March ir, 1899] 
FOREST AND Sl'REAM. 
187 
tasteless, and when they were set before me for meat my 
stomach gorged and revolted. Unless accessions arrive 
from elsewhere this spring oiir fields and forests will be 
tenantless. C. Hallock. 
Rockingham, N. C. — Editor Forest and Stream: 
Sportsmen all over the South no doubt would be glad to 
hear from each other concerning the prospect of quail for 
next season. I am proud to say the quail in this county 
is doing well and safe. There are plenty to train on and 
to shoot. Will be plentiful next season. Two weeks 
ago in one day I found twenty-three coveys with four 
dogs, Glad S., Effie T., Jock and Hanover. I bagged 
forty-nine; could have gotten more, but thought I had 
enough. Would be glad to hear through Forest and 
Stream from my friend, Charles Tucker, of Tennessee, 
and C. E. Buckle, of Virginia, concei'ning the quail in 
their State. I trust they have stood the severe weather 
we have just passed through. Snow was from 8 to loin. 
here. " Walter L. Steele. 
Newfoundland Caribou. 
The following item taken from the St, John's Even- 
ing Herald, of Feb. 7, will give American sportsmen 
an idea how plentiful are caribou in the Island, and how 
they are being, slaughtered: 
"Thursday the Virginian Lake steamed up to the 
famous hunting ground of the western shore — White 
Bear Bay — to find 450 carcasses of venison awaiting 
shipment. The intense frost was such that the place was 
solid everywhere, and. the shiij could not get within five 
miles of the point reached last year. Thousands of 
caribou are reported on the hills, and even out to the 
very bottom of the bay the3' were never known to be 
so plentiful. Although the' thermometer was 5 degrees 
below zero, it was a gala day for the hunters; dogs drew 
the carcasses over the ice to the ship's sides, assisted by 
the men, who came seven miles with each load, and kept 
up the _work until all were at the gangway. They had 
ears, nose, cheeks and feet frost-bitten, yet did siot seem 
to mind such trifles while at work. The steamer brought 
from Pushthrough and other ports 200 carcasses of cari- 
bou, making in all 650, with mere to follow next trip." 
Just a fortnight ago the same steamer brought 120 
carcasses of venison. This slaughter has been going on 
tor years, and still there does not appear to be any per- 
ceptible diminution in the herds of caribou that roam 
through the vast deer parks of the interior of the island. 
But of course this state of things cannot last much 
longer, as it would be an impossibility for the deer to 
stand such; wholesale slaughter. Our local game protec- 
tion society is taking steps to stop the abuse, and prob- 
ably at the next session of the Legislature some pro- 
tective legislation will be enacted. The meat is sold in 
St. John's for a few cents a pound, and the poorest me- 
chanic can procure cheaply as good a haunch of veni- 
son as was ever enjoyed by Friar Tuck and Robin 
Hood and their jolly men in the classic glades of the 
New Forest. W. J. Carroll. 
A meeting of the committee 'of this society was held 
last week in the ofiice of the secretary, Mr. Charles 
H. Emerson, at which every member of the committee 
was present. At 7:30 P. M. Mr. R. L. Mare, the presi- 
dent, took the chair and a lengthy and important dis- 
cussion took place with regard to the slaughter of deer, 
and what means should be adopted to prevent the same. 
A sub-committee consisting of the chairman, Mr. Mare, 
Mr. McNeilly, Q. C. ; Messrs. F. J. Morris, Mr. Emer- 
son and C, O'N. Conro3^ was appointed to draw up a 
petition to the Legislature on the subject — also with 
regard to the alteration of the time now allowed for 
shooting snipe, wild duck, etc., and for a reduction of 
the present license fee for a non-resident $100 to $50. The 
meeting was an enthusiastic one, and the society is de- 
termined to do everything in its power to benefit all — 
sportsmen and settlers. 
Maine Legislation. 
Boston, March 3. — The commissioners' fish and game 
bill has been prepared and introduced in the Maine 
Legislature, and received the sanction of the Committee 
on Fisheries and Game. It -is reported that the Maine 
Fish and Game Association has had much to do with 
this bill, which proposes to put under one head all the 
fish and game laws of the State. The matter introduced 
makes a pamphlet of forty-one pages, and brings under 
one chapter of the revised statutes every law, public, 
private or special, relating to inland fisheries and game, 
and all laws not therein contained are repealed by the 
repealing clause of the bill. Not a great many changes 
are made in the existing laws. Section S contains all the 
laws pertaining to fish. The, close time begins October 
I. as now, but ends with the leaving of the ice from the 
lakes and ponds, instead of May i, as in the old law. 
No other important changes have been made, except to 
reduce the number of pounds of trout or landlocked 
salmon one may take and have, in possession to 20, in- 
stead of 25, as in the present law. .All the lakes and 
ponds in Somerset and Kennebec counties are closed to 
all ice fishing, in addition to those in Oxford and Frank- 
lin counties, which were closed by the old law. Section 
10 adds cusk, suckers and pickerel to the present list 
of protected fish. In section 11 tlie sale of ruffed grouse 
is prohibited and the number one may kill in a day is 
reduced to fifteen. Sandpipers are also added to the list 
of protected birds. Section 19 makes the annual close 
time on deer to commence Dec. 15, instead of Jan. i, as 
in the old law. It also puts a close time of six years 
on caribou. Section 20 changes the penalty for illegal 
moose killing to fine or imprisonment, or both, at the 
discretion of the court. Section 21 is new and is really 
the section that will cause a hard fight when the bill 
comes up for consideration March 15, the day assigned 
for it. It proposes that one deer may be killed in Sep- 
tember for food, to be consumed in the locality where 
taken, and by the person taking it, by paying a fee of 
$6 for a non-resident of the State and $4 for a resident, 
under such rules and regtilations as tjie' commissioners 
shall establish. This proposed law applies only to 
counties where there is an open season on deer, and 
not to those closed all the year. Section 26 is new and 
provides that two game birds, lolbs. of fish, a moose 
or a deer, may be shipped to the home of the lucky 
sportsman, without his accompanying it, by paying a 
fee for the privilege; the fee to be large enough to pre- 
vent shipping to markets. No changes are made in the 
guide registration law, except that guides may register 
as general or local guides. Section 29 is for the pur- 
pose of putting sporting camps more completely under 
the knowledge of the commissioners; that they may 
know who owns and operates them, and for what pur- 
poses. 
A long petition has been received, signed by the prin- 
cipal timber and wild land owners of the State, setting 
forth their great value, and extreme danger from for- 
est fires. They claim that they are entitled to some 
protection from the dangers of fire, set by the thousands 
of hunters who roam without restraint over their lands. 
The petition winds up with this clau.se: "No protection 
can be afforded so clieaply and efficiently as to compel 
hunters and fishermen, intending to camp, and kindle 
fires, to be accompanied by a registered guide, upon 
whom rests the responsibilities of his office." The peti- 
tion also claims that much the same argument pertains 
to sporting camps; that they should be licensed: that 
their owaers should be known to the commissioners to 
be careful, competent and safe men. to be intrusted with 
the keeping of the fish and game interests of the State 
as well as the landed interests of her citizens. How 
much of the petition will be incorporated in the gen- 
eral fish and game bill it is not yet certain. 
Special. 
CHICAGO AND THE WEST. 
Ducks Coming North. 
Chicago, 111., March 4. — The cold, snap here has been 
broken by a series of rains, which will be very apt to 
loosen the streams, and make holes in the ice big enough 
for a duck to get his feet into. Already the flight is well 
over the lower part of this State, and a few birds have 
been killed at Water Valley, although the ice is still i8in. 
thick. There might be heavy shooting at Swan Lake al- 
most any day now. At Browning, 111., there is a great 
mallard country, and a good many mallards are reported 
feeding on the cornfields near there already. If one cares 
to go spring shooting, it might be well to keep an eye 
on Browning this coming week, for a warm spell will 
bring the ducks up in a great wave over this country. 
The flight will probably last for a couple of days, and 
those lucky •enough to be on the grounds when it comes 
will get the shooting. 
They tell me that sometimes very good shooting is had 
at the junction of the Kankakee and Desplaines rivers, 
near Lorenzo, on the Santa Fe Railroad, A party near 
here has a flock of seventeen tame decoys, which are said 
to do their work remarkably well. 
By the way, it is at Browning that this art of using 
tame decoys has reached its highest development. That 
great duck country had produced some magnificent mar- 
ket-shooters, and it is among these that we find the tame 
decoy in its most practical form. The bird used is 
hardly to be distinguished from the mallard duck, except- 
ing that its legs are a little heavier. A flock of about a 
dozen is ordinarily used, the hens being anchored, per- 
haps a dozen of them, while four or five drakes are left to 
feed and swim around. These perfidious fowls call so 
seductively that they allure the most suspicious wild 
bird. The shooters in that region ordinarily use the pump 
gun, and deliver the first barrel just at the time- when 
the wild birds are letting down their legs, 4 or 5ft. above 
the heads of the tame decoys. They ordinarily deliver 
all the shots of the pump gun before the flock has gotten 
out of range. If you want to see scientific duck shooting 
go to this Illinois river country. It was Browning that 
produced Billy Griggs, whom I take to be tlie king of the 
market-hunters of all America. 
What's the Matter with Illinois? 
Mr. R. R. Wiley, of Peoria, Ifl., writes to me a letter 
which sets forth so clearly the real state of affairs in 
Illinois on game protection, that I am disposed to let him 
speak in full to the readers of Forest and Stream. He 
says : 
"Allow me to bear testimony to the fine qualities of 
Forest and Stream, and especially to your department, 
which has alwa3's had an abundance of interest to the 
hunter or fisherman. 
"But the items which have always first engaged my 
attention are those relating to game protection. It makes 
my heart glad when you tell of any step forward that is 
being made by our game wardens or by the Legislature. 
"On the Illinois River, near my home, there are several 
sloughs that were once famous for waterfowl. During 
migration the ducks were very numerous, but now. as one 
paddles through these places, with the pleasure of seeing 
only a few grebes or a band of nervous coots huddled 
together, one feels as if he were looking at a picture all 
blue and gray, and no sunshine. We all know, or should 
know, what has become of the ducks ; but let us cease 
talking and do something. No law ever was or ever will 
be effective without strong public sentiment behind it. 
Our legislators need more of this sentiment, and I wish 
that your paper might be the means of bringing out the 
expressions of the multitude of our true sportsmen until 
everybody would wake up to the fact that game protec- 
tion is vitally necessary. 
"To judge from my experiences, in this section of the 
country, our game and fish laws would .have had just as 
much respect if thej' had been framed in Greenland. 
Game is sold and killed in open violation of the law, and 
market fishermen have seines running out from every 
point on the river, as long as the water remains open. A 
gentleman in this city has become interested in these mat- 
ters, and has sought far and wide for a case where money 
has been received for school funds due to the conviction 
of fish law violators. After a great deal of corre- 
spondence with manj-^ school superintendents in this sec- 
tion, he has found that, with one exception, no money 
has been receiv^(J, 
"Now, isn't this lamentable? Wouldn't the people be 
quick to raise a row if their sheriffs or constables allowed 
a pickpocket or other criminal to victimize them? Are 
we not being victimized every day of every year in regard 
to the game and fish laws ? 
"Lej: us try to redeem the mistake of the past; =hake the 
lethargy of the public, and make them see the necessity 
of preserving our birds and fish. 
"I have written this much at length to you because you 
are trying to wake people up to these matters. I hope 
you will continue, and take as the text for many a sermon 
"The Prohibition of Spring Shooting.' When one con- 
siders the thousands of gunners, who each spring kill 
more thousands of female ducks, and when one considers 
that these thousands would otherwi.se come back in the 
fall, multiplied, at the very least, six timeSj the proposi- 
tion assumes a very promising aspect. 
"I wonder if, among the great many readers of Forest 
and Stream in this and neighboring States, there are not 
others who feel as I do about these matters, but who never 
express themselves ?" 
There is but too much truth in Mr. Wiley's comment on 
the weakness of Illinois sentiment in game pi-otection. 
Something of this is geographical, and much of it is due 
to heredity. Let us suppose that we are just coming in to 
the State of Illinois in the early days. We are poor, and' 
want to mak6 a living .in the easiest way possible. We 
find the great IllinoisRiver, running north and south across 
the State for so great a distance, teeming with fish and 
crossing a country alive with game. We settle on this 
strip of country, and wc send for our friends. We look 
upon this stream, with its fish and game, as ours by right 
of discovery. We don't always go to school, and we don't 
always read the papers for a generation or so, so we 
cling to the ways of the past. Our children grow up in 
the same way. They and their neighbors take up the 
land back from the stream, owning it for 50 or 100 miles 
on 'each side of the waterway, yet not getting so far away 
as to be out of the reach of its traditions. All these people 
feel that they own the fish and game, as their fathers did, 
whenever they see fit to kill it. The free spirit of old 
America dictates this feeling, and I confess I admire it. 
I never liked law or restraint myself, and I would like to 
move to-morrow to a country where such things were not 
known. But since we are in this country, and since the 
conditions of this country have changed, and 'since some 
of us have learned to think and reason, it is easily to be 
seen that we cannot have our individual ways any more 
than we can have the old conditions. 
The great thing for the so-called lawless element of 
lower Illinois to remember, is the thing Avhich they have 
not learned, and seem unable to learn, namely, that the 
times have changed. We cannot shoot as we did fifty 
years ago, for the reason that there are more men and 
fewer birds. It is just as good sense to spare our ducks 
as it is to spare our setting hens. We will always have 
poultry, yet when the first domestic fowls came into Illi- 
nois there were a million ducks to where there was one 
hen. To-day there are a million hens to where there is 
one duck. The situation is reversed. Why? 
All these people of lower Illinois belieVe in spring 
shooting. The descendants of the early settlers believe in 
it, and a great many of the leading citizens of the larger 
towns believe in it. A good many men in Chicago be- 
lieA^e in it. A great many men who profess not to believe 
it in, none the less practice it. It is no use saying that 
none of these men are sportsmen, and it is no use Veviling 
them. I am inclined to think that a good deal of the 
bitter sentiment of lower Illinois against upper Illinois 
on this very head arose out of the ill-advised position 
taken by the too ardent wellwishers of good protection. 
The idea grew up in lower Illinois that the city shooters 
wanted to force upon the statutes laws which suited them, 
laws which were good for sportsmen, but which were not 
enacted for the benefit of the people. This sort of thing 
was at once met by the stubborn old idea of American in- 
dependence, the rebellion against class legislation. This 
is why we do not have popular sentiment behind our 
game laws. The sportsmen of Chicago have tried to cram 
the prohibition of spring shooting down the neck of 
lower Illinois, and the latter wouldn't have it so. ' We 
never will stop this spring shooting in Illinois so long as 
the old situation remains unchanged. To me the natural 
method seems to be that of putting before all the people 
of this State, north and south, the simple proposition that 
we are men and brothers, and that a sportsman is no 
whit better than any other man. Before all of these 
men, sportsmen so-called, or plain citizens, there can al- 
ways be gentl)' put the homely parallel of the hen and 
the duck, and their positions now so lamentably reversed. 
If I wanted to pass a law stopping spring shooting in 
Illinois, I should spend some money in the lower portion 
of the State in a mild eft'ort to show these high spirited 
Americans, who are just as good as any of us who live in 
the city, that the times are no longer as they were, so 
that we can no longer act as once we did. If we stop 
spring shooting in Illinois we will have fall shooting" again. 
The question for all of us is, Would it not be better to 
have fall shooting for twenty years than spring shooting 
for ten years? I should fancy that the matter would re- 
solve itself into .some such proposition as the latter. 
"Wants a Hudson Bay Knife, 
Mr. .A. .C. Stott, of Stotfville, N. Y., writes me asking 
where he can get the Hudson Bay knife, described by Mr. 
MacGowan, of St. Paul. The Hudson Bay Company, of 
W^innipeg, Man., can supply it. I do not know what 
the import charges will be. Mr. Stott will see more 
about this in earlier numbers of the Forest and Stream, 
Personal. 
During tlie past winter Mr. Coleman, president of the 
Austin Powder Company, Cleveland, O., was taken very 
seriously ill, and for a long time had a hard fight for re- 
covery. So able and pleasant a gentleman can ill be 
spared even temporarily from business walks, and I am 
very glad to hear from A. Lent, treasurer of the Austin 
Powder Company, that Mr. Coleman though still con- 
fined to his house, is rapidly improving. His illness was a 
severe one, and brought hira near death's door. Mr. 
Lent says, "Traveliitg the downward path occupied 
months, and full recovery will of necessitj' consume time. 
As th^ boys remark, is a, 'comer,' and we ejcpect to se^ 
