92 RECREATION 
the open season, the absolute necessity of 
making good laws and living up to them is 
dawning upon our gunners and fishers. ‘The 
result is that we are rapidly changing our 
methods. 
Yet, it must not be forgotten that laws that 
are just the thing in the settled parts would be 
altogether ridiculous beyond the clearings. It 
would never do to judge the explorer and his 
needs by the ethics of the city man. Fancy 
telling a prospector who was short of grub 
that he should not shoot a grouse on the 
twenty-eighth day of August, because the 
season did not legally begin until the first day’ 
of September. 
Then, the backwoodsmen, with their enor- 
mous families and small means, may be 
excused if they sometimes bring down a deer, 
when the strict letter of the law says they 
should not. I have slept in the houses of 
worthy men who had a dozen children and 
incomes ranging from $200 to $400 a year. To 
such I have always said: “‘I at least see no 
harm in your shooting an occasional deer at 
any time, providing you use its meat, and that 
other meat or fish is not available.” Yet I 
would not shoot a deer or a grouse myself in 
the older parts of the provinces before the law 
permitted on any consideration. 
A very deserving society has been formed in 
Ontario—the Ontario Fish and Game Pro- 
tective Association. Branches have been 
established at Lakefield, Berlin, Bobcaygeon, 
Sudbury, Sturgeon Falls, Sturgeon Point, 
Peterborough, Parry Sound, Gravenhurst, 
Orillia, Huntsville, Hamilton, | Hastings, 
Hastings County, Wiarton, Chatham, Windsor, 
London, Guelph, Scarboro and Lindsay. Each 
one joining has to take the following pl-dge: 
‘“‘IT hereby agree to obey the game laws of the 
province, to encourage others to do the same 
and to endeavor to prevent any one breaking 
them.” : J. U. Foster. 
Toronto, Ont. 

Bobwhites on the Coast 
The Game Commission of the State of 
Washington has just recently “‘planted”’ a good 
supply of healthy bob-white quail throughout 
the most suitable portions of the State, paying 
for them out of the hunters’ license fund. 
Spokane, Wash. J. S. Nasu. 

Ducks Not All Dead 
Duck-shooting in the West has by no means 
seen its day, if we are to judge from the 
abundance of the fowl in Oklahoma during the 
past spring. On the Twin Lakes, west of 
Guthrie, and along the Cimarron, ‘Skeleton and 
Cottonwood rivers, the ducks fairly swarmed 
in April—canvasbacks, redheads, pintails, 
spoonbills, blackjacks, ruddys, baldpates, 
butterballs, blue- and green-winged teal, and 
also geese. It is reported that never were 
wildfowl seen so plentiful in Oklahoma and 
the Indian Territory before, and the only 
regret is that oi an still obtains here. 
Guthrie, O. T ee, Oe 

Good-by to Duck Shooting 
The Yukon Council in its wisdom (?) has 
decided that the spring shooting of ducks does 
no harm, and, consequently, the season has 
been amended, so that all and sundry may 
shoot ducks until June 1, and begin again on 
August 25. The law passed last session pro- 
tected the birds after April 1. Poor ducks! 
Even their breeding grounds are now being 
ravaged by the man behind the gun. Those 
who have seen the pintails and mallards of the 
North rearing their broods know what a fatal 
blow is being inflicted by this latest ill-judged 
enactment of a weak-kneed council. 
Foosland,- Ill. F. Henry Yorke, M.D. . 

Newfoundland Fishing 
Each season finds added numbers of fisher- 
men visiting Newfoundland and Labrador 
for the salmon fishing. More protection is 
being afforded the rivers, and the old myth 
that big salmon did not exist in our rivers has 
been dissipated. The reason there were no 
big salmon ten years ago was that the nets 
were so numerous and of so small a mesh that 
all fish excepting grilse were caught before 
they reached the headwaters. In a recent 
report, the Commissioner of Fisheries said: 
“The salmon industry of the colony and 
Labrador is a very important one. If it was 
properly managed, owing to the high price of 
fish and the great demand for it abroad, it 
should be a veritable gold mine to our popu- 
lation. The famous Gander River, one of the 
most splendid salmon streams in North 
America, affords an object lesson as to how a 
great fishery may be ruined. Eighty years ago 
the Gander produced annually 2,000 tierces of 
salmon, worth nearly $40,000; even fifty years 
ago the catch averaged over 1,000 tierces; 
latterly it has come down to less than thirty. 
The cause of this decay is not far to seek. 
The fishermen in the early summer and spring 
placed their nets along the shores of the estuary. 
At the end of June and during July they moved 
up the main river and completely barred the 
passage of the fish by nets put across the 
stream. During the past few seasons nets were 
not allowed above certain specified points 

