I 
46 
prepared, and that same sound conveys the same intelli- 
gence to a woodchuck, then I believe the woodchuck 
can reason as well "as I. If reason informs me of the 
several wants of a dog through several vocal sounds of 
the dog, then I believe the dog reasons that those differ- 
ent sounds will convey a knowledge of his different wants 
to me. In my humble opinion the inability of the lower 
animals to use speech (human speech) is no proof that 
they are devoid of the faculty of reason, more than 
it is proof that a deaf-and-dumb man is devoid of reason 
because he has not the power of speech. He makes his 
wants understood by signs, as do other dumb animals. 
My respect for the learning of the opposition is deep 
and sincere. I realize that they are far better qualified 
to discourse on this subject than am I. But it seems to 
me that their argument is mostly theoretical; and I have 
seen theory knocked out so many times by practical 
demonstration that my confidence in it has been weak- 
ened. An eminent geologist advanced the opinion that 
the formation in a certain locality should be so and so; 
but a deeply driven well proved the formation dia- 
metrically opposite to what the geologist had been teach- 
ing his classes it was. Not long ago many astronomers, 
with world-wide reputations and deep learning, un- 
doubtedly, told us that a comet was heading for the earth, 
and that we would surely pass through the gaseous mass. 
The comet ungraciously proved their theory wrong by 
going off in another direction. Then we were to have a 
wonderful star-shower — another failure of theory. And 
so it is many times. Not that theory is not a good thing, 
but that practice is better, and proves more conclusively. 
On this question of "reason and instinct" the theorist 
will undoubtedly stand by his guns, and advance a good 
argument. And they who are not so learned theoreti- 
cally, but who believe they have seen dumb animals 
practically demonstrate their ability to exercise the 
faculty of reason, will stand by their guns, also. And 
all will be honestly sincere in their argument. 
HlGHWOOD, Conn., Jan. 8. WlLLIAM H. AVIS. 
&*g 
— <$> — 
Cuvier Clttbu 
At the annual meeting of the Cuvier Club of Cin- 
cinnati, Jan. 4, President Alexander Starbuck was unan- 
imously re-elected president, and begins his seventh term 
in that office. J. M. Doherty was chosen First Vice- 
President; Henry Hanna, Second Vice-President, and 
P. E. Roach, Third Vice-President. Alexander Star- 
buck, Henry Hanna and P. E. Roach were elected 
trustees for the years 1902, 1903, and 1904. In 1901 nearly 
150 new members were enrolled. The names of Captain 
George N. Stone, A. N. Sackett, William Stacey, E. W. 
Baylis, John C. Yost and James A. Cleaver, members who 
have died within the past year, were ordered entered on 
the memorial page. 
Dr. Boone made an address. He said that the action 
of the Cuvier Club last year in offering prizes for the best 
essays on birds by the students of the public schools had 
inculcated an interest in the study that no other means 
could have accomplished. 
The report of Charles Dury, showing the additions 
made to the museum and to the library in the year, was 
read. The report said that there are so many books now 
in the library that if the contributions in this line con- 
tinue to come in as rapidly as they have been it will be 
necessary to enlarge the cases. 
President Starbuck's address was a comprehensive re- 
view of the record of fish and game protection during 
1901, not only in Ohio, but in the country at large. Of 
the Ohio wardens' work in particular, he said: 
"Mr. L. H. Reutinger, the capable Secretary and Chief 
Game Warden, in his report states that, notwithstanding 
the adverse laws that prevail, the wardens throughout the 
State succeeded in making 304 arrests, with 243 convic- 
tions, collecting in fines during the year $4,276, as against 
308 arrests and 227 convictions respectively during the 
previous year. He further states that from the newly 
constructed ponds at London and Waverly, O., he took 
for planting 300,000 marble cat, 25,000 crappies and about 
100,000 large and small black bass, very few of them be- 
ing fingerings and most of them the size of the yearlings. 
These fish were planted in 36 counties, the distribution 
covering six weeks' time and about 4,000 miles of travel. 
"A new fish hatchery has been opened at Sandusky, 
the work being merely for the hatching of herring. 
Further along they expect to hatch all varieties of fish 
they can, the output to be planted in Lake Erie. He 
also reports a great scarcity of game fish in Lake Erie, 
which is accounted for by the fact that the commercial 
fishermen, in their greed for money, take everything in 
sight, despite the size of the fish, disregarding the law as 
to the taking of undersized ones from this body of water. 
A great number of arrests has been made by the deputy 
wardens for this very thing, but even then it is very diffi- 
cult to stop it. The small fish are sold to the fertilizing 
establishments, while the larger pnes are disposed of in 
the markets. We can speak from practical experience 
about this, for we have fished with rod and reel around 
the picturesque islands of Lake Erie, that cluster about 
Put-in-Bay, for a successive period of twenty-five years. 
About 1884 the fishing became so poor that we sought 
other waters for our sport. During the first decade of 
our angling, and some time after, we caught all the black 
bass we desired, and large ones at that. Now, if an angler 
goes there in pursuit of the pleasant pastime he will 
realize on about ten or a dozen bass that will not average 
a pound. Cross over to Canadian waters, which are 
infinitely better protected than ours, and you realize a 
very material difference, for you not only get large strings 
of the game fish, but also exceedingly large ones. We 
refer you for additional evidence to the Pelee Club, of 
our city, who now do all their angling there. 
"Again taking up the thread of the report, the Chief 
Warden fully expatiates relative to the pheasantry at 
London, O., which has been very successfully conducted 
the past year. 'Frpm 161 female pheasants were col- 
lected 7,075 eggs, making an average of 44 eggs per hen; 
4,500 of this number were hatched at the pheasantrv, and 
2,575 were distributed throughout the State to such per- 
Forest 1 And stream'.' 
sons whom they had reason to believe would take the 
pains to rear these birds. Out of the 4,500 eggs there 
were hatched 3,181 birds, or 71 per cent. After deducting 
the number of birds that died of natural causes, crippled 
and deformed, killed by hawks and mink while running 
loose in the rearing parks, they succeeded in distributing 
throughout the State 2,239 pheasants. There were pheas- 
ants planted in every county of the State.' 
"We unquestionably want a reorganization of our 
statutes for the protection of fish and game, and we want 
them so that you cannot drive a hay wagon through 
them, as has been the case with the last two codes the 
Legislature has given us. We also want them as simpli- 
fied as possible, so that it will not require a corps of 
attorneys to fathom their meaning. We want the spring 
shooting of ducks emphatically discontinued ; we want the 
rabbit law to have the same open season, from November 
10 to December 1, as the other game birds, which should 
all be the same limited time, twenty days and no more. 
We want the fifteen days that are now allowed after the 
close season for killing, in which to sell off the surplus 
game, expunged, as it only encourages cold storage 
houses to sell off their surplus stock of game, which they 
ar,e at all periods prepared to furnish during this allotted 
time. We unquestionably want a dollar license on each 
gun used in the open season, and then the gun there- 
after kept out of the fields and forests during that time. 
As to the fish, they should be protected on their spawning 
beds, and the catch should be limited to eight or ten 
inches. We should also recommend that the Deputy 
Warden be given reasonable salary, and emphatically 
insist on a generous appropriation, say $50,000, or more, 
for the Fish and Game Commission. Then let the con- 
cessions or unities of the game laws be accomplished in 
the Middle States, and it will be some solace for the 
travesty of game laws with which we have had to contend 
the past four or more years. We will here significantly 
add that no protective law is efficacious unless the senti- 
ment of the people is with it, and just because people are 
not born right stringent statutes and stringent enforce- 
ment are necessary. These laws are made for malefactors, 
and yet there are many who proudly strut our pavements 
in gorgeous array who come under that particular head. 
They scorn the idea that the law is the security of every 
person that is goverened and that it is really the standard 
and guardian of our liberty, and that he who wilfully 
violates it, and particularly a beneficent law, is unworthy 
of citizenship, be he in purple and fine linen or rags and 
tatters." 
The Maine Non-Resident Tax, 
Boston, Jan. 13. — The great meeting of the Maine 
Sportsmen's Fish and Game Association is over, and now 
fishermen and hunters who are not so fortunate as to live 
in Maine can breathe easier for a time; at least till the 
Legislature of that State meets next year. I don't pre- 
tend to say that the accusation is just or nice, but I have 
heard the meeting termed that of "the Maine big heads" 
several times lately. It is certain that anybody opposing a 
hunter's license was not wanted at the meeting, though 
former Fish and Game Commissioner Charles E. Oak 
dared to be present and oppose the matter of a license ( for 
non-resident hunters to have to pay. The terms "our 
fish" and "our game" were used so often in the discus- 
sion by the advocates of a hunter's license as to become 
rather sickening to the poor outsider from some other 
State, and cause him to ask himself: "Who are these 
gentlemen? What do they own?" 
At the meeting occurred a position unique, to say the 
least. The chairman of the Board of Fish and Game 
Commissioners earnestly advocating a non-resident license 
measure, and a former member of the board flatly oppos- 
ing it. Mr. C. E. Oak, who resigned from the Com- 
mission last year to accept a leading position on the Com- 
mission of Forestry and Timberland Owners, made the 
speech of the meeting in opposition to a license measure. 
Mr. Oak is certainly well informed on fish and game mat- 
ters in his native State, and the energy he put forward in 
fish and game protection when he was on the board will 
be remembered. 
The arguments of Commissioner Carleton for the license 
and Mr. Oak in opposition to it follow. Special. 
Commissioner Carleton's Speech. 
Commissioner Carleton referred to the pioneers of 
Maine game protection and said: 
"The labors of these early pioneers were successful. 
A code of fish and game laws was enacted now second 
to none in the world, and under it fish and game have 
multiplied. The result has been that tourists, fishermen, 
hunters and recreationists have been flocking to our State 
in ever increasing numbers for twenty-five years or more, 
and now a vast throng visits us annually, attracted pri- 
marily by our unparalleled facilities for fishing and hunt- 
ting. It would be of great importance if we were able 
to count them correctly, so that our people might know 
definitely just how many there are who come to us each 
year. 
"Considerable effort has been made to ascertain definite- 
ly this number, and the figures given run up into the 
hundreds of thousands, and the amount of money left 
with us by them as fifteen millions of dollars. 
"Now this is no fancy sketch or idle tale, my friends, 
but the sober truth. These figures are not guesswork, 
but are based upon cold, hard facts, that untiring, im- 
partial investigation has demonstrated; nor are they the 
figures of your Commissioners alone, but of the agents of 
the great transportation lines who know whereof they 
speak; more than 10,000 people are given employment a 
large portion of the time each year at remunerative wages 
in consequence, and many hundreds of thousands of dol- 
lars' worth of taxable property added to our wealth by 
them, and nothing taken away but a few fish, a little 
game and restored health and a strong love for our goodly 
commonwealth. 
"This good work cannot go on much longer without 
changed conditions — in other words, our game will not 
hold out; something more must be done than is being 
done, something more than it is possible to do under 
present conditions, if you will preserve your game from 
practical extinction. 
"Now I come to the bite of the subject. What is it, you 
ask, that must be done? My reply is, we must have 
more money for wtardfen service; that is, n. my judgment,! 
absolutely necessary. 
"Look at the situation for a moment. We have inl 
round numbers 20,000 square miles of woods; the State: 
appropriate $25,000; it costs approximately $20,000 to' 
operate our hatcheries and protect the parent fish on the 
spawning beds. It costs $3,000 more for incidental ex-i 
penses, expenses of the Commissioners, clerk hire, print- 
ing, stationery, attonrneys' fees, etc., so that you see tol 
guard this vast territory we have about $8,000 for warden! 
service. This is made up from fines and license fees for; 
guides, trappers, camp owners, etc., and hereafter our 
warden service willi be reduced by three wardens, on 
account of the expense of operating the new fish hatchery 
at Moosehead Lake;. 
"I claim that out game showld be largely self-support- 
ing, in other word's, tfaose who hunt our game should 
pay a license fee large enough to enable us to protect our 
game frown illegal slaughter. I do not advocate the rais- 
ing of a larger sum by taxation. 
"I am aware that there has existed, and perhaps still 
exists, some oppposition to this feature, and doubts are 
entertained as to its expediency. 
"Nearly every State and every country that has any 
game has passed through the experience that we are 
now passing through relative to this protection, and the 
consensus of opinion as reflected in their laws, would 
seem to be that the license system has been found on the 
whole to be the fairest and the best. 
"It comes pretty near the truth to say that every State 
in this country, and all the countries surrounding us, that 
have any game, exact a license fee to hunt it. 
"I advocate a license fee to hunt big game in the State 
of Maine because we need the money and must have it or 
our game will disappear as surely as dead moose and dead 
deer bring forth no increase. 
"We have a record of 317 moose legally killed and of 
64 moose illegally killed last year. How many there 
were that were illegally killed of which we have no record 
I know not, but half as many more, making a total of 
96 moose illegally killed. A large majority of the moose 
illegally killed were cows and calves. How long, think 
you, our moose will stand this condition of affairs? 
"Let us take warning from the history of the past and 
secure better protection for our noble game animals while 
we have them yet with us. 
"Of deer we have no record of the number illegally 
killed — many estimate them among the thousands, ana! 
the best record obtainable is 10,320 were legally takera 
last year. One of the leading newspapers in eastern! 
Maine, which devotes a great deal of well-directed energy 
to ascertain _ the number of deer killed, estimates that 
number as high as 25,000. 
"The State was cleaned out of moose and deer last 
year as never before in our history. Improved firearms, 
improved methods of hunting, trained guides, hunters' 
camps everywhere, all advertising for sportsmen, haye 
done the business. 
"How long will your deer hold out at anywhere from» 
10,000 to 25,000 a year? 
"Now, I fancy I hear some one saying, what in the 
world are your wardens doing — why is not the game bet-' 
ter protected by them? 
"I will tell you what they have been doing : They have 
killed thirty-four deer dogs; they have instituted eightyi 
prosecutions. They have worked as hard and as faithfully 
for their small pay of $2 per day, as any class of laborers 
in Maine. 
"I tell you, my friends, the situation demands action — 
demands money. Let us get it. It is said by good author- 
ity that 75 per cent, of the deer killed during October 
are females. 
"I would prevent the exportation of female deer out 
of the State at all times. It is sickening to a sportsman 
to see them shot down — many of them no bigger than a 
little lamb. 
"I think the moose season should be shortened two 
weeks and the deer season two weeks. Now, think of; 
these facts, my friends, discuss them, talk them over in 
your places of business so that when the Legislature meets 
again we may be agreed upon some important features. 
"We thought we were going to have a license fee to, 
hunt moose passed at the last session sure enough. The 
Committee on Fish and Game unanimously reported the 
bill — all were agreed to it — no one seemed to oppose it — 
but on its passage through the Senate a grave and learned 
Senator arose and offered an amendment — that bald- 
headed men be exempt from the provisions of the bill — 1 
that killed it. 
"It is idle, my friends, in these days of somewhat bur- 
densome taxation, to expect any larger appropriation 
from the State than we have been receiving. We must 
have recourse to some other method to raise the neces- 
sary amount of funds. Fear has been expressed that a 
license fee to hunt — we do not advocate a license fee to 
fish — would operate detrimentally to our interests. 
"It is of no avail to lock the stable after the horse has 
been stolen. A license fee will be of no avail after our 
game is gone. Suppose it does keep a few away — suppose 
it does keep away those large parties of Western hunters 
who annually visit us in such large numbers, coming over 
a foreign railroad, bringing all their supplies with them, 
even to their potatoes and baked bread, and who leave 
scarcely a dollar among our people. Are we any losers 
thereby? 
"I have taken the pains to gather the statistics, to as- 
certain the number of this class of hunters who came to 
Maine last year. I find there were several hundred of 
them — about 500 — who killed at least a thousand deer and ( 
an innumerable number of partridges, and they expended 
practically nothing in our State. I have a letter from a 
gentleman in Toledo, O., saying 'that three or four hun- 
dred from this vicinity have been up in your woods, 
shooting, last fall.' If a small license fee — say of $20—' 
would keep them away, then in Heaven's name let us have 
a license fee. 
"But, my friends, I assert without fear of successful 
contradiction, that a license fee would not keep them 
away. They would come just the same. Many of them 
were heard to declare that they could pay all of their 
expenses by selling the game they took home. A friend 
sent me this item, copied from' an Ohio paper: 'Clint 
Slaigle is a true Nimrod. While in the Maine woods a; 
couple of weeks ago, he bagged six good-sized deer — , 
two of which he shot were shipped the same morning 
I 
