Forest and Stream 
Copyright, 1906, by Forest and Stream Publishing Co. 


Terms, $3 a Year. 10 Cts. a Copy. t 
Six Months, $1.50. 
NEW YORK, SATURDAY, JUNE 9g, 
1906. 
{ VOL. LXVI.—No. 23. 
No. 346 Broadway, New Yerk. 


The object of this journal will be to studiously 
promote a healthful interest in outdoor recre- 
ation, and to cultivate a refined taste for natural 
objects. Announcement in first number of 
Forest AND STREAM, Aug. 14, 1873, 
FISHERMEN AND THE PUBLIC, 
ANGLERS and shooters have so multiplied in 
this country that the development of these pas- 
times has been one of the noteworthy social 
phenomena of the times. And yet, as every 
sportsmen’s club and game protective association 
finds to its dismay when undertaking to enlist 
popular sympathy and support, the number of 
people in the average community who are actu- 
ally interested in game or fish is a_ pitifully 
small part of the whole. It is for this very rea- 
son, of general public apathy toward fish and 
game protection, that voluntary associations of 
individuals are necessary in order to have satis- 
factory enforcement of the statutes. Numerous as 
they may be, the shooters and fishermen are not 
the public. Some extremely suggestive figures 
bearing on this were recently brought out in an 
argument in a Colorado fish law case by Judge 
D. C. Beaman, who had occasion to gather statis- 
tics from official and authoritative sources. We 
quote from the brief: 
“Those whose attention has not been specially 
directed to the matter will be surprised at the 
small proportion of the population that engages 
in either hunting or fishing. The resident hunt- 
ing licenses issued by the Game and Fish De- 
partment for this year number a little over 18,- 
ooo, the non-resident licenses about 30. To be 
liberal and include those who hunt, but have not 
taken out licenses, call the total of both 20,000, 
The population of Colorado in 1900 was some- 
thing over 500,000; allowing the usual increase 
to 1905, the population now is over 600,000. The 
ratio of hunters to population is, therefore, but 
slightly over 3 per cent. upon the most liberal 
allowance in their favor. Most hunters are also 
fishermen, but not all; some people fish who 
do not hunt, but not many. To be liberal, in- 
crease the number of hunters by 25 per cent. 
so as to include the non-hunting fishermen, and 
say the total number of all rod and line fisher- 
men is 25,000, and still we have less than 5 per 
cent. of the total population of the State. This 
exceedingly small proportion constitutes the 
‘general public’ about whose interest the At- 
torney-General and the Game and Fish Depart- 
ment are so concerned. How many taxpayers 
are among them we have no means of knowing. 
But assuming that they are all taxpayers, does 
it not seem that to call them the “general 
public” leaves the other 575,000 without any ap- 
propriate designation? 
“And if, in order to include all who may be 
more or less interested from a food standpoint 
in the results of rod and line fishing, we add the 
actual number of people who have been put on 
dress parade as the “general public’ and for 
whom so much money has been spent in fish- 
culture, it is still a very small fraction of the 
population of the State, and has been getting 
a full share of the benefits growing out of gen- 
eral taxation.” 
BEARS IN THE ADIRONDACKS. 
THE newspaper stories of the killing of three 
black bears by some city boys in the Adirondacks 
calls attention anew to the bear law now in force 
in this State. Under the provisions of the 
statute bears may not be killed in July, August 
and September, except in Essex county. When the 
bear protectors went to the Legislature for a pro- 
tective law Essex county objected. The sheep 
raisers were unwilling to sacrifice their sheep to 
the bears, and protested so strenuously that they 
carried their point. It is the feeling of residents 
in the Adirondacks that bear protection is 
foolish. 
They profess not to be unwilling to live in a 
menagerie, if the rest of the people of the State 
are bound to give that character to the North 
Woods, but they: do object to feeding the bears 
on mutton. A man who has lost fourteen sheep, 
killed by bears, is in no humor to indulge in 
sentiment, at all events not in sentiment which 
gives bruin immunity. The bear protective law 
in the Adirondacks has no substantial support 
there in any conviction of its usefulness or rea- 
sonableness. On the contrary it is regarded as a 
“fool law,’ and one unfortunate effect of it is to 
bring discredit on game laws in general. There 
is in the North Woods as elsewhere a growing 
acceptance of the game protective principle, and 
it is a great pity that this silly bear. law should 
be in operation to retard the growth of right 
sentiment. 

JAMES M. HICKMAN. 
Worp that James M. Hickman has passed away 
will bring a feeling of tender regret to every » 
reader of the “Camps of the Kingfishers,’ that 
series of angling and camping papers which at 
the time of their publication in this journal ex- 
cited such wide interest and afforded such un- 
failing delight. “Old Hickory” or “Kingfisher,” 
as he was variously and affectionately known, 
was a most sympathetic and winning writer when 
his congenial theme was the innocent joys of fish- 
ing and camp life in the Michigan wilderness; and 
his chronicles of the sayings and doings of the 
chosen and goodly company endeared the King- 
fishers to an unnumbered company of friends 
throughout the country, to whom the names 
were as household words. A _ feature of the 
“Kingfisher” papers, and a characteristic,of them 
which is well remembered after all these years, 
-was the generous place given to the women and 
the girls who had part in some of the camps, We 
recall nothing sweeter in the whole range of our 
American angling literature than Mr. Hickman’s 
picturing of this feminine side of the Michigan 
outings. It came, too, at a time when woman was 
apt to regard with distrust a suggestion of parti- 
cipating in camp life, and when her brother and 
husband and father were likely to look askance 
when her company was proposed for an outing. 
All that is changed now. That it is changed is 
in large measure due to writers like “Kingfisher,” 
who have so enticingly described the camps that 
are brightened by woman’s gracious presence. 
Mr. Hickman was of that type of busy workers 
for whose special benefit, it is a satisfaction to 
hoid, the open country offers its resources of 
healthful pleasures. Those who followed in 
print his experiences as the “Old Hickory” of 
the Kingfishers’ camps knew him only as one at 
play. Of the routine of work from which that 
play was a grateful rest, long anticipated and 
long rehearsed in memory, there was no hint 
in the stories of the Michigan playing. For 
many years he was employed in the mailing de- 
partment of the Cincinnati post office, a branch 
of work which was of an extremely exacting 
nature, 
JUNE. 
In June, nature is bedecked in her most beau- 
tiful array of the year. In this latitude no other 
month possesses such a wealth of beautiful vege- 
tation deeply fresh and green and lavishly be- 
spangled with the various wild flowers peculiar 
to field and forest. 
To the eyes, wearied by the constant sight of 
city brick walls, no view is more restful and 
pleasing than that afforded by the month of 
flowers. 
Of all the months, none offer so many popular 
forms of recreation as does June. The witching 
call of the waters and the wild woods in June 
finds guick response from the toilers and the 
idlers alike; for the themes then are of fishing, 
boating, camping, yachting, canoeing, touring, 
target, all of which are wholesome forms of 
all of which are wholesome forms of enjoyment 
and recreation. 
Particularly is June dear to the heart of the 
angler, for the fish then are in great abundance 
through a great scope of country at every point 
of the compass; the waters sparkle with a merry 
June glint, denoting that the biggest fish of the 
season is but a few steps further on; and there 
are beauties of landscape worthy of admiration 
at every turn of the stream. 
To the campers, every nook by river, lake or 
creek, provided that it is reasonably remote 
from fixed habitations, is a potential home for 
the while that they can escape from the artificial 
life of the city. Pure air, sunshine, song birds 
and the pleasing pictures of nature quicken the 
energies, restore the fagged mind and body, and 
revive the interests in life’s affairs to a degree 
far beyond the scope of the medicine man’s nos- 
trums. 
