Forest and Stream. 
A Weekly Journal of the Rod and Gun. 
Terms, $4 a Year. 10 Cts. a Copy, j 
Six Months, $2. ) 
NEW YORK, SATURDAY, MARCH 12, 1898. 
( VOL, L.-No. 11. 
( No. 846 Broadway, New YoSk, 
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I will lay aside my discottrse of rivefs and tell 
yo« some thmg;s of the monsters^ or fish^ call them 
what you will, that they breed and feed in them. 
Pliny the philosopher says, in the third chapter of 
his ninth book, that in the Indian Sea, the fish 
called balaena, or whirlpool, is so longf and broad 
as to take up more in length and breadth than two 
acres of ground ; and of other fish of two hundred 
cubics long ; and that, in the River Ganges, there 
be eels of thirty feet long. He says there, that 
these monsters appear in the sea only when tem- 
pestuous winds oppose the torrents of waters fall- 
ing from the rocks into it, and so turning what 
lay at the bottom to be seen on the wate/s top. 
And he says, that the people of Cadara, an island 
near this place, make the timber for their houses 
of those fish-bones. The Complete Angler. 
SNAP SHOTS. 
Mr. McLaughlin's measure relative to the wearing 
of birds' plumes as articles of dress has been introduced 
in. the New York Legislature again this winter. It 
is in line with the Massachusetts law enacted last year, 
but which proved inoperative because declared by the 
courts to be unconstitutional. The McLaughlin bill 
amends the sectio^ of the statute applying to wild birds 
other than game "By adding this clause: "No person shall 
expose for sale, or have in his or her possession, or wear 
upon his or her person for the purpose of dress or orna- 
ment, the wings, feathers or plumage of any bird whose 
taking or killing is prohibited by this section." The ex- 
cepted species are the English sparrow, crow, hawk, 
crane, raven, crow blackbird, common blackbird and 
kingfisher. The prescribed penalty is a fine of twenty- 
five dollars. 
We print elsewhere a summary of the recommenda- 
tions made by the New York State League for amend- 
ments of the game law. The League has profited by the 
experience of last year when its omnibus measure failed 
because of an unimportant provision respecting salt- 
-water fishing, and has this year embodied its recom- 
mendations in separate bills, so that all may not be 
sacrificed to some one. As is rightly said by the com- 
mittee, the most important amendment urged by the 
League is that providing for the repeal of Section 249, 
the iniquitous all-the-year game sale clause, which 
vitiates the force of the statute by keeping the great 
New York market open for the reception of game at 
all times. It is the duty of every good citizen of New 
York, who appreciates the importance of adequate game 
protection, to urge personally upon his Assemblyman 
and Senator at Albany the repeal of this section. The 
reason it remains in the law is found in the inactivity 
of sportsmen. How many gun clubs of the State have 
actually taken any steps to influence legislation at Albany 
on this question? Is it not a fact that if the larger part 
of our gun clubs and associations had taken up the cam- 
paign in earnest they would have secured their object? 
We give in our shooting columns to-day an interesting 
and instructive examination of the constitutionality of 
non-resident shooting license laws. The paper is from 
the pen of a member of the New York bar who entered 
upon an examination of the North Dakota statute with 
the object of satisfying himself as to this phase of it. 
His conclusion is that the law would stand the test. 
The non-resident license may now be considered as a 
permanently engraved feature of our game protective 
system; and it will in all probability come in time to 
be adopted by other States which because of their game 
supply attract visitors from outside. That the discrimi- 
nation policy is a wise one has yet to be demonstrated. 
If the purpose of such legislation be to reduce the num- 
ber of .visiting sportsmen, that end is certainly gained; 
if it be to secure additional revenue, the attainment of 
the purpose is at least questionable. More money may 
be carried into a State and left behind by visiting sports- 
men where shooting is free than where a license fee is 
exacted. This is of course purely a subject of specula- 
tion; but the revenues derived from non-resident hunt- 
ing .licenses in States where the system is already in 
force make a paltry showing in comparison with the 
sums spent by visiting sportsmen for transportation, 
board, boats and guides; and it is himian nature to 
spend more freely where there is not that sense of im- 
position which so many feel when they are called upon 
to lay down their money for shooting permits. 
Maine is perhaps unique among the States in having 
laws coming down from early colonial- days, and still 
in force, which operate to forbid the establishment of 
game preserves within her borders. The Massachusetts 
Bay Colonial Ordinance of 1641, as amended in 1647, 
declared that the right of free fishing and fowling for all 
in and upon any great pond lying in common and con- 
taining more than ten acres in extent, with the incidental 
right to "pass and repass on foot through any man's 
property for that end, so they trespass not upon any 
man's corn or meadow," that is, his improved land, 
"shall never be abridged." The court of last resort 
has held that this right thus secured has never been 
abridged, but is the law of Maine to-day; and further, 
that this law gives the right of free hunting for wild game 
on all unimproved lands, as well as free fishing and fowl- 
ing in all great ponds, or ponds of more than ten acres 
in extent. While the game preserve might be independ- 
ent of any great pond or right of access thereto, it must 
consist of "unimproved land," and so comes within the 
definition of territory declared open to the public for 
free hunting. Some years ago the matter was passed 
upon by the courts. A corporation owning a large neck 
of land containing thousands of acres, and surrounded 
on three sides by the ocean, fenced the third side, thus 
inclosing many deer, over which the members claimed to 
exercise exclusive dominion; but the courts held that 
tliis could not be done. In spite of the old law to the 
contrary, there are game preserves in Maine — the Me- 
gantic, for example. Here, however, control is secured 
not by inclosing the territory, but by the agency of the 
fire laws, which forbid the building of a camp-fire on a 
territory without the permission of the owner. To se- 
cure exclusive fire privileges — that is, exclusive camping 
privileges — on a tract of wild land is equivalent to hold- 
ing it exclusively for whatever purpose may be desired. 
At the recent convention of the Illinois Sportsmen's 
Association, a proposition was broached to prohibit by 
law absolutely cold storage of game; but when some 
one pointed out that such a prohibition would affect the 
sportsman as well as the game dealer, human nature 
asserted itself and the proposition was not urged. As 
one of our German contemporaries said the other day, 
if we had in this country the universal military service 
system, so that the war shouters Would need take their 
own skins to market, there would be less shouting for a 
war with Spain. If cold storage could be forbidden the 
goose but permitted the gander, it would be in high 
favor. 
While every effort should be made to discourage and 
prevent the cold storage of game for commercial pur- 
poses, work in this direction will have a substantial basis 
of reason and common sense if it be founded upon a de- 
termination to restrict a traffic in game which is unduly 
destructive of the stock. That is, in fact, the only reason- 
able contention upon which limitation may be put 
upon the sale of game. If the supply were so abundant 
that the market could be stocked the year around, a wise 
economy would encourage the killing of game for mar- 
ket and the perfection of refrigerating and cold storage 
methods. Since the supply falls short and cannot stand 
the drain upon it, cold storage js to be discouraged 
simply for checking destruction. To make a crusade 
against the practice of keeping game in ice chests, on the 
ground that refrigerated game is not good to eat, is 
as fantastic as the attempt made some years since to stop 
spring duck shooting by an alarm cry that ducks in the 
spring were infected with parasites which made their 
consumption as food a menace to health. Mankind had 
been eating spring ducks for thousands of years, and 
refused to be scared by the spring duck worm discovery. 
The worid has been eating game birds, and domestic 
poultry and other meats kept in cold storage by the 
hundred thousand tons, and it is not now to be deprived 
of its refrigerated market supplies by resolutions that 
such meats are not fit for human food. 
We have said that the only sensible reason for lim- 
iting the traffic in refrigerated game is that same law 
of supply and demand wliich should forbid the sale of 
game at all seasons. It is a principle which applies to 
our present game conditions in America. In Great 
Britain the case is different. There game is provided by 
artificial breeding in such over-supply that dealing in 
refrigerated game birds is in many respects on a par with 
dealing in domestic poultry; and so refrigerating plants 
for the storage of surplus game are recognized as legiti- 
mate institutions. Here, for illustration, is an advertise- 
ment from a London shooting journal: 
Game preserved by freezing for 12 months without suffering any 
depreciation. 
The Leadenhall Mai-ket Cold Storage Company, Limited, 
freeze and store large or small quantities of game in their 
cold chambers for later sale, or consumption during the close 
season, at an inclusive charge of 3d. per head per calendar 
month. 
Parcels of stored game sent to customers' or any other addresses 
on receipt of post card. 
Example. — Say a sportsman stores 50 head of pheasants, and 
requires one or two brace for consumption or presentation. He 
forwards a post card or letter, giving the address to which he 
requires same to be sent, and they are despatched forthwith. 
"J. S. Jones, U. S. A., Retired," writes from Bath* Me., 
to the Army and Navy Journal to relate a recent 
hunting exploit of Orderly Sergeant Richardson, U. S. 
A., of Fort Popham. The party of four hunters left 
Bath on Feb. 12 to go into camp in the upper part of 
the State. On the isth Sergeant Richardson scouted to 
within long range of a band of five caribou, and in the 
presence of two companions as eye-witnesses distin- 
guished himself by kilfing one of the caribou at 500yds., 
a second at 450yds., a third at 6o6yds., and a fourth at a 
distance unspecified, whereupon the fifth took to its heels 
and disappeared in the direction of Canada. This, re- 
lates the veracious Jones> U. E A„ Retired, "gave us 
four caribou out of five shots fired, and by only one 
man at that. We went into camp with flying colors, and 
were the center of attraction that evening." The sum- 
mary of the hunt is tersely given, with due credit to 
the marksmanship of Richardson: "Our party were on 
this hunt for several days and killed six deer, two elk 
and four caribou, of which Sergeant Richardson killed 
four caribou, three deer and one elk, and he killed them 
all over 300yds., except one deer, which he shot on 
the run, and about 150yds. distance, breaking his neck." 
The Sergeant's rifle fire is so deadly to the game of 
Maine, we may well feel thankful that it operates only 
in a vivid imagination which stocks New England 
woods with elk and is unhampered by any knowledge 
of game close seasons. 
The Sportsmen's Show given by the New England 
Sportsmen's Association will open in Mechanics Hall, 
Boston, next Monday, March 14. The projectors and 
managers have gone about their enterprise in the right 
way, and the affair promises to be notable for the wealth 
and variety of its attractions. It will be not merely a 
trade display of the equipments and appurtenances of 
the varied fields of sport of to-day, but a most effective 
exhibit of natural objects and woods life. Many thou- 
sands of dollars and weeks of planning and working 
have been devoted to providing special features which 
will gratify the sportsman's tastes. There will be on 
exhibition numerous specimens of game, large and small, 
drawn from the Corbin preserve and elsewhere; fishes 
from the United States Commission at. Washington; 
Indian camps; a miniature lake, with boats and canoes; 
and in short, a realistic bit of the wilderness trans- 
ported as by magic and set down in the midst of Bos- 
ton. The Exposition' will extend through two weeks, 
March 14 to 26. 
A game case which found its way into a justice's court 
in Orleans county, N. Y., last week, had to do with the 
ownership of game when killed. A fox-hunting party 
had pursued a fox several miles, when finally it was 
killed by their hounds on a farm; and when the hunt- 
ers came up they found that the game had been seized 
by the farmer owning the land. They laid claim to it, 
on the ground that it had been pursued by them and 
killed by their dogs. The farmer resisted on the score 
that it had been killed on his land. The hunters brought 
suit to recover the value of the fox, and the jury found 
for the plaintiffs, declaring that to the hunter belongs 
the game which he or his dogs killed or disabled. * 
