Forest and Stream 
Terms, $3 a Year, 10 Cts. a Copy, / 
Six Months, $1.50. ' 
NEW YORK, SATURDAY, OCTOBER 8 , 1910 . 
I VOL. LXXV—No. 15. 
1 No. 127 Franklin St., New York. 
A WEEKLY JOURNAL. 
Copyright, 1910, 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. 
BIG GAME OF THE NORTHWEST. 
Northwestern Canada and portions of Alaska 
still contain great numbers of large game, but 
in some localities this has already become very 
scarce. This is almost the last spot in America 
where big game is abundant ; there remain only 
the arctic regions. 
It is evident that in a new country lacking 
transportation facilities and invaded by great 
numbers of civilized men, who must depend in 
large measure on the country for subsistence, the 
larger native fauna will soon disappear. In this 
northern region, travelers, trappers and pros¬ 
pectors subsist very largely on the game and 
fish that they take, and great quantities of wild 
meat are brought into the settlements for sale. 
There has been enormous waste by the 
white game killers, and if the waste by the In¬ 
dians has been less, it is only because the In¬ 
dians are fewer in number. In some localities 
the continued and reckless killing of game for 
sa'e in the mining camps has resulted in the 
almost complete disappearance of such game. 
Besides this there are not a few people who 
go into the country in search of fine game heads, 
and who kill with the usual selfish recklessness. 
They have been known after a day’s hunting to 
leave to spoil on a hillside enough meat to supply 
a prospector with provisions for a whole winter. 
The chief game animal in much of that coun¬ 
try is the moose, which is so abundant that from 
a good lookout high up on the mountains, moose 
can be seen almost any fine day by the aid of 
field g’asses. In certain portions of the country 
west of the Mackenzie River, caribou are still 
seen in great herds at the proper season of the 
year, but these herds appear to be growing con¬ 
stantly smaller. 
Mountain sheep are yet abundant in many 
places, and owing to their habits of life are 
perhaps in less immediate danger of extermina¬ 
tion than the moose or caribou. 
It is obvious that as the settlement of this 
northern country proceeds, the game must dis¬ 
appear. It is only by the establishment of game 
refuges in these regions that it can be preserved, 
and at the present time the residents of that 
northern country are interested in the game 
only so far as it may be turned into money. 
COMMISSIONER WHIPPLE RESIGNS. 
The resignation of James S. Whipple, State 
Forest, Fish and Game Commissioner, was an¬ 
nounced on Tuesday night. His special counsel, 
Frank D. Bell, and the chief counsel of the de¬ 
partment, John K. Ward, have also resigned. 
These resignations followed the receipt by 
Governor Hughes of a report by Roger P. 
Clark, of Binghamton, and District-Attorney H. 
Le Roy Austin, of Greene county, appointed last 
winter to investigate Mr. Whipple’s administra¬ 
tion of his department and to look into the pur¬ 
chase of Adirondack lands by the State Forest 
Preserve Land Purchasing Board. 
The report severely criticizes the condition of 
the records of the department and declares that 
its expenses have very greatly increased within 
the last four years. It states that the work of 
the legal department shows laxity, neg igence, 
failure to prosecute and many compromises of 
suits, on terms disadvantageous to the State, 
both in the matter of violation of the game and 
fish laws and thefts of timber from the State 
lands. One of Mr. Whipple’s legal appointees, 
while ostensibly acting for the Forest, Fish and 
Game Commission, was at the same time a legis¬ 
lative agent of the International Paper Company. 
Commissioner Whipp.e is reported to have 
entered into business arrangements with persons 
operating in Adirondack lands, or acting for 
those who were operating in them, a condition 
of things that should not have existed in view of 
his office. On the other hand, the report says, “A 
careful inquiry has failed to reveal a single in¬ 
stance in which money has been improperly paid 
to influence the action of the Forest Purchasing 
Board or any of its employees.” 
While Commissioner Whipple has undoubtedly 
done much good work, the conditions set forth 
in this report cannot be ignored, and his useful¬ 
ness as a public officer is ended. His term would 
not have expired until April n, 1912. 
NEW YORK’S NEW RIFLE RANGE. 
The magnificent rifle range of the New York 
National Guard, now nearing completion, will be 
known as the Blauvelt Range, since Blauvell, on 
the West Shore Railway, is the station where the 
troops will disembark when journeying to the 
range. It is one of the best in the world in ef¬ 
ficiency and equipment. It contains 300 acres of 
State property. It is situated in the beautiful hill 
and mountain country of the West Shore region, 
and is peculiarly adapted to the requirements for 
rifle competition. The hills and mountains form 
perfect backstops for the bullets, thus differing 
widely from the flat country of the old Creed- 
moor Range. 
It will have a capacity of 198 targets, as fol¬ 
lows: P'ifty-six targets at 200, 600 and 1,000 
yards respectively, and thirty targets at 300 yards. 
The 200- and 300-yard ranges will be ready 
for this fall’s practice. Next year, all the ranges 
will be completed. 
A tunnel system will connect all the targets of the 
ranges. 1 his, while not new as a system, is new in 
i s comprehensive application to the whole Blauvelt 
Range system. A complete telephone system 
wi 1 also connect the ranges with the range office, 
which will overlook the entire system of targets. 
In a financial way, the State has started in 
right by its thoroughness and liberality. When 
completed, the range will have cost about 
$250,000, of which $110,000 has already been ex¬ 
pended. This is in pleasing contrast to the 
cheese-paring system which obtained when Creed- 
moor was established, the State Legislature of 
1872-73 appropriating the sum of $25,000 for its 
construction. It was closed in 1907, owing 
largely to the increasing number of homes built 
in its vicinity and the consequent danger from 
stray bullets, concerning which there were many 
complaints by the contiguous residents. 
In the swing around the circle of the great 
National matches, there is a chance that in due 
course of time some of them may be shot on the 
New York Range. 
The utility of these ranges obviously has come 
home to the consciousness of the Federal and 
State governments. There is no greater insur¬ 
ance for the maintenance of peace than to be 
prepared for war. 
The American Fisheries Society has chosen 
for its presiding officer for the ensuing year an 
extremely busy man. William E. Meehan is 
Commissioner of Fisheries of Pennsylvania, pres¬ 
ident of the North American Fish and Game 
Protective Association, president of the United 
Sportsmen of Pennsylvania, and has just been 
elected president of the American Fisheries Soci¬ 
ety. Quite a number of duties, it would seem, 
for one man to assume; but Mr. Meehan is a 
very active man, and he takes pleasure in meet¬ 
ing and overcoming obstacles that would dis¬ 
courage lesF energetic men. Since the new law 
went into effect last year in Pennsylvania, he has 
brought about a very satisfactory change in sen¬ 
timent regarding the stoppage of stream pollution 
by manufacturers, and this, too, largely without 
resorting to the courts. 
* 
In view of the interest taken in recent winters 
in wolf hunting excursions in Canada, the work 
of John R. Bradley’s dogs will be watched. In 
his recent hunt in the rough country in North¬ 
west Colorado his Russian wolf hounds, he 
claims, caught and killed a number of wolves. 
Encouraged by their work, he now plans to hunt 
wolves in Northwest Canada, where he thinks 
the hounds will do more creditable work in fol¬ 
lowing wolves on the prairies. The term wolf 
is usually so loosely applied that one does not 
know how seriously to take these newspaper re¬ 
ports. 
