Forest AND Stream 
A Weekly Journal of the Rod and Gun. 
Copyright, 1904, by Forest and Stream Publishing Co. 
Terms, 
[ A Year. 10 Cts. a Copy. 
Six Months, $3. 
\ NEW YORK, SATURDAY, JANUARY 30, 1904. ] 
VOL. LXII.— No, 5. 
No. 346 Broadway, New York. 
The Forest and Stream is the recognized medium of entertain- 
ment, instruction and information between American sportsmen. 
The Mitors 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 
conespondents. 
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. 
THE BOONE AND CROCKETT CLUB. 
The Boone and Crockett Club, whose annual meeting 
was held in Washington last week, is not an old institu- 
tion as things go in this country, having been founded 
only twenty years ago. Its original purpose was to bring 
together a number of big-game hunters for social inter- 
course, which would include an exchange of experience 
as to game localities, hunting rifles, and methods of travel 
— pleasant and profitable to its members. 
It very soon developed that these objects did not satisfy 
the energies of the members of the club. Game had already 
begun to be scarce, and the need of its protection had 
been strongly emphasized by the practical extinction of 
the buffalo. It was felt that the taking of game should be 
regulated, and further that a local club could not accom- 
plish much in this direction. The result of this was a 
great widening of the club's influence by the election of 
members from all over the country, so that its member- 
ship represents the West and South, and one of its vice- 
presidents is a resident of Wyoming and another of 
Colorado. 
With the rapidly changing conditions as to wild life 
and wild regions in America, the activities of the club 
have become still more modified. While a proportion 
of its members continue to be hunters and explorers 
of little known regions from the Arctic Ocean to Central 
Arherica, from the Atlantic to the Pacific, and in Africa 
and Asia, these members occupy themselves less with 
killing game than with the investigation of new countries 
and new game animals, and the bringing to scientific in- 
stitutions material for study by the naturalist. In this 
way— as was said last year at a meeting of the club — 
it has changed from an association of destroyers of wild 
life to one whose objects are largely the protection of 
life — chiefly as represented in the great wild creatures of 
the- land, as well as of the forests which they inhabit. 
As the views of the club slowly changed, men were 
elected to membership who were in no sense hunters, but 
whose work in exploration, investigation, and the protec- 
tion of the natural wonders of the United Sta'tes for the 
benefit of the people had been noteworthy. Such men 
did their part with other members of the club in arousing 
public sentiment in behalf of the natural wonders, and 
the club's efforts largely influenced the passage by Con- 
gress of laws for the protection of the Yellowstone 
Park and all that it contains, with the result that to-day 
we have there the most interesting game preserve in the 
world. 
Since wild life and all that goes with it appeal most 
strongly to the club, it has always appreciated the im- 
portance of interesting the great public — which has so lit- 
tle opportunity to see the wilderness — in nature as ex- 
emplified by the creatures which flourished there. For 
this reason the club, through a committee appointed by 
Mr. Roosevelt, then its president, established the New 
York Zoological Society and its park, which now pos- 
sesses the greatest collection of wild animals in America. 
Members of the club have always been the moving spirits 
in that Society, and the good which they have done, and 
the pleasure which they have given in the greatest center 
of population on this continent, can hardly be- over- 
estimated. 
Persons who know of the Boone and Crockett Club 
only by name, are apt to think of it merely as an associa- 
tion of persons who enjoy hunting and killing wild ani- 
mals, but it is not this. A considerable proportion of 
its members now never hunt wild animals, but, looking 
to the future, are endeavoring to preserve for this coun- 
try a reasonable stock of its indigenous wild creatures, 
which will be beautiful and historical objects for suc- 
ceeding generations to admire. The club is deeply con- 
cerned in the adequate preservation of the forest reserves, 
and is heartily in favor of legislation at Washington 
which shall transfer the Forestry Bureau from the De- 
partment of the Interior to that of Agriculture. This, it 
is believed, will give better protection to the forests and 
the wild things that inhabit them, and thus will conserve 
to this country a great source of wealth, together with 
many objects of interest and beauty. 
The club fully realizes that no legislation can ever 
accomplish anything unless backed up by public sentiment 
in the localities affected by the legislation, and heartily 
indorses the wise words of President Roosevelt, its 
founder, who declares in substance that the efficiency of any 
legislation in behalf either of game or forests depends on 
making the public directly affected understand that this 
legislation is for their benefit, and favors their interests. 
Incidentally such localities should be encouraged to feel 
a just pride in the forests, the herds of game, or the 
natural wonders in the neighborhood in which they re- 
side, and which will be affected by such legislation. The 
local population are the natural protectors of such won- 
ders, and such a feeling of pride is the best guarantee of 
support of any laws that may be enacted. Where this 
feeling exists the- work of protection is made much less 
difficult. Thus, Major Pitcher, superintendent of the 
National Park, declares that his work of protecting that 
interesting region has been made easy and pleasant by the 
hearty co-operation that he has received from the people' 
of Montana and Wyoming. 
During the years of its existence the Boone and 
Crockett Club has done much good work, and since its 
influence is constantly increasing, we may hope that it 
will long continue to be a power for good in the land. 
WHALEBONE. 
A CABLE dispatch the other day reported from Dundee, 
Scotland, a sale of two and a quarter tons of whalebone 
for £3,000 (or over $14,000) a ton; and it was added 
that there were only four tons of whalebone left out- 
standing in the market, all the other supplies, British and 
American, having been cleaned up. The price of whale- 
bone has risen in seventy years from 13 cents to $7 a 
pound. The rise has been due to a growing demand 
and a lessening supply. It has reached a point where a 
bowhead whale may be regarded as an animated marine 
gold mine. The bone yield of a bowhead ranges from 
j,6oo to 3,000 pounds. At ruling prices of $6 to $6.50 a 
pound, this means that a whale is worth from $10,000 
to $20,000; and the bowhead fishery should be attractive 
if there are any bowheads left. In spite of the meagre 
returns in numbers of whale taken during the last few 
years, a diminishing of catch which has resulted in the rise 
of price, it has not been shown to the satisfaction of 
whalemen that the whales have actually been exter- 
minated. Some whalers hold that there are as many 
whales to-day, both sperm whales and bowheads, as there 
were in the palmy days, when the American whaling fleet 
numbered over 700 sail against the beggarly 40 of to- 
day. Whales breed as rapidly now as they did then, it 
is reasoned, and are less closely pursued; they must be 
as plenty to-day as ever; that they are not found is 
due to a change of their haunts. Victor Slocum, of this 
city, a whaleman of experience, some of which he has re- 
lated for Forest and Stream readers, expresses the con- 
viction that the bowheads are in Arctic waters on the 
Atlantic side of the continent waiting for the coming of 
American gun harpoons ; and he is fitting out for an ad- 
venture in quest of whalebone. For this purpose he is 
building a lo-tonner, the Fox, at New Rochelle, building 
it himself from the keel up — a method which is calculated 
to give one confidence in his ship in time of stress. Next 
July, according to programme, he will sail from St. Johns, 
Newfoundland, for Hudson's Bay. Leaving the Fox 
there in safe anchorage he will make a sledge journey 
of 600 miles across the ice to Melville Sound, where his 
hunting camp will be established. The return will be 
made in September of 1905. "If the bowheads are 
there — ," someone began. "The bowheads are there," in- 
terrupted the master of the Fox. If they shall indeed be 
found, Mr. Slocum promises that we shall have the story 
of the whalebone fishing of Melville Sound. 
We print from advance sheets those parts of the report 
of the New York Commission which have to do 
with game. The deer statistics are of most interest. 
They show a continuation, of the steady increase of deer 
which has been a feature of all reports since the present 
law was adopted. 
The report of Mr. Gifford Pinchot, United States 
Forester, to the Secretary of Agriculture, is an interesting 
and cheering document. No previous year has seen such 
progress in forestry as the last, which has shown a con- 
stantly growing interest and an increasing amount of 
practical forest work. The change in sentiment in the 
West is due partly to a growing realization of the im- 
portance of irrigation in the Western States, and the in- 
fluence of the forests on the water supply is gradually be- 
coming understood by residents there. The great lum- 
ber interests are expressing themselves in favor of the 
perpetuation of forests by wise use. Railroads are con- 
sidering the future of their timber supply, and are dis- 
posed to take measures for its perpetuation. The States 
are more than ever disposed to co-operate with the 
Bureau of Forestry, and State forest problems .'ire con- 
stantly being submitted to the bureau for opinions. 
While the tendency of the bureau is to devote its ener- 
gies to Government work rather than to the assistance of 
private owners, the number of requests for such assist- 
ance from private citizens is constantly increasing. Such 
requests must be met, because the proper working of a 
small tract of woodland by its owner exerts a very strong 
educational influence in a community. The- subjects cared 
for by the bureau are forest management, forest investi- 
gation, forest, extension, forest products, and of course 
the preservation of the records of the office. Mr. Pinchot 
has unquestionably done more to popularize forestry and 
to help forward an interest in it than any other Ameri- 
can, and he will do more. 
■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ' 
Writing from the Adirondacks, Mr. George L. Brown 
questions the reasonableness of our assumption that the 
residents of the North Woods want their bears protected. 
Instead of being regarded as a blessing whose growing 
scarcity is viewed with alarm, he avers that the bear is 
cordially hated as a sheep stealer, and that what the 
Adirondack farmers would have is not bear protection, 
but a good generous bear bounty. Figures are quoted to 
prove; that there has been no decrease in the bear supply, 
and doubtless the anti-bear side would be strengthened 
if we had statistics of the pigs and sheep which the 
farmers have contributed to the support of the species. 
The situation, in short, is this : Certain sentimentalists 
who do not live in the North Woods would have the 
bear protected; residents of the country, who are of more 
practical turn of mind, demand the destruction of the 
bears that they may raise hogs and sheep. We are bound 
to sa}' that the Adirondack farmers have reason on their 
side. Common sense demands that the preposterous 
measure now before the Legislature to protect the bear 
should not be permitted to become a law. 
Much has been heard of Mr. George W. Vanderbilt's 
game preserve at Biltmore, N. C, and of the means taken 
to increase the original stock of game and fish in the 
territory. During the eight years the preserve has been 
established, trout and deer have been liberated, the quail 
and the wild turkeys have been fed, salt licks have 
been maintained to attract the deer, hundreds of traps 
have been kept at work in the woods for the destruction 
of wildcats, mink, 'coons, and other vermin; forest 
rangers have patrolled the tract ; and in all these ways 
the covers and waters have been well stocked. All this 
has naturally given the public an impression that the 
owner of Biltmore is a sportsman; but the curious fea- 
ture of the Vanderbilt game preserve is that its owner 
never touches rod or gun ; and personally cares not in the 
slightest degree for fish and game. 
At a special ineeting of the Millinery Merchants' Pro- 
tective Association, held in this city last week, it was 
formally resolved to abandon the fight against the laws 
forbidding the use of bird plumage in millinery. This 
step, it was explained, has been taken because of a change 
of popular sentiment as to the wearing of bird feather 
adornment ; and the change has been brought about 
chiefly through the continued agitation of the question 
by the Audubon Societies and the American Ornitholo- 
gists' Union. The dealers would be willing to keep up 
the fight against the law, and might hope to win, but 
there is no such thing as standing in defiance of popular 
feeling, in particular the sentiment of women. _ 
