Forest and Stream 
A Weekly Journal. Copyright, 1907, by Forest and Stream Publishing Co. 
Terms, $3 a Year, 10 Cts. a Copy. ! 
Six Months, $1.50.' 
NEW YORK, SATURDAY, JANUARY 12, 1907. 
I VOL. LXVIII— No. 2. 
) No. 346 Broadway, New York. 
The object of this journal will be to studiously 
aromote a healthful interest in outdoor recre¬ 
ation, and to cultivate a refined taste for natural 
Objects. Announcement in first number of 
Forest and Stream, Aug. 14,1873. 
jr r NEGLECTED DUTIES. 
There is one duty almost entirely neglected by 
peace officers in districts where men are shot by 
mistake for deer. -When they learn that a man 
has been shot in the woods, it is their duty to 
investigate the case thoroughly and learn whether 
it occurred through accident, criminal car-eless- 
ness or design; in other words, whether or not 
there are any suspicious circumstances, warrant¬ 
ing the holding of the man who fired the shot or 
others known to have been in the vicinity at the 
time. 
It is a grave thing to shoot a man, and no 
excuse whatever should be accepted until an in¬ 
vestigation by the coroner or justice of the peace 
has been held. 
In all large cities cases of sudden death are 
rigidly investigated by the coroner. Any person 
happening to be present at the time and failing 
to satisfactorily account for his actions is held 
until all the circumstances surrounding the case 
are inquired into. Persons are often held in jail 
as witnesses, although no charge is lodged against 
them. The object of all this is to prevent mis¬ 
takes in letting interested persons get away be¬ 
fore the facts are brought out. Very often the 
evidence is fairly plain that nO' one is involved, 
[ but the officers do not take long chances on mak¬ 
ing serious mistakes. 
In the woods the direct opposite applies. If a 
body is brought to a village and some one says 
the mart was mistaken for a deer and shot, greater 
efforts are exerted to console the guilty person 
than to getting the facts. The proper authorities 
are too prone to say, “If anyone wants to risk his 
life in the woods, and get shot, why, let him. 
' We can’t stop him”—and let it go at that. They 
pay very little heed to the possibility that some 
person may have “settled an old score” with the 
hunting rifle. 
It is said that in States where laws have been 
passed making careless shooting punishable as 
manslaughter, victims have been abandoned when 
wounded, the shooters running away in fear of 
punishment. This may be true, but if the proper 
authorities do not sift such cases to the bottom— 
with all others of this class—then they are sadly 
remiss in the performance of their sworn duties. 
THE ALIEN HUNTER. 
Things have reached such a pass in cer¬ 
tain parts of the country that one can hardly 
pick up a newspaper without seeing an account 
of sonje recently arrived foreigner who has been 
violating the law by trespassing on private prop¬ 
erty with a gun, or shooting out of season, or 
shooting nongame birds that are protected by 
law. Too frequently when an owner of property 
or an officer of the law interferes with one of 
these persons, the law breaker shoots or stabs 
the person who interferes with him. 
While these law breakers are generically spoken 
of as Italians, they may of course belong to many 
nations, but it is generally true that they are im¬ 
migrants from southern Europe and that they come 
from lands where the destruction of all bird life 
is regarded as legitimate, and where such life is 
regarded only as so much food moving about, to 
be captured by any means whatever. 
The alien hunter is usually employed as a 
laborer on some large construction work, lives 
in a camp with a horde of his fellows and hunts 
the robin, the chippie or the blue bird solely as 
food. If an officer attempts to arrest him, or 
even warns him to discontinue his practices, he is 
quick to shoot, to use the stilletto or to run away, 
as seems good to- him. The last volume of 
Forest and Stream contains a number of notices 
of wardens shot and of one killed in this way. 
Occasionally the warden shoots a little quicker 
than the Italian and kills him. ^ 
This condition of things is confined to no 
special locality, but it is evident that it takes 
place to the greatest extent where these for¬ 
eigners are chiefly gathered together. Several 
States have enacted special laws to control this 
evil. Massachusetts and New York are, among 
these States, but in neither is the law so far 
enforced as to be respected. It is like the New 
York city ordinance which forbids the alien to 
carry lethal weapons, yet if by chance the police 
ever round up and search fifteen, or twenty Ital¬ 
ians they always capture anywhere from a bushel 
to a barrel full of pistols, running from the most 
modern to the most antique makes, and of dirks, 
daggers, stilettoes, knives and razors of strange 
and varied character. 
Everyone of these violations of the law by an 
alien tends to bring nearer the legislation on this 
subject which all now feel to be imperative. 
Forest and Stream has received a number of 
envelopes inclosing cash with subscription 
blanks but without the names and addresses of 
the senders. If any of our forgetful friends, fail¬ 
ing to receive acknowledgment of such letters, 
will write in and identify their remittances, we 
can then give them proper credit on our books. 
started—so many important general and local 
protective oganizations that it seemed she was 
about to take her place as the leading State in 
effective game and fish protection. Diverting the 
attention of the local associations from protec¬ 
tive work to factional fights must prove to be 
detrimental to the cause for which they were 
organized. 
GERMAN CARP. 
If the claims of the Philadelphia fish market 
men are true, and the war of extermination has 
begun to tell on the German carp in the Dela¬ 
ware River, then anglers and all other friends 
of clean rivers and the survival of our native 
game fishes should rise and cheer, for there may 
be brighter skies in days to come. If carp are 
actually being exterminated in the Delaware, 
it may be that they can be driven out of other 
rivers, or failing this, their numbers may be kept 
within bounds. 
The dark side of this silver-lined cloud, how¬ 
ever, is ominous. In waters where carp fisher¬ 
men draw their nets frequently the spawn of 
the black bass is disturbed if not destroyed by 
the hauling of the nets. In waters like those 
of the St. Clair flats—as has been pointed out 
in these columns—the spawn, small fry and 
even large bass are crushed in hauling in the 
carp. In States where the laws prohibit the 
sale of game fish, when these are found in the 
nets they are buried by the fishermen to hide 
the truth. A partial remedy for the evil would 
of course be to prohibit netting carp during the 
black bass spawning season. 
THE CALIFORNIA DIVISION. 
■ The sportsmen’s organizations of California 
have split into two branches and a new associa¬ 
tion has been formed. The old organization is 
opposed to the administration of the Board of 
Fish and Game Commissioners, and the new one 
has indorsed it. Without going into the merits 
of the controversy that has brought about this 
division, we cannot help regretting that war and 
not peace has in effect been declared, for Cali¬ 
fornia had—up to the time when this quarrel 
It is with gratification that we note Mr. Bax¬ 
ter’s assertion that small gauge shotguns are gain¬ 
ing in favor on the Pacific coast. We- are fre¬ 
quently told the twelve gauge is small enough. 
No doubt; and there are good reasons for its 
general adoption. But the number of men who 
prefer to reduce the weight they are to carry 
afield, yet who wish to use stiff charges for cer¬ 
tain shots, is ever increasing, and if the sixteen 
or the twenty gauge will satisfy them for aver¬ 
age shooting, it is quite certain that it can be 
made heavier in proportion than is possible with 
the twelve gauge. In this form it is a safe gun, 
and free from the objections to very light guns 
when used with heavy loads. 
K 
Despite the fact that Captain Reald Amundsen, 
the Norwegian sailor, who successfully navigated 
the Northwest Passage, says it is a region of big 
game, it is not likely many sportsmen will go 
there while game can be found nearer home in 
a warmer region. Captain Amundsen says his 
party saw “great quantities of game—moose, 
caribou and reindeer—and that they had no hard¬ 
ships, although they passed much time in a region 
that was all sand or ice.” 
