chant an anthem of praise. 
Copies of the earlier editions have long been 
among the prized possessions of collectors. In 1891 Mr. 
Whitehead brought out the- work in a veritable edition de 
luxe from the press of David Douglas, of Edinburgh, 
and found for it a new generation of delighted readers. 
Mr. Whitehead possessed a most charming personality. 
A man of much erudition, of keen wit, of abundant 
vocabulary and of most genial manner, he was a very 
entertaining companion. For his favorite pursuits he had 
the enthusiasm of a hoy. Long and delightful evenings 
spent in his sole companionship discussing matters of 
shooting and fishing are well yet sadly remembered. 
On Long Island he owned a charming place which lie 
called a fishing box, and in which he rejoiced. Nothing 
gave him greater pleasure than to have a sympathetic 
friend with him at this home, where a little fishing with 
a vast deal of angling talk furnished delightful entertain- 
ment to guest and host alike. 
He was one of the most admirable of sportsmen and 
truest of men. The good that he did was not limited to 
matters of forest and stream. He was prominent in 
charitable work, while in matters which on any side 
touched his favorite subjects he was an ardent worker. 
He took an active part in the formation of the New 
York Zoological Society, became one of its Board of 
Managers, and was for years its Vice-President and a 
member of its Executive Committee. 
His loss will be keenly felt by a large circle of loving 
friends, but his death will effect also a far larger circle 
who knew him not, but who were touched, more or less 
directly, by his activities in behalf of the citizens of New 
York. 
SPORT AND EXPORT. " 
A SYSTEM which requires a non-resident sportsman to 
pay a license fee for the privilege of shooting and fish- 
ing and which at the same time denies him the privilege 
of taking home any of the game or the fish he has taken, 
is essentially unjust. It is unjust because it denies to the 
sportsman one feature of his outing which is to him a 
very important and valued part of it, the bringing home 
of the fruits of his expedition for the gratification of 
his family and friends, and for his own gratification in 
showing and bestowing his fish and game. 
If there were any sound and sufficient reason for the 
restriction, if it could be shown that the game and fish 
of a State would not be conserved without imposing 
such deprivation upon visiting sportsmen, the hardship 
might be endured. But no good reason exists. There are 
in successful operation export regulations which, as ex- 
perience has abundantly demonstrated, control and safe- 
guard the transportation of game' and fish when accom- 
panied by the owner, without the least deleterious effect 
upon the supply. If such system is in operation in one 
State, it might be in operation in another. For a State 
to incorporate in its game laws — as does New Jersey 
and as does Pennsylvania — a provision that the ncm-resi- 
dent who is made to pay a license fee may not^take any 
game home with him, is to confess that it is'^eompetent 
to administer the more liberal systems which prevail in its 
sister States. Even a Canadian Province is more fair and 
equitable in its dealings with the non-resident sportsman 
than is New Jersey or Pennsylvania; for the Canadians 
permit their visitors to bring out their trophies, while 
New Jersey not only refuses so much as this, but actually 
seizes game in transit from another State to another State. 
It is a gratification to record that a measure has been 
introduced into the Pennsylvania Legislature to permit 
the export of big game under certain stringent conditions 
from game preserves; and the export of birds killed by 
licensed non-resident shooters. The privilege is limited, 
and it is right that it should be; the numbers of each 
species being of ruffed grouse, six; English pheasants, 
ten; woodcock, six; quail, fifteen; squirrels, fen; rabbits, 
twenty; and ducks and geese combined, twenty. The 
measure has the indorsement of the game cornmissioners, 
and will probably become a law. 
The ill-considered movement to reorganize the Massa- 
chusetts Fish and Game Commission has ended in the 
summary rejection of the measure by legislative com- 
mittee. The hearing last Thursday, as our report in 
another column indicates, was almost entirely one-sided, 
the advocates of the change being conspicuous < by their 
absence, and the hearing was made the occasion of warm 
commendation of the present board, both as to its consti- 
tution and personnel. Appreciation of the high character 
of the service performed by the Commission is general 
throughout Massachusetts ; and the vote of confiderice — 
for this was what the hearmg amounted to — was well 
deserved, and we believe truly reflects public sentiment.. 
•? 
Mr. Howard P. Frothingham,. who was for several' 
years president of the New Jersey Fish and Game Com- 
mission, sent his resigoatiou to-th.^ GQYe.mQr on, Monday 
of this week. 
