Forest and Stream. 
A Weekly Journal of the Rod and Gun. 
Copyright, 1904, by Forbst and Stream Publishing Co. - jw " 
Terms, $4 a Ybak. 10 Cts. a Copy. » NEW YORK SATURDAY, DECEMBER 17, 1904. iNo^BROA^wSNBwYoRK. 
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particulars respecting subscriptions, see prospectus on page iii. 
THE SHIRAS BILL. 
We reprint the text of the measure introduced in the 
House by Hon. George Shiras 3d, of Pennsylvania, to 
put wildfowl under Federal control as to shooting seasons. 
The bill has awakened wide interest, as is shown by the 
comments on it which we print from the pens of State 
game commissioners and wardens and others. The New 
York League convention in Syracuse last week indorsed 
the principle of a Federal wildfowl law. It is probable 
that other game protective associations will express sim- 
ilar views. 
JOSEPH W. COLLINS. 
We record with sorrow the passing away of Joseph 
W- Collins, Chairman of the Massachusetts Commission 
of Fisheries and Game. Captain Collins was seized with 
pneumonia on Monday of last week, and died on the fol- 
lowing Friday, December 9. 
His death is a public loss. When the direction of the 
Massachusetts fish culture and protection and the preser- 
vation of game was intrusted to Captain Collins, upon 
his appointment to the Commission five years ago, he 
brought to the office those rare qualifications for the work 
which his friends knew meant a new era in the fish and 
game interests of the Commonwealth. A deep sea fisher- 
man, an expert in naval construction, a student of the 
life histories of fishes and of fish culture, an administra- 
tor of high executive ability, and withal equipped with 
earnestness, enthusiasm and devotion, and a genius for 
hard work, he addressed himself to the task set before 
him, revolutionized the methods of work of the depart- 
ment, impressed upon the entire service his own spirit, 
commanded for it the public respect and confidence and 
co-operation, and placed the Massachusetts Commission 
in the first rank of those which were doing honest, intelli- 
gent service .and achieving results. His breadth of view, 
intelligence of perception, and practical common sense 
methods contributed to a success which was doubly 
assured because his whole heart was in the work. 
The results achieved by the Massachusetts Commission 
are known to the citizens of the Comonwealth and to a 
wide public, as manifest in the game and fish conditions 
now prevailing in such bright contrast with those of five 
years ago. We have said that the death of Captain Col- 
lins means a public loss. It will be difficult to fill the 
vacant place. Whoever shall assume the duties he has 
laid down will find the task simpler than the one he 
undertook ; it has been made simple by those five years of 
upbuilding which entitle him to the grateful memory of 
the public he has so richly and so permanently benefited. 
NOT A DEFEAT. 
The New York Court of Appeals has sustained the 
Appellate Division in finding for the defendants in the 
celebrated suit brought by the New York game authorities 
to recover penalties from the Arctic Freezer Company 
for the possession of game in close season. The original 
suit was for penalties aggregating $1,168,315; but one 
after another of the counts was dismissed until the sum 
at issue on final appeal was $9,960, this amount being the 
penalty for 100 grouse, 100 quail, 96 woodcock, and 100 
ducks, the possession of which in close season by the 
defendants was assented to by both sides for the purpose 
of making an agreed issue. 
The State has lost its case. But , in a larger sense it has 
not suffered a defeat. 
The Court of Appeals has followed its own precedent 
in the Buffalo fish case by holding that the language of 
the statute, under which the suit was brought, did not 
show an intention on the part of the Legislature to make 
the prohibition of game possession in close season ap- 
plicable to game which had been imported from without 
$e State, Under such an interpretation, manifestly the 
Arctic Freezer Company was not liable for the game birds 
which it had derived from sources beyond New York. 
But while deciding in the specific case before it that the 
statute did not prohibit the possession of game killed 
without the State, the Court is extremely careful to say 
that its finding does not affect the question of the consti- 
tutionality of a statute which should forbid the possession . 
of imported game. 
So solicitous are the learned Justices lest their decision 
should be misinterpreted, they have taken occasion to 
set forth very clearly and convincingly the principle that 
it is quite within the power of the State to regulate pos- 
session both of its own game and of that which has been 
brought in from other States. There is no uncertainty in 
the language in which the Court declares as to the power 
of the Legislature to close the game market to all game : 
The right to pass laws for the protection of game being con- 
ceded, as in view of the authorities it must be, the method of afford- 
ing protection is necessarily within the discretion of the Legisla- 
ture. It may provide a close season for the taking of game, and 
may prohibit the' possession or sale of game during that season. 
It may close the game market throughout the State during the 
period of prohibition, in order to remove temptation from poach- 
ers ,and pot-hunters, who are apt not to run the risk of taking 
game out of season if they cannot sell it. To do this effectively 
it may be necessary to close the market as to game taken without 
the State, as well as within, for there are no marks by which 
birds killed in Michigan can be distinguished from those killed 
in New York. When enacting a game law, the Legislature may 
provide for its ready enforcement, not simply by making the 
possession of game during the close season presumptive evi- 
dence of a violation of the statute, but it may go further, and, 
in order to prevent evasion, fraud and perjury, may prohibit the 
possession of game in this State during the close season, even if 
it was taken in another State and brought here during the open 
season. The action of Congress has taken away all questions of 
interstate commerce, so that the State can act with entire free- 
dom, and can prevent the shipment of game into or out of its 
own territory; znd if game is imported, it can regulate or pro- 
hibit the sale thereof. Such provisions are warranted by the 
police power, and are not in conflict with either the State or 
Federal constitution. 
Such a reaffirmation of the constitutional authority of 
the State to control all game within its borders, whether 
native or imported, alive or dead, is a new victory for 
game protection. 
THE PRESIDENT'S MESSAGE. 
In the President's message, sent to Congress last week, 
there is not a little that possesses a special interest for 
sportsmen. One of his recommendations will appeal with 
great force to the big-game hunters, among whom Mr. 
Roosevelt himself is such a shining light. 
It seems now a good many years since the Forest and 
Stream first called attention to the great opportunities 
offered for the preservation of our great game by the 
forest reservations, and declared that in each of these 
forest reservations there should be set apart as a refuge 
for big game a large area, where hunting should be abso- 
lutely prohibited, and where such big game might live and 
increase unmolested. At that time we pointed out that 
the Yellowstone Park was such a refuge in fact, though 
not in name, called attention to the great increase there 
of the large wild animals, and explained that what had 
happened there might— with proper protection— happen 
anywhere else in the mountains. Soon after this, the 
suggestion was taken up by the Executive Committee of 
the Boone and Crockett Club, who, recognizing its reason- 
ableness, advocated it with great earnestness, and for 
some years now it has seemed to all big-game hunters a 
thing that should be done, and done quickly. Public 
opinion has grown about it, and the time, we believe, is 
not distant when the necessary action will be taken by 
Congress. 
No one knows better than President Roosevelt how im- 
portant this matter is, and it is gratifying to be able to 
quote from his message the following recommendation: 
In connection with the work of the forest reserves, I desire 
again to urge upon the Congress the importance of authorizing 
the President to set aside certain portions of these reserves or 
other public lands as game refuges for the preservation of the 
bison, the wapiti and other large beasts once so abundant in our 
woods and mountains, and on our great plains and now tending 
toward extinetion. Every support should be given to the 
authorities of the Yellowstone Park in their successful efforts at 
preserving the large creatures therein, and at very little expense 
portions of the public domain in other regions which are wholly 
unsuited to agricultural settlement could2 be similarly utilized. 
We owe it to future generations to keep alive the noble and 
beautiful creatures which by their presence add such distinctive 
character to the American wilderness. The limits of the Yellow- 
stone Park should be extended southward. The cation of the 
Colorado should be made a national park, and the national park 
system should include the Yosemite and as many as possible 
of the groves of giant trees in California. 
Undoubtedly the number of our national parks should 
be increased, and those which we possess should be en- 
larged, whenever this can be done without infringing on 
the rights of people. Besides the parks recommended by 
the President, may be suggested the main divide of the 
Rocky Mountains, from the Great Northern Railway 
north .to the Canadian boundary line, and from the 
western border of the Blackfoot Indian Reservation west 
over the mountains beyond McDonald Lake and creek. 
This is the famous St. Mary's country, so well known \ 
to many of our readers. 
Mr. Roosevelt's remarks about the forest reserves will 
be indorsed by everyone who has given any study to the 
subject, and his recommendation — more than once made 
before — that all Government forest work should be placed 
iii the Department of Agriculture ought at once to be 
acted on by Congress. 
The paragraphs concerning the natural products of 
Alaska possess also especial interest. We have frequently 
called attention to the rapid destruction there of fish and ' 
game since the discovery of gold, and consequent irrup- 
tion of white settlers, and when we recognize that the 
lives of the natives— and often of the white immigrants — • 
depend on this food supply, its protection becomes im- 
portant from the human as well as the sentimental stand- 
point. The message says : 
Salmon hatcheries should be established in many different 
streams, so as to secure the preservation of this valuable food 
fish. Salmon fisheries and canneries should be prohibited on 
certain of. the rivers where the mass of those Indians dwell who 
live almost exclusively on fish. 
The Alaskan natives are kindly, intelligent, anxious to learn, 
and willing to work. Those who have come under the influence 
of civilization, even for a limited period, have proved their capa- 
bility of becoming . self-supporting, self-rsspecting citizens, and 
ask only for the just enforcement of law and intelligent instruc- 
tion and supervision. Others living in more remote regions, 
primitive, simple hunters and fisher folk, who know only the life 
of the woods and the waters, are daily being confronted with 
twentieth century civilization, with all of its complexities. Their 
country is being overrun by strangers, the game slaughtered 
and driven away,, the streams depleted of fish, and hitherto un- 
known and «fatal diseases brought to them, all of which com- 
bine to produce a state of abject poverty and want which must 
result in their extinction. Action in their interest is demanded 
by every consideration of justice and humanity. 
The salmon canneries as yet are confined to southern 
Alaska, where they have enormously reduced the supply of 
fish, and have made some streams absolutely barren. In the 
northern rivers— to mention only the Kuskoquim and the 
Yukon— the salmon form almost the sole food supply of 
the natives, and. if this food supply shall be cut off, noth- 
ing will remain for these poor people save death by 
starvation. The erection of canning factories on the 
shores and streams of northern Alaska should be 
prohibited. 
This, we believe to be the opinion held by Mr. Geo. T. 
Emmons, of the United States Navy, whose long resi- 
dence in Alaska and careful study of the natural, and 
later artificial, conditions there, makes him better qualified 
than almost any other man to speak on this subject. 
A few years ago the forest fires of Michigan and Wis- 
consin horrified the public by their destruction of human 
life. Lumbering towns, saw-mills, and the log cabins . 
of settlers, were swept out of existence, while men, 
women and children fled to swamps, rivers and lakes, that 
were not overtaken before reaching such refuges, and 
those hid themselves beneath the waters, in the effort to 
escape from the flames. : 
As settlements have increased in the more remote dis- 
tricts, and as the horrors of fire have become more and [ 
more appreciated, people have learned to take greater 
precautions. Almost all the Western States have laws- 
more or less well enforced— prohibiting under severe pen- 
alties carelessness with regard to outdoor fires. Since 
cattle became so numerous on the prairies west of the 
Missouri River, and since the burning over of the range 
is the greatest misfortune that can happen to a cattleman, 
every cowboy is a fire guard. Those who have read 
President Roosevelt's interesting book, "Ranch Life and 
the Hunting Trail," are familiar with some of the ex- 
pedients to which cowmen resort to extinguish fires that 
have unluckily started on the range, 
