July, 1918 
D S T R E A M 
415 
FOREST A N* 
low fever from one person to another; a form of plague 
comes to man through the bite of fleas infected from 
rats or ground squirrels; and other insects transmit other 
diseases. Statistics show that in Italy alone malaria has 
claimed 200,000 victims annually and the sleeping sick¬ 
ness 500,000 in Africa, while in India the losses from 
plague are far greater. 
When the Panama Canal was being dug, the French 
workers perished by pestilences so sweeping that it was 
impossible to recruit wo xers fast enough to fill the 
places of those who had died. Today, through the de¬ 
struction of insects, yellow fever is unknown in the re¬ 
gion of the Panama Canal, and communities live there 
in comfort and ease, where formerly life for the white 
man was impossible. 
The subject is fascinating and volumes might be 
written about it. The point to be made is that this study- 
of matters of which the average man is ignorant and 
which to him seem trifling has its purpose and that in 
recent years it has been clearly demonstrated that this 
purpose is of astonishing value, economically and in the 
preservation of human life. 
A WILD DOG 
.l AVORITE topic for imaginative country re¬ 
porters to send in to city dailies deals with packs 
of wild dogs said to ravage certain country districts, de¬ 
stroying the farmer’s poultry and calves and sometimes 
even frightening himself. These stories usually have 
their origin under the reporter’s hat, yet there have been 
wild dogs, though they are very rarely seen. The Call 
of the Wild may well have had a basis of fact. 
In a recent report made of a trip into the Buffalo 
Fork country, by a scout in the Yellowstone National 
Park, he told of the killing of one mountain lion, one 
bobcat, four coyotes and an Airedale dog. This dog 
was wild, possibly lie had wandered away from some 
settlement not far from the border of the Park, possi¬ 
bly he had been lost by someone traveling near or in the 
Park, but he had been seen occasionally for several 
years and was one of the destructive animals which the 
scouts were ordered to kill. 
Deer, antelope, their young, with rabbits, and ground 
nesting birds must have been the prey on which this dog 
lived during the years that he was known to have been 
at liberty there. It was high time that he was killed, and 
Scout Anderson, who reported his death, did good work 
in holding straight on this Airedale. 
ANOTHER PROTEST AGAINST SHEEPING 
REAT pressure is being brought to bear to so 
change the regulations regarding grazing in the 
national forests as to allow sheeping in national parks 
and increased sheeping in national forests, comments 
California Fish and Game, the organ of the State Com¬ 
mission, upon a question which is arousing the widest 
interest. This may sound favorable so far as increased 
meat supply is concerned, but anyone who has seen the 
deep traces left in sections where sheep have grazed 
will shudder to think what results are to be expected. 
Many are the wornout meadows, deeply gullied, which 
now testify to the past inroads of herds of sheep, and 
many the depleted game covers where the trampling of 
nests and the destruction of food has reduced upland 
game birds to the minimum. These are dangerous times 
and every conservationist must help form the army of 
defense needed to save wild life in this emergency when 
special opportunity to devastate wild life resources is 
given the enemy. 
HOW FAST CAN A DOG RUN 
HE speed of birds has been well threshed out, and 
now the Shooting Times asks the question, At what 
pace can a dog travel ? A fox-terrier, as we all know, 
will follow his master’s carriage for hours with no signs 
of fatigue. Wolves will travel sixty miles in a night. 
Nansen saw Arctic foxes on the ice nearly 500 miles 
from land. Eskimo dogs can travel forty-five miles in 
five hours, according to an authority, who relates that he 
once drove his dog team seven miles in half an hour. A 
Siberian dog, on good ice, will draw about eight}" pounds; 
ordinary domestic dogs, at full speed, run at the rate of 
from thirty-three to forty-nine feet per second; setters 
and pointers, about eighteen and a-half to twenty-one and 
seven-tenths miles per hour, and they can maintain this 
speed for two or even three hours. Foxhounds are very 
fast, and in a recent trial one of them beat a thoroughbred 
horse, covering four miles in six and a-half minutes. 
Greyhounds can run at the rate of fifty-nine to seventy- 
five feet per second. Horses cannot exceed sixty-three 
feet per second. 
THE AUGUST ISSUE 
ITH the August issue, Forest and Stream attains 
another birthday. We are glad to announce that 
the year that has past has been a prosperous one. Pros¬ 
perity measured by Forest and Stream’s standards, does 
not mean financial dividends, but it does mean that its 
family circle of readers has grown and that its sphere of 
influence has widened. Today Forest and Stream has 
more readers than ever before in its history and this 
again means that it has attained the largest issue of any 
outdoor magazine in the world. 
In the next issue Emerson Hough will conclude his 
story on the ascent of Mt. Whitney with his whimsical 
comments on mountain climbing in general. 
The final chapter of Mr. Larned’s interesting story on 
the remarkable King Expedition will appear. We are 
also glad to announce that last winter this fascinating 
writer made another trip into this wonderful section, the 
story of which we hope to present to our readers. 
In these war weary times Newton Newkirk’s human 
nature studies come as a relief to tired nerves. 
The question of where to go fishing is always impor¬ 
tant and Mr. Hulit will have a second paper on nearby 
favorite fishing resorts. In addition to a charming liter¬ 
ary style Mr. Hulit speaks with a voice of authority, for 
no one has studied the Atlantic waters more carefully, or 
knows them better than this brilliant writer. 
Forty years ago, the distinguished Dr. Henshall intro¬ 
duced the black bass to the readers of Forest and 
Stream, and our readers are always interested in the 
valiant bronze back. He is a sturdy warrior everywhere, 
but near the streams of the Ozarks in Missouri it is 
claimed that there he fights a little harder and a little 
longer than in any other waters. James Eugene Stevens 
has written a story on “Three Tenderfeet on the Jim 
River.” It is a story of bass fishing at its best in the 
Ozarks, full of information, and good advice that will 
appeal to our readers. 
SPARE THE PIGEON 
HE Pigeon Department of the Signal Corps of the 
United States has been extended to large propor¬ 
tions. Throughout the country the training of pigeons 
as carriers of war messages, is now progressing on an 
extensive scale. It is impossible to differentiate between 
the ordinary pigeon and the homing or carrier pigeon. 
Therefore, at the present time, it is exceedingly unpa¬ 
triotic to shoot or to interfere with pigeons of any kind. 
