Forest and Stream 
Terms, $3 a Year, 10 Cts. a Copy. 
Six Months, $1.50. 
NEW YORK, SATURDAY, DECEMBER 26, 1908. 
1 VOL. LXXL—No. 26, 
I No. 127 Franklin St., New York- 
A WEEKLY JOURNAL. 
Copyright, 1908, by Forest and Stream Publishing Co. 
George Bird Grinnell, President, 
Charles 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. 
MARCHING FORWARD DOWN SOUTH. 
South of Mason and Dixon’s line and east of 
the Mississippi River, there is probably more 
game than in any equal area in the United 
States. Unfortunately, however, the laws of 
many of these States are neither worded nor 
enforced so as to protect this game, and as the 
country fills up, guns grow cheaper and rail¬ 
roads extend their lines, something very like 
a clean sweep of the game is threatened. 
A State notable for its changed views as to 
game protection within a short time is Ala¬ 
bama, of which Mr. John H. Wallace, Jr., is 
game and fish commissioner. Mr. Wallace is 
a man of modern views, and at the opening of 
the Legislature of 1907 he caused to be intro¬ 
duced a comprehensive game bill which pro¬ 
vided for a State game commissioner, a well 
equipped department of game and fish, a license 
system, the prohibition of sale and of shipment, 
the protection of non-game birds, limits of sea¬ 
sons, and the creation of a game protection 
fund. Important among its clauses was one re¬ 
pealing “all laws and parts of laws, general, 
special or local, in conflict with the provisions 
of this act.” Here then was a fresh start in 
game protection for one of the Southern States 
—built on a solid foundation. The work of en¬ 
forcing the new law has not been easy, and the 
Commissioner has met not a few obstacles, 
which, however, his patience and energy have 
largely overcome. 
As a part of his work, Commissioner Wallace 
is striving to educate his people as to the State's 
duty to its population in regard to game. He 
shows that game laws benefit the people at large, 
especially farmers; that certain practices such 
as night hunting, the sale and shipping of game, 
the killing of wild turkeys at all seasons, the 
destruction of song and insectivorous birds, and 
of deer are an injury to the people. That song 
and insectivorous birds should be preserved is 
now recognized in Alabama and a bird day— 
which last year was celebrated in every public 
school in the State—has been set aside by the 
superintendent of education. Fish protection is 
being looked after and streams are being stocked. 
Unfortunately under the present law the Ala¬ 
bama statutes do not apply to the salt waters 
of the State, nor to any waters in which the 
tide ebbs and flows. This is a serious matter, 
since the salt water fish are of great importance 
commercially and ought to yield something to 
the State. 
The good work being done in Alabama is most 
encouraging and we believe it will continue. 
LOSS TO GEOLOGICAL SURVEY. 
Irreparable damage was done by a fire which 
last week swept the fifth and part of the sixth 
stories of the building in Washington in which 
the U. S. Geological Survey is housed. The fire, 
which started about 9 o’clock, was extinguished 
by midnight, but fire and water are believed to 
have destroyed a vast amount of field notes taken 
by members of the Survey, together with many 
maps almost as valuable as the field notes. This 
is first hand knowledge which can never be re¬ 
placed, and whose loss cannot be measured in 
dollars and cents. 
The building occupied by the Geological Sur¬ 
vey is rented by the Government, and while said 
to be the first fireproof building erected in Wash¬ 
ington, it was the scene of a fire four years ago. 
That the damage was not greater is due to the 
promptness of the firemen in reaching the scene. 
OlfR GAME BIRDS. 
In most of the States of the North, the shoot¬ 
ing is practically over, and the field results for 
the year have been quite unsatisfactory. Ruffed 
grouse, while in most localities somewhat more 
numerous than in the autumn of 1907, have still 
been few in number. Reports of prairie chickens 
are not encouraging. Quail do not appear to 
have made any perceptible gain, and are espec¬ 
ially scarce in portions of Virginia and North 
Carolina, where it is believed by many that the 
torrential rains of last August almost extermi¬ 
nated the birds in certain localities. From locali¬ 
ties in the nearer West they are said to be few. 
As against the discouragement felt by sports¬ 
men in relation to the increasing scarcity of gal¬ 
linaceous birds, there is comfort in the thought 
that the woodcock seem really to have increased. 
The bags made during the past autumn in many 
localities, where for years past the woodcock has 
been hardly more abundant than the great auk, 
lead us to hope that these birds may again be¬ 
come fairly numerous. If they are to become 
so, however, sportsmen must practice control in 
killing them; a strict limit should be put in the 
bag, and seasons should be shortened. 
The effort to replace our native bird by exotic 
species continues. A few years ago pheasants 
were all the rage. Now the tide seems to have 
turned in favor of the European partridge, which 
is being put out in many of the States of the 
nearer West as well as in New England. It is 
well to experiment with the bird. Yet with all 
the different grouse and quail indigenous to this 
country, it would seem that America might bet¬ 
ter supply her wants by propagation of her own 
native stock. We believe that the best mode of 
game protection yet devised is the establishment 
of refuges where killing shall be absolutely pre¬ 
vented, and where, vermin being destroyed so far 
as possible, the birds may reproduce their kind 
under the most favorable conditions. 
In view of the fact that the Forest, Fish and 
Game Commission and the courts have ruled ad¬ 
versely on Timothy Woodruff’s application for 
permission to build a private road through the 
Adirondack Park to his camp, the recent organi¬ 
zation of a dirigible balloon company is interest¬ 
ing. While the State does not grant special 
privileges to persons whose preserves are sur¬ 
rounded by State lands, there is nothing to pre¬ 
vent the owner of Camp Killkare and his friends 
from establishing an aerial route. This, too, 
might have other advantages. For a time at 
least, it would be free from trespassers, and 
grades, fills, cuts and bridges need not trouble 
the engineer establishing it. 
K 
In Maine during the shooting season there 
were 3,300 deer and 125 moose killed and re¬ 
ported. She is credited with the loss of twenty 
persons out of the total of thirty-five said to 
have been killed in the New England States and 
the Provinces by mistake for game and by acci¬ 
dent while hunting. It seems, however, that more 
of these fatalities than usual may be credited to 
carelessness with firearms, as the total number 
reported to have been killed by mistake for deer 
is only six. If this be true, some good has re¬ 
sulted from the frequent warnings published for 
the benefit of hunters. 
*?, 
Vermont sportsmen are to be congratulated. 
H. G. Thomas, whose term as game and fish 
commissioner expired on the first of December, 
has been reappointed by the Governor. Mr. 
Thomas’ record is one of which the sportsmen 
of Vermont are proud. If they have anything 
to regret, it is that the commissioner’s term is 
only two years; but a great deal of good can be 
done in that brief time, as Mr. Thomas has 
proved by his work during the term just expired. 
* 
After a personal investigation of the oyster 
beds of Cape Cod, Great South Bay and Lynn- 
haven Bay, in Virginia, Dr. Walter Bensel, of 
the New York City Department of Health, has 
declared that the oysters from these places are 
wholesome and good. No fear of typhoid fever 
as a result of using them need be felt, he says, 
as these grounds do not appear to be contami¬ 
nated by sewage. 
