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THE OBJECT OF THIS JOURNAL 
will be to studiously promote a healthful interest 
in outdoor recreation, and to cultivate a refined 
taste for natural objects. 
—Forest and Stream, Aug. 14, 1873. 
Hi 
1 ; 
THE S 1 LZ CASE. 
The decision in the Silz case just reached by 
the United States Supreme Court, as given in 
our Washington dispatch, is a subject of con¬ 
gratulation to all who are interested in game 
protection. 
At present we have only the fact that a favor¬ 
able decision was reached, but if an opinion was 
rendered, it is certain to prove most interesting 
reading. 
— 
PENNSYLVANIA’S WATER SUPPLY. 
1 All persons who have given the subject of 
water conservation careful thought, agree that 
in the future it will receive much closer atten¬ 
tion than has been given it in the past. Penn¬ 
sylvania is one of the States in which water 
conservation and control are very important 
• subjects, for vast numbers of streams take their 
i source in the hills and flow in all directions. 
The opportunities for the economic use of these 
waters are very great, and the results of heedless 
waste are found in those tables which chronicle 
1 losses year by year. This applies with special 
force to the headwaters of the Ohio River, a 
1 stream which every spring is a roaring torrent 
and a meandering brook every dry season. 
The Pennsylvania Water Supply Commission 
I is doing good work, but it realizes the tremend¬ 
ous waste of money and property through floods 
that may, in a measure at least, be regulated. 
Among other things it has shown that water 
rights have been abused. The average number 
I of water companies organized annually was 120 
up to the time the commission was established, 
while in 1906 the number was but thirty, and 
last year only thirty-two—showing that with 
proper regulation, the distribution of water 
rights can be fairly made. 
Much depends on the acquisition of forest re¬ 
serves at the sources of important streams; on 
reforestation; and on systems of dams, dykes 
I and other means to regulate the flow of water 
at all seasons. 
1 
Pennsylvania’s supply of fish and game is an 
extremely valuable asset to her people. How 
much it depends on the conservation of her 
streams need not be detailed here. The ex¬ 
periences of anglers during the fishing season 
now drawing to its close, and of gunners now 
roaming through the woods and fields of the 
Commonwealth, if put into type, would form a 
strong protest against conditions in time of 
drouth, and an appeal for reforms. 
THE DROUTH. 
The long-hoped-for rains which have fallen 
during the past week have brought immense re¬ 
lief to a number of regions which were harassed 
by lack of water and by fires. So far as can be 
learned, the worst fires have been quenched, but 
it cannot now be told whether the rains have 
been sufficiently heavy and of long enough dura¬ 
tion to drown out the fires smouldering under 
the surface of the ground. 
In Vermont the situation had become so grave 
that on the 21st of October Governor Prouty 
issued a proclamation suspending the deer shoot¬ 
ing season until another time. Very short notice 
was given hunters, for, under the general law, 
they would have been in the woods on the 26th, 
and his proclamation became effective on and 
included the 23d. The season embraced the last 
six working days in October, and it was safe 
to assume that in the haste and confusion at¬ 
tending so short a time, fires would be care¬ 
lessly left or set. 
ALASKA GAME. 
From all over the United States come reports 
of the decreasing numbers of game animals and 
birds. As civilization and settlement advance, 
the wild things must retreat. There is one vast 
territory, however, which possesses a varied 
climate, lofty mountains, deep forests, broad 
rivers and many lakes, which as yet is but 
sparsely inhabited and a large part of which will 
long remain vacant. This is Alaska. From the 
shores of the Arctic Sea, where are found the 
walrus and the polar bear, it stretches southward 
to the green forests inhabited by the Sitka deer, 
and between these extremes are situations and 
climates adapted to many varieties of game. 
No region in America possesses so much 
game. Here are moose, caribou, deer, mountain 
sheep, goats, several species of bears and birds 
—waterfowl and upland species—in wonderful 
variety and plenty. 
Much of the region is already being occupied, 
but it must long remain unoccupied, for it con¬ 
sists of swamp, tundra and high mountain tops 
which cannot be used under present conditions. 
The area of Alaska is almost one-fifth that of 
the entire United States, and it presents to per¬ 
manent occupation those difficulties always to be 
found in a country of high latitude. It is not 
a farming country, nor—though there are places 
where cattle may live—is it likely to be ever a 
cattle country. 
In Alaska, however, there is still a vast quan¬ 
tity of game which is valuable for its meat for 
food, and its skins for clothing, since the white 
settlers have adopted for their own use many 
of the articles commonly employed by the 
natives. 
The money value of all this game is very 
great. It must be conserved, so that for a long 
time it may be useful for food and clothing for 
the visitor and traveler. It is also of service 
to the country, in that it attracts thither sports¬ 
men who spend money for hunting licenses, 
make purchases and hire men, to the great bene¬ 
fit of the community. It is important then that 
the game of Alaska should be preserved and no 
one should feel more interest in that than the 
people who live in Alaska. 
BUFFALO, WILD AND TAME. 
Our front cover picture shows a part of the 
buffalo herd in the New York Zoological So¬ 
ciety’s Park in The Bronx, left over after the 
Zoological Society had presented to the United 
States Government the herd to stock the Wichita 
Game Preserve. 
From the Yellowstone National Park comes 
the interesting news that the tame buffalo herd 
there now numbers seventy-four individuals, of 
which fourteen are calves. This herd, started 
by Major John Pitcher five or six years ago, has 
grown in a most gratifying w T ay. Its value has 
been increased by the addition to it of a few 
calves captured from the original wild bunch. 
It is extremely interesting to know, as we are 
informed by T. Elwood Ilofer, of the Yellow¬ 
stone National Park, that late in September, 
while driving from the Yellowstone Lake into 
Gardiner, he saw seven wild buffalo, one .of them 
a calf. The buffalo did not seem shy, and while 
the team was close to them, the calf went up 
to the largest buffalo in the bunch—which the 
observers at first thought was a bull—and 
nursed. The last seen of the group they were 
going back up the hill from the river in the 
direction of the open country known as Hayden 
Valley. 
The increase in the tame buffalo herd in the 
National Park, which has been paralleled in a 
number of other cases, lends added force to 
Mr. Hornaday’s appeal for funds with which to 
purchase the herd to stock the Montana pre¬ 
serve. Edgar F. Randolph’s letter in behalf of 
this fund is printed in this issue. A herd estab¬ 
lished on the old Flathead reservation in Mon¬ 
tana, will certainly increase rapidly and will fur¬ 
nish another center from which fresh buffalo 
blood may be distributed over the country. We 
are glad to urge contributions in behalf of this 
good object. 
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