Forest and Stream 
Terms, $3 a Year. 10 Cts. a Copy, j 
Six Months, $1.50. ) 
NEW YORK, SATURDAY, OCTOBER 9, 1909. 
VOL. LXXIIINo. 15. 
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 SHOOTING SEASON. 
In most of the States of the North and West 
the shooting season is open and the hunters are 
abroad. They have gone to Maine, Montana, 
Canada and Wyoming for the abundant deer, the 
infrequent moose, the disappearing elk and the 
high climbing sheep and goats—prizes for him 
who has the legs and wind to follow and the 
hunter’s craft to successfully approach them. 
Gunners for birds are scattered all over the 
land and no cover is too insignificant to be 
beaten out on the chance that it may contain 
something that is worth powder and shot. 
It is too early as yet to attempt to compare 
the season of 1909 with that of other years. 
We may feel sure, however, that in Eastern 
covers there will be no such dearth of ruffed 
grouse as was reported two years ago. In some 
sections of New England, where for years quail 
have been almost unknown, many broods were 
hatched this year and many birds were seen and 
heard in the late summer. In a certain New 
England town, where for two or three years the 
best shots have refused to kill quail, the birds 
are quite plentiful. If these thoughtful men will 
continue to practice this self-restraint they will 
surely after a time receive their abundant re¬ 
ward in well stocked covers. If we may judge 
from the reports last fall and the few observa¬ 
tions of the past summer, woodcock should this 
year be more abundant than for many seasons 
past. 
From some sections of the great plains and 
the Rocky Mountains come reports that there 
are very few grouse. Last spring and summer 
were unusually wet in regions normally semi- 
arid, and the increased precipitation may have 
had its effect on the broods of birds, as it cer¬ 
tainly did on the farmer’s crops; for this year 
the harvest of the West was one of unexampled 
abundance. 
There seems reason to believe that in most 
sections the present shooting season will be suc¬ 
cessful, and before long we shall begin to re¬ 
ceive reports about it. Yet, whether we get birds 
or not in our shooting trips, it is joy sufficient 
to be abroad in these delightful days of early 
autumn, and he is wise who snatches every day 
and every hour that he can take from his work 
to enjoy October fields and woods. 
THE CANOE. 
The naval pageant on the Hudson River last 
week was an impressive one as a whole, and 
its varied features evoked praise, wonder, aston¬ 
ishment or amusement in those who looked 
down on it from the rim of the Palisades. The 
battleships held the attention of some of the 
visitors, while others admired the graceful 
yachts, the picturesque tugs or the excursion 
craft with their crowds of passengers. But of 
all the craft that could be seen at a glance, there 
was only one which seemed entirely in harmony 
with the replica of the Half Moon, the green 
of the river and its shores and the purple haze 
that veiled distant objects-—the canoe. 
When Hendrick Hudson sailed up the river 
the natives in their canoes were present, and 
when the modern Half Moon ascended the 
stream last week, there were other natives in 
canoes present to greet her. Other methods of 
propelling vessels through the water have been 
invented, tried, adopted or discarded since Hud¬ 
son’s time, but could he have returned for the 
occasion, he would have found that the canoe 
alone remains unchanged. The single blade of 
rock maple is now, as in his time, a favorite 
with those who paddle, and the canoes are 
singularly similar in shape and size to those of 
three centuries ago. It was pleasing to note 
how many of these little craft were in evidence, 
and their seaworthiness evoked applause from 
foreign visitors. 
Although they were not a part of the pageant, 
it was meet that they should be present, for, in 
the wonderful transformation of America the 
canoe has taken an important part. Mainly it 
is now a pleasure craft, though there are still 
countless waterways that know no other craft. 
It is one of the few works of the Indian that 
have been adopted by the white man and taken 
to foreign lands. The former developed it and 
found it excellent, and his judgment has been 
sustained for centuries in the face of the inven¬ 
tive genius of the world. 
Canoeing on the Hudson will, perhaps, be a 
pastime of generations yet unborn in whom the 
sentiment connected with the craft and the his¬ 
toric river will be strongly fixed, but although 
it was merely a coincidence, it is nevertheless an 
interesting fact that the pioneer aviator, in fly¬ 
ing with the gulls over the old river, carried 
with him, as a safety device, a canoe. 
Another chapter has been written into the 
history of the vicissitudes of Walter R. Welch, 
fire, fish and game warden of Santa Cruz county, 
California, and formerly a deputy State Fish 
Commissioner. In a former issue we related 
how, while the warden was away planting trout 
in the mountain streams, the county supervisors 
discharged him, giving as their reason for this 
action his written approval of a legislator’s ef¬ 
forts to bring about an accounting by the State 
Game and Fish Commission. The deposed war¬ 
den sued the county auditor for his salary for 
June, holding that, as his discharge on the first 
of that month was illegal, he was entitled to the 
money. Mr. Welch won, but the auditor de¬ 
murred, was over-ruled, and in a recent decision 
the court declared the action of the supervisors 
illegal and ordered the payment of the warden’s 
salary. Meanwhile State Forester Lull, in a 
time of need, placed Mr. Welch in charge of 
the force of men fighting forest fires in Santa 
Cruz county; fires which caused heavy loss at 
the headwaters of several streams and drove 
game into other sections. 
C» 
A correspondent, writing of the west coast 
of Florida, says: 
It is very distressing to see the waste of game and fish 
in that beautiful country, and to see the number of 
people visiting there who have the lust to kill. Men 
stand on the ocean piers with long-range rifles, and shoot 
at any moving object in sight, if it have life—birds, fish 
or anything they can kill, nearly all non-edible, and all 
inaccessible, if killed. 
It is Florida’s shame, but it is an old, and long in¬ 
dulged sin. 
Florida has wardens who are sworn to pre¬ 
vent just such outrages as our correspondent 
mentions, but if they permit them to continue 
it is time the matter be looked into. The sea¬ 
son is approaching when large numbers of 
tourists who carry big game guns into a fishing 
country will be on hand, ready for more 
“sport,” which should be nipped in the bud. 
* 
Within a month the attention of the reading 
public has been turned from the equator to the 
arctic, where dogs are of such great importance 
to hunters and explorers. The endurance, the 
intelligence and the viciousness. of these sledge 
dogs are remarkable, as will be understood by 
perusing a paper which the Rev. Arthur Sant- 
mier, a Saskatchewan missionary, has prepared 
for Forest and Stream. This is “Sledge Dogs 
of the North.” This article, the first one of 
a series on hunting, traveling and adventure in 
the far North, will appear in these columns 
shortly. 
K 
The efforts put forth by anglers of South 
Africa since peace was restored there some 
years ago are bearing fruit, and waters that 
were stocked with trout hatched from ova ship¬ 
ped from England are reported to be in a fair 
way to become satisfactory trout streams in the 
near future. But carp as well as trout have 
been introduced by some of the Boers, and these 
are multiplying rapidly. 
* 
We print this week another prize story, “Camp¬ 
ing and Hunting in New Brunswick” by Fred 
Talcott. Moose calling, of which he writes, is 
even now engaging the attention of hunters in 
the North and East. 
