Forest and Stream 
A Weekly Journal of the Rod and Gun. 
Copyright, 1902, by Forest and Stream Publishing Co. 
Terms, I 
i A Year. 10 Cts. a Copy. (_ 
Six Months, |2. I 
NEW YORK, SATURDAY, DECEMBER 27, 1902 
VOL. LIX.— No. 36. 
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 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 
"orrespondents. 
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. 
Fortunately, nature has a few big: places be- 
yond man's power to spoil — the ocean, the two 
tcy ends of the globe, and the Grand Canyon. 
John Muir. 
For CKristmaLS Week. 
In accordance with time-honored custom, the Forest 
AND Stream contributes its quota of Christmas Week 
good cheer by the provision of a series of stories and 
sketches which cannot fail to give entertainment^ and 
pleasure. Here is the list of Christmas contributions and 
the writers: 
Photographing the Wild Turkey. 
Charles L. Jordan. 
Von W. 
Francis Moonan. 
When the Long Shadows Fall. 
The Wolf at the Door. 
Rainy Chase of the Robber Crab. 
Llewella Pierce Churchill. 
The Passing of the Sledge Dog. H. M. Robinson. 
Notes, also Observations. Coahoma. 
Stubble Rhymes. Alma. 
Ways of the Night. Geo. McAleer. 
Ashbel's Goat. Yo, 
Dawson Yesterday and To-day. /. B.- Burnham. 
THE MOV NT VERNON DEER PARK. 
When by reason of the pressure of public and private 
business, Washington was in 1785 compelled to give 
up hunting, he broke up his kennel and gave away his 
hounds, including those which had been sent to him 
by Lafayette. But that he might nDt be without some 
reminder of the wild life of the forests, he established 
on the slope of the Mount Vernon estate, below the 
mansion-house, and extending along the river, a deer 
park of a hundred acres, which he stocked first with 
the native Virginia deer, afterward adding some Eng- 
lish fallow deer from the park of Governor Ogle, of 
Maryland. In course of time, with the decay of the 
park palings, the deer escaped and had the run of the 
estate. George Washington Parke Custis, Washing- 
ton's adopted son, tells us, in a chapter of his "Recol- 
lections," which is reprinted in one of the recent num- 
bers of the Woodcraft Magazine, that Washington was 
extremely tenacious of his deer, and would permit 
none of them to be killed; but when it became evident 
that the hotel in a neighboring town was being supplied 
with haunches of venison taken by poachers on the 
Mount Vernon preserves, he consented to the killing 
of "an old buck." Custis was the master of the hunt, 
and chose for his weapon "an old British musket of 
the fashion and time of George II., a heavy, black, 
ill-favored looking piece, but capable of carrying two 
balls, each of an ounce weight, and famed for hitting 
hard behind as well as before." The buck having 
been wounded, and brought to bay in the Potomac, 
the carcass was carried in triumph to the mansion- 
house and - there inspected with approval by Wash- 
ington. The next day the venison was served at a ban- 
quet in the family dining-room of Mount Vernon. 
This was in 1799, and it is the last record we have 
of the deer, but sixty years later, in 1859, Benson J. 
Lossing recorded that the antlers of "the Washing- 
ton stag" were still preserved, and graced the great 
hall of Arlington House, the home of Custis, and of 
Robert Ip. Lee. Soon after this last date cqn^e the 
occupation of Arlington by the Federal troops, and 
fpnaoyal of the Ctistis an4 Wa«bmgton relics. 
Perhaps some one at the National Capital, whose eye 
shall read this, may tell us what became of the his- 
toric antlers and whether they are still in existence. 
When the Mount Vernon Ladies' Association of the 
Unioi assumed possession and control of the estate, 
the e::%pressed purpose was to preserve the home of 
Washington as it had been in his day, and among 
other features of the. grounds which it was thought 
desirable to restore was the long abandoned deer park. 
The funds for the purpose were provided in 1887 by the 
sons of the late Mrs. Robert Campbell, Vice-Regent for 
Missouri. The park is inclosed on the mansion side 
with a substantial iron fence; and contains at the pres- 
ent time eighteen deer. These constitute an ani- 
mated feature of Mount Vernon, which is very pleas- 
ing; and sitting beneath the majestic trees of the lawn, 
one may see to-day just such happy groupings and 
graceful poses and pretty pictures of idper, life as those 
which interested and delighted the proprietor of Mount 
Vernon more than a century ago. 
BOB IVHITE IN CHINA. ■ 
Certain of the American residents of Shanghai are 
convinced that the American quail would prove an 
adaptable addition to the feathered game resources 
of China, provided a parent stock of birds could suc- 
cessfully be transported across the Pacific. One en- 
terprise in this direction has already been under- 
taken, but has resulted in disaster, because of mis- 
management at the American end of the line. Some 
25,000 quail were shipped from San Francisco, con- 
signed to residents of Shanghai, but because of im- 
proper and insufficient cooping all but a beggarly 
sixty-five birds perished on the voyage, and the sur- 
vivors were so miserably weak and emaciated that they 
speedily fell victims to winged and ground vermin. 
The failure in this case was due entirely to causes 
which might easily have been avoided by the exercise 
of gumption on the part of the shippers; it argues 
nothing against the feasibility of the introduction of 
American quail into China; and as we have received 
in the pheasant so valuable a bird from the Orient, 
it is much to be desired, for sentimental reasons if 
for no others, that the United States might recipro- 
cate and do its share in the world's game stocking by 
sending to China a consignment of vigorous birds 
which might be the first seed of a permanently es- 
tablished quail supply. 
SHOOTING LICENSES. ' 
The shooting license has been so widely adopted in 
this country that the system may now reasonably be 
regarded as one which will be generally and perma- 
nently in operation throughout the United States. 
Among the several reasons for which the license sys- 
tem is advocated, one is that it provides a revenue 
which may be devoted to a fund for protection; an- 
other, that it may be so operated as to put a re- 
straint upon lawless shooters and to bring them to 
account; and a third, that if the license fee be high 
enough it will reduce the number of shooters. Of 
these three reasons the first is the most cogent; but 
the last, if it be based on fact, is not a good reason; 
for any system intended to regulate shooting is merit- 
orious only in so far as its makes shooting possible 
for a greater number, not for a less. It is true that 
with the passing of the j'ears, shooting in the United 
States is growing to be more and more a luxury, that 
is to say, something which exacts more and more the 
expenditure of money for its gratification. But this 
very fact should demand from those who are con- 
cerned with the control of conditions governing the 
sport an earnest striving not to hasten the time 
when shooting can be only the luxury of the rich, 
but to defer the evil day as long as possible by discover- 
ing ways and means for assuring a continued game 
supply and a continued enjoyment of it by the shooter 
of moderate means. As we have said before, the man 
of wealth may be trusted to look out for himself; his 
are game preserves owned or leased, and stocked 
with home-bred game. Those who most-require oppor- 
tunities of hunting, those whose intere* it is the duty 
of the Stat? to conserve, are they who must in %Qm^ 
degreS" at least count the cost. These constitute the 
largest class of shooters. That system of game pro- 
tection, then, is most desirable wnich has for its ob- 
ject to promote the interests of this large class. The 
rule of the greatest good to the greatest number holds 
here. A license system which most closely respects 
this rule comes most closely to the accepted princi- 
ple of good government. A moderate license fee, which 
applies equally to all and is a burden to none, is more 
equitable than one which puts all the burden on any 
one class, as"^ non-residents. 
A MARINE LABORATORY FOR FLORIDA. 
There are before Congress two measures relating 
to the esta^ishment of a marine biological station for 
the Gulf of Mexico. One is House Bill 11476, intro- 
duced by Mr. Sparkman, of Florida, and the other is 
House Bill 14353, introduced by Mr. Jones, of Wash- 
i'ngton. Mr. Sparkman's bill is printed in another col- 
umn with the favorable report made upon it by the 
Committee on Marine and Fisheries. The Jones bill 
is an omnibus bill providing for the establishment 
of a number of fish hatcheries and for three biologi- 
cal stations. The proposed hatcheries are for South 
Carolina, Kansas, Florida (on the St. Johns River), 
Pennsylvania, Washington (in Yakima County), Michi- 
gan (on Lake Erie), Nebraska, Maryland, Utah, Wis- 
consin (Washington County), Arkansas (Fulton Coun- 
ty), Minnesota (Goodhue County), Rhode Island, Ken- 
tucky, and Indiana. The projected marine biological 
stations are for the Florida Gulf Coast, for the investi- 
gation of problems connected with the marine fishery 
interests of that region; for Oregon or Washington, 
for the investigation of questions affecting the aquatic 
life and fishery interests of the Pacific; and the third, 
for the Great Lakes at a point in some one of the 
bordering States. 
The location of each of the stations, and their es- 
tablishment and equipment are left to the United States 
Commissioner of Fish and Fisheries. The provisions 
here outlined are those contained in the bill as it came 
from the Committee on Marine and Fisheries, with a 
recommendation that it be adopted. In advocacy of 
the biological stations, the committee says: 
The importance of biological stations on the Gulf Coast, in the 
Great Lakes region, and on the Pacific Coast cannot be over- 
estimated. The marine life, its protection, and the climatic con- 
ditions are so varied and different in the different sections of our 
country that a thorough and complete knowledge thereof is of the 
utmost importance in the development of this industry. The 
problems needing investigation are the breeding times, places, con- 
ditions, habits, food, and feeding grounds of the most important 
food fishes in these different regions, together with their enemies 
during the earlier and later stages of their growth. The ob- 
servations necessary in determining these matters cannot be car- 
ried on systematically by any one State, and should be conducted 
by the Government itself. This can be done only through the 
biological station, and its location should be determined only after 
careful investigation. 
The Gulf of Mexico, with a coast line of 7,000 milas, 
contains fishery resources which are of immense im- 
portance, and are capable of being made of vastly 
greater value by successful development. Study of 
the marine life by specialists is a prerequisite to in- 
telligent administration of the Gulf food fish supply; 
and to afford opportunity for such needed investiga- 
tions the proposed marine laboratory is essential. It 
is of first importance to know the life histories of the 
marine species, and the conditions affecting their de- 
velopment. The work which the Woods Hole Station 
has done for the North Atlantic coast fisheries should 
be paralleled for the Gulf by such an institution as 
the enactment of either one of these bills would provide. 
Massachusetts sentiment is all in support of the law 
which forbids the sale of woodcock and grouse, and is 
in favor of a renewal of the law for another term, or for 
making it permanent, as it should be. The trend of opin- 
ion is shown not only in the attitude of the protective 
associations, but in the notes of personal observation and 
experience. It is gratifying to be assured that the Boston 
game dealers are not averse to an extension of the law, 
and the outlook is for a favorable consideration of it 
the coming legislature, „ . . " ' ' ]i 
(■V' 
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