592 
FOREST AND S 
chored in the middle of the lake casting away at 
midday, with all sorts of dry goods store baits, 
not at all discouraged at the lack of bass and the 
prevalence of “punkin seed,” ‘‘cause” said the old 
boat tender “all them guys want is a coat of sun¬ 
burn to take back to the city with them; they 
don’t want fish, they want color.” We acquired 
some color (local color) from the old man and 
paddled down to the end of the lake, where in a 
nice shady spot we took twelve as fine large 
mouth bass, as one wants to cast a covetous eye 
upon. The largest weighed three pounds, eleven 
ounces. We felt that this fishing alone was worth 
the whole trip, not only for what we caught, but 
because we located a convenient lake full of fine 
bass. 
We laid our course for Eastport, but a heavy 
rain put one over on us, so we jumped the train 
to Holtville and “shanks-mared” it over to Blue 
Point, where Jupiter Pluvius still sputtered, so 
we put in at The Anchorage, where the genial 
Capt. Bill Graham gave us fresh dope on shoot¬ 
ing conditions, and predicted that after the first 
big wind storm snipe would be plentiful all along 
Great South Bay and across on Fire Island We 
boarded the first morning boat at Patchogue for 
Water Island, where we struck low tide and no 
snipe. We followed the beach down to Point O’¬ 
Woods, where we bagged five plover and two 
yellow legs, one brace being a double with the 
sixteen by Ches. 
Between Salt Aire and the Inlet we saw rafts 
of coots and a few black ducks and Old Squaws. 
We killed five plover and almost lost Oorang. 
One bird dropped fifty yards off shore and 
Oorang went after it. He ran into the terrific 
tide that runs toward the inlet on the ebb and 
could not swim against it. The life saving station 
power boat was coming up the shore and noticing 
the struggle headed out and picked him up. He 
hadn’t let go of the bird, and didn’t until he 
Twelve lawyers, a banker, a civil engineer, an 
architect, a lumberman and a minister composed 
the Committee on Natural Resources in the con¬ 
vention to revise the state constitution, just ad¬ 
journed. Their work will be submitted to the 
people for approval at the coming Fall election 
and it behooves every camper, hunter, fisherman 
and friend of the woodlands of the state to know 
what has been done. 
It should be noted that but two members of this 
highly important committee were actual residents 
of the Adirondacks and but one was from the 
Catskill district. It should, however, be said also 
that the chairman, Charles M. Dow of James¬ 
town, although a banker, takes a personal interest 
in forestry and is a member of both the American 
and the State Forestry Association. He also has 
an arboretum in which he is experimenting with 
a view to discovering suitable species of timber 
producing trees to add to, or take the place of, 
those now native to state forests. 
A score or more of the delegates presented 
dropped it at our feet on the beach. We took 
across to the south side of the island, where the 
crew at the life saving station said there were 
plenty of snipe. We found lots of signs but 
only a few wild birds. 
In the brush and sedge all along Fire Island 
we started cotton tails. There seem to be un¬ 
limited numbers of the little fellows there. Time 
was getting short, and we had pretty well located 
individual shooting grounds, so we railed it to 
Massepqua, and right here we located any number 
of rabbits and quite a number of quail but un¬ 
fortunately the law was not off on either of these 
“birds” so we had to be satisfied with “locating” 
them for future reference. Here ended our hike 
and we took the “safety first,” “watch your step” 
and, “look before you cross” road to Port Wash¬ 
ington, where Little Joe satisfied our inner men 
and our shore to shore trip ended without an 
unpleasant experience and left us ready for an¬ 
other later in the season, when we know that a 
week’s hunting will yield all the game any man 
needs. 
Among places we did not touch but where re¬ 
ports indicate good inland shooting are Commack, 
reached from Central Islip, Coram and Middle 
Island, reached from Port Jefferson; Lake Grove, 
reached from Ronkonkoma; and right here there 
is said to be fine small mouth bass fishing in 
Ronkonkoma Lake. They say the fishing is hard 
but if the fish are there in numbers mentioned, 
a real angler would enjoy a good creel. We will 
tell more of this later. A more charming coast¬ 
line can not be imagined than that surrounding 
Long Island. Its yacht harbors are ample and 
sufficient, its residences beautiful and its hospi¬ 
tality unsurpassed. It is ideal among ideals for 
sportsmen or vacationists. The length of the trip 
along the shore is approximately 200 miles, time 
ten days; cost, $20 per head, health and enjoyment 
100 per cent. 
proposals for a new article to take the place of 
good old section 7 of article seven of the consti¬ 
tution which has safeguarded the forests of the 
state for many years. Several of the plans, un¬ 
der the plea of doing the Adirondacks and Cats- 
kilis good, advocated applying “scientific forestry” 
to the few acres,—not more than 70,000 all told, 
of wild forest land remaining the property of the 
people. Fish and game did not seem to interest 
the delegates greatly. 
Several public meetings and many executive 
sessions were held by the committee and finally 
it reported a plan to the convention. From this 
plan the delegates, after a hard fight, struck out a 
section which while it ostensibly provided for the 
leasing of camp sites was really intended to give 
title to a number of squatters around Raquette 
Lake and would have extended the same protec¬ 
tion to several on valuable islands in Lake George 
and to some in the Adirondacks. 
The proposed new article provides for an unpaid 
commission of nine members, to be selected by 
the governor from the various judicial districts 
and confirmed by the Senate. Each is to serve for 
a term of nine years. No commissioner may be 
interested in lumbering, in any forest preserve 
county, or in any business in which hydraulic 
power is used or in which water is distributed or 
sold under public franchise; nor can he hold stock 
or own bonds in any corporation so engaged in 
this state. The governor may remove the commis¬ 
sioners after a hearing on charges. 
The commission is “charged with the develop¬ 
ment and protection of the natural resources of 
the state; the encouragement of forestry and the 
suppression of forest fires throughout the state; 
the exclusive care, maintenance and administration 
of the forest preserve; the conservation, preven¬ 
tion of pollution and regulation of the waters of 
the state; the protection and propagation of its 
fish, birds, game, shellfish and Crustacea, except 
migratory fish of the sea within the limits of the 
marine district, with the power, subject to the 
veto within thirty days by the governor, to enact 
regulations with respect to the taking, possession, 
sale and transportation thereof, which shall have 
the force of law when filed in the office of the 
department of state and published as the legisla¬ 
ture may provide, until and unless the legislature 
shall thereafter modify such regulations.” 
This is the important matter for out-of-door 
men to consider, but it is stated in addition that 
the department is to be intrusted with enforcing 
the general laws relating to these subjects and 
exercise such additional powers as may be con¬ 
ferred by law. The nine commissioners are to 
select a superintendent and necessary subordi¬ 
nates. 
The old provision to keep the forest preserve 
as wild forest land was not changed, although a 
desperate effort was made to turn it over to the 
tender mercies of “scientific forestry.” It is, 
however, provided that the new department may 
“reforest lands in the preserve, construct fire 
trails thereon, remove dead trees and dead timber- 
therefrom for the purposes of reforestation and 
fire protection solely, but shall not sell the same.” 
Provision is also made for the construction of a 
highway by the state, to run from Saranac Lake 
to Long Lake to Old Forge, by the way of Blue 
Mountain Lake. The remaining sections are 
practically the same as the present constitution, 
except that New York City may secure state land 
for its water supply in the Catskills, and that the 
legislature must make yearly provision for buying 
additional forest lands in both preserves, for re¬ 
forestation and making boundary and valuation 
surveys. 
Why the convention proposes to have the people 
return to the old and discredited many-headed 
commission system, which has but just been 
abandoned in favor of a single head, especially 
when the delegates were so strenuous about hav¬ 
ing a simplified government, is not apparent on 
the surface, but everybody who watched the con¬ 
vention work on the conservation article is sus¬ 
picious of the change. It is all the more unex¬ 
plainable when one remembers that the state has 
only just secured the services of a most satis¬ 
factory citizen as conservation commissioner,— 
one who can not be reached by the politicans or 
other interests inimical to conservation for the 
good of the whole people, and who has taken hold 
of the work with a strong hand. 
Conservation in the New York Constitution 
By John D. Whish. 
