Sept. 14, 1912 
FOREST AND STREAM 
333 
ber of visitors annually. During the past year 
the total number of visitors to all these parks 
aggregated 224,000, compared to 198,606 during 
1910. There is every reason to believe that the 
number will be greatly increased during the pres¬ 
ent season, and in each coming season, especially 
during 1915, when the Panama-Pacific Interna¬ 
tional Exposition will be held in San Francisco. 
The various transcontinental roads will doubt¬ 
less provide a rate calculated to induce visitors 
to include a visit to the various national parks 
as well the exposition. These great national play 
and recreation grounds are the property of the 
people to be used for pleasure and play, but it 
has been felt that the great majority of the 
traveling public on pleasure bent have not known 
of the beauty and attractive features of the na¬ 
tional parks and monuments. It was to supply 
descriptive information relative to them that the 
Secretary of Interior caused illustrated pam¬ 
phlets of the various parks to be published for 
distribution to those interested. “See America 
first’’ is a growing belief among our traveling 
public, a doctrine that the Government is en¬ 
couraging by every means within its power. 
In addition to the national parks there are 
twenty-eight national monuments, which embrace 
historic landmarks, historic and prehistoric 
structures, and other objects of historic and 
scientific interest that have been set aside for 
the use and enjoyment of the public by execu¬ 
tive proclamation. These tracts embrace several 
million acres and include such natural landmarks 
as the Petrified Forest in Arizona, Lewis and 
Clark Cavern in Montana, Devil’s Tower in 
Wyoming, the Natural Bridges in Utah, and 
numerous other scientific and historic structures. 
The main distinction between a national park 
and a national forest is that while the latter is 
created primarily for the conservation of eco¬ 
nomic resources, the first is created for esthetic 
purposes and recreation uses. There are many 
notable natural wonders and scenic attractions 
in the national forests which might be segre¬ 
gated in national parks, care being taken to 
discriminate between lands valuable primarily for 
economic uses and those on which such use would 
be secondary. Where the need exists, however, 
for merely local recreation grounds, the forest 
service provides public camping grounds and 
issues special permits for summer camps, cabins, 
cottages and boat houses. Great care has been 
taken to see that adequate recreation facilities 
are provided for the public, and to prevent 
monopoly of the best places by a few persons 
who may endeavor to shut out many or levy 
tolls by holding exclusive privileges. The use 
of these pleasure grounds is free to the public, 
the Government being the guardian and care¬ 
taker for the people. 
It is estimated that half a million people 
enter the national forests annually for recrea¬ 
tion purposes, which includes hunting, fishing 
and boating. Probably owing to the attraction 
furnished by Pike’s Peak, the Colorado "forests 
• take the lead in popularity with 150000 visitors. 
California has over 100,000, of whom half are 
credited to the Angeles, covering the San Ber- 
nandino Mountains, which rise so attractively 
above the low lying and densely peopled Los 
Angeles plains. The Tahoe, Sierra and Sequoia 
national forests are also popular resorts for 
Californians as well as others. Arizona, Oregon, 
Idaho and Montana are other States in which 
recreation use of the forests are heavy. At 
present the national forests number 165 and em¬ 
brace approximately 160,000,000 acres, the total 
acreage having been diminished 20 per cent, dur¬ 
ing the present administration. 
It is not only for recreation purposes that 
the national forests and parks are valuable to 
the people, but to the sportsman and lover of 
wild life it is the opportunity offered to pre¬ 
serve and propagate the native game animals 
such as deer, elk, moose, antelope and all other 
kinds of wild life in the national reservations 
that adds to the attractive features offered by 
the Government. With a liberal support from 
the public, and an inclination on the part of the 
people to meet the Government half way, the 
millions of acres of public reservations may be 
made to serve the purpose of added pleasure and 
profit to the present and future generations. 
Woodducks in Missouri. 
Doniphan, Mo., Sept. 2. — Editor Forest and 
Stream: Will make after my return this week 
a long trip in the Upper Current River country 
of the Ozarks and will try and get many good 
pictures. The fishing up there is exceptionally 
good, and the scenery wild and attractive. Later 
I will be in the Sunken lands, where I will get 
plenty of interesting matter. Have already ma¬ 
terial from that country, but my pictures were 
not good. I want to get you several flocks of 
wild woodducks and also scenes of the greatest 
mallard country. 
There has been a splendid woodduck hatch¬ 
ing this year. They came through their nesting 
period during the big flood, and during a trip 
there through the overflow country I saw at least 
500 flocks of young woodducks and many young 
mergansers. J. B. Thompson. 
Wyoming Sage Grouse. 
Jelm, Wyoming, Sept. 2 .—Editor Forest and 
Stream: Sage chicken are very plentiful this 
year, but it was not till the other day that I 
had time to go after any. I can always fish, as 
the river is within twenty feet of my cabin door. 
Some time next week I intend going after some 
grouse. They are coming down now and are 
good eating. As you probably know, in this 
country when the grouse feed on the pine cones 
exclusively, they taste as if they had been cooked 
in turpentine. I suppose a sage chicken is a 
species of grouse. They differ from the prairie 
chicken in that they are larger and have a dis¬ 
tinct taste of sage. R. W. Rathborne, Jr. 
Archery Contests. 
G. Phillips Bryant was high man in the 
national championship in the archery contest held 
at Newton Centre on Sept. 7 with 94 hits for a 
total of 506. Henry B. Richardson, ex-national 
champion, was second with 85 hits for a total 
of 405. Burton P. Gray, of Newton Centre, 
president of the National Archery Association, 
was third. There were ninety-six arrows shot 
at 60 yards. The scores: 
G. P, Bryant . 
H. B. Richardson. 
B. P. Gray. 
Wallace Brvant . 
F. W. Wilder. 
H. W. Frentz. 
Mrs. E. W. Frentz. 
Miss F. M. Patrick. 
Miss M. A. Brownell. 
Mrs. B. P. Grav. 
Mrs. R. M. Clark. 
Hits. 
Total 
. 94 
566 
. 83 
495 
. 85 
389 
. 76 
352 
. 77 
351 
. 68 
310 
.. 71 
297 
. 61 
281 
. 74 
276 
.. 46 
178 
.. 43 
169 
Song of the Wild Geese. 
Written by Harry R. Peterson for the Old Farmer’s 1912 
Almanac. 
We love the whirl of the bitter gale, and the northern 
sleet and snow, 
Our flight can pierce the thickest fog, or the strongest 
winds that blow, 
For we are the masters of sea and sand, the lords of the 
land and sky. 
And we fear no bird nor beast nor man with our flying 
wedge on high. 
You can hear us call in the April dawn, or the chill of 
an autumn night, 
As we rest in the lee of a lonely dune, or swing in our 
rushing flight. 
Or see us pass like specks in the blue, while we circle a 
breakered shore, 
To light in a creek by the Southern Seas, or a bog in 
Labrador. 
No foe can live in our endless swamps, where we dwell 
by the Polar shed, 
Where the low-hung sun winds round and round, and the 
Bear is overhead, 
Where a quicksand waits for the fool who dares to enter 
our mis-hid fen. 
And we’re safe by a good three hundred leagues from 
the tiny cities of men. 
No land can keep us as its own, no climate’s bonds we 
feel; 
When the Northern sedges fade and chill, on wings as 
strong as steel, 
Past forests, coasts and bays we fly, to the South, we 
know not why, . 
But we fear no bird nor beast nor man with our flying 
wedge on high. 
Coyotes and Watermelons. 
Las Animas, Colo., Aug. 29 .—Editor Forest 
and Stream: Joe came in the other day and re¬ 
marked that the coyotes were eating the water¬ 
melons in the upper field. Now, Joe often makes 
statements seriously, the result of his conclu¬ 
sions that appeal to the humorous side of the 
rest of us. To our shouts of laughter he only 
replied with a smile and entered the discussion 
with us as to what animal was committing the 
havoc among our melons that we had all re¬ 
marked for some time. 
I thought it might be a badger, for although 
carnivorous they are very destructive, and one I 
had in captivity had really eaten grain. Sam 
thought it was a hawk or an eagle, and for the 
reason that a chicken will eat anything, we finally 
laid the depredations to some kind of a bird, 
although it was plain that the melons had been 
crushed instead of pecked. As'we followed Joe 
outdoors to take up with him the afternoon’s 
work, we stumbled over a dead coyote on the 
doorstep. This was the thief. Joe had shot him 
with a .22 while he was devouring a melon. His 
chops and head up to his eyes were wet 
with melon juice. He was a self-confessed 
culprit 
I have trapped and poisoned coyotes for 
thirty-five years, and in all that time no one 
lacking the proof and veracity which Joe fur¬ 
nished and embodied could have convinced me 
that a coyote would eat melons. 
A hard winter destroyed one-half our quail 
and meadow larks, but a favorable season has 
replenished the ranks, and quail are daily seen 
from the size of those just off the nest to almost 
full grown birds. 
The curlew that used to nest here in num¬ 
bers is seen no more until its return from the 
North late in the season. Game fowl of all kinds 
are decreasing in numbers, while each season 
brings us new song birds. F. T. Webber. 
