Forest AND Stream 
A Weekly Journal of the Rod and Gun. 
COPV-RIGHT, ]9nS BY FoREST AND STREAM PUBLISHING Co. 
Terms, $4 a Year. 10 Cts. a Copy. | 
Six Months, 5i2. ) 
NEW YORK, SATURDAY, MAY 16, 1908. 
J VOL. LX.— No. 20. 
I No. 846 Broadway, New York, 
tbe f ore$t and Stream's Platform PlaitK. 
^'T/ie sale of game should be prohibited at all seasons." 
NAILS DRIVEN IN 1903.— No. IV. 
MASSACHUSETTS. 
Chap. 206, Laws 1903, amends Sec. 2 of Chap 92, Revised Laws, 
to read: Whoever takes, kills or has in possession, or buys, sells 
or offers for sale, a woodcock or ruffed grouse, commonly called 
partridge, between the first day of December and the first day of 
October following, whenever or wherever such bird may have been 
taken or killed, or whoever at any time buys, sells, offers for sale 
i)r has in possession for sale a woodcock or ruffed grouse, com- 
monly called partridge, whenever or wherever such bird may have 
been taken or killed, shall be punished by a fine of twenty dollars 
tor each bird. 
SUNDAY BASEBALL AND FISHING. 
Sunday baseball is engaging the attention of various 
authorities in New Jersej'- and New York. In New Jersey 
.-X grand jury has been instructed by Judge Van Syckel 
that it would be its duty to indict the police from chief 
down unless ball playing were stopped on Sunday; and 
this w^as followed last Sunday by the arrest of many 
players. 
In New York, on the contrary, the courts are inclined 
to be more lenient, at least with private and "quiet" 
games. In a recent New York city case, Magistrate Duell 
dismissed a complaint against a ball player, who had been 
arrested at the instance of the Sabbath Committee on the 
charge of interfering with the repose and religious liberty 
of the day. In the course of his decision the magistrate 
said : 
"Many acts on Sunday are now tolerated as inoffensive that were 
punished severely when the present statute was originally en- 
acted. Fishing is one. To engage therein along our river front 
fifty and one hundred years ago was to invite arrest, conviction 
and fines, as appears by the police court records of those times. 
Now, thousands may be found each Sunday at favorite points 
along the river, and they fish from sunrise to sunset without 
molestation; large steamers go to the fishing banks on Sunday, 
carrying many thousands whose patronage is solicited by advertise- 
ments in the daily papers; they are not disturbed. Carriage, 
bicycle and automobile riding and century runs may be pursued 
with immunity under all circumstances and during all hours of 
the day, so long as the statutory speed limit is not exceeded, 
which is the same on Sunday as on other days. 
"Sunday excursion trains and steamboats take multitudes from 
our city during the spring, summer and fall for all kinds of fun 
and frolic, including baseball, pitching quoits, throwing hammers, 
playing tennis and croquet, swimming, bathing and unrestrained 
picnicking. Golf players go by thousands to nearby links on 
Sunday for enjoyment and exercise. Now each of these forms of 
amusement is as much within the inhibition of the law as base- 
ball playing, and locality, whether in the city or country, is not 
taken into account by the law which is of- universal application 
throughout the State.'" 
This is the Sunday of New York city. As far as the 
fishing is concerned, the law which forbids it is not en- 
forced. The police would not dream of interfering with 
the Sunday fisherman. The sport is essentially quiet, it is 
pursued in places remote from any persons who might be 
disturbed by it, even were it as boisterous as Sunday base- 
ball. The playing of baseball as it is played in New York 
city vacant lots Qn Sunday is often attended with clamor, 
profanity and obscenity, and no person who had ever 
been within hearing of it, whether magistrate or unofficial 
citizen, could rightly characterize such playing as anything 
other than an outrageous nuisance. 
TAXIDERMISTS AND GAME HEADS. 
In view of the extremely small number of wild buffalo 
in existence, the value which they possess and the power- 
ful temptation to kill the game for sale to taxidermists, 
we suggested recently that some system should be adopted 
by which taxidermists might be required to register the 
buffalo heads they offered for sale. It is a satisfaction 
to record that restrictions of this character have been 
adopted by several States this year, with respect not only 
to buffalo, but other game as well. In Wyoming the new 
law provides that all professional taxidermists who mount 
specimens of game animals, birds or fish for profit, shall 
be required to post in a conspicuous place in their shops 
a list of the names of all persons who furnish them with 
raw or unmounted specimens, and this list, together with 
all unmounted specimens in their possession they are re- 
quired to exhibit to the State game warden or his assist- 
ant upon request. 
Montana requires taxidermists to take out a license, pay-: 
ing a fee of $2^ annually, and on the first jjay <jf the 
lajonth fy^r^ |^i<Iermist must make a' written report to 
the State game and fish warden of all the articles of 
game, the kind and number of each, by whom owned, 
and the residence of the owner, received during the past 
month ; also of all the articles of game shipped, and when 
and where shipped during the month, together with the 
amotmt and kind of each on hand on the last day of the 
month, by whom owned and the owner's address. 
Of similar character is the Idaho law which forbids en- 
tirely the taking of moose, buffalo, antelope and caribou 
at any time, and restricts killing and possession of other 
game in a season to "one elk, two deer, one mountain 
sheep, one ibex, one mountain goat," and provides that 
these liinitations shall hot apply to a taxidermist "takia^ 
and having in his possession the heads or skins of birds 
or animals for the purpose of preserving the same when 
such heads or skins are accompanied by an affidavit show- 
ing that they were taken from birds or animals killed in 
compliance with the provisions of the act." Another 
Idaho law makes possession of any buffalo or bison or of 
a part of one prima facie evidence that the possessor took 
it contrary to law. 
It is clear that if such adequate regulations as those " 
here outlined shall be enforced with diligence by the 
authorities, the situation thus created is a vast improve- 
ment over the old system of laxity under which was 
maintained a shameless traffic in the heads of buffalo 
killed by poachers. Such certification as to the origin 
of game animals and birds might well be of wide applica- 
tion. What is good for the buffalo and the mountain 
sheep would be good, too, for the heath hen of 
Martha's Vineyard. We have been so lavish of our wild 
life and so thoughtless and free in exterminating it, that 
we are now ready to adopt any means, no matter how 
hardly they may press upon the individual, which will 
save the remnants. 
PUBLIC FISH AND PRIVATE WATERS. 
Cold Creek, a trout stream in Watertown, N. Y., has 
been stocked with fry from the State hatcheries for 
several years, and the fishing in it has been open to the 
public. Some of the pasture lands through which the 
creek runs have recently been acquired by new owners, 
who have posted their lands and shut out the public from 
these reaches of the stream, and a special deputy sheriff 
has been charged with the duty of keeping fishermen 
out. This action has naturally aroused protests from' the 
debarred anglers. A correspondent writes : 
"Those of us who have been interested in the planting 
of trout in our streams are indignant at such action, and 
we wish to know if there is any remedy. We fear that if 
one farmer can close his creek, containing State trout, 
more can and will, and we do not believe it is the inten- 
tion of the fish laws to furnish State trout for private 
waters." 
Certainly it is not the intention of the State to stock 
private streams. Theoretically all fish are deposited in 
public waters, and applicants for fry are required to 
specify that the waters for which they secure the stock 
are open to the public. In fact, no doubt many persons 
do get fish for their own private waters by deceiving the 
commissioners, describing these waters • as public. The 
average conscience does not hesitate to deceive the State, 
and to get something for nothing where dealings with the 
State are concerned. Men who hold places of responsi- 
bility and trust in the business world will lie without any 
squeamishness when it comes to asking for fish from the 
State hatcheries. There was a president of one of the 
large life insurance companies who for years obtained 
trout fry from the commission by signing the usual blank 
declaring that the waters for which they were intended 
were public, when, as a matter of fact, they were put into 
his private pond, which was surrounded bv a high fence 
through which the public could with difficulty see the 
water, much less get to it and fish in it. To defeat siich 
schemers, the Legislature some years ago adopted a law 
providing that all waters stocked by the Fish Commission 
should thereafter be open to public fishing. This, how- 
ever, went too far. since it invaded the rights of property 
and violated the landowners' privilege of the exclusive 
occupancy and use of his own land, and it was in thi§ 
respect unconstitutional. 
Under the existing system no remedy is. sijggested for 
the Watertown anglers who have been shut out from Gold 
Cree]?. In Massachusetts complication? of this ?:h^racter 
are obviated by a requirement that before a stream shall 
be stocked from the State hatcheries the owner or owners 
shall agree that the waters shall be open to the public 
after the expiration of three years following the stock- 
ing, during which all fishing is forbidden. A clause of 
this character might well be incorporated into the appli- 
cation blanks used by the New York Commission and 
others, and the contract should be made so binding as to 
run with the land, and apply in such cases as this of Cold 
Creek, where new proprietors come into possession. 
As for the owners of private streams, they should 
procure their fry from private trout breeders, j ust as they 
buy. their poultry and hogs from private breeders. There 
is no good reason why the taxpayers should contribute 
free fish for the individual citizen, even though he be 
greedy enough and dishonest enough to attempt to secure 
them. 
We regret to learn of the death of Dr. W. O. Blais- 
dell at his home in Macomb, 111. Dr. Blaisdell's name 
had long been familiar to the readers of Forest and 
Stream by his frequent communications to its col- 
umns. Among the last of these was a charming ac- 
count of a family reunion in which he had partici- 
pated at the old home in East Orland, Me., with fish- 
ing experiences on Toddy Lake. "I hope to be there 
again another summer," the story concluded. Dr. 
Blaisdell was conspicuous for his public spirit; never 
seeking political office, he was always foremost in every 
enterprise to advance the interest of the community, 
and his life was such that he was endeared in a peculiar 
degree to the people of Macomb. It will be recalled 
that Dr. Blaisdell was greatly interested in the intro- 
duction of foreign game birds. He imported a number 
of chuckor partridges and other species from India. At 
his instance the Legislature passed a bill for the pro- 
tection of the birds, which Gov. Altgeld vetoed, as- 
signing as his reason that there were too many trivial 
things already classed as crimes, and he could not 
assen*- to the Legislature making the killing of these 
birds an offense. As the result showed, the law was not 
essential in this particular case, for the birds did not 
survive the transportation from India to Illinois. 
H 
From the Yellowstone Park comes the melancholy news 
of the death of Uncle John Yancey, for many years a 
picturesque figure of the eastern portion of the Park, 
where he had a lease and kept a stopping place for 
travelers. Uncle John was what the newspapers call one 
of the pioneers in the Park, and came there, if we recol- 
lect aright, about twenty-five years ago. All travelers to 
and from Cooke City— which years ago was so famous as 
the coming mining center of the West and is now so com- 
pletely forgotten — stopped at Yancej^s, as did also many 
Park tourists as well as people who Had been hunting to 
the east of the Park, and wished to go out to the railroad 
bj' way of the Hot Springs. Uncle John Yancey was a 
native of Kentucky, but moved into the West a long time 
ago. He was typical of the earlier settlers in the 
West, cordial and hospitable, not given to frivolous con- 
versation, a positive character who understood himself 
and human nature at large very well indeed. He was a 
man who possessed many warm friends, and he will be 
sadly missed. He was about eighty years old. 
New Hampshire has provided a commission to make a 
general survey of the forests, with a special view to a de- 
termination of their value as conservers of the water 
supply. The field force is made up of experts designated 
by the Bureau of Forestry. The results of the survey, it 
is probable, will be made a basis for asking from Congress 
the establishment of a White Mountain national forest 
reserve. 
K 
Canada proposes to change the name of Hudson Bay 
to Canadian Sea, for the sake of emphasizing the fact that 
the water is an inland sea wholly within Canadian terri- 
tory and control. It is ex;tremely late in the day to talk 
of doing away with a name which is so interlinked with 
the history of Canada. For the sake of t^iese associations 
the old name should be retained, v ! 
' 
What is a rattlesnake good for? Good for one dollar 
if it is killed in VeTmont. That is the size of the botiiiti? 
' , .t.i"" 'i» « it ii« • •• ' • — ■ ■• * I I- ..'fi 
