Forest and Stream 
Terms, $3 a Year, 10 Cts. a Copy, I 
Six Months, $1.50. 
NEW YORK, SATURDAY, OCTOBER 29, 1910. 
j VOL. LXXV.—No. 18. 
t 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. 
THE FIRST MOUNTAIN SHEEP HUNT. 
One hundred and ten years is a very long time 
in the history of America. Even then in the 
North the fur traders had pushed out over the 
Great Lakes, crossed to Lake Winnipeg by the 
Grand Portage, raced over some of the Northern 
country and discovered a multitude of new things. 
Yet most of these fur traders had a keen vision 
only for fur, for profitable bargains with the 
Indians, and for such treatment of those savage 
and astonished people as would induce them to 
bring in greater numbers of the choice skins 
that the traders so much desired. 
The Louisiana purchase had not then been 
made, and of course Lewis and Clark had not 
started across the continent. If men had wan¬ 
dered through Kentucky, Ohio, Indiana and Illi¬ 
nois, they Had made a few settlements there. 
They were still living in a wilderness, support¬ 
ing themselves on its wild animals and meeting 
constantly its more or less unchanged human 
inhabitants. Nevertheless before this, Mackenzie 
had gone to the frozen ocean and returned, and 
had crossed the Rocky Mountains and found the 
Western sea. On his way back from the Mac¬ 
kenzie’s mouth he had heard reports of white 
buffalo in the mountains, which Mr. Sheldon 
has clearly shown—as Richardson in 1829 had 
already conjectured—were the white sheep of the 
North. 
On another page we print an exceedingly in¬ 
teresting account of mountain sheep hunting 
which took place in the year 1800. Printed first 
in New York it was republished later in Lon¬ 
don, but oddly enough never attracted any at¬ 
tention and seems to have been entirely unknown. 
The account bears internal evidence of its 
genuineness. The Indian tribes mentioned, and 
the names by which these tribes called the moun¬ 
tain sheep, are substantially the same that we 
know to-day. The man who wrote the account 
was a close observer. He gave the precise lo¬ 
cality where the animal was killed, its measure¬ 
ments, its names and described its habits accord¬ 
ing to his observation and the testimony of 
others. We do not know his name, though it 
is barely possible that the journals of David 
Thompson, if looked up, might give this. 
The whole account is a reminder of the dis¬ 
tant past, which cannot fail to be of the utmost 
interest to naturalists and to big-game hunters. 
MASSACHUSETTS STATE PONDS. 
An interesting hearing now being had in Mass¬ 
achusetts deals with the future use of one of the 
great ponds owned by the State. 
The cranberry growers near where the pond 
is situated wish to have that sheet of water sold, 
the purchaser intending to make of it a cran¬ 
berry bog. For such a purpose it is said the 
pond will have a very high value. On the other 
hand a large number of persons devoted to bird 
protection in one form or another take the 
ground that the State should hold this pond as 
a breeding place and refuge for wild birds. So 
far as reported, therefore, the struggle seems to 
be, between commercialism on the one hand and 
conservation on the other. 
It is declared by one party that wild ducks 
breed or used to breed on the pond, and that it 
is a feeding and nesting ground for many wild 
birds, which are especially useful at this time, 
when over a million dollars are being spent 
to fight the gipsy and other moths. Those 
who advocate the sale of the pond by the State 
declare that the formation here of a large cran¬ 
berry bog will give employment to much labor, 
and will add greatly to the wealth and prosperity 
of the town and the State. 
Massachusetts has stood in the front rank 
among the States establishing refuges for wild 
creatures, and the results of her efforts have 
been shown in part in the greatly increased 
number of wildfowl that have visited her shores 
within the past two years.' Wild ducks, such as 
canvasbacks, widgeons, redheads, tufted ducks 
and others are reported to winter on the ponds 
in and near Boston, and there are many evi¬ 
dences of the wisdom of the State action in set¬ 
ting aside these game refuges. 
ATLANTIC TUNA FISHING. 
The facts relating to the taking of two tunas 
in the Atlantic several miles off the New Jersey 
coast by E. T. Townsend, of the Asbury Park 
Fishing Club, on Sept. 30, and his subsequent 
capture of a third, all on rod and reel, have 
been published in these columns, together with 
a reproduction from a photograph of Mr. Town¬ 
send and his first two tunas. 
Although there was scant ground for doubt 
as to the species, yet in view of the futile efforts 
heretofore made at various places along the At¬ 
lantic coast, and particularly by J. K. L. Ross, 
C. G. Conn and F. G. Aflalo in Cape Breton, to 
bring tuna to gaff, we suggested that it would 
be well to send a specimen to the New York 
Aquarium for positive identification. 
Fortunately Mr. Townsend took still another 
tuna last week, and it was immediately for¬ 
warded to the New York Aquarium. We had 
already sent the original photograph to the 
Aquarium, and had been advised by Dr. Ray¬ 
mond C. Osburn, assistant director, that he was 
quite sure of the species. After an examination 
of the specimen received on Oct. 19, Dr. Osburn 
advised us that his conclusion was correct, and 
that Mr. Townsend’s specimens were Timmins 
thynnus. A communication from Dr. Osburn is 
printed in another column. The specimen has 
been sent to the American Museum of Natural 
History for preservation, and in due time it will 
be exhibited there. 
Mr. Townsend’s tunas were all much smaller 
than the average tunas taken on the rod in Cali¬ 
fornia waters and those hooked, but not landed, 
by the Cape Breton anglers, but this is explained 
by the fact that the specimens were young. The 
fish which carried away Mr. Townsend’s rod and 
reel was no doubt much larger, and as he is 
still fishing, it is possible that he may bring to 
gaff a record tuna. 
We have made extensive inquiries regarding 
various allegations that other anglers had killed 
tunas on the rod in local waters, but no one 
other than E. T. Townsend has come forward to 
claim the honor. In most cases the hand line 
was used, but no one as yet has disputed the 
claim that to Mr. Townsend belongs the honor 
of taking, on the rod and in fair fishing, the 
first tuna in Atlantic coast waters. 
That portions of the great region in Idaho 
described by Dr. Moody were burned over dur¬ 
ing the serious forest fires of last month is gen¬ 
erally known, but the effect on the fish and game 
can only be learned, if at all, after months have 
passed. One hunting party returning from their, 
.annual hunt m the Lochsaw region has reported 
that in four weeks' time two bears and one deer 
were all they succeeded in bagging, but that they 
saw the carcasses of numbers of deer and elk 
that lost their lives in the fires, while others 
seemed unable to find food or were suffering 
from the effects of the heat and smoke from the 
flames. The loss of game fish in the region 
seems to have been very great in places.' 
In a proclamation issued on Oct. 21, Governor 
Mead, of Vermont, has postponed for one week 
the open season for deer shooting in that State, 
and declares that, unless heavy rains fall during 
the present week, he will further postpone open¬ 
ing day. The legal Vermont open season is the 
last week in October, and if no further action 
be taken by the Governor, the season will be 
the first week in November, during which time 
each hunter may take one deer with horns. 
» 
A press dispatch from Seward, Alaska, dated 
Oct. 14, says that Iff. B. Smith, of Norwich. 
Conn., and Alfred Lowell, of Seward, lost their 
lives in a storm on Lake Kenai. With William 
Walker, a guide, they were returning from a 
moose hunt in the mountains, and crossed the 
lake in a small dory, which was swamped. The 
guide, being the only one in the party who 
could swim, finally reached shore alone. 
