iTER, 27, 1897.] 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
1 1 most makes one thmk they were In a timbered country. 
I noted a conple of robins on the 13th in a small tree; this 
9 an unusual thing, although I have seen them in goodly 
lumbers in the upper cross timbers. 
The much hated English sparrow has taken possession of 
)ur town and increased in numbers since 1893 — when 1 f rat 
'bserved them here — until now they may be seen in large 
lunches. A large flock of gee^e passed near by town ye8- 
crday and 1 think they lit in a field near here. 
The snows of last month proved very fatal to the rabbits 
cottontails), in that it furnished the f.armers a leisure, and I 
l ui told that a great many were slaughtered. I know of one 
jarty of four persons who killed thirty-five of these little 
mimals one evening in about two hours' time. I have also 
leard of some large bags of quail, a party of three Btiooters 
tilled over 100 birds iu one day. F. E. W. 
New York Game Law. 
Albany, Feb. 30. — The forty fish and game protectors in 
tie employ of the Fisheries, Game and Forest Commission 
lave just concluded a session of several days' duration. The 
ri<3etiDg was called to discuss the best means for forest 
l eservation and the protection of fish and game in the sev- 
;ral counties in the State. The following are some of the 
imendmenta to the fish and game law approved by the pro- 
ectors, and the Fisheries, Game and Forest Commission will 
je asked to cause the amendments to be introduced in the 
Legislature: 
"That no device except angling shall be placed, drawn or 
used for the capture of any fish in the waters of New York 
iand Raritan bays, nor in any of the waters of the State ad- 
liacent to the county of Richmond or the county of Kings, 
escept that shad may be taken by shad nets between March 
15 and June 15, but such nets shall not be allowed to remain 
Lo the water from Saturday at sunset to the following Mon- 
lay at sunrise. A violation is to be deemed a misdemeanor, 
iMid. in addition a fine of $100 is provided, 
"No garbage, cinders, ashes or refuse of any kind shall be 
thrown from any vessel into the waters of Kill von Kull, 
Staten Island Sound, Raritan Bay, New York Bay, Great 
South Bay, or Long Island Sound, or into the bays and har- 
bors opening into the same, west of a line drawn from Old 
Field Point, due north to the boundary line between New 
y(9rk and Connecticut, and within two miles of the shore; 
aul no starfish shall be thrown into any waters of the State. 
Whoever shall violate or attempt to violate the provisions of 
this section shall b^^ guilty of misdemetnor, and in addition 
thereto shall be liable to a penalty of $200 for each violation 
thereof. 
"That the season of brook trout should close July 15 each, 
year in the southern tier of counties and in Wyoming 
county. 
"That no black bass shall be taken from any waters of 
this Slate between Oct. 15 and June 30, nor during the 
open season between 9 P. M. and sunrise the following 
morning. 
"That a uniform date should be made for the opening and 
closing of the season for partridges, squirrels, hares, rabbits 
and wookcock. 
"That muskallonge shall not be fished for, caught or 
possessed, except from June 15 to Dec. 15. 
"Prohibiting the use of snares or traps of any kind for the 
catching of hares and rabbits 
"That wild birds shall not be killed, caught or ipossessed 
at any time. , . 
"Entirely prohibiting the killing of deer in Sullivan 
county, as well as the other counties in the Catskill Park 
region, and in the counties of Otsego, Albany, Schoharie, 
Broome, Chenango, Rockland and Orange. 
"That every person killing deer in the State shall report 
the same to the town supervisor where the deer is killed 
within ten days." 
The following resolution was adopted: 
Eesolmd, That our personal observation of the condition 
of the forests in northern New York and the extensive timber 
cutting now carried on there by the lumbermen and pulp 
wood operators leads us to firmly believe that unless the 
State acquires immediate ownership of that region these 
lands will cease to be of value as a reservoir for water sup 
ply, and that the thmning out and removal of the woods 
must result in the gradual extinction of game and disappear- 
ance of fish from our lakes and streams. 
Besolved, That in the interest of guides, hunters, sports- 
men and tourists who frequent the Adirondacks, and in the 
interest of all good citizens throughout the State at large, we 
earnestly recommend that the members of the Legislature 
give this subject their careful attention and appropriate the 
funds necessary in purchasing these forests by the State. 
A resolution favoring an amendment to the law extending 
the open season for deer so that they could be killed from 
from Aug. 16 to No 7. 15, and to prohibit the killing of does 
for five years, was defeated. 
One Warden to Iowa's 56,025 Square Miles. 
Vinton, Iowa, Feb. ^.—Editor Forest and Stream: In 
PoKEST AND STREAM J)f Jan. 23 a correspondent says we 
have no game wardens in this State, and wishes to know if 
something cannot be done to have a game warden in each 
couuty. 
There is one game warden, whose duty it is to look after 
ninety-nine counties with an area of 56,085 square miles. 
He lives in-Estherville, in the extreme northern part of the 
Slate; and it may be that the game laws are respected 
around that town, but they are not here. 
I think a law could be passed placing a tax on each gun 
Good wardens can be hu'ed for |50 a month. Many a trust- 
worthy man is working for much less than that. I believe 
that a tax of from 50 cents to $1 on each gun would in 
many counties amount to enough to pay that sum. I would 
let each warden appoint his deputies, and would have them 
paid with one-half the fines in cases in which they are the 
informants. I would have each fine include |5 to be paid 
into a general fund, and this to be used to help pay wardens 
in counties where the tax is insalflcient ; and if this should 
not be enough, then the balance made up from some other 
State fund. 
1 believe that the open season for prairie chickens, instead 
of beginning on Sept. 1, as at present, should begin on the 
opening day for quail, Oct. 1. During the month of Sep- 
tember many late chickens are weak in flight and have no 
show before the gun. With wardens in each county, I 
think it would not be necessary to have a close season for 
rabbits, as .suggested. Farmers are not yet ready for that, 
bat will favor any game protection law that does not inter- 
fere with the peace, happiness and welfare of their homes. 
Mount Tom. 
Adirondack Winter Deer Hounding. 
Two deer, killed by hounds, are now lying dead on the ice 
of Lake George opposite the Waltonian Island. A third one 
is in a clearing on the east side near by. A little herd of six 
or eight does and fawns selected for their winter home a 
favorable spot near Dark Bay, in the town of Putman. 'The 
spot was well chosen, except they did not realize they were 
locating among the most notorious poachers in the whole 
State. As soon as the snows of January betrayed their 
presence, the war of extermination began, and has ended 
with the last one dead. 
Would that I could send to the committee on game laws 
(now considering at Albany what the law shall be for years 
to come) a photograph of these poor dead does, both pros- 
pective mothers, as they now lie on the ice in sight of our 
village. Will they still persist in the attempt to make a 
"happy family" of hounds and deer? Had one of these deer 
been killed by a wolf or panther the bounty on such animals 
would have been doubled at once, while the hundred times 
more destructive hound is petted for his cruelty. 
Tills same cruelty is being enacted throughout the whole 
Adirondack country wherever deer are to be found ; but not 
a case in a thousand is ever heard from. 'l?he owner of 
hounds will not conform to the law. As a general thing, he 
is too ignorant to read its meaning, and is influenced by 
petty gifts and praise for his zeal by an unprincipled em- 
ployer, who will use him while he may, and is sure to desert 
him when his hounds, for lack of care, get him into trouble. 
— A. O. G. in Glens Falls Bepublican. 
"Holland." 
The grand sketch entitled "Holland," by Shadow, Hammond, is the 
finest sketch of New England woodcock and grouse shooting that I 
ever saw published and I am an old sportsman of forty- three years' 
experience in the field. Ic is lifelike and real. ' D. 
Proprietors of fishing resorts will find it profitable to advertise 
them in Forest and Stream. 
MEN I HAVE FISHED WITH. 
XXXIII.— Benjamin Van Voast. 
Afteh the pirates returned to Albany they forswore 
piracy until the time should come for the next cruise to 
the bluefishing grounds. They dispersed, and were swal- 
lowed up in the whirlpool of civil life, just as the great 
armies of 1865 disappeared, without creating a ripple on 
the surface of society. Benny returned to his desk in my 
father's office, where I also held down a chair, the sum- 
mer's tan faded from our cheeks, and if we held converse 
it was of invoices, vouchers, way bills, and things with 
which pirates have nothing to do. In fact a Western 
drover coming in to pay freight on several cars of cattle 
would never suspect us to have been pirates. Our disguise 
was perfect. It was only when we met at Billy Shaw's 
cafe that the past was mentioned. 
Next spring, when the ice went- out of the upper Hud- 
son, there was the usual overflow of the bottom lands, and 
my naturally good constitution had repaired damages 
sufficiently to ^errnit frequent trips to the muskrat grounds 
on the Popskinny with Port Tyler, who was after fur, 
while I needed the exercise which the sport brought. 
Perhaps it wasn't sport! I shot the little brother of the 
beaver, which we miscall a muskrat, for no other purpose 
than to exploit my marksmanship and kill something, to 
get out in a boat over the meadows and be in company 
with my beau ideal of a master of woodcraft, old Port 
Tyler. I did not want the game for food nor for its fur; 
yet the latter was utilized and life was not taken in vain. 
Not the highest form of sport? No, not the highest by 
long odds, but I spent every odd day in early spring at it, 
when business was not too pressing; and then there was 
always an eye out for black ducks and mallards when we 
were among the willows which marked the line where the 
creek was when the waters were down. 
Benny wanted to go and see what hidden charm lay in 
shooting the musquash, and so we went down on the 
island one Monday night and slept in the hay of Eiven- 
burg's barn with old Port. The questions that Benny 
asked about rats, snakes and other "varmints" showed 
that the whole business of camping was new to him. He 
was not at ease after we had eaten supper and had crawled 
under the hay. 
"Mr. Tyler," he asked, "do snakes ever crawl up in the 
hay in these barns and bite people?" 
"Not as I ever heerd of," Port answered; "the fact is that 
snakes never come out of their winter quarters until the 
days are warm, and even in the hottest weather they are 
quiet at night, an' besides, there's no harmful snakes about 
here anyway." 
In order to soothe Benny I remarked: "What Porter 
says is true to a certain extent, but there are exceptions to all 
rules, and the snake that wallowed through the snow and 
killed the family which lived just below here, some ten 
years ago, was the exception; yet I hardly think any 
snakes will disturb us to-night, for the moon is in the south, 
yet we can't be sure." 
In the morning Benny looked tired, and when Porter 
found a chance he said to me: "Your friend is afraid of 
snakes, and I tried to quiet him so's he'd sleep; but you 
went on about snakes wallerin' through snow, an' you 
know better'n that. There wasn't no family killed — ^now, 
honest, what'd you want to tell such stuff as that for?" 
"To encourage and amuse Benny; that's what he came 
for. Fun is what he is after, and if he thinks that snakes 
are dangerous and are abroad while there's snow in the 
valleys, it's fun to let him think so." 
After breakfast we started in three light boats over the 
meadows, making for every pile of driftwood where the 
game gathered for refuge after being flooded out in their 
houses and homes in the bank. Benny had not told me 
that he had never shot a gun, and his actions were funny. 
After giving him full directions about loading, for we used 
muzzleloaders in those days, he shot both barrels and then 
snapped a lot of caps at the swimming rodents, but the 
charges did not explode. In despair he rowed over to me 
to ask for advice and assistance. I snapped several caps on 
each barrel without effect, and then with the worm on the 
end of the ramrod drew the charges. In each barrel he had 
put the shot in first. 
Porter remarked, "I guess your friend Benny ain't done 
much shootin', and if he puts his powder on top of the shot 
every time he won't get many rats. I'm a. little afeerd to 
shoot with men as green as that, for there's no tellin' but 
you'll get a charge of shot into some part of your body 
where you don't want it. It's too bad that you drew the 
charges and show'd him how to load." 
An apology was due to Port for bringing a man to shoot 
with him who had never handled a gun, but my excuse 
was that I had no idea Benny wa.^ so raw a recruit or I 
would not have brought him; for, like Porter, I knew that 
he was to be feared, and after this explanation we sepa- 
rated and kept our boats so far apart that there was no 
danger from Benny. He banged away all the morning, 
and when we assembled for the noon lunch he had three 
head of game, which he displayed in triumph as he joined 
us. "How many did you get?" he asked, and as the boats 
pulled up at the barn he looked at the piles in each and 
exclaimed, "Geewhilliken, what a lot!" He counted them 
and there were over eighty in the boats. 
After a bite and a smoke we left Porter to "peel" his 
game, and Benny and I went forth again. In little bunches 
of sticks, straw, fence-rails and other flotsam which lodged 
against the willows, stakes and similar obstructions, the 
game would be found singly orin numbers, and would dive 
at our approach, leaving a wake that marked the course, 
but the necessity of their breathing gave opportunity to the 
gunner, and he must be quick or the breath would be 
snatched and his game be far away on the second stretch and 
out of distance. This, and this only, gave the shooting a 
slight claim to be called sport, if indeed it had any sort of 
claim to the title. It required a quick eye and a snap 
shot. 
Perhaps two hours had passed and we had done much 
shooting around our district, for above and below us men 
were shooting, and it was not the correct thing to invade a 
neighbor's territory, and one could always return to a drift 
pile in half an hour and find it tenanted apparently with 
as many squatters as before, for these animals never take 
to the hilla when drowned out of their homes, but remain 
near until the waters subside. I was floating, gun in hand, 
looking toward Benny waiting for a head to appear wnicn 
I had hit once, when I saw him fire one barrel and then 
jump up and fire the other, while the frail boat slipped 
from under him and scooted away. He had somehow 
fallen on a pile of drift which kept him dry above the 
waist, and he evidently did not need the advice always 
given in the army to any fellow in difficulty: "Grab a 
root," which I involuntarily yelled as I went after and 
captured his boat. After getting him into his light Scow 
again and bailing it out there was a gun missing, and after 
setting all the drift^free from the old fence post which had 
collected it the wafer was too muddy to see the bottom, al- 
though only 30in. deep; but it couldn't go far, and I located 
it with an oar, and after many trials lifted the muzzle of 
the gun above water by clasping it with both oars, and we 
went to the barn, Benny very silent. There is no use in 
saying "I told you so;" it only exasperates the party of the 
second part. Let him alone to think it all over, and on 
this principle there was little conversation as we rowed our 
boats up to Eivenburg's barn, which stood on an elevation 
of some 2ft. above the highest flood recorded. 
Porter was still at work and merely glanced at the game 
we brought, and I blew tlie water out of Ben's gun and 
snapped a lot of caps on it to help dry it, after wiping it 
inside as well as possible. "What's the matter with the 
gun?" Porter asked as he saw all this going on. 
Before I could reply Benny broke in with: "Like a 
durned fool, I forgot that you both said that I mustn't 
stand up in the boat to shoot, and I went overboard, gun 
and all. I saw both of you stand up to shoot, and in the 
excitement of firing the second barrel I jumped up and 
went overboard." There was a pause. He had virtually 
said, "You told me so," without mental irritation at 
any one but himself, and we w^ere still friends. He stood 
in his wet trousers, kicked a dead muskrat and continued: 
"This muskrat shooting isn't as much fun as I thought it 
was; let's go home." And so we took the largest boat, 
placed the skins in the bow, and Old Port and. the un- 
skinned game in the stern, while Benny with the bow 
oars after a w^hile learned to keep a regular dip in unison 
with the stroke oar. Port kept on skinning and the dead 
(muskrats) steered by the dumb (Benny) went upward 
against the flood. 
As soon as the ice dam at Castleton or above, on what 
the old Dutch settlers called the "overslaugh," breaks, the 
waters about Albany subside and the rich bottom lands 
emerge with a deposit of fertilizing leaf mould and other 
sediment which has come from the Adirondacks and the 
fertile Mohawk Valley. Then the perch begin to gather 
in those bayous which are called "creeks" on the upper 
Hudson, for the natives do not distinguish these from a 
brook, which is also a "creek;" the river herring run up to 
spawn in the cold waters, the bullheads emerge from the 
mud and the early fishing begins, or at least did begin 
before the railroad filled in the place which it formerly 
bridged and caused the filling of the creek by stopping the 
flow, and now there are few fish in the stream where we 
boys could in the early days catch more than we could 
carry. 
Young Charley Bell, another of the amateur pirates, and 
I often went down there, and our tales of fishing awoke a 
desire in Billy Shaw and Benny to go along; so just as soon 
as the ice was gone, and the song sparrow began to rejoice 
that a portion of the springtime had come, even though 
not to abide permanently, we went down one pleasant 
afternoon and slept in the hay of Hotel de Rivenburg. 
Benny's mishaps had been fully related, enlarged and 
beautified each time they were told. "That's all right," 
said Benny, "I don't want any more shooting, but fishing is 
better sport. I'd like better to sleep home in a good bed, 
and come down here in the morning. . What fun is there 
in sleeping in an old spook hole like this?" 
"Fun!" said Shaw, "why, Benny, if you were at home 
you'd miss all this good company, you wouldn't hear the 
tree toads peeping, nor the owls singing, and besides all 
that you can study astronomy through tne roof." 
"Durn the peepers and the owls! The hay tickles my 
face, and the last time I was here a spider or a cricket 
walked over my face. Now, on the schooner last summer 
there were no spiders nor crickets to bother you after you 
went to sleep, and I like a civilized life." 
"No," replied Billy, "there wasn't any spiders sor erick- 
