Forest and Stream 
A Weekly Journal. Copyright, 1906, by Forest and Stream Publishing Co. 
* c< """( NEW YORK, SATURDAY, AUGUST 4, .906. j B ,™ L B U 
FISHING IN CITY RESERVOIRS. 
The anglers of Middletown, N. Y., are in a 
muddle as to fishing rights and privileges in the 
reservoirs which supply the city water. The 
dispute is of long standing, and the knotty point 
just now involved is one of. jurisdiction, whether 
it lies with the Board of Water Commissioners, 
the Common Council, or the State Board of 
Health. The three reservoirs, Monhagan, High¬ 
land and Shawangunk, are so well stocked with 
fish originally planted by the State that the 
Water Commissioners deem it necessary to 
diminish the number, and numerous citizens are 
willing to volunteer to do the diminishing. The 
hindrance is the attitude of State Health Com¬ 
missioner Eugene H. Porter, who refuses to 
sanction fishing. Dr. Porter having ruled ad¬ 
versely to the fishermen, and refusing to recon¬ 
sider his prohibition, the Board of Water Com¬ 
missioners at a meeting held July 17, resolved to 
open the waters in spite of the State authorities. 
They were supported in this action by a legal 
opinion to the effect that, “Unless it can be 
fairly said that the mere act of fishing, in itself, 
may tend to contaminate the water or be other¬ 
wise injurious to the public health, the State 
Board of Health is without jurisdiction.” 
The permission thus granted was made opera¬ 
tive only when it should be confirmed by the 
Common Council. 
An elaborate set of rules was adopted for the 
regulation of fishing in the reservoirs; certain 
days and hours were prescribed; it was provided 
that permits must be taken out (none would be 
given to intoxicated persons) ; boats must be 
numbered with numbers corresponding to per¬ 
mits; every boat must have a pail, sponge and 
cuspidor; and all dirt, dirty water and other 
substances must be removed from the boats and 
deposited in a designated place on land. For 
the shore fisherman it was prescribed, “Only a 
pole and line shall be used by a person having 
the privilege of fishing from the shore, and no 
person so fishing from the shore shall stand or 
sit within three feet of the edge of the water.” 
These rules clearly point to the one considera¬ 
tion which lies at the root of the Middletown 
dispute; this is the protection of the city drink¬ 
ing water from pollution. 
When the Common Council met, June 23, As¬ 
sistant Attorney General Pierce was present to 
explain the attitude of the State. The question 
of fishing in the reservoirs had been considered 
by the State Health Commissioner and his pre¬ 
decessor, and both had decided adversely to it. 
The reservoirs were large; had been visited by 
both administrations of the Health Department 
and they had decided that it was practically im¬ 
possible to enforce the rules and regulations 
which had been submitted for their approval. 
If the rules were approved, the people would go 
on fishing and do as they wanted, as it would be 
impossible properly to patrol the lakes. The 
reservoirs being in an adjoining town, the Albany 
authorities held that they were outside the juris¬ 
diction of the Middletown Common Council and 
of the local health board. “It was to meet just 
such conditions and to have a central and su¬ 
preme head that the office of State Health Com¬ 
missioner was created.” If the Council should 
persist in permitting fishing in the reservoirs, Mr. 
Pierce said, the courts would be appealed to for 
a determination as to the jurisdiction of the 
Health Commission. The effect of these repre¬ 
sentations was that the Council deferred action 
until a subsequent meeting, and the Middletown 
fishing question is still undecided. 
The case had wide interest because the prin¬ 
ciples involved apply to numerous other waters; 
and as time goes on and more and more streams 
and lakes are appropriated to purposes of 
municipal water supply, the questions involved 
are becoming more acute. To maintain the 
purity of the water is the first consideration. 
Whether a body of water may be fished with¬ 
out danger of pollution must be determined in 
each case by the circumstances surrounding it, 
and whether it is the province of the local au¬ 
thorities or of the State Health Commission to‘ 
make this determination is purely a point of law. 
THE PINNATED GROUSE TO-DAY. 
If we look back over the thirty odd years that 
have elapsed since the Forest and Stream first 
began to urge on the American public the im¬ 
portance of game protection, it certainly seems 
that some things have been accomplished. It is 
true that within that time some species of mam¬ 
mals and some of birds have been almost wiped 
out of existence, and the general public has 
known nothing about it until the extermination 
was nearly complete, but all the talk that has 
been made has had its effect, and to-day the 
executive, the legislative and the judicial branches 
of the Government are substantially at one in the 
view that natural things ought to be preserved. 
As is so often the case in matters of public 
interest, many years of exhortation and argu¬ 
ment went by without producing any apparent 
effect, and then suddenly, almost without warn¬ 
ing, a change in public sentiment took place. 
Precisely the same change of front occurred only 
a few years ago with regard to forestry in this 
country. 
It is not a long time since nine men out of 
every ten who wrote to this office urging the pro¬ 
tection of deer in the Adirondacks, prophesied 
that within ten or fifteen years the last deer in 
the North Woods would have been killed. There 
was similar talk about the moose and deer of 
Maine. Yet to-day there are probably more deer 
in the Adirondacks and more moose and deer in 
Maine than for many years. It is only a very 
few years since it was honestly believed by a 
great many people, that the prairie chicken, ot 
pinnated grouse, in Indiana and Illinois was on 
the verge of extinction. Yet within a few years 
the legislators of a number of these States of 
the Middle West, where the pinnated grouse 
was formerly abundant, have made good laws, 
and the Governors have appointed efficient men to 
enforce these laws, with the result that, as the 
reports published to-day indicate, the pinnated 
grouse is increasing in all these States, and is 
likely to increase still further. 
This does not mean that we may relax our 
efforts, but it does mean that those of us who 
have borne the heat and burden of a long con¬ 
flict, have not labored altogether in vain. 
In countries that are thickly settled, the whole 
matter of game preservation turns on one point. 
If the number of birds killed each season can be 
kept down to the number reared each season, 
you have efficient game protection; but if more 
birds are killed each year than are reared, then 
the breeding stock is constantly being reduced 
and your species must ultimately disappear. 
Birds must be protected from the elements, 
from starvation, from their natural enemies and 
from man. They must be assisted to reproduce 
their kind. 
It is a pleasure to be able to give such an ex¬ 
cellent portrait of Rowland E. Robinson as is 
the picture printed to-day. In addition to its 
value as a likeness, it has an interesting theme. 
Mr. Robinson has in hand a fungus from the 
Vermont woods, on the face of which he is en¬ 
graving a woodland scene. In this artistic 
handiwork he was highly accomplished, and the 
products of his skill were very pleasing. Two 
fungi on which were sketched by him studies 
from nature are among the valued possessions of 
this office. One of them is shown in the illus¬ 
tration on another page, though the black and 
white engraving fails to hint of the rich color¬ 
ing of the original material and the artistic deli¬ 
cacy of the engraving. 
K 
The picture of a startled doe is another one 
of the successes of Hon. Geo. Shiras 3d in his 
flashlight photography of wild game. This was 
taken at Howe’s Lake, Mich. The ears set 
either way and the tail laid close, indicating the 
anxious attention of the deer as the light ap¬ 
proaches, add to that impression of absolute 
fidelity to nature which is so characteristic of 
all Mr, Shiras’s photographic work. 
*» 
“The Story of a Man” by George Kennedy is 
all the more effective because of the simplicity 
and directness of its telling. John Schaffer’s 
deed is one which will undoubtedly have the 
cognizance of the trustees of the Carnegie fund 
for the recognition of heroism. 
