73 8 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
[Nov. 7, 1908. 
The Season in Newfoundland. 
St. John’s N. F., Oct. 27.—Editor Forest and 
Stream: The subjoined clipping shows the 
ferocity of the Labrador dogs. Every now and 
then reports come in of the death of people in 
Labrador caused by these half-savage mongrels. 
Many cases occur that are never reported. It 
seems that in dealing with these brutes, people 
have to be as cautious as if they were handling 
wolves. If Dr. Grenfell succeeds in introducing 
reindeer to these regions and causing the ex¬ 
termination of these half-starved ferocious beasts 
he will deserve well of this community. 
By the schooner D. M. Hilton we learn that a terrible 
tragedy occurred at a small place called Mud Brook at 
Sandwich Bay, about ten days ago, wherein a young 
woman whose name, the captain thinks, was White, was 
torn in pieces by six Indian dogs. The girl, with her 
father and another sister had only landed there the day 
before the accident occurred, and on the night of the 
tragedy the victim left to go to a friend’s house some 
distance away. The Indian dogs there are a very 
ferocious lot, and attacking the girl on the journey prac¬ 
tically tore her in pieces. The noise of the dogs as they 
narried her, and her screams when first attacked, were 
heard by some of the people who on arrival at the 
scene beheld an awful sight. There lay the poor girl 
with her clothing torn into shreds, her flesh terribly 
lacerated, and the spot covered with blood. The poor 
girl was practically disembowelled by the brutes and 
died in less than half an hour after she was borne home. 
Some time ago an American photographer took 
a number of views of caribou for use in a kineto- 
scope in the United States, flhere is anothei 
artist in the interior at present getting pictures. 
These no doubt will be a good advertisement 
for the sporting facilities of the island 
At this writing we are having what we did not 
get since early in the spring, namely a good 
downpour of rain. The oldest inhabitant does 
not remember such a dry sunny summer as we 
have had this year. This was bad for the ang¬ 
lers, as the brooks suffered, but since the shoot¬ 
ing season opened it has been grand weather for 
tramping the barrens and camping out. 
The reports from the ptarmigan hunters are 
more encouraging. It will be seen from the fol¬ 
lowing that some of them had real good sport: 
T. M. McNeil and J. M. McNeil have secured 
seventy-five birds since the shooting season 
opened. W. C. Job, who had been shooting over 
the Cape Shore grounds with Dr. Rendell, had 
good sport, securing seventy-six birds. F. and 
N. LeMessurier, shooting on the Cape Shore 
grounds, had fairly good success, securing thirty- 
six birds for four days’ shooting. W and C. 
Henry were out to Petty Harbor barrens and 
brought out a bag of birds each and reported 
them plentiful. T. Neary and M. Gaul bagged 
seventy birds on the Western Bay grounds. 
His Excellency, Sir Wm. MacGregor and W. 
D. Reid, have arrived home after a six days’ 
shooting excursion up country. They operated 
on Tickle Harbor barrens and had excellent 
sport, taking a fine bag of birds which were 
plentiful though wild. 
While shooting at Quarry, Mr. D. Bentley se¬ 
cured besides two heads with twenty-nine and 
thirty-two-point antlers twenty partridge and 
four hares. Several American sportsmen se¬ 
cured their full complement of heads, some of 
them with thirty-five and thirty-six points. 
Quite a snow storm raged on the Topsails and 
the ground was covered with snow. 
At the commencement of the open season a 
number of sportsmen visited the country in 
search of the feathered biped. Some fair bags 
of birds were brought back by Ernest Godden, 
who secured eleven partridges; G. H. Badcock, 
seven partridges and one snipe; Wm. Carson, 
five partridges; Wm. Ward, four; Willis Davis 
and E. Mifflin, ten birds; John Dove and Steven¬ 
son, nine. W. J. Carroll. 
Vermont Deer Shooting Stopped. 
Governor Prouty, of Vermont, on Oct. 21, 
signed a bill passed by the Legislature empower¬ 
ing him to suspend the open season for hunting 
of any kind, and on the same day issued a 
proclamation making a close season on all game 
from Oct. 23 to Nov. 8, both dates inclusive. 
The reasons for the Governor’s action are 
found in the act which became effective at once, 
and which is in part as follows: 
Section 1 . Whenever, during an open season for the 
hunting of any kind of game in this State, it shall 
appear to the Governor that by reason of drouth the use 
of firearms in the forests is liable to cause forest fires, 
he may, by proclamation, suspend the open season and 
make it a close season for such time as he may designate. 
Section 2 . During the time which shall by such 
proclamation be made a close season, all provisions of 
law covering and relating.to the close season shall be in 
force, and a person violating a provision of the same 
shall be subject to the penalties therein prescribed. In 
case any person shall shoot during the close season fixed 
by proclamation of the Governor, as provided in the 
preceding section, any wild animal or bird for the hunt¬ 
ing of which there is no close season otherwise provided 
by law, he shall be punished by a fine of one hundred 
dollars and costs. 
Section 3 provides for the proper notice to 
all citizens, and Section 5 contains the enacting 
clause, while Section 4 is as follows: 
Section 4 . In case the Governor shall, by proclama¬ 
tion issued under the provisions of this act, make a close 
season which shall include the period which, by the 
provisions of Section 4321 of the Public Statutes, is an 
open season for the hunting of deer, he shall by a 
proclamation issued and published as provided in Sec¬ 
tion 3 of this act, fix some period of six consecutive 
working days, in the same year, as an open season 
for the hunting of deer; and during such open 
season so fixed, all persons shall have the same right to 
hunt deer as is provided by Section 4321 of the Public 
Statutes, for the hunting of deer therein specified. All 
other provisions of law relating to the hunting of deer 
shall be of force and effect during the open season 
therefor, so fixed by proclamation. 
Governor Prouty’s proclamation is couched in 
the following terms: 
“Whereas, it appears to me, the Governor of 
the State of Vermont, that at the present time, 
by reason of drouth, the use of firearms in the 
forests of the State of Vermont is liable to cause 
forest fires, therefore; 
“By the authority vested in me as Governor 
of the State of Vermont, under the provisions 
of the foregoing act of the General Assembly, I 
do hereby and by this proclamation, suspend the 
open season for the hunting of any kind of game 
in the State of Vermont and do make and de¬ 
clare the period of time beginning and including 
the 23d day of October, 1908, to and including 
the 8th day of November, 1908, a close season 
for the hunting of any kind of game anywhere 
within the borders of the State of Vermont; 
and all persons shall govern themselves accord¬ 
ingly and be subject to the provisions and penal¬ 
ties provided by the act above recited.” 
For such game as grouse, squirrels, rab¬ 
bits, wildfowl, etc., the season for which closes 
in December or later, the suspension will be 
temporary only, and they can be hunted again 
on Nov. 9. 
Water Control in Pennsylvania. 
The annual report of the Pennsylvania State 
Water Supply Commision is an interesting 
document, for it not only recites what has been 
done by its members, but recommends in the 
strongest terms those reforms which must be 
effected if relief from the extremes of flood and 
drouth is ever to be realized. 
A portion of the report is given herewith: 
One of the causes which lessens the available 
water supply is deforestation, and the results 
of the work of this commission show that 
stream flow is more irregular than formerly, 
and the value of the streams to the common¬ 
wealth greatly decreased for this reason. To 
preserve the present value of our streams, active 
steps must be continued to protect and pre¬ 
serve the existing forest lands of the State, as 
well as to reforest those districts which have 
been denuded of the timber land. 
The legislation of 1907, preventing the dam¬ 
ming or obstructing of public or navigable 
streams without the approval of this commis¬ 
sion, has proved beneficial in preserving the 
stream flow and water supply of the State, as 
well as in lessening the possibility of damage 
from such streams. 
Water companies have always been considered 
to be public utility corporations in the highest 
sense of that term, for their object is to supply 
a necessity which every community demands, 
and in order to insure the public receiving this, 
as far as possible, and under the best conditions, 
water companies were given extraordinary 
powers. 
Water franchises became a matter of traffic, 
and some water companies were formed with 
no real intention of supplying the public de¬ 
mands, but only to seize and hold valuable 
water supplies for speculative purposes, or for 
the private needs of individuals or corporations. 
Accordingly, the Legislature of 1905 passed 
two acts, one of which, approved April 13, 1905, 
took from water companies the right of eminent 
domain over waters; and the other, the Act of 
May 4, 1905, created the water supply commis¬ 
sion of Pennsylvania, whose duty is to adopt 
such ways and means of utilizing, conserving 
and distributing water supplies in such a way 
that the various communities of the State shall 
be fairly and equitably dealt with, and provid¬ 
ing that thereafter no water companies could 
be chartered without the approval of the com¬ 
mission. 
The effectiveness of the legislation of 1905, 
creating this commission, in remedying the 
evils which existed previously, may be noted 
in the number of water companies formed be¬ 
fore and since its passage. Thus, as against an 
average of about 120 companies per year for 
five years preceding the passage of the act, but 
seven companies were formed during the seven 
months of 1905, following the creation of the 
commission, thirty companies were formed dur¬ 
ing 1906, and thirty-two companies during 1907. 
Before the passage of this act it had been 
the custom, in many instances, for railroad com¬ 
panies, whose lines lie along large rivers, to 
make fills beyond the existing banks thereof for 
the purpose of obtaining additional track fa¬ 
cilities. Since the passage of this act such com¬ 
panies have been required to obtain the perrnis- 
(Continued on page 759.) 
