534 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
[April 4, 1908. 
we did not hunt them, as the law was on. Ihese 
Southern birds seemed to lack all the dash and 
vigor that they show in the North, getting up 
like lazy bats and after short flights at a height 
of only three or four feet from the ground set¬ 
tling down again in perfectly open ground. 
It seems wonderful that these same birds after 
a flight of nearly a thousand miles should be in 
a condition to go whirling and twisting over the 
tree tops and appear as fat and strong as in the 
autumn. : 4 J 
Our native quail have been utterly killed out 
by severe winters and excessive shooting, while 
the Southern birds, which were imported, 
promptly migrate at the first cold weather. In 
spite of the scarcity of grouse last autumn the 
native hunters showed them no mercy and now 
they are practically exterminated. 
If it were not for the woodcock, sportsmen in 
our part of Connecticut would have nothing left 
to shoot, and soon, I presume, even the wood¬ 
cock will disappear unless the Southern States 
give him better protection. 
This winter has been a bad one for what little 
woodland was left for many miles about our 
place, as even young trees a few inches in diame¬ 
ter have been cut and sawed up for firewood, 
and in a few years more it will not matter that 
we have no game birds left, since we will have 
no covers left for them to live in. 
Joseph E. Bulkley. 
A Wood Duck’s House. 
Jamaica, Feb. 22 .—Editor Forest and Stream: 
I believe the introduction of artificial breeding 
places for wood ducks to be perfectly feasible 
and at this moment have in view several nearby 
places where this experiment can be tried and 
where the birds will receive proper protection. 
Excellent places to try such an experiment are 
a small lily grown pond on the property of Wm. 
K. Vanderbilt, Jr., at Lakeville, near Great Neck, 
L. I.; the old mill pond on the property of Harry 
Payne Whitney, at Manhasset; and Buhrmann’s 
mill pond at the ally, situated at the head of,the 
Bayside meadows. I have already spoken to Mr. 
Buhrmann on this subject and he states he will 
protect the birds, if any are entrusted to him. 
No doubt Mr. Vanderbilt and Mr. Whitney will 
do likewise if the matter is brought to their at¬ 
tention. I am informed that wood ducks formerly 
bred at all of these places, and I know that they 
occasionally stop there at the present time when 
on their migrations, or when trading back and 
forth from their breeding spots. 
John H. Hendrickson. 
The Chilkat Blanket. 
Most persons who have been to Alaska and 
many who have not, but who are interested in 
Indian art, have seen or heard of the Chilkat 
blanket, a ceremonial robe woven of goat’s wool 
and cedar bark, highly ornamented, and exceed¬ 
ingly curious as a work of art. This blanket has 
been described at length in an elaborate and 
most interesting quarto paper of over 70 pages 
by Lieut. Geo. T. Emmons, long resident in 
Alaska, and our first authority on some of the 
tribes which inhabit it. The paper is very fully 
illustrated with designs of the ornamentation of 
the blankets, to which are added three plates, two 
of them colored, which give admirable ideas of 
the robe. 
Mr. Emmons’ interesting account opens with 
the l'simshian tradition—current also among the 
Chilkat—which accounts for the origin of the 
blanket, and then, dealing with the material of 
which it is composed, goes on to describe the 
preparation of the material and its weaving into 
the blanket—or as it is called by some of the 
tribes—“the fringe about the body,” referring to 
the long fringe which hangs down from the bot¬ 
tom—a noticeable feature of the robe when 
worn. 
The paper, which is printed as Part IV., of 
Vol. III. of the Memoirs of the American Mu¬ 
seum, is of very high interest to every student of 
our aborigines, and Mr. Emmons has performed 
a good service in writing it. 
Canada’s Reserves and Buffalo. 
Canada is taking up more and more the ques¬ 
tion of public parks and forest and other re¬ 
serves, and it is now announced that the whole 
eastern slope of the Rocky Mountains is soon to 
be set aside by the Canadian government as a 
forest reserve. Canada recognizes, as does the 
government of the United States, the importance 
of the forests as holders of snow. Mr. Howard 
Douglas, formerly superintendent of the Cana¬ 
dian National Park at Banff, and now Commis¬ 
sioner of Dominion Parks, is at Edmonton 
and is quoted as saying with regard to the pro¬ 
posed action, “that as the timber is cut off the 
snow on the mountains will melt more readily 
and the water will come down with a rush in 
spring, while in the hot months of July and 
August there will be no moisture for the West¬ 
ern prairie provinces, as there is at present.” 
The parks under Mr. Douglas’ supervision are 
the Rocky Mountain Park, the Oval, the Glacier 
Park Reserve, the Elk Island Park Reserve, 
Jasper Park, and the new Buffalo Park, just es¬ 
tablished on Battle River. 
Jaspar Park is a reserve of 5,000 square miles 
in Jaspar Pass on the line of the Grand Trunk 
Railroad. In the summer Mr. Douglas and Mr. 
Campbell, the Superintendent of Forestry, are 
going out to inspect this park and report on it. 
The new Buffalo Park is on Battle River, and 
has only recently been taken over by the govern¬ 
ment. A fence 70 miles long is soon to be built 
to inclose it, and the government has already 
advertised for. bids for the contract. Eight miles 
of this fence will run along the main line of the 
Grand Trunk Pacific. The park contains about 
125,000 acres, and is about 120 miles east of Ed¬ 
monton. It is to this park that the buffalo now 
in the Elk Island Park are to be transferred. 
From the herd it is said that 80 or 100 calves 
are expected this season. There are still some 
300 head of buffalo in Montana, which Michel 
Pablo, the owner, is trying to gather. His ef¬ 
forts to drive the animals into corrals have not 
been successful, and it is said that he has built 
a wing fence to assist him in getting the animals 
together. When brought to Canada the buffalo 
will, it is said, be brought as near to the park as 
possible, unloaded and driven the rest of the 
way. Then, it is said, the cow punchers who 
come up with them from Montana, will go to 
Elk Island Park and get the buffalo there and 
drive them to the new park. 
From western Montana we learn that prepara¬ 
tions are actively going on to get the buffalo to¬ 
gether, and it is expected to make the final ship¬ 
ment in August. Past experience leads those 
who are gathering the buffalo to believe that 
they have a difficult task on hand. 
This of course may be practicable, but the jol; 
of driving 400 buffalo for a distance of 80 or 10c 
miles, some of it through a thickly timbered 
country, interspersed by many lakes and mus¬ 
kegs, is one which might well be regarded a- 
difficult. Buffalo are not like cattle. If the} 
make up their minds to go in a certain directioi 
they are likely to go there, and to pay not th< 
slightest attention to the horseman who tries tc 
turn them. Pablo has had abundant grief ii 
gathering his buffalo, and it is possible that ii 
making the drive of these two bunches as a 
present contemplated, the Canadian authoritie 
may have a like experience and may also los< 
some buffalo. We hope that they will not. 
So far in the handling of this herd excellen 
judgment has been used, and great success at 
tained. The losses have been slight, the mos 
serious one being the drowning of eleven hea< 
last autumn when the second detachment of th 
herd was brought up. When the two section 
were brought together, there was a fight am 
eleven animals were forced into the river am 
drowned. 
A Montana Buffalo Reserve. 
Senator Jos. M. Dixon, of Montana, has re 
cently introduced in the Senate a bill which pro 
vides for the establishment of a buffalo reserv 
of about twenty square miles and the money re 
quired to buy and fence it. The proposed reserv 
is situated immediately north of Ravalli, Mon 
tana. It is a rough country of ridges and hill 
said to be valueless except as grazing land. I 
has a frontage of seven miles on the Norther 
Pacific Railway. 
This land, 12,800 acres, is a part of the Flat 
head Indian Reservation which has recently bee 
thrown open, and will have to be bought an 
paid for, presumably at the rate of $1.25 a 
acre. To pay this money, and to provide fo 
fencing, the bill carries an appropriation of $30 
000. The bill is introduced at the solicitation 0 
the American Bison Society, and should the bi 
pass, the Bison Society will at once set to wor 
to raise funds for the purpose of purchasing 
nucleus herd of from 15 to 20 bison of pur 
blood to be given to the government and to oc 
cupy this land. This is just about what wa 
done a year or two ago, when the Wichita gam 
preserve was established, Congress appropriat 
ing the money to fence the pasture while th 
New York Zoological Society gave the anima 
to stock it. 
An interesting feature of the Bison Society 
annual report is a census made by Dr. W. 1 
Hornaday up to Jan. 1, 1908, which shows 1,72 
pure American bison in captivity throughout tl 
world, and an estimated number of 325 runnin 
wild. Of the wild ones 25 are supposed to be i 
the Yellowstone Park, and 300 in the so-calle 
Peace River herd of Canada. In the Unite 
States there are 1,116 bison in captivity, and i 
Canada 476. 
The American Bison Society hopes for, an 
should have, the active assistance and interest c 
all persons who care for the preservation c 
natural things in this country. Such persor 
should request their Senators and Represent; 
tives to favor Senator Dixon’s bill. 
