March 15, 1902.] 
FOREST AND STREAM 
211 
duck or other water fowl from any fixed or artificial am- 
bush beyond a natural covering of reeds, canes, flags, 
wild rice or other vegetation above the water of any 
lake, river, bay or inlet, or other water course wholly, 
within this State, or in such part of such stream or water 
course wholly within this State, or with the aid and use 
of any device commonly called sneak boat, sink boat, sink 
box or other device used for the purpose of concealment 
in the open waters of this State," I beg to reply : 
The evident intention of the portion of the statute 
quoted was to provide all the water fowl therein men- 
tioned with a place of sanctuary or rest. Without such 
provision by statute any fixed or artificial ambush could 
be erected upon the resting or feeding grounds of such 
enumerated fowl, in the middle, or any other part of the 
open waters, thereby disturbing such enumerated water 
I owl in a manner which would leave them no opportunity 
for rest or feeding, and hence would speedily drive them 
to some other course in their annual migratory flights. 
That the prohibition of that portion of the statute 
quoted applies only to the actual, open and unincumbered 
waters of any lake, river, bay or inlet, or other water 
course wholly withm this State, is made clear by a read- 
ing of the statute which makes it unlawful to hunt, kill, 
etc.. from any fixed or artificial ambush "beyond a natural 
covering of reeds, canes, flags, wild rice or other vegeta- 
tion above the water of any lake, river, bay," etc. And 
also from any "sneak boat, sink box or other device used 
for the purpose of concealment in the open waters of this 
State." The words "above the water" cannot have refer- 
ence to blinds upon the shore or bank which may be 
merely on a higher level than the surface of the water. 
Had the intent of the statute been to absolutely forbid 
the use of any fixed or artificial ambush, it would have 
so provided without qualification and would, in so many 
words, have prohibited the use at any time or place of 
any such fixed or artificial ambush. Neither can the 
words "in the open waters of this State" be construed as 
meaning in, within or upon the shore lines or upon islands 
or upon the banks of any lake, river, bay or inlet or other 
water course wholly within this State. Nothing in this 
act prohibits the erection and use of any fixed or artificial 
ambush for hunting, killing, etc., the water fowl men- 
tioned in this act, provided such fixed or artificial ambush 
be not placed or located in the open waters beyond the 
place where there is a natural covering of reeds, canes, 
flags, wild rice or other vegetation above the surface of 
the water. Such license to build any fixed or artificial 
ambush will not extend to erecting the same upon musk- 
rat houses in the actual, open, unincumbered waters, nor 
in or upon some small, bare, isolated islands located in 
such waters, upon which and arottnd which no reeds, 
canes, flags, wild rice or other vegetation grows, furnish- 
ing a natural covering. 
No sneak boat, sink boat, sink box or similar device 
can be Used in the open waters of this State, but this 
clause does not prohibit the making, or use, of any pit 
or sunken device if the same be used within or upon the 
shore lines, islands or banks of any lake, river, bay or 
inlet or other water course wholly within this State. No 
sneak boat, sink boat, sink box or other similar device 
can be used or employed in connection with any muskrat 
house which is located in the actual, open, unincumbered 
waters of this State. 
Believing that the foregoing fully complies with your 
request, I have the honor to remain, 
Very respectfully, 
(Signed) H. J. Hamlin, Attorney-General. 
Game Protection fof Alaska. 
There was warrant for the fear that the great game 
of Alaska would go the way of the great game of the 
United States. Now let us hope that there is warrant for 
the belief that this is not to be, but that Uncle Sam is 
going to take the matter in hand, wisely, promptly and 
efficiently. It is again Mr. Lacey, of Iowa, who comes 
to the front in the interest of Western game. Should this 
bill (introduced Feb. 18 and ordered printed: H. R. 
TI 535) eventually become a law, the author of the Lacey 
law on interstate shipments of game will have additional 
cause for the congratulations of his friends and the 
thanks of American sportsmen. 
Ohio Game Laws. 
Mr. Paul North, of the Cleveland Target Co., Cleve- 
land, O., spent a couple of days in Chicago this week. 
Mr. North was recently appointed a member of the Fish 
and Game Commission of Ohio, an appointment which 
was certainly a wise one. Mr. North says that the mem- 
bers of the Commission have very good hope for a prac- 
tical working law. He does not think that Ohio can 
altogether prohibit spring shooting of wildfowl, but thinks 
that they will be able to hold down all the upland shoot- 
ing between the dates of Sept. 1 and Dec. 15. He says 
that the Commission will undertake to place a limit of 
eighteen quail a day, and a limit of twenty-five ducks per 
day. All of these are moves in the right direction, and 
they will be backed by the sportsmanship of the. State 
concerned. It is to be hoped that such measures will not 
meet an opposition such as has sometimes turned up in 
the State of Illinois. 
The First Docks. 
The first of the north-bound flight of wildfowl are 
now in on the Indiana and Illinois waters. A telegram 
from Tolleston Club, just across the Indiana line, to-day 
states that ducks have appeared on that marsh in good 
numbers. From southeastern Iowa reports come that 
the ducks have reached that region, and by this time, 
owing to the open and mild weather and the generally 
rising waters, we should hear presently of a good flight 
on the Illinois River waters. 
Mr. C. C. Hess, of the Goose Lake Shooting Club, a 
small 'dub with grounds on the Kankakee River near 
Lorenzo, 111., left to-day with one or two members of 
the club for an early look at the marsh. It is no two 
to one that they will not meet a good flight along the 
Kankakee. Hennepin Club members are also on the 
lookout, and the likelihood is that within the week we 
shall hear of shooting. 
Got Four Goats. 
Mr. W. P. Mussey, of Chicago, recently returned from 
a long tour- in southern California. He and his friend 
Mr. J. C. Haskell, of this city, tried some of the famous 
fishing of the Catalina country, but were on the whole 
disappointed. Mr. Haskell took out with him two costly 
tarpon rods, and the two fishermen together invested con- 
siderable by way of cash and general hopes. On one 
day they caught a sculpin, also an 8-inch fish of some 
kind which Billy said was called a "blue Johnnie." Inci- 
dentally, they caught strings of kelp and things of that, 
sort, and the fisherman who took them out said they 
should have come a little earlier, or a little later. "I 
can't see that they put up the fishing game there much 
different from what they do in the North," said Billy. 
Mr. Mussey made a hunt for goats on Catalina Island, 
and was lucky enough to kill four good heads. He used 
a -30-30 rifle, and after shooting one goat seven times 
came away with the impression that that gun was not 
heavy enough. Mr. Mussey says that these goats are 
being killed off very rapidly by the sheep herders, who 
want the sheep range unmolested. He thinks there are 
about 500 goats now left on the islands, and that they 
will all be killed in less than a year. He says that the 
animals are by no means easy to approach, and are wild, 
suspicious and hard to reach, as they range on top of the 
ridges. 
Flight is In. 
March 8.— Ducks appeared a week ago to-day in con- 
siderable numbers on the upper Kankakee waters, as well 
as a great many geese, but the freeze-up of last Saturday 
sent the flight back again for a few days, not to reach 
this section again until about the middle of this week. 
To-day word is at hand from Water Valley, Ind., that 
the flight of mallards and pintails there is heavy. Several 
shooters of the old Lake George Club leave this evening 
for a day or so at that point. Among these is Mr. A. L. 
Carlisle, who for seven years has opened the spring season 
at that well-known locality. Mr. Carlisle says that he 
expects another freeze before long, and does not think the 
flight will be in to stay until about the 15th, as he has 
always observed that, when he has gone to the club about 
March 8, he has had to wait about a week to get any- 
thing but a hurried and broken flight. Therefore, we 
may expect it to be about a few days yet before the best 
of the sport may be expected, although those who are on 
hand to-day ought to strike it pretty well. 
There are about fifteen members of the Calumet 
Heights Club who have taken out licenses for Indiana 
shooting, and of these about all will be present at the 
club grounds to-night, waiting for the early bird. This 
club is hit hard by the license law, and some of its 
members predict the repeal of the $25 license at the next 
session of the Indiana Legislature, most probably with 
the result of a lower license — $to instead of $25. 
At English Lake Club, of Indiana, there was" good 
shooting reported the middle of this week, and the birds 
are hardly away as yet, so that we should hear of good 
bags there the first part of next week, when the shooters 
are back from the week's trip. 
Tolleston Club has ha,d good shooting for some days, 
and the waters of Lake Michigan have had a lot of deep- 
water birds for more than a. week, some very heavy 
shooting having been gained by those daring enough to 
undertake it. There have beec three bad accidents this 
week to duck shooters who have ventured too far out 
into the treacherous expanse of the big and risky water, 
and although none has been met with loss of life there 
have been very narrow escapes, one especially so. This 
hardly pays for a good bag — even forty-eight birds, as one 
party had yesterday before their boat capsized and left 
them afloat on a cake of ice without any means of getting 
ashore. There are times when it pays to keep cool, and 
times when one does well to think things over, but the 
above surroundings are extreme for either of these 
attitudes. 
Swan Lake Club has sent up word that the flight is in 
down there, and we should hear good reports from that 
lower water with the first return of the early shooters. 
No word is at hand of any actual bags as yet from that 
point of Hennepin, but something is no doubt going on 
to-day, there being for the time a warm and soft spell of 
weather which ought to start the ice out. Thus far the 
birds can not get into the water anywhere, and it is yet 
worse north of here. 
Mr. Oswald von Lengerke is back from his first trip to 
the new club on the Illinois River, which he just started 
with three friends — Mr. R. S. Kendall, of this city, and 
Messrs. Frank Cooper and Chas. Kindelspeire, of Morris, 
111. They have leased what is known as the Collins 
Slough, about_ seven miles out from Morris, and expect 
a little duck and snipe shooting there, with comfortable 
quarters. 
Moose in Minnesota. 
Mr. A. E. Jenkins, of Cleveland, O., who called to- 
day, brought with him considerable of a surprise. He 
says that he has found a very good moose country in 
upper Minnesota. He went thither last fall and killed a 
55-inch head, about twenty-eight miles from Grand 
Marais, and says he saw seven good heads the day he 
killed his moose. He thinks the region there and back 
of Tower very good, but says one can not get a good 
guide, and has to rough it a bit, doing his own guiding 
and hunting, and camping out with none too good camp 
help. He says a woodsman can sometimes be had at 
Tower, but that there are few reliable men for guides. 
As to the moose, he says they would be very much more, 
numerous were it not for the lumber camps, which regu- 
larly hire Indians to shoot moose and deer for them. 
Mr. Jenkins saw some Pigeon River Chippewas who 
had been shooting all winter for a camp at Ingersoll's 
Falls. The Indians told him they had killed thirty moose 
and "very many" deer. The hunting country west of 
Tower is broken with open savannahs and barrens, but 
no caribou are reported south of the line in any great 
numbers. North of the Sawtooth Mountains, above Lake 
Superior, the caribou are thick. 
By the way, Mr. Jenkins is fully posted on the coun- 
try along the new Algoma Northern Railway, which is 
running up into the Hudson Bay region. He has been 
all over it, looking at iron properties, and calls it a 
grand game country, though hard to get at with good 
guides. I think he would be glad to tell what be can to 
any one wanting to go in there. 
Mr. Jenkins shot his Minnesota moose with a .30-40, and 
had to hit him five times, once through the shoulder, once 
through the neck and once through the head, none of 
which knocked him down, two more shots being needed 
to stop the animal. The bullets were soft-noses, and did 
not seem to open. Yet he was obliged to admit that in 
more than a dozen moose he has killed, he has never seen 
one knocked down clean. He says the men up in the 
northern country are discarding the .30-30 and going back 
to the .38-55 — an excellent arm, this latter, too, and in 
the opinion of many far better than the .45-90. 
E. Hough. 
Hartford Building, Chicago, 111. 
Non-Resident Licenses. 
New York, March 4. — Editor Forest and Stream: I 
have been reading the pros and cons of the "non-resident 
license" question in your paper, and not until the article, 
written by Mr. C. P. Ambler, which appeared in your 
issue of March 1, has any one so clearly, and to my 
mind, "hit the nail on the head" so well as this gentle- 
man. 
I have done considerable big-game hunting, and like 
him have always chosen State or Province having a 
license, and the mere fact that the State of Maine was 
without one has kept me away from shooting there. 
I visit Maine yearly in the spring for fishing, and I 
may say without exception that every guide and inn 
keeper to whom I have spoken on the question of license 
has been in favor »of it. 
I beg to refer Mr, Jay Pee to the State of Pennsyl-* 
vania, where a non-resident license is charged, and I 
think I am not far wrong in stating that seventy-five per 
cent, of the sportsmen going there are men of small 
means, and the license charged does not seem to keep 
them away, as any one can see by going there in the 
shooting season. I say with Mr. C. P. Ambler, let a 
license be charged by all means. I think I am voicing 
the sentiment of every true sportsman who thinks beyond 
to-day. E. A. R. 
Springfield, Mass., March 7. — Editor Forest and 
Stream: I thank you for printing, in your issue of Feb. 
22. my communication on the proposed taxation of 
hunters who visit Maine. 
I inclose herewith a copy of a letter recently received 
from a Maine guide, whom I have known for a dozen 
years, which may interest you. It may be worth printing, 
as it comes from a man I have found to be exceptionally 
honorable and straightforward, and who is, in my opin- 
ion, unusually well qualified to express an opinion or 
the subject in question. 
E. M. Wilkins. 
Great Pond, Feb. 6. — Mr. E. M. Wilkins. Springfield, 
Mass. Friend Wilkins: I think it would be wrong to 
impose such a tax as is proposed on sportsmen who visit 
Maine. My idea is that our State should -require each 
guide within its borders to pay $10 for his license. We 
have between 1,700 and 1.800 guides, who would thus 
bring $17,000 to $18,000 into the State Treasury, The 
Maine Fish and Game Commissioners say they receive 
$25,000 from the State Treasury for the use of their 
Commission, and that this amount has so far covered all 
expenses. They claim further that this sum is not enough 
and that they must have more funds to provide more 
game Avardens. Now I claim that $10 from each guide 
in this State will more than cover the necessary war- 
dens' expenses and wages, summer and winter; and T 
claim further that the wardens should keep a much 
sharper lookout during the winter than through the other 
seasons. It may be asserted that all the guides would not 
be willing to pay a $10 license fee. But if they will look 
at it in the right way it is obviously for their interest to 
do this, as the revenue derived would be used for protect 
ing the game, and if the game should be seriously de- 
pleted or exhausted there would be but few sportsmen 
visit us. I have seen, not long ago, articles written by 
Mr. Carleton of the Game Commission to the effect that 
the game in our State was on the increase, and that the 
woods were fujl of game. Now he states we must pro- 
tect the game or we will not have any in a few years. T 
think he proposes to take the wrong way to protect the 
game interests, killing the goose that lays the golden egg. 
I have discussed this matter with a number of guides, and 
each of these would gladly pay a $io license fee rather 
than have the sportsmen from outside the State assessed. 
T have closely watched the fish and game interests of 
Maine for over twenty-five years, and I know whereof I 
speak. If the State wants more money for fish and game 
protection, let the funds be raised in a fair way, and not 
by the proposed method which is to be brought before the 
Maine Legislature. John F. Haynes, Guide. 
Ways of the Gadwall. 
Editor Forest and Stream: 
A note recently received from W. N. Hampton, of 
Currituck county, N. C, gives an account of a remark- 
able flight of gadwalls in Currituck county on the shoot- 
ing grounds of the Currituck Club there. 
My correspondent says : "We were shooting in the 
Canvasback Pond on Currituck Sound. The wind was 
from the north, light, and the weather cold and cloudy. 
I was with Mr. Nat. Simpkins, who was shooting with 
Mr. Louis Webb. During the day we got somewhere 
about ninety birds, and of these thirty-six were gadwalls. 
This was the largest score on gadwalls ever made at 
the Currituck Club. Up to that time I think twenty-seven 
had been high. We put up a good many gadwalls when 
we went into the pond, and some of them came in very 
nicely for a while. Then suddenly they seemed to become 
very shy, and nearly all were killed at very long range 
For the most part they seemed to lead over in large 
flocks, and the birds that decoyed were in small bunches 
and came high. 
"There seemed to be more gadwalls flying then than I 
ever saw before in one day. They always seem to be 
a very shy bird." 
The occurrence mentioned is very noteworthy and well 
worth recording. Geo. Bird GRINNED, 
New VoRK," k March T, 
