218 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
[Aug. 5, 1911. 
Published Weekly by .the 
Forest and Stream Publishing Company, 
127 Franklin Street, New York. 
George Bird Grinnell, President, 
Charles B. Reynolds, Secretary, 
Louis Dean Speir, Treasurer. 
CORRESPONDENCE. 
The Forest and Stream is the recognized medium of 
entertainment, instruction and information between Amer¬ 
ican sportsmen. The editors invite communications on 
the subjects to which its pages are devoted. Anonymous 
communications will not be regarded. The editors are 
not responsible for the views of correspondents. 
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ADVERTISEMENTS. 
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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. 
i.E • '* . '' 
THE STATUS OF THE TUNA. 
On the Pacific coast one of the sea fish to se¬ 
cure which the greatest efforts have been put 
forth is the tuna. Anglers from every civilized 
country have journeyed to Catalina, the little 
island off the Southern California coast, where 
the hills shelter the nearby waters from the pre¬ 
vailing winds, and make sea fishing a comfort¬ 
able pastime. From a little local fishing resort 
for the anglers of Los Angeles, Avalon has de¬ 
veloped into a fishing colony that pours a steady 
stream of gold into the coffers of the company 
that controls the village, the harbor, the cross¬ 
channel steamboats and the concessionaries who 
serve residents and visitors. There are other fish 
waiting to be caught, of course, but the fame of 
the resort was gained and is maintained through 
the giant tuna, coy and uncertain in its moods 
and wanderings. Here to-day, gone to-morrow, 
its very eccentricity has given it a status as a 
big-game fish only equalled by the salmon. 
The journey to Avalon, however, requires a 
liberal allowance of time and money, hence the 
interest with which the angling world has re¬ 
garded the efforts of a few pioneers to demon¬ 
strate the advantages of fishing for tuna in the 
Atlantic; efforts that, so far, have been rewarded 
in but meager fashion. The key to the situation 
on this coast has not as yet been found. Either 
the tuna here are too large for rod-and-line fish¬ 
ing or the waters frequented by them are not 
adapted to their pursuit in the usual way. The 
present season will no doubt witness efforts cal¬ 
culated to bring about a solution of the problem. 
In Australian waters tuna are more or less 
abundant, but with the plethora of sea fish fre¬ 
quenting those favored shores, it appears that 
the anglers are content with smaller fry, and 
that, so far at least, no club has offered blue 
buttons and red buttons and pink buttons for 
record fish taken on rods only the tip of which 
is required to be of standard weight, while the 
rest of the outfit may be gaspipe and unbreakable. 
The Sydney papers mention a consignment 
of 114 tuna averaging about thirty-five pounds 
per fish. Half of them only were sold, and 
these brought from twelve to fifty cents each. 
Whether they were taken in nets or with hand¬ 
lines is not mentioned, but the writer says that 
on the continent these fish are highly appreciated 
as food, and in California waters as a game fish. 
IMPROVED METHODS. 
The recent Fourth of July was so safe and 
sane that the statisticians claim the total for the 
United States shows only twenty-four killed and 
881 injured, compared with 131 killed and 2,729 
injured last year. The reformers, who claim 
much of the credit for this saving of life and 
limb, now propose to awaken sentiment against 
the promiscuous giving of presents at Christmas 
time. No doubt a great many persons would 
welcome a change in the methods followed by 
the world at large in the winter festival season, 
but few possess the courage to attempt to over¬ 
ride sentiment and custom. 
A far worthier subject on which the reform¬ 
ers might well expend their energies is the 
wholesale destruction of evergreens during De¬ 
cember, and the enormous waste involved in 
marketing them. Schooner loads and trainloads 
of ‘'Christmas trees” are rushed to the great 
centers weeks before the 25th of December, while 
other parcels, each small but in the aggregate im¬ 
portant in the reckoning of the total, are hawked 
about by small dealers who, so long as they 
make a profit, are not particular how their trees 
are obtained. While the large stocks are in part 
raised for market—and fulfill their mission—the 
demand is so exacting, the season so brief and 
the certainty of quick returns on time and money 
invested so alluring that ordinary honesty is 
often forgotten and men who would hesitate 
to commit petty thefts at other times become 
bold and despoil public and private property of 
anything that may be sold as “Christmas trees.” 
In the vicinity of every city the work of these 
vandals will be found. Here and there a tree 
is felled and its upper third cut out. Along 
county roads numbers of mutilated pines, cedars, 
hemlocks or spruces are seen by every passerby. 
The number taken depends on the supply and 
the remoteness of the place, for the tree gar- 
nerers do not wish to advertise their activities, 
and some of them work at night, at a time when 
comparatively few travelers are abroad, hence it 
is only by a careful survey that the extent of 
their depredations is known. 
It was not the work of large parties that swept 
the buffalo from the plains, hut the steady kill¬ 
ing by individuals armed with single-shot Sharps 
rifles—which, by the way, their mission fulfilled, 
followed the buffalo into oblivion and are now 
relics of the past. Even so, the work of the 
Christmas tree gatherer is steadily denuding hill¬ 
side and intervale, and even the little farms and 
woodlots which progressive owners try to pre¬ 
serve. 
It is against these petty depredations that re¬ 
forms may well be directed, for in the last 
analysis they are the Sharps rifles of to-day, the 
steady drain which is so important in the clear¬ 
ing away of the natural cover of stream heads 
and springs. The effects of this cutting are in 
part plainly evident in midsummer, when violent 
electrical storms overturn trees that have laughed 
at tornadoes for half a century. Little by little 
these veterans, which should be carefully pre¬ 
served, as old trees are in foreign countries, are 
isolated. Their protectors, the birds, are driven 
away, their insect enemies are left to work their 
will, and a sudden burst of wind brings an end 
to the chapter. 
The Christmas sentiment is one that binds 
families together with bonds that time and ab¬ 
sence cannot break, that strengthens friendships, 
and obliterates many of the obstacles against 
which all the people have stumbled for ages. 
But because certain customs are ancient and 
revered is not sufficient excuse to persist in prac¬ 
tices which are harmful to the economic welfare 
of the whole country; at least not when im¬ 
proved methods of substituting the market-grown 
evergreens for the wild ones are at hand and 
may well be followed. 
A late press dispatch from Los Angeles, Cal., 
records the arrival there on July 30 of the Amer¬ 
ican Museum of Natural History expedition to 
the Gulf of California on the U. S. S. Albatross, 
and the finding in the Gulf of a herd of sea 
elephants. It was in a cove on Guadaloupe 
Island, according to the dispatch, that three 
herds of the sea elephants were found. It is 
estimated that the largest herd comprised fifty 
individuals. Five young were taken alive, and 
the Albatross brought back the carcass of a large 
bull which was killed by the party. 
In the party, which was led by Dr. Charles 
H. Townsend, of the American Museum, were 
L. N. Tongue, of the Albatross; Dr. J. M. Rose, 
of Washington; Pingree L. Osbourne, of Pasa¬ 
dena, Cal., and Dr. Paul Bartch. 
r. 
Governor Foss of Massachusetts has appointed 
George H. Graham, of Springfield, a member of 
the State Commission on Fisheries and Game, to 
succeed John W. Delano, of Marion, whose term 
has expired. Mr. Graham's appointment has the 
approval of Western Massachusetts sportsmen 
and their clubs, for they have long been without 
representation in the commission, and he is known 
as an active worker. He is secretary of the 
Springfield Fish and Game Association, whose 
membership has increased from 200 to 800 during 
the two and a half years he has been one of its 
officers; and he assisted materially in forming the 
Lake Sunapee Fishing Association, whose 250 
members have improved the fishing through en¬ 
ergetic efforts. 
*5 
In the general appropriation bill, which has 
been approved by Governor Dix, the New York 
State Conservation Commission is allowed a total 
appropriation of $294,051. Of this sum $12,083 
is for salaries and expenses of the three com¬ 
missioners ; $55,750 for the expenses, of game 
protectors and fire wardens; $35,000 for the for¬ 
estry bureau; and $55,000 for the enforcement 
of forest fire laws. 
