A Weekly Journal of the Rod and Gun. 
Copyright, 1904, by Forest and Stream Publishing Co. 
RMS, 14 A Year. 10 Cts. a Copy. ) NEW YORK SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 11, 19 OB. ]no. 347broa^wIy, NeJ*York. 
Six Months, $2. f 1.N Jii V V J . J . j. w , — 
THE ANGLER AND THE BOY. 
Why is it that in this country— and this country only, 
far as we know — the practice of fly-fishing and the use 
' fine tackle should be rated a sort of huge joke by those 
ho cannot appreciate them? Is it not because the masses 
e not educated to that point where they may compre- 
;nd these refinements of the art? 
It is not so in Great Britain. There the common peo- 
e along the streams are anxious to secure fine tackle, 
ell aware that it is the most killing of all tackle. But 
some of the rural parts of America a fine fishing tackle 
ipears to be held as synonymous with the outfit of a 
luffer”; and the use of such implements by an angler 
accepted as prima facie evidence that he must he a 
-eenhorn, unskillful and unsuccessful in his sport. On 
le other hand, the employment of primitive tackle is 
;sociated in the minds of your rural rpsoner with a big 
ring of fish at the close of the day— the length of the 
ring and the size of the fish being in inverse proportion 
1 the diminutiveness and raggedness of the small boy 
ho wields the pole. 
We venture to assert our belief that these common 
■nets of the rural angler’s belief arise from a total mis- 
)nception of the facts and principles involved, and from 
wrong association of ideas in the mind of the rustic 
easoner. We will try to explain what we mean. 
A certain country angler has a large local reputation. 
Te uses tackle of the coarsest description. He cuts his 
pole” in the woods. He is a successful fisherman; that 
5, he captures many fish. But his success is most cer- 
ainly not due to his primitive tackle. He catches lots 
if fish because he knows every foot of the stream and 
list where the fish are to be caught. He loses no time 
n trying stretches of water where there are no fish. As 
matter of course he comes home with a good “mess of 
rout.” And, by the way. it may be that this man has not 
he first conception of what sport is. His only thought 
s fish. If he has taken twenty trout in a day more than 
mother man he deludes himself with the belief that he 
las had more sport, and that it is something to brag of 
f matters -not how the fish are taken. If another man 
:ame up with a net and 40 pounds of fish more than he 
las, our genius of the pole would “knock under’ to him 
IS the superior fisherman. 
The bait-fisher, with his coarse tackle, may, at times, 
;ay in the middle of the day. take more fish than his com- 
)anIon with- the fly, but in the long run, dav in and day 
^ut, granting to each man an equal knowledge of the 
waters fished, the angler with fly and delicate tackle will 
^xcel the other both in amount of sport had and in weight 
)f creel. 
The ragged country boy with a bean pole cannot begin 
to compete with the man who has li.sht tackle, if the 
latter be an angler and know how to use his tools. And 
vet a fiction to the contrary has been going the rounds of 
the press for the past century, its corrupt doctrines per- 
verting the minds of our an.gling youth. Stories without 
end of the urchin’s string of fish bought by the “dandy” 
are rife in the rural press, but are not true in one case 
in ten. There may have been duffers who have thought 
that all that was necessary to make them anglers was to 
buy a great assortment of fancy tackle; but ^ such men 
do not fish often. A trial once or twice convinces them 
of their error, and thev lay their rods aside for the last 
novel, or for some other plavthing. As for the bare- 
footed boy, we don’t believe in him. 
The fly-fisher can fish over more water than the bait- 
fisher, and can therebv take more fish; and he has a 
hieher kind of sport that the latter knows nothing of 
The fly-fisher can take more either of trout or salmon, in 
a day than the bait-fisher if he knows tflp cn-o-u-.fl eaually 
well; and assertions to the contrary would Ae h=t°ned 
to by the most ignorant poacher in England. IreBud or 
Scotland, for he knows that the fly and fine tackle are the 
best equipment for taking fish. 
Does any man mean to say that the boy with the dis- 
reputable trousers and the bean-pole would not take as 
many fish if he had finer tackle, say a fine hook on a fine 
gut leader and a fine line nearlv invisible to the fish? If 
so, he is severely mistaken. No, the boy with the letter 
in' the post office would be a better angler for a little 
familiarity with fine tackle. He would take more fish 
and would learn to enjoy their capture as an evidence 
of his skill, for this constitutes- the chief pleasure of ang- 
ling, So much for the tackle j au4 as for the frapientary 
habiliments- — there is no connection between the trout and 
the trousers. Clothes do not make the man, nor the lack 
of them the fisherman. 
GAME REFUGES. 
Among the subj ects which should come up at the 
next session of Congress is a bill authorizing the 
President to set aside within forest reservations, existing 
or which may be established, game refuges where hunt- 
ing shall be forbidden. 
The notion of such game refuges, first suggested by 
the Fore.st and Stream, followed naturally on the estab- 
lishment of the forest reserves. The Boone and Crockett 
Club was quick to see the importance of the measure 
and championed it with ardor. A few other people advo- 
cated the action that we urged and it has been more or 
less written and talked of ever since. A year or two 
since a bill was introduced in Congress giving such 
power to the President, but it was opposed by the 
Speaker and by one or two Congressmen from States 
in which forest reserves are situated, and failed to be 
acted on. All the time, however, public opinion in Its 
favor has been growing stronger. The State of 
Wyoming recently established, adjacent to the Yellow- 
stone National Park, a great State Park, where the kill- 
ing of game is forbidden. A game refuge has been set 
aside in the Wichita Mountains, and the people of Los 
Angeles are preparing to petition Congress for the estab- 
lishment of a refuge in the forest reserve near to that 
city. 
It is high time that this action should be taken. Big 
game is growing scarcer. A number of species are ap- 
proaching perilously near the point of extinction. Except 
in half a dozen restricted localities in the West, there are 
no longer any places where a man can go with reason- 
able certainty of killing the meat that he needs for camp 
use, to say nothing of getting a good head. One of the 
most recent books on big game shooting, speaking of 
the wapiti, or elk, declares that a good head bears six 
points to the antler; yet, it seems but a short time since 
a man who wished to carry home with him an elk head 
would not shoot at anything with less than seven points 
to the antler, and was always hoping for a head with 
eight or nine points. The elk are now so constantly 
hunted that they have no time to grow good heads, and 
the older and better animals are killed off as soon as 
they show themselves. The same thing is true of moun- 
tain sheen, and in a less degree of deer. ' 
It is difficult to conceive of any valid objection that 
can be urged against a law authorizing the President in 
his judgment to set aside such game refuges. No appro- 
priation will be reciuired for their care; no additional 
force of men need be hired to guard or protect them. 
They are already in charge of forest wardens, whose pay 
is provided for under another bill, and would be also in 
charge of State game wardens to be paid by the various 
States. The Federal Government would not be called 
upon at present to expend a single penny for their main- 
tenance. This should be a strong argument in their 
favor in these days when economy is a favorite Congres- 
sional slogan. 
Moreover, we have to-day in the Presidential chair a 
man, completely equipped by experience and training to 
select such refuges. Over considerable portions of some 
of the forest reserves the President himself has hunted 
and he is familiar with their adaptability to such a pur- 
pose. Moreover, he is In intimate touch with the best 
.sportsmen and the best naturalists of this country, and 
it need hardly be said, has the entire confidence of the 
whole people. Mr. Roosevelt himself is in hearty sym- 
pathy with this idea, and has frequently advocated it In 
his written and .spoken words. 
Since the plan is wholly unobjectionable, since it will 
cost nothina-, and since the Executive favors it, it would 
seem that Congress should be ready to act favorably on 
any bill that may be introduced to carry this proposition 
into effect. But, as has so frequently been said, Conr 
gressmen take but slight Interest in matters non-political 
which do not interest their constituents, and unless the 
residents of States and Territories in which these forest 
reserves are situated— -the people who would be most 
benefited by the setting aside of these refuges— unless 
these residents, we say, bestir themselves and urge the 
matter on the attention of their Representatives in 0911 = 
gres?, tke- matter likely ta ke nyerlooked. 
ADIRONDACK LAND SALES. 
There was printed in our issue of Oct. 14 3 - com- 
munication from Mr. Raymond S. Spears concerning the 
sale of Adirondack public forest lands. It was charged 
that in a long list of transactions, which were specified 
in detail, the law prohibiting the sale of State land had 
been violated, because these plots had been sold. We 
give to-day froni a special correspondent . in Albany the 
results of an examination of the record on the books 
concerning every item in the list cited by Mr. Spears. 
The result of the examination is to show that, the sev- 
eral transfers were made in accordance with law. Very 
many of the transfers, indeed most of them, were re- 
demptions by the owners of lands which had been held 
temporarily by the State for payment of taxes. The same 
law holds as to Adirondack lands that prevails else- 
where, namely, the delinquent taxpayer is given by the 
terms of the statute a certain time in which to pay back 
taxes and redeem his property. Commissioner Whipple 
has already explained that when taxes were unpaid on 
land, the plot was listed as State land and was so 
marked in red on the official map, but the actual title of 
the State to such land was only tentative. It might be- 
come valid, if in accordance with the legal procedure the 
land should eventually be forfeited to the State by rea- 
son of non-payment of taxes, or the State title might 
lapse at any time upon payment of the taxes. When the 
State’s tentative title thus lapsed, the indication of the 
lands as State lands, shown in red on the official map, 
would be discontinued and the new map would show the 
plot again in white as private property. 
In many other cases cited by Mr. Spears the State’s 
assumed title was vacated by cancellation as the result 
of suits brought by the owners to test the right of the 
State and to establish their own titles. 
An examination of the list as presented by our corre- 
spondent will show that these two factors of redemption 
and cancellation account for the vast majority of the 
changes on the official map from the red color, signifying 
State lands, to the white marking, signifying private 
holdings. 
It is further . shown by the record that the remaining 
transactions, in which .parcels of wild land were sold by 
the State, were within the warrant of the law prior to the 
adoption of the constitutional provision of 1895 prohibit- 
ing the sale of wild lands within the forest preserve. 
As to the legality of the Adirondack land sales, then, 
the examination of the record, as reported by our corre- 
spondent, appears to demonstrate that they were within 
the .sanction of the law.^ 
The transactions under review were of the past. Even 
had they shown -irregularity or corrruption on the part of 
former Forest, Fish and Game Commissioners, they 
would not have reflected on the present incumbent. Com- 
missioner Whipple has held office for a short time only , 
but his attitude toward Adirondack timber stealing and 
his prompt and vigorous prosecution of trespassers and 
timber thieves have gladly been accepted by the public 
as an earnest of an honest and independent administra- 
tion. He should have, and will have, the' heartiest sup- 
port and co-operation. 
We are rapidly coming in the United States to the con- 
ditions prevailing in foreign lands as to- licenses for hunt- 
ing. But in a country where the possession and use of 
firearms by the citizen are so untrammeled,- it Is almost 
impossible to realize that in many other countries' the 
enjoyment of these privileges is closely restricted. In 
our sister republic of Peru, where the frequent revolu- 
tions of the. past have made every sportsman’s gun a 
potential implement of war, laws have prevailed forbid- 
ding the importation of firearms, except under "certain 
rigid conditions, requiring a special license from the 
ministry of war. The ■ stability of the government of 
recent years has now prompted a relaxation of the old. 
order, and the instituting of larger liberty. Consul-Gen- 
eral Gottschalk reports that a decree has been promul- 
gated at Lima permitting the importation into the re- 
public of arms, powder and shot for hunting purposes, 
of parlor rifles and their charges, and of revolvers of a 
caliber ' not to exceed .32,. without the formality of ob- 
taining special license from the ministry of war. The 
decree will prove a boon to immigrant miners, rubber 
hunters, etc., whose hunting weapons are' pftep really 
pMt of their bitmiiess eqmpept! • 
