Forest and Stream 
Terms, $3 a Year. 10 Cts. a Copy. 
Six Months. $1.50. 
NEW YORK, SATURDAY, AUGUST 13, 1910. 
VOL. LXXV.—No. 7. 
No. 127 Franklin St. New York 
A WEEKLY JOURNAL. 
Copyright, 1909, by Forest and Stream Publishing Co. 
GecTrge 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. 11, 1873. 
THAT EASTERN NATIONAL FOREST. 
For more than ten years persons interested in 
forestry, and many residents in the Southern 
Alleghanies and in New England, have been 
striving to induce Congress to purchase and set 
aside as national forests great tracts of land in 
the Appalachian and White Mountains. One re¬ 
sult hoped to be attained by such a purchase is 
the preservation of the forests, while another, 
which depends on such preservation, is the in¬ 
crease of the water supply in the various streams, 
navigable and otherwise, which flow down from 
those mountains. 
The White Mountains supply water which 
turns the wheels in many a New England manu¬ 
facturing town, while the streams which flow 
from the Appalachians were once highways for 
the transportation of merchandise, but owing to 
their filling up with soil brought down from the 
mountain sides are now for a great part of the 
year no longer navigable. This is a loss to the 
'regions affected. 
Congressmen from the two regions have sup¬ 
ported these bills and the voters of New Eng¬ 
land and the Appalachian country have stood 
solidly behind them. Nevertheless, it has been 
uphill pull and the bill has had many defeats. 
At the last session of Congress this bill passed 
the House, and an agreement was reached by 
which it will be voted on in the Senate on Feb. 
15 next. 
All the friends of the measure — and that in¬ 
cludes most of the thoughtful people of the coun¬ 
try who know about the proposed Appalachian 
forest — should unite in a strong effort next win¬ 
ter to carry this bill through the Senate, a body 
which on such matters has usually held broader 
views than the House of Representatives. 
In th^ YY estern country — in the Rocky Moun¬ 
tains and beyond — there is over a hundred mil¬ 
lion acres of National Forest — reservations which 
m time will prove of enormous economic value 
to this country. In the thickly sett’ed East, na¬ 
tional forests are unknown, and if this measure 
becomes law, this will be the first one in the East. 
The hill should have the support of all friends 
of conservation. 
NEW ENGLAND WILD DUCKS. 
From time to time, since the abolishment of 
spring shooting in Connecticut, correspondents 
have told us of wild ducks breeding in that 
State. There is good reason to believe that in 
all States where spring shooting is forbidden and 
the law is rigidly enforced, many of our more 
familiar ducks will eventually come to breed in 
some numbers. That the dusky ducks, the most 
- familiar of New England’s fresh water wild¬ 
fowl, have established permanent summer homes 
in Connecticut seems to show this. Blackducks 
breed also in little settled parts of Maine and 
Northern New Hampshire, and possibly also in 
Vermont. We believe that they are beginning 
to do so in Massachusetts as well, for there is 
reported to us as seen July 29 two blackducks 
flying over a large swamp in the towm of Sud¬ 
bury, Mass. It is hardly likely that blackducks 
would now be seen in that locality unless they 
were breeding. 
We have long held that this w*as a very im¬ 
portant reason for the abolishment of spring 
shooting — that the protection of the mated birds 
during the spring migration would lead to their 
breeding on grounds from which they were 
long ago expelled by the spring shooter, but to 
which they are only too ready to return, pro¬ 
vided they can be free from molestation. 
Massachusetts, with her various reserves 
where absolute protection is extended to all liv¬ 
ing things, ought to offer great attractions to 
these returning wildfowl, and the time may 
come, and that before long, when the old Bay 
State will annually raise a great crop of wild 
ducks to furnish better shooting to ad her sons. 
PENOBSCOT SALMON. 
The fears that the supply of salmon in the 
Penobscot River is running out have been set 
at rest for the time being at least by Commis¬ 
sioner Ring, of Maine. He has been investigat¬ 
ing conditions, following a discussion as to the 
effect on the salmon of the paper and pulp mills. 
That the mills have increased in number is well 
known, but the Fish Commission has promised 
to enforce the maintenance of adequate fishways, 
and to co-operate with the Government in re¬ 
stocking the river with salmon every year, to the 
end that the supply shall increase. 
The Government hatchery at East Orland, Me., 
is in charge of Charles G. Atkins, the veteran 
fish culturist. Adult salmon to the number of 
797 were purchased from the professional fisher¬ 
men this year for breeding purposes, and under 
favorable conditions it is expected that upward 
of 2,000,000 fry will be available for restocking 
the Penobscot. Meanwhile the results of the 
rod-and-line fishing show an increase in the 
catch of salmon in the Penobscot, but a decrease 
in the average size of the fish taken. 
In this connection a paragraph appearing in 
the Maine Woods recently is not without in¬ 
terest. We quote: 
It is a well established fact that more salmon have 
been caught at the Bangor pool this season than usual. 
It is equally certain that more small fish are taken each 
year. It has been proven beyond a doubt that salmon 
ascend the river every two years and that they do not 
feed while in fresh water. Where they go when they 
leave the shelter of the river for the deep sea is some¬ 
thing which no man has yet been able to discover. 
There are various theories on the subject, but they are 
nothing more than theories. That they do not feed 
while in fresh water is amply proven by the conduct 
of the fish now in captivity at the East Orland hatchery. 
The most tempting morsels which Superintendent Atkins 
has offered them do not excite even the faintest interest 
on their part. . 
To persons who regard Alaska only as a 
bleak, cold region, surprises will be found in 
a perusal of the annual report of the Alaska 
Agricultural Experiment Stations, just issued by 
the Federal Government. The climate shows a 
wide variation, from 90 degrees Fahrenheit at 
Rampart, on the Yukon River, in July, with an 
average for the month of 63 degrees, to 69 de¬ 
grees below zero at Fort Egbert, near the Klon¬ 
dike gold fields, in January, with an average for 
the month of 40 degrees below zero. The coast 
towns are mild for that region, neither Sitka 
nor Kodiak reaching zero during 1909, while 
Juneau only reached 5 degrees below in Janu¬ 
ary, with a daily mean for the month of 14.15. 
n 
The forest fires in Oregon, Washington and 
California and those which have been burning 
for a longer time in Montana and Idaho have 
proved to be t so stubborn that President Taft has 
authorized the use of regular troops in fighting 
them. Fleadquarters v 'of the California, Columbia 
and Dakota Departments have therefore been 
placed in readiness to dispatch troops on brief 
notice and post commanders are prepared to re¬ 
spond immediately to emergency calls in their 
districts. The troops, acting under direction of 
the Forest Service officers, will, if called upon, 
acquit themselves as creditably in fighting fires 
as they have done in other emergencies that have 
arisen from time to time. 
The present activity among yachtsmen attracts 
attention to the curious nanyes they have given 
their craft. So great has been the increase in 
the number of sailing and power boats that the 
list of appropriate names was long ago exhausted. 
To affix a numeral to a name is common prac¬ 
tice, but the incongruity of some names and the 
boats bearing them is. very marked. To coin 
names is difficult; to. employ one already given 
to another boat is unpardonable. To decide on 
a suitable name and to design the boat itself re¬ 
quires almost equal effort. 
