942 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
[Dec. 30, 1911. 
Published Weekly by the 
Forest and Stream Publishing Company, 
127 Franklin Street, New York. 
Edward C. Locke, President, 
Charles B. Reynolds, Secretary, 
S. J. Gibson, Treasurer. 
CORRESPONDENCE. 
The Forest and Stream is the recognized medium of 
entertainment, instruction and information between Amer¬ 
ican sportsmen. The editors invite communications on 
the subjects to which its pages are devoted. Anonymous 
communications will not be regarded. The editors are 
not responsible for the views of correspondents. 
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six months. Subscriptions may begin at any time. 
Remit by express money-order, registered letter, money- 
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The paper may be obtained of newsdealers throughout 
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Subscription and Sales Agents—London: Davies & Co., 
1 Finch Lane; Sampson, Low & Co. Paris: Brentano’s. 
ADVERTISEMENTS. 
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THE OBJECT OF THIS JOURNAL 
will be to studiously promote a healthful in¬ 
terest in outdoor recreation, and to cultivate 
a refined taste for natural objects. 
—Forest and Stream, Aug. 14, 1873. 
We wish you all a happy and successful New 
Year. 
PROGRESS. 
There are indications of a healthy reaction in 
Massachusetts in favor of real game protection. 
That State has suffered severely from the rav¬ 
ages of moths and other destructive insects. 
These losses have been keenly felt by farmers 
and fruit growers, and they are ready and eager 
to assist the sportsmen in overcoming sentiment 
and putting a stop to one of the worst abuses 
confronting protectionists—the liberty allowed 
dogs and cats. It is now proposed to restrict 
the activities of these animals, and if this be 
brought about, a long step will have been taken 
in game and song bird protection. 
The Massachusetts Fish and Game Protective 
Association, at its annual meeting, endorsed the 
Bayne bill, which has already worked well in 
New York State, and the committee which was 
appointed to present such a bill to the Legisla¬ 
ture and work for its passage, has for its chair¬ 
man George H. Graham, of the Game Commis¬ 
sion, a man who has an excellent record for 
work accomplished along this line. 
At the meeting referred to a great deal was 
said about closing the markets to game in order 
to stop the activities of market gunners, but 
nothing, apparently, concerning the wholesale 
killing of wildfowl on the water by so-called 
sportsmen of the eastern part of the State. This 
is a matter that should be disposed of this winter 
—a thing that is a disgrace to any State. 
BUCKS ONLY. 
Opposed to the estimate that 40,000 persons 
went deer hunting in Michigan during the deer 
season is the summary sent out by State Game 
Warden Oates, who says the number of deer 
killed was about 12,000. Reports of deputies 
show that about 4,500 deer were shipped home 
by hunters in the Upper Peninsula alone, the 
greatest number going to points within the State, 
as a comparatively small number of non-residents 
took part in the hunt. Of the number known to 
have been killed, the wardens say that about 80 
per cent, were does. “This,” says Mr. Oates, 
“shows the necessity of protecting the female 
deer if we are to preserve the game, but there 
is a further reason why the law should be amend¬ 
ed to prohibit the killing of deer without horns, 
and that is as a means of protecting hunters. If 
the careless shooter has to wait until he can de¬ 
termine whether his quarry has horns, he will 
also ascertain whether it is a deer or a man he 
is about to kill. Michigan sportsmen are in favor 
of this plan, according to letters I am receiving.” 
Michigan sportsmen should be in favor of this 
prohibition, and to a man at that. If there were 
no other reason, the history of recent deer sea¬ 
sons furnishes abundant testimony to show that 
the deer supply will not last forever under the 
present arrangement. No man ever feels proud 
of bagging a doe or a fawn. If there is urgent 
need of meat for food, there is sufficient excuse 
in killing a doe where deer are plentiful, but in 
places where there are bucks to be had, there is 
no reason why does should be taken. 
That a bucks-with-horns-only law will save the 
life of many sportsmen is conceded, and this is 
a good, sound argument in favor of the passage 
of laws of this sort in Michigan and elsewhere. 
There are patient fishermen to be seen along 
the Seine and the Hudson every day. In the 
famous French river it is said the actual catch¬ 
ing of a fish of any sort is an event to be dis¬ 
cussed for many days afterward. In the Hud¬ 
son, in Manhattan, and its environs, fish are not 
so scarce as that, even to-day, although pollution, 
blasting and other causes have depleted the one¬ 
time abundant supply. But in the late autumn 
and early winter the pier and point anglers have 
their innings with the abundant and toothsome 
frostfish, or as it is commonly known, the tom- 
cod. Tramp along the trail the Palisade Park 
commissioners have built from old Fort Lee to 
Alpine early on a holiday and see the fun. Day¬ 
light is not too early to find every favorable rock 
and boat landing occupied by men of all ages 
and every known calling, and darkness finds 
many of them still reaping a harvest of goodly 
panfish against the time when effort and patience 
are not abundantly rewarded. So far this winter 
there has been no floating ice in the river, and 
fishing, while cold work to all save those who 
are inured to winter winds, has in a way been 
favored. Then there are the cheerful driftwood 
fires and the fraternizing of the fishermen, the 
noon siestas and the long tramp to and from the 
ferry—all to be remembered with pleasure by 
men who count their vacations in hours, not 
weeks. 
* 
At the transfer points in Jersey City and Man¬ 
hattan, where small armies of foreigners are to 
he seen every few days, the luggage carried is 
much alike. The bundle is most prominent, fol¬ 
lowed by a receptacle by courtesy called a suit- 
cease, then affairs resembling small trunks, and 
finally guns. Guns in canvas cases, in news¬ 
papers, in gunnysacks. Always in a motley group 
of this sort there will be several persons carry¬ 
ing guns. Always, too, on such occasions, the 
question occurs to one who sees the little army 
pass, Where are the wardens? If the steamship 
and railway people obey the laws of the States, 
why are these guns admitted? Among the col¬ 
lection are many weapons that have or will deci¬ 
mate the song bird throng, for all is meat that 
comes to this pot. 
»S 
There was a roundup of jackrabbits in 
the vicinity of Garden City, Kan., last week, 
in which a great number of sportsmen and 
farmers took part, and at the end of the day 
more than a thousand jacks were shipped to 
Topeka and distributed among the poor people 
in time for their Christmas dinners. Alive, the 
jackrabbit is a destroyer of many growing things. 
Dressed and left for a day or two to freeze, he 
is not to be despised as food, although opinions 
differ on this point. However, even a jack- 
rabbit dinner is better than none at all, and these 
drives rid the agricultural districts of a pest 
and furnish cheap food to a great many deserv¬ 
ing people to whom the high cost of living is 
a serious problem, particularly in winter. 
r. 
It is not too early to take out shooting licenses 
for 1912; that is, in States where this may be 
done at any time. In some States the 1912 
licenses were sent out by the Game Commis¬ 
sions to county clerks about Dec. 15, in order 
that all early applications may be filled. And 
there are numerous careful men who clear up 
all their obligations and start the new year with 
a clean slate — a very praiseworthy plan. 
* 
An important work has been done during the 
past month, as is the custom in early winter, 
along the Chesapeake and Ohio canal between 
Washington and Cumberland. Thousands of 
game and coarse fish were taken in seines and 
transferred from the canal to the Potomac River 
before the water in the canal was turned off. 
The Federal Fish Commission and various local 
officials performed the work. 
*? 
Our special Southern number will be issued 
next Saturday. It will contain ai number of 
articles on shooting and fishing in the South of 
interest to sportsmen generally and of special 
import to those who are about to turn South¬ 
ward for a vacation while winter holds sway in 
the North. The cover, in colors, is from a paint¬ 
ing by Lynn Bogue Hunt. 
*» 
Pennsylvania big-game hunters bagged sixty 
bears and 192 deer during the open season in 
that State. But of greater importance is her 
record of no cases of killing men in mistake for 
game. The small game season closes with the 
sun to-night. 
v 
Game Protector Cleveland Wheaton, of 
Amsterdam, was sent into the Adirondacks three 
weeks ago to investigate a game law violation. 
Nothing was heard from him for ten days, and 
Protector E. J. Birch was sent to ascertain his 
fate. 
