248 
r would at once plug it with boric acid, pushing it in 
as tightlj^ as I could with. a blunt stick. Then I would 
have no fear of lockjaw. No greasy ointments, or any 
fat bacon, to put on my wounds. I have remembrances 
of the small boy with a sore toe, or heel bruise, or 
a nail hole in his foot, tied up with an immense greasy 
rag. 
One of the liabilities of a fisherman is to get snagged 
with a hook in his hand or other part of his anatomy. 
In my kit I have a small pair of nippers, with which I 
would cut the hook above the wound and pull it out, 
instead of cutting around t 4 ie barb to get it out that 
way. Treat with the boric acid. Senex. 
Des MoiNfcS, la. 
Adirondack State Lands* 
Albany, N. Y., Sept. 14 . — Editor Forest and Stream: 
Upon the return of Commissioner -Whipple last night 
from a tour of inspection in the Adirondacks, Mr. 
Spears' article in the Forest and Stream concerning 
sales of State lands, was shown to him, and to it he made 
the following reply : 
Commissioner Whipple said: ' "you ask for some state- 
ment from me in relation to an article written by Ray- 
mond S. Spears, of Little Fdlls, N. Y., Aug. 24, and pub- 
lished in Forest and Stream Sept. 2, 1905. My attention 
has not been called to the subject matter of this article 
before, neither have I seen the article until now. 
“Mr. Spears is entirely mistaken in the statement in the 
first paragraph of his article where he says: ‘Now the 
State is going to charge $2 per cord apparently, for that 
is what the State is suing for.’ I know of no such charge 
and no action in which such a claim is made, and there 
will not be by my consent. 
“The Land Board is a separate and distinct Board from 
the Forest, Fish and Game Department, and has certain 
authority under the law in ceiuain cases. So far as 1 
have been able to ascertain, the facts in relation to Lot 
79, Remsenburg Patent, 170 acres, which Mr. Spears 
calls the Hatter place, the Land Board had no authority 
to dispose of that property, and if I am right in this, I 
shall immediately institute an action to set aside the sale 
and recover such damages , as may have accrued to the 
State by ihe action of that Board. 
“In relation to the Ampersand Pond land. Township 
27, mentioned by Mr. Spears, I learn that it was hy a 
judgment of a competent -court, that the claimed title of 
the State was disposed of oriannulled. That case I will 
examine at the earliest possible moment. The Hatter 
property, as the records in,ythis- office show, was disposed 
of against the protest of . the Department of Forests in 
this Department. All of these" matters were before my 
time of service in the Department. 
"The law defining the Forest Preserve includes all land 
owned by the State in the. sixteen Adirondack and Cats- 
kill counties with the two following exceptions: 
“ ‘First. Lands within the limits of any village or city. 
“ ‘Second. Land, not wrJd:. laud, acquired by the State 
on foreclosure of mortgage made to the Loan Commis- 
sion.’ Under the last exception the Land Board would 
have the right to sell any lands acquired through the 
Loan Commission pro ded thev were cleared or farm 
lands. 
"The map of State lands -is. .made up by Mr. Fox from 
the records of the Comptroller’s: office. Therefore, where 
the Land Board has disposed of ' a piece of land, he has 
no authority except to indicate it on the map by making 
it white instead of red. Th.rs- explains the changes in the 
map mentioned by Mr. Spears. 
“Whether the Land Board had' authority or not to 
make sales, I propose to find out. 
“I do not believe Mr.' Spears wishes to apply the state- 
ment, ‘Well, you know what money .will do in politics, 
was the pessimistic answer,’ to this Department or to me 
personally. If he, or any other man believes he can get 
a tree or a foot of State land by political maneuvering or 
money considerations, let him try it. 
•‘Personally, I am much obliged to Air. Spears for his 
article, and I will be obliged to any man who will call 
my attention to any irregularity m the past which I may 
have the authority tc m 14:1 r my which may occur 
during my administration. 
Little Falls, N. Y., Sept. 16. — Editor Forest and 
Stream: In my letter aliou.t the sale of Lot 79 of the 
Remsenburg Patent, my introductory paragraph said 
that “the State is going to charge $2 per cord, appar- 
ently” for pulp wood. Commissioner Whipple says in 
regard to this statement : “Mr. Spears is entirely mis- 
t.'dren in the statement m the first paragraph of his article 
where he says: ‘Now the State is going to charge $2 per 
cerd, apparently, for that is what the State is suing for.’ 
I know of no such charge and no action in which such 
a claim is made, and there will not be by my consent.” 
Doubtless I was wrong in what I said as regards the 
pulp wood. I made the accusation on a paragraph which 
appeared in a newspaper some time ago. I withdraw it 
in view of Air. Whipple’s declaration. 
Mr. Whipple says further: “I will be obliged to any 
man who will call my attention to any irregularity in the 
past which I may have the authority to* correct, or any 
which may occur during my administration.” 
That is the most cheering statement that I have ever 
read in anything that ever came from the Adirondack com- 
mission, and while I have sent Mr. Whipple a long list of 
lands from the use of which the public may have been 
swindled in part, or to a great extent, I shall not care- 
lessly make statements likely to- cause the Forest, Fish 
and Game Commission extra work. Anyone who realizes 
that the Adirondack region is nearly, if not quite as 
large as the State of Massachusetts, and that tO' police 
this region only two score of “policemen” are available, 
will understand that the task is a tremendous one. 
My objections have been all made because of the prin- 
ciple that appeared to underlie the whole Adirondack 
system of protection. I do object to making the great 
playground of the State a place for deals and barter, 
traffic and scoundrelism. 
The reports which Col. William F. Fox publishes, 
nearly all of them contain urgent appeals to the public to 
permit lumbering on State lands, or swapping of State 
forest and stream. 
lands for other lands. His latest scheme is to exchange 
the State forest lands outside the Adirondack and Catskill 
forests for lands inside the park area. An amendment 
to the State Constitution has already passed the State 
Legi.slature making this possible. 
It is a fact well known to men who frequent the forest 
region that in the depths of the wilderness few ruffed 
grouse, and rarely a woodcock, are found. But in the 
outskirts of the wilderness the ruffed grouse are found in 
numbers that give thousands of sportsmen opportunity 
to enjoy their favorite recreation, not to mention trout 
streams and lakes. 
According to Colonel Fox, there are 134,571 acres of 
State land outside the Adirondack Park area, and 10,027 
acres outside the Catskill Park— 144,598 acres in all. 
Of this land more than 135,000 acres is “forest.” A 
great part of it is the finest covert in the world for ruffed 
giouse, woodcock, rabbits and hares and other animals 
often shot for sport. If the State sells it a large, propor- 
tion of it will be made into private parks immediately, 
and the sportsmen will find themselves shut out of tracts 
of land where they have hunted for years, probably with- 
out realizing that the land was a part of the State 
domain. Raymond S. Spears. 
(Albany Correspondence New York World.) 
The efforts of Forest, Fish and Game Commissioner 
Whipple to punish the poachers in the Adirondack forests 
have stirred up the Republican bosses in that section, who 
for 3'ears have dictated the terms of settlement in cases 
of trespass and illegal hunting. Their influence being no 
longer of any account, they threaten to exterminate, 
politically, the men in control of the department at 
Albany. They already have demanded the dismissal of 
several forest, fish and game protectors because the latter 
refused to compromise or smother cases of violation in 
which the friends and business agents of certain leading 
Republicans were involved. 
Commissioner Whipple investigated the complaints, and 
in the end complimented them for performing their duty 
without fear of the bosses. He told them that so long as 
they did their work faithfully and without favoritism they 
need have no fear of dismissal. This note of defiance 
gave the politicians, whose influence has always been up- 
permost in the settlement of cases, a severe jolt. 
When Air. Whipple w^as placed at the head of the de- 
partment to reform it he decided to clean out the political 
gang that had brought it into disrepute. It was one of 
the strongest cliques that ever did business at Albany, 
and he realized that it was no> ordinary undertaking. In 
the ring were State Senators, Republican leaders and big 
business men. The Commissioner’s first move was to 
wipe out the system of special attorneys employed to pro- 
secute violations ; for it was through these attorneys that 
the politicians and their friends in the lumber and pulp 
companies did . business. In many instances the same 
counsel that served the companies also served the State. 
In place of the special counsel, a single attorney was 
appointed, with the title of Deputy Attorney-General, to 
devote his whole time to prosecuting cases of trespass on 
forest lands and to defend the State’s right to land now 
in dispute. The man selected for this place is J. K. Ward, 
of Cattaraugus, the home county of Governor Higgins 
and Commissioner Whipple. Lank, keen-eyed, aggressive 
to the point of hostility, Mr. Ward has spread more fear 
through the regions of the poachers in one month than 
all the prosecutors spread heretofore in a decade. 
“I wish,” remarked Commissioner Whipple the other 
day, in discussing the recent victories of his attorney, 
“that I had more men like Air. Ward. He isn’t afraid 
of anything. He wmrks every day in the week and on 
Sundays. He’s the best prosecutor. I’m told, the depart- 
ment has had in many years.” 
Mr. Ward knows all the tricks of the trade. He knows, 
too, that he has some of the sharpest men in the country 
to deal with in prosecuting poachers and in fighting 
attorneys for the wrongdoers. When he first went into 
the woods, a few weeks ago, to punish several woodsmen 
for cutting burnt timber on State lands, the Deputy 
Attorney-General was “sized up” for a tenderfoot. The 
men began to spin yarns of how the wood was taken. 
"Look here,” snapped Mr. Ward. “You can’t flim-flam 
me. My father was born in a wagon and I first saw light 
of day in a log cabin. Now get behind that woodpile 
and make up a story that you wouldn’t be ashamed to 
tell your neighbors.” The Deputy Attorney-General made 
the poachers pay $2 a standard for the wood, several 
times its market value. That was the law and he meant 
to enforce it. . 
“I want you fellows,” he said, addressing the wrong- 
doers, “to understand that you have no right to cut burnt 
timber. When you get to know that there won’t be so 
many fires in these forests.” 
In the majority of trespass cases the trees cut down 
are sold to a lumber or pulp company. The poachers are 
said to be in the employ of the companies. While they 
have never been accused of having forest land set on fire 
so that the burnt timber may be cut, the fact is noted 
that burnt areas usually adjoin tracts where lumbering 
operations are going on. 
A lawyer who represents a number of pulp and lumber 
companies and a millionaire camp owner, recently had an 
encounter with Deputy Attorney-General Ward, the out- 
come of which has done a great deal to change the atti- 
tude of the trespassers. After being asked to make good 
the damage done by poachers, the lawyer replied threat- 
eningly: ‘‘I’d like to see you get any money out of us.” 
The Deputy Attorney-General returned to Albany and 
prepared papers in a suit against the offending company. 
Not very long after he received a letter from the lawyer, 
meekly saying that the full amount of the penalties would 
be paid. 
So great is Mr. Ward’s enthusiasm in the work of pro- 
tecting the forests that he makes long trips into the 
woods and “puts his ear to the ground” by hobnobbing 
with woodsmen and State protectors. While on one of 
these trips he ran into a case of illegal hunting, which 
was being tried before a country justice. The protector 
had found the hunter carrying a dead deer in a bag out 
of season. It was a clear case, but the jury, made up of 
natives, most of whom had poached at one time or an- 
other, returned a verdict of “not guilty.” In the hearing 
of the defendant Mr. Wood ordered the protector to 
[Sept. 23, 1905. 
bring suit in an adjoining county, where tlie case could 
be considered on its merits. 
Ihe hunter and his attorney had a hasty consultation, 
with the result that the fine of $100 was promptly paid 
and the matter dropped. 
Animal Life in the Yellowstone. 
/ellowstone National Park, Sept. 12 . — Editor 
Forest and Stream: Another tourist season for the Yel- 
lowstone National Park is about over. It has been the 
banner season so far as to the number of visitors, sur- 
passing any year in the history of the park and taxing the 
carrying capacity of all kinds of transportation in and 
about the park. Everything outside the park for miles 
around that could be called a spring wagon was used 
during the rush. The season opened with a large number 
of visitors, and up to now the park is full of tourists of 
all kinds. 
Hunting parties are beginning to come in, taking in the 
park going to and coming from their hunting grounds. I 
think some fine heads will be taken this fall. The sum- 
mer has been favorable for the development of large 
horns, the feed good from early spring, and insects not 
so troublesome as usual. I know of not one forest fire 
in the park and none anywhere near. We have had very 
little smoke, too; what there was came from the west. 
I think there is not quite the usual number of young 
antelope with the old ones. I have noticed and counted 
several hundred during the summer, and very seldom saw 
two young with a doe, and even as late as Aug. i I saw 
many without any young following. In the spring almost 
all the antelope left their winter range in front of Gardi- 
ner and the alfalfa patch ; but about twenty concluded it 
was a favorable place to show themselves, and every 
evening came down from the nearby hills. They are 
quite, tame for antelope, and thousands have seen them, 
where if they had returned to their old range for the 
summer not one tourist would have known what the 
animal looked like. Every evening hundreds of field 
glasses are leveled at them and not a few cameras. When 
the antelope reach the edge of, the alfalfa field they find 
an irrigating ditch; this they jump and .then they usually 
play for a few minutes, running around in circles, chasing 
one another for a long time. Then they start out across 
the field, taking a bite here and there, never eating much 
at any time. 
Two large crops have been cut and stacked from this 
field, and will be used to feed the antelope and other game 
during the winter. 
Now and then during the summer a band of moun- 
tain -sheep visited the Gardiner Canon and were seen by 
the tourists. Usually they do not come down so low as 
this in' summer around here. 
The number of gophers and “picket pin” squirrels and 
woodchucks seen along the roads out from the Mammoth 
Hot Springs is remarkable. Where once we used to see 
a great many chipmunks, we seldom see one now, and at 
the same time the gophers have taken their place, picking 
up the scattered grain along the roads and around the old 
camps. Purther out in the park the chipmunk still holds 
its own. r don’t know the cause of this change, of the 
disappearance of the chipmunk and the great increase in 
the number of gophers unless it is the killing off of the 
coyote ; but that ought not to drive away the chipmunks. 
And that makes me think of the porcupine. What has 
become of the great many, we may safely say thousands, 
that used to be in and around the park? It was nothing 
to see several every day along the wagon roads and trails, 
and in the evenings, when they usually move about, one 
could see dozens. I counted over thirty one evening dur- 
ing an hour’s slow ride along a trail south of the park. 
Now, for several years I have not seen even one; neither 
have I seen any fresh cutting or sign of their work, and 
this, mind you, in the same country where once they were 
so- numerous. Talking with other guides and the scouts, 
they all say the same thing. I think it was some disease 
that carried them off, something that has about extermi- 
nated the animal from this country. 
The elk are banding up and the bulls have been whist- 
ling for over two weeks. This is unusually early. 'Won- 
der if it’s going to be an early winter. 
I see many queer things in the way of animal actions, 
but don’t like to tell about them. I notice that when I 
do the people I talk to look at me as though they doubted 
my word, and then I hear them say, “My, but he draws 
the long bow.” But I must tell one incident that hap- 
pened to me the other night in Gardiner. I was sleeping 
in my cabin with the door wide open. On my table were 
some sheets of “tangle-foot” fly paper and other things, 
letters, papers and magazines. Along about i A. M. I 
awoke, hearing considerable noise among the papers on 
my table and a squeaking noise, like that made by a 
mouse when hurt. I lay listening for a while, wondering 
what was the trouble. Then reaching for a match I 
struck it. At the flash some animal on the table made a 
great clatter and then remained still. I lit the lamp and 
looked at the table.. In a corner next to a cupboard and 
the wall was a small hare, a cotton-tail. I stood looking 
at it for some time and saw that it had been stuck on the 
fly paper. The night was quite cool and the sticky stuff 
was not soft enough to get in its deadly -vyork. At the 
flash of the match the frightened animal broke loose from 
the paper by its sudden start. I picked it up by its ears, 
carried it to the door and turned it loose, and told it to 
fly, but not play a fly again. I have had many visitors 
to my cabin of nights — porcupines (years ago when they 
were numerous), mountain rats, birds, bats and once a 
grouse. Fortunately, I never had a visit in this cabin 
from the little black and white pussy that proves so 
offensive. 
I saw one man this summer who said he had been hurt 
by a bear. I asked him how. He had a bad cut on his 
forehead. He said he and several others were watching 
the bears eating slops at the Lake Outlet. A female 
grizzly with two cubs was not very friendly. The cubs 
came on toward the crowd and the old one came too. The 
cro-wd broke and ran. Some went up trees. He ran 
against a tree, striking his head against a dry limb. This 
knocked him out. His friend said the bear came within 
ten feet of him, then went back. When he came to his 
friend helped him to camp, dressed his cut, and this was 
the way he was hurt by a bear. T. E. H. 
