812 
FOREST AND STREAM 
^April i6, 1984. 
trade dotted its wide expanse. Fishing is good, too, both 
in bay and ocean. There are no venomous serpents nor 
beasts of prey on the keys, and all the conditions that 
make life idyllic would seem to meet here, but when we 
said as much to our kind cicerone he spoiled our modern 
arcadia with one word, "mosquitoes." On this topic he 
waxed eloquent. 
"There are days together when we have to stay in the 
house or be eaten by them," he said, "and all through the 
summer, unless the wind is strong, they are more or less 
a torment. I thought I had seen mosquitoes on the main- 
land, but they are nothing compared to the clouds that at 
times descend on the keys. Nobody knows whence they 
come or where they breed, but with the wind in certain 
quarters come they do, and then there is nothing to do 
but to stay in doors until a change of wind drives them 
away." C. B. Todd. 
Food m the Wilderness. 
Editor Forest and Stream: 
When first the news came of the unknown fate of 
Leonidas Hubbard and his companion in the wilds of 
Labrador, the writer was among those who entertained 
no serious fears for their safety. Even when the rumor 
of Mr. Hubbard's death was published, he still had little 
doubt of their safe return sooner or later. This faith 
was based on the belief that a woodsman, a hunter, an 
angler and a writer on sport, must be familiar with 
woods and wilds, and must know how to meet the few 
real perils that beset the sportsman who has even a 
slight knowledge of woodcraft. Now that the sad story 
of death from starvation and of the terrible hardships 
and sufferings of the survivors, with woods and waters 
all around them, has come. I find it hard to realize. 
From many years' experience as an amateur hunter and 
fisherman, I am forced to the conclusion that their 
Indian guide was as ignorant as themselves of what 
any half-breed in Maine or New Brunswick^ under- 
stands thoroughly — the various ways of procuring sus- 
tenance wherever vegetable and animal life abounds. 
Even with Mr. Wallace's letter before me, it seems 
incredible that two intelligent sportsmen and an Indian 
provided with firearms, hatchets and knives, should 
suffer from hunger in any region where vegetation is 
abundant and . where bears, caribou, porcupines, hares 
and squirrels, grouse, ptarmigan and water fowl are 
indigenous, and generally abundant. 
I cannot but agree with the opinion expressed in 
your editorial in issue of 2d inst. that "the two white 
men and an Indian plunged fatuously into what they 
knew to be an unexplored wilderness, insufficiently pro- 
vided, inadequately fitted with transportation for what 
supplies they had, and unequipped with any knowledge 
of woodcraft which might enable them to sustain life 
should their provisions be exhausted. What happened 
was precisely what might have been expected under 
these circumstances. The only bright gleam in the 
dismal story is the courage with which the men en- 
dured their sufferings and the unselfish devotion of 
each member of the party to his fellows." While agree- 
ing with you in my admiration of these qualities, I 
must, without cynicism, quote the old adage which 
these presumptuous men forgot — Ne sutor ultra crepidam. 
I think your readers are greatly indebted to Dr. 
Robert T. Mcrris for his letter in your issue of 2d 
inst., in which he gives them an invalulible lesson_ in 
woodcraft. Had poor Hubbard ^nd hi§_ companion 
known even the rudiments of their business as_ ex- 
plorers, all their sufferings could -have been, avoided, 
and Mr. H. would have returned to his many friends 
none the worse for his expedition. 
Were the Octogenarian forty years younger he would 
ask nothing bett'er than, with Dr. Morris and E. A. 
Samuels as companions, and . Sachem Gabe and Sebat- 
tis Toma (as he knew them forty years ago) for at- 
tendants, to follow the route and seek the goal which 
proved so disastrous to poor Hubbard and his party. 
Most heartily would he echo the wish expressed by 
Dr. Morris, with all the longing of a true woodsman: 
"Give me a seat on the thick, wet caribou moss, with 
the sleet bouncing off the tin platter that holds some 
wood-rat stew, with poplar buds on the side; for a 
rclifli a seal-oil salad of brake sprouts ; for dessert a 
handful of spice cranberries, picked on the spot, and 
for luxury a cup of hot tea without milk or sugar, 
flavored only with such an appetite as vigorous exer- 
cise and the strong, pure wind" give to the lovers of 
nature when in the wildest haunts of the Red Gods. 
There are fine days, even in the wilds of Labrador, 
and the pleasures of these more than compensate for 
all the discomforts their worst storms can pause to the 
woodsman who understands his craft. 
I commend Dr. Morris's letter to the careful study 
of all who are ambitious of joining that small circle of 
sportsmen who can dispense with double tents, sheet- 
iron stoves and canvas stretchers, and who can make 
themselves comfortable and happy under the most ad- 
verse circumstances as long as they are surrounded 
by rocks and woods and within reach of lakes and 
streams. The Old Angler. 
Sussex, N. B. ; • i 
Narrows Island CItfb Meeting* 
The annual meeting of the Narrows Island Club 
was held at the Hoffman House, New York city, 
April II, at 8:30 P. M. 
There were present Messrs. J. B. Lawrence, W. H. 
Wheelock, Henry Sampson, T. S. Young, Jr.. Fred. 
Jones, W. H. Nichols, Charles Greer, Wm. R. Peters, 
Geo. Bird Grinnell, Bayard Dominick, and Dr. F. Markoe. 
After the reading of the reports of the secretary 
and treasurer and an address on the work of the past 
year by the president, the following officers were 
elected: President, J. Burling Lawrence; Secretary 
and Treasurer, Wm. H. Wheelock; Vice-President, 
Henry Sampson; Executive Committee, T. S. Young, 
Jr., Fred Jones, R. H. Robertson, Geo. B. Grinnell, and 
the officers. 
The address of the president showed the present 
shooting season to have been the most successful ex- 
cept one in the club's history. Only in the season of 
1885-1^6 were more birds killed. The grounds of the 
J^arrows Island Club are in Currituck County, N. C. 
— ^ — 
Preservation of the Wild Animals 
of North America.* 
BY HENRY FAIRFIELD OSBORN. 
The National and Congressional movement for the 
preservation of the Sequoia in California represents a 
gro\yth of intelligent sentiment. It is the same kind of 
sentiment which must be aroused, and aroused in time, 
to bring about Government legislation if we are to pre- 
serve our native animals. That which principally appeals 
to us in the Sequoia is its antiquity as a race, and the 
fact that California is its last refuge. 
As a special and perhaps somewhat novel argument 
for preservation, I wish to remind you of the great an- 
tiquity of our game animals, and the enormous period of 
time which it has taken nature to produce them. We 
must have legislation, and we must have it in time. I 
recall the story of the judge and jury who arrived in 
town and inquired about the security of the prisoner, 
who was known to be a desperate character; they were 
assured by the crowd that the prisoner was perfectly 
secure because he was safely hanging tO' a neighboring- 
tree. If our preservative measures are not prompt, there 
will be no animals to legislate for. 
Sentiment and Science. 
The sentiment which promises to save the Sequoia is 
due to the spread of knowledge regarding this wonder- 
ful tree, largely through the efforts of the Division of 
Forestry. In the official chronology of the United States 
Geological Survey — which is no more nor less reliable 
than that of other geological surveys, because all are 
alike mere approximations to the truth — the Sequoia was 
a well developed race 10,000,000 of years ago. It became 
one of a large family, including fourteen genera. The 
master genus — the Sequoia — alone includes thirty extinct 
species. It was distributed in past times through Canada, 
Alaska, Greenland, British Columbia, across Siberia, and 
down into southern Europe. The Ice Age, and perhaps 
competition with other trees more successful in seeding 
down, are responsible for the fact that there are now only 
two living species — the "red wood," or Sequoia semper- 
zdrens, and the giant, or Sequoia gigantea. The last 
refuge of the gigantea is in ten isolated groves, in some 
cf which the tree is reproducing itself, while in others it 
has ceased to reproduce. 
In the year 1900 forty mills and logging companies 
were engaged in destroying these trees. 
All of us regard the destruction of the Parthenon by 
the Turks as a great calamity; yet it would be possible, 
thanks to the laborious studies which have chiefly 
emanated from Germany, for modern architects to com- 
pletely restore the Parthenon in its former grandeur; but 
it is far beyond the power of all the naturalists of the 
world to restore one of these Sequoias, which were large 
trees, over 100 feet in height, spreading their leaves to 
the sun, before the Parthenon was even conceived by 
the architects and sculptors of Greece. 
Life of the Sequoia and History of Thought. 
In 1900 five hundred of the very large trees still re- 
mained, the highest reaching from 320 to 325 feet. Their 
height, however, appeals to us less than their extraor- 
dinary age, estimated by Hutchins at 3,600, or by John 
Muir, who probably loves them more than any man liv- 
ing, at from 4,000 to 5,000 years. According to the actual 
count of Muir of 4,000 rings, by a method which he has 
described to me, one of these trees was 1,000 years old 
when Homer wrote the Iliad; 1,500 years of age when 
Aristotle was foreshadowing his evolution theory and 
writing his history of animals ; 2,000 years of age when 
Christ walked upon the earth; nearly 4,000 years of age 
when the "Origin of Species" was written. Thus the life 
01 one of these trees spanned the whole period before the 
birth of Aristotle (384 B. C.) and after the death of 
Darwin (A. D. 1882), the two greatest natural philoso- 
phers who have lived. 
These trees are the noblest living things upon earth. 
I can imagine that the American people are approaching 
a stage of general intelligence and enlightened love of 
nature in which they will look back upon the destruction 
of the Sequoia as a blot on the national escutcheon. 
Veneration of Age. 
The veneration of age sentiment which should, and I 
believe actually does, appeal to the American people when 
clearly presented to them even more strongly than the 
commercial sentiment, is, roused in equal strength by an 
intelligent appreciation of the race longevity of the larger 
animals which our ancestors found here in profusion, 
and of which but a comparatively small number still sur- 
vive. To the unthinking man a bison, a wapiti, a deer, a 
pronghorn antelope, is a matter of hide and meat; to the 
real nature lover, the true sportsman, the scientific stu- 
dent, each of these types is a subject of intense admira- 
tion. From the mechanical standpoint they represent an 
architecture more elaborate than that of Westminster 
Abbey, and a history beside which human history is as 
of yesterday. 
Slow Evolution of Modern Mammals. 
These animals were not made in a day, nor in a thous- 
and years, nor in a million years. As said the first Greek 
philosopher, Empedocles, who 560 B. C. adumbrated the 
"survival of the fittest" theory of Darwin, they are the 
result of ceaseless trials of nature. While the Sequoia 
was first emerging from, the Carboniferous, or Coal 
Period, the reptile-like ancestors of these mammals, 
covered with scales and of egg-laying habits, were crawl- 
ing about and giving not the most remote prophecy of 
their potential transformation through 10,000,000 of years 
into the superb fauna of the northern hemisphere. 
The descendants- of these reptiles were transformed into 
mammals. If we had had the opportunity of studying 
the early mammals of the Rocky Mountain region with a 
full appreciation of the possibilities of evolution, we 
'Address before the Boone and Crockett Ciub, Washington. 
should have perceived that they were essentially of the 
same stock and ancestral to our modern types. There 
were little camels scarcely more than twelve inches high, 
little taller than cotton-tail rabbits, and smaller than the 
jackass rabbits; horses fifteen inches high, scarcely larger 
than, and very similar in build to, the little English 
coursing hound known as the whippet; it is not improb- 
able that we shall find the miniature deer; there certainly 
existed ancestral wolves and foxes of similarly small 
proportions. You have all read your Darwin carefully 
enough to know that neither camels, horses, nor deer 
would have evolved as they did except for the stimulus 
given to their limb and speed development by the contem- 
poraneous evolution of their enemies in the dog family. 
The Middle Stage of Evolution. 
A million and a half years later these same animals 
had attained a very considerable size; the western coun- 
try had become transformed by the elevation of the 
P'ateaux into dry, grass-bearing uplands, where both 
horses and deer of peculiarly American types were graz- 
ing. We have recently secured some fresh light on the 
evolution of the American^ deer. Besides the Palceomeryx, 
vrhich may be related to the true American deer Odocoi- 
ieus, we have found the complete skeleton of a small ani- 
mal named Merycodus, nineteen inches high, possessed 
of a complete set of delicate antlers with. the character- 
istic burr at the base indicating the annual shedding of 
the horn, and a general structure of skeleton which sug- 
gests our so-called pronghorn antelope, Antilocapra, 
rather than our true American deer, Odocoileus. This 
Vk'as in all probability a distinctively American type. Its 
remains have been found in eastern Colorado in the 
geological age known as Middle Miocene, which is esti- 
mated {svib rosa, like all our other geological estimates), 
at about a million and a half years of age. Our first 
thought as we study this small, strikingly graceful ani- 
mal, is wonder that such a high degree of specialization 
and perfection was reached at so early a period; our 
second thought is the reverence for age sentiment. 
The African Period in America. 
The conditions of environment were dififerent from 
what they were before or what they are now. These 
animals flourished during the period in which western 
America must have closely resembled the eastern and cen- 
tral portions of Africa at the present time. 
This inference is drawn from the fact that the pre- 
dominant fauna of America in the Middle and Upper 
Miocene Age and in the Pliocene was closely analogous 
to the still extant fauna of Africa. It is true we had 
no real antelopes in this country, in fact none of the 
bovines, and no giraffes ; but there was a camel which my 
colleague Matthews has surnamed the "giraffe camel," 
extraordinarily similar to the giraffe. There were no 
hippopotami, no hyraces. All these peculiarly African 
animals, of African origin, I believe, found their way 
into Europe at least as far as the Sivalik Hills of India, 
but never across the Bering Sea Isthmus. The only truly 
African animal which reached America, and which flour- 
ished here in an extraordinary manner, was the elephant, 
or rather the mastodon, if we speak of the elephant in its 
Miocene stage of evolution. However, the resemblance 
between America and Africa is abundantly demonstrated 
by the presence of great herds of horses, of rhinoceroses, 
both long and short limbed, of camels in great variety, 
including the giraffe-like type which was capable of 
browsing on the higher branches of trees, of small ele- 
phants, and of deer, which in adaptation to somewhat 
arid conditions imitated the antelopes in general 
structure. 
Elimination fay the Glacial Period. 
The Glacial Period eliminated half of this fauna, 
whereas the equatorial latitude of the fauna in Africa 
saved that fauna from the attack of the Glacial Period, 
which was so fatally destructive to the animals in the 
more northerly latitudes of America. The glaciers, or at 
least the very low temperature of the period, eliminated 
especially all the African aspects of our fauna. This 
destructive agency was almost as baneful and effective 
as the mythical Noah's flood. When it passed off, there 
survived comparatively few indigenous North American 
animals, but the country was repopulated from the en- 
tire northern hemisphere, so that the magnificent wild 
animals which our ancestors found here were partly 
North American and partly Eurasiatic in origin. 
Elimination by Man. 
Our animal fortune seemed to us so enormous that it 
never could be spent. Like a young rake coming into a 
very large inheritance, we attacked this noble fauna with 
characteristic American improvidence,^ and with a 
rapidity compared with which the Glacial advance was 
eternally slow; the East went first, and in fifty years we 
have brought about an elimination in the West which 
promises to be even more radical than that effected by 
the ice. We are now beginning to see the end of the 
North American fauna; and_if we do not move promptly, 
it will become a matter of history and of museums. The 
bison is on the danger line; if it survives the fatal effects 
of its natural sluggishness when abundantly fed, it still 
runs the more insidious but equally great danger of in- 
breeding, like the wild ox of Europe. The chances for 
the wapiti and elk and the western mule and black-tail 
deer are brighter, provided that we move promptly for 
their protection. The pronghorn is a wonderfully clever 
and adaptive animal, crawling under barb-wire fences, 
and thus avoiding one of the greatest enemies of Western 
life. Last summer I was surprised beyond measure to 
see the large herds of twenty to forty pronghorn ante- 
lopes still surviving on the Laramie plains, fenced in on 
all sides by the wires of the great Four-Bar Ranch, part 
of which I believe are stretched illegally. 
Recent Disappearance. 
I need not dwell on the astonishingly rapid diminution 
of our larger animals in the last few years ; it would be 
like "carrying coals to Newcastle"^ to detail personal 
observations before this Club, which is full of men of far 
greater experience and knowledge than myself. On the 
White River Plateau Forest Reserve, which is destined 
to be the Adirondacks of Colorado^ with which many of 
