Forest and Stream. 
A Weekly Journal of the Rod and 
Copyright, 1904, by Forest and Stream Publishing Co. 
Gun. 
RMS, $4 A Year. 10 Cts. a Copy. 
Six Months, $3. 
} 
NEW YORK, SATURDAY, MARCH 11, 1008. 
( VOL. LXIV.— No. 10. 
j No. 346 Broadway, New Yokk. 
The Forest and Stream is the recognized medium of entertain- 
jient, instruction and information between American sportsmen, 
i'he editors invite communications on the subjects to which its 
l ages are devoted. Anonymous communications will not be re- 
arded. While it is intended to give wide latitude in discussion 
I f current topics, the editors are not responsible for the views of 
orrespondents. 
I Subscriptions may begin at any time. Terms : For single 
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articulars respecting subscriptions, see prospectus on page iii. 
LAKE CHAMPLAIN FISH. 
The big fish eat the little ones. Basing his argument 
II this familiar axiom, Mr. Bainbridge Bishop, in an 
irticle printed in our angling columns, argues that the 
present system of fish protection on Lake Champlaiii is 
I'fong in principle. The fishing in the lake is not what it 
sed to be; and while New York and Vermont and 
I anadian anglers have been working on the theory that 
le depletion is due to netting, Mr. Bishop strongly 
jntends that it is the result of unwise protectioii of 
redaceous species. In the pickerel, garpike and mas- 
inonge he finds the agencies of destruction with which it 
purposeless tO' endeavor to cope by restocking. It may 
. recalled .that a similar argument has been employed 
) account for the poor fishing of the St. Lawrence River, 
he remedy proposed is simple. Outlaw the pickerel and 
le garpike; permit gunning and spearing, and allow 
etting under restrictions. In other words, reverse the 
iresent system of protection. It would be profitable to 
-arn the views of others familiar with the Lake Cham- 
ilain fishing situation. 
WYOMING BIG-GAME REFUGE. 
The State of Wyoming has recently taken a long step 
Drward in the direction of big-game protection, and the 
iw published in another column shows just what has 
een done. 
The Yellowstone National Park is an inviolable sanc- 
.lary for big game, but a great part of the Park 
pntains merely summer range. While the flats of the 
ellowstone and Gardiner River furnish good winter graz- 
ig grounds, most of the southern portion of the Park is 
ninhabitable for game in the winter on account of deep 
aows and insufficient food. Thus, at the coming of the 
inter snows, most of the large game that summers in 
le National Park is obliged to leave the high mountains 
here it is safe, and go down into the lower and more 
ind-swept country. When it leaves the Park it is likely 
> become — in that sparsely settled country — a prey to 
retty much whoever may wish to kill it. Unless they are 
rotected while in this winter range, the numbers of the 
k that summer in the southern portion of the Park must 
instantly grow smaller, and the final outcome would be 
iat in the Park there will be left only that herd which 
inters along the Yellowstone River. 
The greatest number of elk now; existing in America is 
bund in and immediately about the Yellowstone Park, 
id it is here that the greatest effort should be made to 
•otect them. For several years unwearying efforts have 
;en made to induce Congress to authorize the President 
' set aside game refuges within the forest reserves, and 
Congress had given such authority no doubt we should 
;fore this have had a great refuge adjacent to the 
ational Park. Congress did not do this, however, and 
was left to the State of Wyoming to take this wise 
;tion, and to set aside a great State game refuge — a 
act of about i,ioo square miles — equal to one-third of 
e Yellowstone Park, in which hunting is absolutely pro- 
bited at all seasons of the year. This State refuge is 
many respects well adapted to a winter range, for it 
IS wide valleys and many high, bald hills, which the 
inter winds sweep free from snow. 
The idea of having the State of Wyoming establish 
ich a game refuge originated, we believe, with Mr. A. A. 
nderson, the artist, who also bears the title Special 
jperintendertt Yellowstone Forest Reserve. Mr. Ander- 
n has spent much time in the region south and south- 
st of the Park, and knows it very thoroughly. The 
ork of protecting it is with him a labor of love, and 
ithin a year or two he has done a great deal of good 
keeping the foreign sheep of¥ this forest reserve. Not 
ng ago he went to Wyoming and urged upon the Legis- 
lature, then in session, the action which was soon after 
taken. That this action was wise no one who has studied 
the subject can doubt. Looking at the matter purely from 
the most cold-blooded viewpoint of dollars and cents, it is 
evident that the protection of game here during the whole 
year will very greatly increase the supply of game which 
each year comes down into the hunting country of 
Wyoming, and will thus bring into the State a constantly 
greater number of hunters, whose good money will benefit 
the State of Wyoming and its residents. All sportsmen 
and all persons interested in game legislation will con- 
gratulate the Wyoming Legislature on its wise and far- 
seeing action. 
THE SENSE OF DIRECTION. 
No CLASS of dog stories is more common than is that 
of the dog which, taken a long way from home, finds its 
way back over an unknown road by the exercise of 
observation or sense of direction. In a recent letter, 
Alfred R. Wallace, the distinguished scientist, points out 
that though such printed stories are innumerable, they 
do not contain all the data essential to drawing conclu- 
sive deductions; and he suggests that the mystery of the 
dog's perfomiance is to be solved only by experiments 
several times repeated, for the purpose of ascertaining 
exactly what a dog does when left in a strange place many 
miles from home, to which it has been brought by a cir- 
cuitous route and so confined as to be quite unable to 
use its sight. For such an experiment to be conclusive, 
Mr. Wallace points out it is essential "(i) that the dog's 
history is known, so> that it can never possibly have been 
in the district it is taken to; (2) that a person quite un- 
known to the dog is present when it is turned loose, and 
keeps it in sight during the whole day, making careful 
notes of all its actions. If this were done with, say, half 
a dozen carefully chosen dogs, two or three times with 
each, a great deal of real knowledge would be obtained 
which would probably settle the question as to the posses- 
sion of a sense of direction. In these first experiments 
the distance need not be great, ten to twenty miles being- 
sufficient if it were quite certain that the intervening 
country was unknown to the dog." Here is an inviting 
field of experiment which many persons are in a position 
to undertake ; and properly conducted the tests would re- 
sult in the securing of valuable data. 
WATER POLLUTION AND FISH. 
To PUT an end to 1he mill waste pollution of fish- 
inhabited or inhabitable waters, is one of the most per- 
plexing problems we have to do with in the whole field of 
fish protection. As a rule, the laws are everywhere inade- 
quate ; if they are sufficient in the letter of their provi- 
sions, they are weak in the execution. Everywhere the 
country over, streams once yielding a bounteous supply 
have long since been utterly and permanently ruined by 
having been converted into sewers for refuse which 
destroys all life. To deprecate this, to denounce it, to 
demand a remedy, to enact laws, to call for their enforce- 
ment — all this is the natural and conventional course of 
procedure. But it usually ends just there. The mill in- 
terests are so enormous and so powerful that, as expe- 
rience amply shows, it is practically impossible to cope 
with them. They defeat effective legislation. They defy 
the execution of laws which actually interfere with their 
interests. They are so powerful that they have been able 
and are now able to carry on their water polluting opera- 
tions with practical immunity. 
No more important thing remains to be done to-day in 
the field of fish protection and restoration and main- 
tenance than the clearing of the waterways of these pol- 
lutions and the keeping of them clear in the future, to the 
end that fish may live in them. We have accomplished 
wonders in the development of the art of producing fish. 
Given the waters to mature and maintain the stock, our 
National and State commissioners could provide the fish 
in illimitable supply. The cleansing of brook and river 
and lake would add millions of dollars' worth of food to 
the people of this country annually. And the solution of 
the water pollution problem ought not to be beyond the 
wisdom of the time to discover and apply. ^ 
The United States Geological Survey has just pub- 
lished a preliminary report of the investigations madp by 
Marshall O. Leighton, Chief of the Survey's Division of 
Flydro-Economics, of the waters of Lake Champlain with 
reference to their pollution by wood pulp mills. It may 
be recalled that the investigation was undertaken at the 
request of Governor McCullough, of Vermont, some time 
ago, who represented that as Lake Champlain was an 
interstate body of water, such an investigation should ap- 
propriately be conducted under national authority. As 
to the Bouquet River, which flows into Lake Champlain 
from the Adirondacks, Mr. Leighton finds that the waters 
of the river below the Champlain mills of the New York 
and Pennsylvania Company, at Willsboro, are "preferable 
to many waters which are used daily for domestic ikh • 
poses and concerning which no complai:.t is c\u iiii :■. ' 
An extensive series of analyses of the waitr of the l.i!;e 
itself at this point demonstrated that it was not affected 
by the waste from the Willsboro pulp mill beyond the 
maximum distance of 2,000 feet, and usually not beyond 
1,000 feet from the mouth of the Bouquet River, provided 
that the sedimentation bed installed at the Willsboro 
mill is used. , , ; < 
In the Ausable River Mr. Leighton found a much more 
serious condition of things. -Here the siilpliiJe ij..;p w 
from the pulp and paper mills of the J. & J. K.-v 1 , 1 , .,1- 
pany is seen in a black or very dark purple dis^-. 1 1 .1.. 1 
of .the water. At certain points of slack \v..ur il.e 1 I i 
the stream is covered with this waste pulp, ar.J ccii-i 1 r- 
able putrefaction takes place, the whole mass flows along 
the twenty miles intervening between Ausable Forks and 
the lake, "inky black in color, and generally unattractive 
in appearance. Analysis shows that there is no doubt 
whatever concerning the damaging effect of the waste 
upon the river. This sulphide waste is carried for con- 
siderable distances into the lake, and undoubtedly a cer- 
tain amount of damage is done to the water. The waste 
pulp itself can, however, exert no harmful effects." 
Again, Mr. Leighton claims that practically the entire 
shore from Colchester Point to Shelburne Bay, including 
the intake of the Burlington city water supply, is con- 
taminated by sewage from the city of Burlington and 
from Winooski River. 
STILL MARCHING ON. 
The Forest and Stream Platform Plank— Forbid the 
sale of game, at all seasons — has just won a new indorse- 
ment. Missouri has incorporated it in the game law 
prepared by the Audubon Society. The anti-sale principle 
has in these later years come into general recognition as 
the basis of an effective system of protection. It is of 
almost universal adoption. In the States where it has 
not yet been incorporated in the law, the game dealers 
are making strenuous efforts to prevent its application, as 
they did in Missouri. When one remembers that the St. 
Louis game market has in times past been the collectijig 
and; distributing point for vast quantities of game, the 
tremendous import of the anti-sale law may be appre- 
ciated. The anti-sale system is now of almost uinver.sal 
application. It has come to stay, because it strikes at the 
root of a great evil. 
By another section of the, new game law, Missouri has 
come back into the Union. That is to say, it has retreated 
from the position so long held of forbidding hunting by 
non-residents, and henceforth will permit shooting by 
citizens of other States under a $15 license. 
The imported pheasants which have been put out in 
the neighborhood of Canandaigua, Fairport and other 
towns of central New York, are reported to have done 
well, multiplying and appearing to be healthy and well 
fed. With all other game, they have suffered severely 
this winter. If they survive the season of 1904-5 it may 
be accepted that they can stand the climate, and the stock- 
ing enterprise may be regarded as a demonstrated success. 
Just how valuable an acquisition as a new game bird the 
pheasant will prove, is still a subject of conjecture. . It is 
said that the farmers in the localities where the birds 
have been put out are by no means friendly to them, for 
they assert that the pheasant is a destroyer of grain. 
That was a wonderful performance by Mr. R. C. 
Leonard in the rubber frog casting competition in Madi- 
son Square Garden last week, when he made the score of 
143 feet 7 inches. It is the record to date, and a cast which 
is not likely soon tQ he surpassed Ut>less by Mr. R, C. 
Leonard, , 
