Forest and Stream. 
A Weekly Journal of the Rod and Gun. | 
Copyright, 1904, by Forest and Stream Publishing Co. 
Terms, 
t A Year. 10 Cts. a Copy. 
Six Months, $3. 
NEW YORK, SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 20, 1904. 
j VOL. LXIL— No. 8. 
( No. ;M6 Broadway, New York. 
The "General Court" gave ©ur grandfather Hamlin a tracf of 
land in the "Province of Maine," in consideration of the services 
of himself and his three sons in the Revohition. He went down 
to view it in high expectation of a home for his old age and for 
his posterity. When he returned he reported to ' the "General 
Court" th'at there was an abundance of rocks and caves and bears, 
but hardly soil enough to grow a decent spruce tree. The caves 
seemed to be already well supplied with bear?. ' They'^were in 
possession, they were the only rightful, or indeed, possible in-, 
habitants, and he hoped the Legislature of Massachusetts would 
not disturb them. To this day it is called Hamlin's Grant, aiid 
only bears inhabit it. — Rev. Dr. Cysus Hamlin. 
r A MENACE TO THE MOTOR BOAT. - 
A BILL has been introduced in the House by Mr. Gros- 
venor to regulate motor boats, the text reading: 
A BILL 
To amend an Act entitled "An Act providing for certain require- 
ments for vessels propelled by gas, fluid, naphtha, or electric 
motors," approved January eighteenth, eighteen hundred and 
ninety-seven. 
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled. That the Act of 
Congress approved January eighteenth, eighteen hundred and 
ninety-seven (chapter sixty-one, page four hundred and eighty- 
nine, volume twenty-nine, United States Statutes at Large), 
amending section forty-four hundred and twenty-six of the Revised 
Statutes of the United States, relating to vessels propelled by 
gas, fluid, naphtha, or electric motors, be, and is hereby, amended 
by striking out the words "of above fifteen tons burden," follow- 
ing the word "vessels," in the second line of said Act, so that 
said section as hereby amended shall read: "AH vessels carrying 
freight or passengers for hire, propelled by gas, fluid, naphtha, or 
electric motors, shall be, and are hereby, made subject to all the 
provisions of section forty-four hundred and twenty-six of the 
Revised Statutes of the United States relating to the inspection of 
hulls and boilers and requiring engineers and pilots; and all 
vessels so propelled, without regard to tonnage or use, shall be 
subject to the provisions of section forty-four hundred and twelve 
of the Revised Statutes of the United States relating, to the regu- 
lation of steam vessels in passing each other, and to so much of 
sections forty-two hundred and thirty-three and forty-two hundred 
and thirty-four of the Revised Statutes relating to lights, fog 
signals, steering, and sailing rules as the board of supervising 
inspectors shall by their regulations deem applicable and practi- 
cable for their safe navigation." 
The measure is now in the hands of the Committee on 
the Merchant Marine and Fisheries. 
Sections 4233, 4234, and 4412, referred to in the bill, 
have to do only with requirements as to light, signals, and 
sailing rules. The part of Mr. Grosvenor's bill which de- 
mands the attention of all who are interested in motor 
boats is the clause prescribing that these craft, if used 
for hire, ' shall be subject to the provisions of Section 
4426. This section provides that "The hull and boilers 
of every ferryboat, canalboat, yacht, or other small craft 
of like character propelled by steam, shall be inspected 
* * * and no such vessel shall he navigated without a 
licensed engineer and a licensed pilot." 
This measure, it is understood, has been brought before 
Congress at the instance of masters and pilots of river 
and harbor craft who have had much disastrous expe- 
rience with navigators of small power boats. The small 
boat in a harbor is the terror of ferry and steamboat 
pilots, and in river navigation there have been numerous 
instances where small boats have been run down with 
consequent loss of life, in which casualties the fault was 
with the inadequate and incapable manning of the small 
boats. There is sound reason, then, for the contention 
that all motor boats should be subject to whatever de- 
gree of regulation may be necessary to secure the end 
sought, which is that" of safety to small boat and large 
vessel as well. Legislation designed to secure this should 
have the cordial support of all who are interested in 
motor boats, whether as manufacturers or as users. 
Whatever tends to increase the safety of such craft is for 
the interest of both classes alike. 
But however good in purpose legislation on this sub- 
ject may be, it may very readily be made too stringent 
and rigorous, so severe, in fact, as to defeat the aim, and 
prove detrimental and oppressive. Those who have 
studied the Grosvenor bill are apprehensive, because they 
see in it a menace to the small motor boat as a craft 
now coming into almost universal use for pleasure or 
convenience. This apprehension is caused by a rumor 
that there is an intention to amend the Grosvenor bill 
so that it shall apply to all motor boats, whether used 
for hire or not. In that event every boat would have to 
be provided with, a licensed engineer and a, licensed pilot. 
This could not but mean the abandonment of thousands 
of such craft.- It would drive out of existence the -private 
motor boat owned by the man of moderate means. That 
Congress should adopt such a measure is fairly in- 
credible; the bill so amended could pass only by an inad- 
vertence or misunderstanding. The one thing, then, for 
the motor boat owners to do is to communicate with their 
Senators and Representatives, to the end that if the Gros- 
venor bill shall be adopted it shall go through as now 
worded, and without the mischievous amendment which 
is feared. ' 
The occasioji ife opportune to secure also from Congress: 
the provision of certain regulations which should apply 
to all small motor craft, even though used only for the 
pleasure or convenience of the owner. The nature of these 
regulations is outlined in the letter of Mr. E. M. Mac- 
Lellan, secretary of the American Power Boat Associa- 
tion, to the Secretary of the Department of Commerce 
and Labor, printed in another column. The association, 
Secretary MacLellan writes, is in favor of requiring an . 
examination of those in charge of power boats, more 
particularly" as to their qualifications and knowledge of 
navigation, sufficient for the safe and proper handling 
of such types of boats. This, as is further pointed out, 
should not call for a license such as is granted to captains 
or engineers, but should be a special form of certificate 
conforming to the examination that might be required. 
This is entirely reasonable. Such a system, by increasing 
the efficiency of small boat navigators and giving in- 
creased assurance of safety in the use of small boats, 
would prove a constant factor in promoting their use 
and popularity. The horrible motor boat catastrophies 
which occur at not infrequent intervals may almost with- 
out exception be attributed to the ignorance or the care- 
lessness of the man in charge. Every such casualty "gives 
a black eye" to the motor boat interest. They would be 
less frequent were the rule in force that no person should 
be permitted to handle a boat until he had given evidence 
of his fitness to do so with safety to himself and others. 
The requirements suggested by Secretary MacLellan 
might wisely be added as an amendment to the present 
Grosvenor bill. They would do much to fix the status of 
the motor pleasure boat; and by providing all that is 
essential, would go far to remove the danger of that 
drastic legislation of which motor boat owners are now 
apprehensive. 
BOARDERS VS. BEARS. 
They are discusislng the proposed bear protection in 
(he Adirondacks ; and the more the proposition is thought 
about and talked about the less favor does it find. The 
notion that the Adirondack bear supply should be con- 
served appears to have sprung from the sentimentality of 
people who do not live in the Adirondacks ; but the actual 
dwellers there, who are the class actually concerned, look 
at the subject in a hard, practical way. The consideration 
with them is of the bear in relation to dollars and cents. 
If the Adirondack bear is of use, they want it protected ; 
if it is of no use, but a species of vermin preying on their 
sheep and frightening their city boarders, they want :.t 
exterminated. 
The usefulness of the bear depends upon the stage of 
social development of the country it inhabits. Rev. Dr. 
Cyrus Hamlin, whose boyhood days were spent in a bear 
infested region of Oxford county, Maine, once wrote : 
"Bears are a very good element in early society. They 
call forth skill, pluck and dash." The Oxford county boy 
of his day "never felt bigger and prouder than when, 
v.-ith a ball rammed down on top of a partridge charge, 
he was pursuing a bear which he had seen at a distance, 
but never saw again." The bear killing by the young 
Cyrus Hamlin and by his cousin Hannibal, between 
whom existed a warm emulation in the pursuit, appears 
to have been for the most part theoretical. There was, 
perhaps, as is usually the case, more of large imagining 
of what they would do to a bear than of the actual doing ; 
but we may well beJieve that the roaming through the 
bear woods of Oxford county had its part in developing 
the characters of the two boys, and fitting them for their 
careers of usefulness. Cyrus Hamlin was the first presi- 
dent of Robert College, Constantinople; Hannibal Ham- 
lin was Vice-President of the United States in Lincoln's 
first term. It was near the close of his life that, looking 
back to his boyhood days in the grand old woods of 
Maine, Dr. Hamlin wrote, "We pilv the boys that have 
no bears in their woods." • - 
But however good the bear may be as an "element of 
early society, it becomes less useful and less tolerable 
in proportion as that society loses its primitive character. 
No society, however remote it may be from the great 
centers of population, can retain its early characteristics 
in the face of an influx of city board-ers. Wc speak of 
the Adirondacks as a wilderness;; but, ill. reality the 
region is a vast caravansary for the housing of hosts of 
summer boarders. These boarders are not bear hunters; 
they are, in a vastly preponderating inajority, women and 
children — timorous creatures affrighted of bears, startled 
at the very thought that there may be bears in the neigh- 
borhood, and paralyzed at the sight of 'a live bear at large. 
This being the condition of things, the Adirondack hotel 
keeper will tell you that he considers extremely silly 
this proposal to protect the bear tribe. Women and chil- 
dren and bears do not go together. He makes his money 
out of boarders, not out of bear bounties. As he sees it, 
bear protection is not a good business proposition. 
It avails nothing with him' to argue that the Adiron- 
dack bear is harmless and innocent as to the ;shedding of 
human blood. Popular beUef will not have it so. There 
are thirteen million children in the Sunday schools of 
America; they have all heard of the bears which tare the 
children who mocked Elisha; and the notion of ursine 
ferocity thus instilled has beeil strengthened by the popu- 
lar lore common to the race, which makes the bear a 
bogie'. "Meeting up" with' a bear in the woods, ninety- 
nine of every hundred summer boarders would run. 
The Adirondack hotel keeper, who should seriously 
argue that bears should be protected in the Adirondacks 
would be regarded by his fellows as foolish. 
As A part of the Pennsylvania Railroad tunnel system 
from New Jersey under the Hudson River and Manhat- 
tan Island and the East River to Brooklyn^ there is now 
building at Long Island City a great power house. The 
site is a boggy swamp. To secure a foundation to carry 
the building with its thousands of tons of machinery, 
8,000 pine piles have been driven down thirty feet or 
more, on which will rest the concrete bed on which the 
structure will be reared. The foundation of the immense 
New York Produce Exchange building rests on 15,000 
New England spruce and pine spiles driven down to bed- 
rock and cut off below the level of tidewater. The city's 
loftiest skyscraper, the 31-sto'ry ' St. Paul builditig, with 
its 20,ooo tons of weight, is carried on a foundation which 
is supported on 4,000 spiles driven into the sand 40 feet 
to bedrock. The power house, the exchange, • and the 
office building are typical. Each is supported" a;nd sus- 
tained by the strong support found , in the, forest. 
■ , : ■ 
The practice of docking the tails of horses is -engaging 
the attention of Congress, and a repressive measure has 
been introduced with application to the District of. 
Columbia. It requires registration of all horses within 
the -District having docked tails, and forbids docking in 
the future, or the importation, sale, or ' use of docked- 
tailed horses other than those registered under the act. 
A measure of like import has been introduced at Albany 
by Senator Armstrong. There should be no question of 
the enactment of both bills. The docking of horses' tails 
is a monstrous cruelty. There are no extenuating cir- 
cumstances. It ought to be suppressed, and suppressed 
now. ■■■■ ■ • 
The British officials in the' Soudan have adopted regu- 
lations for the preservation of game in a territory lying 
between the Blue and -the White Nile and the Abyssinian 
frontier, and comprising an area of 30o mile$ in length 
by 150 miles in width. In this vast tract only persons 
bearing permits from , the Governor are allowed to shoot. 
The game comprises elephants, lions, leopards, buffalo, 
hippopotamus, rhinoceros, and many species of deer and 
antelope. American sportsmen who may be ambitious tc 
stalk the big game of Africa will find their opportunity 
here. The proper course of procedure is to secure creden- 
tials from the United States Consul-General at Cairo, 
purchasing one's outfit there, and thence- proceeding up 
the Nile, _ j , . . , 
