824 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
[Nov. 24, 1906. 
the Bureau of Fisheries, have secured some additional 
data. It seems that Congress has already passed an act 
nearly twenty years ago upon the protection of migratory 
fish. This law, entitled ‘An act relating to the importa¬ 
tion and landing of mackerel caught during the spawn¬ 
ing season,” was approved Feb. 28, 1887, and remained in 
effect for five years. It may be found in 24 Stat. at 
Large, 434.” 
The first paragraph of the bill is as follows: 
“That for the period of five years from and after the 
first of March, 1888, no mackerel other than what is 
known as Spanish mackerel, caught between the first 
day of March and the first day of June inclusive, of each 
year, shall be imported into the United States or landed 
upon its shores.” 
This is followed by a provision permitting 
fishing for mackerel from a boat, with a hook 
and line only, and from the shore. The debate 
in Congress shows that the sole purpose of the 
bill (as does the title) was the preservation of 
these fish on the spawning grounds, and the 
closed season therein covered this period. The 
principle involved in this law is therefore ap¬ 
plicable to all migratory fish within and without 
the jurisdiction of the several States, and there¬ 
fore its pertinency, at the present time, is most 
apparent. This act was especially espoused by 
Thomas B. Reed, not only the speaker of the 
House, but one of the most learned and dis¬ 
tinguished lawyers in matters relating to con¬ 
stitutional questions this country ever had. That 
such an act has been in operation is not. after 
all, so strange when we come to look at the ex¬ 
tensive powers given by Congress to the Bureau 
of Fisheries, under the act creating it, wherein 
it is prescribed that this Bureau “is authorized 
to promote and protect the fishery interests of 
the country and to ascertain what diminution, if 
any, in the number of food fishes of the coast 
and the lakes of the United States has taken 
place, and from what cause the same is due, 
and whether any protective, prohibitory or pre¬ 
cautionary measures should be adopted.” 
Thus it will appear that one of the direct 
purposes of this act was to give the Bureau of 
Fisheries supervisory power over the entire salt 
water coast of the United States, and upon the 
Great Lakes, all of which waters were hereto¬ 
fore supposedly. under exclusive State jurisdic¬ 
tion. This particular feature of the act has been 
sustained by the Federal courts, as already pointed 
out in a previous article, but will again be re¬ 
ferred to later. A review of the many other 
recent instances, in which the Federal government 
has undertaken to assert its general police powers 
over the public waters for purposes wholly apart 
from navigation, will be considered in a separate 
and later brief. 
Since the above brief was written Congress has 
adjourned. The papers and magazines have been 
filled with praise of the work accomplished. 
Some ascribe the results to a “centralization 
which was not at the expense of individualism”— 
some to the advancement of “Federal control”-—- 
but all are blind to the fact that every act, which 
meets their particular commendation, was a police 
regulation, and that the great principle enunciated 
by the present Congress, was the simple one, that 
police power is an attribute of National sov¬ 
ereignty. 
In a week Congress will re-convene and once 
more it will have up for consideration many 
measures carried over from the previous session, 
and several others that the President will likely 
recommend in his December message. Most of 
these proposed laws will, in my judgment, more 
or less, involve the question of police power. 
Whether it is better to postpone the pressing of 
the migratory game and fish bills until these un¬ 
finished measures are out of the way, and their 
constitutionality determined, which means, of 
course, waiting until the new Congress assembles, 
or whether it is better to press their passage 
during the brief session now pending, is a matter 
that requires careful consideration. 
The advancement of such future legislation 
in Congress depends, to a great extent, upon 
the active interest shown by the American 
sportsmen, whose vast army of millions of 
energetic and patriotic men, representing 
practically every hamlet, city, county and State 
in the Union, are in a position to obtain al¬ 
most anything in the bounds of reason and 
justice. 
For Congressmen, as a rule, are exempt from 
the petty and selfish influences which so retard, 
in the States, proper legislative protection for 
migratory game and fish and are, therefore, par¬ 
ticularly responsive to the counsel and desires of 
any decent class of people seeking the enactment 
of worthy measures. 
BROAD-BILL DUCK-FFIOTO BY GEO. SHIRAS, ,jD. 
From tire National Geographic Magazine, Washington, I). G. Copyright, 1906, by Geo. Shiras, 3d. 
