684 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
[Nov. 4, igii 
Published Weekly by the 
Forest and Stream Publishing Company, 
127 Franklin Street, New York. 
Edward C. Locke, President, 
Charles B. Reynolds, Secretary, 
S. J. Gibson, 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. 
SUBSCRIPTIONS. 
Terms: $3.00 a year; $1.50 for six months. Single copies, 
10 cents. Canadian subscriptions, $4.00 a year; $2.00 for 
six months. Foreign subscriptions, $4.50 a year; $2.25 for 
six months. Subscriptions may begin at any time. 
Remit by express money-order, registered letter, money- 
order or draft, payable to the Forest and Stream Pub¬ 
lishing Company. 
The paper may be obtained of newsdealers throughout 
the United States, Canada and Great Britain. Foreign 
Subscription and Sales Agents—London: Davies & Co., 
1 Finch Lane; Sampson, Low & Co. Paris: Brentano’s. 
ADVERTISEMENTS. 
Inside pages, 20 cents per agate line ($2.80 per inch!. 
There are 14 agate lines to an inch. Preferred positions, 
25 per cent, extra. Special rates for back cover in two 
or more colors. Reading notices, 75 cents per count line. 
A discount of 5 per cent, is allowed on an advertise¬ 
ment inserted 13 times in one year; 10 per cent, on 26, 
and 20 per cent, on 52 insertions respectively. 
Advertisements should be received by Saturday pre¬ 
vious to the issue in which they are to be inserted. 
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. 
AN AUTUMN DAY. 
For twenty days the frosts and the rather 
heavy rains have played sad havoc with nature’s 
summer raiment, but each of these elements has 
treated the fragments tenderly, and while de¬ 
stroying a part, has left much to gladden the 
heart of man. There are luscious nuts hidden 
away beneath the moist leaves in the woodlots, 
grapes exposed to view in the thickets, glossy red 
apples along every roadside, and, in the South¬ 
land, persimmons and pawpaws that grow sweeter 
with each touch of the frost. 
The maples have for a fortnight vied one with 
the other in their show of colors, red, orange 
and brown; and are now stripped to bare poles 
for the long contest with winter’s winds. The 
oaks deposit rustling thousands of serrated leaves 
upon the paths, some brown and sear, some green 
and red, all fragrant, the carpet of all carpets the 
sportsman loves best. Their less showy cousins 
of the hillside thickets rain showers of crisp 
leaves upon the gunner and his hard-working 
dog, and are the pickets of the ruffed grouse 
working in the old orchards hard by, warning 
them of the coming of the enemy. 
As one plods along the country roads, the 
rustle of the leaves under foot disturbs the gray 
squirrel in his search for fallen nuts, but only 
to eyes trained in woodcraft will his swift run 
to safety in the home tree be observed. See how 
craftily he leaps across the open, to disappear 
round the nearest tree trunk. For another view 
of the rascal do not scan that treetop, but step 
aside and look beyond, to see him scampering 
away in a bee line, thinking the tree has covered 
his retreat. Now he moves more slowly, yield¬ 
ing perhaps to an impulse to examine again a 
nut cache along the way, the while he fancies 
the enemy is searching for him among the top¬ 
most branches. Move along the roadway, how¬ 
ever, and away he goes, nor hesitates again ere 
the home tree is gained. 
Beneath the hickories in the deep woods the 
red squirrels work diligently, nor drop the nuts 
they have garnered when surprised by the way¬ 
farer. Up the nearest tree one scampers, nut 
clasped tightly in mouth, to that aerial pathway 
leading by devious ways to the favorite hemlock 
and home. 
Crows glide silently through the woods aisles, 
to gather in twos and threes in open fields and 
along stone walls, there to discuss in crow fash¬ 
ion, the important events of the day. Jays poke 
about the old cherry trees, investigating weather 
cracks and decayed places, now and then prying 
at something hidden there, to abandon the at¬ 
tempt and scurry away, scolding. Robins stream 
along old fence rows and orchards, twittering 
contentedly over their full stomachs. Sleek chip¬ 
munks dodge in and out of rail fences or sit, 
sunning themselves, on dead stubs of which, at 
fifty feet distance, they seem a part. 
The brooks, running full, babble noisily over 
the stones and leaf drifts, their waters tinged 
with brown, hurrying down to rest in tranquil 
ponds in which every tree and branch is mirrored 
in the still, frosty air. 
On the marshes the snap, snap of smokeless 
powder tells of many an eager gunner tucked 
away amid the cattails and the wild rice, while 
nearby decoys bob and curtsy to every wave¬ 
let, and strain at their puny moorings in the ris¬ 
ing tide. Now and then a black duck whistles 
past the hordes of grackles, to disappear behind 
the wall of flags. The sun is swallowed up in 
a gray blanket, red tinged at the edges, the chill 
night wind carries to the belated wayfarer the 
regular click of rowlocks, lights twinkle here and 
there, and another glorious autumn day is but a 
memory. 
FATHER OF THE YELLOWSTONE PARK. 
Two weeks ago N. P. Langford, the father of 
the Yellowstone National Park, died at his home 
in St. Paul, Minn. He had lived a long and 
useful life. His memory is cherished by a host 
of friends, and the American public will long 
hold him in grateful remembrance as the one 
who, more than any other single person, is re¬ 
sponsible for the establishment of America’s 
greatest and most wonderful public piayground, 
the Yellowstone National Park. 
Mr. Langford was born at Westmoreland, 
N. Y., in 1832. He went to St. Paul in 1854, 
and a few years later started west for the gold 
fields, but turned back. He was appointed col¬ 
lector of interval revenue'in 1864, served to No¬ 
vember, 1868, and was appointed Governor of 
Montana in 1869. He was an active member of 
the Montana Vigilantes, and was one of the 
Washburn party that discovered the Yellowstone 
Park geysers in 1870. From that time on Mr. 
Langford by voice and pen described the attrac¬ 
tions of that wonderful region, and his earnest¬ 
ness and enthusiasm so aroused public sentiment 
that in 1872 Congress set aside the Yellowstone 
Park as a National reserve. He was its first 
superintendent—from 1872 to 1877—giving his 
services without pay. From 1872 to 1884 he was 
a national bank examiner for the Pacific coast. 
Mr. Langford's later life was passed in St. 
Paul, where he was constantly at work as a 
member of the Ramsey county board of control, 
serving his city until his death. He was presi¬ 
dent of the Minnesota Historical Society from 
1905 until death. 
Mr. Langford wielded a facile pen. He wrote 
many magazine articles, a two volume work on 
the Vigilantes of Montana and printed, un¬ 
changed, the diary which he kept on that mem¬ 
orable trip which led to the establishment of the 
National park. He had contributed many arti¬ 
cles to Forest and Stream. A man of great 
personal charm, of superabundant energy, and 
of splendid courage, Mr. Langford made many 
friends and lost none that he valued. Absolute'y 
devoted to principle, he fought unweariedly for 
the right without ever a thought of yielding. 
A paragraph taken from a statement issued by 
the board of control well expresses some of his 
characteristics: 
Mr. Langford was indeed a remarkable man. Rarely 
is met a combination in one individual of such great 
powers of mind, such an elevation of character, such 
unaffected modesty, such dauntless courage, such pure 
benevolence, such unfailing courtesy, such sweeetness 
of temper and grace of manners, such keen wit and 
such profound wisdom. 
In view of the life he led it seems hardly 
necessary to say that Mr. Langford was an out¬ 
door man. Hunter, angler, mountain climber 
and explorer, he did all these things well, and 
told of them well. To few men is it given to 
live so long a life, and one so full of remark¬ 
able achievements and so useful to his fellows. 
The deer season in New York State, just 
closed, was a very satisfactory one, and large 
numbers of sportsmen returned home well pleased 
with their vacation, and bearing with them a 
little venison for distribution among near friends. 
The season was marked by the number of deer 
taken from nearby counties, notably Orange and 
Sullivan, where a steady increase is becoming 
more apparent every year. On the other hand, 
reports of hounding have come from some of 
the remote sections of the Adirondacks, and sev¬ 
eral persons lost life or limb through the crimi¬ 
nal carelessness of untrained hunters. The total, 
however, seems not to be above the average. 
Calbraith P. Rogers, who is flying toward the 
Pacific, and who has already flown much further 
than any other aviator, has an eye for the beau¬ 
tiful and the interesting in nature. Though he 
admits that the sage brush and the mesquite, and 
the rugged mountain ranges strike terror into the 
birdman’s heart whenever engine troubles de¬ 
velop, he has found time to watch the effect on 
wild life of the noisy motor. Deer, rabbits and 
coyotes have fled before him, but he asserts that 
a great eagle flew along far beneath him for 
several miles before it turned back to its accus¬ 
tomed haunts. 
* 
Newfoundland has suffered a severe loss 
through the death of A. J. W. McNeily, head of 
the Fish and Game Commission. With his legal 
training and his intimate knowledge of the con¬ 
ditions affecting the game and fish of the island, 
he was well qualified to lead the movement which 
has resulted in excellent reforms. 
