Dec. 29, 1906.1 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
1027 
clearly identify a 11011-resident.) Same section 
also provides for transportation of lawfully taken 
game. 
Section 23 provides for issuing of licenses by 
State game warden, also Section I498r sets non¬ 
resident license fee at $25 for deer and all other 
game, with a $10 fee for hunting all other game 
aside from deer. 
Section I4g8q provides for shipping game. 
Section 4562a states a penalty of $50 to $100 
fine, or imprisonment from two to six months, 
for persons hunting without license in posses¬ 
sion, or for letting another person use it, and only 
one license can be issued to any one person in 
any one year. 
Section 4562c fines a person from $500 to $1,000, 
or by imprisonment from four to twelve months, 
upon conviction, for fraud used in obtaining a 
license; and Section 4562b makes like penalties 
for changing or altering a license. 
Section 29. All license money goes to pay 
deputy game wardens; and Section 24 sets forth 
the duties of county clerks as to license money, 
for keeping alphabetical lists, etc., with a penalty 
for non-compliance. 
A copy of Wisconsin hunting license can be 
found in Forest and Stream of Dec. 8, 1906, 
page 905. Wisconsin laws set out forms of com¬ 
plaints for hunting without license, for allow¬ 
ing another to use license, for obtaining license 
by false statements, for changing, etc. 
We might issue two kinds of resident licenses, 
one for family, to include parents and minor 
children, with a fee of $2.10, and the other with 
a fee of $1.10 for a person, the ten cents in each 
instance to go to the county clerk who issues the 
license. 
License fees for nonresidents and aliens might, 
perhaps, better be fixed at. from $10 to $20 for 
nonresidents, with a larger fee for aliens, rather 
than to try to. charge persons from different 
States the same fee that is charged nonresidents 
by the States in. which they reside. 
Short form statement of law and penalty, to¬ 
gether with penalty for accidentally shooting a 
perso.n, should be printed on back of licenses. 
Special and extraordinary measures should be 
taken to fully inform all persons, by notices 
similar to fire notices and otherwise, living in 
the North Woods and to hunters and fishermen 
throughout the State. Hotels, guides and others 
should be put on notice and asked to help put 
these laws into active operation. 
Ownership of and Title to all Fish and Game 
is in the State. 
It seems highly important that this should be 
set forth and emphasized by statute. Several 
States have such laws. That of Wisconsin fol¬ 
lows : 
Section 4560, Wisconsin statutes of 1898, is 
hereby amended to read as follows: The owner¬ 
ship of and title to all fish and game in the State 
of Wisconsin is hereby declared to be in the State 
and no fish or game shall be caught, taken or 
killed in any manner or at any time, or had in 
possession except the person so catching, taking, 
killing or having in possession shall consent that 
the title to said fish and game shall be and re¬ 
main in the State of Wisconsin for the purpose 
of regulating and controlling the use and dis¬ 
position of the same after such catching, taking 
or killing. The catching, taking, killing or hav¬ 
ing in possession of fish or game at any time, or 
in any manner, or by any person, shall be deemed 
a consent of said person that the title of the 
State shall be and remain in the State for said 
purpose of regulating the use and disposition of 
the same and said possession shall be consent to 
such title in the State whether said fish or game 
were taken within or without the State. 
A law of this kind will, undoubtedly, commend 
itself to all who are in favor of full protection 
for our fish and game, and for fully regulating 
and controlling the use and disposition of same. 
Ownership of and title to game has been, by the 
courts, decided to be in the State. (Geer vs. 
Connecticut, 161 U. S. R., 519; also U. S. Su¬ 
preme Court, 161 at 522 and 526.) 
In the first reference, 519, it is stated: “The 
wild game within a State belongs to the people 
in their collective, sovereign capacity. It is not 
the subject of private ownership except so far as 
the people may elect to make it so. * * * We 
take it to be the correct doctrine in this coun¬ 
try that the owmership of wild animals, so far as 
they are capable of ownership, is in the State.” 
Game Protectors and Fire Wardens. 
Why not have each man hold power as both 
protector and warden? This has been suggested 
by a man living in the Adirondacks, and if it can 
be done, this would seem of importance and 
tending to protect and increase both forest and 
game. Chapter 108, of the public laws of 1891, of 
the State of Maine, provides for and makes fish 
and game wardens also State fire wardens. Our 
forests need more watchful care to prevent fires 
and the game needs more protection. It is 
thought there should be two or three times as 
many protectors and wardens in the Adirondacks 
and adjoining counties. If, however, good, 
honest, thorough men, who “know the woods and 
the ways of the law breakers,” were put in the 
places of protectors who lack any or all of these 
qualities, much better protection would be had. 
Again, give the protectors all possible power, 
have their superiors back them with all the 
power of the State, allow no compromise, bring 
every offender to justice, and inside one year 
lawlessness will have practically disappeared. 
No'te how well and how thoroughly the Canadian 
Mounted Police care for all the vast domains of 
Canada; Why? Simply because they have the 
power, the honesty, the ability in all respects and 
the determination to hunt down and bring to 
justice each and every persistent lawbreaker. 
That is what stops it. We have a few men in 
the Adirondacks, who' all the year round, will¬ 
fully, persistently and continuously kill deer in 
unlawful ways; who kill for the “fun of killing” 
and leave venison and skin to waste where it 
falls. Such lawbreakers should be as persistently 
followed and convicted. 
Deer rapidly increased after the law against 
the use of dogs for hunting them was put into 
effective force. Now, if illegal killing of deer, 
by men in lumber camps and otherwise, is stop¬ 
ped, if the present laws are well enforced and a 
law making it unlawful to have guns in the North 
Woods during the close season for deer, the in¬ 
crease of deer will again begin and more than 
enough for all lawful killing will result. Forest 
and food conditions are better for deer than 
thirty years ago, and to such an extent that there 
will be an abundance of game if the laws are 
thoroughly enforced and the forests well pre¬ 
served. In March, April, May and June the 
North Woods need watchful care in order to 
prevent fires from running and doing great harm 
to standing timber. April and May are usually 
the worst, as the foliage is not then enough 
started to prevent fires running. The old dry 
leaves and underbrush burn very fast and very 
fiercely before the new leaves are well formed, 
and a fire in April or May is apt to run and do 
terrible damage, killing timber and second growth. 
Seven weeks of dry weather in spring and 
early summer of 1903 made conditions right for 
the great fires which so harmed the Adirondack 
forests at that time. And, as it is understood, 
there was no provision by law allowed anything 
to be done in way of preventing these fires; only 
after fires began could the fife wardens act, and 
then it was too late to effect much, and the fires 
were stopped only when a very heavy rain fell. 
So first, greatest and above all stands out the 
fact that' the Adirondack forests must be pre¬ 
served and increased as fast as possible. There 
will be no streams in which fish can live and in¬ 
crease, nor cover and home and feed for game 
if the mountains are laid bare by ax. and fire. 
Such a condition would harm the whole State to 
such an extent that the laws of fish and game 
would be unspeakably small. The Empire State 
is rich enough to own all the land within the 
bounds of the Adirondack park and not feel the 
necessary cost. Note! The State of New York 
is spending $100,000,000 on its canals and a like 
amount for good roads, all free of toll or charge 
of any kind to those who use them. What other 
State or nation has ever spent like sums and 
given the results for free use of all ? So, why 
shall we not own, protect and improve the Adi¬ 
rondacks for the benefit, in many ways, of all 
the people of our State and do it at once? We 
have been too slow in protecting our forests, as 
well as our fish and game. 
In 1904 laws were enacted which give power 
to take preventive measures in time of drought 
and this-should enable fire wardens to better pro¬ 
tect our forests. But the lumberman is now the 
greatest factor in making the mountains a bar¬ 
ren wilderness, unfitting that entire section for 
the best purposes of its existence. Last winter 
vast numbers of trees were cut under six inches 
in diameter and pulp wood in immense quantity 
under four and five inches, was floated down the 
streams to. mills and used up. This is in very 
fact “a murdering of the innocents” and should 
be stopped. These young evergreen trees ate by 
far the best of all trees to hold and keep back the 
water, from rain and snow, so much needed for 
the canal and in the Hudson River, as well as 
for the necessary and even rainfall, to help pas¬ 
tures, meadows and crops all over the State. 
An effort is now being made, in the interest 
of lumbermen, to have power given to our legis¬ 
lature, by a concurrent resolution, changing the 
constitution, to allow the building of dams and 
reservoirs for storage of water for public pur¬ 
poses, which means to provide water for private 
parties to float or run logs and pulp wood tim¬ 
ber, to the further destruction of the forest. If 
we are to keep and preserve the forests in the 
Adirondack park this power should not be given. 
It is a most dangerous measure and general pub¬ 
lic opinion is against it. The voters of our State, 
by one of the largest majorities ever given in 
New York, decided to keep what forests we had, 
to add to them and not to allow an acre of State 
land, within the park bounds, sold, nor any timber 
cut or removed from such lands. The State 
should purchase all lands that can be had at a 
just and reasonable price, with the added power 
to condemn whenever necessary or desired. Hold 
up the hands of our commissioner of forests and 
give him a chance to do the full duties of his 
office. Clarence L. Parker. 
Norwich, N. Y. 
Essex County Black Bears. 
Elizabethtown, Essex County, New York, 
Dec. 18.— Editor Forest and Stream: Three 
.years ago this winter some matter relating to 
black bears in the Adirondacks, particularly in 
Essex county, appeared in Forest and Stream 
over my signature. At that time I said em¬ 
phatically that Essex county had enough and to 
spare of black bears, and quoted figures showing 
the number killed each year for nearly thirty 
years previously. Some persons at that time ex¬ 
pressed the idea that bears were “running out” 
in Essex county and that henceforth no such 
large numbers would be killed. The writer, how¬ 
ever, who had summered and wintered in the 
midst of Essex county black bears for nearly 
forty years labored under no such delusion. And 
now that the returns are in, concerning the num¬ 
ber known to have been killed in Essex county 
during the year 1906, readers of Forest and 
Stream might be interested in announcement of 
the fact. The Essex county board of supervisors 
adjourned Saturday morning last. It will be re¬ 
called that Essex county pays a bounty of $10 
on each bear killed within its limits and is the 
only county in the Empire State exempt from the 
penalties of the general deer law, close seasons, 
fines, etc. The returns made out for bounties in¬ 
dicate that fifty-two bears have been killed in 
Essex county during the year 1906. In the town 
of Wilmington alone one man, Asa Lawrence, 
killed thirteen bears, most of which, if not all. 
were killed before Oct. 1. The bears were killed 
on sight, the proper time in Essex county. 
It might be added here that John Courtney, 2d, 
of Wilmington, had thirty-five sheep killed by 
bears during the year 1906. Other farmers in 
Wilmington lost as many more, so it will readily 
be seen that bears killed sheep in that one town¬ 
ship to the value of about $300. 
George L. Brown. 
The Forest and Stream may he obtained from 
any nezvsdealer on order. Ask your dealer to 
supply you regularly. 
