Forest and Stream 
Terms, $3 a Year, 10 Cts. a Copy. 
Six Months, $1.50. 
NEW YORK, SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 19, 1908. 
VOL. LXXI.—No. 12. 
No. 127 Franklin St., New York* 
A WEEKLY JOURNAL. 
Copyright, 1908, by Forest and Stream Publishing Co. 
George Bird Grinnell, President, 
Oiari.es B. Reynolds, Secretary. 
Louis Dean Speir, Treasurer. 
127 Franklin Street, New York. 
THE OBJECT OF THIS JOURNAL 
will be to studiously promote a healthful interest 
in outdoor recreation, and to cultivate a refined 
taste for natural objects. 
—Forest and Stream, Aug. 14, 1873. 
THE FISHERY CONGRESS. 
The gathering at Washington next week of 
delegates to the fourth International Fishery 
Congress will be an important event, and the 
proceedings will be watched with interest by the 
nations of the world. Not only will the dele¬ 
gates have opportunities to study the methods 
employed in fishing for sport and as a business 
in America, but through the reading of papers 
and the discussions, information concerning the 
best methods employed everywhere will be dis¬ 
seminated. Enlightenment is needed along many 
lines, and the professional fishermen and the 
anglers will derive benefit through a convention 
covering so many branches. 
To-day, as never before, the question of the 
pollution of the waters inhabited by fish is at¬ 
tracting the attention it deserves and there is 
evidence that this matter will become a leading 
issue. Water pollution is an evil that cannot 
be tolerated much longer, for it affects all edible 
fish and is a menace not only to towns and cities, 
but to the nation itself. 
The Anglers’ National Association has taken 
up the subject, and it will be discussed at Wash¬ 
ington. It is also probable recommendations 
will be brought to the attention of Congress, the 
various State Legislatures and Governments of 
cities. 
NORTH CAROLINA’S AWAKENING. 
The fisheries convention, held in North Caro¬ 
lina recently, may help to bestir the friends of 
protective measures to greater efforts in the con¬ 
servation of the natural resources of the South 
Atlantic States. At this convention it was shown 
that strict enforcement of existing laws is as 
badly needed as are better laws if North Caro¬ 
lina is to hold her place as a resort for sports¬ 
men and as a producer of fish food. 
It was fortunate that the meeting was held 
after rather than prior to the recent disastrous 
floods which swept several millions of dollars’ 
worth of property out of the rivers and the low¬ 
lands of the South Atlantic States, for their 
citizens are likely to take a deeper interest than 
they have so far evinced in the efforts that will 
be made at the next session of .Congress to pre¬ 
serve the forests of the South. Too much time 
has already been wasted, and meanwhile the 
saws and axes of the lumbermen are not idle, 
while recurrences of the destructive floods may 
be expected at any time. The present antago¬ 
nism in Congress may not last forever, but it 
is futile to wait until conditions change the atti¬ 
tude of the opponents of the proposed Southern 
Appalachian forest reserve. 
RAIL SHOOTING. 
Now, according to the signs and the seasons 
of old times, we ought to be preparing for the 
rail shooting. The hay harvest is long past, 
and the shorn meadows in which the new grass 
is now starting, lie yellow in the hot sun of mid¬ 
day, only relieved here and there by bunches of 
strong dark-green clover. The weeds and brush 
along the roadside are white with dust, golden- 
rod and asters are in bloom, while cardinal 
flowers flame at the edge of the brook. The 
ripening leaves on the hillsides begin to show 
the red and yellow tints of autumn; over the 
distant hillside hangs, morning and evening, the 
light haze of early fall. A few beach birds have 
come along, and occasionally one may hear their 
mellow whistle; the blackbirds are gathering on 
the marshes. A few reed birds—now in the 
modest livery of autumn—utter their unmusical 
cry as they fly up or down the river. 
The time was, but it was a generation or two 
ago, when for many people the rail shooting 
was one of the events of the year. Then when 
the big tides came, those who knew the grounds 
and had the best shovers, used to get bags of 
phenomenal size. One old-time sportsman, who 
died but a few years ago, is credited with 
having killed 212 birds on a tide. He used two 
muzzle-loading shotguns. 
It is only within a few years that the increas¬ 
ing scarcity of the rail seems to have been ap¬ 
preciated by legislators. In old times there was 
no close season on these birds. As soon as the 
wild rice, or wild oats or corngrass, as it is 
variously called, began to head out and ripen, 
the gunners would go out at every tide, and 
long before the migration had begun had killed 
off all the local birds bred in any section of 
marsh and meadow. 
Of late years this early destruction has been 
put an end to by establishing a season for the 
rail, which opens not far from the time when 
the migration begins. Moreover, very wisely, 
a bag limit has been put on rail in several 
States, and the result is that a few birds are 
left to continue their southern journey, and per¬ 
haps to return next spring and hatch their 
young. It was surely high time that some steps 
should be taken to protect this bird, which not 
only furnishes admirable practice for beginners, 
but is one of the most delicious of feathered 
creatures. Then, too, in the old times when rail 
were abundant, a few days on rail grounds 
helped the experienced gunner to get his hand 
in practice again, so that eye and brain and 
muscle all worked together and, by much hand¬ 
ling of the gun, he regained his readiness of 
the previous autumn. 
In those old days it was great fun when two 
men who understood each other, and could 
work together without envy or jealousy, were 
able undisturbed to work over a big piece of 
grass, and then, perhaps, if the tide were favor¬ 
able, to unite in beating the strips of cat-tails 
in which many of the rails took refuge. Slowly 
they worked together, one on either side of a 
strip, driving the birds before, them and every 
now and then hearing the rail splashing through 
the water, and often seeing them running 
swiftly along over the floating stuff, and some¬ 
times getting a shot as a frightened bird left 
one side or the other of the strip. But it was 
when the end of the strip was nearly reached, 
and all the birds were congregated there that 
the excitement began, the birds flew out singly 
and by twos and threes and followed each other 
so rapidly that only a few of them could be shot 
at, but when the last bird had gone, and the 
shooting was all over, there might be from eight 
to a dozen birds to be gathered before the next 
strip could be approached. 
Those days cannot be seen again. Artificial 
propagation may possibly increase the number 
of our gallinaceous birds; perhaps even of our 
wild ducks; but it is not likely ever to increase 
the number of our rail. Nothing can ever do 
that except a close season extending over sev¬ 
eral years, and this we are not likely to have. 
On the other hand, few birds are less in danger 
of extermination than the rail. Shy and 
secretive in their habits, a few of them will con¬ 
tinue to exist long after the sport of rail shoot¬ 
ing has been forgotten. 
In view of the enormous consumption of valu¬ 
able timber by the railways and telegraph com¬ 
panies for crossties and telegraph poles, it is 
gratifying to witness the efforts now being put 
forth by inventors and by the companies them¬ 
selves to substitute something equal to or better 
than wood. Iron is to some extent replacing 
wood for overhead wire supports, and the con¬ 
duit systems in our large cities are saving whole 
forests that would otherwise be cut down to 
furnish poles. So far, however, no very satis¬ 
factory substitute for wood has been found for 
crossties. So many of these are needed, both 
for new railways and to replace ties that decay, 
that the cost is increasing rapidly, and the com¬ 
panies would gladly adopt substitutes if satis¬ 
factory ones were available. They have even 
resorted to the expedient of planting trees in 
order to insure a future supply, but this will 
require years of waiting. The problem is a very 
serious one. 
