Forest and Stream 
A Weekly Journal of the Rod and Gun. 
Copyright, 1904, by Forest and Stream Publishing Co. 
Terms, $4 a Year. 10 Cxs. a Copy. 
Six Months, $3. 
NEW YORK, SATURDAY, MAY 20, 1908, 
( VOL. LXIV.— No. 20. 
( No. 346 Broadway, New York. 
BACK FROM THE HUNT. 
President Roosevelt's hunt is over and he has re- 
turned to Washington and the daily grind of official duty. 
The record of the hunt, as printed in the daily papers, 
is ten bears and four bobcats, an unusually successful 
expedition, such as a President should have. Just how 
many bears fell to Mr. Roosevelt's rifle is not announced 
and is, in fact, unimportant, for in a hunt like this the 
killing of the victims is the least interesting part of the 
work. It is the pursuit that gives joy and excitement to 
the hunt — the wild rough ride along the mountainside, 
down one side of a ravine and up the other, dodging 
rocks and trees the while, the listening for the dogs, and 
the effort to overtake them, while all the time you watch 
your horse and try to spare him. 
It is certain that the President had a good time, and 
that he worked as hard at his hunting as he always does 
at his play or at his work. If snow and rain and cold and 
wind confronted him he met bad weather with a cheerful 
mind, and made the best of it. He went for a good time 
and he had it, and with the good time he acquired a store 
of health and vigor which will stand him in good stead 
this summer. 
It may be hoped that when the time comes the public 
may have from Mr. Roosevelt's pen an account of this 
hunt. Many readers will remember his story of the 
cougar hunt which he made when Vice-President, and 
the still more delightful account of his trip to the Yel- 
lowstone National Park in April, 1903, published in the 
last volume of the Boone and Crockett Club's Book. On 
no subject does Mr. Roosevelt write more simply, more 
freshly, and with greater charm than on outdoor and 
especially on natural history subjects, and all sportsmen 
and all nature lovers eagerly welcome anything from his 
pen. His chapter on Wilderness Reserves, just referred 
to, besides being a model outdoor article, is a powerful 
and useful tract in favor of game and forest preservation 
and the setting aside of wild tracts of land for pleasure 
grounds for all the people. 
MOIETIES FOR PROTECTORS. 
Under the present New York law the salary of a dis- 
trict game protector is $600 a year, with $450 allowance 
for expenses, and he receives also one-half of the fines 
and penalties, less the expenses of recovering the sum, 
collected in actions brought upon information furnished 
by him. A measure passed by the Legislature and now 
in the Governor's hands increases the protector's salary 
to $900, allows $600 for expenses, and deprives him of 
the moieties received for recoveries in actions. This 
change, if we are not misinformed, was prompted at the 
instigation of the Association for the Protection of the 
Adirondacks, and the reason given was that there had 
been collusion between certain protectors on the one 
hand and Adirondack timber thieves on the other, where- 
by the protectors winked at violations of the law in the 
penalties for which they saw profits to themselves. 
Whether or not there was any foundation for the sus- 
picion of collusion in Adirondack forest trespass- cases, 
there is no- reason to believe that any protector has ever 
encouraged or acquiesced in violations of the game and 
fish laws for the purpose of making business for himself. 
No plausible plan presents itself by which such a scheme 
could be carried out. It is beyond our ingenuity to im- 
agine how a protector in New York city, for instance, 
who should seize an illicit stock of game birds in close 
season, could have arranged for the dealer's reception 
of the birds from the distant shipper, or how the dealer 
could be duped into thinking that he saw a way to profit 
by taking the birds into his possession, having them 
confiscated, and being fined for them $500, as a Sixth 
avenue dealer was recently fined for a lot of close-season 
quail; or $650, as another Sixth avenue dealer was fined 
for a like offense; or $1,000, a penalty imposed last month 
upon a down-town commission merchant for out of sea- 
son quail. The game protector and game dealer collu- 
sion theory is so fanciful as to be preposterous. 
The change embodied in the Wood bill is of question- 
able merit While the increase of salary from $600 to 
$900 is probably intended to compensate the protector for 
taking from him the moieties, and while it may therefore 
fully satisfy him, the new system would be likely to secure 
Jess efficient service to the State, Protectors are human, 
gpd }t b liwman to yvork harder when the reward is eon-? 
tingent upon one's exertions than when the reward is 
assured whether or no. The protector who, for a salary, 
may do all that his conscience tells him it is his duty to 
do, will do still more for an added reward to be won by 
the increased exertion — that is,- for work which is just a 
trifle beyond the rigid demand of mere duty. 
The enforcement of the game laws by the protector de- 
pends in a peculiar degree for its efficiency upon the ex- 
ercise of this over-zealousness. It is not enough for a 
protector whO' suspects a violation to make such a more 
or less perfunctory investigation as may or may not dis- 
close the facts; he must persist and persevere and ferret 
out and stick to the case and follow it up, and in the end 
stand stoutly for a good round penalty. And as has been 
said, a protector is human ; he will ferret and stick and 
stand much more strenuously if he be working for an 
extra reward than he will if he reflects that his salary is 
coming to him whether or no. In short, if those who 
fixed the new compensation at $900 figured out that the 
average moieties of protectors amounted to $300 — the 
State is likely to receive better service from the protector 
who is paid $600 and earns in addition thereto $300 in 
moieties, than it will receive from a protector who is paid 
the $goo as a salary. 
The system of moieties as added rewards has worked 
well in the past; the actual service rendered to the State 
would probably be more efficient and valuable with a re- 
tention of the system than under the proposed change. 
SMELTERS AND THE PUBLIC. 
Some time ago we called attention to the damage to 
adjacent vegetation caused by the fumes of a smelter 
operated in Shasta county, California, and incidentally 
mentioned similar damage done by smelters in Butte, 
Mont. Very promptly upon the publication of this ar- 
ticle follows an application to Judge Hunt by residents 
of Silver Bow county in Montana for an injunction 
against the smelters of Butte, on the ground that their 
operation is destructive to the health and property of 
neighboring residents. 
It is certainly time that action be taken by executive 
officers, legislative bodies and courts to put an end to the 
riding rough shod by manufacturing companies over the 
rights of the public. It may be assumed that every citi- 
zen whO' owns real estate is entitled to^ pure air, pure 
water and unobstructed light. This principle is suffi- 
ciently established as regards transportation companies 
in cities, but in the country where population is sparse 
the right seems to have been forgotten. Factories run 
their waste products into streams and pollute them so 
that they are fit for use neither by man nor beast nor 
fish. Streams that once furnished a pathway for un- 
counted multitudes of fish which afforded cheap and 
wholesome food to the people, are now so tainted by vile 
stuff sent into them that no fish is ever found in their 
waters, and even lower forms of animal life have dis- 
appeared. 
There are many signs that the public is slowly awaken- 
ing to this outrageous state of things, and that the time 
is not distant when the present license of many manu- 
facturing companies will be so restrained that they will 
be obliged to content themselves with a measure of liberty 
no greater than that possessed by the average citizen. 
BUFFALO LORE. 
The disappearance of the buffalo as a wild animal is 
so recent, and the concern felt in its extermination so 
keen, as to lend an especial interest to reminiscences of 
buffalo days, such as have been recently given by Mr. 
Charles Aubrey. The true story of the foundation of the 
Pablo-Allard herd, printed in Forest and Stream in the 
summer of 1902, came, it will be remembered, from Mr. 
Aubrey's pen, and was of especial value as being the 
truth, though a multitude of fictitious stories about that 
herd have been published. 
Among the many old timers who reside on the Western 
plains and among the mountains there yet remains a vast 
fund of buffalo lore, all of it interesting, and much of it 
valuable from the point of view of natural history, which 
ought to be set down. It is only occasionally and bit by 
bit that fragments of this lore come to light, as in the 
three contributions from -Mr, Aubrey, the last this week. 
Most interesting from the human standpoint is the wide- 
spread view among the plfijps Indiana of what had be- 
come of the buffalo, '^^ovc\ the days of their eadiegt tra^. 
ditions the Indians of the plains had always known 
buffalo^ — more than could be counted, often covering the 
land as far as the eye could reach — and to the savage 
mind it was inconceivable that these should have been 
suddenly swept away. The buffalo had always been their 
food and it was impossible to imagine a world without 
buffalo-, which would mean a world without food — ex- 
termination for their race. Hence, some other explana- 
tion than extermination must be sought, for extermina- 
tion was unthinkable. So- the Dakotas believed that the 
buffalo, wearied by constant pursuit and with their feet 
worn down and tender from continual running, had re- 
tired to some distant place to rest ; the Blackfeet believed 
that the malevolent white man had shut up- the buffalo 
in a cave, whence some time they would escape to re- 
people the plains. Other tribes cherished similar beliefs. 
The Blackfoot belief was evidently suggested by an old 
myth of the tribe which seems to refer to some ancient 
period of starvation when the buffalo — as sometimes 
happened — disappeared for a long time, and the people 
starved. 
It is greatly to- be desired that persons who- remember 
facts and incidents of the buffalo days should write out 
their memories of those times, the details of which are 
so interesting. 
FOR A WIDER INFLUENCE. 
Within the past fifteen years a great change has taken 
place in public sentiment in the United States as tO' the 
protection of wild creatures, the forest and natural things 
in general. It is a matter of common belief that a chief 
factor in bringing about this change has been the Forest 
and Stkpam^ which has devoted itself in season and out, 
to showing that such protection is for the public welfare. 
The good work thus started is still being carried on, but 
■ all who are interested in strengthening this sentiment 
should do everything in their power to assist and hasten 
forward the movement. 
This can best be done by putting before the public in- 
teresting and good literature dealing with the subject. 
Such literature is Forest and Stream/ which is not only 
interesting in itself but also records the changes in public 
feeling, the alteration of laws, local and general, the de- 
cisions of the courts and the views and acts of clubs and 
associations. The reader is thus kept constantly in touch 
with the game protective movement in this country, 
knows what is going on and can judge for himself and 
act intelligently on any matter that may come up. 
What the paper is to the outdoor man in relation to 
the sports which he so greatly enjoys, is too well known 
to need, any extended reference. It is a record of all 
facts of interest in the nature of competitions, it tells of 
the shooting, fishing and yachting and other sports that 
we are enjoying to-day, and of those sports, and scenes 
of adventure connected with them that were taken part 
in by people of a generation or more ago. It is a journal 
that the outdoor man cannot get along .without. 
With a view to extending the circulation of Forest and 
Stream, and thus forcing forward the movement in favor 
of the protection of natural things, the publishers are 
prepared to send out to any present readers coin cards 
for distribution among his friends interested in outdoor 
life, which coin cards when returned with a nominal sum 
of money, will give an opportunity to take advantage of 
our short term trial trip subscription. On another page 
will be found blanks which any reader may fill out and 
send to us, on receipt of which we will send him without 
cost coin cards for distribution among his friends. 
THE NATIONAL PARK ANTELOPE. 
Early in April, the antelope moved back to- their sum- 
mer range on the higher ground, after having wintered on 
the alfalfa flats near the town of Gardiner and just with- 
in the Park. They have notably increased in number 
within the past year. In 1904 the average of several 
counts showed 1,100 antelope; this year there are between 
1,500 and I.700, indicating a large increase by births and 
a small loss from any cause. During the late winter 800 
antelope were counted one day on the alfalfa flat near 
Gardiner, and besides this a number of bands were seen 
on the hills all about. 
The usefulness of planting winter food for the antelope 
^which was first done by Major Pitcher, the Superin- 
tendent of the Park, two or three years ago — has thug 
j^ecn shown again during the past wmter. 
