July 28, igoo.] 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
67 
the latter are not found here in such large numbers as 
are the other varieties named. Still, Mr. H. M. Hanna 
has a record of sixty-seven canvasbacks in a single day's 
shooting on the Cedar Point marsh. Another member 
placed sixty-live woodcock to his credit on one after- 
noon, and 100 ducks in a day's shooting is by no means 
an unusual score. It is not, however, the policy of the 
club to encourage the making of large bags, and these 
instances are cited not for the piirpose of boasting, but 
merely for the purpose of showing the wonderful re- 
sources of these marshes. But it may be said with 
truth that in the season the water fowl on these marshes 
are quite as numerous to-day as they were twenty years 
ago, when the club was first organized. The reason for 
this condition is one which points a moral in the con- 
servation of the water fowl supply in Ohio, as else- 
where. 
From its very beginning the club has been an earnest 
opponent of all forms of spring shooting. Its territory 
is carefully guarded by its wardens and no person, mem- 
ber or otherwise, is allowed to take a gun within its 
limits during the spring monthss on any pretext what- 
ever. In the spring the waters of the club are covered 
with thousands of swans, geese and ducks on their way 
northward to their breeding grounds, which stop here 
for food and rest, and as they are thoroughly protected 
they naturally become quite tame. But large numbers 
of the teal, mallard, pintail and wood duck remain here 
to nest, and it goes without saying that the club is thus 
enabled to do its own restocking at the minimum cost. 
Snipe, woodcock and all varieties of plover also breed 
here. 
"One might as well go out to shoot sitting hens as 
brooding ducks" is the way one member of the club 
puts it. "Ducks coming up from the South in the spring 
. are usually in a poor condition after their long flight and 
are consequently unfit for food. Under these circum- 
stances the spring shooter suflfers a double disadvantage, 
in the first instance getting a bird of an inferior quality 
instead of a much better one a little later, and in the 
second destroying the stock at the very time that its 
destruction has the most serious effect on the future 
supply." 
What the Cedar Point Club practices on its own do- 
main it also preaches for the entire State, and it has al- 
ways been a consistent advocate of such legislation as 
would make spring shooting in Ohio illegal upon all 
I open and preserved waters alike. But so far all attempts 
of this kind have proved futile, partly because of the 
lack of the proper organized and concerted action on the 
part 01 the sportsmen of the State, and partly because 
of the active opposition of the market shooters, who see 
in the abolition of spring shooting a direct blow at their 
private and selfish interests. It is greatly hoped that the 
present movement for concerted action among the sports- 
men of the State looking to a reconstruction of the Ohio 
game laws at the next session of the Legislature, a 
movement which had its origin among the sportsmen of 
Cleveland, may result in some much needed improve- 
ments in this direction. 
There has been very little change in the, character and 
condition of the Cedar Point marshes since their pur- 
chase by the club twenty years ago. Owing to the 
efforts of the club the}^ are more plentifully stocked with 
celery and wild rice than thej' were at that time, a con- 
dition which the birds fully appreciate. It is the belief 
of the club members that the waters of Lake Erie are 
gradually receding and that they are consequently lower 
them they were ten years ago; but this change is taking 
place very slowly and with many fluctuations above and 
below the mean level of the lake when a number of con- 
secutive years are taken into calculation. Indeed, there 
are good grounds for the theorj' that there exists a well 
defined periodicity in the ebb and flow of the lake and 
that both the maximum and minimum height are reached 
appro.ximately every seven years. This theory, it inay 
be remarked, does not conflict with, but rather fits into, 
the statement that the lake level shows a gradual reces- 
sion when its height is compared for several successive 
decades. 
But the status of this territory a few hundred years 
ago is quite another matter, and there are evidences to 
sustain the theory that at some time prior to the occu- 
pation of the country by the white race this portion of 
the shores of the lake was relatively much higher than 
now, and that either they had been subsequently de- 
pressed or the water had risen above the normal level of 
the past. At the time that the club came into possession 
of these marshes an Indian mound of considerable size 
was discovered upon them, and though its base was 
several feet under water there was every indication that 
it had once rested upon solid ground. The mound was 
subsequently opened and was found to be filled with 
Indian bones and many interesting relics whose existence 
gave support for the conviction that the region had once 
been highly prized as a hunting ground by our copper- 
colored pi'edecessors. 
The late Judge Emery D. Potter was a frequent guest 
of the club, and at a visit on the occasion of his seventy- 
fifth birthday celebrated that interesting event by bag- 
ging seventy-five ducks, a day's record of which he was 
always very proud. 
The influence of the Cedar Point Club has always 
been exerted for the protection and increase of the game 
supply of the State, and both its precept and example 
have been productive of much good outside its own 
jurisdiction. What public sentiment on this subject was 
in its locality when the club was organized may be in- 
ferred from the fact that the natives knew no better use for 
young ducks than to employ them as bait on their cat- 
fish lines. All that, however, has been changed, and 
even the punters who live along the shore have come 
to realize that the game of the marshes can be much 
better utilized than by converting it into fish bait. 
While the list of water fowl given above includes on^^ 
those which are of ordinary occurrence, the varieties 
which are of record along the south shore of Lake Erie 
between Toledo and Sandusky include a wide range of 
aquatic birds accredited to more northerly or southerly 
latitudes. The writer is indebted to a gentleman inti- 
mately acquainted with the marshes of Cedar Point for 
a partial list of these. They are: 
Dusky or black duck, pintail, gadwell, widgeon, green 
and blue winged teal, spoonbill shoveler, summer or 
^ood duck, bluebjll, greater a,n^ Jesser blackhead, ring- 
necked duck, redhead, canvasback, bufHe-head butter ball, 
long-tailed duck (Sandusky Bay), king eider (Sandusky 
Bay), American black scoter (Portage River), velvet 
scoter (Sandusky Bay), ruddy duck, red-headed and 
hooded merganser, pehcan (Sandusky Bay), crested and 
Florida cormorant, white-winged and great black gull 
(from north, very rare), herring and ring-billed gull, 
kittiwake and fork-tailed gull (very rare), Bonaparte 
gull, gull-billed and roseate tern (rare), common and 
black tern. Jay Beebe. 
Toledo, O., July 18. 
The Ohio Sportsmen's Protective 
Association* 
Cleveland, O. — Editor Forest and Stream: During 
the last hour of the recent session of the Ohio Legislature 
a game law was passed that is most objectionable to the 
sportsmen of the State, and also to a large class of farmers 
who like to hunt themselves, or invite their friends to do 
so over their lands. 
As the law now stands, all shooting in the State is 
stopped except between Nov. 10 and Dec. i, and a short 
time in the spring for ducks. 
Farmers are allowed to kill squirrels and rabbits on 
their own land if they are destroying crops. 
Woodcock, snipe and all early ducks have migrated 
before Nov. 10, and in most years there is little or no 
shooting at ducks after the opening day. 
The law practically confiscates thousands and thousands 
of dollars' worth of property represented in duck marshes 
along the lake shore. 
The shortening of the quail and grouse season to twenty 
days is uncalled for, as there never were as many quail 
in the State as at present. 
No State in the Union has game laws that are so 
unreasonable and unfair and which so poorly represent 
the wishes of the sportsmen and the majority of the 
farmers of the State as the present Ohio law. 
The Ohio Sportsmen's Protective Association was 
formed bj^ the leading sportsmen of Cleveland, not for 
the purpose of fighting the present game law in the 
courts, but for the purpose of effecting a strong organiza- 
tion that will co-operate with the farmers' granges and 
obtain laws that will effectively protect the game from 
the market-hunters, give an open season of reasonable 
length and at a sixitable time of the year for sportsmen 
that hunt for the sport, and protect the farmer by stringent 
trespass laws from being overrun by a lot of irresponsible 
hoodlums that pay no attention to either game laws or 
property rights. 
The Association concedes the right of all land owners 
to prohibit all shooting on their lands, but does not 
think that the game laws should be so made that sports- 
men, with the permission of other land owners, and other 
land owners themselves, should be prohibited from shoot- 
ing during a reasonable and proper open season. 
The enforcement of trespass laws is the remedy for 
this evil, and the Association is in favor of suitable laws 
that will give the desired results. 
The Association asks for the aid and co-operation of all 
sportsmen and land owners in their efforts to obtain more 
satisfactory legislation at the next session of the Legisla- 
ture. 
The membership fee is $1, and membership cards can 
be obtained by sending the above amount to C. T. Bodi- 
field, .Secretary, 2d South Water street, Cleveland, O. 
Paiiil North. Member Ex. Com. O. S. P. A. 
CHICAGO AND THE WEST. 
The Chicken Prospects. 
Chicago, III., July 21. — According to all available in- 
formation it is a safe prediction that the coming chicken 
season will be an unusually good one. From different 
points in Wisconsin, such as Fox Lake, Babcock, Nece- 
dah, etc., reports state that there will be more birds than 
usual. While in Minneapolis last week I made inquiries 
which lead me to believe that the Minnesota and Dakota 
crop will be above the average. I will, in due time, give 
the names of several places which are stated to me to be 
safe tips for the coming shooting season. 
A Little Bear Story. 
Mr. Joseph E. Hinds, of Brooklyn, N. Y,, tells a 
pretty fair bear story in a letter which he writes to his 
friend Mr. Mershon, the latter failing to suppress the 
letter while it was in his own hands. Mr. Hinds says: 
"I have got a man on my place in the country acting 
as groom who is an old hunter and has scoured the hills 
around about there for many, many years and has been 
more or less successful in gathering in game of various 
kinds. To get a fox or a possum he would spend any 
number of nights climbing through snow over the moun- 
tain sides, and he is a dead game sport right after j^our 
own heart. I have regaled him lately with some of our 
experiences on our trip to the Bad Lands — some of your 
exploits with the gun and rifle; also the prowess of Joe 
Crandall on the Rim-Rock, and of how he crawled into 
a dark cave and brought out a string of mountain lions 
tied together by the tails, and how he would frequently 
go out and bring home wagon loads of bob-cats — and 
my man has listened with open-eyed amazement, To be 
honest, it was the only way I could shut him up from 
blowing about his own success as a mighty hunter. He 
is an everlasting talker, and it is all about hunting. The 
other day he told me about some old fellow who was 
being chased by a bear and he had an old-fashioned Ken- 
tucky rifle and only one bullet, and while he was run- 
ning he either cut or bit the bullet in half, put one piece 
in the rifle, fired at the bear over his shoulder, the flat 
side of the bifllet hit the bear in the forhead and lodged 
there, and while the bear sat down to make an investiga- 
tion and find out what had happened the hunter made 
his escape. This happened forty-two years ago next 
December and has been told on an average, I suppose, 
of three times a week since then, but it is just as fresh 
to-day as the day it started." 
Hero of the Split Train. 
Readers of the Forest and Stream may recall the 
incident of the divided train during the Congressional 
expedition last October into the proposed Minnesota 
Park country. Mr. Thomas Shevlin, one of the hosts 
of the party, and supposedly one of the friends of the 
movement, was the author and contriver of the divided 
train. The. newspaper men of the party knew at the time 
that something was wrong and they purposed giving 
the story for what it was worth, as any newspaper man 
ought to do at any time. Others of the party besought 
the newspaper men not to injure the chances of the expe- 
dition by saying anything about the incident and all 
sorts of excuses were made for Mr. Shevlin at the time. 
Mr. Chas. Cristodoro was one of those who thought the 
press men were wrong. To-day I am in receipt from the 
latter of a clipping from the St. Paul Globe which would 
seem to indicate that perhaps the newspaper men were 
at the time only too correct in their conclusions. The 
clipping, given for what it is worth, reads as below, and 
it shows what ma^^ be expected if this park is ever to be 
secured: 
"The true inwardness of the deal that sent Thomas 
Shevlin to the Philadelphia Convention as a delegate 
comes out and reveals the power that is exerted in the 
Republican party by Minneapolis lumbermen. It is said 
that his selection is decidedly unfavorable to the pro- 
jected national park scheme, as Mr. Shevlin Will doubtless 
be selected national committeeman to succeed Gen. L. F. 
Hubbard. 
"The lumbermen arc interested in seeing that the tim- 
ber on the reservation is sold and cut, and as it means 
a vast sum of money it is asserted that Mr. Shevlin's 
selection will give the park project immediately a black 
eye. As national Republican committeeman from this 
State he will vvield a power that will be second to none 
with the Administration in this part of the country at 
least." E. Hough. 
Hartpord Building, Chicago, 111. 
The Lacey Act. 
Editor Forest and Stream: 
In spite of all that you have published in regard to the 
Lacey Act, recently passed by Congress, there still seems 
to be doubt in the minds of some persons as to its scope 
and effect, and as greater range is by some ascribed to 
that law than is warranted by the facts, there is danger 
that these misconceptions, if allowed to remain uncor- 
rected, will lull sotne of the most ardent promoters of 
game protection into inactivity in the way of securing 
better State laws on the subject, instead of stimulating 
effort in that direction. 
Permit me, therefore, to add some observations to 
your already clear and full statements of th^e law of the 
case. This method of game protection is a process of 
education, and the only way to accomplish that end is to 
keep the question constantly before the people. As soon 
as they come to a thorough understanding of the ques- 
tion, proper legislation will follow, as a matter of course, 
and what is more important still, the laAvs, when enacted, 
will be obeyed. It is idle to enact or attempt to enforce a 
law that is not sustained by public sentiment and opinion ; 
and a law not enforced is worse than none. 
In the first place it must be understood and constantly 
borne in mind that there is not, nor can there be, any 
absolute private ownership in game that is not at all 
times, whether the game be alive or dead, subject to the 
ab.splute control and regulation of the State legislatures. 
This has been so frequently decided that it seems un- 
necessary to say more than merely state the proposition, 
but in order that there may be no possible doubt on the 
subject, and to give every one an opportunity to read 
it, I will add here what the Supreme Court of the United 
States has said on the subject in Geer vs. Connecticut, 
161 U. S„ 534. That was an appeal by defendant from a 
judgment of the Supreme Court of Connecticut affirming 
a judgment of conviction against Mr. Edgar M'. Geer for 
violating certain provisions of the game law of that State, 
said law containing the following provisions : 
Section 2530.— Every person who shall buy, sell, expose for 
sale or have in his possession for the purpose, or who shall hunt, 
pursue, kill, destroy or attempt to kill any woodcock, quail, 
ruffed grouse (calleci partridge) or gray squirrel, between the first 
day of January and the first day of October; the killing or having 
in possession of each bird or squirrel to be deemed a separate 
cffense * * * shall be fined not more than $50. 
Section 2546. — No person shall at any time kill any woodcock, 
ruffed grouse or quail for the purpose of conveying the same 
beyond the limits of the State, or shall transport or have in 
possession, with intention to procure the transportation beyond 
said limits, of any such birds killed within this State. The reception 
by any person within this State of any such bird or birds for ship-' 
ment to a point without the State shall be prima facie evidence 
that said bird or birds were killed within the State for the pur- 
pose of carrying the same beyond its limits. 
The defendant was convicted on Oct. ig, 1889, of un- 
lawfully receiving and having in his possession, with the 
wrongful and unlawful intent to procure the transporta- 
tion beyond the limits -of the State, certain woodcock, 
ruffed grouse and quail killed Avithin the State after Oct. 
I, 1889, the game, it will be observed, having been killed at 
a time when such killing was lawful. The question before 
the court, therefore, was as follows: "Was it lawful un- 
der Sec. 8, Art. i, of the Constitution of the United States, 
which provides that Congress shall have power 'to regulate 
commerce with foreign nations, and among the several 
States, and with the Indian tribes,' for the State of 
Connecticut to allow the killing of birds within the State 
during a designated open season, to allow such birds when 
so killed to be used, to be sold, and to be bought for 
use within the State, and yet to forbid their transporta- 
tion beyond the State?" Or, to state it otherwise, "Ha'd 
the State of Connecticut the power to regulate the killing 
of game within her borders so as to confine its use to the 
limits of the State and forbid its transmission outside of 
the State?" 
And in answering this question the court took occasion 
to enter into an elaborate and learned discussion and ex- 
amination of the law from the earliest period down to 
the present time in regard to the right of property in 
game, and among other things said : "From the earliest 
traditions the right to reduce animals fercB naturce to 
possession has been subject to the control of the law 
giving power." And again : "In most of the States laws 
have been passed for the protection and preservation of 
game. We have been referred to no case where the power 
to so legislate has been questioned, although the books 
contain cases ii^volving coiitroYersies as to the meaning of 
