Forest and Stream 
A Weekly Journal. Copyright. 1907, by Forest and Stream Publishing Co. 
Terms, $3 a Year, 10 Cts. a Copy. ) 
Six Months, $1.50. 
NEW YORK, SATURDAY, APRIL 20, 1907. 
< VOL. LXVIII.—No. 16. 
I No. 346 Broadway, New York. 
The object of this journal will be to studiously 
promote a healthful interest in outdoor recre¬ 
ation, and to cultivate a refined taste for natural 
Objects. Announcement in first number oi 
Forest and Stream, Aug. 14, 1873. 
MR. SHIR AS’ PLAN. 
Public interest in INIr. Shiras’ plan for the 
Federal control of migratory birds seems to be 
increasing, if we may judge from the attention 
that it is receiving in the newspapers all over 
the country. As the plan becomes better un¬ 
derstood, game protectors and people generally 
are recognizing its advantages. The National 
Association of Audubon Societies has put itself 
strongly on record as favoring the project, and 
many game commissioners of the United States 
and of British North America favor it. No less 
than forty game commissioners have written to 
Mr. Wm. Dutcher in favor of the abolition of 
spring shooting. This is something which of 
course is bound to come sooner or later over the 
whole continent, though certain States are very 
slow to take action in this direction. 
It ia interesting to see how much more for¬ 
ward the Western States are than those of the 
East in matters of game protection. The State 
of Washington adopted a license law a long time 
ago, while the State of New York has just killed 
a license bill introduced in its Legislature by re¬ 
committing it. In efficient methods of game con¬ 
servation the West is far more advanced than is 
the East. 
Legislature, be called on to decide whether the 
power companies and other private interests 
shall be permitted to build storage reservoirs, 
overflow the State lands, ruin private as well as 
public property and destroy camp sites, fishing 
waters and hunting grounds the people have said 
shall not be destroyed or injured. 
The editors of the State have condemned the 
grab and with them are arrayed disinterested 
persons, including thousands who do not hunt, 
fish, camp nor sojourn in the Adirondack Park. 
There is little likelihood that the people will ever 
favor the scheme, but it should not be permitted 
to go to them when the proper thing to do is 
to kill it now. 
ADIRONDACK MEASURES. 
The New York Assembly has passed the bill 
introduced in January by Mr. Merritt relative to 
the purchase of lands to be added to the Adiron¬ 
dack Park. 
This bill provides that the State shall issue 
bonds in an amount not to exceed $15,000,000, 
these bonds to be sold by the State and the pro¬ 
ceeds to be turned into the State treasury, to be 
used in the acquisition of land in the Adiron¬ 
dack Park; such bonds to be known as Adiron¬ 
dack park bonds, and to be exempt from taxa¬ 
tion; and to be sold at the rate of $2,000,000 in 
amount during the year ensuing after the act be¬ 
comes effective, and afterward in lots not ex¬ 
ceeding $1,000,000 at a time, as required, etc. 
The first appropriation of $2,000,000 is to be ex¬ 
pended by the Forest Preserve Board, the Gov¬ 
ernor consenting, in the acquisition, by purchase 
or by condemnation proceedings, should the 
latter actign become necessary, of land to be 
added to the great park. 
Should this bill be passed by the Legislature, 
it will come before the people at the election 
next November, and they will be called upon 
to decide whether they are willing to he taxed 
for the purpose. 
At the same time the people will, if the so- 
called water-grab bill is passed by the present 
was not equal to that of the Rocky Mountain 
trout. History repeats itself. 
But one by one those who raised objections 
packed up their fishing kits and followed the 
streams. The introduced rainbow trout were 
awaiting them, healthy, full of vigor and 
strong in the rapid streams. To hook one was 
sufficient. Smashed rod tips, broken leaders, 
hooks snapped off or bent straight—such was 
the result. To play and land one of these beau¬ 
tiful fish was to respect it. To-day the rainbow 
trout furnishes amusement and happiness to 
many an angler who is weary of the town and 
in need of healthful exercise and the stimulat¬ 
ing influence found in the hills and along a trout 
stream. 
NATIVE AND INTRODUCED TROUT. 
Every angler should read Mr. Harry Chase’s 
argument in favor of the brown trout (Salmo 
fario) printed elsewhere in this issue of Forest 
and Stream. We know that a great many fly- 
fishers will endorse all that Mr. Theodore Gor¬ 
don and Warden Chase have said in its favor, 
while others hold that the brook trout is super¬ 
ior to it. Even so, under the conditions that 
confront anglers to-day—forest cutting and all 
its attendant evils—it is wise to think* of the 
future as well as the present. The facts should 
not be lost sight of that streams formerly 
famous for their brook trout have been and are 
being fished out; that the growth of the brook 
trout is somewhat slow and that anglers have 
to be content with small fish or none; and that 
the brown trout furnish good sport and satisfy 
persons with healthy appetites. 
To-day there is satisfactory fishing in streams 
containing browm trout, which were denuded of 
all but a few small brook trout a long time ago. 
Where moderation is practiced these streams 
continue to attract anglers year by year. The 
plea that the flesh of the brown trout is inferior 
to that of our native trout may hold good as 
to the large fish of the former species, but 
it seems better to have trout in our streams, 
even though they are not equal to those for¬ 
merly found in them, if that is true, than to 
have fingerlings or none. 
Let us see what happened in some of the 
Rocky Mountain streams vears ago. The native 
trout, through excessive fishing, became so 
scarce that one-time favorite streams were sel¬ 
dom visited by fly-fishermen. Rainbow trout 
were planted. In an almost incredibly short 
time it became known that rainbows of two and 
three pounds and upward were to be had for 
the catching. Some of them that were exhibited 
astonished all who saw them, for they could 
hardly believe that such big fish existed in 
streams near at hand that had been abandoned. 
The same objections were raised there that are 
being raised in the East in relation to brown 
trout. The rainbow trout were believed to be 
inferior; they would not take the fly; the flesh 
MR. WOODRUFF’S ROAD. 
The refusal of Commissioner Whipple to grant 
Mr. Timothy L. Woodruff’s application for a 
permit to- construct a highway across the Adi¬ 
rondack Park to his preserve and camp is of 
more importance than appears at first thought. 
If permission were granted Mr. Woodruff, 
other preserve owners would demand simi¬ 
lar concessions, and what is now State land 
would in time become gridironed with roads; and 
all the evils attending easy and rapid access to 
the State’s lands would follow. Mr. Woodruff s 
land was selected with the utmost care. It is 
bordered by State lands, and all he required to 
make it the most private of preserves, but still 
accessible to himself and his friends, was a good 
road; in other words, a private preserve within 
State land. 
MR. ROOSEVELT AND THE ELKS. 
The action of President Roosevelt, in writing 
to the Denver branch of the Elks’ Society, re¬ 
questing members to- cease using the tooth of 
the elk as its official emblem, merits the com¬ 
mendation of every sportsman and of all our 
people. 
We have for a long time maintained that the 
little gold badges worn by some members of this 
society—an elk’s head in miniature—are much 
handsomer than the elk tooth or pair of teeth 
worn by so many members of this society, and 
it is to be hoped the practice of wearing these 
repulsive and grewsome teeth will be discon¬ 
tinued by members and discouraged by all 
branches of the order. 
If the Canada game and fish authorities will 
weed out those justices of the peace who, it is 
charged by Chief Game Warden Tinsley, render 
decisions favorable to the lumber companies and 
other interests which attempt to shield violators 
of the game laws, and appoint in their places 
men who will try cases on their merits, a great 
deal of good will result. 
