6 a 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
[July 26, 1902. 
ceived a telegram from Mr. Tawney that if he would 
come to Washington immediately a compromise could 
perhaps be made. Col. Cooper got some lawsuits post- 
poned, put his business out of the way and went. He 
persuaded one of his companions on the trip to Cass 
l-ake last fall, Hon. Ferdinand W. Peck, to accompany 
him, and they arrived the night before the day on which, 
at 3 o'clock P. M,, the meeting of the Minnesota dele- 
gation was to be held. Mr. Tawney having said that it 
was very important that Col. Cooper should see Mr. 
Pinchot and go over the matter with him before the 
meeting, he, fortunately, was able to spend the evening 
with Mr. Pinchot. The result of it all was that Col. 
Cooper found if the matter could be carried through 
as he and the Hon. Page Morris, Congressman from 
Duluth, had talked, that it would be very much better 
than half a loaf, which we know, is better than no bread. 
The great thing, in Col. Cooper's mind, was to get a 
part of this region out from under the control of the 
Indian Bureau and Public Lands Department, and he 
could see, from what Mr. Pinchot told him, that Judge 
Morris had come around to that conclusion, and that 
the Forester of the Agricultural Department, Mr. Pin- 
chot, was to have charge under the plan of the pro- 
posed law as an amendment to the Nelson Law. We 
can be very sure that Col. Cooper left Mr. Pinchot's 
residence that night prett}' happy. The next day, be- 
tween II and 12 o'clock, he met the President and told 
him soniething about what was in the wind, and he was 
delighted. He said several complimentarj'- things, and 
tirged Col. Cooper by all means to get the best for the 
public he could out of the matter on the lines of forestry 
and a natural park. 
At 3 o'clock that afternoon all assembled in Mr. 
Tawney's committee room. There were present Sena- 
tor Clapp, of Minnesota, Congressmen Morris, Tawney, 
Stevens, Fletcher, Eddy and others, also Mr. Pinchot 
and several people from Cass Lake. They all had their 
talk, and it ever one saw what is called a "practical" 
man turned down cold, and big enough to admit it, it 
was Congressman Eddy at the hands of Mr. Gifford 
Pinchot, the Government Forester. At the last. Judge 
Morris, in a little talk very complimentary to Col. 
Cooper, asked him what he thought of the measure pro- 
posed, and requested that he tell the meeting his judg- 
ment. Mindful of the fact that there were in the meet- 
ing two of the close friends and representatives of such 
men as the Hon. Thomas H. Shevlin (the Minnesota 
traitor who pretended friendship). Col. Cooper was a 
little cautious, and not inclined to slop over with en- 
thusiasm over the proposed arrangement. But he said 
in efifect that it might be the best thing that the friends 
of the Park and Forestr}'- Reserve could obtain, and so 
far as he was concerned personally, he would stand by 
it. And, to make a long story short, it was agreed 
to accept the terms of the compromise. Since then 
Judge Morris is thought to have done better for the 
Forestry end of the proposition than the compromise 
provided for. 
Vfaat We Get. 
We all know what we wanted. I shall let Col. Cooper 
give the details as to what we actually get. He says, 
in a communication now at hand: "No pine or other 
timber is to be cut on the islands in Cass or Leech 
lakes, or on the two great peninsulas in front of Walker. 
The extent of those amount, as near as I can figure, to 
about 17,000 acres. All the balance of the four reserva- 
tions amounting to about 594,000 acres of land, are dis- 
posed of about as follows: The Indian separate allot- 
ments, it is estimated, will amount to 140,000 acres. 
That will leave 454,000 acres. That land is subdivided 
into 40-acre tracts, the 40-acre tract containing merchant- 
able white or Norway pine, are called 'pine lands,' fol- 
lowing the Nelson Law and the Rice Treaty there- 
under. All the other tracts containing no merchantable 
pine, are called 'agricultural lands' ; 206,400 acres of 
'pine lands' are to be selected by the Forester of the 
Agricultural Department, and designated as 'Forestry 
lands,' which are to be under his charge, and upon 
which 95 per cent, of the merchantable white and Nor- 
way pine is to be cut, and the tops or slashings burned 
or removed, so as to prevent forest fires, and to be re- 
forested with white and Norway pine. The other tim- 
ber on each 40-acre tract is to be protected, and the 
whole region of forest lands is to be policed and pro- 
tected from spoliation and forest fires under the direc- 
tion of the Forester. In addition to the 206,400 acres 
of forest lands, the Forester is to select 25,000 acres of 
agricultural lands to aid in protecting the forestry lands, 
and as a part thereof, making altogether of 'Forestry 
lands," 231,400 acres; of natural forests where no trees 
are to be cut, 17,000 acres; altogether 248,00 acres; leav- 
ing after the Indian allotments' are taken out, 22g,ooo 
acres of agricultural lands to be open to settlement un- 
der the Homestead laws. 
The Great Game. 
"The pine ojn all .the reservations in Minnesota is td 
be sold under Scribner rules, the pine measured in the 
log on bank scales. But the great object that will be 
accomplished by the new law is the securing of 231,400 
acres, or 360 square miles, of primeval forests, to be 
treated under modern forestry rides, the merchantable 
pine to be cut, and in such way, as not to injure the rest 
of the forest, and to be re-forested with white and Nor- 
way pine, and the whole region protected from forest 
fires. 
'T wish to pay my tribute of respect to Judge Morris 
for his unswerving loyalty to the forestry and park 
proposition in all that has occurred since the compro- 
mise of last January; he has made it very much stronger 
on those lines than was even agreed to at that compro- 
mise. Mr. Pinchot and I both telegraphed Dr. Schenck 
to come up to Washington and look the matter over, 
I paying his expenses. He did, and he wrote me after- 
ward, that while the terms of the conference were not 
everything that might be expected, they were so much 
better than had ever been done by the Government be- 
fore, that it was very satisfactory to him." 
Col. Cooper then adds a few personal words which I 
shall take the liberty of giving to his many friends: 
"So all the labor of love, and the worry and fretting 
of the last three or four ^years haye pot gone for noth- 
ing. To get the Government of the United States com- 
mitted through Congressional action to a system of this 
kind, the first in our history, is something; and to do 
something better for those forests around the headwaters 
of the Mississippi than any other of our public forests 
is something more. I am delighted with the result, and 
I trust you will be." 
Forestry Idea Grows. 
St. PAur>, Minn., July 14. — C. C. Andrews, State Fire 
Warden, in charge of forestry in Minnesota, to-day 
made public a letter to General Land Commissioner 
Binger Hermann, recommending that certain townships 
in Cook and Lake counties, all public lands, aggregat- 
ing 500,000 acres, be set apart by the President as a 
forest reserve. Ten of the townships are unsurveyed and 
all the lands are practically vacant, with specified minor 
exceptions. E. Hough. 
Hartford Building, Chicago. 111. 
Proprietors of fishing resorts will find it profitable to advertise 
them m Fokest and Stream. 
Tarpon Fishing. 
Kansas City, Mo.,- June S.— Editor Forest and Stream: 
Those of your readers who have waded through my 
series of papers on tarpon fishing (if there be any who 
have done so) may remember that I still owe a final 
paper on the subject of "allied fishing." This paper I 
have concluded not to write for the following reasons: 
First. The lack of interest shown by your readers, 
in that they have almost without exception, failed to dis- 
cuss the various points that I have raised, and to add 
to the general knowledge of fishermen concerning the 
habits, etc., of the king of game fishes. 
Second. My series of papers is nearly complete with- 
out the said paper on "allied fishing; and, 
Third. In a way I am not well fitted for writing on 
the subject, because, when angling in tarpon waters, I 
never try specially for any other fish than the silver 
king, when there is any probability of the latter strik- 
ing. It is true that I catch a good many jackfish and an 
occasional jewfish, kingfish or shark; but these are al- 
ways taken on tarpon tackle, except that once in a 
while, when jackfish are very plentiful, I use a compara- 
tively light rod, fine line and smaller hooks, so as to make 
surer of hanging the fish and in order to obtain all the 
sport practicable. Sometimes, though, I merely change 
snells on my tarpon outfit, because the jackfish puts up, 
pound for pound, the hardest fight of all game fishes 
that I have ever encountered, and is, consequently, the 
most destructive on tackle of all fishes of its size. 
One objection to the use of lighter tackle for jack- 
fishing is the risk one runs of hanging thereon a tarpon 
too heavy for the outfit. 
So much for the promised paper; but, as it is not to 
be written, why then this letter? Well, I have lately 
had a short outing at Tampico that I think is worth 
LEAPING TARPON. ,., . , .. 
Photo by Dr. Howe. 
describing, and in the last twelve jiionths I have learned 
a few things about tarpon tackle which I desire to 
tell to my brother anglers. 
On the night of March 9 I arrived at Tampico and 
was met by my friend, Mr. A, B. Ross, the engineer in 
charge of the construction of the Government wharf, 
Avho had very kindly made for me all the necessary ar- 
rangements for a boat, boatman, chair, bait, etc. In 
consequence, I was able to make a fairly early start 
the next morning, Mr. Ross accompanying me in an- 
other boat;. The weather was fine and the conditions for 
fishing appeared to be favorable. It was not long before 
I hooked a large jackfish and brought it to gafif, but the 
boatman muffed it three times and finally succeeded in 
' knocking it off the hook. Soon after I liung a six-foot 
tarpon, which, after it had put up a brilliant fight, I 
drew belly-up alongside the boat. Fearing that my 
man would make another fizzle with the gaffing, I put 
a couple of bullets through it, then told him to galf it in. 
He made an attempt to do so. but only succeeded in 
pulling the hook out of its mouth, after which he made 
a couple of unsuccessful lunges at it before it sank out 
of reach. 
Unfortunately, my Spanish gave out just then, and he 
failed to fpjnpreheiid th? complimentary rgmarks tha| 
I made about him in English. However, Mr. Ross, who 
was near by and who was playing havoc among a school ' 
of jackfish, seemed to appreciate them, as I heard him 
repeat them that night to a select circle of his friends, 
including the British Consul, who all had met at their, 
usual evening resort. 
Luck seemed certainly against me, for I soon had two , 
fine strikes and failed to hang. 
We had started from the office of Mr. Ross and 
worked down stream about a mile to the mouth of the j 
little river that flows into the Panuco, opposite the lower 
end of the city, then back. When I left my friend at 
eleven o'clock he had in his boat seven jackfish and two 
fair-sized tarpon, while I had nothing; and while oppo- 
site his office he struck another small tarpon and landed ' 
LEAPING .TARPON. ' , ; 1 1' 
Photo by Dr. Howe. 
it. Meanwhile, I was proceedi'ng up stream, and when! 
opposite "The Palms" (a grove of a dozen cocoanut| 
trees on the south bank), I hooked a big fellow and suc- 
ceeded in landing it inside of half an hour, on a muddyl 
bank without permitting the boatman to use the gaff. 
It measured 6 feet 2 inches by 36 inches girth, and 
weighed, several hours later, after it had dried some- 
what, 117 pounds. According to the standard formula, 
viz., weight in pounds is equal to square of girth in 
inches, multiplied by length in inches and divided by 
800; this fish would have weighed when first caught 120; 
pounds, which it probably did. 
After wasting an hour in going up town for luncheon, 
Mr. Ross and I started out again and had not gone 
more than 200 yards before he struck a tarpon, which 
he soon landed, then returned to his office for the rest 
of the day. His six hours' catch is shown on the ac- 
companying photograph, the weights of the fish being 
as follows: 
I Tarpon 104 pounds. 
I " 84 
I " 55 " 
I " 45 " 
7 Jackfish 94 " 
Total .382 pounds. 
This is a catch large enough to satisfy any reasonable 
man, but it is a very easy matter for any skilled fisher- ' 
man to equal or beat it on a good day at Tampico. 
Leaving Mr. Ross struggling with his last fish, I pro-, 
ceeded up river, and when opposite "The Palms," I 
struck another, but did not hang it well, so it soon go.t 
off. Shortly afterward I struck another, and after about 
twenty minutes' fight beached it in the mud. It meas- 
ured a little more than the one I caught at noon, and 
probably weighed over 130 pounds. I presented it to 
a native who resided near where I landed. Meanwhile, 
a rather stiff breeze had sprung up, which proved too 
much for my young oarsman, so we gave up fishing and ' 
pulled slowly back to the city against wind and tide. 
About this time I was in an uncomfortable frame of 
both mind and bodj' — six tarpon strikes and only two 
fish! It is true that I had actually killed one more 
and lost it through no fault of mine, but it did not 
count. Beside, I was so worn out physically with the 
unusual exertion that I actually feared that I had be- 
come too old to indulge in such strenuous sport, and 
that my tarpon-fishing days were fast drawing to 3 close. 
However, a night's rest put a different aspect on af- 
fairs, so with another but still younger boatman, who, 
by the way, soon learned the business fairly well and I 
was plucky enough to pull against a stiff breeze, I made 
an early start and succeeded that day in landing five . 
large tarpon and one jackfish. One measured 6 feet 8 
inches in length, but as the girth was only 36 inches, ' 
the estimated weight was only 130 pounds. The aver- 
age length of the five tarpon was a little over 6 feet. 
Strange to say, when night came I was feeling first- " 
rate and not excessively tired, so I came to the con- 
clusion that my dread of the effects of advancing years 
was unfounded. 
.'\s I had gotten on\y eight strikes on the second day, 
making fourteen altogether for seven fish, I had caught 
up to my usual average of 50 per cent. 
Next day I landed two ■ out of three tarpon in the 
forenoon; but it blew so hard in the afternoon that \ 
took pity on my little boatman and did not go out. 
Next forenoon T was out of luck; for, in spite of t\v'j 
or three strikes, I failed to score, and jn the afternoon 
I took a lady out with me, having promised to show her ! 
how to catch tarpon. The promise was a rather rash 
pne, as the fish were npt striking yypW, the water being 
