Forest and Stream 
A Weekly Journal of the Rod and Gun. 
Copyright, 1904, by Forest and Stream Publishing Co. 
NEW YORK, SATURDAY, JANUARY 23, 1904. 
Terms, $4 a Year. 10 Cts. a Copy 
Six Months, $2. 
VOL. LXn.— No. 4. 
No. 346 Broadway, New Vork. 
THE STRANGER IN TENNESSEE. 
In the simplicity of his mind he thought he would go 
to Tennessee for quail shooting. A friend suggested that 
it would be well to look up the license law. Recourse was 
had to the Game Laivs in Brief. This is what he found: 
Any person who is a non-resident and who desires to hunt in 
this State shall first procure a license, for w.hich he shall pay the 
same fee as a resident of Tennessee is subject to in the State 
of said non-resident. 
Being a resident of New York, he turned to the New 
York law to find what might be required of a resident cf 
Tennessee before shooting in New York. This is what he 
found : 
Nor shall any non-resident not the owner of real estate in this 
State and against whose real estate there are no delinquent taxes, 
take fish by spearing in this State except on a like license if there 
is any discrimination by requiring a license or otherwise in the 
State or country where such non-resident resides against residents 
of New York in taking fish in such State or country. Game shall 
not be taken by any such non-resident except pursuant to a license 
issued on paym-ent of a fee not less in amount than the fee, if 
any, required of a resident of New York for taking game in the 
State or country where such non-resident resides, and if there be 
none, then on payment of such fee as the Commission shall pre- 
scribe. 
Which made him think. The more he thought the more 
in doubt was he ; and he has appealed for advice. 
If is clear that a non-resident must pay a license fee 
for shooting in Tennessee, but what shall be the amount 
of the fee to be paid by a New York visitor is a subject 
of speculation. Tennessee exacts a sum equivalent to the 
fee charged by New York. New York demands a sura 
equal to that asked by Tennessee. Each is equal to, deter- 
mined by and based upon the other. If one were known 
the other would be known. The visiting shooter may 
make choice of the one he thinks most readily to be found 
out, and find it out ; or he may simply quote the two laws 
to the game warden of Tennessee and compel that func- 
tionary to do the thinking and solve the problem. 
ALASKA INDIANS AND THE GAME. 
A SUB-COMMITTEE of the Senate Committee on Terri- 
tories visited Alaska last summer to investigate the con- 
ditions existing there. The committee consisted of Sena- 
tors Dilingham, Burnham, Nelson, and Patterson. A re- 
port has been submitted, which in its financial summary 
shows that during the period since the acquisition of 
Alaska by the United States the Government receipts have 
exceeded the expenditures by nearly $1,000,000. From the 
1902 output of canned salmon, 2,631,320 cases, valued at 
$y,ooo,ooo, the Government's revenue was in excess n{ 
$! 00,000. The committee recommends that Governm.ent 
salmon hatcheries be established, to be conducted at the 
expense of the canning establishments, each one being 
assessed in proportion to its output. 
With respect to the Alaskan game law and its relation 
to the Indians the report says: 
"Hunters by nature and habit, and able and willing 
before the influx of the whites to care for themselves, 
they are, through the game laws, wholly deprived of their 
chief means of maintenance. Why they should be de- 
prived of their immemorial right to hunt at will passes the 
comprehension of the committee. The first measure for 
the relief of the natives, particularly the Eskimos and 
Aleuts, should be the absolute repeal of the game laws 
in so far as their provisions prohibit hunting and trap- 
ping by aborigines and natives, and the sale of skins so 
taken. The deplorable condition of these classes is such 
as to demand other and further relief at the hands of 
Congress. 
"The business of Alaska is carried on by citizens of the 
United States. It is claimed by them to now be a 'white 
man's country.' To all intents and purposes, such is the 
fact. In every contest for gain, the white has been the 
gainer. Poverty, extreme and pitiful, prevails among the 
natives, and develops their tendency to disease. Death 
is ever present at their doors. Justice and humanity alike 
demand legislation for their relief." 
With all that is here said of the duty of the American 
people to make provision for the present sustenance and 
permanent support of the unhappy natives, every right 
minded person must most heartily agree. That hardships 
are caused by the game law, which could be alleviated by 
the repeal of the law> is yet to be shown. As we have on 
a previous occasion pointed out,* the Alaska game law does 
not relate to £ur-bearing animals, but to game; and the 
Jpfjiamsi ^fi spepififeally exempted front the prorfsions of 
the act. The game law of Alaska was designed to meet 
the new conditions which have been brought about by the 
settling of the country with whites, and to call a halt in 
the destruction of game, which destruction, without some 
such wholesome check could have no other result than the 
speedy extermination of species. The step thus taken was 
in every way most necessary and most wise. The in- 
terests of the Indians, so far as hunting was concerned, 
were intelligently and carefully observed and a.ssure'L 
The expedients which Congress may now adopt for the 
relief of the natives must be found in some other measure 
than a repeal of the Alaska game law. 
GOOD ROADS. 
The Brownlow Bill now pending in Congress has for 
its theme the appropriation of $24,000,000 to be applied to 
the building of good wagon roads throughout the United 
States by the National Government. It was introduced 
by Hon. Walter P. Brownlow, of Tennesse, and Hon. 
Jacob H. Gallinger, of New Hampshire. The arguments 
advanced in its favor are so cogent that to read them 
forces one to concede their soundness. 
The bill provides that the appropriation be available at 
the rate of $8,000,000 a year, apportioned to each State 
according to the relative number of inhabitants, excepthig 
that those States whose population is less than 700,000 
shall not receive less than $250,000. The bill further pro- 
vides that each State, county, or town, to be a beneficiary 
of this contemplated national appropriation, must add an 
amount equal to the amount received, thus the total of 
the good wagon roads fund, as provided for in the Brown- 
low Bill, would be $48,000,000. 
This bill comes up for Congressional action in the near 
future. It is directly and materially of important inter- 
est to every resident of the United States, but it is spe- 
cially important to every dweller in the country dis- 
tricts. The sponsors of the Brownlow Bill adjure all citi- 
zens to write to their Congres.smen and Senators, urging 
them earnestly to vote for it, and to use their influence 
with their fellow members of Congress to make it law. 
As to the constitutional powers of the Government ir" 
relation to the purposes of the Brownlow Bill, the framer 
of it cites that the National Government appropriates 
about $30,000,000 a year for rivers and harbors : that it 
gives towns and cities great public buildings such as post- 
offices, court houses, etc. ; that it gives manufacturerii 
protection by the tariff; that it justly gives veterans and 
their families about $140,000,000; that it has loaned its 
credit to private individuals to build railways, and given 
them grants of millions of acres of land. 
Concerning the economic advantages of good wagon 
roads, Mr. Brownlow presents the following illustration 
of the wide differences between good and bad roads. Tak- 
ing $1.25 as a basis, he avers that it will pay for hauling 
one ton 5 miles on a common road, 12^ to 15 miles on 
a well made stone road, 25 miles on a trolley road, 250 
miles on a steam railroad, and 1,000 miles on a steamship. 
He further presents for consideration that on a good 
wagon road the farmer can haul his produce to market 
and the necessary supplies to his home the year round; 
that he can haul twice as much and in less time, thus in 
a way obtaining a better price ; that a saving on the wear 
of wagons, team, and temper is effected; that a farm 
contiguous to a good road has a much greater monetary 
value than if contiguous to a poor road, and that in short 
the facilities for rapid transit in the country are as neces- 
sary as they are in the city. He maintains that the benefits 
conferred by the trolley roads in the cities are equally to 
be conferred on the farmer by good wagon roads which 
insure rapid transit for the farmer and his produce. 
It is further urged that foreign governments have ap- 
propriated large sums for the building and maintenance 
of good roads, notably France, which has 23,603 miles of 
wagon roads made and maintained at the government's 
expense; that Italy has 5,000 miles under similar 
conditions. 
However, it should not be ignored that; to keep a good 
road good, the narrow wagon tires so common on all 
wagons light and heavy in the United States would need 
to be abolished. We think that in France and Italy the 
regulations strictly enjoin that wide tires shall be used 
on heavy traffic wagons. But in any event, the matter of 
good rOads is djrectlv related to national commerce and 
prosperity, 
MACKENZIE'S WHITE BUFFALO, a - 
In the year i8ot Alexander Mackenzie piiblished Ws 
remarkable "Voyages from ^Montreal," and rievealpd to the 
world a vast amount of new information as to what exr;; 
isted in the interior of northwestern America. He ^^aVe 
a detailed account of his long and arduous voyage frpm! 
the Lake of the Hills, or Athabasca Lake, down the gre^t 
river through Great Slave Lake to the frozen ocean, and 
cf his subsequent journey up Peace River across the 
Rocky Mountains, through what is now central British 
Columbia to the Pacific Ocean north of Vancouver! 
Island. ': ■ ■' 'V - I- . 
The record is one of infinite toil, requiring unfalteririj? 
determination and splendid hardihood, for the journey 
was through unknown wastes among unknown people to 
an unknown sea, and the man who accomplished it gave 
to one of the greatest streams of the continent his Undy- 
ing name. The account of his journey is to-day almost 
as interesting reading as a hundred years ago,; and it 
abounds in curious and fascinating statements. •■ 
One of them possesses especial interest, as showing how 
easy it is to be misled by statements made in perfect good, 
faith, and well exemplifies the human characteristics <of,;i 
comparing unknown objects which are described to up 
with objects which we know well, even though this coni- 
parison may, in fact, be altogether erroneous and mia- 
leading. ; ,. 
In Mackenzie's account of his descent of the river which 
has since borne his name, he speaks of a range of moun- 
tsins seen to the west, concerning which he was told thati ' 
bears were there abundant, and also small. white buffaloj 
Again he says that certain of the natives said that they 
had never been beyond these mountains, to which, how- 
ever, it was their custom to go to hunt the small white 
buffalo which were abundant there. In other places in his 
narrative these small white buffalo are mentioned. 
Many of the natives whom he met on this river had 
never before seen a white man. They were still using 
knives and other cutting implements made of stone, and : 
some of them seetned to care very little about iron, though ■ 
expressing the greatest admiration and desire for the 
beads which Mackenzie had taken along for trade. 
Mackenzie could not speak the tongue used by these ^ 
natives, but he had with him an interpreter who was of 
the linguistic stock to which they belonged, and who 
could speak besides the Cree language. Mackenzie talked 
in' Cree with the interpreter, who then turned the Cree 
into Chipewyan. This interpreter was familiar enous^h 
Vv'ith buffalo, but since he came from the lower country we 
may feel sure that he knew nothing of the moimtains pr 
of the animals inhabiting them, and when the small whitt 
buffalo were spoken of by their Chipewyan name, we mav 
feel quite certain also that he did not know what the ani- 
mals were, and that it was necessary for the Indians 
to describe these white buffalo to him. V\'hat would' they 
have said? They would have told of an animal co\^red- 
with long shaggy hair, especially on the iront part of 
the body, with long hair on the fore legs down to the. 
knees, with a beard, with a hump on its back, -holding, 
its head low, and with black horns. In other words, an 
animal which, except for its size and color, would be 
described in terms that would exactly fit the buffilo. Of 
course, if the detail of the horns or the tail had been in- 
quired about, it would at once have appeared that these 
were not buffalo, but omitting particular inquiry as to 
these parts it is not strange th-it the interpreter told the 
explorer that there were white buffalo in these mountains, 
and that the explorer believed it. 
The naturalist of that day, if asked what these white 
buffalo were, couldnot have replied ; for at that date the 
white antelope goat of the Rocky ^fountains had not 
been described. Yet this is unquestionably what the 
Indians referred to, for even at the present day the moun- 
tains in question are said to abound, as they did then, in 
bears and white goats. 
The intensely cold weather and the conditions of snow 
and ice sheet which prevail over a large territory mean 
extreme hardship for the wild creatures of field and 
wood. The quail will take care of themselves if they havs 
a sufficient food supply. Persons who are interested In 
the preservation of the birds and who have opportunity tp 
put out food for them, can do nothing more efficient th^n 
this th ^nsnjf the wfell bfeing of thf garne, _ . 
