180 
FOREST AND STREAM 
Feb. 10, 1912 
Published Weekly by the 
Forest and Stream Publishing Company, 
127 Franklin Street, New York. 
Fdward C. Locke, President, 
Ch.aeles 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. 
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ADVERTISEMENTS. 
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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. 
IN THE WINTER WOODS. 
There is little in the winter woods to cheer 
one who is abroad to-day. Snow fell often in 
January, and after the increasing warmth of the 
sun’s rays by day and the cold air by night had 
packed the various layers of snow, rain fell and 
the cold that followed sealed all the earth with 
an icy coat that has resisted the sun’s power. 
The trees, warmer than the ground, threw off 
their icy fetters, but all of the food that furred 
and feathered creatures customarily find beneath 
the snow or on bare ground in midwinter is 
beyond their reach. 
The old roads and the paths beside the brooks 
bear' no marks of footprints, and to all appear¬ 
ances the woods are devoid of those stories 
without words which tell eloquently of day and 
night life under conditions usually found in mid¬ 
winter. The squirrels are not abroad, no track 
of fox or ’coon or ’possum indents the surface, 
and he who walks breaks through the crust now 
and then, making noise enough to warn away 
all forest folk that may venture forth to seek 
much needed food. 
Even the creek bed, the winter highway of 
the four-footed night prowlers, bears no imprint 
of any foot, and the'open holes loom black and 
cold here and there in the glistening white 
blanket, and only the subdued tinkle of the 
water beneath tells of the feeble efforts of the 
brook to break its bonds. Here and there a 
spring defies the cold, its. water tumbling down 
the shelves of sandstone, to form little mounds 
and long icicles or to trace the outlines of weed 
and branch in purest white, while in the shelter 
of the crevices a little green peeps out where 
spear of grass or water weed still retains life 
under the constant flow. 
In the fields the weeds stand out against the 
shimmering ice, each branch and seedpod, sealed 
by the sleet, looming large in the strong light. 
On such a prospect the fabled groundhog gazed 
when he interrupted his long sleep to emerge 
from his burrow and survey the world, on 
Candlemas day; indeed, although the sun shone 
brightly on that day, at least in this part of the 
world, after the groundhog awoke, if he awoke 
at all, there was work to do ere he broke through 
the icy crust that covered everything and held 
the food of the other creatures that do not 
hibernate. 
While the winter woods are very beautiful, 
and it is good to be abroad, particularly by night, 
when the moon’s rays play phantastic tricks on 
the glassy crust, there is cold comfort in the 
certainty that wild creatures are hard put to 
eke out sustenance until the inevitable “Febru¬ 
ary thaw” comes along to “break the back of 
winter” -and give promise of the coming of an¬ 
other spring. 
CHILDREN AS PROTECTORS. 
A MOVEMENT that is on foot in Michigan has 
for its purpose the instruction of boys and girls 
in the importance of protection against forest 
fires and other waste. The Michigan Forest 
Scouts is the title of the organization, the com¬ 
panies of which will in emergencies become 
auxiliary fire wardens and be subject to call 
from the State game, fish and forestry warden. 
Youths ranging in age from seven to eighteen 
years may become members, and the older boys 
will receive pay for active work, if called out, 
while awards will be made to those showing 
.skill in contests that will be open to all school 
children. No assessments will be levied for uni¬ 
forms or equipment. 
The department of public instruction will as¬ 
sist in the work planned, and scout companies 
will be formed in about a dozen of the principal 
towns in Michigan. Through the school children 
it is expected that the economic importance of 
the protection of game and fish, of reforestation, 
of the prevention of fires and other waste in the 
woods and of the necessity for keeping water¬ 
courses clean will be brought home to all of the 
people. 
The Boy Scout movement has spread at a re¬ 
markable rate within a short time, and even if 
the activities of the Scouts are confined to little 
jaunts in the open, much good is being done for 
the youth of the land, too many of whom would 
otherwise know none of the joys that were the 
every-day portion of the country boy of the 
seventies. Much depends upon their leaders and 
instructors, but when those chosen are well 
versed in woodcraft and all the simple knowl¬ 
edge that makes rambles outdoors of real bene¬ 
fit to hupnan beings, and they are at the same 
time capable of disseminating this information 
in times and places when it will be absorbed by 
young minds, then the work is worth while. 
It is natural for boys to be destructive—to 
start woods fires, stone animals, defile natural 
objects—but once the harm of these things is 
shown them in a way they may understand, they 
are equally quick to absorb the lesson, and no 
more staunch advocates of the right will be 
found than among such boys. 
The annual observance of Arbor day has had 
an effect that could not have been hoped for at 
first. To actually see a little sprout that he has 
planted with his own hands growing intO' a 
sturdy tree is a marvelous thing to a child. It 
is but a step from this to reforestation, and the 
protection of wild life follows naturally. The 
boy’s eyes are sharp, he is quick to act, and once 
he is enlisted in the work, he will dO' far more 
good than many of his elders. 
Four canoeists crossed the Hudson River re¬ 
cently while considerable quantities of ice were 
drifting with the ebb tide, and finding that the 
shore ice prevented a safe landing, accepted the 
assistance of persons ashore who employed a 
rope in effecting the “thrilling rescue” about 
which the daily press printed columns next day. 
Along the beaches under the Palisades a few 
hardy canoeists have camped almost every week¬ 
end during the winter, and whenever the ab¬ 
sence of floating ice has permitted, they have 
made their way from the city to their favorite 
camp-sites in their canoes; otherwise they go 
afoot, equipped with a small outfit in a pack. 
If the temperature is too low even for them, 
they make Sunday pilgrimages to the same place, 
and one of the regulars at the midday lunch and 
camp-fire is Judge Franklin W. Hopkins, a mem¬ 
ber of the Palisades Interstate Park Commission 
and an earnest worker in the preservation of this 
great park, 
»? 
The receipts of the New York Conservation 
Commission for January were: Fines and penal¬ 
ties, $2,218.20; net licenses, $1,197.12; trespass, 
$580; fire rebates, $285.63; tree orders, $50.75; 
top lopping, $25; breeders’ licenses, $25; refunds 
on pay roll, $39.45; Adirondack and Catskill 
maps, $19; telephone rentals, $6; badges, $2.50; 
miscellaneous, $55.79; total, $4,314.44; hunting 
licenses, $6,469.26; importantion of foreign game, 
$2,056. Grand total receipts, $12,480.24. The re¬ 
ceipts for the month of December were: Miscell¬ 
aneous accounts, $7,670.(16; hunting licenses, $26,- 
172.90; importation fund, $1,315.40; total, $35,- 
158.96. 
>? 
H. L. Curtis, of Paonia, Colo., who made the 
photograph of the beaver house and pond repro¬ 
duced on the title page of this issue, says that 
in 1879 he was in the country where beavers 
were being trapped, but that last autumn, dur¬ 
ing a sojourn in Gunnison county, he saw more 
beaver sign than he did thirty years ago. The 
house, he says, was one of the best he had ever 
examined, and the pond one of the largest. Pro¬ 
tection is producing results, so far as beavers 
are concerned. 
The iron and steel revision bill now before 
Congress provides for a 35 per cent, duty on all 
breechloading guns and rifles, and on pistols of 
all kinds. Muskets and muzzleloading guns and 
rifles are assessed at 15 per cent.; fishhooks at 
10 per cent, and fishing rods, reels and tackle, 
30 per cent. 
The New Jersej’’ Fish and Game Commission 
has recalled all of the deputy fish and game 
warden commissions, and will reappoint on'y 
those persons whose activities warrant it. 
