FOREST AND 
STREAM 
286 
Elastic Game Laws 
T HE notable advances already made in giv¬ 
ing protection to wild life leave us still 
far from having met the swiftly-changing 
conditions which time brings about. Many of 
our laws are good enough, but through inade¬ 
quate appropriations or political influences they 
are often not enforced, so that we might almost 
as well have no laws at all. 
In the last issue of Forest and Stream, Hon. 
E. G. Whitaker suggests for New York State— 
in view of the approaching constitutional con¬ 
vention—a tentative amendment to the constitu¬ 
tion, providing for the establishment of a Fish 
and Game Commission. To this Commission, 
Judge Whitaker suggests, should be given pow¬ 
ers “to enact, repeal and amend laws prohibit¬ 
ing or regulating the killing of wild animals, 
wild birds, the taking and catching of fish and 
shell-fish” and to prescribe the times within 
which game and fish may be had in possession. 
In other words, this Commission should be 
authorized to put in operation game laws which 
shall be elastic—and may readily be adapted to 
changing conditions. 
Judge Whitaker’s recommendations and the 
draft of his amendment deserve most thoughtful 
consideration. The subject has already been dis¬ 
cussed by some of our best sportsmen. In its 
report for 1912 the Game Preservation Commit¬ 
tee of the Boone and Cockett Club declared that 
just such Commissions for the preservation of 
game should be created and should be invested 
with elastic powers and full responsibilities. 
“These Commissions should have full authority 
to make or unmake, lengthen or shorten, close 
seasons, to increase or decrease bag-limits; to 
set aside and entirely prohibit shooting on areas 
of land or water necessary for feeding grounds 
of wild fowl, shore birds, game birds or ani¬ 
mals; to establish rest days on which neither 
game nor waterfowl can be disturbed; in fact, 
full and complete powers to establish such con¬ 
stitutional regulations or restrictions at any time 
or in any section independently, as varying and 
changing conditions may require, adequately to 
conserve the game.” The recommendation then 
made was endorsed by the Club. The Commit¬ 
tee repeated these suggestions in its report for 
1915, emphasizing especially “its recommendation 
that game laws should be made flexible and en¬ 
trusted to responsible Commissions with powers to 
adapt them immediately to changing conditions.” 
This is essentially the practice, if we are not 
mistaken, in Canada, where by an order in coun¬ 
cil the game laws may be changed without wait¬ 
ing for legislative delays. 
The principle was recognized by Congress, 
when it passed a territorial game law giving the 
Secretary of Agriculture the power to prescribe 
close seasons for large game, and again when it 
enacted the Migratory Bird Law, which had a 
similar provision. 
It is gratiiying to read independent suggestions 
on the point from the Supreme Court bench of 
New York. Their author has long been a 
sportsman and the earnest and continued work- 
done for many years by his father before him 
in behalf of wild life on Long Island is still re¬ 
membered by the older generation of sportsmen. 
Judge Whitaker’s suggestion deserves full con¬ 
sideration and prompt support by the sportsmen 
of New \ ork State. In this matter New York 
has now an opportunity to lead the way, soon 
to be followed, it may be hoped, by all her 
sister States. 
Nature Close to Town 
T HE fishing and camping season is at hand. 
The spirit that leads people to live near 
to nature may be the survival of primi¬ 
tive instinct, but it is a spirit to be encouraged 
and kept alive, for its cultivation means better 
health, clearer brain and cleaner living. Do 
not allow yourself to think — or rather do 
not allow your friend and neighbor to har¬ 
bor the delusion, for every reader of Forest 
and Stream has already learned differently—that 
a long purse, ample means and abundant time are 
prerequisites of summer camping trips. By set¬ 
ting up your modest tent and rustic lares and 
penates in a grove or on a stream almost around 
the corner from any community, you can camp 
just as truly and enjoy the same experience that 
the wildest hiker into the extreme wilderness 
gains. 
Of course it is something to be able to locate 
yourself in a region where fish are plentiful; 
where you have no neighbor, and where the wil¬ 
derness looms large. If you cannot do all this, 
there is no earthly reason why you should de¬ 
prive yourself of the joys of outdoor life. If 
the fish are scarce, then so much greater is the 
glory and the excitement of catching them. If 
you cannot get far enough away to hear the 
owls hoot, the loons wail or the wolves howl_ 
and they howl but little in summer—you can at 
least be happy near town. 
The bright glint of the rising sun over the 
dewy landscape is just as beautiful, the song of 
the white throat or the thrush is as melodious, 
and the soft murmur of the wind on the tent 
just as soothing. So also, pursuing your lessons 
as amateur camp cook, you can get just as much 
smoke into your eyes and burn your fingers as 
distressingly as in the real wilderness. The only 
disadvantage here is that you have not got the 
whole wilderness to swear in, safe beyond hear¬ 
ing, but at that the observance of the decent re¬ 
quirements of civilization will not spoil the 
summer outing. 
Forest Fires 
T HE daily papers in widely scattered parts 
of the country will soon begin to report 
'forest fires. It may be that with a 
comparatively humid or wet spring the fire sea¬ 
son will be delayed, but that it will occur some 
time before fall is certain. Nine out of ten of 
the fires which destroy valuable property and 
natural resources are the result of carelessness 
and entirely avoidable. It is regrettable that the 
reports of the state fire wardens and rangers too 
often contain the line “started by campers.” 
The camper may not be to blame as often as 
the public is given to believe, but the way for 
the camper to get rid of his bad reputation in 
this particular is to prove himself a woodsman 
by putting out all the fires he starts, and being 
careful not to toss matches or half-burned cigars 
or cigarettes along trails through the woods. 
The man who by his own acts of omission or 
commission lets a fire get beyond his control is 
only a little better than the individual who 
points firearms at people or shoots at some mov¬ 
ing object in the woods without knowing at 
what he is aiming. Perhaps both in some future 
state will get more fire than they need. At 
least they will if the expressed wishes of those 
who suffer by reason of their misdeeds mean 
anything. 
Is the Spirt of Adventure Dead? 
I N another column a valued correspondent has 
something to say about the seeming indiffer¬ 
ence that exists nowadays toward trips into 
the comparatively unknown regions of this con¬ 
tinent. His view is that the present generation 
of young men is missing great opportunities 
both of pleasure and knowledge by sticking to 
the beaten trails rather than striking out into 
the paths that have been opened for them by 
hardier explorers and sportsmen. 
Perhaps there is something in this, although 
when it comes to scientific exploration and in¬ 
vestigation, the unknown places of the world are 
being thoroughly ransacked. The American Mu¬ 
seum of Natural History in New York alone has 
a staff of young scientists who are scattered all 
over the world collecting material and prying 
into the mysterious, and this holds true also 
with other institutions of note. But whatever 
the reason for the stay-at-home spirit, it is true 
that there are marvelous places to visit on this 
continent—regions where the foot of mar: has 
trod seldom, if at all, and vast sections where 
the game and other wild life is as abundant as 
in the days before the white man touched these 
shores. 
Time to Protect the Moose 
A stage where it must be considered seri¬ 
ously is the better protection of the larg¬ 
est game animal on the North American con¬ 
tinent—the moose. Maine even now is face to 
face with the problem of a closed season. The 
legislature of that state so far has refused to 
enact laws suggested by the fish and game 
authorities favoring a closed period, but it* is 
stating only the truth to say that if Maine does 
not do something of this kind, her reputation as 
a state for moose hunting will soon be nothing 
more than tradition. 
Strangely enough, the big province of New 
Brunswick, adjoining Maine, reports moose and 
caribou more plentiful than ever, although the 
number of moose killed in that province in 1914 
is stated officially to have been 1.737—which, of 
course is very much under the mark—while 231 
caribou were brought in by licensed hunters. 
The new northern Quebec game regions men¬ 
tioned in these columns several times contain an 
abundance of moose. Possibly some of the 
largest heads left in Canada are to be found 
there. It is evident that the moose needs more 
protection in the way of governmental or state 
refuges. The season also might be shortened to 
advantage. 
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