
FOUNDERS OF THE AUDUBON SOCIETY 

Dr WILLIAM BRUETTE, Editor 

Member of Audit Bureau of Circulation 

THE OBJECT OF THIS JOURNAL WILL BE TO 
studiously promote a healthful interest in outdoor 
recreation, and a refined taste for natural objects. 
August 14, 1873. 
ICL 
WILLIAM KEENER 
UR readers will be grieved to learn of the 
sudden death of Mr. William Keener, which 
occurred on July 20, 1924, at the age of 72. 
Mr. Keener was proprietor of the Roscoe House, 
at Roscoe, N. Y., in the center of the Catskill trout 
region. What is more interesting, he was an all- 
round keen sportsman of the finest type. He was 
known far and wide as the best trout and bass 
fisherman of that locality. His wide experience 
in hunting the fox, grouse and white hare, his 
thorough knowledge of training a hunting dog, 
were of excellent service to his many guests. In 
the last few years Mr. Keener did not indulge much 
in his favorite pursuit of fishing and hunting, yet, 
till the last, he evinced a kindly interest in the suc- 
cess of his guests. When he did fish, his basket 
was invariably filled, either with trout or bass, of 
good size. 
Like most country anglers he fished as a tiny 
boy and by continued study of the stream he learned 
thoroughly the habits of game-fish and their food. 
No one understood better how to fish, what to use 
and when to fish. In fact, he was a perfect en- 
cyclopedia in all things pertaining to the twin 
sports of hunting and fishing. 
Born in Roscoe, within sight of the famous river 
Beaverkill, he came of good old Milesian stock. He 
was naturally an ardent supporter of Ireland’s 
freedom, though neither he, nor his father, ever 
set eyes on the Emerald Isle. By nature he was un- 
usually mild and gentle-hearted with a fund of 
native Irish wit and humor well known to that race. 
It was as good as a play to hear his quips and sallies 
on those boasters and braggards one so often meets 
out fishing. His own nature was the very opposite, 
modest in the extreme, generous, charitable, and 
possessed of a very winning manner to his intimate 
friends of whom he had many. The thousands of 
anglers who now enjoy the fine fishing of the Bea- 
verkill and Willowemoc are muchindebted to Mr. 
Keener, who has for many years upheld the best 
traditions of the craft and used uncommon sense in 
properly stocking the streams, by placing the young 
fish in situations where they had ample food and 
quick growth. No angler in the entire state of 
New York was better known and none was more 
esteemed. 
U. S. GOVERNMENT SAVES SEALS FROM 
EXTINCTION 
N 1912 only 32,000 Seals remained in Alaska, 
| due to illegal poaching and indiscriminate kill- 
ing of these valuable animals. Today the Seal 
herd numbers 600,000, the result of careful conser- 
vation methods of the United States Government. 
In 1912 President Roosevelt made the first step 
toward the preservation of this valuable herd of 
animals negotiating a treaty with England, Russia 
and Japan, whereby only a certain proportion of 
the Seals are killed each year under direct super- 
vision of the United States Government. These 
skins are taken to St. Louis, dressed and dyed there 
by the Government agents, and then sold at auc- 
tion to the fur trade each Spring and Fall. 
The value of the Seals lies entirely in their fur. 
ee 
For generations, Sealskin has been prized very — 
highly when made into garments, and when the — 
herd was so very small, the skins brought very 
high prices. At the last sale, however, the Govern- 
ment realized very low prices on the skins—the ~ 
lowest in many, many years. 
It is firmly believed, however, that the new low — 
prices will so stimulate the demand for Sealskin 
that the Government, in the long run, will profit — 
greatly by the increase in the size of the herd. 
Formerly, only the very wealthy could afford Seal- 
skin garments, while now the price is within reach 
of almost everyone. 
The American way of dressing the Sealskin is — 
a great improvement on the old English way. The 
skins are much more pliable and softer than before, 
ana consequently the garments made from them 
hang more gracefully. 
While the government did not realize the former 
high prices out of the last sale held in March, the 
greatly increased demand for Sealskins, due to the 
extraordinary low prices, is bound to mean that 
-higher prices will prevail at the next sale, in 
October. 
ALASKA GAME LAW NOW UNDER 
DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 
effective a Senate Joint Resolution transfer- — 
P'etective. T COOLIDGE has signed and made © 
ring the administration of the Alaska game 
law from the Governor of the Territory to the 
United States Department of Agriculture, thereby 
enabling the Secretary of Agriculture to unite the 
administration of the Alaska game law with the 
one covering the land fur-bearing animals of the 
Territory. 
a 
For years the administration of the game law — 
has been under the Secretary of the Interior who, 
through the Governor of the Territory, has ap- 
pointed the wardens and attended to other details 
of the field administration, while the Secretary of 
Agriculture has been vested with authority in the 
matter of restrictions over the killing and the tak- 
ing and exportation of specimens either alive or 
dead of birds and animals for scientific or educa- — 
tional purposes. 
administration of the laws protecting land fur- 
On the other hand, for years the © 
bearing animals in the Territory has been first | 
under the Bureau of Fisheries, in the Department 
of Commerce, and later under the Biological Sur- 
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