FOREST AND STREAM 
120 
A JOURNAL OF OUTDOOR LIFE'. 
Travel nature study shooting fishing yachting 
Published Weekly by the 
Forest and Stream Publishing Company 
Chas. A. Hazen, President Charles L. Wise, Treasurer 
W. G. Beecroft, Secretary Russell A. Lewis, Gen. Mgr. 
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; 
10 cents a copy. Canadian, $4 a year; foreign, $4.50 a year. 
This paper may be obtained of newsdealers throughout 
the United States, Canada and Great Britain. Foreign 
Subscriptions and Sales Agents—London: Davies & Co., 
I Finch Lane; Sampson, Low & Co. Paris: Brentano’s. 
Entered in New York Post Office as Second class matter. 
THE PATHFINDERS. 
The modern adventurer into the wilds, toiling 
day after day on the portage and through lakes 
and rivers that seem to echo solitude and prime¬ 
val environment, reaches what to him is the pin¬ 
nacle of achievement when he can throw down 
his pack and say to himself. “No white man has 
■been here before me.” Sometimes he is right, 
but more often in a relative sense only. The 
wilderness is still vast. The temporary opening 
of its doors is followed by as quick closing in, 
and the trail which one man follows beyond the 
pale of civilization will remain mayhap for years 
a pathway pressed by no other feet. 
But where can modern man go into territory 
that has not been previously covered by bis prede¬ 
cessor? Locally there are thousands of spots 
which have not been mapped, or for that matter, 
visited by earlier explorers, but in a general sense 
the North American continent has been traversed 
in almost every grand division for periods run¬ 
ning back 300 years. 
Take down your map of North America, you 
who dream of conquests as an explorer, and you, 
who with milder ambitions, long but for good 
fishing and hunting regions, and the solitude un¬ 
der the stars where civilization, or even semi- 
civilization, has not reached. Of course, it is a 
familiar matter of history that Champlain got at 
least as far as Nipissing, and perhaps to Geor¬ 
gian Bay, in 1613. Du Lhut visited the north 
shore of Lake Superior in 1678, while that strange 
pair of adventurers, Chouart and Radissor,, 
reached the present site of the city of Duluth in 
1659. Lake Abitibi, in Canada, the starting point, 
now that the Transcontinental is reaching across 
the continent of the far north, for trips to Hud¬ 
son Bay, was the site of a French fort in 1680. 
Bureaux wandered all through the country form¬ 
ing the headwaters of the Ottawa, St. Maurice 
and Gatineau in 1651, while Father De Quen in 
1647 was on the north shore of Lake St. John, 
famous now for its Ouananiche fishing. Lake 
Mistassini, half mythical even to our present day 
generation of woodsmen, was the site of a fort 
in 1708. 
When we go further west, the same early rec¬ 
ords of exploration are available. The whole 
Northwest territory in Canada, reaching clear tc 
the Arctic Ocean, was mapped, and more than 
that, dotted by Hudson Bay forts as early as 
1796, and the great rivers and lakes of that vast 
region were as well known as Hudson Bay, on 
which forts had been established (Ft. Albany) in 
1683. Verendrye beheld the Rocky Mountains 
as early as 1738—a sight that no man before him 
had gazed upon. 
Where ship navigation is possible, it is not 
strange that the coast of a country may be 
reached, but 'think of the voyageuers who wan¬ 
dered over the almost illimitable stretch of coun¬ 
try from the Great Lakes to the Pacific Ocean, 
and north to the Arctic, a century and even a 
century and a half ago. 
But let not these facts take away the glory 
and the pleasure of him who to-day longs tc 
penetrate beyond the firing line of civilization, 
and who finds himself, after toil and trouble, ir. 
places rarely if ever previously visited. The 
wilderness is the same—nothing has spoiled it; 
its difficulties may not be as great as in the days 
of the past, its dangers are less, and—this is the 
principal thing—its pleasures are still as keen 
and its rewards to those who seek out hidden 
places more enjoyable than ever, for behind the 
to-day voyageuer lies home and comfort, infi¬ 
nitely superior to anything that coureur du bois, 
and perhaps even the gentleman adventurers of 
the early French and English regime, could 
hope for. 
A NEW DRAIN ON WILD LIFE. 
Adirondack conditions as outlined in another 
column by an old and valued correspondent are 
such as to demand the serious attention of game 
law authorities, particularly since the same situa¬ 
tion no doubt prevails in hitherto almost virgin 
localities in other states. Our correspondent 
points out that the automobile and motor cycle 
have thrown open to daily fishing, and made 
accessible, regions on which the drain until re¬ 
cently was confined to a very few weeks in the 
year. He cites that there are ten times as many 
fishermen now as formerly on Fulton Chain 
waters, and even remote sections can be visited 
for week-end fishing by anybody possessing either 
an automobile or motor cycle. 
Now the owners of either of these modes of 
conveyance have the same right to fish and hunt 
legally as any other citizen, and it would be im¬ 
possible to stop them even if public sentiment 
favored such a plan—which, needless to say, it 
does not. The point is that the more fishermen 
and hunters, the less game, unless the state steps 
in and keeps up the supply. It will have to do 
that or the famous fishing waters and hunting 
grounds of the Adirondacks will be ruined 
The state will also be forced to do another thing 
—it will have to increase the number of game 
wardens to enforce stricter supervision, and pre¬ 
vent violations of the law. 
The automobile or motor cycle owner is just 
the ordinary citizen. Jf he wants to hunt or fish 
illegally, he has a hundred chances to do so, and 
“get away with it” where his less favored brother 
who uses the train or trolley or the buckboard 
has one. But the owner of an automobile is not 
necessarily a law breaking citizen, unless indeed 
he occasionally falls foul of the speed ordinances. 
The very advantage which he possesses over the 
ordinary run of folks in getting into the woods 
for a little sport and recreation should make him 
considerate. Even so, the state has before it a 
plain duty of providing for this new drain on 
wild life. Otherwise our woods and waters, ex¬ 
cept in regions absolutely inaccessible and re¬ 
mote from civilization, will lose their attractive¬ 
ness. What then will the guides, the camp keep¬ 
ers and the resident population which no'w de¬ 
pend so largely on visiting sportsmen do for a 
living? Their interests, as never before, lie 
in the direction of the strictest enforcement of 
every game law on the statute books for the 
proper conservation of fur, fin and feather. 
CALIFORNIA FACES DEVASTATION. 
Elsewhere in this issue appears an article by 
Chas. F. Holder that should have careful perusal 
by every sportsman, especially Californians. A 
sportsmen organization comprised officially of 
market hunters, hotel keepers and game dealers 
is using its influence toward repeal of California’s 
game protective laws. They would rdopen traffic 
in game sale, deplete game covers, encourage the 
game hog and otherwise prostitute game pro¬ 
tection in California. Too much credit cannot be 
given the California Hotel Men’s Association for 
its refusal to endorse the People’s Fish and Game 
Protective Association, nor for much assistance 
rendered The Wild Life Protective League of 
America, under leadership of that premier sports¬ 
man Dr. Charles Frederick Holder, whose efforts 
are being devoted to the anti-reoeal movement. 
California sportsmen will kill the repeal organiza¬ 
tion byA'Oting against any change in the present 
game laws. 
IN THE “ZOO.” 
Exiles, they tread their narrow bounds 
Behind the iron bars. 
Where’er they turn the hand of man 
Their straining vision mars, 
Save only when at night they gaze 
Upon the friendly stars. 
See! There a golden eagle broods 
With glazed, unseeing eyes 
That never more will sweep the snows 
Where blue Sierras rise; _ 
And there, sick for his native hills, 
A sullen panther lies. 
What dreams of silent polar nights 
Disturb the white bear’s sleep? 
Roams he once more unfettered where 
Eternal ice floes sweep? 
What memories of the jungle’s ways 
Does that gaunt tiger keep? 
Such wistful eyes the hartebeest turn 
Beyond their cramped domain. 
They seem to see the yellowing leagues 
Of wind swept veldt again. 
And look, a springbok lifts his head 
As though he smelled the plain. 
Exiles, they tread their narrow bounds 
Behind the iron bars. 
For thus the ruthless hand of man 
Each God made creature mars. 
But oh, what hungry eyes they raise 
Up to the friendly stars! 
