FOREST AND STREAM. 
[March 16, 1907. 
418 
Game Legislation of the 59th Congress. 
The record of legislation for the pro¬ 
tection of game at the second session of the 
59th Congress, which adjourned on March 4. 
is in strong contrast to that of the first session. 
When the first session adjourned on June 30, 
1906, four bills had become laws, while seven 
were awaiting action. The four bills which 
passed provided for the establishment of a buf¬ 
falo range in South Dakota, for the protection 
of birds on bird preserves, for the establish¬ 
ment of a game refuge in the Grand Canon 
Forest Reserve in Arizona, and for greater 
protection of birds in the District of Columbia. 
At the last session only two additional measures 
were introduced; a bill for the protection of 
game in the Black Hills Forest Reserve in 
South Dakota (H. R. 24,273) which was intro¬ 
duced on January 15, 1907, but which apparently 
was never reported from committee; and a bill 
for the protection of game in Alaska (H. R. 
25,032) which passed the House on Feb. 4, 
and" failed in the Senate ten minutes before final 
adjournment. None of the bills remaining from 
the first session became laws, and only one, 
the bill (H. R. 15,335) for the protection of 
game in the Olympic Forest Reserve in Wash¬ 
ington, made any real progress. 
The agricultural appropriation bill (H. R. 
24,815) as reported by the House Committee 
on Agriculture made no provision for the Bio¬ 
logical Survey, thus eliminating all the work 
on geographical distribution, economic relations 
of mammals and birds, and game protection, 
carried on by the Department. During the pas¬ 
sage of the measure through the House, the 
main part of the appropriation was restored. 
In the Senate the bureau organization and 
salary roll were likewise restored and an in¬ 
crease of 25 per cent, made in the total ap¬ 
propriation for the bureau. This increase was 
subsequently lost in conference, so that when 
the bill became a law, the Biological Survey 
remained on the same basis and with the same 
appropriation as last year. The agricultural ap¬ 
propriation bill also carried a clause in the 
appropriation for the Forest Service, “to trans¬ 
port and care for fish and game supplied to stock 
the national forests or the waters therein.” 
This seems to have been the only actual advance 
for game protection made at the second session. 
Thus, as a result of efforts for the establish¬ 
ment of game refuges during the past two 
years, the 59th Congress added one refuge in 
Arizona, but failed to pass any of the measures 
for the proposed refuges in California, South 
Dakota, Washington and other States. The 
Olympic bill passed the House, was favorably 
reported in the Senate, and but for a slight ob¬ 
jection, would have become a law; the Cali¬ 
fornia bill was reported in the House and in 
the Senate, but met objection in both branches; 
while "the general bill, authorizing the establish¬ 
ment of forest reserves by the President, was 
favorably reported by the House Committee, 
but made no further progress. 
T. S. Palmer. 
Canadian Camp. 
The fifth annual dinner of the Canadian Camp 
was held at the Hotel Astor, New York, March 
7. A very large number were present. The 
President, Dr. G. Lenox Curtis, occupied the 
chair, and the speakers sat at a long table at 
the side of the room; but the greater number of 
the guests sat at small tables. Hon. John S. 
Wise was the toastmaster, and Dr. Barton W. 
Evermann, the guest of honor. Among the unusual 
dishes served was a soup entitled puree of wild 
boar, a roast of Nova Scotia black bear, and 
Arctic rabbit pie. 
After the dinner had been eaten, Dr. J. C. Allen 
called the meeting’s attention to the Adirondack 
water grab bill, and on his motion, a strong 
preamble and resolution condemning the measure 
and requesting members of the Legislature and 
Governor Hughes to do all in their power against 
it, was unanimously adopted. Mr. Wise then 
made a capital speech to the assembly and intro¬ 
duced Dr. Barton W. Fvermann, who told most 
entertainingly about the golden trout of the Mt. 
Whitney region. The expedition, which dis¬ 
covered a lot of new facts about these trout, was 
suggested by Stuart Edward White, and urged 
by President Roosevelt, so that it seemed quite 
fitting that the two new species of trout which 
Mr. Evermann discovered should be called Salmo 
whitei and Salmo rooscvelli. Dr. Evermann s 
description was illustrated by a map of the coun¬ 
try, and he also passed around some lithographer’s 
proofs of figures of these new trout which showed 
their extraordinarily brilliant colors. 
Mr. E. T. Seton told the diners something 
about the Indian boys at Greenwich, among whom 
he is doing a good work. Justice Longley, of 
Nova Scotia, described in delightfully humorous 
fashion, how—and in how brief a time—he had 
been transformed into a sportsman, and not only 
into a sportsman, but into an authority on a cer¬ 
tain sort of angling. His speech was very de¬ 
lightful. 
The feature of the evening was the showing by 
the Hon. Geo. Shiras 3d, of a number of lantern 
slides of his photographs of wild animals. Among 
these were deer, moose, elk, wildcat, porcupine, 
’coons and several kinds of birds. A number of 
the pictures are already familiar to Forest and 
Stream readers. Mr. Shiras’ remarks were 
listened to and his pictures watched with the 
greatest interest. Mr. James A. Cruikshank 
spoke briefly on a Canadian wolf hunt. 
New York Legislation. 
Bills have been introduced in the Assembly, 
at Albany, as follows : 
By Mr. Hammond, relating to penalties. 
By Mr. Stevenson, relating to a close season 
for deer in Delaware county. 
By Mr. Stratton, relating to hooks, lines and 
tip-ups in certain qounties. 
By Mr. Hart, providing for a closed season on 
quail in certain counties. 
By Mr. Taylor, providing for a closed season 
for fish in Orange Lake. 
By Mr. Cobb, making a closed season for deer, 
in certain counties until 1912. 
By Mr. Parker, forbidding the sale of trout in 
certain counties. 
By Mr. Filley, same. 
By Mr. Armstrong, increasing the number of 
game protectors from 60 to 75. 
By Mr. Davis, relating to the registration of 
steam and motor boats. 
By Mr. Lewis, relating to nets, pounds, etc., in 
Oneida county. 
By Mr. Ackroyd, relating to actions by private 
persons or societies to recover one-half of penal¬ 
ties imposed on game law violators. 
By Mr. Mills, relating to hares and rabbits in 
Fulton county. 
By Mr. Brady, relating to a close season for 
foxes in Greene county. 
Foresters’ Examination. 
An examination will be held by the Lhiited 
States Civil Service Commission in Brooklyn. N. 
Y., March 20 for the purpose of securing eligibles 
from which to make certification to fill two va¬ 
cancies as deputy forest supervisors in Alaska, at 
a salary of $1,500 per year each, and other va¬ 
cancies that may occur in the Alaskan forest 
service. Applicants will be examined on prac¬ 
tical questions relating to the duties of forest 
officers as indicated in the Use book, a knowl¬ 
edge of the geography of Alaska and various local 
conditions, as lumbering, local navigation, ex¬ 
ploration and mining. Those who have not had 
training and experience will be admitted to the 
examination if they are otherwise eligible, but as 
70 per cent, for training and experience will be 
required, and this will be decided on before the 
examination papers are taken up, only those who 
have experience should apply. 
The age limit is 21 to uo years. Open to all 
citizens who comply with the requirements. Ap¬ 
plications should be nmde to the United States 
Civil Service Commission, Washington, D. C., 
for application form No. 1093. a copy of the Use 
book and a copy of Information Regarding Em¬ 
ployment on the National Forest Reserves. An 
application, to be accepted, must be properly ex¬ 
ecuted and filed, in complete form, with the com¬ 
missioner at Washington. 
To Limit Size of Parks. 
It is reported from Albany that Assemblyman 
Merritt, who has charge in the Lower House, of 
the Adirondack water grab bill, has introduced 
a measure which seems to look toward the confis¬ 
cation of property rights in the Adirondacks. 
This is a bill providing that no private park shall 
exist there larger than 640 acres. At present the 
law provides that any land owner in the State 
may make a private park of his property and 
that when he has announced his intention of 
doing so, the public shall not be allowed to “take 
or disturb fish or game * * * or trespass 
thereon for that purpose,” and that anyone who 
does so shall he subject to “exemplary damages 
not exceeding $25 for each trespass committed, in 
addition to the actual damages sustained.” 
Assemblyman Merritt’s measure, if it is cor¬ 
rectly reported, would abrogate this law and 
would take away from large land owners rights 
that were given them by the State years ago. 
It is reported that Assemblyman Merritt has 
openly declared that this measure has been in¬ 
troduced as a club with which to threaten such 
large land owners as oppose his water grabbing 
bill. It would seem that the water grabbers, not 
satisfied with having established a literary bureau 
by which they are endeavoring to influence ‘news¬ 
papers and the public all over the State, are 
ready to adopt more strenuous measures and to 
threaten with the confiscation of certain of their 
rights large land owners whose views do not 
agree with theirs. The boldness and brutality of 
such a move need hardly be commented on. 
The promoters of the plan to flood the Adiron¬ 
dacks for private power purposes are employing 
subtle tactics as usual. Having drawn a large 
number of prominent opponents' of the Merritt 
constitutional amendment from all parts of the 
State to attend an advertised hearing, at the 
eleventh hour, they secured from the Judiciary 
Committee a postponement of two weeks. More¬ 
over, the Assembly Judiciary Committee and the 
Senate Judiciary have appointed different days 
for hearings, so that those who will protest 
against this measure in behalf of the people are 
having conditions made as difficult for them as 
possible. The People’s* Institute of the State has 
sent a sharp letter to the committee, telling it 
that at the present * moment there is the 
keenest possible jealousy on the part of the peo¬ 
ple “of any further invasion of their possessions 
in behalf of private interests,” and that “whether 
the measure passes the present Legislature or not 
its defeat at the polls is certain beyond a per- 
adventure.” It is not probable that the amend¬ 
ment, whose sinister purpose has been made so 
clear, will receive the indorsement by the people 
necessary to give it standing; nevertheless it 
should be fought at every preliminary step. It 
is not always easy to obtain a full and just 
measure of public opinion on a question of this 
kind when it comes before the people for judg- , 
ment. Inertia has permitted many an unworthy 
measure to work iniquity. The postponement in 
the Legislature is for the purpose of giving the 
proposition the benefit of another “jamming” pro¬ 
cess like that which carried it to success in the 
initial stage a year ago. — Boston Transcript. 
Snake-Bite Lancet. 
According to Consul-General W. H. Michael, 
of Calcutta, a lancet invented by Sir Lauder 
Brunton, called the “snake bite lancet,” has been 
introduced in India with splendid results. It is 
being widely distributed by the authorities to 
police outposts in Bengal and Assam, the cen¬ 
tral provinces and united provinces, and a1sc#to 
all village officials by some of the native States 
in upper and central India. A report by one 
person is to the effect that he had saved the lives 
of twenty persons bitten by cobras and karaits 
within the last year by the use of one lancet. 
The use of this simnle instrument may be the 
means of saving thousands of- lives annually in 
India, and hence will prove a great blessing.— 
Consular Report. 
