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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 re¬ 
cognized 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. 
SUBSCRIPTIONS: $3 a year; $1.50 for six months; 
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This paper may be obtained of newsdealers throughout 
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ter. 
THE OBJECT OF THIS JOURNAL 
will be to studiously promote a healthful interest 
in outdoor recreation, and to cultivate a refined 
taste for natural objects. 
—Forest and Stream, Aug. 14, 1873 
RESTOCKING THE COUNTRY WITH ELK. 
The United States possesses in Yellowstone 
Park a magnificent game reservation. The re¬ 
port of Lieutenant-Colonel Lloyd M. Brett, act¬ 
ing superintendent, just issued, contains a census 
of some of the wild game, and it is interesting 
to note that the last count of elk showed a total 
of 32,229, this exclusive of shipments of 738 
animals during the year. The increase in the 
elk herd is stated to be 2,866 over the number 
found in April, 1912. Lieutenant-Colonel Brett 
says officially that he can see no reason why 
from 500 to 1.000 elk cannot be spared from the 
Yellowstone herd each year, if desired. The 
shipment by carloads of these great animals to 
different points throughout the country may ap¬ 
pear impossible, but as a matter of fact the 
experiments of the past two years in capturing 
and forwarding them in this manner has proven 
successful, the losses incurred having been neg¬ 
ligible. What effect this distribution will have 
in regions which, up to this time, either have 
been without such game, or where the former 
supply has been exterminated, remains to be seen. 
But, with anything like ordinary care, the wild 
elk may again become a game animal. The 
shipments from Yellowstone Park have been con¬ 
signed to widely different places from the Pacific 
coast to Pennsylvania and West Virginia. Of 
course the demand for park specimens takes a 
few animals, but the greater number have been 
liberated under conditions where they will re¬ 
main in a wild state. 
The overflow of the Yellowstone herd into 
adjoining states also insures good hunting dur¬ 
ing the open season, although much of the ter¬ 
ritory immediately adjoining the Park has been 
FOREST AND STREAM 
set aside as game preserves by the states of 
Wyoming and Montana. The superintendent re¬ 
ports that the slaughter at some points around 
the Park at the close of the open season has 
not been repeated. It is also cheerful to record 
that the scandalous neglect of this magnificent 
animal, which prevailed in former years and 
which resulted in the starvation of thousands, 
is a thing of the past. Common sense methods 
of feeding render it an easy matter to bring 
these animals through the hardest winters with 
little loss, and a larger subsequent increase. 
OUR COVER DESIGN. 
The beautiful life size reproduction of a living- 
passenger pigeon—the last of the species left on 
earth—which forms part of Forest and Stream 
this week, may be called a sermon without words. 
The story of the passenger pigeon, although told 
and retold, never loses its interest; neither can 
the moral it conveys be evaded. For more than 
forty years this paper has preached game conser¬ 
vation. Through its efforts the sale of game has 
been stopped and market hunting has become al¬ 
most a lost calling. But reforms which this jour¬ 
nal has accomplished, in some cases single hand¬ 
ed, but mostly with the co-operation of a splen¬ 
did standard of American sportsmanship, will not 
be dwelt upon here. We prefer to speak of the 
present and the future. Let it be understood that 
Forest and Stream does not despair, either of 
conditions as they are now, or as they will be in 
years to come. There is still plenty of game, and 
with anything like common sense protection, 
there will be more next year, and even more in 
the years to follow. 
To the readers of this paper advice and admo¬ 
nition are alike superfluous. This generation has 
seen the evils of a policy which can be mildly 
described as destructive. Fortunately the lesson 
lias not been lost, for destruction has given way 
to constructive work and preservation. Nature 
is bountiful. Moderate takings of her gifts to 
man need not mean elimination or extermination. 
If moderation prevails, Forest and Stream feels 
pretty sure that its front cover design forty 
years hence will not be given up to a picture of 
the last surviving ruffed grouse, for instance, or 
that of any other species of present existing 
game, furred or feathered. 
INCREASED EFFICIENCY OF GUIDE 
SERVICE. 
The “gentle art of woodcraft,” as Frank 
Forester styled it, is rapidly lapsing into one of 
the lost arts in this country. The settlement of 
the country, the passing of the frontier, the les¬ 
sening of the numbers of pioneers and wilderness 
settlers, all these mean a smaller proportion of 
the population which by force of stern necessity 
learns the tricks and expedients of woodcraft. 
The town and the city still draw from the coun¬ 
try, but there are fewer men of this day than 
there were a half or even a quarter century ago 
whose youth was a schooling in the lore of field 
and wood; and there are fewer to whom, in ma¬ 
ture years, an outing means taking up once again 
February 7, 1914. 
the woodcraft acquired in boyhood days. The 
sportsman is all the time growing more depend¬ 
ent upon his guide. The guide's occupation is all 
the time, in corresponding degree, becoming more 
important and filling a larger place. It is a 
widening field which will enlist the men who, in 
the conditions of an earlier stage, would have 
been fur trappers or market hunters, or just 
backwoods dwellers. With the new importance 
of the work, we are likely to see an increased 
efficiency in the guide service, and a conventional 
recognition of the calling as one demanding abil¬ 
ity and training. 
THE ELK OF JACKSON’S HOLE. 
Forest and Stream presents this week a group 
of pictures (see page 175) of the elk herd at 
Jackson’s Hole, near Yellowstone Park. The 
scandal of elk starvation in past winters is not 
likely to be repeated again, since public sentiment 
and common sense legislation have resulted in at¬ 
tempts to feed the elk in winter. Forest and Stream 
does not wish to be accused of printing illustra¬ 
tions merely to harrow up the feelings of the 
reader, but what has happened in the past is not 
an impossibility in the future, unless careful at¬ 
tention is paid to looking after a game animal 
that, circumscribed by advancing occupation of 
the land, is unable to find food in winter. Now 
that the hardest part of the season is here, it is 
to be hoped that the elk of Jackson’s Hole and 
elsewhere will receive the humane treatment 
made possible by state or National appropria¬ 
tions. 
Once the elk wandered at will over a wilder¬ 
ness range, where conditions were perfect for 
their maturity; noble sires, the finest o'f their 
race, mingled with females that were always 
fat, watchful and alert. This gave to the young 
spirit and strength; the species was growing big¬ 
ger and stronger, but for years the elk have been 
fleeing before the steady advance of the settler, 
until upon the highest portion of the Continental 
Divide, hemmed in on all sides, they have made 
their last stand. Here upon the mountain 
heights man has reserved for the elk a home, 
and leaves him undisturbed, but as the fierce 
storms whirl the snow in blinding fury he must 
descend to the valley, and plead for mercy and 
food from the transgressors upon his old winter 
range. This he humbly does. With head bowed 
low, with dull and listless eye, with pride and 
spirit gone, he begs and accepts food from the 
hand of man, and staggers back to the mountain 
heights, the member of a smaller, weaker band. 
Dr. B. E. Fernow, dean of the forest school 
of the LTniversity of Toronto, and Bristow 
Adams, of the U. S. forest service, have just 
been elected president and secretary, respectively, 
of the society of American foresters, the only 
organization of professional foresters in the 
western hemisphere. 
There are several bands of the Persian fat¬ 
tailed sheep on the national forests of southern 
Utah. The large fat-tail sometimes weighs as 
much as forty pounds, and, like the hump on the 
camel, is a reserve supply of nourishment when 
food is lacking. 
