
346 Broadway, New 



Terms, $3 a Year, 10 Cts. a Copy. t 
Six Months, $1.50. 
GrorGe Birp GRINNELL, President, 
Forest and Stream 
A Weekly Journal. Copyright, 1907, by Forest and Stream Publishing Co. 
Louts Dean Spetr, Treasurer. 
346 Broadway, New York. 
Cuarves B, Reyno.ps, Secretary. 
ork. 346 Broadway, New York. 

NEW YORK, SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 23, 1907. 
VOL. LXIX.—No. 21. 
| No. 346 Broadway, New York. 





THE OBJECT OF THIS JOURNAL 
will be to studiously promote a healthful interest 
lin outdoor recreation, and to cultivate a refined 
taste for natural objects. 
—ForeEst AND StreAM, Aug. 14, 1873. 

THE ANGLERS’ CONFERENCE, 
) often a more-important matter than is at first 
apparent. This was noticeable at the anglers’ 
conference which was held in New York last 
week. In the circulars sent out mention was 
‘made of “honest anglers,’ and at the meeting, in 
the appointment of a committee, there was a 
‘further reference to the desire to form a national 
‘association of honest anglers. 
No immediate results of the conference being 
ipparent, for the reason that details were left to 
i committee, which will meet next month, much 
yf the actual importance of the gathering was 
Jost sight of, and the daily press, eager to say 
something, hit upon the term referred to, and 
‘esorted to ridicule when it might have set forth 
ome of the worthy aims all anglers are striving 
Jor. Cartoonists, ever quick to picture current 
‘vents, turned what was a serious meeting of 
nen with an honest purpose into something re- 
embling a farce, and not until the men selected 
‘ave completed their deliberations will the public 
; egard the movement seriously. 
. The desire seems to be to form a national 
s}ssociation of individual anglers rather than to 
. ncourage clubs to affiliate with the existing 
‘Jational Association of Scientific Angling Clubs, 
10ugh the aims and objects of both are similar. 
‘hese are the protection and propagation of game 
.|shes, improvement in the methods of angling 
jor them, ete. 
While the present organization is composed of 
lubs largely interested in the fresh water game 
shes, the indications are that salt water clubs 
ill affiliate with it, for it is still young and will 
row rapidly. 
The salt water anglers cannot at present make 
ieir demands heard threugh any organization of 
reat power, and to them the old question, “Can 
fie sea be fished out?” cannot be settled shortly 
Hid forever with a “No.” The sea, within the 
nitg of their fishing excursions, is swept by the 
stters, and so far as they are concerned, is fished 
ore heavily than it should be. They, more than 
ty other class of men, Know the importance of 
ore stringent regulations of the commercial 
heries. 
In a moral way the sea anglers are accomplish- 
g as much as are their brethren of the fresh 
aters inland. More sportsmanlike tackle, less 
terest in the quantity and more in the quality 
the catch—are a few of the results of their 
issionary work and their practice. In this they 
ntinue to hammer away, for in the excitement 
a run of game fish there are always men who 
beyond reason in their catches. 

}} Tue choice of a name for an organization is ~ 
RUFFED GROUSE. 
THE scarcity of ruffed grouse is the chief topic 
to-day in the conversation of sportsmen. From 
all over the grouse country of the Eastern States 
have come reports of the unusual scarcity of these 
great game birds, and for once the opinion of all 
those interested in the subject seems to-be that 
the phenomenon is not to be accounted for in 
the usual way. One theory has it that the birds 
starved and froze last winter; another that the 
severe drouth carried them away during the sum- 
mer, and so on. But similar conditions did not 
prevail in all regions so seriously affected, and 
one guess is as good as another one. Wet 
weather during the nesting season did not pre- 
vail in all grouse States. During the severe 
drouth in some regions equally severe rain storms 
prevailed elsewhere. Nearly all our correspon- 
dents agree that the average number of birds 
were left over from last season. 
The finding of frozen grouse here and there 
during the extreme cold of last winter, as re- 
ported in another column, is interesting as so 
much testimony, but it does not prove anything. 
In fact, the grouse is too hardy to be affected in 
important numbers by cold weather, however 
severe this may be, and it is quite capable of find- 
ing food at all seasons. During the coldest week 
of last winter, in February, when the mercury 
ranged from 20 degrees to 4o degrees below zero 
at night, we saw ruffed grouse in the Adiron- 
dack State Park that flew steady, strong and far, 
and in appearance at least were anything but half 
frozen or starved. There the snow was not un- 
usually deep, nor had any crust formed up to 
that time. Grouse got out of the snow ahead 
of our snowshoes with their characteristic lusti- 
ness and speed. 
The testimony of our readers on this impor- 
tant- subject is urged, and we hope they will 
state briefly the conditions as they have found 
them during the open season. 

GOOD STORIES. TO. COME. 
Two serials of very great interest are soon to 
be offered to readers of Forest AND STREAM, and 
for a number of reasons deserve special mention. 
Each is by a writer who has long experience 
with the game which he discusses, and who is 
a proved expert in its pursuit. 
The first of these series deals with the ruffed 
grouse or partridge, that noble bird which is so 
high a favorite with gunners of the States of 
the North as far west as the Mississippi River, 
and which has a host of admirers also on the 
Northwest coast, especially in British Columbia. 
Ruffed grouse, pheasant, or, as it is usually called 
in New England, the partridge—sometimes more 
familiarly the “pat’—compels the admiration of 
all who pursue it by its singular wisdom and the 
multiplicity of the devices which it employs to 
deceive its pursuers. Mr. S. T. Hammond, who 
is as well known by his pen name “Shadow,” is 
perhaps the highest living authority on the habits 
and pursuit of this splendid bird. For more than 
half a century his chief recreation has been par- 
tridge shooting, and, as a keen observer, a won- 
derful shot, a successful dog handler, and a 
master of the woodcraft of the New England 
wilds, he has acquired a world of interesting and 
valuable information to give us about a bird, one 
of whose chief occupations seems to be to make 
the gunner feel how little he knows. 
In his “Diary of a Whaling Cruise” Mr. Victor 
Slocum gives us the romance and the reality of 
the pursuit of those monsters of the deep, the 
great cachalots or sperm whale. Sailing from 
New Bedford as a mere “hand,” Mr. Slocum is 
promoted to be boatsteerer and harpooner, and 
paints for us vivid pictures of the sea and life 
upon it, and then introduces us to the tremen- 
dously exciting work of the capture of the great 
whale. Quite apart from the pursuit and taking 
of the whales is the interest we are led to feel 
in the life aboard ship, which will appeal so 
strongly to every sailorman and yachtsman, 

THE FRANCO-BRITISH EXHIBITION. 
ANNOUNCEMENT has been made of the Inter- 
national Sports Exhibition, to be held in the 
stadium at Shepherd’s Bush, London, in connec- 
tion with the Olympic Games and the Franco- 
British Exhibition in 1908. 
Included in the exhibits will be manufactures, 
appliances and relative to shooting, 
athletics, angling and fishing, archery, all kinds 
of games, cycling, fencing, gymnastics and physi- 
cal culture, swimming, rowing, skating, riding, 
inventions 
touring, sporting and educational, mountaineer- 
motoring, life saving appliances for the sav- 
ing of life on land from fire and water, sporting 
prizes, trophies, badges, etc., and it is possible 
an international fly- and bait-casting tournament 
will be arranged for. 
ing, 

ONcE again has a rumor of the presence of 
large numbers of passenger pigeons been proved 
false. While it is possible the birds may be seen 
in small numbers in this country from time to 
time, the fact that no specimens are obtained is 
unfortunate, from a scientific standpoint, at least. 
It would not be difficult to prove that one of these 
birds had been shot at a certain time and place, 
and the possession of a specimen for purposes of 
identification would prove their species beyond a 
doubt. This has been neglected or found im- 
possible in all or nearly all the cases of the re- 
ported finding of passenger pigeons. 
td 
In New Jersey, as elsewhere, many of the best 
sportsmen are strongly in favor of a plan that 
deserves the most careful attention of the game 
and fish commissions. This is to make members 
of protective associations deputy fish and game 
protectors of the State. 








































































