Forest and Stream 
A Weekly Journal of the Rod and Gun. 
Terms, $4 a Year. 10 Cts. a Copt. 
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NEW YORK, MARCH 30, 1895. 
NO 
VOL. XLIV.— No. 13. 
318 Bkoaway, New York. 
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MAINE PR O TECTION. 
Fish and game protection in the State of Maine, is in a 
transition state. The wardens have all been legislated 
out of office, and it is uncertain just what the outcome 
will be. Many of Maine's citizens believe that the Maine 
commission should be thoroughly reorganized from the 
top down to the bottom, and that the charge of and re- 
sponsibility for protection in that State should pass into 
other hands. 
A letter which we publish to-day from Mr. Stanley is in- 
teresting as giving one point of view and we gladly give 
it a place. We think that no one has ever questioned the 
good intentions of the Maine fish and game commis-, 
sioners, nor their entire devotion to their work. They 
have given time and money, which some of them could 
perhaps ill afford, in their earnest effort to increase the 
fish and game. On the other hand, it can hardly be 
doubted that among the servants they have employed, 
some have been worthless, and others worse than worth- 
less, dishonest. The evidence which is constantly being 
brought up by persons of unquestioned integrity and great 
experience, shows beyond cavil that while Maine game 
and fish is sometimes protected, in many cases it is not 
protected at all. A letter from Mr. Manly Hariy, printed 
last week, gives an example of this, and other testimony of 
a like nature is not wanting. It cannot for a moment be 
thought that Mr. Hardy is either ignorant or prejudiced. 
On the contrary, there are few men in Maine who have 
had so wide an experience as he on both sides of the pro- 
tective question. He is able to look at it from the point 
of view of the guide and woodsman, and also from the 
point of view of the dweller in the city, and of the sum- 
mer visitor. Statements, such as those made by Mr. 
Hardy cannot be brushed away by the denial of any man, 
however worthy, nor can they be exjjlained by the state- 
ment that no sufficient appropriation is made by the 
State. 
It appears to be true that a considerable proportion of 
the Maine game wardens have been appointed either 
through political influence or from motives of personal 
friendship. Such men naturally feel no interest in en- 
forcing the law, and care little about any part of their 
work except / the drawing of the pay. In many cases it 
is believed that wardens have used their positions for the 
sake of blackmailing residents of the State, or through 
personal friendship have allowed neighbors to violate the 
law. 
It is believed that before very long a new system will 
be introduced in Maine, and that with such introduction, 
the good work of fish and game protection will go on 
with a continually increasing momentum, but if such 
change is made, it must not be forgotten that to Mr.Stan- 
ley and his late colleague, Mr. Stillwell, is due great 
credit for long, faithfully and persistently working for 
protection in the Pine Tree State. "We may not all have 
agreed entirely with their methods. We may have 
thought that in many cases they were too loyal to their 
employees, and blindly believed them in the face of testi- 
mony which was far more worthy of credence. Neverthe- 
less, the fact remains that to these two gentlemen is due 
in large measure the abundance of game found in Maine 
to-day. _ _ _ . . _ _< . _ 
THE SENSES OF FISh. 
It is hardly to be conceived that the fact that fish feed 
at night has been questioned by any of those who have 
written on the subject of flyfishing in the dark. The 
point of special interest is as to how the fish feeds and 
how it takes the fly. Most old anglers have fished after 
dark, and usually they use a light colored fly, under the 
impression that this will attract more readily than a dark 
one would. 
That fish feed at night has long been known, and ac- 
counts of fly fishing in the dark have often been written. 
Also it is not very uncommon to catch in the early morn- 
ing fish whose stomachs contain recently captured night 
animals. In streams in the Rocky Mountains it is quite 
common to catch at such an hour large trout, which have 
fed during the night on the little voles so common in the 
low ground along the streams, and which are nocturnal in 
their habits. We took one morning three trout from 
which fourteen of these little meadow mice were secured, 
seven being found in one large fish, and all had been 
taken during the night, the last one certainly within an 
hour or two. 
How the fish discovers its food at night is not yet 
demonstrated. The senses of sight, smell and feeling have 
all been invoked to explain the act, but direct evidence is 
lacking to support any of the theories which have been 
advanced. We can only consider which one is the most 
plausible. 
A good many years ago the question was actively agi- 
tated, do fishes sleep? And we believe, after a good many 
opinions had been expressed, it was concluded that 
probably fishes did sleep, but, really, we know and could 
know nothing definite about the matter. Very likely the 
same is true With regard to the method by which the fish 
discovers "the lure offered to him in the dark. In the 
meantime, however, the experiences of anglers who have 
fished at night and their opinions are interesting reading. 
I It is reasonable to assume that fish being dependent on 
a sense or senses as guides in obtaining food supply and 
also in knowing what takes place, as is true of all animal 
organisms, these senses are so modified or developed 
as best to meet themeeds of their peculiar environment. 
To supposejhe sense of smell is an important means 
of detecting food or prey would hardly seem to satisfy 
the conditions of a fish's life, since an advocate of it 
must perforce take his own sense of smell, governed by 
his own environment, with his own manner of breathing 
through his nose, as a standard of comparison. This is 
but remotely analogous to the matter under considera- 
tion, since what would produce certain phenomena in the 
atmosphere might not produce similar phenomena in the 
water. A man breathing through his nose might have 
different perceptions from a fish breathing through its 
gills. For instance, the exhalations of vegetable and ani- 
mal matter are quickly and widely diffused through the 
atmospheric fluid which may change its direction fre- 
quently in short periods of time, widely disseminating 
the exhalations, and through the sense of smell bringing 
them to the consciousness of the people within an area 
more or less large. If the atmosphere is at rest, the ex- 
halations are diffused equally in all directions. If there 
be a breeze, the exhalations are carried with it, and can 
then be detected a long way down wind of the object 
causing them, though they are confined to a narrow 
channel, and up wind of the object, cannot be perceived 
at all. In short, if there were color to the particles 
which produce scent, so that they would be discernable 
to the eye, they would be found to be governed much in 
the same manner that smoke is by the atmosphere. Ad- 
vantage is taken of this fact in the well known practice 
of "chumming," for bluefish, and we have seen a trout 5 
drawn lip the stream two or three hundred feet by a 
piece of meat hung in the running water. But were these 
fish influenced by the sense of smell or by that of taste? 
Very different are all the conditions in the water from . 
those in the air. Owing to its greater density, the exhala- 
tions which produce scent, would find a greater obstruc- 
tion in the water, and as streams have fixed currents, the 
scent would at most have but a small area. Running 
water is always laden with foreign bodies which might 
weaken or destroy the strongest scent. In still water, 
any scent would have but a small area. A bit of coloring 
matter dropped into still water spreads but little. In 
short, the sense of smell, as a theory of the manner in 
which fish seeks its food has not been well sustained. 
used in the search of food or pursuit of prey. Water is 
an excellent conductor of sound as everyone knows. 
Everyone who has fished for trout knows also how keen 
is their sight and hearing. The trout angler takes every 
precaution to keep his person concealed, and he takes 
equal precautions to observe unbroken silence. The many 
colored flies and the effort of manufacturers to make 
them resemble the natural flies are tributes to the fishes 
asumed keenness of sight and discernment. The expert 1 
skill of the fly fisher often fails to deceive the fish, which 
will rise to the natural fly and ignore the artificial one. 
Granting his keenness of vision in the day time, there is 
a good foundation for the inference that fish can see in 
the night, from the fact that they feed at night. In- 
deed, on cloudy days, and in waters heavily shaded under 
woods and deep banks, there is a darkness in the waters 
which would not be much intensified by night. If the 
fish have nocturnal powers of vision, it would not be more 
remarkable than analogous characteristics of many ani- 
mals on land, notably the owl and cat, both of which 
can see well — though not all species equally well — by day 
or night. There is much other material testimony sup- 
porting the theory that fish can see irf the night. 
Every angler has heard the numerous splashes made 
by fish striking for their prey in the night, and many 
anglers while on the lakes or other waters, have seen 
them strike in the night. They will strike a spoon too, 
which is as devoid of scent as it is possible for anything 
to be, and to seize which they must depend entirely on 
sight. f 
' On the whole, therefore, the probabilities seem to be 
against any theory that night feeding fish are guided too, 
their prey by the sense of smell, and the probabilities are 
narrowed down to the senses of sight and hearing, which 
last— in the case of the fish — would include perhaps feel- 
ing as well. 
Undoubtedly the sense of sight and hearing are those 
NE W YORK DEER. 
A bill has just been introduced in the Assembly by Mr. 
Niles, which appeals strongly to all persons who wish to 
see the deer of New York more effectively protected than 
they are at present. As will be seen by reference to the 
full text of the measure, piinted in another column, it is 
very brief, and its essential points are that it forbids the 
killing of females and young, and the bunting of deer 
with dogs. 
The only reason for permitting the hounding of deer 
anywhere is that they may be more easily killed, but now 
adays there are many men who are Coming to think that 
instead of making it more easy to kill game, the efforts of 
law-makers ought to be directed toward reniering such 
killing more difficult. 
In many of the Southern States, where dogging has al- 
ways been practiced, the hunters follow the hounds on 
horseback and endeavor to cut off the deer, shooting from 
the saddle. This is genuine sport, and demands real 
skill— a firm seat in the saddle and much expertness with 
the shot' gun. In New York State hounding is very 
different, for the hunter sits at ease on the shore or in a 
boat until the scared animal is driven up to him. He has 
every advantage over the deer, and if it escapes, it does 
so only through bungling by the waiting hunter. The 
mere act of shooting can be performed as well by a wo- 
man or a child— as indeed it often is— as by the most skill- 
ful hunter. 
,In some of the States to the North of Mason and Dix- 
on's Line, there are no deer at all, and so no laws con- 
cerning theni; and in a great many others, there are laws 
against the use of dogs. A cursory examination of the 
Game Laws in Brief shows that in the United States and 
Canada there are no less than seventeen States and prov- 
inces in which the use of dogs in deer hunting is forbid- 
den. It will thus be seen that the sentiment of the 
Northern States — in which the- condibions are widely 
different from those in the South— as expressed in their 
laws, is distinctly opposed to the practice of hounding 
deer, and that New York is far behind her sister States in 
this matter. 
The hounding of deer is advocated by many of the Ad- 
irondack hotel keepers and by the great army of summer 
visitors, who cannot hope to get a deer unless dogs are 
used. Those who urge the passage of this bill are sup- 
ported by the sentiment of the best sportsmen of the 
country. The bill ought to become a part of the law of 
the State. 
