The times. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1897-1901, 1900-08-12
MIR. vANDERBILT's FOREST.
The MiiIionnire's Wilderness ri the
Old North State.
CFrom Forest and stream.)

From Forest and Stream.)
! The Pisgah forest has cost Vanderbilt
| something like a quarter of a million of
dollars, or about $3.50 an acre. He has
I bought it in great or small tracts as rapid
/ ly as possible, and now his rangers are the
only denizens There are FIVE OF them, all
| picked men of the mountains, of fine ply
| sique, good riders, and dead shots. One
| of them comes to meet the pilgrims and
: looks at their permit, which is q very i'm
portant piece of paper. This forester,
/ whose name Is Kearns, is a type of the
rangers, good-humored. tall, and strong,
well mounted. with repeating rife siung at
I his back, saddlebags, and poncho. To him
| these mountains wilds are like an open
| book. and upon him and his associates
4 a great and incessant responsibility de-
wolves. They must keep open the roads
and the trails; see tina. the boundary
| fence. 300 miles in length, is all right; keep
| out poachers look after the game and
| trout. and always be on the alert for
! timber stealers. The poachers would come
| from near and far to catch the trout, or
! rather to kill them by exploding dyna-
mite cartridges in the deep pools where
the big fellows Turk; or to kill the deer,
the grouse Tor pheasants, as they are
known popularity. or the wild turkeys.
At an incredible distance the trained ear
Of the ranger viii hear the explosion of
dynamite, and he tracks the offender I'M
erringly even into other counties and once
into Tennessee.
There are 265 miles of trail in this for
est the trails leading alongside each trout
stream. There are seventy miles of road,
passable for wagon. Trail and road are
| always kept in readiness against Mr.. Van
derbilt's coming. He is, as the rangers
say. liable to come any time" There are
lac Nf Gbn0 inc nat he he 1Ok
feet in width, and cut out right and left
from the roads. When deer are driven
| they must cross these paths and by means
OF the latter alone can the hunter see them
in time to get a shot
The absence of noises other than those
made by the streams is one of the most
noticed things. Rarely is a note of a bird
heard. and schooner still is any feathered
thing seen. So perfect and SO dense Is the
cover that deer can lie unseen only few
feet away. Numerous as the turkeys are.
only one was flushed and only very few
pheasants were seen. The sharp foot
marks of the deer are constantly visible in
the trails. and alongside the streams are
the footprints of the wildcat. High over
head the golden eagle is seen soaring and
Ranger Kearns shows a mounted speci-
men which he killed with revolver as it
sat in a tree top eighty yards away.
Though Mr.. Vanderbilt Is not sports
man, but a student. yet. as stated, all
things are kept ready for him. His pleas
ure is the pleasure of others. On his last
visit he only caught one trout, nor did
he fire a gun. His wife was with him She
is good horseiFoiIan, and rode pony up
and down the sieepest trails. Under pro-
lection native trout are rapidly restocking
the streams without artificial propagation.
In some Of the streams rainbow trout
from California have been placed but these
are not SO satisfactory fish. They rapidly
lose their rich colors, and have to be
quickly eaten to be palatable. while the
trout OF the locality, properly dressed, keep
well. In the old days, before there was
protection. there were caught in two days
In this very forest l. $50 trout, and most
of this needless slaughter was pure waste
At Biltmore, Mr.. Vanderbilt has an ar
boretum, one OF the largest in the world,
and the pioneer in the United States This
was formerly under the direction OF Gif-
ford PinchOt, who is at present head for
ester OF the United States; it is now I'M
der the direction OF DIR. Schenck as for
ester In this arboretum more than three
hundred thousand trees and shrubs have
been planted Pisgah forest is the compile
ment OF the arboretum and In these wild
woods DR.. Sehenck has lodge where he
spends much of each summer with his
class. In the latter are often youths of
wealth and high social position, who wish
to study forestrya study which the
United States sorely needs, since SO many
millions are daily devotlng themselves to
the task of forest destruction, and SO fe;.
to conservation.