Forest 
A Weekly Journal. 
and Stream 
Copyright, 1906, by Forest and Stream Publishing Co. 
NEW YORK, SATURDAY, DECEMBER 22 , 1906. 
, VOL. LXVII.-No. 25. 
1 No. 346 Broadway, New York. 
The object of this journal will be to studiously 
promote a healthful interest in outdoor recre¬ 
ation, and to cultivate a refined taste for natural 
Objects. Announcement in first number of 
Forest and Stream, Aug. 14, 1873. 
FEDERAL GAME AND FISH LAWS. 
There is - food for thought in the speech of 
Secretary Root at the recent annual dinner of 
the Pennsylvania Society. Particularly are some 
of his remarks applicable to the question of uni¬ 
form game and fish laws and Federal control 
over migratory .birds and fishes. On these ques¬ 
tions sportsmen as a rule are agreed, that State 
laws are not now and cannot be adequate to pro¬ 
tect migratory birds and fishes. We refer par¬ 
ticularly to a part of Mr. Root's speech wherein 
he says: 
It is plainly to be seen that the people of the country 
'are coming to the conclusion that in certain important 
respects the .local laws of the separate States are in¬ 
adequate for the -due and just control of the business 
and activities which extend throughout all the States, 
and that power of regulation and control is gradually 
passing into the hands of the National Government. 
Again he says that every’ State is bound to 
frame its legislation and its administration with 
reference to the effect upon all its sister States. 
This is true of measures repecting uniform game 
•and fish laws, but there is a limit beyond which 
no State will go; States in the north can strive 
for uniform laws, in a way, and those in the south 
can do the same thing, each group working to¬ 
ward a common end. Nevertheless local condi¬ 
tions and geographical situation tend to prevent 
co-operation between the States of the north and 
the south, and only by Federal legislation can our 
migratory birds and fishes" be adequately pro¬ 
tected. 
LONG ISLAND DEER. 
The discovery, through a regrettable accident, 
that at least one farmer proposed to make deer 
laws for himself, and employed a man to. shoot 
deer found eating cabbages on his Long Island 
farm, again brings up the question of State con¬ 
trol, at all jimes for the deer of that island. The 
scenes enacted during the four-day open season 
last November furnish sufficient reason why the 
State should protect the deer on Long Island in¬ 
definitely, and when they become so numerous as 
to annoy farmers, ship a number to the Catskills 
or the Adirondacks. The club members and the 
residents who are fond of tame deer should be 
satisfied, and the State could in this way maintain 
a perpetual supply of new blood, to be sprinkled • 
about the up-state hunting grounds, where it 
would do the most good. 
The Long Island deer would then become valu¬ 
able to the State at large, and perhaps the far¬ 
mers could be reimbursed for actual losses to 
their crops, due to invasions by the deer. 
A WASHINGTON GAME REFUGE. 
On Dec. 7, the . House of Representatives 
passed a bill authorizing the President of the 
United States to designate such area in the 
Olympic Forest Reserve in the State of Wash¬ 
ington, not exceeding 750,000 acres, as should 
in his opinion be set aside for the protection of 
game animals, birds and fishes therein, and as 
a breeding place for them. When this area has 
been set aside, the hunting, trapping, killing or 
•capturing of the animals, birds and fish desig¬ 
nated shall be unlawful, and shall be punished 
by-fine and imprisonment. 
The bill was introduced by Mr. Humphrey, of 
Washington, and its purpose is to protect the elk 
and other wild creatures of the Olympic Forest. 
• Reserve from destruction. The elk of the 
Pacific slope have almost, disappeared. Except 
for a few on Vancouver Island and the small 
bunch on the Miller and Lux ranch—about twenty 
of which were not long ago transferred to the 
Sequoia National Park—this herd of the Olympic 
Mountains is the only one left. Flow many of 
these there are, we do not know. It is reported 
that there are now probably not more than-500, 
and it is notorious that in the past they have 
been most, wastefully slaughtered for horns and 
teeth. The State of Washington not very long 
ago passed a law protecting the elk until the year 
1915, but it is certainly desirable that this rem¬ 
nant should have protection not only by the State 
authorities, but by the forest wardens as well. 
The House engaged in a long debate over the 
passage of the bill in the course of which Mr. 
Lacey, of Iowa, read the long opinion given by 
Senator Knox when he was 'Attorney-General 
as to the rights of the Federal Government on 
forest reserves. The opinion was published in 
part in the last book of the Boone and Crockett 
Club, “American Big Game in its Haunts.” 
If this bill becomes law it will be another step 
in applying the game refuge idea first suggested 
many years ago by the Forest and Stream. This 
suggestion called for legislation by which all 
forest reservations might become in some por¬ 
tions of their area, sanctuaries where game and 
fish of all sorts might be absolutely free from 
molestation or pursuit by man, and might in¬ 
crease and in time re-establish themselves in re¬ 
gions from which they had been exterminated. 
Congress has already passed one such law for 
the Wichita Reserve in the State of Oklahoma, 
and the establishment of this refuge was most 
gratifying to the people of that State. A similar 
bill was passed as to southern Utah, covering a 
game refuge in a portion of the Grand Canon 
FTirest Reserve. Utah asked for the establish¬ 
ment of this refuge and got it, and now Wash¬ 
ington is asking for the same thing with regard 
to the Olympic Forest Reserve. As these 
refuges increase, their value will be more and 
more appreciated and there will be more and ■ 
more call for them from the different States 
and Territories in which the forest reserves lie. 
There is need for many of them, and they can be 
established without cost to the Government, but 
to the very great advantage of the nation. 
TO PROTECT THE PUBLIC. 
It is reported that during the past shooting 
season no less than seventy-four persons have 
been shot and killed by being mistaken for game, 
The record is a shocking one, implying an as¬ 
tounding degree of heedlessness and carelessness 
on the part of people who handle firearms. The 
shooting of persons by other per-sons in search 
of game has been going on now for a good many 
years, and has been preached against with much 
energy. Certain States have passed laws pro¬ 
viding penalties for such homicide or injury, but 
in no case, so far as we are aware, has any one 
been -punished for such criminal carelessness. 
Although many intelligent minds have worked 
on the matter, no one as yet appears to have been 
able to devise the means by which this form of 
homicide could be prevented. Sportsmen, too 
ardent to give up their hunting in thickly popu¬ 
lated game haunts, have- resorted to all kinds 
of fantastic and highly colored clothing, in order 
to warn those who may see them that they are 
not deer. 
It is but a short time since many of the daily 
newspapers threw themselves into a frenzy of ex¬ 
citement over the deaths and injuries which took 
place in the football field, and the result of all 
the talk was a modification of rules, which seems 
to have reduced the number of injuries in the 
game. Is it not possible for sportsmen to devise 
some scheme by which these “accidents” of the 
wmods may! be reduced ? 
The State cares for the safety of some of its 
citizens by requiring engineers on railways and 
steamships and drivers of motor cars to- take out 
licenses, given only after proof that these men 
are competent to- perform their several tasks. 
May it not be .that some action 011. the same 
general lines will have to be taken to protect the 
shooting public from itself? 
THE ELK .CASES. 
The evidence of game wardens, given in the 
elk killing case heard in Los Angeles last 
week, seems to show that Purdy and Bankley, 
the persons arrested,shot large numbers-of elk 
in Wyoming during deep snow. Apparently they 
approached very close to the elk, selecting the 
best heads, then shot as many as possible before 
the animals became panic-stricken, and after pre¬ 
paring the heads carefully for shipment, returned 
at their convenience to kill other elk. Sports¬ 
men who have seen the heads, scalps and teeth 
captured at Los Angeles have estimated that 
these men might have secured ten thousand dol¬ 
lars for the shipment had it not been for the 
timely intervention of Warden Morgan, who cap¬ 
tured the men and their plunder at the same time. 
