Forest and Stream 
•f NEW YORK, SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 12, 1908. 
- 
Terms, $3 a Year, 10 Cts. a Copy 
Six Months, $1.50. 
A WEEKLY JOURNAL. 
Copyright, 1908, by Forest and Stream Publishing Co. 
George Birr 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 
iaste for natural objects. 
—Forest and Stream. Aug. 14, 1873. 
OLD FORT ST. CHARLES. 
r 
Of the early explorers of Western America 
few suffered more, accomplished more, and for 
many years received less credit than the Sieur 
de la Verendrve. He was one of the many men 
who during the seventeenth and eighteenth cen¬ 
turies set out to find a short passage to the 
Western ocean, which was so generally believed 
to be just a little beyond the last point reached. 
As did all the Northwesterners, he followed 
the water in the hope of crossing to the head of 
some stream which should take him in the oppo¬ 
site direction and at last bring him to that salt 
water on whose borders to the south dwelt the 
Spaniards. With his exploration he perforce 
combined trade, for only by appealing to the 
cupidity of the merchants of eastern Canada 
could he procure the means to make his way 
westward. Following the great lakes west 
through Lake Superior he pushed across, came 
to the Lake of the Woods, then to Lake Win¬ 
nipeg, and built the first post, afterward known 
as Fort Rouge, on the Red River, where later 
was Fort Garry, now the present great city of 
i Winnipeg. 
It was before this, .however, in T736, that the 
Verendryes, father and sons, were at Fort St. 
Charles, the shelter which they had built on an 
island in the northwest angle of the Lake of the 
Woods. In this summer of 1736 Jean, the eldest 
of the sons, then in his 23d year, in company 
with Father Aulneau and a party of men, left 
the fort to push on further and learn what they 
could about the Western ocean. Not long after 
their departure they were attacked by a party of 
enemies, usually spoken of as “Sioux,” and all 
1 were killed. 
A few days later a party of Ojibwa came to 
the camp and found the bodies—all headless, save 
that of Father Aulneau—but nearby were the 
heads from which the scalps had been removed. 
The remains were gathered up and in September 
brought back to Fort St. Charles and there 
' buried in the chapel. 
Recently it has been reported that a party of 
I priests from St. Boniface College, at Winnipeg, 
' accompanied by Judge Prudhomme, had dis- 
| covered these remains. If made as stated, the 
discovery means also the discovery of the site 
of Fort St. Charles, a most interesting historical 
event. 
It was years after this that Verendrye, on the 
advice of the friendly Crees, sought out the As- 
sinaboines in the South, and learned that they 
knew a people—the Mandans—who were said to 
know another people who lived on the Western 
ocean. 
The explorer went to the Mandans and spent 
years in fruitless efforts to learn something about 
this Western sea, and to find persons who would 
lead him to it. At length a party under the 
son Pierre secured guides and proceeded west 
from the Mandans and finally reached the Pow¬ 
der River Mountains, where they met the Crows, 
who treated them well. Later, in company with 
another tribe, they came close to the Rocky 
Mountains, and were the first of the white men 
to see them. 
The massacre of the young Frenchman and his 
companions, the missionary and the hardy voj'- 
ageurs, has not been forgotten, and the site of 
Fort St. Charles has often been sought for. If 
at last it has really been found, it should be 
marked with an enduring monument. 
INTERNATIONAL FISHERY CONGRESS. 
The fourth International Fishery Congress, 
which is to meet this month at Washington, 
D. C., promises to be an occasion of very great 
interest. Under any circumstances many in¬ 
teresting papers would have been read, but in 
order to bring together as many people as pos¬ 
sible and to stimulate the production of papers, 
it has been thought well to offer a number of 
money rewards for the best or most important 
investigations, discoveries and inventions in the 
subjects with which the Congress is concerned 
during the year 1906, 1907 and 1908 or since the 
last Congress. It will be remembered that the 
first of these was held in Paris in 1900, the 
second in St. Petersburg in 1902, and the third 
in Vienna, in 1905. 
These awards are in the form of money, and 
about twenty prizes are offered by various in¬ 
stitutions, individuals and corporations for the 
best papers on various subjects. Among those 
offering prizes are the American Fisheries So¬ 
ciety. the Museum of Natural History, the 
Brooklyn Institute, the New York Aquarium 
and Botanical Garden, the Academy of Sciences, 
the Smithsonian Institution and United States 
Bureau of Fisheries, Forest and Stream Publish¬ 
ing Company and a number of official and pri¬ 
vate personages. 
These competitions are open to any one and 
the papers may be written in English, French, 
German or Italian. The awards will be made 
by an international board, to be designated by 
the president of the International Fishery Con¬ 
gress. The report of this board will be made 
not later than the day preceding the day of ad¬ 
journment. The prize offered by Forest and 
Stream is “for the best paper giving descrip¬ 
tion, history and methods of administration of 
a water, or waters, stocked and preserved as a 
commercial enterprise, in which angling is open, 
to the public on payment of a fee.” 
Members of the American Fisheries Society 
and others interested in the Congress have made- 
admirable arrangements for the entertainment of 
the visiting fish culturists. After the session in 
Washington they will make some excursions, 
and then coming on to New York will be en¬ 
tertained at the American Museum of Natural 
History, where a luncheon is to be given them; 
at the Brooklyn Institute, and some evening the 
Aquarium will be lighted up and a smoker given. 
From New York they will go on to Boston and 
will visit Wood’s Hole and other localities of 
interest to fish culturists. 
THE CALAVERAS FOREST FIRE. 
On the heels of the distressing reports of 
forest fires in all directions comes the news that 
the Calaveras group of sequoias in California 
has escaped destruction by a very narrow mar¬ 
gin. The danger is not over, for fires are still 
burning in the vicinity of the big trees. 
Already the great dead tree known as the 
Mother of the Forest has been destroyed, while 
the living trees named for General Grant and 
President Garfield were scorched near their tops. 
Vigorous efforts on the part of forest rangers, 
wardens, resort keepers and visitors, aided by 
the wind, served to turn the fire away from the 
grove and toward the Stanislaus River, and if a 
change in the direction of the wind does not 
occur, the grove may be saved. The latest re¬ 
ports, as we go to press, are that the grove is 
not in immediate danger. Heavy rains may not 
be looked forward to just now, but the people 
of California are very proud of these few giant 
trees that remain, and it is confidently expected 
that they will exert every effort to prevent 
further loss. 
The destruction of the Calaveras grove would 
mean a national calamity. Already a great many 
of the great sequoias have been cut and con¬ 
verted into lumber, and the few that remain are 
viewed with wonder by people who journey from 
the ends of the earth to see them. If the Gov¬ 
ernment can do anything to prevent further loss, 
that thing should be done at once, let the cost 
be what it may. 
The Zoological Society of London has decided 
to dispose of its building at 11 Hanover Square 
and remove its offices, committee rooms and 
library to Regent’s Park, where its gardens have 
been situated for almost a century. 
