632 
FOREST AND STREAM 
Published Weekly by the 
Forest and Stream Publishing Company 
Chas. A. Hazen, President Charles L. Wise, Treasurer 
W. G. Beecroft, Secretary 
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., 
1 Finch Lane; Sampson, Low & Co. Paris: Brentano’s. 
Entered in New York Post Office as Second class matter. 
THE "LAST FRONTIER”—AND ITS 
MORAL. 
The article “Passing of the Last Frontier,’’ 
printed in Forest and Stream November 7, has 
brought us letters from subscribers who ask 
whether the same policy of extermination which 
swept the wild life from our own western plains 
will 'be repeated when the vast northwestern 
portion of Canada is thrown open to settlers, 
and also whether the experience of the United 
States ought not to prove a warning to our 
Canadian neighbors in preventing such a use¬ 
less and always to be regretted catastrophe. 
It is impossible to make a definite answer on 
either of these propositions. The opening of a 
new country necessarily circumscribes the free 
boundary of the larger fauna, and the clearing 
of woods destroys the habitat of other game. 
However, even nominal protection and the 
merest pretense of conservation are sufficient to 
keep in existence a remarkably large percentage 
of the more familiar forms of fur and feather. 
We trust sincerely that When the new north¬ 
west is opened by means of railway communi¬ 
cation, the ruthless destruction which marked 
the progress of our own nation toward the west¬ 
ern coast will be avoided, as it easily can be, 
through common sense legislation. It may be 
pointed out that the “Last Frontier” is a region 
of greater territorial extent than commonly ima¬ 
gined. Anything like complete surveys are miss¬ 
ing, but roughly, the western and northwestern 
portions of Canada not now subject to cultiva¬ 
tion are as large as the whole continent of Eu¬ 
rope. Agriculture will never be possible over 
more than half this territory, and as the out¬ 
posts 6f climatic limits are reached, agriculture 
there will be but a small industry. No man can 
say what this vast district will be producing 
fifty years from now, but it is certain that that 
length of time will elapse before the surface of 
much of it has been scratched. 
What an amazing wealth of wild life it now 
supports! Ernest Thompson Seton, who visited 
the so-called Barren Lands in 1907 estimated 
that the different migratory herds of caribou 
that flow in endless torrent day after day from 
the northern or sub-arctic regions to the wooded 
districts or pasture lands to the south, must em¬ 
brace thirty million head, and possibly twice that 
number. Warburton Pike, the Tyrells and other 
authorities have never made definite estimates, 
but all agree that the number of caribou is be¬ 
yond calculation. It is gratifying to know also 
that these herds, barring possible epidemic or 
like catastrophe, are growing larger rather than 
smaller, since the annual slaughter by the few 
thousand Indians, Eskimo, and white men who 
come in contact with them is an insignificant 
total of not over 50,000 or 60,000 animals, which 
■is but a drop in the bucket compared with the 
natural annual increase. 
We are well aware that statements like this 
in these modern days of disappearing game, 
sound the fabric of a dream, but they are made 
by sober-minded men—close observers and train¬ 
ed scientists. That advancing civilization in a 
single generation can destroy or decimate this 
wealth of animal existence appears almost in¬ 
credible. Yet the buffalo, just as numerous, were 
swept off the face of the earth within the mem¬ 
ory of man. 
The world little knows .what a rich heritage 
it possesses in the thousand mile stretches of 
animated nature beyond the present “Last 
Frontier.” Let us hope that when it does become 
aware of what now is unknown, the lessons of 
the past will not have been forgotten, and that 
ruthless destruction of such wealth will be 
avoided. 
As has been well remarked by one authority, 
the migration of the barren land caribou in un¬ 
countable herds, reaching across many degrees 
of latitude, is the last great fact of interest in 
zoology, surpassing even the earlier discoveries 
made in African game fields. There is much 
over the horizon of the last frontier to amaze 
the world, once it is permitted to gaze upon the 
spectacle. Our children and children’s children 
should not be denied the opportunity of having a 
glimpse of it, and the enjoyment of privileges 
that this generation rightly was entitled to, but 
which were rendered impossible by the greed 
and shortsightedness of the one preceding. 
TO OWNERS OF "FOREST AND STREAM” 
FILES. 
The curator of birds, associated with one of 
the larger universities of the United States writes 
us under recent date as follows: 
“We at this Museum are in constant need of 
referring to your publication but there does not 
seem any possibility of the University acquiring 
a set in the near future. Could you direct us 
to anyone in the near vicinity who owns a com¬ 
plete or nearly complete set of this publication?” 
This is only one of similar requests which 
come to us from time to time. Bound volumes 
of Forest and Stream, covering a long period of 
publication, constitute a veritable repository of 
facts interesting to the student of natural his¬ 
tory, ichthyology, and all other natural sciences. 
Complete files of bound volumes in private hands 
and libraries are scarce, but some of the older 
readers of Forest and Stream write us occa¬ 
sionally, asking where a market can be found 
for them. We have always endeavored to satisfy 
these inquiries, but it occurs to us that since 
the owners of the books as a rule are not look¬ 
ing for mere profit of sale, the donation of the 
volumes to college or university libraries would 
be not only a gracious act, but a benefaction of 
permanent value. 
At any rate, we will regard it as a favor if 
readers of Forest and Stream possessing reason¬ 
ably complete files will furnish us with their 
addresses for future use. A census of owners 
of complete files of Forest and Stream will be 
of value in itself, since students of natural his¬ 
tory in different parts of the country may be 
made acquainted with the names of such 
library owners in case reference to the volumes 
is desired. 
LINES ON SOLITUDE. 
Let him who’d happy be, upon some summer 
day— 
On shadowed waters rest him—silently, 
Dip a fine paddle in unspoiled play: 
And weave him dreams in places very free! 
For bargained pleasures let him never know; 
Or pampered mart be never in his eye— 
While mirrored hopes forever by him flow, 
Caught on God’s looking-glass eternally. 
While sun-washed roads lie cool before his 
heart, 
Let him his life share' of that mellowed gold: 
And all harmonious things—they shall impart, 
A good religion, never bought, nor sold! 
Press forward then, in pure forgetfulness; 
While beads of music glitter from thy blade! 
For such as thou art, here can be no stress— 
The prisoner of some all-redeeming shade. 
O festering ill what powers have ye here? 
Where the blue heaven acres roof me o’er; 
Each day unrivalled, and a spotless peer, 
Love reaching out to me from shore to shore! 
Take all of gain and the bright smile of fame— 
O whispering leaves and waters harbor me; 
Where morning gilds the glory of thy name— 
New-wakened in surroundings, happily. 
Who more shall be to his endeared content: 
Than one who here embraces solitude— 
Some brightened hue to every feeling lent, 
Some brightened hour to ease the cold and 
rude; 
Where a primeval stillness gathers round 
Each thought, and contemplation, every hour— 
Where breathing winds are memories of sound, 
Where the great pines to azure heaven tower: 
I would not be where weary men delay, 
Where all alone I watch the crowds pass on; 
Where not one soul would come to me and say: 
“Turn backward, brother, leave this empty 
Dawn!” 
O happy knight of freedom and repose; 
In places where no tampering evils reign— 
In natural associations—ever close 
To God and Nature—far from waste of gain, 
Where glowing embers mark the evening fire, 
The beached canoe—the wall of gloom about; 
Or hears the loon, strumming the devil’s lyre, 
While far away the sunset lights go out. 
Or while full many eyes shall on him be 
And padded foot-falls sound half-noiseless by; 
What pipe shall make a temple of each tree 
A shrine of Life, that is no veiled lie! 
—Robert Page Lincoln. 
Over 58,000,000 board feet of lumber are an¬ 
nually consumed in this State for musical in¬ 
struments, chiefly pianos. Spruce makes the best 
sounding boards on account of its excellent 
resonant qualities. Over 9,000,000 board feet of 
spruce are used in this industry. The Adi¬ 
rondack spruce is famous for this purpose. 
