Forest and Stream 
Terms, $3 a Year. 10 Cts. a Copy. 
Six Months, $1.50. 
NEW YORK, SATURDAY, MARCH 26, 1910. 
VOL. LXXIV.-No. 13. 
No. 127 Franklin St., New York. 
A WEEKLY JOURNAL. 
Copyright, 1910, 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. 
TO SAVE THE FUR SEALS. 
Another effort is to be made to save the fast 
disappearing fur seal herds of the Bering Sea. 
The President recently sent a special message 
to Congress advising action in the matter, and 
a little later Mr. Dixon, of Montana, introduced 
a bill in the Senate to carry out Mr. Taft’s 
recommendations. The bill was referred to the 
Committee on Conservation, instead of to the 
Committee on Foreign Relations, to which such 
bills have usually been sent and in which they 
have often slumbered undisturbed. 
The seal herds on St. Paul and St. George 
islands have been so reduced by pelagic sealing 
that unless measures be adopted for their preser¬ 
vation, they are likely before long to become 
extinct. The herd which twelve years ago num¬ 
bered 37S,ooo is now reduced to less than half 
that number, and it is estimated that the breed¬ 
ing seals have sunk from 130,000 to 56,000. All 
this is the work of the pelagic sealers of various 
nations of the earth, though for the last few 
years the Japanese have been those who poached 
most persistently and most boldly. 
Senator Dixon’s bill provides that the right 
to kill fur seals and take their skins shall be put 
in the hands of the Secretary of Commerce and 
Labor, that he shall have sole charge of the islands 
and shall carry on the business of taking fur 
seals. This would obviously carry with it the 
business of caring for and educating the natives, 
and would forbid the making another lease of 
the islands to the American Commercial Com¬ 
pany, as, according to the revised statutes, must 
be done for a further period of twenty years, 
unless Congress shall take action to repeal that 
section of the revised statutes which provides 
for this renewing of the lease. 
Objection to such a policy has been made on 
the ground that the Government should not en¬ 
gage in private business. As Mr. Taft well says, 
however: “The herds have been reduced to such 
an extent that the question of profit has become 
a mere incident, and the controlling question has 
become one of conservation.” 
Unless some means shall be devised for putting 
an end to pelagic sealing, the extinction of the 
Alaska fur seal seems assured. Some arrange¬ 
ment should be made with the nations most in¬ 
terested in the seals for adequately protecting the 
waters in which they are found. 
SMELTER EVILS. 
The outcome of an action now pending in the 
Federal Courts in Montana is awaited with in¬ 
terest by foresters, farmers and sportsmen, for 
the decision of the courts will show whether or 
not commercial enterprises are to be permitted 
to destroy natural surroundings. 
The citizens of the West and Southwest have 
suffered material loss in trees, shrubs, grass and 
crops, which have been blighted or killed by the 
sulphuric and arsenic fumes from nearby smelt¬ 
ers. Attempts have been made to compel the 
smelter companies to remedy their faulty 
methods. Sometimes they have met these ad¬ 
vances with threats to close their plants, thus 
throwing large numbers of men out of employ¬ 
ment, or have advanced pleas of prohibitory ex¬ 
pense in rectifying the evil. Where injunctions 
have been granted the companies have actually 
profited through saving the gases theretofore 
permitted to flow through their stacks, to destroy 
plant and tree life to leeward. 
One of the Montana smelters which has here¬ 
tofore refused to comply with urgent public de¬ 
mand to change its methods of gas-disposal, on 
the ground that its present method is the only 
practicable one, is now prominent in the public 
eye. Last week Attorney-General Wickersham 
caused a bill in equity to be filed in the Mon¬ 
tana courts against the company. A permanent 
injunction is asked for, to compel the company 
to so operate its Anaconda plant that the de¬ 
struction alleged by the people of that town and 
its vicinity shall cease. 
GLACIER NATIONAL PARK BILL. 
The bill to establish the Glacier National Park 
was favorably reported from the Public Lands 
Committee of the House last week. It is now 
on the union calendar, and will be taken up for 
consideration probably on some Wednesday when 
the committees of the House are called: The 
bill has been slightly changed—amended by cut¬ 
ting out a provision for railway and other rights 
—so that after passing the House it must go to 
conference. It is important, therefore, that it 
should be favorably acted on as soon as possi¬ 
ble, and each reader who is interested in the 
matter will do well to urge prompt influence by 
his congressman in behalf of the measure. 
If the bill should pass, there is reason to hope 
that the Canadian authorities may set aside a 
reserve immediately north of the boundary line 
adjacent to the Glacier National Park. This 
would form a resort which for scenic beauty 
could hardly be equalled outside of New Zea¬ 
land—land of deep fiords and lofty mountains. 
If set aside, the Glacier National Park region is 
likely at no distant day to become as popular 
as the Yellowstone or the Banff National Park. 
Already there has been made a good trail over 
the mountains, and the horesman may start from 
the eastern prairie, travel up by the wonderful 
St. Mary’s lakes over the crest of the Conti¬ 
nental Divide and down to waters which will 
lead him to beautiful Lake McDonald. 
ADIRONDACK GRABS. 
The Phillips bill, now before the New York 
Legislature, is intended to legalize the leasing 
by the Forest, Fish and Game Commission of 
“camp sites” in the Adirondack Park. By its 
terms a person may lease a choice five-acre plot 
for ten years. At the end of that time he may 
lease it for another ten years, provided there is 
no objection on the State’s part; and so on from 
father to son, to the exclusion of the public, the 
original lessee to be given first choice. 
The “camp sites” referred to in this bill and 
in the Merritt resolution are building sites, and 
if the lake shores are all taken up, as they will 
be if these measures become law, the people who 
actually camp will find few sites within the blue 
line. 
The people of the State do not want dams, 
automobile roads and country homes in their 
park; we do not believe Governor Hughes favors 
any of these schemes. No time should be lost 
in voicing the public sentiment as to all of them. 
The organization of the British Amateur Fly- 
and Bait-Casting Club has been perfected and 
two important matters practically decided on. 
One which is of international interest is that 
the large membership has agreed that the tour¬ 
nament rules now being formulated shall, as far 
as may be practicable, conform with those al¬ 
ready in force in the United States. This means 
that in Australia, France, Great Britain and the 
United States large tournaments will be con¬ 
ducted under rules understood and followed 
wherever the sport is practiced, and the hitherto 
meaningless term, “world’s record” so fondly 
used by many persons, will have its significance 
in casting, though “international record” is a 
far better term. The other matter to which 
reference was made above is the sentiment in 
favor of organizing other casting clubs in vari¬ 
ous parts of Great Britain, which in time will 
lead to the formation of an association. The 
interest in casting is widespread, and there as 
here those who have practiced it recognize its 
importance in teaching the angler all of those 
big and little things which have a bearing on 
his skill and his pleasure in actual fishing. 
« 
The first national exhibition to be held in 
China will open at Nanking on May day and will 
continue throughout the year. If it proves to be 
successful, plans will be formulated for the hold¬ 
ing of an international exhibition there within 
the next ten years. To that end the twelve 
buildings of the exhibition are permanent. Two 
of these will be devoted to foreign exhibits. 
