The elk have never been given a 
square deal; have never been given even 
the benefit of a doubt. The late Mr. 
Emerson Hough wrote a letter to the 
editor of the New York Evening Post 
and it was published in that paper on 
February 5th, 1921. In this letter Mr. 
Hough wrote “responsibility (for the 
decrease in the number of elk) must be 
laid at the door of the United States 
Forest Service, which, in reality, for a 
long time, has been little but the cat’s 
paw of the sheepmen and cattlemen of 
the West. In brief it is sheep which 
has wiped out the northern park herd; 
cows the southern herd.” 
It is the consensus of all unbiased 
observers on the spot that the elk are 
becoming fewer in numbers with ap- 
palling swiftness and seem destined to 
perish even in this, their last natural 
habitat, because of ‘the inaction of the 
Congress of the United States. 
JOSEPH W. STRAY, 
Brooklyn. 
Treat the Dog Fairly 
DEAR FOREST AND STREAM: 
FRIEND of mine, a keen outdoors- 
man, who is a forest ranger in Ar- 
kansas, had a big black and white point- 
er that never heard of a pedigree, but 
he was a bird dog. I saw him coming 
in with two birds in his mouth, freeze 
on another bird and then try to get 
the third bird in his mouth, but two 
was his limit and my friend arrived 
in time to pick up the third bird and 
save him further worry. I have also 
seen him hanging by his front feet 
on top a rail fence with one bird in 
his mouth and come down to point on 
a bird directly below him on the oppo- 
site side of the fence. This dog could 
not have been bought, but some fiend 
gave him a dose of poison. Why 
should a man be hung for murdering 
another man and allowed to go with- 
out punishment for killing man’s most 
faithful friend, a friend under all con- 
ditions and all times? Once a friend, 
always a friend, applies only to the 
dog. 
Doc LOVER 
More About Blackie 
DEAR FOREST AND STREAM: 
if READ with much interest, Blackie 
of the Tree Tops in FOREST AND 
STREAM for Oct. This is an old, old 
subject for a lot of argument when- 
ever the learned and we hunters get to- 
gether, I have heard men (who should 
have known better) declare it is all a 
lot of foolishness for anyone even to 
talk of black squirrels, as there is no 
290 

The prize of the season. : 
such thing known to science. Never 
the less, this most sought after and, 
to the writer’s ideas, most beautiful 
of all our wild creature is, absolutely 
not just a freak of old mother nature, 
but is surely a distinct species of 
squirrel. It would surely sound sens- 
ible to make the statement, that there 
were no Black Bears, that they were 
only color variants of the Polar Bear, 
which should always be white in color 
except when it’s black. 
Mr. Shafer says in his most inter- 
esting article, that he has never seen a 
Black as large as a Grey squirrel. 
Now the general run of blacks are 
somewhat smaller than their grey 
cousins, but once in a great while a 
black makes up for the small brothers 
and sisters of his family, and grows 
to quite a respectable size, in fact the 
writer has been successful in taking 
quite a number of black squirrels 
which were large as any grey, but this 
is the exception rather than the rule. 
There, that’s that, and now all over 
this Glorious land of ours the forests 
are going, and in most of our Eeastern 
states, have already gone. It is time 
to be very careful of our few remain- 
ing specimens of squirrels, for with- 
out woods and lots of them, we will 
soon have to go to’ the museums to 
have a look at this piece of God’s 
handiwork, the black squirrel. 
So work, and do it now, for re- 
forestation. True we have done some 
little bit along this line, but not 
enough. Keep after them, FOREST AND 
STREAM, and don’t let them sleep at 
the switch. When the writer of this 
was a bit of a boy, the whole northern 
part of Pennsylvania was a noble 
woodlot, the northern peninsula of 
Michigan was virtually untouched as 
regards lumbering. 
Getting back to squirrels again, they 
are true Foresters, as they are plant- 
ing trees all the time nuts are ripe; 
let’s all imitate them this coming hunt- 
ing season and plant nuts, first get- _ 
ting instructions from the State For- 
estry Dept. so we can do it properly. 
Wishing you continued success in 
America’s finest magazine. 
CHARLES C. ROPERT, 
Oakmont Pa. 
Good Game Conditions in 
Wyoming 
DEAR FOREST AND STREAM: 
jar this time such game as elk, and 
in fact, all game is in better con- 
dition than ever known at this season 
of the year, and as we have plenty of 
hay near here on the game refuges, we 
will not lose any of the 6,000 there; 
in addition, we have 6,000 on the Gros 
Ventre up where we live and they are 
all doing well. We may lose some on 
account of thawing conditions, as it 
rained five days here this month and 
today is warm like an April day. 
What snow there was here before the 
thaw is all but gone in the lower part 
of the valley as well as up at Red Rock, 
and the conditions here are ideal at this 
time and we have had an increase in 
elk the last two years of 3,000, and the 
last five years of 6,000. All we want 
is a good game law, some reserved open 
areas from shooting in the open coun- 
ty and a winter range where they can 
come down early, as last year, before 
the season is out. 
JAMES S. SIMPSON, 
Jackson, Wyo. 

