766 
FOREST AND STREAM 
Published Weekly by the 
Forest and Stream Publishing Company 
Chas. A. Hazen, President Charles L. Wise, Treasurer 
W. G. Beecroft, Secretary Russell A. Lewis, Gen. Mgr, 
22 Thames Street, New York. 
CORRESPONDENCE:—Forest and Stream is the re¬ 
cognized medium of entertainment, instruction and in¬ 
formation between American sportsmen. The editors 
invite communications on the subjects to which its pages 
are devoted, but, of course, are not responsible for the 
views of correspondents. Anonymous communications 
cannot be regarded. 
SUBSCRIPTIONS: $3 a year; $1.50 for six months; 
10 cents a copy. Canadian, $4 a year; foreign, $4.50 a year. 
This paper may be obtained of newsdealers throughout 
the United States, Canada and Great Britain. Foreign 
Subscriptions and Sales Agents—London: Davies & Co., 
1 Finch Lane; Sampson, Low & Co. Paris: Brentano’s. 
Entered in New York Post Office as Second class matter. 
FOREST FIRES IN QUEBEC. 
Early spring forest fires are not usually 
serious, but the Province of Quebec has been 
undergoing a rather serious experience in this 
particular for the past two weeks. The weather 
for a month or more past has been intensely dry, 
and in consequence the ground in the timber 
districts needed only a match to start a serious 
■conflagration. The carelessness of settlers in one 
or two cases, and in other cases transient light¬ 
ning storms did the work, and north of Ottawa 
in the Maniwaki district a number of dangerous 
fires swept over the country. 
Fortunately the districts burnt over contained 
for the most part only second growth timber, and 
only a little valuable lumber was destroyed. A 
heavy rain storm which prevailed on Friday, May 
22 put out some of the fires, and stopped the ad¬ 
vance of others, but if more rain does not come 
soon, there is fear that the fires will break out 
again. The largest number reported were to the 
northwest of Maniwaki along the Desert and 
Eagle rivers, although other portions of the Pro¬ 
vince also suffered. 
The recurrence of these fires every year has 
led to a renewal of the protest against the care¬ 
less practice of lumbermen who leave the woods 
full of slashings and debris and legislative action 
may be taken to enforce stricter regulations. The 
carelessness of settlers in burning over their 
lands is also a prolific cause of these altogether 
unnecessary but ruinous fires. American clubs 
whose preserves are located in the northern part 
of the Province of Quebec have escaped damage 
to their buildings and in most cases the fires did 
not touch the lakes adjacent to such preserves, 
but the clubs themselves are beginning to take 
notice of the constant danger to which they are 
exposed, and while they consider themselves in 
a way the guests of the Province, and the re¬ 
cipients of its courtesies, they also feel that they 
are property owners and contributors to the pros¬ 
perity of the country, and have rights which 
should be protected. The lumber companies, to 
their credit be it said, have been spending money 
liberally in sending forces .of men into the woods 
to check the fires, but their efforts at best are 
puny, once these conflagrations get under way. 
MIGRATORY BIRD LAW INVALID. 
Advices received recently from Washington 
by the American Game Protective Association 
state that Judge Jacob Trieber, of the United 
States District Court, sitting at Jonesboro, Ark., 
decided that the recently enacted Federal law 
for the protection of migratory birds is uncon¬ 
stitutional. 
William S. Haskell, counsel for the associa¬ 
tion, who made all of the arguments on the 
constitutional questions involved in the proposed 
legislation before the committees of Congress, 
said regarding this: 
“While the decision has not been received, it 
is understood that it holds that the Constitution 
gives no power to the Federal Government for 
the enactment of such legislation; that migratory 
birds, when within a State, belong to that State, 
and that the State, acting as trustee for its peo¬ 
ple, has the sole right to control their taking. 
“The decision is in the nature of a disappoint¬ 
ment to the thousands in this country—sports¬ 
men, farmers, conservationists—who look upon 
the new law as the greatest forward step ever 
taken in this country toward stopping the merci¬ 
less slaughter of its wild life that has been 
going on unchecked since the nation’s birth. 
“It is to be remembered, however, that the 
decision is binding only in the district in which 
it has been made. In every other part of the 
United States the law is just as much in effect 
as ever, and there is no doubt but the authori¬ 
ties at Washington will enforce it vigorously. 
It is altogether possible, of course, that another 
Federal judge may uphold the constitutionality 
of the law. The whole thing simmers down to 
the fact that the matter at issue will not be 
definitely settled until the Supreme Court of 
the United States has passed upon it. 
“The most significant sentence in the opinion 
is: ‘The genius and character of the whole Gov¬ 
ernment seem to be that its action is to be ap¬ 
plied to all the external concerns of the nation, 
and to those internal concerns which affect the 
States generally, but not to those which are com¬ 
pletely within a particular State, which do not 
affect other States, and with which it is not 
necessary to interfere, for the purpose of exe¬ 
cuting some of the general powers of the Gov¬ 
ernment.’ 
“Applying the above definition to the present 
situation, it is easily seen that the protection of 
migratory birds affects the States generally, and 
that no one State has any interest superior to 
that of any other, for these birds are here to¬ 
day and there to-morrow.” 
S. P. C. A. OFFERS PRIZES. 
At the monthly meeting of the directors of the 
Massachusetts Society for the Prevention of 
Cruelty to Animals lately Pres. Rowley announc¬ 
ed that 5,000 placards, offering prizes for evi¬ 
dence by which the society shall convict per¬ 
sons of violations of laws of Massachusetts by 
killing any insect-eating bird or taking eggs from 
its nest, were distributed among the agents and 
posted in all sections of the State, and that efforts 
are being made to observe National Horse Day 
throughout Massachusetts by the sale and distri¬ 
bution of special tags and buttons. 
TRANSCONTINENTAL SCHEDULE. 
Editor Forest and Stream-. 
Anent the query of “Subscriber” in this week’s 
issue in reference to the game and fish land of 
New Ontario—particularly east and west from 
Cochrane—I am enclosing the only schedule that 
I know to be issued on the G. T. P. or Trans¬ 
continental. 
The road is still in the hands of the contrac¬ 
tors and this schedule is run by them for those 
who travel east and west from Cochrane. 
Say to “Subscriber” that this fish and game 
land, now made accessible by the Transcontin¬ 
ental is absolutely virgin. I do know it is the 
heart of the moose country, and that it is the 
home of all kinds of speckled trout. 
I went to Moose Factory in 1910 via Frederick 
House and Abibibi rivers and never knew what 
game and fish really meant until that trip. 
“Subscriber” may acquire some later informa¬ 
tion by getting in touch with A. Kilpatrick, Supt. 
Construction, Cochrane, Ontario. 
Hanover, Pa., May 8, 1914. 
THE FISHERMAN. 
A many men there be that go, 
Free booted, wandering to and fro 
Athwart God’s open, sun kissed ways, 
Their hearts o’erbrimming with the praise 
Of all the wilding things that are 
Beneath the steadfast sun and star; 
And foremost of this roving clan 
I love the ardent fisherman! 
He carries still within his breast 
An incommunicable zest 
A ferver that may never tire, 
A flame unwavering, a desire 
Unquenchable as is the dawn, 
That leads him on and ever on; 
And though he’s fain of spoil, at root 
His primal passion is pursuit! 
His pulses throb and thrill to feel 
The vibrant whirring of his reel; 
Elation fills him when he spies 
Upon his line the gleaming prize; 
Yet when the sunset embers burn 
Low in the twilight’s purple urn, 
And he has no reward to show, 
Is he dark browed and doleful? No! 
Another day, another hour, 
Fortune may yield her shining shower! 
Still in his bosom bides the lure 
As fixed as is the cynosure. 
It is the striving, not the gain, 
That lifts us to the loftiest plane; 
The quest, although we miss the goal, 
That stays the fibre of the soul! 
And so, whate’er his class or clan, 
I love the ardent fisherman! 
—Clinton Scollard in New York Sun. 
