Feb, 17, 191-2 
FOREST AND STREAM 
209 
State Game Farms. 
Syracuse, N. Y., Feb. 10.—Editor Forest and 
Stream: Will you please call attention of your 
subscribers and sportsmen in general in New 
York State that they should write their repre¬ 
sentatives, the State Conservation Commission 
and also the Governor at once urging the pas¬ 
sage of the Walters bill, stating the number and 
what it is. If you will do this, it will help 
along the cause. W. E. Hookway. 
The Walters bill, to provide for the acquisi¬ 
tion of land for game farms or preserves and 
making an appropriation therefor, now before 
the Legislature, is as follows: 
Section i. The State Conservation Commis¬ 
sion is hereby authorized to select sites for six 
game farms or preserves at such places within 
the State as they may determine and to purchase 
Another feature wherein the laws are lament¬ 
ably lame is in the lack of protection of game 
and fish from their natural enemies; that is, 
predatory animals and birds of prey. The States 
do not encourage the destruction of such pests 
and in some instances these same pests are pro¬ 
tected by law. In Nebraska it is unlawful to 
shoot hawks, owls, etc., without consent of land- 
owner. In view of these facts it looks to me 
as if it was up to the gun clubs and such socie¬ 
ties to secure legislation along the lines of pro¬ 
tection from natural enemies. It will take less 
along other lines to accomplish the same results. 
The English gamekeeper on a private preserve 
destroys every bird or animal that destroys or 
harrasses his young coveys. 
I have lived for fifty years near the Western 
frontier and have watched the game disappear, 
but I do not believe that white men are wholly 
to blame for the disappearance of some species. 
Gored by a Buffalo. 
Lieutenant Paul Graetz, the gallant young 
officer of the German army, who made himself 
famous two years ago by his adventurous motor 
car trip through Africa, and who at the begin¬ 
ning of last summer commenced a still more ad¬ 
venturous journey across the dark continent in 
a motor boat by way of the Zambesi and the 
River Congo, met with disaster on Sept. 3 in an 
encounter with wild buffaloes on the banks of 
the mysterious Bangweolo Lake, in which his 
only white companion, a French cinematograph 
operator, was killed, and he himself terr.bly man¬ 
gled. 
Lieutenant Graetz’s own description of his en¬ 
counter with three tremendous animals on the 
shores of this mysterious lake, deep in the heart 
of the dark continent, reads more like a chapter 
from one of Rider Haggard’s romances than a 
trapper’s cabin in the LOUISIANA MARSHES. 
Photographs by Frank M. Miller. 
MUSKRAT SKINS DRYING ON CYPRESS BOARDS. 
for the State such lands as they may deem neces¬ 
sary therefor; and the sum of $75,000, or so 
much thereof as may be necessary, is hereby 
appropriated, out of any moneys in the State 
Treasury not otherwise appropriated, for the 
purchase of said lands, payable by the State 
treasurer, upon the warrant of the comptroller, 
upon the requisition of said commission, accom¬ 
panied with a certificate of the attorney-general 
approving the title to any parcel of land for the 
purchase of which a warrant is requested. 
Man not Alone to Blame. 
Brule, Neb., Feb. ii. — Editor Forest and 
Stream: I am very much interested in the 
letters you publish from time to time in regard 
to the game laws, preservation of game, game 
propagation, conservation, etc., but in all the 
State laws that I have examined but very few 
prohibit the sale of game and game fishes. As 
I see it, this is the only clause in the Nebraska 
law that really amounts to anything in the way 
of protection, and I have good reasons to be¬ 
lieve that the same conditions prevail in other 
States. 
The great American buffalo was a back number 
before the forty-niners wended their weary way 
to the gold fields of California. The prong¬ 
horned antelope faded away like mist before a 
summer sun. Iowa, the natural home of the 
prairie chicken, knows it no more, but his de- 
mise lays not at man’s door. E. L. Hobbs. 
Louisiana Muskrats. 
New Orleans, La., Feb. S-—Editor Forest 
and Stream: I notice in a recent issue of your 
valuable paper a picture of a Norwegian trap¬ 
per’s cabin, and by so much take the liberty of 
handing you herewith a photograph of a musk¬ 
rat trapper’s cabin in one of our marshes, and 
a photograph showing muskrat skins stretched 
out on boards drying. Frank M. Miller. 
New York Legielalure. 
Albany, N. Y., Feb. 12. —Editor Forest and 
Stream: Assemblyman Patrie, of Greene, has 
introduced a bill in the Legislature increasing 
from $900 to $1,200 the annual salaries of fire 
inspectors. 
story of real life. In his letter, which has been 
published in the London Standard, Lieutenant 
Graetz says: 
“On Sept. 3 the sun rose blood red over the 
dark chain of the Muchemwa Mountains. We 
left our tent and stood watching the mist melt¬ 
ing from the surface of the Chambesi. At our 
feet, in a small bay, lay the motor boat, glisten¬ 
ing under a covering of dew, slowly evaporating 
in the sun’s rays. At 6 140 the black ‘boys’ laid 
their oars in the rowlocks, for we had many 
shallow channels to navigate and were harbor¬ 
ing our supply of petrol. Suddenly we on the 
bank stood still as if petrified. Buffalo! Not 
more than fifty paces from us, close to the edge 
of the river bank, stood three mighty animals 
watching us with wondering eyes. Silence! 
I laid my cheek to the butt of the Mauser rifle. 
Bang! The first buffalo threw a somersault, and 
then, dashing up the bank, galloped from our 
sight into the bushes. The other two followed 
him. Intermittently through the undergrowth we 
caught sight of their shaggy forms as they fol¬ 
lowed the course of the stream, but now there 
were only two of them. What had become of 
{Continued on page 225.) 
