Forest AND Stream 
A Weekly Journal of the Rod and Gun. 
Copyright, 1904, BY Forest AKD Stream Publishing Co. 
Terms, $4 A Year. 10 Cts. a Copy. I NE\A/' YORK SATURDAY, MAY 21, 1904. | No. 346 BRO^wiY, New York. 
Six Months, $2. j ^ . f ' ' 
The Forest and Stream is the recognized medium of entertain- 
ment, instruction and information between American sportsmen. 
The editors invite communications on the subjects to which its 
pages 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 
correspondents. 
Subscriptions may begin at any time. Tenns: For single 
copies, $4 per year, $2 for six months. For club rates and full 
particulars respecting subscriptions, see prospectus on page iii. 
OUTDOOR TIME. 
By long established usage the summer has come to be 
regarded as vacation time— the season for living out of 
doors— and this idea is so firmly established that one 
would be laughed at, or at least regarded as a freak of 
nature by his employer, if he suggested taking his vaca- 
tion at any time other than the summer or the early 
autumn. Nevertheless, strong as is custom, the world is 
showing year by year more originality— a greater ten- 
dency to break away from habits established by long use. 
Nowadays, people who do not have to work for their 
living commonly leave .the big cities in May, and do not 
return until December; yet it is within the memory of 
many of our readers when fashionable people left New 
York about July i, and returned about September i. 
There are many of the elect who understand very well 
that any month of the year is good to take a vacation in, 
and there are some who would like to take thirty days 
in every month. That would not be wholesome for most 
people; but we do think that a vacation in summer and 
another in winter are wonderfully helpful to the man or 
woman whose pursuits will admit of them. Opposed as 
Ihe two seasons are, they stimulate to widely different 
lives. An outing in winter means brisk and hard physical 
work, with its accompanying improvement in physical 
condition, and a return to office or avocation far better 
able, for the rest of the year, to perform the accustomed 
task. Energy is stimulated and brain is made clear, so 
that the individual's whole efficiency is vastly increased. 
The summer vacation is often an idling time, an absolute 
rest, which, under certain conditions, may be just as 
wholesome and just as recuperative as a more vigorous 
life. 
In these days of specialization, when a man throughout 
the greater part of the year does the same things over 
and "over again, the brain and muscle cells get warped 
and twisted from their natural condition. The chief use 
of the vacation is to change the work of these cells from 
that which they have been performing over and over 
again for weeks and months, and for a time to give these 
cells the opportunity to take up a fresh and unaccustomed 
:set of operations which shall enable them to regain their 
normal condition. In addition to this variety of work— 
which is rest— the benefit to health that comes from 
natural living and from pure air are large factors in the 
well being derived from vacation. 
For most of us, vacations will still come in the sum- 
mer, during the period of great heat and when business is 
slack and we can best be spared from the work that 
occupies us through most of the year; and for most of us 
this time— as it comes every year— is coming now. How 
may it be most profitably employed?. The answers to 
this question would be as various in character and num- 
bers as are the readers of Forest and Stream. There 
are men who will go to their salmon rivers in Canada 
and Newfoundland, or on their yachts to Europe, or to 
their summer homes on fair Canadian lakes, or, a little 
later, to the Rocky Mountains for the hunting, but most 
of us find it impracticable to devote so much time to our 
play spell. What we all should do is to move ourselvt 
as far as possible from the pursuits and the scenes whicl 
connnonly surround us, and to get as close as may be to 
that Mother Nature which is so far from the dwellers in 
towns and in cities. Most of us need, above all 
things, the change of thought and work which mean rest, 
and that change should consist of an occupation that inter- 
ests and amuses. Whether it be sailing or paddling or 
angling or camping or shooting, it should be the thing 
that we have thought of and looked forward to all 
through the winter— the thing that has been a mingling 
of joyous memories of the past and of happy anticipations 
for the future. 
J\[o prescription can be given as- to the form of outing 
for 1904 for man or woman; but one thing definite may 
be advised : If possible during your vacation, occupy 
yourself with that thing that you most wish to do. 
PLATFORM PLANK IN BRITISH COLUMBIA. 
The constant growth of the non-sale of game idea, 
enunciated and recommended many years ago by Forest 
AND Stream as its platform plank, is an interesting testi- 
monial to the common sense of the English-speaking peo- 
ple of this continent. The last adhesion to it comes from 
Victoria, B. C, as recently as April 29 last. 
On that evening the Fish and Game Club, which com- 
prises among its members many of the most intelligent, 
v/ealthiest, and most influential men in British Columbia, 
held an extraordinary session in the Driard House. At 
that meeting there was unanimously passed a resolu- 
tion requesting the Government to amend the Game Act 
so as to prohibit absolutely the sale of game at any time 
in the Province for three years. The club predicts that, 
unless this is done, British Columbia will shortly witness 
the extinction of its game birds and mammals. There is 
much violation of the laws by white men, and the Indians 
kill unceasingly. There is much hide selling, and still 
more selling of heads. 
A few years ago British Columbia had within its boun- 
daries some of the very best big-game grounds in North 
America, but many of the settlers, with the fatuousness 
of men the world over, seeined to think either that the 
game would last forever, or else that they must hurry to 
kill all of it they could before anyone else had a chance 
to get any. So they killed deer to feed their hogs through 
the winter, and one man killed, cut off, and brought down 
oft" the mountains — but did not skin or clean— more than 
fifty large ram's heads during the winter. He stacked 
theiTi up, thinking that when he got ready he would clean 
them and take them in to the man who had offered hiin 
$5 apiece for them. But he never got ready. Spring 
came on, the weather grew warm, and his sheep's heads 
all spoiled. 
This is the way some of British Columbia's big game 
went. 
THE OYSTER OF THE CITIES. 
The talk and the writing about oysters and typhoid 
germs of which there has lately been so much, while at 
first it may be harmful to the oyster trade, may, on the 
other hand, be helpful to those who enjoy good oysters. 
For years past there has been complaint among people 
who imagine that they know what oysters should be that 
the highly esteemed, old-fashioned bivalve of good flavor 
has disappeared from the land, and its place has been 
taken by a white, plump simulacrum, fair and lovely to 
the eye, but flat and tasteless to the palate — a real dead 
sea apple. From this has arisen the present day practice 
of drenching the oyster with vinegar, horseradish, and 
tabasco sauce, in the endeavor to give it some flavor. 
Dr. Morris points out In the admirable note on this 
subject which we print to-day that oysters which have 
been "floated" at the mouth of streams, or, as in the large 
cities, have been taken from the salt water, kept In cellars, 
and drenched constantly with fresh water, become plump, 
white, and handsome, but also have washed from them all 
the salt and all the true oyster flavor, and very soon 
become, in the opinion of many veteran connoisseurs of 
the oyster, unfit to eat. This practice has long been 
known, and is apparently not objected to by the public, 
most of whom do not know what a real oyster is and 
should be. Oysters so treated are destined for use in 
cities, or for export to Europe, or for inland consuinptlon. 
The possibility of the oyster carrying typhoid bacteria 
to the eater is a very real one; yet, on the other hand, 
perhaps more people are killed each year by lightning 
than die of typhoid fever contracted from eating oysters. 
Nevertheless, since the danger Is real, and since It Is one 
of the most stupid things in the world to take unnecessary 
risks, it is the part of wisdom for all consumers of 
oysters to frown on the fattened bivalve. 
While this condition does not prevail everywhere, it 
is almost universal In large cities, and still more so away 
from the seacoast. Yet if you go to some little New 
England or New Jersey or Maryland village on the coast, 
and eat oysters there fresh from the local waters, you 
will enjoy tliose that ate delicious, and entirely 
different from those furnished at the most high priced 
restaurants or in the wealthiest homes of New York, 
Chicago and Philadelphia. 
It is acknowledged that to the eye the fattened oyster is 
rnore attractive than the natural darker and more 
shrunken one just from the salt water; but it may reasori- 
ably be urged that people do not eat oysters for the grati- 
fication of the aesthetic senses, but for the gratification of 
the palate. 
Dr. Morris' letter performs a real service in pointing 
out that the fattened oyster is a sick oyster, and in thus 
warning the public of the truth about this delicious shell 
fish. The oyster dealer need not fear this truth. If his 
trade has been injured, he has the remedy in his own 
hands. Let him abandon his present methods and furnish 
his customers with the genuine oyster, not the diluted 
product of modern times.' On the other hand, the con- 
sumer of oysters has the power to protect himself from 
the danger of eating sick oysters, and to correct the 
present practice of the dealers. Let him demand the 
natural shell fish, which the dealer can furnish just about 
as cheaply and conveniently as the white and tasteless 
article that the dwellers in large cities are now content 
to eat. [ . 
ADIRONDACK LANDS. 
The decision rendered by Hon. Arthur L. AndrcAvs as 
referee in certain actions for the ejectment of occupants 
of lands claimed by the State, is of very great public in- 
terest. It represents a step toward clearing up and 
settling the question of land titles in the Adirondack 
region. Many of these titles are more or less doubtful. 
Originally of no value except for the timber which they 
bore, the lands have been purchased and lumbered over, 
and sold for taxes, and bought and sold and squatted on, 
until, in many cases, the task of tracing back a title is 
one of great difficulty. 
In the present case, however, this appears to have been 
done, and the decision as to the great tract occupied by 
Mr. Ladew has been in favor of the State. 
No doubt he will appeal from the decision, and the 
matter will be carried to the highest courts. Whether 
the ultimate decision be in favor of occupant or claimant, 
it is highly desirable that the question of the title to these 
lands, and to all other Adirondack lands, be definitely 
established, and since these lands now have a value, such 
questions are quite sure to be determined before long. 
The State of New York now possesses nearly 2,000 
square miles of forest preserve, of which more than 1,800 
square miles are in the Adirondack region ; but this land 
lies more or less scattered about — a little here and a little 
there — interrupted by private ownership, and therefore 
nmch less desirable than if it were compact. It is to be 
hoped that as time goes on action may be taken to secure 
for the State more and more of this Adirondack land; 
and that, if not in our time, at least within the next gen- 
eration, the State of New York may possess in the 
Adirondack region a beautiful public park of great extent 
and lying all in one body. 
The fourth volume of the Book of the Boone and 
Crockett Club, now making its appearance, is interesting 
on many accounts. It is much larger than any of the 
club's previous publications, and much more fully illus- 
trated, having, we believe, no less than forty-six full-page 
plates between its covers. It is also notable for having a 
long and extremely interesting article from the pen of 
President Roosevelt. The frontispiece of the work is an 
adtnirable portrait of the President, and there is a sketch of 
him as the founder of the Boone and Crockett Club. 
The bill providing for the protection of the wild black 
bear in New York has added somewhat to the gaiety — if 
not of nations — at least of a certain part of the public 
press of this State. Now, however, since Governor 
Odell has signed the bill, it is definitely determined that 
the wild bear is. an innocent and harmless beast, and 
may be pursued, taken or killed only at certain definite 
times and seasons. What the result of this legislation 
will be on the sheep and horse industry of the Adiron- 
dacks, and on the peace of mind of the local berry picker, 
remains to be seen; but we may feel quite sure that the 
opponents of the bill have not, as yet, said their last word 
about it 
