Forest and Stream 
Terms, $3 a Year, 10 Cts. a Copy. 
Six Months, $1.50. 
NEW YORK, SATURDAY, JANUARY 23, 1909. 
VOL. LXXIL—No.'4. 
No. 127 Franklin St., New York. 
A WEEKLY JOURNAL. 
Copyright. 1909, by Forest and Stream Publishing Co. 
George Bird Grinnell, President, 
Charles B. Reynolds, Secretary. 
Louis Dean Speir, Treasurer. 
127 Franklin Street, New York. 
THE OBJECT OF THIS JOURNAL 
will be to studiously promote a healthful interest 
in outdoor recreation, and to cultivate a refined 
taste for natural objects. 
—Forest and Stream, Aug. 14, 1873. 
AT THE EDGE OF THE WOODS. 
A NEW railroad extension, the line running 
at the base of a wooded mountain. 
A congeries of rough shacks, about which, 
that September Sunday afternoon, were loung¬ 
ing the idle shifts of Italians. 
Just within the woods a long disused road. 
In the road the vestiges of a little fire, ashes 
and the blackened ends of chestnut sticks. 
Nearby on the ground, stray feathers of a 
grouse. 
CAT ISLAND. 
The plan proposed by an association of game 
protectors and sportsmen, to purchase Cat 
Island off the coast of Mississippi, as announced 
in another column, commends itself as most de¬ 
sirable. 
Cat Island is the northwesternmost—and the 
only one without protection—of a considerable 
group of keys and islets, which are now all 
Government or State reservations and efficiently 
guarded against the plume and market hunter. 
It lies directly in the line of migration of many 
kinds of shore’birds, notably the golden plover, 
and in adjacent waters vast numbers of wild¬ 
fowl spend the winter. It is the favorite resort 
of a horde of market gunners who there shoot 
ducks and shore birds for the various cities 
along the Gulf of Mexico and the Mississippi 
River. 
The island is high and is covered in part by 
heavy pine timber. It is the only one of the 
islands in that vicinity which is not at times 
swept by the waves in the severe storms which 
occasionally cause devastation on this coast. It 
contains a number of fresh water ponds, on 
which herons breed, and where formerly many 
other beautiful birds, now rare on account of 
the destructive work of the plume hunter, once 
reared their young. Among these was the 
roseate spoonbill. On the high bluffs of the 
island, among the stately pines, are many beauti¬ 
ful building sites for cottages and a club house. 
The adjacent waters afford splendid sailing, and 
fishing for many of the great Southern fish 
which of late years have become so famous. 
The reasonable protection of the wildfowl 
and shore birds at this point during the late 
winter and spring would insure to every gunner 
to the northward greater opportunities for shoot¬ 
ing than he has at present.* Many thousands of 
those who use the shotgun at shore birds or at 
ducks would be benefited, and if the price of 
the island could be apportioned among those 
who would reap this advantage, the cost to each 
would be hardly more than that of a few loaded 
shotgun shells. 
Representatives of the National Association 
of Audubon Societies have secured an option on 
Cat Island, and efforts are now being made to 
raise the money needed to purchase it. Well- 
known Boston sportsmen, we are assured, have 
already agreed to furnish one-third the sum re¬ 
quired, and among gunners, bird lovers and 
game protectors it should not be difficult to 
secure the rest. Those who have already 
pledged subscriptions for the purpose have ex¬ 
pressed the wish that the title to the land be 
taken in the name of the Audubon Society, not 
with the view of stopping all shooting, but so 
that there may be no danger that the land will 
ever be diverted from the object sought in its 
purchase—to protect the birds from destruction 
for purposes of sale. It would be for the pur¬ 
chasers of the island—if it is bought—to de¬ 
termine what shooting should be done on the 
island, and when it should be done. 
The plan seems a broad one, which not only 
offers protection to the wildfowl and shore birds 
in their Southern winter home, but promises to 
every man north of the Gulf of Mexico a 
greater supply of birds and the prospect of bet¬ 
ter sport. 
THE FATE OF THE TROUT. 
In the forest fires which wrought so much 
damage last autumn, the loss of game is con¬ 
ceded to have been heavy, though no estimate to 
this effect has been made, and it is not likely 
an accurate one can be made. Damage done by 
the fires did not end with the rains that 
quenched them. With both food and cover de¬ 
stroyed, small game that survived has had—and 
will have until spring—difficulty in finding suste¬ 
nance and shelter. Then, too, game driven from 
its chosen haunts by fire finds difficulty in locat¬ 
ing feeding grounds on which it can sustain life 
in stress of weather. 
How the trout fared during the long drouth 
and the fires is unknown to the majority of the 
anglers. They know that in many cases streams 
ran dry, pools dwindled and became mere 
pockets for the more hardy trout. Many of 
them evidently believe that the rain brought 
relief to the trout, and in some instances this 
actually happened. In others the first soaking 
rain washed great quantities of wood ashes from 
the hillsides into the small pools, rendering the 
already polluted water highly alkaline and de¬ 
stroying large numbers of fine fish which were 
already weakened in their fight against the ele¬ 
ments. In some sections the loss from this 
cause is believed to be very large, and it is 
safe to say all of the brooks in the drouth and 
fire ridden districts were more or less affected 
before the streams rose sufficiently to flush these 
lye-basins. 
The mild winter and the December rains may 
have had a counteracting effect on the smaller 
streams, however. Early in December it was 
predicted that streams, then abnormally low, 
would freeze solid, adding again to the trout 
loss. It was even reported that this had taken 
place here and there during the cold days, but 
it is evident this was not very general. Then 
the rains relieved the situation over a large 
section, the temperature has not been low for 
long, and there is hope that the game fish will 
round out the cold season under normal condi¬ 
tions. 
Fortunately, 1908 was a favorable hatching 
season and unusually large numbers of trout 
were produced in State and Government hatch¬ 
eries, to be planted ere another fishing season 
comes. 
According to the Shooting Times F. C. Selous, 
the famous hunter, states that, contrary to gen¬ 
eral impression, neither elephants nor giraffes 
are by any means yet extinct in that portion of 
Africa to the south of the Zambesi. He esti¬ 
mates that there cannot be less than two thou¬ 
sand elephants alive to the south of the Zambesi 
River, and there may be a great many more. 
Wherever the buffalo has ceased to exist tse-tse 
flies, however plentiful at one time, sooner or 
later become extinct, even though other kinds of 
game remain in the country. The tse-tse fly 
does not long exist without access to the blood 
of buffaloes. 
>1 
Through the untiring work of Dr. James A. 
Henshall and many other friends of fish pro¬ 
tection, aided by this journal and the press, the 
destructive methods employed by those in con¬ 
trol of irrigating ditches are becoming unpopu¬ 
lar. Elsewhere we print an article in which Dr. 
Henshall explains the ease with which ditches 
may be closed to trout. At the same time we 
wish to again urge sportsmen’s associations and 
anglers in the West and Southwest to make 
this a part of their season’s work. Great losses 
of trout can be prevented if efforts are exerted. 
An important decision has been rendered in 
the United States District Court in Denver. 
Judge Lewis decided that the Forest Service 
was within its right in charging fees for graz¬ 
ing in Federal forest reserves. 
at 
It is proposed to open a school of forestry 
in connection with Columbia University. De¬ 
tails of the plan have not as yet been made 
public. 
