596 
FOREST AND STREAM 
Nov. 9, 1912 
Published Weekly by the 
Forest and Stream Publishing Company, 
Charles Otis, President. 
W. G. Beecroft, Secretary. S. J. Gibson, Treasurer. 
127 Franklin Street, New York. 
CORRESPONDENCE — Forest and Stream 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. 
SHOOTING WITHOUT A GUN. 
Doubtless the highest test of sportsman¬ 
ship is the woodcraft which gives one that knowl¬ 
edge of the habits of game that enables him to 
find it under the various conditions of weather 
and seasons, and the ability to make the stealthy 
approach which shall bring him within range, 
without alarming the object of his pursuit. 
Without these qualities, partly inborn and 
partly acquired, there cannot be completely suc¬ 
cessful sportsmanship, however skilled one may 
be in the use of the gun, a skill that may be 
acquired in great measure by practice at the 
fixed and flying target. 
All the skill of woodcraft that goes to the 
making of the successful hunter with the gun 
must be possessed by him who hunts his game 
with the camera. 
His must be the stealthy, panther-like tread 
that breaks no twig nor rustles the fallen leaves. 
His the eye that reads at a glance the signs that 
to the ordinary sight are a blank or at most are 
an untranslatable enigma. His a patience that 
counts time as nothing when measured with the 
obj ect sought. 
When by the use and practice of these he 
has drawn within a closer range of his timid 
game than his brother of the gun need attain, 
he pulls trigger of a weapon that destroys not, 
but preserves its unharmed quarry in the very 
counterfeit of life and motion. 
The wild world is not made the poorer by 
one life for his shot, nor nature’s peace dis¬ 
turbed, nor her nicely adjusted balance jarred. 
He bears home his game, wearing still its 
pretty ways of life in the midst of its loved sur¬ 
roundings, the swaying hemlock bough where 
the grouse perched, the bending ferns about the 
deer’s couch, the dew-beaded sedges where the 
woodcock hops in the shadows of the alders, the 
lichened trunks and dim vistas of primeval 
woods, the sheen of voiceless waterfalls, the 
flash of sunlit waves that never break. 
His trophies the moth may not assail. His 
game touches a finer sense than the palate pos¬ 
sesses, satisfies a nobler appetite than the 
stomach’s craving, and furnishes forth a feast 
that, ever spread, ever invites, and never palls 
upon the taste. 
Moreover, this gentlest of sportsmen is ham¬ 
pered by no restriction of close time, nor con¬ 
fronted by penalties of trespass. All seasons 
are open for his bloodless forays, all woods and 
waters free to his harmless weapon. 
Neither is he trammeled by any nice distinc¬ 
tions as to what may or may not be considered 
game. 
Everything counts in his score. The eagle 
on his craggy perch, the high hole on his hollow 
tree are as legitimate game for him as the deer 
and grouse. 
All things beautiful and wild and picturesque 
are his, yet he kills them not, but makes them 
a living and enduring joy, to himself and all 
who behold them. 
OUR VERY GOOD FRIENDS. 
The annual meeting of the National Asso¬ 
ciation of Audubon Societies, held last week, 
may remind us again of the growing interest in 
bird protection. 
This interest, which for a time was founded 
on humanitarian sentiment, has of recent years 
come to have a far more substantial—an eco¬ 
nomic—basis. The Audubon Society, and all 
those that have made a special study of birds, 
know that they should be protected, not for sen¬ 
timental reasons, but because they are a most 
valuable asset of the country. They aid the 
farmer by destroying his worst enemies. They 
save him time, labor and expense, and besides 
this they increase his crops. 
The Agricultural Department is reported re¬ 
cently to have issued a statement that the annual 
injury to farmers of the United States by in¬ 
sect destruction to their crops is $420,000,000, and 
it may well enough be that this is an under¬ 
estimate. Readers who recall the interesting 
paper on the “Food of Bobwhite,’’ abstracted in 
Forest and Stream two or three years ago from 
the observations of Mrs. M. M. Nice, will re¬ 
member that a single bobwhite in one day may 
eat thousands of harmful insects. 
Because many people are careless observers, 
the work done by the birds is as wholly un¬ 
noticed as if it were done in secret. It is done 
nevertheless, and done continuously day after 
day throughout the year, and if it should stop, 
only for a brief time, this country would witness 
a panic greater than it has ever seen. 
These things are worth pondering. 
WAITING FOR COLD WEATHER. 
All through the month of October, field 
shooters along the Atlantic coast have had to 
struggle with difficulties. The weather has been 
so mild that he who set out faithfully to tramp 
the lots and hills after his dog suffered much 
from the heat. The leaves clung to the trees, 
green through much of the month, and only 
changed color toward its end as they matured; 
for there was little or no frost to paint them 
with the brilliant hues that we expect in early 
autumn. 
Reports from gunning resorts along the 
coast declare that as yet the wildfowl are few, 
and the great migration which follows the first 
touch of sharp cold weather in the North has 
hardly begun. Reports as to the numbers of 
upland birds tell of few prairie chickens and 
ruffed grouse, and of broods of quail that are 
still too small to shoot. So far, in the field, or 
on the water, there has been little to cheer the 
gunner. 
In certain portions of the East, November 
opened with a steady rain, which wrenched from 
the trees the leaves that still clung to them, and 
will make the shooting more open for the month, 
when brown woodcock are to be expected from 
the North, and after a short stay will pass on 
southward. 
In certain States, which have but a short 
open season—as for example Connecticut—the 
warm weather and the thick leaves have served 
to protect the few birds still found there. 
It will not be until after a few sharp frosts 
that any judgment can be made on the quality 
and quantity of the field shooting in these thick¬ 
ly populated States, where the gunners far out¬ 
number the birds. 
CHANGING BOUNDARIES OF NATIONAL 
FORESTS. 
President Taft has issued proclamations 
changing the boundaries of the Missoula and 
Madison National Forests, Montana. From the 
former 4,960 acres are eliminated, and from 
the latter 68,140 acres. These eliminations are 
the result of field examinations which the De¬ 
partment of Agriculture has been making in pur¬ 
suance of a general plan to correct the National 
Forest boundary lines. 
The areas eliminated from the Missoula 
National Forest are along the borders of the 
Flint Creek and Rock Creek exclusion of the 
Southern Division. They consist of small areas 
along the foothills chiefly valuable for grazing 
purposes. 
The greater part of the Madison elimination 
embraces what is locally known as the Lower 
Madison Basin and lies in two main bodies, one 
in Townships 9 and 10 S., R. 1 W., and the other 
in Townships 11, 12 and 13 S., Rgs. 1 and 2 E. 
Another rather large exclusion occurs in Town¬ 
ships 9 and 10 S., R. 4 W. The remaining areas 
are small tracts at various points along the bor¬ 
ders of the forest. Most of the lands excluded 
are grazing lands, although some areas in the 
Lower Madison Valley are susceptible of culti¬ 
vation. 
The public lands within the areas were by 
the same proclamation withdrawn for classifica¬ 
tion under the Act of June 25, 1910, to be re¬ 
stored to settlement and entry at the discretion 
of the Secretary of the Interior. 
The most ancient known work on fishing is 
said to be the “Haleutics of Oppian,’’ the work 
of a Greek poet A. D. 198, from which it is 
learned that many articles on fishing, thought to 
be modern, were known then; while from 
Atheneus it is learned that several writers wrote 
treatises or poems on fishing centuries before 
the Christian era. 
