80 
FOREST AND STREAM 
Jan. 17, 1914. 
Published Weekly by the 
Forest and Stream Publishing Company 
Chas. A. Hazen, President 
W. G. Beecroft, Secretary. Charles L. Wise, Treasurer. 
22 Thames Street, New York. 
CORRESPONDENCE:— Forest and Stream is the 
recognized medium of entertainment, instruction and informa¬ 
tion between American sportsmen. The editors invite com¬ 
munications on the subjects co which its pages are devoted, but, 
of course, are not responsible for the views of correspondents. 
Anonymous communications cannot be regarded. 
SUBSCRIPTIONS $3 a year; §1.50 for six months; 
10 cts. a copy. Canadian, §4 a year; foreign, $4.50 a year. 
This paper may be obtained of newsdealers throughout the 
United States, Canada and Great Britain. Foreign Subscrip¬ 
tion and Sales Agents—London: Davies & Co., 1 Finch Lane; 
Sampson, Low & Co. Paris: Brentano’s. 
Entered in New York Post Office as Second class matter. 
THE RABBITSKIN BLANKET. 
NE of our contributors mentioned last week 
something about a rabbitskin blanket as 
a protection against cold. He preferred 
eiderdown to rabbit, but how many city sports¬ 
men have seen or used either? The rabbitskin 
blanket is peculiarly a Northern product. It is 
popular from tiie Height of Land to Hudson 
Bay, and hundreds are being used today 
in trapping camps and Indian winter tepees 
over the Canadian wilderness. The method of 
manufacture is to weave strips of rabbitskin 
(white at this season of the year) into a criss¬ 
cross blanket of varying dimensions and thick¬ 
ness. The Indian women around the headwaters 
of the Ottawa and northward are adepts in 
blanket making, but only a few come to market 
through the medium of the Hudson Bay 
Posts. We do not recall that these blankets have 
been shown at any of the Sportsmen’s Shows. 
It is only the man who fares far into the north¬ 
ern wilderness who has had the opportunity of 
seeing or using the most comfortable protection 
against cold that the ingenuity of the original 
inhabitants of this country have been able to pro¬ 
duce. — 
THE HABITANTS “PARTRIDGE DOG.” 
The term “bird dog” does not mean the same 
to all people. Everybody who has gotten any 
distance from the railroad, particularly in 
■Canada, is familiar with the habitant’s “partridge 
dog.” As a rule he is of spaniel type, and hunts 
t>y scent alone. With marvellous instinct he picks 
up the trail of the partridge in the woods and 
follows it like a bloodhound, ignoring cross 
■scents, and other confusing detail. Once he 
locates the startled partridge, the end is in sight. 
His yelps and barks drive the bird into a tree, 
while his master, falling over logs, plunging 
through brush and other obstructions, hastens to 
the scene and by means of shotgun or rifle does 
the rest, for the partridge, alarmed by the dog’s 
noise pays no attention to anything else, and falls 
a victim to his own fear or curiosity. 
Sometimes the hunter, swearing and puffing 
through the bush in mad haste, trips and falls 
and accidentally shoots the dog. More in¬ 
frequently he sprinkles himself full of shot, but 
as a rule he pursues his calling unhampered of 
law and unpunctured of lead. Brush shooting 
to the educated sportsman means team work as 
between man and the highest development of 
canine intelligence. To the citizen with the “part¬ 
ridge dog”.it means an afternoon’s work in get¬ 
ting meat for the pot. One cannot but admire 
the wrongly developed versatility of the “part¬ 
ridge dog,” though regret may be expressed that* 
he did not have a better bringing up. 
A PROPHECY—AND THE RESULT. 
Frank Forrester, writing sixty-six years ago, 
professed himself discouraged over the prospect 
of the maintenance of American wild game. We 
publish, on another page this week, the introduc¬ 
tory chapter of one of his famous editions, well 
worth while reading. In a number of instances 
his prophecies have been wide of mark, but in 
others, his forecasts are startlingly accurate. 
Conditions have changed much since Forrester 
wrote, but it is due to him and other men like 
him in succeeding years that any game remains 
to-day. Market hunting has been stopped; the 
game hog has been suppressed or exterminated, 
and the mantle of protection has been thrown 
over the remaining remnant of our wild fauna. 
The good work which men like Forrester started 
nearly three-quarters of a century ago should go 
on. If it does not, every line he wrote then may 
be repeated now with emphasis. 
A LETTER FROM THE OLD CHIEF. 
Among the kindly season’s greetings which 
came to Forest and Stream from many of its 
old readers is one from Charles Hallock, founder 
of this paper, who wrote, among other things: 
“The New Year opens with my best wishes for 
your continued success, and more life to the old 
Forest and Stream. Mr. Hallock, who is now in 
his eightieth year, is residing in Washington, D. 
C., and in spite of his advanced age, takes a vig¬ 
orous interest in current events, particularly those 
concerning the outdoor world. Mr. Hallock adds 
that “his eyesight is closing on the page of life,” 
but this, his many friends will be glad to know, 
is metaphorical, rather than actually the case. The 
results that have crowned the life of a man like 
Charles Hallock should be an inspiration to 
younger Brothers of the Angle to continue the 
fight he began so many years ago for the perpet¬ 
uation of our fish and game species. Nearing the 
end of his distinguished and honorable career, the 
founder of Forest and Stream must feel the satis¬ 
faction that comes to men who have worked for 
the good of humanity, who have labored long 
without ceasing that the life of coming genera¬ 
tions shall be more pleasant, healthful and fuller 
of joy. While a little belated, Forest and 
Stream is sure that hundreds of its old readers 
who showed their appreciation of Mr. Hallock’s 
efforts by becoming subscribers to this paper 
when it was started, and thousands of newer 
readers, to whom he is known by reputation, will 
join in wishing Mr. Hallock all the blessings of 
the coming year. 
THE COURAGE OF INCONSISTENCY. 
Boston, Mass., Dec. 31, 1913. — Editor Forest 
and Stream: Some of my good friends are glee¬ 
fully pointing out that, in my “Way of the 
Woods,” I give instructions for the use of steel- 
traps, which looks odd, in view of my late sav¬ 
age attack upon them. Granted, but in that very 
book may be seen the beginnings of my regenera¬ 
tion, for on page 378 I point out the fact that 
traps used by the aborigines were “almost exclu¬ 
sively such as resulted in the immediate death of 
the victim, and thus humane in character. It 
was reserved for ‘civilized’ man to invent the 
steel-trap, which often tortures its victim until 
death ensues after long agony.” Since that edi¬ 
tion I have trapped a little, with the avowed pur¬ 
pose of testing the cruelty of steel-traps, and year 
by year I grew to feel as I now do, that they 
should be prohibited by law. At the same time 
I hesitate to interfere with the poor trapper, for 
he is doing nothing illegal and must earn his 
bread. Make his trade illegal and he will turn 
to something else. We, the lawmakers, are at 
fault. If my good friends please, I am a re¬ 
formed savage. John B. Gough was a drunkard, 
Gladstone was a Conservative, etc., etc.—until 
they saw the error of their ways. He who hesi¬ 
tates to acknowledge that he has been wrong is 
not possessed of much courage. I feel that 
Forest and Stream is doing a good work in back¬ 
ing this humane movement against the steel-trap, 
and I predict that in a few years its use will be 
looked upon with still more horror than shooting 
at live pigeons. Edward Breck. 
GOOD WORK IN GAME PROTECTION. 
The levying of a $20,000 penalty on the 
Franco-American Poultry Company and August 
Silz, its president, by the New York Conserva¬ 
tion Commission for the illegal sale of thousands 
of ducks, directs attention to the unique work 
that is being accomplished by the American Game 
Protective Association, through its force of spe¬ 
cial agents. 
The Silz case was worked up by Mr. Delmar 
C. Speenburgh, one of the Association’s agents. 
The case was pursued by Mr. Speenburgh with 
the most unremitting energy and perseverance, 
and its completely successful outcome stamps him 
more than ever as an uncompromising enemy of 
violators of our game laws. 
The original information in this case was 
obtained by the United States Bureau of Bio¬ 
logical Survey and Mr. Speenburgh took up the 
work with great enthusiasm. He found that 
Silz, under the guise of conducting a farm for 
breeding wild ducks, was importing native wild 
ducks from Virginia. These birds had been 
netted by the thousands in that state. They were 
brought to the Silz farm at Goshen, N. Y„ where 
they were immediately killed and put upon the 
market. In some instances, Silz did not even 
go through the formality of taking the birds to 
the farm. It is needless to say that this case 
will have a splendid moral effect on any -others 
who may have been disposed to break the law. 
It is less than a year now since Mr. Speen¬ 
burgh and Mr. Farnham, another ag'ent of the 
American Game Protective Association, succeed¬ 
ed in running to earth Chauncey Burdick, who 
had been a thorn in the side of the Massachusetts 
Conservation Commission for many years. He 
was destroying game illegally in large quantities, 
and he was a man of desperate character. The 
association’s agents took their lives in their hands 
in this case, but were completely successful, and 
Burdick was given fifteen months in the peni¬ 
tentiary. 
In still another recent case, in Vermont, 
Speenburgh and Farnham succeeded in securing 
a heavy penalty for a widespread infraction of 
the fish protective laws, and in Delaware, the 
warden force of that state was organized under 
their supervision with most excellent results. 
A civil service examination was established, and 
the new wardens appointed under this were taken 
out into the field by the Association’s agents, and 
given practical instruction in their work. This 
resulted in more arrests within six weeks than 
had been made during the previous twelve months. 
"FOREST AND STREAM” IN THE LEAD. 
According to the compilation of December 
magazine advertising, published in Printer’s Ink 
of January 8th, Forest and Stream leads all out¬ 
door publications, the record by agate line meas¬ 
urement having been as follows: 
Lines. 
Forest and Stream .13,690 
Outing . 8.059 
Field and Stream. 5,551 
Outer’s Book . 5,040 
Outdoor World and Recreation. 4490 
The popularity of Forest and Stream as an 
advertising medium is traceable to its effective¬ 
ness in producing results for its patrons. 
A pound of effort rightly directly in adver- 
ing accomplishes more than a ton of pressure 
distributed in a number of different directions. 
