142 
WILD LIFE FILMS. 
The wild-life films used in the educa- 
tional work of the commission continue 
to be popular. There is sufficient demand 
to keep them busy most of the time. 
Many high schools are availing themselves 
of the opportunity to use these pictures. 
Organizations desiring to use these films 
this coming fall should secure dates im- 
mediately from H. ©. Bryant, Museum 
of Vertebrate Zoology, Berkeley, Cal. 
SHOOTING THE MOVIES. 
The casual visitor to a shooting gallery 
displaying the sign, ‘Shooting the 
Movies,” would be led to think that the 
old-time shooting gallery, with its moving 
array of ducks and deer, had been dis- 
placed by a _ regular moving picture, 
which gives a man a chance to shoot a 
real picture of the wild game which he 
shoots in the open. It is true that moy- 
ing pictures of wild game now form the 
marks for the customers of a shooting 
gallery, but few persons realize the com- 
plicated electrical system needed to make 
this sort of shooting possible. A man 
shooting at objects in a moving picture 
would soon discover that almost before 
he pulled the trigger some other object 
would be in view. In order to make it 
possible to actually see where the animal 
has been hit, a complicated electrical 
system is necessary. ‘The system is under 
Swiss patent and the controlling mech- 
anism is a microphone. The report of 
the gun is recorded by the microphone, 
which in turn operates electrical devices 
which instantly stop the projecting ma- 
chine, allowing the one shooting to see 
exactly where the animal is hit, and then 
automatically start the projecting ma- 
chine again. The same system auto- 
matically changes the paper background 
of the picture, covering up the bullet hole 
and so prepares the target for the next 
shot. 
At the beginning of the war the British 
Government became interested in develop- 
ing some device for giving rifle practice 
to prospective soldiers. Fifty thousand 
was set aside, and finally the 
devices necessary to make 
“shooting the movies’ possible were 
developed. Apparatus of this kind is 
now installed on the larger battleships, in 
pounds 
electrical 
CALIFORNIA FISH AND GAME. 
aero stations and in training stations. 
Moving pictures of submarines and peri- 
scopes form the targets for those on board 
ship, whereas, soldiers going over the top 
often form the target at training camps. 
The present apparatus has been per- 
fected after eighteen months of work and 
is proving very satisfactory. Lubfin & 
Butler have opened a shooting gallery of 
this type on Market Street in San Fran- 
cisco and the same firm expects to intro- 
duce this new sport in all of the larger 
cities of the West. Needless to say, this 
new sport develops the ability to shoot 
quickly and accurately. 
NOT APPRECIATED HERE, SHAD ARE 
SHIPPED EAST. 
The shad is one of our best food fishes, 
but only easterners appreciate the fact. 
We can buy a shad for twenty-five cents, 
which the easterner gladly pays one 
dollar or more to obtain. 
No man may say why one fish finds a 
market, and another, and perhaps a better 
one, does not, but apparently in the case 
of the shad the reason it is not appreci- 
ated is that it is cheap. One hears the 
statement on all sides nowadays that fish 
food is so expensive people can not afford 
to eat it; and still they buy the expensive 
fishes when the cheaper ones are often 
(nay, usually) superior to them (the 
salmon always excepted). When our 
shad was not yet abundant it sold for 
from twenty to twenty-five cents a pound, 
and the demand was great. At this time 
money had about twice the purchasing 
power it has now. But before this the 
price was still higher, for it sold for a 
dollar and a dollar and a half a pound, 
and in some instances single fish brought 
ten and fifteen dollars! As the fish be- 
came more and more abundant the price 
dropped to ten, to five, and even to two 
cents a pound. At this price it became 
very unfashionable to eat shad. 
You may argue that this does not bear 
out the assertion that if the shad was 
more expensive it would be better appre- 
ciated, for, you may say, it only shows 
that people have become tired of it. But 
on the Atlantic coast, where the shad 
came from, people have not tired of it. 
Quite the contrary. And now the point 
that proves the statement: From 80 to 
