Marcu 24, 1906.] 

Adirondack Deer and Public Rights. 
Morra, N. Y., March 9.—Editor Forest and 
Stream: The deer have had a remarkably favor- 
able winter and are doing well wherever I have 
seen them in Franklin, St. Lawrence, Herkimer, 
Hamilton and Essex counties. I do not recollect 
a winter when there has been less snow in the 
woods. The deer have traveled everywhere, and 
have been able to get at such winter feed as there 
is with little difficulty. During the past week I 
have seen sixty or seventy deer, and only noticed 
one, a fawn, that was not in good condition. 
The prospects for the present as regards the 
deer supply are, therefore, good; but as much 
cannot be said for the future. The forest fires and 
the lumbermen in the past few years have made 
tremendous gaps in the evergreen forest, and a 
few years more will see a large portion of the 
best hunting section of the Adirondacks stripped 
of winter shelter for deer. There will always 
be summer feed available many times in excess of 
the amount required, but it is no exaggeration to 
say that there are few sections where there is 
enough winter feed and shelter available for the 
present supply of deer, and the prospect for the 
future is decidedly discouraging. In a favorable 
winter, such as the present, the deer do very 
nicey because they can get over a big extent of 
country and pick up much feed that would not 
be available if the snow were deep. The next 
severe winter will see the deer in many places 
left with little or no suitable yarding grounds. 
From the swamps to the tops of the mountains 
the evergreen forest has been cleared away and 
the old yarding places destroyed, and where there 
is a suitable State or unlumbered lot the deer will 
be crowded in so thickly that a greater or less 
number will starve. Even this winter I have 
observed evidences of the scanty winter food 
supply, for I have passed through places where 
the balsams have been for long distances denuded 
_ of their lower branches, and here the deer seemed 
to have little else that they could eat. 
The Brooklyn Cooperage Company is clearing 
out swamps that ate the only yarding grounds 
for deer for miles around, and the high price of 
spruce has spurred on the lumber and pulp com- 
panies to greater activity than ever. The idea 
seems to be to get off the timber as quickly as 
possible and then trust to selling the land to park 
owners or the State. 
One thing is certain, and that is, that the pres- 
ent supply of deer cannot be maintained under 
present and prospective conditions, even if no 
more deer are killed by sportsmen than at pres- 
ent. The havens afforded by State lands and 
private parks are the sole hope for the future, 
and as far as the public at large is concerned 
the private parks may, as a general proposition, 
be left out of the consideration. 
As far as the enjoyment by the general public 
of the parks is concerned, such parks as William 
Rockefeller’s, for instance, are decidedly more of 
a menace than fire and the ax. In addition to his 
eighty square miles in his Brandon and Bay Pond 
tract, Mr. Rockefeller is said to own in the 
Everton, Meacham Lake and DeBar Mountain 
and other contiguous or nearly contiguous tracts 
an even larger extent of land, and it is com- 
monly stated that he owns or holds an option 
on 200,000 acres, or over 300 square miles of Adi- 
rondack lands, from which the public is or will 
be excluded. 
It is true that in numerous instances the pri- 
vate parks afford shelter and breeding grounds 
for deer, which overflow and help to keep up the 
supply in the surrounding territory, but many of 
the owners of parks and quasi parks are influ- 
enced solely by materialistic motives, and strip 
their lands whenever they can make a profit. 
Rockefeller. for example, has been in the market 
a good deal of recent years as a seller of stump- 
FOREST AND STREAM. 

age, and most of the paper and pulp companies 
post their lands under the private park law. 
The only hope for the general public— if not fot 
the deer supply—is therefore in the State owner- 
ship of Adirondack lands. It is the one and only 
recourse to prevent the reckless waste of the for- 
ests and to preserve for the people the opportu- 
nity for rest and recreation afforded by their 
priceless wilderness heritage. 
Federal Game and Fish Legislation. 
AmowncG the various bills interesting to sports- 
men which are being introduced in Congress is 
one by Mr. Lacey, authorizing the President of 
the United States to designate such areas in 
the public forest reserve as should, in his opin- 
ion, be set aside for the protection of game, or 
of other animals, birds or fish and be recognized 
as a breathing place therefor. The hunting 
trapping, killing, capturing of game or fish in 
such refuges, or on any reserves heretofore or 
hereafter set aside by Executive Order, shall be 
unlawful, and punishment is provided for the 
offender. The purpose of this act is declared to 
be to protect from trespass the public lands of 
the United States and the animals thereon, and 
not to interfere with the operation of the local 
game laws. 
A bill has been introduced by Mr. Babcock to 
prohibit the killing of birds and other wild ani- 
mals in the District of Columbi. It was re- 
ferred to the Committee on the District of 
Columbia. 
A bill for the protection and regulation of the 
fisheries of Alaska has been introduced by Mr. 
Cushman and referred to the Committee on the 
Territories. 
The Senate has passed a bill to establish a fish 
cultural station in the State of Utah, and an- 
other for the same purpose in the State of 
Wyoming. Each of these bills carries an ap- 
propriation of $25,000 for the purchase of site, 
construction of buildings and ponds and equip- 
ment. 
The Senate also passed a bill to establish one 
or more fishcultural stations on Puget Sound, 
in the State of Washington, for the propagation 
of salmon and other food fishes. ‘The bill ap- 
propriates $50,000 for the purchase of sites, con- 
struction of buildings and ponds, purchase and 
hire of boats and equipment, and so on. 
The Senate also passed a bill to establish a 
fishcultural station in the city of Fargo, N. D. 
The act providing for the protection of the 
salmon fisheries of Alaska, approved June 9, 
1896, was amended in the Senate by the passage 
of a section making it unlawful to catch salmon, 
except with rod or spear, above the tidewaters 
of any creeks or rivers less than 500 feet width 
in the Territory of Alaska—except for purposes 
of propagation—or to set any net across the 
tidewaters of any river or stream for a dis- 
tance of more than one-third the width of such 
stream, or to set any net within 100 yards of 
any other net in a stream, or to fish for salmon 
in the waters of the territory either in streams 
or tidewater, except Cook Inlet, Prince William 
Sound, or Bering Sea, and the waters tributary 
thereto, from midnight on Saturday till mid- 
night on Sunday, or in streams less than 100 
yards in width, to catch salmon, except by rod 
or spear, between 6 o’clock in the evening and 
6 o’clock in the morning of each day. 
A bill to prohibit aliens from taking fish from 
the waters of Alaska passed the Senate. 
The House bill which authorizes the leasing 
of land in Stanley county, S. D., by the Secre- 
tary of the Interior for a buffalo pasture, has 
been reported from the Committee on Public 
Lands, and referred to the Committee of the 
Whole. § 
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[GAN TE AG AND GUNN | [Se 
Some Early Sporting Reminiscences 
(1816). 
From “The Memoirs of Alexander Dumas” (Pére). 
Amonc the regular visitors at our house was 
one M. Picot, a lawyer by profession, brother to 
M. Picot, of Noue, and M. Picot, of the Sword 
Hotel—a mighty hunter, and almost as much en- 
vied by me for his sport in the open as was M. 
Deviolaine for his in the forest. 
I saw that it was not enough that M. Picot 
should be one of our friends, but that it was 
most particularly requisite that I should be one 
of his. Having settled this point in my mind, 
my cajoleries began. How did I win him over? 
I know not, for he was not an easy man to per- 
suade. All I know is that, after a month of coax- 
ing, M. Picot offered to take me out shooting 
with him; only, he would not take me without 
my mother’s permission. 
There was the difficulty. I laid my request be- 
fore my poor mother, who became quite pale at 
hearing it. (M. Picot, of course, was present.) 
“Ah, mon Dieu!’ she said to him; “when we 
have before our eyes the example of M. Dauré’s 
accident, and that of your poor nephew, Stanislas, 
how can you have the heart to take him from 
me?’ 
“Bless me!” exclaimed M. Picot, “I’m not go- 
ing to take him from you; I’ve no wish to be 
prosecuted for leading a minor astray; I only 
wanted to give him a little pleasure. He adores 
shooting, does this boy, and in that respect you 
know whom he takes after. However, you do 
not wish him to enjoy himself? We'll say no 
more about it.” 
Now, although I did not at once appreciate it 
at its true value, this sentence was very skill- 
fully put; for, quite short as it was—and that is 
a considerable merit in a lawyer’s speech—it con- 
tained two irresistible arguments—viz., “In that 
respect you know whom he takes after,’ and 
“You do not wish him to enjoy himself? We'll 
say no more about it.” 
The person whom I took after was my father; 
and to tell my mother that I resembled my 
father, that I had his voice or his tastes, was a 
great way of winning her over. And to add to 
this that she did not wish me to enjoy myself, 
was a terrible reproach to her—the kind, good 
mother, who would have sold her last spoon and 
fork to procure me any pleasure. The perora- 
tion, too, was itself nicely calculated; the “We'll 
say no more about it’? had been uttered with an 
air of dropping the subject, which was equiva- 
lent to—‘For goodness’ sake, keep your urchin 
if you like! it was out of sheer good nature that 
I offered to take him.—You do not wish me to 
undertake his education as a sportsman.—Well, 
that’s so much less trouble for me.—We’ll say no 
more about it.’ 
And so, to my great astonishment, my mother, 
instead of accepting the “We'll say no more about 
it’’ and saying no more, sighed, and after a mo- 
ment said: 
“Ah, dear knows! I am quite certain that if 
he does not go shooting with you, he will go with 
some one else or even by himself; and, after all, 
I would rather entrust him to you—you who are 
so careful.” 
M. Picot gave me a wink—a signal which 
meant to say, “Go in quick! jump on that half- 
consent and make it a complete consent.” 
I understood, and flung my arms round my 
mother’s neck, kissing her, thanking her and 
caressing her. 
“Really, my dear Madame Dumas,” added M. 
Picot, to overcome a lingering scruple, “he knows 
guns as well as a gunsmith! What on earth do 
you suppose can happen to him? It is I much 
more who run the risk of his putting a shot into 
me. 

