432 
FOREST AND STREAM 
Oct. 4, 1913. 
Published Weekly by the 
Forest and Stream Publishing Company, 
Charles Otis, President. 
W. G. Beecroft, Secretary. W. J. Gallagher, Treasurer. 
127 Franklin Street, New York. 
CORRESPONDENCE — Forest and Strf.am is the 
recognized medium of entertainment, instruction and in¬ 
formation between American sportsmen. The editors 
invite communications on the subjects to which its pages 
are devoted, but, of course, are not responsible for the 
views of correspondents. Anonymous communications 
cannot be regarded. 
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THE OBJECT OF THIS JOURNAL 
will be to studiously promote a healthful in¬ 
terest in outdoor recreation, and to cultivate 
a refined taste for natural objects. 
—Forest and Stream, Aug. 14, 1873. 
HETCH HETCHY. 
With the entire Sierra range to select from, 
California politicians have grabbed the Yosemite 
National Park as a reservoir and water shed to 
supply the city of San Francisco with water. “A 
500-acre lake instead of a mosquito swamp” is 
the Californian term for the inundating of 
superb gorges, rugged walls and beautiful vege¬ 
tation, while Mr. Kahn, of California, refers to 
the Hetch Hetchy as a basin in one corner of 
the park, remote, inaccessible, mosquito-ridden 
and all to cover a conscience guilty of having 
taken from the people of the United States the 
best part of a great national park, a franchise 
estimated by the army board at $45,000,000 of 
electric power. To quote Robert Underwood 
Johnson: “California, it is asserted, has the 
greatest interest in preserving its wonderful 
scenery. This is a rank begging of the question. 
It ought to have, but has it shown it? Has the 
State done anything to protect the Calaveras 
trees, or Mount Lassen, or Mount Shasta, or 
the Humboldt county red woods? Mr. Raker 
properly appeals to Congress for these, but what 
has the State done? My first interest in con¬ 
servation, which began in 1889, was in seeing 
how the State had neglected the Yosemite Val¬ 
ley. Is that great scandal forgotten? Local 
control of national reserves always is likely to 
be inefficient. Nine men in ten would rather 
ignore the interests of a distant Government 
than “get into trouble” by opposing a neighbor. 
It is the United States, not California, that has 
saved most of her great scenery.” 
It is said that the public is not to be excluded 
from the northern half of the park. The plain 
fact is that if the city takes the Tuolumne and 
Hetch Hetchy, it must have the whole water¬ 
shed, the whole 500 square miles, to protect it¬ 
self. The necessary sanitary regulations will 
exclude the public from the free use of the 
park; such a restriction as the one in the bill 
that no refuse is to be deposited within 300 feet 
of a stream, for the park is a network of 
streams. Dr. Charles W. Eliot, in a letter re¬ 
cording his opposition to the scheme, says: “If 
the valley is turned into a lake used as a water 
supply of San Francisco, the public will have 
to be shut out from all the borders of the lake 
for health and pleasure uses.” 
In a word, take out of the bill the right 
to sell electric power, and the city will withdraw 
the measure at once. It is a plain case of steal¬ 
ing what John Muir calls “one of the greatest 
wonders of the world,” and every effort should 
be made to prevent the robbery. 
THRIVING GAME. 
Elsewhere in this issue we print reports 
from game commissioners and wardens, and in¬ 
cidentally we may mention that Forest and 
Stream is the only sportsman’s publication that 
ever has collected and published so complete an 
inventory. Two facts in this resume stand out 
most prominently. First, that of all the reports 
published every State with exception of Michi¬ 
gan reports conditions better than last year; in 
most cases considerably better. Second, that as 
compared with conditions last year the conser¬ 
vation and propagation have been marvelously 
successful. Last year’s reports showed a num¬ 
ber of States wherein game increase seemed 
hopeless. This year the mourning border on 
the reports has given way to a red fringe of 
cheerfulness and hope. Game commissioners, 
wardens and deputy wardens are entitled to a' 
great measure of credit for the present flourish¬ 
ing conditions. The prospect of a day’s bag 
seems likely ad infinitum. 
HATS IVITHOUT FEATHERS. 
The mortally wounded feather trust has re¬ 
ceived another vital thrust, this time from a 
source that will, to an extent, kill the sale of 
feathers already in storage. M. Poiret, the fam¬ 
ous French costume designer, best known in this 
country through his invention of the slit skirt 
for hose exposition and his ability to make our 
fine, wholesome American woman resemble a 
French pancake, a Chinese laundryman or an 
inverted lamp shade, announces that he never 
uses feathers in women’s hat decoration. As 
the great are followed by the lesser, so will the 
American milliner, with the French name, let 
this year’s hats go unfeathered, and so the 
rosette and doodad will destroy the feather 
trusts’ profits. Selah! 
POTATO BUGS. 
It is stated that a Boston professor recently 
put a soft-shelled potato bug larva into carbolic 
acid for three days, and then boxed it up and 
sent it to Europe for a zoological specimen. 
Nothing daunted by the fifteen days’ journey 
under such discouraging circumstances, when it 
reached the old country the bug was found able 
to eat potato vines as cheerfully as ever. What 
would a hard shell bug not have done? 
WEAK KNEES. 
It is never difficult to find persons willing 
to tell in a vague, general way of game and fish 
law violations, but when it comes to actually 
giving the proper official definite information 
for his guidance, that is found to be quite an¬ 
other thing. Most men who pay any attention 
to game and game seasons, and who see the 
birds killed out of season, are quite content to 
write a complaint about it to a local or distant 
paper to set up a wail over the evils of the 
times, and to suggest that “something ought to 
be done about it.” But these same men will not 
themselves do the first thing to help the game 
warden detect and punish the offenders. There 
is an unaccountable hesitation to assume any per¬ 
sonal responsibility in the matter. The men who 
often talk the loudest about the wisdom of game 
laws and the enormity of the poacher's offense 
are the very last to give active assistance to the 
execution of the law. All game officials can 
testify to the truth of this. We are in receipt 
of constant complaints made by wardens and 
constables that they are left in the lurch by 
weak-kneed informers, who back out before any¬ 
thing can be accomplished. Thus it is that we 
find ourselves in the position of having to apolo¬ 
gize to the New York State Conservation Com¬ 
mission, and to the game warden at Hillsdale, 
N. Y., for a letter published in our issue of 
July 19. Our correspondent, in whom we al¬ 
ways have had confidence, is unable to verify 
his complaint, explaining that he “heard two men 
on the train talking about it.” 
Every man—no matter whether he be a 
sportsman or not—owes it to the community of 
which he is a member to give prompt informa¬ 
tion of game law violations and to render the 
officials such aid as may be within his power. 
By and by this simple principle will be under¬ 
stood better than it is now, and then the game 
and fish destroyers will not have things all their 
own way, but he should have facts when called 
upon to produce them. 
JOHN H. WALLACE, IR.. GOVERNOR. 
If all things go as indicated at the next 
election in Alabama, Hon. John H. Wallace, Jr., 
the present State game and fish commissioner, will 
become Governor of Alabama. Mr. Wallace has 
been indefatigable in his efforts in game bird 
protection, not only in his own, but in other 
States. His hand was visible in the passage 
of the migratory bird bill, and in connection 
with the prohibition of the importation of bird 
feathers. As Governor, Col. Wallace undoubt¬ 
edly would conserve other resources of the 
State, and, we should say, make an ideal Gover¬ 
nor. We hope our friends in Alabama will sup¬ 
port Col. Wallace. 
A DISAPPOINTMENT. 
Owing to activities of our advertising man¬ 
ager in the way of space increase at the last 
minute we are obliged to omit from this issue 
“The Flight of the Little Gray Coots,” by Frank 
L. Bailey. This rattling duck story will appear 
in the next issue. 
Two million trees will be planted on the 
National forests in Utah, Nev.. and Southern 
Idaho during 1914. 
