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. 
Six Months, $2. 
I 
NEW YORK, SATURDAY, OCTOBER 22, 1904 
[ VOL. LXIII.— No. 17. 
No. 846 Broadway, Nbw York. 
THE SOLITARY SPORTSMAN. 
There is a type of good sportsman, the exemplar of a 
large number in the aggregate, who, year by year, care- 
fully plans his hunting or fishing trip with a view to its 
solitary enjoyment. He parades neither his preparation 
nor his going. He has memories of prior trips which were 
devoid of pleasure because of disagreeable companions. 
Therefore he avoids all party prearrangements. If he has 
still a longing for companions to share his pleasures, he 
is satisfied with the transient companionship which 
chance may bring to him as an incident of his trip after 
it has practically begun. He then is free at all times 
to readjust according to his humor, a privilege denied to 
him when he is formally a member of a party. 
There may be exceptional instances in which a sports- 
man may shun companionship from motives of selfishness 
alone, but his number is so small as to be a negligible 
quantity. 
The sport of field and stream has still enough of de- 
' lights to engage the keenest interests of the solitary 
sportsman; but to him a pleasure divided has come to 
signify that some selfish companion has monopolized it 
all. Formerly there was a stage of his preparation in 
which his friends were consulted and invited and assisted, 
all done with an exaltation of spirit, a generosity of pur- 
pose anal anticipations of common enjoyment, and thus 
any subsequent heartburnings were all the more painful 
and deterrent. 
It is a common assumption that, as a matter of course, 
if friends discover as a conversational fact that they have 
a liking for a special sport, they will enhance their sport 
by their agreeable companionship if together in its pur- 
suit. In theory, this is specious; in practice, it proves to 
be lamentably erroneous. 
Experience, teaches that the character of a man as 
established and regulated in every-day life under constant 
conditions and in the midst of abundance, is extremely 
poor data from which to forecast his companionable 
qualities in the dearths and hardships of a fishing or 
hunting trip. In ordinary life, any selfish want may be 
soon satisfied. In fishing or hunting there may not be 
sufficient sport for one, but what there is must serve for 
all. Every experienced sportsman knows all this, and 
that, however large his acquaintance may be, there is 
always a dearth of desirable companions from whom to 
choose. After a certain amount of painful experience, 
the average good sportsman ties to one or two sporting 
cronies for companionship. In the course of time they 
are lost by the mutations of life. None others, according 
to agreeable companionable standards, can fill their places. 
And in such happenings is found the genesis of solitari- 
ness in sport. 
I The solitary sportsman as a rule is the most patient, 
forbearing and obliging in all his associations. 
There are several other distinct types of sportsmen 
who, when put to the test as companions, quickly and 
permanently contribute to the numbers of the lone sports- 
man. The one common to all forms of sport is the con- 
stant grumbler and calamity prophet. His peevishness, 
selfishness and pessimism are ever active. He arrogates 
to himself the privilege to domineer, to object, to protest, 
to obstruct, to sulk, to be waited upon, to be consulted 
and made much of, to loaf, to appropriate for himself the 
4 best of everything— in short, to indulge his refractory dis- 
position with everything excepting a cheerful face, a 
pleasant word, and a hearty co-operation in the common 
purpose with his companions. This kind— an incubus to 
any form of companionship— is especially a grievous in- 
fliction in camp life because of the camp members' con- 
stant propinquity. To him may justly be conceded the 
highest efficiency in graduating the lone sportsman. 
He whose sport is with dog and gun has his peculiar 
troubles. He is a constant victim of the effusively amiable 
friend who loves practical sport at the expense of his 
friends. 
The amiable friend may know nothing concerning the 
c.are and use of dog and gun, yet he borrows them unctu- 
ously, returning the one foul and rusty, the other wild and 
worn. The average hunting companion is prone to the 
doing of unpleasant things. He is likely to invite himself. 
He is more likely to be in a state of chronic excitement 
after the hunt begins, and therefore to be a source of 
danger. He nervously orders his friend's dog about re- 
gardless of the fact that he, by doing so, is offensively 
Unsportsmanlike. He roars cautions to the dog when 
the latter is drawing on game, and if his hullabaloo 
flushes the birds, he frankly attributes their flight to the 
stupidity of the dog. A point is the signal for him to 
walk or run to the dog in a straight line, to walk over 
the dog, to kick the grass under the dog's nose, to hold 
his gun so that it will bear on man and dog at every 
turn, to shoot always, and to be imbecile and lawless and 
selfish in general. 
When hunting for birds, the utmost quiet is essential 
tO' the best success, yet one may have a companion who 
whistles rag-time, who is offended if cautioned, or who 
must babble or perish. He promotes solitariness in 
hunting. 
A desirable fishing companion is more difficult to dis- 
cover than any other kind. The babbler, the professional 
borrower, the grumbler, the swinish pretender, are each 
and all great promoters of solitariness in angling. 
THE BUFFALO IN NEW HAMPSHIRE. 
That is a most interesting picture Mr. Bayne gives of 
the Corbin buffalo herd in the Blue Mountain Forest of 
New Hampshire. It is gratifying and suggestive. Such 
a report of progress and success in the actual establish- 
ment of a buffalo herd in New England will come as a 
surprise to those who have lost sight of the recent devel- 
opments of the Corbin enterprise. It suggests that what 
has been done here might be done elsewhere. If Blue 
Mountain can have a successful buffalo range, other 
mountains may have them as well. It is commonly said, 
and in many respects is quite true, that the buffalo had to 
go because the range it occupied in the old days was 
wanted for cattle ranches and farm lands. But in these 
later times, in one State and another, we are setting apart 
parks and forest reserves; and in this way room is mak- 
ing for the buffalo, where he may live his life unvexed 
by settlers envious of his pastures. Michigan and Minne- 
sota ought to have buffalo in their State parks. When 
the Appalachian National Park shall be won from Con- 
gress, as it may be this winter, there will be great oppor- 
tunities within its boundaries for the restoration of the 
buffalo to a longitude it knew when Walter Raleigh came 
to Virginia. And so here and there over the country may 
be provided breeding grounds where with intelligent en- 
couragement herds may be propagated. We have long 
been accustomed to speak of the buffalo as a vanished 
race. It has not vanished utterly. Whether it shall sur- 
vive or perish will depend entirely upon the existence or 
lack of interest, public and individual, sufficient to pre- 
serve the race. We shall print next week a communica- 
tion from a Western correspondent in exposition of the 
theory that the buffalo were not wiped out by the skin- 
hunters, but perished during the hard winters. 
FOR LIBRARY WALLS. 
The walls of a restaurant in the lower part of New 
York city are hung with an extensive series of Audubon 
bird portraits, of the edition lithographed by Julius Bien. 
They make a magnificent display, and to many persons 
among the thousands who visit the place in a day they 
must be a source of delight. One reflects involuntarily 
upon seeing them that there might well be such displays 
of Audubon in every public library in the land. But 
Audubon sets are rare ; so scarce, indeed, that to the aver- 
age library the opportunity of procuring them is not likely 
ever to come. There are, however, available pictures of 
bird and other life, and far-sighted library management . 
may wisely make provision to secure them now. 
One library has already taken the lead in such work. 
Richmond Hill, Long Island, is building a new library, 
and in the plan provision is made for the display of the 
series of colored plates of fish and game of the State pub- 
lished by the Forest, Fish and Game Commission. The 
plan is to have the plates as a permanent part of the 
structure; they are set in the walls at the height of the 
eye for convenient inspection; and each picture is supple- 
mented with a concise scientific description. By this ad- 
mirable arrangement, important and valuable instruction 
will be given, not only to the present generation, but in 
future time as well; and the popular information thus 
disseminated must have the effect of awakening 
interest in natural history, and of fostering public appre- 
ciation of fish, game and bird protection. 
The Richmond Hill plan is of such merit that it might 
well be followed elsewhere, not only in New York, but in 
every State where such natural history prints are avail- 
able as published by the Legislature. For that matter, 
library authorities would no doubt find no difficulty in 
securing sets of the New York pictures, and, with respect 
to many of the species represented, these would answer 
for other States. 
BUSINESS OPPORTUNITIES. 
One part of the duties of American Consuls in foreign 
parts is to note openings for trade and "business oppor- 
tunities" for Americans, and these are announced from 
time to time in the daily consular reports issued by the 
Department of Commerce and Labor. A current report 
comes from Consul E. H. Plumacher, who writes from 
Maracaibo, Venezuela, that there is an opening in that 
country for the American alligator hunter. Now that the 
supply in our southern lagoons and swamps has been re- 
duced to such an extent, Consul Plumacher's suggestion 
will likely tempt the skin-hunter's enterprise. The alli- 
gators infest Venezuelan lakes and lagoons and rivers "in 
untold numbers and of all sizes," the report runs. "The 
skins are well worth securing, and alligator oil brings 
a high price, being used for medicinal purposes. In the 
Rio de Oro and the Rio Tarra I have seen thousands of 
large alligators which came up to deposit their eggs on 
the sand banks during the dry season. It is the same in 
all the hundreds of streams which flow into the lake of 
Maracaibo. Alligator hunting is fine sport, and, in my 
opinion, would be a paying business." The "sport" fea- 
ture of it, we venture to remark, is not to be commended ; 
the alligator is no longer recognized as game; but as a 
purely business proposition, Mr. Plumacher's "business 
opportunity" should have respectful consideration. 
The alligator skin-hunter need not go so far as Vene- 
zuela; there are limitless opportunities awaiting him 
nearer home; the south coast of Cuba has a supply that 
would stock the alligator leather market for years to 
come. It awaits only the exploitation of American enter- 
prise. A vivid picture of the plentitude of the creatures 
is found as an unexpected bit of wild life and adventure 
among the dry statistical charts and tabulations of the 
Cuban census, in the report of the enumerator who was 
commissioned to collect the statistics of the vast swamps 
of Zapata, on the south coast. 
The enumerators set forth equipped, as was fitting for 
census takers in that particular district, with repeating 
rifles, 200 rounds of ammunition, revolvers, machetes, 
bowie knives, shotguns with ammunition for them, and 
rations for six days. The arms and ammunition were for 
the provision of food, and for protection against the 
crocodiles and alligators, which were so numerous and 
offensive as to keep the members of the little party con- 
stantly on the defensive. On the second day out, when 
they had fairly made their way into the swamp, they 
killed a number of crocodiles measuring from three to 
twelve feet; and the night that followed was "unpleasant 
and spent on guard, because crocodiles followed our 
party to camp, four of them advancing to our mosquito 
bars, which we killed with great trouble." The next 
night, camping on an islet, they were followed again by 
crocodiles, with which they had an encounter lasting two 
hours before they succeeded in dispersing them, and could 
lie down to sleep. On the day following they killed nine 
crocodiles, measuring from nine to sixteen feet, and 
spent the night on an island where, by reason of many 
crocodiles infesting it, they could get no sleep because "it 
was necessary to be on the lookout." The next night 
"we slept in a stockade of palms, a defense which it is 
customary to make in order to avoid an attack of the 
crocodiles which prowled about during the night. At 
daybreak we were surrounded by a large number of croco- 
diles ; our position being somewhat difficult, we succeeded 
in killing four crocodiles, using all our ammunition, and 
by the use of our machetes we were able to reach some 
trees, and through their branches traveled a distance of 
forty-five feet, and were now out of danger." Another 
morning they awoke to find four crocodiles surrounding 
the stockade they had built the night before for their 
defense; and these they had to despatch or disperse be- 
fore starting out. Surely these census takers deserved 
well of their country. The returns do not show whether 
more alligators than human dwellers in the Zapata were 
enumerated. It is manifest that there are still wild regions 
where the contest between man and brute is a strenuous 
warfare. Zapata swamp dwellers would doubtless wel- 
come intervention by American skin-hunters. 
