Forest and Stream. 
A Weekly Journal of the Rod and Gun. 
Copyright, 1904, by Forest and Stream Publishing Co, 
Terms, $4 a Year. 10 Cts. a Copy. 
Six Months, $2. 
NEW YORK, SATURDAY, APRIL 8, 190B. 
J VOL. LXIV.— No. 14. 
( No. 346 Broadway, New York. 
^The Forest and Stream is the recognized medium of entertain- 
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THE DOOM OF NIAGARA. 
In the April number of the Popular Science Monthly, 
Dr. John M. Clarke, New York State Geologist, Director 
of Science and the State Museum, has a paper demon- 
strating the ruin of the American Falls in the immediate 
future, so soon as the power plants now in course of con- 
struction shall have been completed and put into opera- 
tion. The American Falls will be destroyed before those 
on the Canadian side, but unless some way shall be found 
tC' stay the progressive drain upon the water supply for 
industrial purposes, the entire cataract will share the 
same fate. 
The situation briefly is this: Various power com- 
panies in New York and in Ontario have been given char- 
ters permitting them to draw off the waters of Niagara 
River abjove the Falls and to carry them around the cliff 
by some other way or to discharge them by tunnels into 
the face of . the Falls near the base. The two American 
companies which are now active are the Niagara Falls 
Hydraulic Power and Manufacturing Company, which is 
permitted to consume 7,700 cubic feet per second, and 
the Niagara Falls Power Company, wdiose legal limit is 
8,600 cubic feet per second, a total of 16,300. There are 
three Canadian companies with statutory limits of 8,900, 
12,000 and 11,200, or a total of 32,100 cubic feet per 
second. The aggregate of all the companies now operat- 
ing is thus 48,400 cubic feet per second, which represents 
the amount of water which may be diverted by them 
from the river before it reaches the cataract. 
Besides these concerns actually in operation, is another 
one, the Niagara, Lockport and Ontario Power Company, 
which was chartered in 1894, a condition of its franchise 
being that it must begin operations within ten years. No 
work was begun by it prior to 1904. In that year it 
appeared in Albany seeking from the Legislature a new 
charter with enlarged powers and extended time. The 
Legislature granted this, but Governor Odell, be it said 
to his credit, vetoed the bill. The veto was signed May 
21, 1904. Six days later the charter term expired. In 
those six days the company dug a slender ditch, in order 
to. prevent a lapse of charter. Whether the digging of 
this ditch at the time and in the manner it was done 
would hold in the courts as work begun in good faith 
within the intent of the charter, is a matter of doubt. The 
same company is before the Legislature again this year 
seeking renewed privileges. It is said to be backed by 
powerful interests, and it is making a strong fight for 
what it wants. By the terms of the. old charter no restric- 
tion was placed upon the amount of water it might 
abstract from the Niagara River. Should it succeed in 
constructing and operating its projected works, the water 
used by it, Dr. Clarke estimates, will not be less than 
10,000 cubic feet per second. This addition to the con- 
sumption permitted by the other concerns already noted 
will mean a total drain of 58,400 cubic feet per second. 
The water flow over the Falls w^as measured by United 
States engineers in 1868 and by Sir Casimir Gzowski in 
1873, with results varying from 246,000 cubic feet per 
second (the latter) to a maximum of 280,000 cubic feet 
per second (the former). The figure generally accepted 
by engineers is 224,000 cubic feet per second. 
The river flows over a rock bottom on which the strata 
dip to the west; so that the sill or edge of the Falls is 
ten feet higher on the American than on the Canadian 
side; and the waters at the crest of the American Falls 
are ten feet shallower. It is the calculation of a compe- 
tent hydraulic engineer, taking the accepted volume of the 
flow^ the length of the entire crest of the Falls (4,070 
feet), and the difference in elevation of the sill of the 
I'-alls, that when the flow shall be reduced to 184,000 cubic 
feet per second, or by 40,000 cubic feet, the water will be 
down to the level of present rock bottom at the edge of 
the American shore. In other words, when the power 
companies already chartered and in operation shall de- 
velop their full legal privileges, the American Falls will 
be but a weakly, thin, white apron. When to the water 
consumption of these five companies shall be added that 
of the Niagara, Lockport and Ontario Power Company- 
provided this concern shall succeed in getting what it 
risks of the Legislature — the American Falls will have be- 
come a thing of the past. 
APRIL. 
The return of spring brings with it a pleasure to all 
mankind. But it is specially delightful to the angler who, 
in the weeks of anticipation, has overhauled his fishing 
tackle betimes, has made sundry purchases of more by 
way of careful preparation, and carefully noted the merg- 
ing of the , wintry days into the balmy ones of spring. 
The delightful warmth of the sunshine, the fullness of 
the streams from rains, thawed snow and ice; the green 
tinges of the landscape denoting the reawakening of 
vegetable life ; the earlier sunrise and later sunset, are 
signs of special significance laden with gladness to the 
angler; for do not they denote that the season of trout 
fishing approaches? That they may also denote the 
active renewal of successful business activity, the angler 
accepts with gratification; but the theme of business is 
devoid of the vivacity and keen enthusiasm displayed on 
the theme of the trout stream. The anticipations con- 
cerning work and fishing are things apart, are things for- 
eign, are things not to. be reconciled. They are as op- 
posed to each other as are pain and pleasure. 
April brings with it a just recognition of the trout's 
ascendancy in the accepted list of gamy goody things. 
The trout now is in season for taking, in law and in 
fact. It possesses many qualities deserving of the sports- 
man's admiration and pursuit. Beautiful and erratic, it 
may lurk sullenly, perdue perversely apathetic to all ex- 
ternals that would allure; it may coquette with the arti- 
ficial fly teasingly yet safely ; or it may strike with fierce 
aggressiveness- — a miniature demon of the waters. 
Probably the beauty and moods of the capricious trout 
constitute the charm which impels the true angler to 
meander ever hopefully along the streams, casting his 
fly with patience unceasing; or, if he be of a practical 
and secretive cast of mind, then betimes suspending a 
worm gently in the water where the trout, with little 
effort, may help itself to worm and trouble. 
And yet, on the negative side of trout fishing, there is 
much to regret ; chief of which is that the trout fishing 
of the present is not what it was in the days of years 
ago when there were trout in the small streams every- 
where, free to those who would fish them. The necessi- 
ties of a denser population and a consequent more assert- 
ive claims to valuable property rights have restricted- to 
the person what was once so free to all. 
There are many hundreds of good anglers to-day who 
enjoy trout fishing only in its reminiscences, because there 
is no more trout fishing in which they can participate 
actually. Distance or proprietorship excludes them. And 
yet they manifest an enthusiasm in the recountal of the 
old fishing days which they experienced. They hold a 
high place in the mind's happiest pictures of fields and 
streams, and even as mental pictures they mean much in 
the way of recurring happy moments. 
THE WILDFOWL SUPPLY. 
For a year or two past a more or less marked increase 
has been noted in some localities in the number of water 
fowl seen in the migration flights or on the great wintering 
grounds of the United States, and this apparent increase 
has furnished the spring shooters with an argument in 
support of their cause. They say, in substance, birds are 
more numerous now than they were a few years ago, 
shooting has no effect on their numbers one way or -the 
other, why then interfere with our sport or our means 
of making a livelihood? 
As matter of fact, the greater number of birds has been 
noticed by observers who would appear to be competent. 
Two journals devoted to ornithology have recently called 
attention to the very unusual number of good ducks 
found in certain waters in Maine and in Great South Bay 
in the autumn of 1904, while at the opening of the season 
just passed gunners reported ducks much more abundant 
than usual in Currituck Sound. 
Meantime, the spring shooters continue to declare that 
since the ^uck§ ^re ingreiasing, it is u§eles§ to give them any 
more protection, but they say nothing about the cause of the 
increase. This cause seems to be found in the fact that a 
number of the Northern States and of the Provinces of 
Canada have forbidden spring shooting. A¥hen, on their 
northward migration, the ducks reach the ternperate zones 
where in old times many of them bred, their tendency is 
to loiter there, and perhaps to nest and rear their broods. 
This is something that they cannot do if spring shooting 
is allowed, for pursuit with a gun causes them at once to 
leave the country and to hurry on to some more distant 
spot where they will be free from prosecution. They 
know that such spots exist, though they may be obliged 
to go as far as Labrador or James Bay to reach them. 
On the other hand, breeding grounds suited to the fowl 
exist in many places in the northern tier of States and 
all through southern Canada, and will be occupied by 
them if they are left undisturbed. Full broods will be 
raised, the local ducks in autumn will call down other 
birds passing on their southward migration, and the 
shooting in the fall will be more than twice as good as it 
would be either in the spring or fall if the birds did not 
breed there. 
In the past there has been no such thing as the pro- 
tection of wildfowl within our borders. The earliest 
ducks came to us the last of August or the first of 
September, while the latest to go took their departure for 
the north in May or June. Here, then, were eight or nine 
months of each year during which the fowl were shot; 
and whatever the laws which appeared on the statute 
books, the fact was that a duck was in season whenever 
it was within sight. With the . growth of the game 
protective idea and with the constantly increasing feeling 
that men must practice some moderation if those who 
come after them are to have any shooting, has come that 
change of sentiment which shows itself in the practical 
abolition of spring shooting in a dozen States and most 
of the Provinces of Canada. It has been well pointed 
cut that it is absurd to cut the shooting season down to 
two or three months on certain birds and yet to afford no 
protection whatever to the wildfowl. It may be confi- 
dently predicted that a judicious reduction \n the open 
months for wildfowl .shooting all over the country would 
result in a great increase in the number of fowl ; and in 
this, together with the anti-sale law now prevalent in so 
many States, lies the hope that some day we may once 
more see the old-time hordes of the wildfowl. 
Ever smce Governor Hill dismissed Fish Commissioner 
Eugene G. Blackford because jNIr. Blackford had attended 
a Brooklyn reception to a Republican President, the New 
York Fish and Game Commission has been in varying 
degree demoi-alized by politics. Certain commissioners — 
as notoriously in the case of Davis — have been given 
their places for no earthly reason other than that they 
were recognized political bosses. The State's interests in 
fish and game and forests have been sacrificed without 
compunction in order to strengthen partisan forces. Game 
protectors have been put in places and kept there out of 
political considerations, and like influences have permitted 
in some localities continued violations of, the fish and 
game laws W'ith immunity. These conditions have long 
existed : perhaps they will exist always. But if, as now 
seems probable, Governor Higgins is not to reappoint 
Commissioner Middleton, but wall name another in his 
place, might it not prove an interesting experiment if we 
could have a head of the commission named for capacity 
and fitness to do the work, and without the slightest re- 
gard to political affiliations or partisan service ability? 
We speak of such a course as an experiment. It would 
be an experiment; and an experiment well worth trjang. 
If the experiment should result in improved fish and 
game and forest protection, the public interests would be 
served, even if party interests suft'ered. If it failed, the 
failure would put an end to the harping of those theorists 
who argue that politics and game and fish and forest pro- 
tection should be divorced. 
It happened in New Jersey last Sunday afternoon in 
this way: A sixteen-year-old boy and a fourteen-year-old 
girl were visiting at the house of a friend ; the boy picked 
up a rifle and playfully aimed it at the girl and pulled 
the trigger. The rifle was loaded. The girl died. The 
coroner said it was a case of pure accident, no one was 
to blame. What abottt the owner of the loaded rifle who 
left it where foolish visitors cottld get at it? 
