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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. 
Tlie 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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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. 
MIGRATORY GAME BIRDS. 
Sportsme.n throughout the country are express- 
* ing a lively interest in the hearings on bills for 
Federal protection of migratory game birds, 
which were held at Washington on March 6; the 
McLean bill before the Senate committee on 
forest reservations and the protection of game, 
and the Weeks bill before the House committee 
on agriculture. The American Game Protective 
and Propagation Association is backing these 
bills, and through its efforts a large attendance 
at the hearings has been assured. State game 
commissioners and delegates from local and State 
protective associations have been urged to attend, 
and many have signified their intention of doing 
so. This is the first time those in favor of con¬ 
servation have been given an opportunity to ex¬ 
press themselves on tlr's subject with any pos¬ 
sibility of definite action as a result, and we hope 
to be able to report progress. 
The scope of the work the American Associa¬ 
tion plans to carry out is broader than our own 
country. When Congress decides to assist in the 
work of protecting migratory game birds—and 
it is believed that it will do this in time if not 
at the present session—then will Canada be asked 
to co-operate. It is but natural that the Domin¬ 
ion should do this, and furthermore, fewer ob¬ 
stacles will be found in her path when she does. 
There are fewer wildfowlers in Canada than in 
this country, and the birds are there in greatest 
numbers in the season of no shooting. Then, 
too, the Dominion may make regulations cover¬ 
ing her entire territory, and it is probable that 
FOREST AND STREAM 
laws to protect migrants would not be so vigor¬ 
ously opposed as here, where the States’ rights 
cry is raised in opposition to the passage of 
migratory game bird legislation. 
THE lAPAN CURRENT. 
The frequency with which reports have come 
from Alaska recently telling of the remarkable 
mildness of the winter, recalls the study of the 
Arctic region by our veteran British correspond¬ 
ent, J. J. Meyrick. In an able paper printed in 
these columns on Aug. 12 last, Mr. Meyrick re¬ 
viewed the natural history of the Arctic, dwell¬ 
ing with special emphasis on the probability that 
a great change was brought about suddenly, and 
concluded that a reversal of present conditions 
was not only within the possibilities, but may at 
some future time be brought about by man. He 
said: 
Considering the great advances made in civil engineer¬ 
ing during the past two hundred years, and the con¬ 
tinually increasing help afforded by the invention of 
powerful explosives and new kinds of machinery, it 
seems quite possible that, if several nations combined in 
bearing the cost, means might be found in the not 
distant future to widen and deepen Bering Straits and 
thus restore the whole of the Northern Hemisphere to 
its former fertility. 
Dispatches from Washington indicate ground 
for the belief that earthquakes in the Aleutian 
Islands may have brought about changes in the 
bed of the sea, resulting in diverting the Japan 
current, or a part of it, and bringing the warm 
water along the coast of Alaska. The hydro- 
graphic office of the Navy Department at Wash¬ 
ington is watching the situation. Its chief, Capt. 
Harry S. Knapp, said the other day: 
Our investigations indicate the Alaskan climate is 
completely changed, possibly forever. We now think 
the warm water of the Japanese current has been diverted 
to Alaska, causing the unprecedented warm weather. 
We think it possible that the change will be permanent. 
A thorough investigation is being made. Reports are 
being received from experts in Alaska and from ocean 
navigators. 
The situation will be watched with keen in¬ 
terest by an army of men who look back on 
their shooting and fishing excursions in Alaska 
with pleasure tinged with regret that the rigors 
of the winters there were not to their liking. 
Time will tell whether the possible changes 
pointed out by Mr. Dleyrick have been in a 
small way brought about by nature. 
THE SULLIVAN LAW. 
Assemblyman Vert’s liill to amend the Sulli¬ 
van law and permit persons under sixteen years 
of age to take out hunting licenses in New York 
State should he endorsed by everj^ sportsman. 
There are many boys of sixteen years and even 
younger who are skilled hunters. Age is of little 
consequence in this matter, and the shooting ac¬ 
cidents arc not all caused by boys. “Take the 
boy along,’’ is a time-worn phrase among sports¬ 
men, and the law that keeps him out of the woods 
is un-American. The time to train a person to 
become a good sportsman is during his youth. 
But the Sullivan law should be repealed in its 
entirety. The regulation of the sale and posses¬ 
sion of dangerous weapons is a matter which 
should be left to municipalities. The Sullivan law 
has not been enforced, it has not put the slightest 
check on crime, and it has worked a hardship on 
reputable manufacturers and dealers. A few per¬ 
March 9, 1912 ' 
sons have been made to suffer because they have 
been found guilty of technical violations of the 
law, but the criminal classes laugh at it and 
pursue their hazardous calling with their cus¬ 
tomary indifference to the laws of the land. 
A sensible law to regulate the possession of 
dangerous weapons in towns and cities may be 
needed, but a law which places marksmen and 
respectable citizens in the same class with habit¬ 
ual criminals will never become popular. 
There are thousands of wildfowl wintering 
within the borders of New York State. On ac¬ 
count of the extremely cold weather, practically 
every lake and stream in the middle and north¬ 
ern part of the State has become frozen over, 
preventing the ducks from feeding. As soon as 
the Conservation commissioners became aware 
of this fact, protectors were ordered to pur¬ 
chase grain, and give their attention to the feed¬ 
ing of the ducks. On Seneca Lake in the vicinity 
of Geneva there were estimated to be 5,000 wild 
ducks of different species in one small opening 
in the lake. As soon as the grain was spread 
upon the ice, the wild ducks fed upon it' as 
readily as if they were domesticated. The same 
condition existed on Great South Bay, and on 
Cayuga Lake in the vicinity of Cayuga, where 
the ducks have been in the habit of wintering, 
and the situation was met in the same manner 
by the protectors purchasing grain and feeding 
the ducks. In many instances where it was 
known to the commission that there was a large 
flock of pheasants, arrangements have been made 
with a responsible person to see that they are 
fed. 
Recent press dispatches from Salt Lake City 
convey the information that Game and Fish Com¬ 
missioner Chambers will arrange for the libera¬ 
tion of a goodly number of elk in the Sevier 
National Forest in Utah as soon as they are re¬ 
ceived from H. W. Henshaw, of the Biological 
Survey, who is collecting them in the Jackson 
Hole country in Wyoming. The winters in the 
Sevier reservation are not so severe as in Wyo¬ 
ming, and it is believed the elk will find the con¬ 
ditions there favorable. The snowfall is not 
heavy, and there is a large section of compara¬ 
tively low country where the elk can forage in 
winter. 
If press dispatches state the case fairly, the 
actions of a game warden in confiscating aigrettes 
in a crowded department store in Trenton, N. J., 
were peculiar. Instead of placing the proprietor 
under arrest, as the warden was justified in 
doing, the latter is reported to have seized a box 
of aigrettes from a saleswoman, thereby fright¬ 
ening women and children, who mistook him for 
a thief. The police being sent for, the warden 
was taken to the station house and there released. 
A little tact is a valuable possession, but not 
every warden is blessed with it. 
The Academy of Sports of France has award¬ 
ed a gold medal to Admiral Peary in honor of 
his long continued and successful quest of the 
north po'e. He, says the academy in presenting 
the gift, has given the world an admirable lesson 
of physical energy and moral courage in pur¬ 
suing, in the midst of fatigues, sufferings and 
difficulties, the conquest of the north pole. 
