174 
FOREST AND STREAM 
Aug. io, 1912 
Why, Mr. Burnham, Why? 
Hudson, N. Y., July 26.— Editor Forest and 
Stream: From what your paper has said, as well as 
from what 1 saw at the committee hearing, 
Mr. John B. Burnham, formerly chief game 
protector of this State, and now the responsible 
head of a society for game protection, was the 
expert on the committee that produced the new 
uniform fish and game law. This being so, it 
is up to Mr. Burnham to enlighten the great 
republic of sport fishermen on at least two little 
matters: 
Why was the legal length of trout, that stood 
at seven inches in one of the original drafts of 
the bill, changed back to six inches? Who asked 
for the change and what influenced the commit¬ 
tee to go back on its original judgment? 
Why was there cut out of the bill just before 
its final passage these words referring to the 
brook trout: “They may be taken from streams 
only between the hours of 4 o’clock in the morn¬ 
ing and 9 o’clock in the evening.” Why was 
this paragraph added anyway, and who asked to 
have it stricken out? 
An explanation might be illuminating as in¬ 
dicating just how a fishing law is made. 
T. Urtelle. 
Editor Forest and Stream: 
I am very glad to furnish the information 
requested by your correspondent relative to the 
changes made in the brook trout section, as pre¬ 
pared by the game law revision committee last 
winter. 
Your correspondent asks what influenced the 
committee to go back on its original judgment 
that seven inches is a more suitable minimum 
length for trout than six inches. As one of the 
committee I would say that the judgment of the 
committee has not changed, and that we still be¬ 
lieve that seven inches is the proper minimum 
limit for taking brook trout. Unfortunately, the 
revision committee did not have its way in this 
matter. 
The bill, after introduction in the State 
Legislature in the usual course of affairs, went 
to the forest, fish and game committee of the 
Senate and the forestry, fisheries and game com¬ 
mittee of the Assembly, and was there amended 
both with respect to the seven inch limit and 
also by striking out the sentence prohibiting 
night fishing between the hours of 9 in the eve¬ 
ning and 4 in the morning. The revision com¬ 
mittee was aware of both of these amendments, 
but the power to make them lay In the Legis¬ 
lature and our argument did not prevail. 
The reason why the sentence prohibiting 
night fishing was put in our revision was to make 
the game law more easy of enforcement against 
violators who are more apt to carry on their 
illegal practices on trout brooks under cover of 
darkness than in daylight. 
John B. Burnham, 
President American Game Protective and 
Propagation Association. 
Hunting in California. 
BY GOLDEN GATE. 
The Porterville Fish and Game Protective 
Association is erecting a large club house on 
the Tule Indian Reservation, where a site was 
given them by the Government. This association 
has appointed C A. Buswell, J. E. Frame and 
W. F. Harvey to choose dates and make ar¬ 
rangements for a series of mass meetings to be 
held in Tulare county to discuss the game pro¬ 
tection question. D. H. Hoen, the county game 
warden and A. D Ferguson, the district deputy, 
will assist in this work. It is realized that 
changes in the game laws are badly needed, and 
through these meetings it is hoped that the opin¬ 
ions of the people interested can be secured. 
Most of the bucks now being killed in the 
game districts of the State where deer hunting 
is in order are still in the velvet, and many 
sportsmen are waiting until later in the season 
New York City, Aug. 1. — Editor Forest and 
Stream: In the early days of the eighteenth cen¬ 
tury, Pope wrote his “Essay on Criticism,” 
from which poem is taken a stanza to empha¬ 
size that which is to follow: 
“By false learning is good sense disgraced 
Some are blinded by the maze of schools, 
And some made coxcombs nature meant for fools; 
In search of wit they lost their common sense, 
And then turned critics in their self-defense.” 
During the interval of more than two hun¬ 
dred years man has not altered in characteris¬ 
tics, and this retentive feature is often displayed 
in the columns of Forest and Stream, and 
other papers that tolerate free writers. 
The time never was when that American 
principle—free speech, free press and free men 
-—has been more thoroughly exemplified than 
during recent years. Banks of type and 
columns of space are at the service of him 
whom it may concern to write—subject not 
dictated—provided the editor of his paper is 
not committed, and there are writers without 
number who think they are inspired to impart 
knowledge and instruct their neighbors, and 
they go at it like a woman chopping wood— 
with more effect than capability or tact. 
It is also true that a percentage of 
sportsmen do not read Forest and Stream, 
nor any other paper, to their edification, only 
retaining that which is meat to their individu- 
ality, omitting thought of the vital need of 
sportsmanship. Any scheme that promises 
change, regardless of work or quality, will win 
advocates. 
To the readers of Forest and Stream, 
there is import in the agitation of the use of 
the dry-fly, fittingly introduced in England over 
fifty years ago, and encouraged in America by 
many of our well known anglers, chief among 
whom stands that graceful and successful 
writer and sportsman, Mr. George M. L. La 
Branche. 
Please permit me to infringe on your space 
to quote from Mr. Bisbee’s letter of July 20, in 
which he writes: 
“A,s you suggest what we need in this coun¬ 
try is a fly-tier or two who can exactly or ap¬ 
proximately imitate the actual flies found upon 
our waters upon which trout habitually feed. 
That man may justly be termed the Amer- 
before going on their annual hunting trip. The 
slaughter this year has been very heavy and 
deer are reported to be plentiful in almost all 
of the mountain sections. L. Bowes and A 1 Korn 
have returned from a trip thirty miles east of 
Willetts where the limit was secured in a couple 
of days. This section is seldom visited and 
is a veritable hunters’ paradise. In addition to 
deer, bear and mountain lions are to be found 
in numbers. During the stay of these hunters in 
this section they found eleven carcasses of deer, 
mute evidence of the heavy destruction of game 
by predatory animals. 
ican Halford and save us from a great deal 
more of the hysterical babbling that is the 
present mode about the dry-fly in America— 
‘practical’ or otherwise. Mr. La Branche, a 
most graceful fashioned person, gyrates hor¬ 
ribly upon the tournament platform.” 
Now, why these pyrotechnic tactics so 
flamingly announced by Mr. Bisbee? To use 
his statement in opening his article, written 
to Forest and Stream from Ripogenus Lake, 
“in the interest of a little accuracy,” why not 
apply this to the above quotation? 
Truth comes by insinuation, impression 
and enlightenment, not by gyroidal force. 
Does Mr. Bisbee suppose his mere assertion 
must be truth, or are we to take his statement 
a “little accuracy” literally? Does he believe 
that the sportsmen of America have been in a 
daze or whipping the streams of dreamland to 
bite at such gyratic bait? 
The writer of this letter bears no malice 
toward Ralph Bisbee, nor would he malign 
anyone. If Mr. Bisbee had any acquaintance 
with America’s most noted and recognized 
angler, he would never have made such an as¬ 
sertion. His conscience—that faculty that dis¬ 
tinguishes between right and wrong and directs 
the sagacity of man along channels for the pro¬ 
duction of “the greatest good to the greatest 
number”—would forbid it. 
Now to conclude in the interest of a “little 
accuracy.” Is the photograph of the “corpulent 
gentleman” shown with the article, a proper 
representation of the outfit required by a real 
dry-fly angler? Please note the fly rod with a 
multiplying reel—with creel and net strapped 
to him, alongside a canoe facing a lake—is this 
not an incongruous bait-fishing outfit? 
G. A. 
New York City, Aug. 5. — Editor Forest and 
Stream: What might “Olive Dun” not have said 
had he thought I was coward enough—-notwith¬ 
standing the “ice cold assurance” he endows me 
with—to take refuge behind a group of my 
friends in the face of an attack? If this gentle¬ 
man considers my “babbling” offensive to him, 
let him vent his spleen upon these gentlemen who 
are responsible for it — misguided anglers who 
thought I knew something of the art of dry-fly 
fishing, and who insisted that my knowledge 
would be of value to others. What little I think 
I know really might he of value if I were pos- 
