Forest and Stream 
Terms, $3 a Year, 10 Cts. a Copy. 
Six Months, $1.50. 
NEW YORK, SATURDAY, MAY 29, 1909. 
VOL. LXXII.—No. 22i. 
No. 127 Franklin St., New York. 
A WEEKLY JOURNAL. 
Copyright, 1909, by Forest and Stream Publishing Co. 
Gborgb Bird Grinnell, President, 
Charles B. Reynolds, Secretary. 
IxHJis Dean Speir, Treasurer. 
127 Franklm Street, New York. 
PRESERVING THE HIGHLANDS. 
The Highlands of the Hudson Forest Reser¬ 
vation was created on Monday of this week, 
when Governor Hughes signed Senator Wain- 
wright’s bill and made available the five-thou- 
sand-dollar appropriation it carries. The new 
reservation will comprise portions of Orange, 
Rockland, Dutchess, Putnam and Westchester 
counties.’ Starting on the western side of the 
Hudson River, at Moodna Creek, below Corn¬ 
wall, it includes Storm King, the Popolopen 
Creek watershed, Dunderberg Mountain and 
Jones Point. It crosses the river from Tomp¬ 
kins Cove to Peekskill Creek, takes in Anthony’s 
Nose and portions of Putnam Valley and the 
higher hills, recrossing the river at Breakneck 
Point. The Forest, Fish and Game Commission 
will control the new reservation under the same 
methods as are followed in the Adirondacks, 
and it is authorized to purchase lands or to 
accept for the State lands or funds with which 
to acquire them. 
While, through this act, some of the historical 
portions of the heights along the Hudson will 
be preserved, there still remains the equally 
beautiful stretch on the west side of the river 
from Tompkins Cove south to the northerly end 
of the Palisades Interstate Park at old Sneedens 
Landing. Much of this is private land, and 
some of the most striking portions are being 
wrecked by stone crushers. Still, those who 
have labored to save the Hudson’s beauty have 
made long strides during the past decade, and 
having gained a foothold, they will advance but 
never retreat. 
PROTECTION IN CONNECTICUT. 
The meeting of sportsmen held May 15 in 
Hartford, Conn., is another gratifying indication 
of the growing feeling in Connecticut of the need 
of greater activity in game and fish protection. 
Within the past few months game protective 
associations have been formed in many towns, 
and the members have given proof of their de¬ 
votion to the work by putting their hands in 
their pockets and purchasing birds or fish, and 
by striving to feed the birds through the winter. 
We have heard for many years that these things 
ought to be done, but in the past there has been 
more talk than action. Now while there is still 
some talk, there is activity as well. It is grati¬ 
fying to learn by the official letter printed in 
another column of the interest manifested by 
delegates to Hartford from various counties of 
the State. 
There is a great work to be done in Con¬ 
necticut whenever ‘that portion of the public, 
which is interested in shooting and fishing, shall 
be aroused to perform the needed work. In 
some localities this is already being done. We 
have learned of a certain game protective asso¬ 
ciation which is asking landowners to post their 
land or to give permission to the association to 
post the land in the association’s name. The 
association has established a rule that its mem¬ 
bers shall not themselves shoot over the posted 
land for two years, thus giving the game on 
that land a close season for that period, and so 
an opportunity to re-establish itself. The asso¬ 
ciation purposes to appoint a number of special 
game wardens who shall look after certain 
designated territories. What such an associa¬ 
tion needs, and what it must have to accomplish 
results, is a paid man who shall be hired from 
before the shooting season opens until after it 
ends, and who during the whole season shall 
be abroad and constantly on the move, going 
from cover to cover, listening, watching and 
prepared to make arrests. 
If properly protected no section of New Eng¬ 
land would offer better shooting than Connecti¬ 
cut with its woodcock, its ruffed grouse and its 
quail. Its tangled swamps, its stretches of 
woodland and its cedar-clad hills interspersed 
with fertile fields, furnish ideal ground for the 
best game birds known in the East. The covers 
now so nearly depleted may easily be restored 
if properly protected; but the protection must 
be actual and physical and not merely verbal. 
HARDWOODS FOR CALIFORNIA. 
The Pacific Coast will soon be the scene of 
an interesting tree growing experiment. The 
United States Forest Service is planning to in¬ 
troduce a number of the more important East- 
tern hardwoods into California and will this 
year experiment with chestnut, hickory, bass¬ 
wood, red oak and yellow poplar or tulip trees. 
Small patches of these trees will be planted 
near the forest rangers’ cabins in the national 
forests, and if these do well larger plantations 
on a commercial scale will soon be established 
on wider areas. 
There are over 125 different species of trees 
in California, a number of which produce some 
of the most valuable varieties of lumber in the 
country. Although considerably over one-half 
of the species are hardwood or broad-leaved 
trees, yet, with the exception of the exotic 
eucalyptus, there is not a single species of hard 
wood there ranking in commercial importance 
with the leading Eastern hardwoods. Climatic 
conditions in many parts of California are un¬ 
doubtedly favorable for the growth of a num¬ 
ber of the valuable hardwoods, and the ab¬ 
sence of these trees is due mostly to unfavor¬ 
able factors of seed distribution. If the experi¬ 
ments are successful, a valuable asset will have 
been added to the forest resources of the State. 
The life-saving vest of to-day, like the so- 
called bullet-proof vest of the recent past, is 
highly recommended—by its promoters. Freak 
inventions follow quickly in the wake of great 
or small tragedies. The life-saving vest was 
brought into semi-public notice shortly after the 
death by drowning of two prominent British 
anglers. It may be as useful as its promoters 
say it is, but we fancy the average angler would 
no sooner think of wearing it exposed to the 
view of his fellows than would the canoeist go 
abroad with a cork life belt strapped about his 
body. Hidden behind the modest desire to 
avoid wearing anything that will attract the 
attention of the curious is that very natural 
wish to cope with the elements with the muscles 
and brain provided by nature, and in whose use 
every rational outdoor man and woman takes 
pride. 
vt 
There are those in whose minds courage and 
bravado become confused in time of danger, but 
it is often true that a cool head and trained 
muscles help the notoriously reckless ones out 
of many trying situations, and after all this trait 
is generally an excess of confidence, which often 
spells courage. 
The stream fisher who wades will have none 
of these cumbersome things. It would be fully 
as easy to convince him that he should moor 
a life buoy to one of his legs with a bit of rope 
while wading. Now and then he may stumble 
and fall, but not often in deep water, for in 
the pools there is no current to hinder, and he 
must perforce move slowly there. If he falls 
in a rift it is but energy wasted to attempt to 
regain a footing in the usual way. The hands 
and feet are all needed here, and one literally 
crawls until he gets his feet under him again, 
then ‘he rises. Swift, indeed, must the water 
be to prevent this maneuver, and it is one every 
angler should practice on occasion. 
K 
In our trap columns this week will be found 
a paper on “Small-Bore Guns,” by “Twelve- 
Gauge,” who has replied to a similar paper 
written by Edwin L. Hedderly, of Hollywood, 
Cal., and printed in our issue of May 8. These 
friendly discussions of guns and ammunition 
are valuable in that they serve as an inter¬ 
change of ideas and as records of results ob¬ 
tained in the field under varying conditions. 
K 
If the heavy run of ice that is being en¬ 
countered by trans-atlantic steamships near 
Newfoundland has any effect upon the spring 
run of salmon and sea trout, the season there 
may be late. Certainly the low temperature of 
water and air, due to the presence of ice in 
vast quantities in the vicinity of the island, may 
cause some of the early visitors to wait until 
a later date. 
