Forest and Stream 
Terms, $3 a Year, 10 Cts. a Copy, 
Six Months, $1.50. 
NEW YORK, SATURDAY, MAY 13, 
1911. 
VOL. LXXVI.—No. 19. 
N«. 127 Franklin St., New York. 
A WEEKLY JOURNAL. 
Copyright, 1911, 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 in¬ 
terest in outdoor recreation, and to cultivate 
a refined taste for natural objects. 
—Forest and Stream, Aug. 14, 1873. 
WOMAN IN THE SADDLE. 
It was many years ago that Forest and Stream 
first advocated the use of the cross saddle for 
women, though the term cross saddle had per¬ 
haps not then been coined. It took the ground 
that women should ride astride, using a man’s 
saddle, because this would be more comfortable 
for the horsewoman and her mount, and would 
do away with the danger to which women are 
constantly exposed of being dragged if they are 
thrown from the saddle. Of the women who 
ride, not all by any means are good horsewomen. 
Many hold themselves in the saddle by depend¬ 
ing on reins or stirrup, and if anything breaks 
and they lose control of the horse, something 
serious may follow. Many women and girls 
have been dragged by skirts or stirrups. This 
is a danger which is preventable, but neverthe¬ 
less it occurs. 
Forest and Stream’s teachings were first 
adopted in the Western country beyond the Mis¬ 
souri River, and in the Rocky Mountains. In 
those regions women were then less bound by 
conventions than their sisters in larger communi¬ 
ties, and the reasons offered by Forest and 
Stream appealed to them. Whole communities 
took to riding astride, and a little experience 
taught them its advantages. The progress of 
the movement eastward was gradual, yet within 
the last five or six years it has been rapid, and 
now perhaps one-half the women who ride, in 
larger cities ride astride, and so with much 
greater comfort and safety. 
In England they have hesitated to take up 
this new fashion, yet some have adopted it, and 
it has slowly grown in favor. Now we are told 
that King George, of England, regards the ordi¬ 
nary method of teaching girls to ride as danger¬ 
ous and ungraceful, and that he is having his 
daughter, the Princess Mary, taught to ride 
astride. This, it is believed, will mean that this 
method of riding for women will be adopted in 
riding schools throughout Great Britain. 
No doubt this sensible action by the King of 
England will give the cross saddle for women 
a great popularity in this country among the 
limited class who feel that they must do what¬ 
ever is the proper thing in England. On this 
occasion that class will be right, even though 
they may be a little late in seeing the light. 
NEW YORK ZOOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 
On Monday next the annual meeting of the 
board of managers of the New York Zoological 
Society, and a general meeting of the society, will 
be held in the Administration Building of the 
park in the Bronx. 
No doubt it seems to very many citizens of 
New York as if the Zoological Society, its park, 
its beautiful buildings and its unique collection 
of animals had always been a part of the city 
and are to be taken as a matter of course. Yet 
there are a few people who remember the be¬ 
ginnings of all these things, who recall the many 
long and apparently fruitless struggles to secure 
a charter for a zoological society, the worries 
and perplexities of early days, and finally the 
success which crowned these long continued ef¬ 
forts and gave to New York city a park and a 
few animals. 
Since that time the progress of the Zoological 
Society, the growth in the beauty of its park, 
the increase of its collections, and of its popu¬ 
larity with the public have been steady. 
It stands to-day as the largest and best man¬ 
aged zoological park in the world, possesses a 
collection of animals almost if not quite un¬ 
equalled and marvelously well housed and cared 
for, and within the past year has raised an en¬ 
dowment fund of a quarter of a million of dol¬ 
lars, which will give it funds to tide over any 
hard places that it may meet with, and especially 
to set on foot projects of original research which 
are already being considered by the managers. 
The Zoological Society is perhaps the best edu¬ 
cational philanthropic association that New York 
city possesses, and the New York public owes an 
enormous debt of gratitude to the men who have 
made this society what it is. 
AN ARCTIC HUNTING TRIP. 
Captain Robert Bartlett, the skipper of Ad¬ 
miral Peary’s Roosevelt, and now a citizen of 
the United States, is reported as being about to 
take a hunting party to the Arctic regions. He 
is said to have organized a little group of New 
York and Boston young men who are to go first 
to Labrador salmon fishing, and from there north 
to Ellesmere Land, to kill polar bears, muskox 
and walrus. 
Captain Bartlett commanded the Beothic, which 
took north the Rainey-Whitney party. That party 
returned with many trophies, and a number of 
interesting living animals for the New York 
Zoological Society. The adventures undergone 
in capturing the big polar bear now in the 
Zoological Park at the Bronx were exploited on 
the lecture stage. 
It is purposed to take along on this trip motor 
boats for use in the getting about in the North¬ 
ern seas, and moving picture machines are to 
be taken to record the adventures of the hunters 
on the sensitive plate. The armament will con¬ 
sist of high-power rifles, with shotguns for birds 
and small animals. 
The ship expects to leave here in July for the 
salmon and trout fishing in Labrador, and then 
to proceed to Greenland, where Eskimo with 
their sledges and dogs will be taken aboard, 
when the ship will proceed to Ellesmere Land, 
and a trip will be made into the interior. It is 
said that the cost to the members of the expedi¬ 
tion will run from $1,500 to $2,000 each. 
Last winter the game preservation committee 
of the Boone and Crockett Club in its annual 
report remarked on the danger to Arctic game 
from undue killing by pleasure hunting parties. 
The matter is hardly to be regulated by 
law, but the good feeling of the members of 
such expeditions should lead them to indulge in 
only a moderate killing of such animals as the 
muskox and the walrus, species that are believed 
to be growing scarce. 
Over a large section of the country forest 
fires are burning with a vigor unusual for May, 
and so far the property loss is considerable. 
April rains were meager, and unless the precipi¬ 
tation for May is far above the average, quench¬ 
ing the fires and supplying the water for which 
there is urgent need, the coming of summer will 
be contemplated with no little apprehension. To 
offset the unseasonable drouth there is the fact 
that the snow in the north melted very slowly, 
causing little waste from floods. 
■t 
A press dispatch from Ottawa states that E. 
T. D. Chambers has been appointed commis¬ 
sioner of fisheries and game for the Province of 
Quebec, and that he entered upon his new duties 
on May 1. Mr. Chambers has for many years 
been a contributor to Forest and Stream. To 
the sportsmen of the Province, and to the new 
commissioner, we tender congratulations. 
* 
Governor Baldwin has appointed Frank O. 
Davis, of Pomfret, and Dr. Frank W. Hewes, 
of Groton, members of the Connecticut Fish and 
Game Commission for two years from July 1 
next, to succeed E. H. Fenn and George P. 
Mathewson; E. Hart Greer, of Lyme, has been 
reappointed a commissioner for the same term. 
An important measure passed by the New 
Jersey Legislature makes the open shooting sea¬ 
son for the entire State Nov. i-Dec. 31, inclu¬ 
sive, and materially increases the number of 
game protectors. Whether this bid was signed 
by Governor Wilson before his departure for the 
West is not known. 
K 
The Bureau of Fisheries at Washington is 
encouraged over the unusually large run of shad 
this season, and believes its work in planting 
100,000.000 to 125,000,000 shad fry annually is 
beginning to show in a satisfactory way. 
