bREST AND Stream. 
A Weekly Journal of the Rod and Gun. 
Copyright, 1904, by Forest and Stream Publishing Co. 
IS, $4 A Year. 10 Cts. a Copy. I 
Six Months, $3. f 
NEW YORK, SATURDAY, DECEMBER 2, 1908. 
( VOL. LXV.— No. 28 
I No. 346 Broadway, New York. 
he Forest and Stream is the recognized medium ofentertafn- 
it, instruction and information between American sportsmen, 
editors invite communications on the subjects to which its 
;s are devoted. Anonymous communications will not be re- 
led. While it is intended to give wide latitude in discussion 
urrent topics, the editors are not responsible for the views of 
espondents. 
abscriptions may begin at any time. Terms: For single 
es, $4 per year, $2 for six months. For club rates and full 
iculars respecting subscriptions, see prospectus on page iii. 
the object of this journal will be to studiously 
unote a healthful interest in outdoor recre- 
on, and to cultivate a refined taste for natural 
Announcement in first number oi 
Forest and Stream, Aug. 14, 1873. 
PRIZES FOR GAME HEADS. 
'he Forest and Stream offers three prizes of $20, $10 
I $5 respectively for the best moose heads secured in 
year 1905 in the hunting grounds of the United States 
; Canada. ^ 
t offers also three prizes of $15, $10 and $5 respectively 
the best w'hite-tail deer heads taken in the hunting- 
son of 1905 in the United States or Canada. 
'he heads will be judged from photographs submitted 
the Forest and Stream. , In estimating their merits 
two qualities of size and symmetry will be taken into 
isideration. With the photograph of each head must 
sent a memorandum of the place and the time of its 
ling and the name of the person taking it. The compe- 
on will be open to amateur hunters only; and with this 
igle restriction it will be open to the world. There are 
entrance fees. The photographs submitted will be the 
-jperty of Forest and Stream. Entries for the compe- 
on must be made not later than Jan. 15, 1906. The 
•ards will be determined by a committee of representa- 
e sportsmen to be announced later. 
THE NEW YORK GAME PROTECTOR. 
The New York Evening Post of Nov. 22 printed an 
tide commenting on the proposed appointment of Mr. 
hn B. Burnham as Chief Game Protector of New York, 
d cited reasons why it thought the appointment should 
t be made. The reasons given were that among Mr. 
irnham’s indorsers were certain pulp-mill concerns, 
hch had been stealing Adirondack timber; that Mr. 
irnham “has been a champion of pulp-mill pollution of 
ike Champlain,” and that “he is a large owner in a 
.wer and light plant.” These two interests, the Post 
inks, “are believed to have imbued him with industrial 
mpathies, which, at a moment when power, electric, 
lip and paper companies are making a general assault 
1 the resources of the public forest reserves, would not 
in harmony with public interest.” 
As to the first of these reasons, the simple fact is that 
r. Burnham has not had the indorsement of the firm of 
lip mill operators named by the Post, nor of any other 
lip mill owners. 
As to the second charge that Mr. Burnham “has been 
champion of pulp mill pollution of Lake Champlain in 
itagonism to a subsequent State Board of Health report 
id the action of the State of Vermont,” it may be said 
lat the participation he had in the discussion of the 
ake Champlain pollution question consisted in communi- 
itions he sent to this journal, and an examination of 
hat he wrote will disclose the fact that he did not cham- 
on the pulp mill pollution of Lake Champlain, but he 
,d question that any such pollution existed in the places 
id to the extent that it had been alleged to exist. To 
Liestion the existence of pollution is a different thing 
■om championing pollution. Nor has it ever been shown, 
ther in health board reports or otherwise, that Mr. 
iirnham was in error in his statement respecting that 
art of Lake Champlain of which he wrote. 
It is true, we believe, that Mr. Burnham has an interest 
1 an electric light plant which lights the town of Essex, 
nd that the poiver for it is obtained by damming a 
tream in the hills; but it is as fanciful and as far-fetched 
1 assume that this interest “has imbued him with indus- 
rial symiiathies not in harmony with public interests,” 
s it would be to reason that the Evening Post, because 
t consumes tons of paper made from wood pulp, must 
therefore be in industrial sympathy with the wood pulp 
despoilers of the Adirondacks, and that for that reason 
we should not accept in good faith its exposures of the 
Adirondack raiders. 
If John B. Burnham shall be appointed Chief Game 
Protector of New York, the friends of the forests, the 
fish and the game need not in the slightest degiee be 
disquieted by this newspaper attack on him. Mr. Buin- 
ham will not be prompted by industrial sympathies not in 
harmony with public interests, nor by any other sympa- 
thies except those which are in full accord w'ifh the pro- 
tection of the State’s forests, fish and game. The Forest 
AND Stream has supported Mr. Burnham for this place 
because we believe that an indispensable qualification of 
the man who is to be the Chief Game Protector of New 
York must be an absolute and unswervable honesty, and 
that he must have a singleness of purpose to do> his duty 
and to serve only the interests of the State. Mr. Burn- 
ham, whom we know -with the knowledge that comes 
of daily association extending over the six years dur- 
ing which he was on the staff of Forest and Stream, we 
know to be such a man; and it will not take very long 
after his assumption of office for the timber thieves, the 
trespassers and the poachers to discover it for themselves. 
FATE OF THE EUROPEAN BISON. 
An interesting side effect of the rebellion and perhaps 
revolution of which we read in Russia is the possible 
speedy extinction of a species of animal which for many 
years has been jealously protected by the Czar. In times 
of national peace and contentment the European bison 
lives in the imperial forests of Lithuania, presumably un- 
molested; but whenever there is a rising in Poland and 
the rebels take to the woods they use this herd of bison 
as a part of their commissary, and kill them for beef. 
For many years there has been a gradual lessening in 
numbers of this herd, which by many zoologists is 
thought to be due to inbreeding ; yet, there are others who 
believe that the decrease in this protected herd, which 
fifty years ago numbered nearly 2,000 and which lives wild 
in its native habitat, is too rapid to be accounted for sole- 
ly by inbreeding, and must be due to destruction by man, 
notwithstanding the efforts made by the authorities to 
protect them. Statistics of the Bielowitza herd in Grodno 
show that between 1833 and 1857 these bison increased 
from 768 to 1,898, but from this time on the decrease has 
been constant until, in 1892, the herd numbered less 
than 500. 
The butchery of human beings in Russia, which is re- 
ported to be taking place on a scale quite unparalleled in 
times of peace for the last hundred years, stirs the emo- 
tions of the world, yet zoologists will view with keen 
regret the diminution of the European bison, which for 
hundreds of years has been preserved from extinction 
only by the very hand that brought its numbers so low. 
Of the herd of these bison which inhabits the moun- 
tains of the Caucasus in the province of Kuban, we know 
little or nothing, but the same causes which seem likely 
to bring about the absolute extermination of the herd in 
Grodno will be operative in the Caucasus, and the race 
seems likely now to receive a blow from which it can 
never recover. 
On one or two estates in Europe and in a few zoolog- 
ical gardens, there are living specimens of these bison, 
but their numbers are very few. Perhaps the little herd 
belonging to the Prince of Pless is the most numerous. 
There is a pair in the park of the New York Zoological 
Society in the Borough of the Bronx. 
The work of the California Outdoor Art League, one 
of the affiliated societies of the American Civic Associa- 
tion, has become of international interest in its efforts to 
preserve the Calaveras groves of big trees. About thirty 
women, headed by Mrs. Lovell White, a member of the 
Association, have been able to arouse the whole country 
to a sense of the awful mistake it would be not to pre- 
serve these trees for all time against the greed of man’s 
ax. When the pyramids of Egypt were being built by 
man’s ingenuity, some of these trees, the only survivors 
of their kind of the glacial period, were standing in calm 
maiesty on the Pacific coast of this country, in the prime 
and vigor of seeming youth. It would be nO' more van- 
dalism to use the stones of the pyramids foT paving 
blocks than to cut down these trees, as is being done, to 
make toothpicks and cigar boxes. Woman’s clubs, feder- 
ations and societies and branches of the Woman’s Out- 
door Art League all worked in unison with women and 
men’s organizations for the passage of a bill through 
Congress in the last session for the purchase by the Gov- 
ernment of the Calaveras groves. President Roosevelt 
did what a President of the United States has never done 
before — sent a special message to Congress recommend- 
ing the passage of a bill which had its initiative with 
women. A petition of over a million and a half of names 
was presented in favor of the bill. In spite of all this 
the measure failed of enactment. This year a new bill 
will be introduced, and the Calaveras Big Tree Com- 
mittee of the League, of which Mrs. White is chairman, 
will renew its efforts. A strong backing for the, movement 
should be formed in every State in the Union. The big 
trees belong not to California but to the nation. 
The Eastport, Long Island, Gun Club members are 
grappling with a mystery. Last March they put out on 
the preserve a hundred northern hares imported from 
Maine, with the expectation of having an abundant stock 
for the present shooting season. The game was dis- 
tributed in the fields, the woods, and the swamps; and 
that was the last ever seen of them. During the month 
of November the club members have been on the field 
almost every day, three or four of them out, and have 
made a thorough search for the hares, but have seen 
none. Beagles have failed to raise them. What has be- 
come of them is a mystery. 
M 
That is an extremely interesting resume of the work 
of the Massachusetts Fish and Game Protective' Associa- 
tion for the year, and it is a stimulating and instruc- 
tive showing, because it demonstrates the value and 
accomplishment of united and well-planned effort. The 
Massachusetts Association is one which is in service all 
the year through ; the results of its efforts are cumulative 
and lasting. Its appeal for a large support throughout 
the commonwealth is based on a substantial claim to pub- 
lic confidence and co-operation, and should meet gener- 
ous response. ^ 
The exposition to be given by the New England 
Forest, Fish and Game Association in Boston from Dec. 
25 to Jan. 6, promises to be unusually complete in the 
scope of its exhibits. The groups will comprise forestry, 
food and game fishes, animals, game, song and insectiv- 
orous birds; trade exhibits, art associated with forestry, 
fish and game, and loan exhibits. The previous sports- 
men’s exhibitions given in Boston have been of high 
character, and tlae coming one is planned on the same 
■generous and comprehensive scale., 
' ' 
The annual meeting of the New . York State Fish, 
Game and Forest League will be held in Syracuse on 
Dec. 7. One of the most useful activities of the League 
is the effort it is annually called on to make to choke off 
bad legislation. Individual sportsmen and organized 
clubs, owe it to themselves to give the League active sup- 
port, and all clubs ‘ throughout the State are invited to 
ally themselves with the organization and send represen- 
tatives to the annual meeting. 
t? 
We have already referred to the suit brought against 
a Rome, N. Y., angler for having fished in a small brook 
which had been stocked with trout from the State hatch- 
eries, and which the Fish and Game Commission had 
sought to close to fishing as a public inland waters. It 
was claimed for the defendant that this small stream, 
flowing through farm lands, could not properly be closed 
as public waters; and this contention has now been sus- 
tained by the court. 
Nineteen football players have been killed in the 
games of this year, the causes of death comprising con- 
cussion of the brain, internal injuries, fracture of the 
skull, blood poisoning, and peritonitis, spinal meningitis 
and heart puncture. There have been in addition one 
hundred serious injuries, and unnumbered cases of minor 
injury. It is high time that there should be revision of 
the rules and a change of methods. 
