FOnEST AND STREAMS 
[AtG. 29, 1903. 
on rest days as well as every other day, and in those 
waters where such shooting is carried on the duck 
shooting has been completely ruined. The efYect of 
the shooting of blue peters was referred to in a com- 
munication entitled "A Disgrace to Virginia," which 
appeared in your valued paper of Dec. 13, 1902. 
The law contains one provision which cannot be 
passed by without comment. It provides the Board of 
Supervisors of any county shall have the power to 
shorten the open season in their said county and may 
permit the shipment of wild water fowl from said 
county or out of the State. This is most pernicious. 
It virtually destroys the State law and authorizes a 
county law, which may differ in every county of the 
State, therefore making as many different game laws 
as there are counties in the State. 
This experiment of giving the supervisors the power 
to enact laws, has been tried in several States, and in 
all has ended most disastrously, and in effect as if there 
were no law. If a charge was made of a violation in 
one county, it was always shown that the act happened 
in an adjacent county, and convictions were impossible, 
A game law is, and should be, a State measure, and 
not a matter of mere local legislation. 
Taking it all in all, certainly the people of Virginia 
are to be coiigratulated on the passage of the bill. 
The lovers of game throughout the country will re- 
joice, and doubtless the sportsmen of Virginia, now 
that they have taken up the matter, will watch the 
operation of the law and procure additional legislation 
to remedy any defects in the law as it now stands. It 
is most respectfully suggested that the Legislature be 
requested to protect wild water fowl by prohibiting 
battery shooting and making the law apply to "pelers" 
or "blue peters." The open season, too, is too long, 
and in the writer's opinion the season should not open 
until Nov. 10, and certainly no shooting of wild fowl 
should be permitted after March i. 
Let a word be said in behalf of the summer or wood 
duck. This duck is almost extinct, and its killing 
should be prohibited for certainly a term of years, and 
11 this be not possible, the open season should be the 
same as for other duck. Many of the young birds arc 
but half grown in August, and to open the season the 
first of August is but to permit the complete annihila- 
tion of the species. 
Cannot the potent voice of Forest and Stream be 
raised to urge the reforms mentioned? 
Xper. 
Kew York, Aug. 17. 
Adirondack Deer. 
The season for deer shooting in New York State 
is near at hand, and many hunters are making arrange- 
ments to be in the Adirondacks on the opening days. 
The law provides that the open season shall begin on 
Sept. I, and continue up to Nov. 15. No person is 
allowed to take more than two deer in one season, and 
very few men outside of those who live in the woods 
have the opportunity of violating the provision of the 
law in this respect, even though they have a disposition 
to do so. Judging from reports received from the 
wilderness region of late, there seems reason for be- 
lieving that deer hunters will have good sport this fall, 
but, of course, it is too early yet to arrive at any posi- 
tive conclusion on this point. Large numbers of deer 
have been seen in the Adirondacks this summer, and 
their paths and runways traverse the woods in all direc- 
tions, many of them being found in places where they 
have not been seen before in years. These facts en- 
courage many enthusiastic people to believe that the 
cervine animals have increased considerably in num- 
bers, but it is not always wise to jump at conclusions 
even when the indications all seem to point in just the 
direction we wish. Before accepting as conclusive the 
reports that deer are remarkably abundant, it is well 
to take certain things into consideration. In the first 
place the summer season is the time of all others dur- 
ing the year when deer most frequent the water, and 
as most visitors to the woods spend the greater part 
of their vacation on the lakes and streams, it stands to 
reason that they will be apt to see deer, the conditions 
being exceptionally favorable for it. Naturally the deer 
are quite tame now, a: no shooting is allowed until fall 
and dogs are not permitted to chase them. Then there 
is another thing to be looked at and that is the fact that 
the extensive forest fires which prevailed last spring 
and which destroyed a vast ainount of vegetation, 
obliged many of the deer to shift their feeding grounds. 
In some instances this change has brought them nearer 
to the outskirts of the wilderness and in closer proxim- 
ity to human habitations and much-used lines of travel; 
hence the greater frequency with which they are seen. 
No doubt this fact also accounts to a considerabIe_ ex- 
tent for the establishment of new runways in localities 
where they have been hitherto unknown. 
Men who have had long experience in deer hunting 
have learned not to place too much reliance on reports 
of the great abundance of deer, which are based solely 
on the numbers seen during the summer, for it has 
happened repeatedly that the expectations thus aroused 
early in the season have not been realized. On the 
contrary there have been two or three years within the 
past decade when, though deer were reported plentiful 
in August, hunters found it almost impossible to catch 
a glimpse of one during September and October. The 
animals appeared to have vanished as soon as the 
shooting season opened, and they remained out of 
harm's way until very near its close. Sportsmen were 
completely mystified, as they could not even find fresh 
signs of deer in the localities where only a short time 
previous they had been seen in considerable numbers, 
but they were even more surprised during the last 
week or two of the open season by a complete rever- 
sal of the conditions and the reappearance of deer 
everywhere in the wilderness region. 
The result of the hunters' work in these years was 
that there were more deer killed during the last fort- 
night of the hunting season than in the entire eight or 
nine weeks preceding. The best explanation of the 
strange disappearance and reappearance of the deer 
in the years referred to appears to be that as soon as 
the shooting; season begap (he gnimals forsook their 
summer haunts and retreated to the most secluded por- 
tions of the woods, remaining there until cold weather 
and occasional snowstorms caused them to make an- 
other change of base preparatory to going into win- 
ter quarters. Whether or not the shooting influenced 
their actions is immaterial, as it cannot alter the fact. 
Of course it is pos.sible that somewhat similar condi- 
tions may prevail this fall and that the deer, which 
now seem so plentiful throughout tlie Adirondacks, 
may make themselves scarce immediately after Sept. t. 
If the deer continue to show themselves as frequently 
and conspicuously after the shooting period begins as 
they have done lately, hunters may expect to have 
splendid success at the outset. On the other hand, if 
the game acts as it has been known to do in the past, 
the amateur hunter cannot hope to have much luck 
prior to Nov. I, unless he secures a good guide and 
penetrates to the least frequented parts of the vyilder- 
ness. It would be a source of extreme gratification to 
veteran hunters to be able to believe that deer are more 
numerous in the Adirondacks at present than they were 
last year or in other recent preceding years, but addi- 
tional evidence will be required to convince those who 
are familiar with the existing conditions in that region 
that such is the case. It is altogether probable that a 
much more intelligent and accurate opinion in regard 
to this matter can be formed by the middle of Novem- 
ber. W. E. WOLCOTT. 
Uiic\, N Y , Aug 1i. 
CHICAGO AND THE WEST* 
A New Day for the Western Forests. 
Chicago, 111., Aiigust 22. — Considerable attention has 
been given by Forest and Stream during the past few 
years to the question arising in connection with the estab- 
lishment of the national reserve, popularly known as the 
Minnesota National Park. The latter name, as applied 
to this new possession of the American people, is simply 
an incidental one, and indeed is in some sense a misnomer. 
This great park, near the headwaters of the greatest 
American river, is in no sense a State affair, but one in 
which the people not only of the West, but of all America 
are intimately concerned. 
They are so concerned perhaps more deeply than at 
present they realize. They may perhaps not for years, 
perhaps never, be able to take personal advantage of this 
little portion of the wilderness which the wisdom and 
foresight of a few men have secured for them and their 
successors, yet they are now, and presently will be far 
more vitally affected by the animating principles connected 
with the project of this park. 
In brief, the establishment of the Minnesota National 
Park has made not so much for the accomplishment of 
an enterprise conceded to be laudable, not so much for the 
added attractiveness of a great State wonderfully en- 
dowed in natural charm, not so much even for success in 
a praiseworthy and hard fought personal _ campaign on 
the part of those who won it through, as it has for the 
utter change and revolution of the hitherto existing atti- 
tude of the American people toward its own natural pos- 
sessions. The Minnesota National Park as it exists to- 
day is a small body of land. Presently, as vve shall show, 
it may be larger, very much larger; but identified with 
it are many greater things than can be assigned to its too 
narrow boundaries. 
One of these things is the fact that the Government of 
America to-day admits that there is no West, that indeed 
there is no America such as that which once we knew. It 
admits that the forests of this country, so long wastefully 
and ruthlessly destroyed and stolen by a few, were 
worthy and are worthy of a better fate. It says to-day — 
though that fact is perhaps not well established in the 
mind of the average reader — that from and after the 
establishment of the Minnesota National Park the Gov- 
ernment of the United States, Which is to say the people 
of the United States, will no longer ignorantly sell to an 
unscrupulous few the pine bearing lands at a price of a 
pittance to the acre. Realizing all too late the value of 
this pine timber, the Government resolves from this day 
to sell not the land but the pine itself, and that under 
rules, restrictions and reservations. At last, all too late, 
we are beginning to take stock of our goods and to pro- 
pose to market them hereafter upon principles more nearly 
allied with business sense and common justice. This, 
then, is the great story connected with the unselfish pro- 
ject of the establishment of this miniature National Park 
in the upper pine lands of Minnesota. 
Details of the Reservation. 
The national park, as it now exists under the_ Morris 
bill, comprises about 830,000 acres in all. Of this about 
218,000 acres is made up of water. Indian lands cover 
about 150,000 acres more. Under the United States 
forestry regulations comes the great acreage of 460,000 
acres, made up of all the forty acre tracts on which there 
is merchantable pine. There are about 260,000 acres on 
which there is not pine enough to redeem the land from 
Its designation of agricultural lands. This acreage was, 
in the opinion of Congress, too great to be left intact as 
to its standing timber. It is to be forested under the 
regulations of the United States Government, except the 
island in Cass Lake, the great peninsula on Leech Lake, 
and about 12,000 acres of other land, about 25,000 acres 
of the tract being thus left absolutely virgin forest. Per- 
haps this is all the Government can afford at first. 
There is some fear that the little island in Cass Lake, 
known as Cooper Island, may cost the United States 
Government nearly a million dollars in purchase money 
from the Indians, who are entitled to that pine as much 
as any. 
Now it is proposed in this bill which Col. Cooper will 
present next winter to Congress to increase this acreage 
by large tracts of cut-off pirie lands, which will be deeded 
by their owners to the United States Government to be 
held in trust under United States forestry regulations, 
the new growing timber of such denuded lands later to be 
sold under Government reservations and regulations for 
the benefit of the heirs, successors Or representatives of 
?uch devisors, 
Good Game Cover, 
Thi^ apparently has no specially attractive sound. But 
have you watched the swift way in which nature covers 
up her scars? Watch the sudden up-springing of th? pop- 
lars, the maples, the soft wood trees, indeed of the little 
pines, over a tract which has once been cut off or burned 
over, provided only that the perpetually devastating forest 
fires be kept from such tract. As a matter of fact, a few 
years will serve to make a lumbered-off pine country 
once more into a lesser wilderness, with cover complete 
enough for the wild game and the wild waters. Hence, 
even before Col. Cooper and the rest of us are taken 
from this scene, there will be growing up all around the 
headwaters of the Mississippi River what one may hope 
to be able to call the first increment, the first addition to 
the Minnesota National Park. The virtue of the Cooper 
proposition, which will in all likelihood find expression 
in Congressional enactment, lies in the fact that to estab- 
lish a wilderness you must keep out forest fires. It is 
expected that the United States Government will put all 
this tract, present and to be, under the vigilant guardian- 
ship of regularly trained fire wardens, many of whom 
will in all likelihood be drawn from the ranks of the 
native Indians, than whom no better fire wardens ever 
could be found. 
The West that Was. 
So this, then, is the history of at least one part of the 
West which has seen change; of a West which, let us 
hope, may still be preserved and retained and handed 
down at least in some part of its former beauty and dig- 
nity to the generation of sportsmen and wilderness lovers 
yet to come. If the Forest and Stream in its humble 
way has done anything to make obvious the record of this 
enterprise and to place the credit thereof where it is 
properly due, it will, I am sure, never have occasion to 
regret that fact, 
"ThiftF." 
So much for a little part of the outdoor history of that 
West which was this writer's native country. For many 
years I have wandered in one part or another of that 
West, and have loved it all. For very many years I have 
been privileged to write about it, as best I might in my 
own feeble way, in the pages of a journal always clean - 
and dignified and strong and useful. Given an unusually 
free hand in my humble journalistic connection, I have 
been privileged laeyond many of my fellow men in learn- 
ing about, many quarters of this West, though I am sure 
I love it no more than many others who know it. In this 
work, this undertaking as much of love as of labor, I have 
made a great many acquaintances and I hope a few 
friends. They are, very dear to me. I love them all, every 
one. 
Once upon a time there was a telegraph editor whose . 
name is now forgotten, but whose sign manual- under the 
code was just the number "30." He handled all the late 
telegraph news, and when the boys early in the morning 
got his signature, "30," they knew that all the stuff was 
in and that they could close up the forms. Therefore, 
after newspaper fashion, the sign of "30" came to mean 
that it was the end, that everything was finished; and to- 
day the character "30" on newspaper copy means "that's 
all." 
It rneans that the story is told. Therefore it means,- 
sometimes, good-by. I don't like to say just how I feel 
as I write to-night under my copy the old newspaper 
sign of "30." E. Hough. 
Ashland Block, Chicago, 111. 
The Co nccticut Trespass Law. 2 
Editor Forest and Stream: 
Your correspondent, Mr. Shurter, says: "Now I ask 
in all candor, and with envy and hatred toward none, 
is it wise to advocate a policy which is almost certain 
to bring ruin and destruction on the very things which 
we wish to preserve?" "In all candor" I answer no! — 
emphatically, no! And this is the identical reason 
why every description of game preserve should be en- 
couraged — State, national, the poor man's and the rich 
man's. The discouragement of game preserves of any 
description invites the "ruin and destruction" of forests 
and game. 
As proof of my claim that the rich man's preserve 
helps to stock the surrounding country with game, 
through its overflow, and that "it may possibly con- 
vince" Mr. Shurter "that there are two sides to this 
game preserve question," I submit the following Asso- 
ciated Press report to his careful consideration: 
"FORCED TO FREE DEER. 
"A Thousand Head to be Turned Loose to Prevent 
Starvation. 
"Stroudsburg, Penn., Aug. 14. — A thousand deer are 
to be liberated from Buckwood Park, owned by C. C. 
Vv orthington, of New York, in a few days. The ani- 
mals have multiplied so rapidly that they will starve 
unless freed. There are now over 2,000 deer in the 
park, and they have cleaned up nearly all the food to 
be had. 
"Superintendent Smith intends to let down some 
parts of the fence inclosing the park and let the ani- 
mals roam out wherever they choose. Farmers near the 
park do not favor the liberation, fearing the deer will 
do damage to their property. Eleven years ago nine- 
teen deer were placed in the park, which covers thou- 
sands of acres, and the animals have multiplied rapidly. 
One hundred or so have been killed by hunting parties." 
Then there is the note from Von W., in Forest 
AND Stream of Aug. 15. "I can only attribute the great 
number of deer seen in this vicinity, on both sides of 
the Connecticut River, within the past two years, in 
one case seven in a herd, to the overflow of the Blue 
Mountain Park twenty miles north of here, established 
by the late Austin Corbin." And right here, in the 
State of Connecticut, no one even dreamed a few years 
ago that deer would ever again be seen. But they ai-e 
with us in increasing numbers, and much of the credit 
for this state of affairs is due to the fact that some of 
the animals escaped from a carload on their way to the 
preserve of William C. Whjtney, ^1} qf wtiich rnakes 
