70 
FOREST AND STREAM 
February, 1921 
FOREST^ STREAM 
FORTY-NINTH YEAR 
FOUNDERS OF THE AUDUBON SOCIETY 
ADVISORY BOARD 
GEORGE BIRD GRINNELL, New York, N. Y. 
nAPT e. AKELEY, American Museum ef Natural History, New York. 
EDMUND HELLER, Smithsonian Institution. Washington, DC. 
WILFRED H. OSGOOD, Field Museum of Natural History, Chicago, 111. 
JOHN M. PHILLIPS, Pennsylvania Game Commission, Pittsburgh, Pa. 
CHARLES SHELDON, Washington, D. C. 
GEORGE SHIR AS, 3rd, Washington, D. C. _ , 
JOHN T. NICHOLS, American Museum of Natural History, New York, 
WILLIAM BRUETTE, Editor 
JOHN P. HOLMAN, Managing Editor 
TOM WOOD, Business Manager 
Nine East Fortieth Street, New York City 
THE OBJECT OF THIS JOURNAL WILL BE TO 
studiously promote a healthful interest in outdoor rec- 
reation, and a refined taste for natural objects. 
August 14, 1873. 
WINTER WOODS 
’T* HOUGH the weather is bitter and the snow 
whitens all the fields and woods, yet it is a fine 
time to be abroad and he is happy whose fortune 
leads him to the country. There is a fine exhilara- 
tion in plowing through the lots and into the woods 
and across swamps whose depths are frozen now, 
and whose inmost recesses can be explored. 
Only a few birds are about. Now and then a va- 
grant crow is seen flapping his slow way from one 
piece of woods to another, or half a dozen bluejays, 
that have been trying to earn a living about some 
warm spring hole, take to wing, and flying low along 
the ground, silently disappear among the white birch 
sprouts at the edge of the woods. From the thick 
foliage of a cedar tree, your approach may start a 
great barred owl, which, flying a short distance, 
alights and stooping forward stares at you with his 
huge brown eyes. Here he is wintering and here- 
abouts he will kill mice and shrews so long as the 
winter lasts. In this weather one may rarely see in 
the apple tree half a dozen pine grosbeaks, birds of 
the coldest winter time and, indeed, seen here but 
seldom. Most of them are plain gray, sometimes 
with a wash of olive, or even yellow, on the head and 
back. 
Not so rare are the little pine finches, or siskins, 
which at this season come whirling about in flocks 
of from five to fifty. They alight in some birch trees 
with a great noise, sit perfectly still for half a min- 
ute, and then pitch down in a close bunch to the 
surface of the snow, where they run about and pick 
up portions of the catkins of the birch, which the 
wind has scattered. An impulse sends them again 
up into the branches of the tree and again they fall 
from its limbs like apples being poured out of a bar- 
rel, and again cover the snow almost at your feet; 
but again something frightens them and this time 
they do not stop in the birch tree but whirl away like 
the down of the milkweed caught up by the autumn 
breeze and disappear from sight. Cold though they 
be, the winter woods are pleasant. 
THE YELLOWSTONE DAM 
M ANY of us have visited and enjoyed the Yellow- 
stone Park, and those who have never been 
there hope some day to see its wonders. These 
attractions are of many sorts and it is felt by all 
that nothing should be done to make them less 
alluring. 
The statements on another page, as to the effect 
of the proposed Yellowstone irrigation dam on the 
public enjoyment of the park, thus possess a keen 
interest for everyone. 
No man is more competent to write on this par- 
ticular subject than Mr. Shiras. An outdoor man 
of great experience, an accomplished field-natural- 
ist and the leader in wild life photography, his ex- 
perience and his judgment carry compelling weight. 
For a number of seasons he camped for long periods 
on the shores of Yellowstone Lake near where the 
upper river enters it, and there studied the condi- 
tions about the lake and the ways of the wild ani- 
mals living on its borders and in the valley of the 
stream which supplies it. 
Mr. Shiras’ experience is not confined to the 
Yellowstone Lake. He has seen other lakes whose 
outlets have been dammed and whose waters have 
been raised and this enables him definitely to pre- 
dict what would follow the raising of the waters of 
Yellowstone Lake. His opinion is thus entitled to 
respectful consideration and to most people what 
he says will be convincing. 
In view of the ruin of scenery threatened by this 
raising of the lake, and the consequent danger of 
diverting elsewhere the tourist travel which now 
goes to Montana, one would suppose that the gen- 
eral feeling in that great state would be against 
the proposition, and so we believe it is. Individual 
citizens all over the state and various newspapers 
express the opinion that the proposed dam seriously 
threatens the Yellowstone Park and so indirectly 
endangers the development of the State of Montana. 
Those most earnest in behalf of the project seem 
to be the local people, who have something direct- 
ly to gain by carrying it through. 
THE VANISHING ANTELOPE 
T HE disappearance of the pronghorn antelope 
before the increasing settlement of the western 
country has long been a matter of regret to natural- 
ists. Most states have passed laws, to protect this 
species but in some places the law is wholly disre- 
garded and it is generally the fact that everywhere 
the numbers of antelope have been so reduced that 
the killing of even a single one by a law breaker is 
a very serious matter. 
For some years occasional reports have come m 
of a very few antelope seen in Eastern Colorado 
and Western Nebraska, in portions of the sand 
hill country in the western part of that state. From 
time to time a few have been seen in the country 
tributary to the North Platte River. Recently we 
are told that small herds of antelope are frequently 
seen in the breaks of the Platte River not very dis- 
tant from Lodgepole, Nebraska, and also in the 
hills in Garden County, that state. 
Farmers long settled in the country express the 
opinion that the antelope of late years have some- 
what increased. Groups of ten or twelve are some- 
times seen and rather more frequently than a few 
years ago. 
On the other hand, it must be remembered that 
at this season of the year the antelope are not scat- 
