forest and stream 
485 
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Conditions in New York State Waters Require 
Attention 
THE BEOTHUKS OF NEWFOUNDLAND. 
James P. Howley, Esq., F. R. G. S., director 
of our Geological Survey, has just added the 
crown to his life-work by publishing an interest¬ 
ing history of the Aborigines of Newfoundland, 
the Beothuk Indians. 
As a story in ethnology, it is a comprehensive 
and valuable addition to the literature and his¬ 
tory of the original inhabitants of this continent. 
This work has been a labor of love for Mr. 
Howley. All his spare time has been devoted to 
research at home and abroad, during the last 
forty years, for any crumb of fact or tradition 
relating to this ill-fated people. 
He had the good fortune to converse many 
times with the only survivors who ever saw or 
had any traffic with the aboriginal inhabitants of 
this island, and in the course of his official du¬ 
ties, he traversed every place in the interior 
where the Indians were supposed to have had 
settlements. As a result he accumulated many 
relics both from the villages and burying-places. 
No man in Newfoundland is better qualified 
from a literary standpoint to make a readable 
book out of what little is known of these peo¬ 
ple, and in addition he carried to the task an en¬ 
thusiasm on thf subject and a facility for gather¬ 
ing facts due to his official position in the colony, 
possessed by no one else. The book is compre¬ 
hensive and contains all the known vocabulary 
of the Beothuks, together with comparison of 
similar words and phrases in use by the red peo¬ 
ple of the continent; as well as comments and 
criticisms by eminent British and American pro¬ 
fessors interested in the subject. 
No doubt Forest and Stream will get a good 
review of the book from some of its readers 
who are experts on the subject, as it is one that 
will be widely read by many learned men who 
are interested in the subject. 
A cursory glance, only such as the writer has 
had time to give it, is sufficient to show that this 
is a timely contribution to the literature of eth¬ 
nology, and an interesting and readable volume 
that ought to be in the hands and the libraries 
of all serious students, while it will be a boon 
to the casual reader who wants to glean informa¬ 
tion about an interesting people, now no more—• 
and other uncommon facts about the Island of 
Newfoundland, its sporting facilities, its early 
history and colonization, the relation of the 
aboriginal inhabitants of the island to those of 
the continent, etc., and all from the most au¬ 
thentic source. W. J. Carroll. 
THE OLDEST SUBSCRIBER IN NEW 
HAMPSHIRE 
Newmarket, N. H., May n, 1915. 
Editor Forest and Stream : 
Enclosed please find one dollar to pay for the 
1915 Forest and Stream. I am climbing my sev¬ 
enty-eighth milestone and probably am about the 
oldest subscriber in New Hampshire. I think I 
have taken Forest and Stream nearly 35 or 36 
years. I enjoy reading it as much as ever, as 
it is a clean sheet. 
I like to read how other folks enjoy themselves, 
and remember that they cannot beat me out of 
mv twenty years in Maine. M. S. Laine. 
Editor Forest and Stream : 
In view of the fact that a fishing license for 
anglers, call it a rod licence or whatever else 
you choose, is one of the things bound to come 
in New York state, it behooves all line fishermen 
to stir themselves to see that it is of the right 
A Lunker of a Laker 
sort and that the income goes toward putting the 
inland waters in better shapes. No records of 
the conditions in our inland waters exist that are 
of much value although they could readily be 
had through the force of protectors now at work 
in every county. Some thirty years ago a record 
was compiled by the Board of Supervisors for the 
old Fisheries Commission and an effort was 
made by me while in the department to collect 
the necessary facts from the application blanks 
for stocking, but this is all. The so-called 
“summer resort’’ lakes could be readily studied 
on lines already marked out by work done by the 
Federal bureau of fisheries and an immense 
amount of really valuable information already 
exists that could be collated for the purpose. 
Conditions undoubtedly have changed in our in¬ 
land waters, especially during the past quarter 
of a century and it seems more than probable 
that desirable changes could be made in our 
present methods of stocking. 
Correspondence with anglers in various parts 
of the state seems to indicate a willingness to 
pay a small rod license, say fifty cents annually, 
provided the money could be secured for im¬ 
proving fishing conditions. I am advised that 
Vermont has such a license in force since July 
1 and that under the vigorous and intelligent ef¬ 
forts of Commissioner John W. Titcomb that 
state is to take up just such work as is here 
suggested for New York. If our inland waters 
were even roughly studied and they were scien¬ 
tifically divided into zones according to the 
water temperature so that our law would be 
based on the spawning seasons instead of on the 
seductive idea of “uniformity,” it seems certain 
that better fishing would assuredly result. Long 
Island already is recognized as the warm zone 
and it would be easy to go a little further and 
recognize the temperate and cold zones that now 
naturally exist—the one in the mid-state section 
and the other in the mountain lakes and streams. 
The uniform” law is not based on either sci¬ 
ence or good sense, in my judgment, and J the 
zone plan as suggested in Forest and Stream has 
been approved by well -informed anglers as well 
as by experts in fish breeding and distribution. 
The only objection raised has been by those who 
would continue the old order of things because 
it is easier. The great number of game fish 
hatched yearly and distributed in our inland lakes 
and streams should long ago have made for us 
the best fishing in the world, but there is reason 
to fear that much of our stocking has been 
wasted effort. Without some study of the wa¬ 
ters, however, it never will be possible to handle 
the problem satisfactorily. Dr. Townsend, of 
the New York Aquarium, is not the only one 
who has decided views on the subject and it 
might be well for anglers generally to take up 
the matter and give their views to the Conserv¬ 
ative Commissioner through the columns of this 
paper. It has long been my own belief that the 
study of a single lake or stream would soon lead 
to results that would bring about a general re¬ 
arrangement of our hatchery work and of our 
stocking methods as well. The cost would be 
more than met by the saving that would result 
and to secure the desirable end outlined should 
be the immediate effort of all anglers. 
John D. Whish. 
It will interest anglers generally not only in 
New York State, but in other states as well, to 
know that Conservation Commissioner George 
D. Pratt has already announced his intention to 
make a thorough study of fishing conditions in 
the waters of New York State, and to institute 
more scientific methods of stocking and protec¬ 
tion as a result of this investigation. He be¬ 
lieves that fishermen themselves can render val¬ 
uable service in many phases of this work. So 
far as the fishing license is concerned, we un¬ 
derstand it to be Commissioner Pratt’s idea that 
if it ever comes in New York State, it will come 
as the direct result of a demand from the fish¬ 
ermen themselves, in the form of an endorse¬ 
ment of his plans for improved fishing condi¬ 
tions. This is the way in which the fishing li¬ 
cense has come in most of the other states 
where it now exists.— Ed.] 
