Forest and Stream 
Terms, $3 a Year, 10 Cts. a Copy, 
Six Months, $1.50. 
NEW YORK, SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 5 , 1910 . 
1 VOL. LXXV.—No. 19. 
1 No. 127 Franklin St., New York. 
A WEEKLY JOURNAL. 
Copyright, 1910, by Forest and Stream Publishing Co. 
Gsomcb Bibd Grinnell, President, 
Charles B. Reynolds, Secretary, 
Louis Dean Speie, 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 DUTY OF VOTERS. 
The attention of all voters in the State of 
New York is called to an important question 
which will be found on their ballots next Tues¬ 
day: 
Shall an act making provision for issuing bonds to an 
amount not exceeding $2,500,000, for the use of the Com¬ 
missioners of the Palisades Interstate Park in the ex¬ 
tension and improvement of the park, be approved? 
If the voters approve this bond issue, they will 
also accept for the work $500,000 which was' last 
winter appropriated by the New Jersey Legis¬ 
lature, provided New York appropriates the $2,- 
500,000 referred to above. 
It was fitting that a boy of nineteen years, 
Averill W. Harriman, representing his mother 
and carrying out the wishes of his father, the 
late Edward H. Harriman, should have uttered 
these words: 
It is her hope and mine that through all the years to 
come the health and happiness of future generations will 
be advanced by these gifts. 
That was on Oct. 29, when Averill Harriman 
turned over to the Palisades Interstate Park 
Commission the deed to 10,000 acres of land, 
together with a check for $1,000,000 to be used 
in the purchase of additional land and in the 
building of roads. At the same time William J. 
McKay, president of the New York Prison Com¬ 
mission, in the name of the State conveyed to 
the Park Commission title to the 700-acre tract 
on Bear Mountain which had been chosen as a 
site for the new State prison, but which was 
later taken to serve those who seek freedom 
from the restraint of the cities. 
This great park is accessible to a very large 
proportion of the people of New York and New 
Jersey. The final word has been left to the 
voters of New York State. Vote “yes” and 
these glorious wooded mountains will pass into 
the possession of the people forever. 
According to cabled advices, the zoological and 
geographical expedition under the leadership of 
William Goodfellow, which reached New Guinea 
several weeks ago, has succeeded in ascending the 
Snow Mountains. Aside from the actual ascent 
collecting was carried on during the journey. 
Some peaks of this range are very high, the chief 
one having a reported altitude of about 18,000 feet. 
FOREST FIRE LOSSES IN THE ROCKIES. 
The Forest Service has had time to make a 
rough estimate of the loss in the national forests 
in Montana and Northern Idaho caused by the 
fires which raged there in the late summer and 
early autumn. It concludes that the area burned 
over is about a million and a quarter acres, and 
the timber killed and destroyed over six billions 
board feet. 
Driven by furious winds, different fires started 
at various points, finally came together and swept 
over a great tract of country. The winds made 
entirely futile the effort to fight the fire by any 
known means, though the results achieved on 
those forests best equipped for controlling fire 
are considered to have demonstrated the ef¬ 
ficiency of the methods employed in fire fighting. 
No information concerning the loss of wild life 
in these fires is available, nor is it likely that 
any definite knowledge on this point will ever 
be had. 
It is possible of course that tracts of living 
timber may be found within the areas now 
marked on the Forest Service map as having 
been entirely burned over. The whole area has 
not yet been carefully examined. It is definitely 
known that great bodies of timber were killed, 
but not consumed, and so are capable of being 
lumbered within a reasonable time. This timber 
will be sold by the Forest Service. There is so 
large a quantity of this timber that it will un¬ 
doubtedly be sold by the Forest Service at a 
very low price, since if it is not cut and utilized, 
in a short time, it will not be worth cutting at 
all. Lumbermen, therefore, have an opportunity 
to purchase stumpage in the national forests at 
unusually low prices. 
The loss on the national and private forests 
in Montana and Northern Idaho is estimated at 
$15,000,000. It would seem that when the loss 
of human life, the loss to individuals by the 
burning of their homes and of small settlements 
and the loss to the nation are considered, Con¬ 
gress in its wisdom may feel disposed to pro¬ 
vide means for the immediate efficient care of 
the national forests. 
AN EXPERIMENT IN FLY-FISHING. 
Trout fishermen may be divided broadly into 
three groups—those who fish with the artificial 
fly only; those who employ other lures or live 
bait as well as flies; and those who fish with 
worms or minnows exclusively. The fly-fisher¬ 
men claim that bait-fishing is harmful in various 
ways, and they are the strongest supporters of 
the proposition—which in some places is gaining 
ground, and at a future time may be submitted 
to our lawmakers—-to prohibit all save fly-fishing 
in certain waters. 
That bait-fishing is the more productive method 
is seldom disputed, but this very fact is by many 
offered in support of the argument in favor of 
the fly only. They claim that anglers should be 
content with smaller catches than formerly in 
waters which are fished persistently throughout 
the open season, and in which the trout, under 
present conditions, find it difficult to survive at 
all and cannot increase in size and numbers; 
that they should put back all the small trout and 
should measure their day’s pleasure by another 
standard. 
While this sentiment is gaining adherents, the 
number of anglers is steadily increasing, but it 
is no longer the practice to keep every trout 
taken, and there is an important saving, particu¬ 
larly of small fish. Furthermore, fishing with 
the fly is becoming the rule rather than the ex¬ 
ception, and the data presented by W. B. Mer- 
shon in our last issue have an important bear¬ 
ing on this question. He gave the results of 
anglers’ observations since the North Branch 
of the Au Sable River, in Michigan, was by law 
closed to all forms of lures but the fly, and a 
strict length limit established. 
DEATH OF ARTHUR ERWIN BROWN. 
Arthur Erwin Brown, the secretary of the 
Zoological Society of Philadelphia, for many 
years the director of the Zoological Gardens and 
always the active head of the society, died at 
the Gardens on Saturday from heart disease. 
Mr. Brown was one of the best known work¬ 
ing biologists of the United States. He was 
born in Bucks county, Pennsylvania, Aug. 14, 
1850, received his early education in Philadel¬ 
phia, and studied in European schools. He was 
long the secretary of the Zoological Society of 
Philadelphia, was vice-president and curator of 
the Philadelphia Academy of Sciences, member 
of the American Philosophical Society, honorary 
member of the New York Zoological Society, 
corresponding member of the Royal Zoological 
Society of London and of the Royal Zoological 
Society of Ireland, Fellow of the A. A. A. S., 
a manager of the Wistar Institute of Anatomy, 
and a member of the Boone and Crockett Club. 
Mr. Brown was one of the first authorities on 
North American reptiles and wrote many papers 
on this group, as well as on other scientific sub¬ 
jects. He was a keen sportsman, and up to com¬ 
paratively few years ago made annual trips to 
the Rocky Mountains for the purpose of hunt¬ 
ing and collecting scientific specimens. Of late 
years he had suffered from serious ill health, 
and his friends have been very anxious about him. 
Personally, Mr. Brown united to a keen in¬ 
tellect a wonderful charm of manner. He be¬ 
longed to that generation of old Philadelphians, 
self-respecting and respecting others, whqse gen¬ 
ial courtesy and courtly manners won the hearts 
of those with whom they were brought in con¬ 
tact. A quiet scholarly man, he was deeply 
loved by those with whom, he was brought in 
close contact. His loss will be felt by a large circle, 
but nowhere so much as in the different institu¬ 
tions with which he had so long been identified. 
