Feb. i8, 1911.] 
259 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
Appalachian Forest Bill. 
\\ ashington, D. C., Feb. 13 .—Editor Forest 
and Stream: I he bill introduced by Represen¬ 
tative Weeks for the purpose of enabling the 
several States to form a compact for the pur¬ 
pose of conserving the forests and water supply 
of the country has been pending since last June, 
and unless the measure is passed during the pres¬ 
ent session, fear is expressed by the friends of 
the bill and the policy announced therein that 
it may never again acquire the same favorable 
status it now holds. The bill has been made 
the unfinished business of the Senate for the 
15th with an agreement that a final vote shall 
be had upon the bill itself before adjournment 
upon that day, and every possible influence is 
being brought to bear to have the measure pass 
the Senate as it stands without loading it down 
with amendments which would operate to defeat 
the bill, inasmuch as the chances are great that 
it would not emerge from a conference owing 
to the enormous pressure of appropriation and 
other bills which would naturally be given pref¬ 
erence, allowing the Weeks bill to die in con¬ 
ference. 
A careful canvass has been made of the Senate 
with the result that the advocates of the measure 
are convinced that it will become a law. Ap¬ 
peals have been made to the senators not to 
amend the bill, which would kill all chances of 
its becoming a law, and its friends now believe 
that these appeals have very much lessened the 
danger of its defeat. Unless this bill passes dur¬ 
ing this session, there is thought to be small 
chance of establishing forest reserves in the East 
for years to come. 
"One of the most important steps toward na¬ 
tionalizing conservation wiil be inaugurated the 
day when the \Y eeks’ forest reserve bill passes 
the Senate, which we confidently expect will 
happen this week,” declared Gifford Pinchot, 
late chief of the United States Bureau of 
Forestry. Last year sixteen senators voted 
against making the measure the unfinished busi¬ 
ness of the Senate, but this year unanimous con¬ 
sent was given to the request for a vote, which 
is an indication that less determined opposition 
will be extended to its passage, as many senators 
who last year opposed a vote are expected this 
time to favor the measure. 
1 he Weeks bill involves spending $11,000,000 
in five years, and it proposes to purchase from 
2,000,000 to 3,000,000 acres of land, partly in the 
White Mountains and partly in the Southern 
Appalachians, for the purpose of establishing 
piotection for the watersheds of navigable 
sti earns, the lands so acquired to be permanently 
reserved, held and administered as national for¬ 
est lands. It is provided that the several States 
may co-operate with the National Government, 
and with each other in a system of forest fire 
protection. The enactment of the bill will mark 
the beginning of a new era in conservation of 
our national resources, for the provisions ex¬ 
tending the benefits of the bill to the several 
States will weld them into a bond of friendship 
to each other and to the National Government on 
the policy of conservation. A National Forset 
Reservation Commission is provided in the bill 
to consist of the Secretary of War, the Secretary 
of the Interior, the Secretary of Agriculture, 
two Senators and two Representatives, who will 
have complete control and supervision of the 
lands purchased under the provisions of the pro¬ 
posed law. 
It is about 600 years since Switzerland enacted 
laws for forest regulation like those which this 
bill provides for our Eastern reserves. To-day 
neaily one-fourth of the area of Switzerland is 
in forests, carefully supervised and controlled 
by the Government, and forms one of the great¬ 
est sources of national wealth. France, which 
was once almost covered with forests, has al¬ 
lowed them to be all but completely destroyed, 
and only lately has she adopted a policy of resto¬ 
ration which results in great benefits, in controll¬ 
ing floods and storms as well as affording a 
timber supply. Germany’s great work in the 
same direction is well known, and one may ride 
foi houis through State-owned pine forests over 
State-owned railroads. Her system of forest 
management and conservation is regarded as a 
model, and our students of forestry go to Darm¬ 
stadt to study her forestry system. 
The northern section of our Appalachian re¬ 
gion is fast approaching the condition of forest 
denudation that existed in France and north 
Italy when they inaugurated restoration meas¬ 
ures. several years ago. In the South Appa¬ 
lachian section the conditions are not quite so 
bad, but are rapidly moving to a stage that will 
soon become bad, and the purpose of the Weeks 
bill is to remedy waste and begin restoration. 
It may be realized how important a policy of 
conservation of the forests may become when 
a country faces a forest famine, and may be 
judged from the recent action of the Japanese 
Emperor in seizing every forest area and plac¬ 
ing it under the strictest Government control. 
Raleigh Raines. 
Atmospheric Influences on Fish. 
It will readily be conceded, I suppose, that 
the susceptibilities of the genus homo are, in 
many ways, of a less subtle order than those 
possessed by what the lord of creation is pleased 
to call the low'er animals. 
1 hey may he lower, but many of them pos¬ 
sess faculties of exquisite fineness entirely be¬ 
yond man’s comprehension. We call it their in¬ 
stinct; that seems to satisfy us. Behind that 
term we are content to pile our colossal ignor¬ 
ance of their particular sensibilities. We use it 
as an acknowdedgment that we are unable to 
explain the laws which govern *the actions of 
created things. They are beyond our duller 
senses and unintelligible to our blunt under¬ 
standings, and there is no short cut to a knowl¬ 
edge of endowments so subtle. 
Take fish, for instance, for that is the subject 
creature in hand. Nearly all that the average 
man and most that the average angler knows 
about them is that they swim. As an ardent 
angler with half a century’s experience behind 
me, I just know enough to assure myself that 
with all my years of observation, what I have 
learned, compared with what is to be known, 
is as a drop in the ocean. But there is always 
some hope for those who are convinced of their 
own ignorance. 
Y\ ithout any mock humility I consider myself 
quite a gross and coarsely constituted being by 
the side of a little minnow or samlet, say noth¬ 
ing of a shark. My senses are as nought com- 
paied to theirs, and as to my intuitions—why, 
the \ ery keenest of them does not bring me as 
far as the rudiments of theirs. 
In the element of uncertainty there is always 
charm. If we understood the laws which govern 
the ways of fish, angling would soon be reduced 
to a process — like digging potatoes — and we 
should get as many as there were about. But 
fortunately for our streams and the ba’ance of 
nature, we do not. 
“He that observeth the wind shall not sow.” 
If the angler observes it, he will rarely angle. 
He makes deductions from its force, its direc¬ 
tion, density, temperature and counts himself a 
scientist worthy of high regard; but how a trout 
of the lowest degree would laugh! The prog¬ 
nostications of, say a pike, one low down in his 
own social scaie, might be purchased at a high 
price by persons high up in ours, and sold to a 
wise weather bureau at a good profit. Think 
of him, persistently sinking for days, before a 
hurricane, lhat has been pretty well authenti¬ 
cated by the comparison of records. It is open 
to every angler to verify it. Indeed, it should 
be a point of honor with every one of us to 
make careful observations and record them. 
Only so can we get data; only so can we hope 
to succeed in unraveling many problems. 
What communicative force is it which impels 
certain fish to certain actions long before a 
change is evidenced to human intelligence? We 
can see the creatures of the jungle consent with 
one accord to prepare for rain at a remarkably 
regular interval before it comes, and we can 
see that the living things of the prairie are 
actuated all alike to prepare for the coming 
tornado, but we cannot see so well the prophetic 
ways of fishes, for they are not of our element, 
and we should not be comfortable watching them 
in theirs. Yet we know something, and patient 
observers learn more than enough to prove that 
