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Terms, $3 a Year. 10 Cts. a Copy. 
Six Months, $1.50. 
NEW YORK, SATURDAY, JANUARY 15 , 1910 . 
VOL. LXXIV.-No. 3. 
No. 127 Franklin St., New York- 
A WEEKLY JOURNAL. 
Copyright, 1909, by Forest and Stream Publishing Co. 
George Bird 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 
taste for natural objects. 
—Forest and Stream, Aug. 14, 1873. 
THE HUDSON HIGHLANDS PARK. 
The people of New York and New Jersey 
have good cause to remember the opening of 
the present year. They are richer by far than 
ever before, for they have been tendered a great 
recreation ground and game and fish preserve 
which is rich in natural beauty and in historical 
associations. 
Last week we referred to this proposed re¬ 
serve, but in his annual message to the Legis¬ 
lature Governor Hughes gave full details re¬ 
garding it, and announced other gifts of cash in 
such large sums that the acquisition of the great 
park along the Hudson River is assured. 
Mrs. Edward H. Harriman has tendered ten 
thousand acres of land in Orange and Rockland 
counties, together with a million dollars in cash 
for the purchase of additional lands lying be¬ 
tween the Harriman tract and the Hudson River; 
other well-known women and men have tendered 
$1,625,000, and if New York and New Jersey 
will appropriate sufficient funds, the establish¬ 
ment of this great natural park will be made 
possible, and one which will be easily accessible 
to several million people. 
But Governor Hughes’ recommendations cover 
another question of vital importance to all of 
these people and to this question: he is in sym¬ 
pathy with the objections raised and the pro¬ 
tests made against the building of a State prison 
in Rockland county, and urges the abandonment 
of the site and the selection of a new one else¬ 
where. 
The Palisades Park Commission deserves the 
highest praise for the work it has already per¬ 
formed, and for the larger work it has planned 
and is ready to execute. Its members have 
served for nine years without remuneration, and 
at an expense to the two States of less than five 
hundred dollars. 
The great reserve it is intended to set aside 
for all of the people forever will be almost at 
the doors of half of the citizens of the State of 
New York, and of more than half of the people 
of New Jersey. It is a lasting object lesson to 
other States; it is proof that when the wrath 
of the people is aroused their power is irresist¬ 
ible. A little more than a decade ago it was 
considered impossible to stop the despoliation of 
the Palisades and of the mountains further north 
by vandals. Morning, noon and night the trap- 
rock men blasted away the face of one of the 
fairest cliffs in America, and they defied all 
comers. Business was business. 
To-day all that is left of the numerous stone 
crushers is a little scrap iron fast eroding under 
the influence of the elements, while kindly nature 
is clothing the rents in the cliffs with living 
green. 
GIFFORD PINCHOT. 
With the merits of the controversy leading 
up to the removal by the President of the chief 
forester of the Department of Agriculture of 
the United States Government, it is not our in¬ 
tention to deal. Gifford Pinchot, as the forester, 
inaugurated and prosecuted work which stands 
for itself and will stand through the years that 
are to come as a monument to the energy, the 
wisdom and the farsightedness of a man to 
whom the work was a labor of love, to be per¬ 
formed whole-heartedly and unselfishly. 
What he said on leaving the department—that 
the work is greater than the man—is true, and 
yet the one must suffer without the ability pos¬ 
sessed by the other. Mr. Pinchot comes of a 
family of foresters and his work in the cause 
of the conservation of our natural resources is 
by no means ended, though his power for good 
has been impaired. 
It was significant that when Mr. Pinchot closed 
his desk all of the employes of his department 
crowded round him, and that every one, from 
chiefs to office boys, expressed regrets and bade 
him Godspeed. 
TIBURON ISLAND. 
Evidently the Seri Indians, who make Tiburon 
Island, in the Gulf of California, their home for 
a portion of the year, are not so bloodthirsty as 
they have been painted. Possibly they have ac¬ 
quired a wholesome respect for firearms. At any 
rate, a party of scientists, miners and sportsmen 
has returned from an exploring expedition on 
the island, and reports the Seris friendly. 
Recently.the arrival back in Arizona of this 
party was announced, and now a fuller report 
is before us. Dr. Fayette A. Jones, of Albu¬ 
querque, N. M., and several men from Bisbee, 
Ariz., organized the expedition. At Guaymas a 
sloop was chartered, and after experiencing not 
a few difficulties in breasting the strong tides 
and currents in the Gulf, the party landed on 
Tiburon, located water and began to explore the 
island, make observations and photographs, col¬ 
lect specimens and visit the Seris, the tribe of 
alleged cannibals. 
The report states that deer were found on the 
island, and that the water tanks or pools in the 
mountains were visited by hordes of wild pig¬ 
eons, evidently the band-tailed pigeons of the 
far Southwest. The tide rises to a maximum 
height of thirty feet at the northern end of the 
island, it is stated, and its strength and the cur¬ 
rents created make the navigation of the nar¬ 
rower portions of the Gulf difficult, while sharks 
infest the waters. In the Gulf the party spoke the 
yacht Comfort, which sailed from Los Angeles 
several weeks before for a fishing cruise in those 
waters. On board were the owner, the Hon. 
C. G. Conn, and L. G. Murphy, both well-known 
anglers for large sea fish. 
Dr. Jones has signified his intention to pre¬ 
pare a volume relating to the expedition and the 
scientific and practical observations made by the 
party. It will make interesting reading, for the 
lands and waters visited are little known to the 
world of the sportsman. 
General Newton M. Curtis died suddenly 
near his home in this city last Saturday from 
apoplexy. His age was seventy-four years. He 
was of striking appearance, as his height was 
six feet four inches and his frame was large. 
He was known as the hero of Fort Fisher, for 
it was in the winter of 1864-5 that he took the 
fort after so many other officers had failed, and 
one of the five wounds he received in that fight 
cost him an eye. After the war he held many 
Federal offices. Of late years he had been as¬ 
sistant inspector-general of the National Home 
for Disabled Volunteer Soldiers. His book, 
“From Bull Run to Chancellorsville” was pub¬ 
lished a few years ago, and he leaves unfinished 
a work he purposed calling “The Making and 
Welding of the Nation.” It was largely through 
his efforts that the hounding of deer in the Adi- 
rondacks was stopped by law. He was a mem¬ 
ber of the State Legislature from 1884 to 1890, 
and a Congressman from 1891 for seven years. 
* 
That it is possible to prevent the pollution of 
our streams is shown in the report of Commis¬ 
sioner Meehan, of Pennsylvania, summarized in 
another column. Although the law making 
stream pollution an offense against the State has 
been effective for only a few months, progress 
has been made by the authorities, and a large 
number of manufacturing concerns have dis¬ 
posed of their waste matter otherwise than by 
turning it into water courses. 
Governor Fort, of New Jersey, in a recent 
speech intimated that a large tract of land may 
be acquired by New Jersey ere long in the form 
of a gift similar to that given to New York by 
Mrs. Harriman. Fuller information is lacking, 
but it is thought the land in question is in the 
Greenwood Lake section. 
Five thousand Hungarian partridges were 
brought across the Atlantic on the Graf Walder- 
see last week, consigned to the New Jersey Fish 
and Game Commission. 
