82 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
[Jan. 20, 1912. 
mm 
Our Utopia. 
BY ROBERT E. PINKERTON. 
I KNOW a lake that’s buried in a far-off forest land, 
It’s circled by the pine trees and rimmed with rock and 
sand; 
Mere man has seldom seen it—just the moose and deer 
and bear— 
But some day we are going to build a cabin there. 
This lake is like a mirror when the sun comes up each 
day 
And colors all the islands, each point and shadowed bay. 
From the paint box of a master whose work is ever new. 
And all this wondrous beauty I long to show to you. 
And you and I will live there in a cabin ’neath the pine. 
And round us moaning Norways with sobbing winds will 
whine; 
We’ll tramp the woods together, we’ll float in our birch 
canoe. 
We’ll catch the trout and muskie, and stalk the caribou. 
And from a rock at sundown, we’ll see the shadows fall. 
We’ll watch the stars come twinkling, and learn them 
one and all; 
We’ll hear the cry of night birds as we paddle ’neath 
the moon, 
W’e’ll watch the moose and buck deer come down to 
drink at noon. 
When winter comes, and hungry wolves, across the lake 
at night, 
By howling, trace the pathway of frightened deer in 
flight. 
We’ll gather ’bout the glowing stove—a pipe, a book, 
content— 
With ne’er a thought of cities where wasted years were 
spent. 
Anglers’ Club of New York. 
The annual meeting of the Anglers’ Club of 
New York was held at the Hotel Navarre on 
Jan. 9, an exceptionally large number of the 
members attending. The election of officers for 
the current year resulted as follows; President, 
Jason G. Lamison; Vice-President, Edward 
Farnham Todd; Secretary, A. B. Hubbell; 
Treasurer, Harry Friedman; Directors, the above 
officers and Perry D. Frazer, Harold G. Hender¬ 
son, John L. Kirk, George M. L. LaBranche, 
Robert B. Lawrence, Nathaniel S. Smith and 
Tobias A. Wright. The members of the vari¬ 
ous committees were also elected, the chairmen 
being: Admissions, A. R. Hanners; Tourna¬ 
ment, Walter McGuckin; Arrangements, William 
C. Metcalfe; Nominations, Jason G. Lamison. 
Under the new constitution of the club this 
will be the only business meeting of the year, 
as all business will hereafter be transacted by 
the board of directors and the committees which 
will report to the latter, hut monthly dinners wi 1 
be arranged as heretofore, each of which will 
have some special feature, such as a debate be¬ 
tween selected members on the merits of dif¬ 
ferent methods of fishing; addresses by members 
and others on fishing and outdoor topics; fishing 
experiences of members and friends; stereopti- 
can views, etc., as may seem most popular on 
trial. 
After the meeting dinner was served to about 
eighty-five members and guests, followed by 
speaking under the able guidance of Julius H. 
Seymour as toastmaster. The speakers were 
W. S. Champ on his experiences in the arctic 
regions as head of the Baldwin relief expedition; 
W. E. Coffin, on pipe smokers; Gifford Pinchot, 
who told two Catalina fish stories; Dan Beard, 
on outdoor life, and Commodore Gregory, on a 
bag of snipe and a pocket flask. The retiring 
president, Mr. LaBranche, was then presented 
with a loving cup on behalf of the club by the 
chairman of the dinner committee, E. M. Gill, 
and accepted it in a very well chosen and really 
impromptu reply, as it came to him as a com¬ 
plete surprise. 
The meeting then adjourned to the adjoining 
room for the pictures which closed the enter¬ 
tainment. These consisted of lantern slides from 
photographs and comments thereon, by W. H. 
Miller, E. F. Todd, E. M. Brunn, R. J. Held and 
G. M. L. LaBranche, of the club, of fishing scenes 
and experiences, and slides and moving pictures, 
the latter being the first ever taken in the ex¬ 
treme North, by A. A. Fiala, when on the 
Ziegler polar expedition, Mr. Fiala also giving a 
very instructive explanation of his work. These 
were followed by motion picture films showing 
fishing in various foreign countries, after which 
the company broke up with many thanks to the 
dinner committee for a most enjoyable evening. 
Public Fishing Rights. 
Recent decisions in the courts concerning the 
rights of riparian owners threaten to arouse no 
little controversy, says Land and Water. It is 
not our intention to discuss the pros and cons 
of the cases referred to, but to call attention to 
various broad issues which are often over¬ 
looked. Earnest advocates of what are loose¬ 
ly termed “public rights’’ tells us that the de¬ 
cision of the Law Lords means that no one has 
any right to fish on any river in these islands 
if the owner objects. 
Legally that seems c^orrect enough, but there 
are any number of things the law does not allow 
if it were strictly enforced, but no one troubles 
to take proceedings except to prevent a nuis¬ 
ance or establish a right. So it is with fishing 
in our rivers. No riparian owner takes action 
unless his undoubted rights are encroached on 
or fishermen use his waters in such numbers 
that he is seriously incommoded. It is claimed 
by some that anyone should have the right to 
fish when and where he likes. We are told that 
thousands of anglers all over the country 
would hail such a right with joy. As soon as 
we begin to look into the matter, however, we 
find that the fisherman would suffer rather than 
benefit. We are continually hearing complaints 
that the fish in our streams are diminishing 
owing to pollution by factory discharges and 
town drainage and the increase in the number 
of anglers. The supply is maintained largely 
by restocking and strictly enforced regulations 
concerning close times, netting, and the size 
of fish that may be taken. This being so, who 
would take the trouble and expense to obtain 
fresh stock and prosecute breakers of the law 
if it merely meant he was benefiting others 
more than himself? If the owner of the banks 
had no more right to fish than anyone else, 
he would not go to the expense of keeping an 
efficient watch over the fishing waters; in fact, 
it would be unnecessary, as poaching would 
cease to exist. 
Whatever way we look at it, “public rights” 
in this connection of fishing mean anarchy pure 
and simple. Many of those' anxious to do 
away with riparian ownership persuade them¬ 
selves that they are acting in the interests of 
the “working man” against the “idle rich” or 
the “plutocrat.” As a matter of fact, many 
thousands of working men are really riparian 
owners themselves. There are any number of 
angling clubs whose members consist exclu¬ 
sively of men of moderate or very small means. 
These associations rent the fishing rights and 
often stock their own waters. Thanks to their 
small subscription, they are able to count on 
a certain amount of sport; but if anyone is to 
have the right to fish where he chooses, these 
workingmen anglers will be hit as hard as the 
rich salmon-fisher. 
It may be said that the fishing rights would 
be vested in the local authorities, who would 
grant licenses to all who applied for them. That 
does not overcome the difficulty. Either the 
fee for the license would be so very small that 
anybody could afford one, or it would be 
sufficiently high to shut out the poor man alto¬ 
gether. In the first case we have a state of 
anarchy again; in the second we merely substi¬ 
tute public for private ownership. The private 
owner asserts his rights if he thinks fit, in which 
case he takes steps to protect his property, or 
he allows the public to fish without hindrance. 
If the local authorities granted license for ang¬ 
ling they would have to prevent unauthorized 
persons from enjoying any sport. There are 
only two alternatives—regulation or anarchy. 
Angling would soon cease to be a 'sport in the 
British Isles if any man had the right to fish 
where he pleases without let or hindrance; so 
anglers would not benefit if that were the law. 
And if public ownership took the place of 
private rights, there would be so many red-tape 
regulations that, in all probability, angling 
would be far less popular than it is at the 
present time. If the rights of riparian owners 
were really a menace to sport, the number of 
cases in the courts would be infinitely greater 
than it is, for the landowner only enforces his 
claims when something really serious is at 
stake. 
Not on His Map. 
In a northern seaport town there is a wealthy 
but illiterate man who owns many fishing 
vessels and follows their course over the seas 
by aid of a large atlas and a lo-horsepower 
magnifying glass. “I’ve just had a letter,” he 
said to a neighbor, “from one of my captains, 
and he tells me he’s been in a fearful storm. 
I’ll read you what he says: 
“ ‘The waves rose like mountains. We were 
driven before the wind to the danger of our 
lives and put into great jeopardy.’ 
“What I want to know,” said the shipowner, 
“is, where is Great Jeopardy? It’s somewhere 
in the Mediterranean, but I can’t find it on this 
map anywhere.”—Marine Journal. 
All the hsh lams of the United States and 
Canada, revised to date and now in force, are 
given in the Game Laws in Brief. See adv. 
