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QAHE AND FISH PROTECTION. 



BY FRANK J. AMSDEX, PRESIDENT OF TFIE NEW YORK 



STATE ASSOCIATION FOR THE PROTECTION 



OF FISH AND GAME. 



At this moment the game laws and their enforce- 

 ment are better than ever before. This is due to a 

 very large extent to the activity of the friends of the 

 law and throuoh their oro;anization. 



We ask, and we think that we are not unreasonable, 

 that all animals, birds and fish, should be undisturbed 

 in their breeding season, and that they should be allow- 

 ed to mature ; and that nets and unlawful devices 

 should be prohibited, except that nets may be used for 

 food fish, under license and regulations by the State 

 Fish Commission. 



Prior to 1890 the game laws of this State were a 

 mass of patchwork, confusion beyond measure, suscep- 

 tible of almost any construction, and feebly enforced. 

 About this time Gen. R. U. Sherman, Robert Roose- 

 velt and Edward J. Whittaker, a committee appointed 

 by the Legislature, after a very thorough investigation, 

 submitted a bill of codified laws. It was passed, but 

 not until it was sadly mutilated for selfish ends, or in 

 the interests of the murderous element ; but notwith- 

 standing all this, so superior was its superstructure that 



