8 
FOREST AND STREAM 
A WEEKLY JOURNAL, 
DEVOTED TO FlKt.D AMD AlJUATIO SrOIlTS, PRACTICAL NATURAL HISTORY, 
Pisa Culture, toe Protection or Uamk,Pue.i»:rvation or Forests, 
ASD TH* INOITDCATION (N MEM AND WOMEN OF A lii.AJ.TQY INTEREST 
qi Out door Recreation and Study : 
PUBLISHED BY 
forest and £treanj flnbli, 'thing f&oniyaitu. 
17 CHATHAM STREET, (CITY HALL SQUARE) NEW YORE, 
[Pout OrricK Box 283a.) 
Term*, Five Dollar* a Year, Strictly In Advanrn. 
A discount of twenty porcout. allowed for Hyo copies nndnpwarda. 
AJ.crllnInK Itntca. 
In regular advertising columns, nonpareil type, 12 lines to the Inch, 21 
eonte per line, Advertisements ou outside pugc.40centa per line. Reading 
notloes, 00 cents per lino. Advertisements In double column 26 per com. 
extra. Where advertisements are Inserted over 1 month, a discount of 
10 per cent, will bo mode; over three months, 20 per cent; over six 
months, 30 per cent. 
NEW YORK, THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 11,1875. 
To Correspondents, 
All communications whatever, whether relating to business or literary 
eorrespondoncc, must bo addressed to The Forest and Stream Pub- 
LisniNo Company. Personal or private letters of course excepted. 
All communications Intended for publication must he accompanied with 
eal name, as a guaranty of good faith. Names will not be published If 
objection bo made. No anonymous contributions will be regarded. 
Articles relating to any topic within the scope of this paper arc solicited. 
Wo cannot promise to return rejected manuscripts 
Socro'nnes of Clubs and Associations are urged to favor ns with brief 
nntos of their movements and transactions, os It Is the aim of this paper 
to become a medium of useful and reliable Information between gentle- 
men sportsmen from one end of the country to the other ; and they will 
Oud our columns a desirable medium for advertising announcements. 
The Publishers of Forest and Stream aim to merit and secure the 
patronage and countenance of that portion of the community whose re- 
fined intelligence enubles them to properly appreciate and enjoy all that 
is beautiful In Nature. It will pander to no depraved (nates, nor pervert 
Iho legitimate sports of bind and water to those base uses which always 
t<)ud to make them unpopular with the virtuous and good. No advertise- 
ment or business notice of an immoral character will be received on any 
terms ; and nothing will bo admitted to any department of the paper that 
may not be read with propriety in the home circle. 
Wo cannot bo responsible for tho dereliction of tho mall scrnce, If 
money remitted to us is lost. 
Advertisements should be sent in by Saturday of each week, If possible. 
CHARLES IIALLOCK, Managing Editor. 
WILLIAM C. HARRIS. Business Manager, 
THE FUTURE AMERICAN RACE. 
L EARNED physiologists, ethnological scientists, and 
acute physicians, have been indulging in predictions 
concerning the characteristics of Llie race which is to oc- 
cupy the United States in tho future. Their speculations 
have led 6ome of them to argue that the white race cannot 
occupy this great land, except for a limited period, ns all 
efforts at colonizing it by preceding ruces were total 
failures. 
The mound builders left no trace of who or wliut they 
were, except tho terraces scattered so widely over this 
continent ; the Aztecs arc known only by tho temples they 
have left to mark their meteoric path through life, and a 
fow pleasantly poetical traditions or superstitions, while 
the present Indians have not even raised anything larger 
than an isolated rocky cairn to indicate to those that would 
follow that they ever existed. 
The latter race is following its predecessors in the most 
rapid manner, and ere another half century has rolled 
away the greater number will be among their rude fore- 
fathers in eternity. It has been supposed by some scien- 
tists, that (he present red mun is tho descendant of n much 
higher type, and that his deterioration is due to the climatic 
effects, luxuriant forests of this country, and the case with 
which food can be procured without the necessity of much 
labor or thought. That the tribes of the red race are the 
vegetable men of the world, if we may so term them, is 
evident from iheir low nervous power, the fucilily with 
which they can hear hunger for a protracted period, their 
stoical indifference to suffering which would kill the most 
robust pale face, their opposition to nil progress, cither 
phyeicully, socially or inora'.ly, and their cruel aud sangui- 
nary nature. They were, apparently, placed here to oc- 
cupy the soil until some higher and more powerful race 
Bh'vnld supplant them, and cause it to bloom with fertility 
and teem with abundance. 
But, though all preceding ntees nave oetorioraicd on this 
continent, it does not follow that the present dominant one 
should, especially when it has all the resources of civiliza- 
tion, a vigorous energy which surmounts all obstacles, and 
an intellect materially subtle in the highest degree, to aid 
it in its onward march of progress aud subjugation. 
Preceding races were entirely isolated from all contact 
with other peoples, except those as rude as themselves, 
hence they sunk into a state of mental aud physical lethargy 
which finally became such an incubus that they fell be- 
neath its crushing weight. The present has communica- 
tion with all portions of the world, and is constantly urged 
on to greater deeds and more exalted positions by the con- 
tests and ambitions of other nations; lienee no soporific 
stupors can ever pervade it. 
A. theory udvanced by one physician— namely, that after 
a few generations the natives of this country become tall 
and angular, with large motive and small vital power, with 
sharp hut not broad minds, and with sybaritical rather than 
stoical principles, does not Bccm to be sustained by facts, at 
least not by facts complete enough to support the assertion. 
One cannot make a general deduction from a particular 
premiss, and certainly this /Esculupius cannot assume tlmt 
Angularity is a characteristic of all the American people 
because it is of a few, or that high moral principles are 
ignored for the more convenient and selfish. If the latter 
assertion was true, then the early decadence of the race, 
when once the blood of Europe ceased to flow hither, 
would ho a truism, for all students of history must know 
that when once mere selfish convenience, guided by no 
ethical principles, is substituted for justice, virtue and 
honor, it is the death knell of tlmt people and nation. Any 
one, no matter how learned, who argues, then, that because 
older races failed to perpetuate themselves on this conti- 
nent the Caucasian also must fall, reasons from a false 
premiss, and so also does he who by a leap goos from a 
limited fact to make a general deduction, without consider- 
ing for a moment the modifying circumstances, even 
though he only argued from one particular to another. 
It is all very well for some presumed scientific student to 
use n sophism and lay it down as an undeniable truth, hut 
it does not follow that it should he accepted without proof. 
An isolated fact here and there is not sufficient to establish 
its verity, for they may he the exceptions of the contrary, 
hence we assume that the arguments used by the ethnolo- 
gists who predict the early extirpation of the dominant 
rnce of this continent through low vital power, sybaritical 
tastes and the effect of climate, are unreliable and untrust- 
worthy, and founded more on speculation than positive 
facts deduced by laborious investigation. 
MISSIONARY WORK AMONG THE GUN- 
NERS. 
I T will gratify those who are recognized ns pioneers in 
Fish Culture and Game Preservation, to know that 
the great objects for which we are laboring have taken 
such hold of the public as to result in the organization, 
within the past twelve months, of probably not less than 
one hundred societies for the Protection of Fish and Game. 
We have not attempted to keep an exact record of the 
same, or obtain available statistics, hut have the names of 
seventy. These are included in 25 States aud the Provinces 
of Ontario and Nova Scotia, Canada, and are distributed 
as follows:— 
Maine 1, New Hampshire 1, Vermont 1, Massachusetts 
5, New York 10, New Jersey 2, Pennsylvania 10, Maryland 
1, Virginia 1, Illinois 9, Wisconsin 1, Michigan 3, Missouri 
4, Tennessee 2, Kentucky 2, Ohio 3, Minnesota 1, Georgia 
2, and the States of Indiana, Kansas, Nebraska, Colorado, 
Minnesota, Alabama, Mississippi and Florida, each 1, Nova 
Scotia 1, and Ontario 2. Among the rest are includel the 
State Sportsmens’ Associations which have been formed, or 
are in process of organization in Maine, Massachusetts, Mis- 
souri, Ohio, Illinois, Indiana, Wisconsin, Michigan, Ken- 
tucky, and Tennessee, as well as the Slate Fish Culturists’ 
Associations formed in Maryland and Illinois. 
These 100 societies represent a quota of 4,500 men, by 
no means an insignificant accession to the Grand Army of 
Protection, and sufficiently indicate the sense of the country 
upon the important questions involved. Moreover, they 
guarantee ultimate and complete success. The time is rot 
remote when game will he abundant in all those parts of 
the country not densely pupulated; fish will swarm in our 
waters; and the Close Seasons he respected like the Snb- 
batli of New England. The direct effect of the growing 
sentiment in favor of protection, and the respect for game 
laws and close seasons, is shown in the visible increase in 
the quaulity of game and fish within the past two years. 
No doubt a whoisome fear of punishment under prosecu- 
tion, inspired by the judicial decisions that have been ren- 
dered in those cases that have been tried, has contributed 
to the result; but the fact remains, that nearly all kinds of 
game, excepting woodcock, have not been so abundant for 
years as durinc the one just closed. The scarcity of wood- 
cock is accounted for by the severity of a freezing Spring 
season, and some persons deplore a speedy extinction of 
this delicate bird as quite probable. Nevertheless, we find 
that Nature, when not interfered with, invariably follows 
her laws of compensation and supplies a void in one place 
from a superabundance elsewhere; just as in England last 
December, when persistent hunting and stress of weather had 
nearly exterminated tho woodcock, a blast from Norway 
opportunely blown, drove great flocks of these birds from 
their northern breeding grounds into the depopulated dis- 
tricts. Just so we shall doubtless learn, in due course of 
season, that our woodcock have multiplied in some local- 
ities in proportion as they have decreased in others. 
Now, the creation of all these protective associations is 
good. The mere moral weight thereof is great, to say 
nothing of the direct effect of their active efforts. Their 
QrgauiziR.joa ought to he encouraged and promoted. They 
will constitute a valuable detective aud police force all 
over the country, to discover and prevent wrong doing; und 
their usefulness may be felt und exerted in other ways. 
Nevertheless, the mere organization of ever so many clubs 
can not of itself destroy the evils and secure the benefits 
which we strive for. Much preliminary work remains to 
he done before we can institute and perfect such compre- 
hensive laws as we require, and secure their unobstructed 
nnd effective operation. We need to persevere in prepar- 
ing the public mind to accept and approve a judicious 
system of game laws, such us the scientific aud best in- 
formed men of the country are now contemplating, and 
their enactment will come afterwards. We have much 
labor to perform in respect to adjusting interests that seem 
to clash; in determining and defining the rights and privi- 
leges of sportsmen, land owners, and vendors, and the con- 
stitutionality of laws to govern them; in removing preju- 
dices; in instructing the ignorant as to our object and aims, 
the economic value of game protection, and the necessity 
that requires the institution und observance of close 
seasons. We are to wrestle with the avarice and strategy 
of unscrupulous game dealers ; to correct morbid tastes 
and unnatural appetites, and lop off the pretensions 
of would-be epicures with much wealth nnd no brains, 
who would serve up peacock’s tongues and salmis of linnet 
wings to excite the admiration of envious guests. These 
must he taught that game out of season is not only unpal- 
atable and unhealthy, hut unfashionable. Nature has or- 
dained certain fruits and viands in their season, which, 
eaten out of season, lose their relish. The luxuries 
of the Summer senson lose half their zest if eaten in 
an arctic temperature. Stronger food is needed— car- 
bon, to keep up the latent fires that heat and invigor- 
ate the body. Unseasonable venison, grouse and trout arc 
as unsatisfying to the true epicure ns are the sour and 
vapied hot house peaches and strawberries of Winter; dry, 
tough, juiccless, and insipid then, hut most toothsome in 
the richness of their prime, nnd more appetizing for the ab- 
stinence that intervenes. 
A great missionary work lias to he done among the unlet- 
tered. Thus far we have operated only among the in- 
telligent. The great mass of those who shoot — the small 
farmers, bushrangers, and frontiersmen, (to say nothing of 
the negroes at the South, who all use guns,) have not the 
instincts of spoilsmen. They have no conception of the 
purport and value of close seasons, or the intent of restric- 
tive laws. They never see the papers, and cannot read. 
They do not recognize the laws of reproduction, or consider 
the source of supply. They kill does that are heavy, birds 
with tlieir broods, aud shoot indiscriminately at ull living 
objects. They regard protective clubs as iuvasivc and tl\e 
game laws as a tyrannical encroachment upon their inher- 
ent rights. 
Now, a very large proportion of these men are open to 
argument nnd conviction ; nnd could they he brought to 
comprehend the beneficent operation of these laws, they 
would acquiesce in their observance and enforcement. 
We have ascertained this by experiment, in several in- 
stances. It took years for the proprietors of the “Long 
Point" enterprise, on Lake Eric, to convert the prejudices 
of the native residents in the vicinity, but now they could 
desire no more earnest nnd efficient allies. Their profits 
in fur and feather have increased four fold. Upon such 
rough woodsmen, sturdy in their blows, hut honest in their 
nature, a good word or a good example often has great in- 
fluence, and we believe that nn appeal to their sober 
judgment and the dissemination of proper information 
among them would work wonders toward reform; and 
we would therefore suggest that judiciously prepared circu- 
liars he printed and disseminated throughout the country 
by the agency of the numerous sportsmens’ clubs and pro- 
tective societies, appealing to the farmers, murket hunters, 
and backwoodsmen, to protect and spare the game and fish 
in designated close seasons, setting forth in simple lan- 
guage the reasons therefor and the beuelicent advantages 
to accrue thereby. 
SOME STIR IN CHINA. 
T HE slumbering interest in the affairs of Chiua which 
followed the treaty of Tein Tsin, the extinction of 
the Tac-ping rebellion, and the embassy of Mr. Burlingame, 
has been re awakened by the announcement of the death 
of Tooug-Che, and the reported suicide of his youthful 
Empress. It must he a source of congratulation to Prince 
Kung and the Empress Dowager, who seem to have once 
more assumed the reins of government, that no foreign 
war, or great intern il strife occurs at this timo to harrass 
and fetter them. How different was the aspect of affairs 
when poor old Hein Fung returned from his temporary 
banishment on the Tartar frontier and breathed his last 
amid the ruins of his Summer palace of Yuea-min-Yuen, 
desecrated by the ’ ‘barbarian’’ victors, but beautiful even 
in its ruins. 
For incongruities and anomalous political situations, 
China, at that period, finds no parallel in the history of the 
world. Far away at the North, whero the muddy waters 
of the Pei-ho mingle with the clear waves of the Gulf of 
Petche-le. the guns of the ships of Britain and France were 
thundering at the Taku forts. The troops — red-legged 
enfant* perdu, scarlet-coated infantry, and the wild, irregu- 
lar squadrons of Fanes and Probyns Sikh cavalry — wore 
marching on Peking. At tho South, the routine of com- 
merce was unchanged, and to cap the climax of incongru- 
ity, at Shanghne the troops of their antagonists were pro- 
tecting the Imperialists from tho attacks of the Rebels. So 
