Forest and Stream 
A Weekly Journal of the Rod and Gun. 
Copyright, 1904, BY Forest AND Stream Publishing Co. 
Terms, $4 A Year. 10 Cts. a Copy. I NEW YORK SATURDAY, APRIL. 30, 1904. { No. SilsROA^wAY, New YoRKi 
Six Months, $3. J ^ ' ' ; i.^ 
The Forest akd Stream is therecognizedmedium of entertain- 
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garded. While it is intended to give wide latitude in discussion 
of cuaent topics, the editors are not responsible for the views of 
correspondents. 
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particulars respecting subscriptions, see prospectus on page iii. 
THE ALDER RUN. 
To the dweller in New England or the Middle States 
the alder run needs no description. It is one of the most 
i;iniiliar features of a pleasing landscape. Seen at a dis- 
tance, either from level fields through which it passes, or 
looked down on from high banks which form the sides 
of the ravine which it has cut out, at this season it 
seems a mere line of pale gray, which, when approached, 
separates itself into- twigs and branches, and seen near at 
hand becomes an interlacing tangle of close set, stout, 
tough stems. Hidden away among these stems, winding 
among grass tussocks and rippling over stones, trickles 
ihe' brook, large or small, which has cut out the way for 
iiself through the field's fertile soil, and along whose 
u'.oist borders grow the alders of the run. 
Though the most numerous and the most evident of 
(he vegetation of the run, the alders do not grow here 
alone. There are soft maples, and at the edge of the 
liigher ground a birch or two, an elm and an ironwood. 
If in its passage the run curves round the foot of some 
gravelly knoll, the elevation may support a big oak, some 
cedars and some chestnuts. The vines of blackberry, 
grai^e and ivy, and shrubs like shadblow and viburnum 
grow in wild profusion among the alders and the larger 
trees, and often make it a difficult task to push a way 
through the tangle. 
Almost the first spring flowers are seen along the 
Ijcrders of the little stream; skunk cabbage, hepatica, 
yellow primrose and anemone, and a little later the dog- 
tooth violet, brave, in the yellow plumes which it waves 
above its green and purple uniform. In these days, when 
the May flower, or trailing arbutus, has become nearly 
e.xtinct in so many localities, even these simple and per- 
ishable flowers have value as they have beauty. 
Long before these spring flowers have started, there 
is something worth seeing in the alder run. The firsi 
woodcock, coming from the south to brave the boisterous 
blasts and severe cold of February and March, dropped in 
here and prodding with his long bill in the soft places 
overrun by the warm waters, found sustenance to keep 
him strong during the time of mating and of nest building. 
All through the winter, nuthatches and kinglets and tit- 
mice, with the downy woodpecker, have foraged through 
the alder run, and turning over the curled up dead leaves 
still clinging about the bases of the trees, gleaning through 
the crevices of the bark, working over and over again 
crannies of the old rail fence, have striven hard for a 
living and have found fuel to fight off the winter's cold 
and to keep themselves lusty, fat and strong all through 
llie bitter season. Later the tree sparrow and blue junco 
drifted into the run to feed and sleep, and later still the 
cuKous rustlings which sounded from the ground there 
told that the fox-colored sparrows, and afterward the 
towhee buntings, were scratching there among the leaves 
as busily as ever hen scratched in garden bed. 
As spring advances, other birds will use the run for a 
summer home. The oven bird will construct his curious 
roofed home, thrushes will build, and warblers will have 
iheir nests there, and then the alders and all the vege- 
tation will become green and beautiful while summer 
flowers are budding and blooming. Then, after the young 
are reared, and the heats of summer have passed, and the 
(all migration begins, the run will still be a resting and 
feeding place for a host of birds. 
Thither, ^when autumn frosts have nipped the vegeta- 
tion and leaves are falling, sportsmen will go, and, 
sending in the dogs, will walk in the field outside the run, 
hopeful of starting a woodcock or partridge, which, rising 
from the narrow line of brush, will be sure to offer a 
shot to those who are beating it. Later still, if there be 
a wheat or rye stubble near the run, the brood of quail 
feeding on the stubble will be likely to make the run a, 
refuge to" which they may Wy when started l?y dog or 
gunner. If a brood takes refuge in such a place, they 
may easily be killed, and the whole covey may be ex- 
terminated in a few days' shooting. Remember, then 
that in these days birds are not too common, and spare at 
least the half of those that take refuge in the alder run. 
NEW' YORK PHEASANT BREEDING. 
The New York Forest, Fish and Game Commission has 
announced that no more pheasants will be bred for free 
distribution by the State. The last distribution, Feb. I, 
included all the birds in the pens at the Pleasant Valley 
hatchery. These were sent out to 57 different localities. 
Pheasant breeding at the Pleasant Valley hatchery 
began in 1896. The first lot bred were not released, and 
the following year the stock amounted to 180 birds. In 
all, between 1,000 and 1,100 birds were distributed, and 
the applications received during the year which closed 
I'eb. T, if they had all been filled, would have required 
238 pairs of pheasants. 
The experiment has been an unqualified success. Many 
individuals and a number of fish and game protective 
clubs throughout the State have undertaken the work of 
breeding and distributing the birds. In many sections 
those turned out have done well, standing the severity of 
cur winters quite as well as our native birds, often much 
better than the quail. The introduction of these birds 
in New England and the Middle States is still in the 
experimental stage, but in a mild climate like that of the 
coast region of the northwest United States and British 
Columbia, the birds have done admirably, and have added 
a fine game bird to the sportsman's list. As yet we 
hardly know just what they will do in the East, but it is 
luobable that they will survive and do well even though 
their increase may be slow. 
POR A NEW NATIONAL PARK. 
The bill introduced in the House by Mr. F. W. Cush- 
man, of Washington, providing for the establishment of a 
national park in the State of Washington, to be known as 
the Elk National Park, ought to become a law. It has re- 
cently been favorably reported from the Committe on Pub- 
lic lands by Mr. Shiras, has the approval of all the officials 
of the Interior Department, and appears to be earnestly 
desired by the residents of northwestern Washington. 
The bill provides for the setting aside as a national 
park of about 615 square miles of territory in the Olympic 
Forest Reserve for the purpose of preserving the elk, 
gDme fish, birds, animals, timber and curiosities therein. 
The territory is a wilderness of broken mountains, of 
which only about 4,000 acres out of nearly 400,000 have 
been surveyed. Claims have been established on only 
1,280 acres. 
The region is from 5,000 to 7,000 feet above the sea 
level, is cut by numerous valleys and streams with 
prairie and timber and bench land, covered with wild 
grasses, but for the most part the mountains are heavily 
timbered. It is the natural home of the elk, deer, bear, 
cougar and other wild animals. The streams abound in 
trout. 
Here is to be found the only considerable band of wild 
elk in the United States west of the Rocky Mountains. 
They are the species described as Roosevelt's elk, and 
are rapidly ijeing slaughtered for their teeth. An au- 
thority declares that there are not now more than 500 elk 
remaining there, whose range is about the headwaters 
of the Elwha and its tributaries, and the Solduck, Hoh, 
Queets and the Quinault rivers. 
The territory proposed to be set aside in the bill in- 
cludes the summer and winter home of the elk, and is 
most of it absolutely unfit for settlement. Being within 
the forest reserve, the few settlers occupying the 1,280 
acres above referred to will probably be very glad to 
exchange their claims within the national park area for 
other lands outside of it. 
At the rate at which these elk are being slaughtered, it 
is of the highest importance that a game refuge such as 
is provided by this bill should be established. It is im- 
portant, however, that proper provision should be made 
for the prosecution of offenders, for it must be remem- 
bered that owing to the failure to prescribe due form of 
low for dealing with violators of the regulations of the 
Secretary of the Interior, game slaughter in the Yellow- 
stcuc Nat-icnal Park continued for mor« than twenty 
years after its establishment. Slackness by Congress re- 
sulted in the practical extinction of the Yellowstone Park 
herd of buffalo, and the memory of that carelessness 
should insure the utmost care in the final shaping of the 
Elk National Park measure. 
There is probably not time during the present session 
of Congress for favorable action to be taken on the bill to 
establish the Elk National Park, but it is believed that 
during the coming winter there will be no difficulty in 
securing the passage of the measure, provided the senti- 
ment of sportsmen and nature lovers generally throughout 
the country shall give it the proper support. The project 
should receive the enthusiastic backing of all residents 
of the Pacific Coast, and it can hardly be doubted that 
throughout the whole country those persons who are 
familiar with what has been accomplished in the preser- 
\ ation of game and of natural wonders in the Yellowstone 
Park will be . warmly in favor of a similar reservation 
v/hich shall include a part of the wonderful Olympic 
Range. 
NEWFOUNDLAND CARIBOU SLAUGHTER. 
For years we have heard of the movements o£ the New- 
foundland caribou as paralleling — over a small area— the 
enormous migrations of the barren ground deer. So 
numerous were they, so well established the time of their 
journeys, and so well known their routes, that it has been 
the custom for those desiring to kill them to camp 
on the roads which they have always followed and to 
slaughter the animals as they walked or swam within rifle 
shot. Much of this hunting, so called, was anything but 
hunting, and could take place only during such a migra- 
tory movement. It resembles more the battues held on 
certain estates on the Continent of Europe, where hun- 
dreds of beaters, passing through the forests and the 
fields, drove out the birds and animals abiding there, and 
herded them by some stand, where Emperor, or Prince, or 
Duke fired gun after gun at the -game as it moved 
along. The slaughter of hundreds, or of thousands of 
head of game in such a case depends merely on the en- 
durance of the men who hold the gun to the shoulder and 
pull the trigger. 
The inhabitants of many parts of the coast of New- 
foundland are deplorably poor and often suffer severely 
for food. Fish constitute their chief food supply, and 
all the flesh food they obtain is furnished by caribou and 
seals. It is but reasonable that people so poor should be 
allowed a certain latitude in the killing of the deer which 
annually visit thein, but such killing, of course, should be 
regulated by laws properly enforced, which should limit 
the destruction to somewhat less than the annual increase 
ef the herd. In the case reported, the animals do not 
appear to have been killed for food but merely for the 
l-leasure of butchering. The destruction was in defiance 
cf law, and the carcasses were left to rot where they fell. 
In Newfoundland, as elsewhere, the Avinter has been a 
Lard one. Near the south coast, the caribou, driven front 
the woods by stress of weather, have come out in thou- 
sands. They feed in the open like cattle in a pasture and 
may be killed by hundreds or thousands. The reported 
destruction, if half true, shows to what a pitch of savr 
agery men may be roused by the sight of game. Yet 
these Newfoundlanders, in this respect, are no worse 
than other people who have had much better educatiori 
and training. Thirty years ago, in buffalo days, one 
might sometimes see an exhibition of similar savagery on 
the part of well dressed men and women, who from the 
car window would shoot with pistols at a herd of buf- 
falo, lumbering alongside of the moving train. 
The Newfoundland incident has been brought to the 
notice of Sir Cavendish Boyle, the Governor of the Prov- 
xlnce, himself a keen sportsman, and also to the notice of 
the Government, now in session. Stringent measures 
sl.ould be taken to prevent a recurrence of the wholesale 
slaughter of caribou, not alone on the ground that it is 
cruel and wasteful, but for the good of the province an4 
its people. It has recently become more or less the fashion 
for Americans to " go to Newfoundland to take salmon 
and kill caribou, and each one who goes there brings 
into the country a certain amount of money and trade. 
M uch of this money is distributed among poor people, 
where it is of very great use. If the caribou disappear 
a good share of the foreign sportsmen will cease to. visit 
Newfoundland,, to the very serious loss of many people 
vvliom th^y no\y employ. , _ , 
