6o 
FOREST AND STREAM 
[Jan. 12, 1907. 
» Sec. 2. Wild lands shall be construed to be 
all land in all unincorporated townships. 
Sec. 3. Any person authorized to enforce the 
inland fish and game laws is authorized to seize 
all firearms found in possession in violation of 
this chapter and shall forthwith forward them to 
the commissioners at Augusta and said commis¬ 
sioners shall sell them, the proceeds to be used 
for the protection of fish and game. 
Sec. 4. The commissioner of inland fisheries 
and game may license the taking of suitable fire¬ 
arms upon these lands and having them in pos¬ 
session to actual bonafide residents of the 
State having legitimate business thereon and 
to occupants of licensed hotels and sporting camps 
for target practice, but not to anyone on canoe¬ 
ing, trapping or fishing trips or to unnaturalized 
citizens. 
Sec. 5. Applicants shall pay for such license 
as is provided for in Sec. 4, the sum of $1 to 
the commissioners and by them it shall be paid 
to the State treasurer and then expended for the 
protection of fish and game by said commis¬ 
sioners. 
There was a very free expression of opinion 
regarding this bill, when the authar had finished, 
and with but one exception those present were 
in favor of it, the vote showing but one against 
its adoption. This, of course, is merely a recom¬ 
mendation of the principles of the bill to the 
legislators, but with those lawmakers who know 
nothing whatever about the fish and game ques¬ 
tion, these recommendations . of the leading 
sportsmen’s association in the State carry a good 
deal -of weight. 
On the proposition to shorten the open sea¬ 
son for killing deer, there was a decided oppo¬ 
sition, and it was laid on the table. All the 
other propositions were adopted without a dis¬ 
senting vote. 
What will be done with these “recommenda¬ 
tions” now depends in great measure on the 
members of the Legislature, and not before in 
a great while has the prospect been so unsettled. 
The Democrats have a larger membership in the 
State Government than before for a long time, 
and propose to make themselves felt, both in 
legislation and in other ways. Certainly such 
radical measures as these will not go through 
without any objection, and it may be that none 
of the proposed measures will be found on the 
statute books at the adjournment. Should the 
agricultural power fuse with the Democrats 
against any of these propositions, it is doubtful 
if the Republican majority can swing votes 
enough to carry it through, and there are some 
Republicans who are not farmers, who will vote 
against the most radical of these propositions 
every time, regardless of party. 
In the evening the wardens held their annual 
meeting, and it was well presided over by Presi¬ 
dent D. L. Cummings, of Houlton and Square 
Lake, who has held that office since the organi¬ 
zation two years ago. He nominated Walter I. 
Neal, who has guarded the avenue of “escape to 
the outer world” at the station in Bangor for 
several years, to succeed him as president, and 
Mr. Neal was elected, as were E. M. Blanding 
as Secretary and Treasurer, M. C. Morrill and 
W. T. Pollard as Vice-Presidents, and Walter 
I. Neal, Geo. E. Cushman, D. L. Cummings, F. 
M. Perkins, F. J. Durgin, Fred E. Jorgensen and 
Geo. M. Estey, Directors. The wardens re¬ 
mained in session until a late hour, discussing 
the measures proposed at the meeting qf the 
Maine State Fish and Game Association 
in the afternoon, and unanimously indorsed all 
the things indorsed by Mr. Carleton. 
, Herbert W. Rowe. 
Federal Control. 
St. Paul, Minn., Jan. 1. — Editor Forest and' 
Stream: I shall very heartily support the plan 
of Federal control over migratory birds and 
similar matters as suggested in- the article of 
Judge Shiras. I should be very glad to have you 
send me an extra copy of the number in which 
that article was printed. D. L. 
The Forest and Stream may be obtained fi yi 
any newsdealer on order. Ask your dealei \ 
supply you regularly. 
Tarpon House Burned. 
The quaint old barracks at Punta Rassa, Fla., 
occupied by Captain Winfield Scott Hancock, as 
headquarters in the campaign on the Caloosa- 
hatchie against the Semmoles, was burned to 
the ground on Sunday last. For many years the 
old structure, only slightly enlarged and fitted 
up with small rooms, has been maintained as a 
fisherman’s resort by George R. Schultz, who for 
years has been chief operator of the United- 
States and of the Cuban cable via Key West, as 
well as express agent, port officer, justice of the 
peace and postmaster. 
The Tarpon House stood on stilts on a promi¬ 
nent point looking out on San Carlos Bay at the 
lower end of Charlotte Harbor and was about 
three miles from Sanibel light and the same dis¬ 
tance from St. James City, the nearest large town 
being Fort Myers, eighteen miles up the 
Caloosahatchie. The building was about forty by 
eighty feet and two stories high, built of yellow 
pine and with verandahs on all four sides. It 
stood back from the water’s edge about 150 feet 
and was connected with a steamboat wharf and 
warehouse by an elevated boardwalk. An open 
hallway ran through the house from end to end 
with cell-like rooms on either side and an upper 
tier of ten rooms much in favor, but known as 
“murderers’ row.” Each of these rooms was 
engaged a year in advance by anglers from New 
York, 'Philadelphia, Cleveland, Toledo, Newark 
and other places. These anglers generally left 
their tackle there and have probably met with 
heavy losses iii tackle, trunks, rods and boats 
which were stored under the house in the off 
season. There was plenty of water near at hand, 
but few people to use it, and once the fire got 
a fair start there was no hope of saving the age- 
dried. fat-pine structure. There are only five or 
six houses at Punta Rassa and they are scattered 
along the shore. It Was an important shipping 
point for the products of the Surrounding coun¬ 
try, however, and for years was .the main ship¬ 
ping point for Florida cattle and hogs con¬ 
signed to Cuba. Aside from this it was one of 
the best places to go fishing from on the whole 
west coast, and Schultz’s hotel was noted for its 
square meals and lack of the restraint enforced 
by the. conventionalities at the fashionable hotels. 
Overalls and jumpers constituted full dress at 
George’s. It is a pity the historic place is des¬ 
troyed. It will probably be rebuilt, for Schultz 
is by no means down and out, but no new struc¬ 
ture can take the place of the old in the minds 
of those who have spent many winters there. 
Harrimac. 
Old and New Names. 
Morgantown, W. Va., Jan. 1.— Editor Forest 
and Stream: Should we call animals and birds 
by their right names, or call them the names 
by which we have known them in our boyhood 
and by which names we associate some of 
the most pleasant recollections of our early 
woods life? What is in a name anyhow? 
Verily there is much! The name given to an 
animal or bird is largely a matter of pro¬ 
vincialism, and is local in its application. 
One of the bright spots in my recollections 
of boyhood hunting is that of killing my first 
grouse, but if I were to rehearse the story to 
most of my boyhood acquaintances and call it 
a grouse, it would lose half the charm for me 
and likely as not leave my listener wondering 
what I was talking about. 
Oh, no! It was a “pheasant” I killed that 
cold winter day. It was butchering day;,the 
hogs had been carried away and were being 
cut up; the dinner of spare ribs and buck¬ 
wheat cakes was over, and the services of the 
boy were no longer needed. He had a little 
shotgun, about three pounds in weight, which 
looked like a toy. Local buyers were paying 
twenty-five cents each for pheasants, but they 
were always flying when the boy saw them, 
and it never occurred to him that they could 
be shot while flying. A long tramp through 
the snow, and the boy saw one sitting in a 
fence corner and killed it, and on the way 
home sold it and got the cash, which looked 
big. The buckwheat cakes and sausage tasted 
good that night while explaining how the first 
pheasant was killed. Do not ask me to call it 
a grouse, because pheasant sounds so good to 
me ever since that memorable day, and any 
person will know what bird is referred to 
when told it happened in Pennsylvania. 
The woodchuck (Arctomys monax), while 
a lowly animal, and not honored by being 
classed as game, has probably been productive 
of more fun for the boys than almost any 
animal we could name; but he was not a 
woodchuck when we were having so much fun 
with him.. He was a “groundhog,” although it 
never occurred to us then that there was noth¬ 
ing about him of the hog nature, and noth¬ 
ing whatever to justify classing him as any 
species of hog. We never went into details 
about trifles like that, and he was accepted as 
groundhog, and as such was hunted and 
trapped, and to-day it would dampen our en¬ 
thusiasm woefully if we were to tell about 
what fun we had in our youth hunting and 
trapping woodchucks. 
The common cottontail rabbit was trapped 
in box traps, and hunted by most of us before 
we were allowed to carry a gun. It represents 
the first game many of us have killed, and the 
first meat we have supplied for the table. 
It was the rabbit track which we first knew 
when we saw it in the snow, and learned to 
follow in the direction it was traveling, won¬ 
dering why the larger tracks of its hindfeet 
should be ahead. It was by following its 
track and observing its cunning in backtrack¬ 
ing and maneuvering to mislead its probable 
pursuer, that we received our first lessons in 
woodcraft, and the art of hunting; but what 
associations of our boyhood hunting would be 
recalled by referring to “hare hunting”? 
Yes, they were hares and hare tracks, and 
are yet; but to us they were rabbits, and rab¬ 
bits they will probably remain, so long as our 
memories serve to recall what is past. 
Emerson Carney. 
California’s New League. 
The State Fish and Game Protective League 
was recently organized during a meeting of the 
Sacramento County Fish and Game Protective 
Association, at Sacramento, and Lieut.-Gov. 
Alden Anderson, in calling the temporary or¬ 
ganization to order, showed that it was in a way 
a protest against the action of the State Sports¬ 
men’s Association at its Monterey meeting. The 
committee on resolutions, of which the lieutenant- 
governor was a member, condemned the action 
of the State Sportsmen’s Convention and praised 
the State Fish Commission, after which it pro¬ 
posed the following changes in the game and 
fish laws: Changing the open season for doves; 
a three-year closed season for grouse; reducing 
the bag limit of ducks from 50 to 35 per day; 
favoring a closed season for trout from Nov. 
15 to May 1, and for salmon from Sept. 15 to 
Oct. 20; limiting catching of “fish or black bass” 
to 50 per day; limiting the sale of striped bass 
by means of a higher minimum weight mark. 
The dove and grouse resolutions were adopted. 
A proposition to prohibit the sale of ducks was 
opposed, but all .were in favor of an enforce¬ 
ment of the bag limit. This was not being done 
by the authorities, one man stating that as many 
as 3,800 ducks had, to his knowledge, been ship¬ 
ped in one day. A resolution was adopted favor¬ 
ing the division of the State into three game and 
fish districts. Resolutions favorable to a bag 
limit of 35 ducks per day; prohibiting the ship¬ 
ment out of the State of trout; indorsing the 
Fish Commission, etc., were adopted. 
Frank D. Ryan, of Sacramento, was elected 
President; Vice-Presidents, W. M. Hughes, of 
Madera; J. H. Barr, of Marysville, and James 
F. Farraher, of Yreka; Secretary, A. D. Fer¬ 
guson; Treasurer, W. R. McIntosh; Executive 
Committee, E. A. Forbes, of Marysville; G. H. 
Anderson, of San Jose; P. B. Bekeart, of San 
Francisco; J. R. Tyrell, of Grass Valley, and 
Edward Silene, of Los Angeles. 
