Forest and Stream 
Terms, $3 a Year. 10 Cts. a Copy. 
Six Months, $1.50. 
NEW YORK, SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 5 , 1910 . 
VOL. LXXIV.-No. 6. 
No. 127 Franklin St., New York. 
A WEEKLY JOURNAL. 
Copyright, 1909, by Forest and Stream Publishing Co. 
George Bird Grinnell, President, 
Charles B. Reynolds, Secretary, 
Louis Dean Sfeir, Treasurer, 
127 Franklin Street, New York. 
SHALL MASSACHUSETTS GO BACK? 
A strong effort is now being made by the 
gunners of Cape Cod, Martha’s Vineyard and 
other districts on the Massachusetts coast, to 
repeal or change the law passed last year which 
protects all wild ducks and geese between Jan. 
l and Sept. 15. This law is Chapter 421 of the 
Acts of 1909. 
As usual, the legislative Committee on Fisher¬ 
ies and Game is so chosen that a majority of 
its members come from the shore towns on 
the Cape and Martha’s Vineyard, so that there 
seems every probability that the committee will 
be with the gunners. 
Various methods of securing what they wish 
are being discussed by the persons interested. 
One plan is to exempt from protection several 
species of duck, such as the sheldrakes, sea 
ducks, coots or scoters, bluebills, redheads and 
others. Such an exemption, though not in terms 
a repeal of the law, would be one in practice. 
Another plan is to exempt Cape Cod and 
Martha’s Vineyard from the provisions of the 
bill and to permit residents of those districts 
to shoot as much as they please. What would 
no doubt be most satisfactory to the market 
gunners would be to repeal the whole bill, leav¬ 
ing the birds entirely without protection. 
It seems hardly conceivable that the Common¬ 
wealth of Massachusetts should take a backward 
step of this character, yet it may be done. Those 
who wish the law repealed, realizing that they 
have the Committee on Fisheries and Game on 
their side, have already, it is said, begun to 
pledge members of the Legislature to vote for 
some form of repeal, and it is high time that 
those interested in the protection of wildfowl 
should take up the work of resisting these ef¬ 
forts. Within recent years the States of New 
York and Connecticut have passed laws pro¬ 
tecting wildfowl in spring, and in each State 
strong efforts have been made to repeal the pro¬ 
tective law, but have been successfully fought. 
We have faith to believe that the good sports¬ 
men of Massachusetts will be strong enough in 
their views to make in their grand old Common¬ 
wealth as good a fight as was several times 
made in New York and at least once in Con¬ 
necticut. 
It must be understood, however, that it will 
be a fight and a hard one, and the Massachu¬ 
setts men who believe that wild ducks and geese 
should be protected in spring, must work hard 
and must use every legitimate argument to hold 
what they gained last year. 
THE FLOODS IN FRANCE. 
The terrible floods in France which have 
shocked the whole civilized world are now, it 
is' believed, beginning to abate. In view of the 
vast territory overflowed, the loss of life has 
been very slight. The loss of property will ulti¬ 
mately be repaired by the fine energy of the peo¬ 
ple. Frenchmen—and French women—have met 
this stupendous calamity with a courage worthy 
of the best traditions of their race, and their 
bearing in these trying times has received the 
admiration of the world. 
It is not likely that these floods will exercise 
any marked influence on the game supply of 
France. The waters rose gradually, and no doubt 
the game was driven slowly from the lower levels 
of the broad valleys to higher altitudes where 
it was safe. When the waters subside the game 
will return to its customary ranges with no loss 
except what may have been caused by the con¬ 
tinuous rains, which in the course of weeks may 
have chilled and destroyed some few birds and 
mammals. 
The region described in this issue in the ac¬ 
count of the pursuit of partridges with grey¬ 
hounds was largely overflowed, yet it is easy to 
conceive that when late summer and autumn 
shall have come around the greyhounds may 
again pursue the partridges over the wide plains 
of Chalons-sur-Marne. 
DYNAMITING FISH. 
A press dispatch from Asheville, N. C., says 
that by the accidental discharge of a stick of 
dynamite in the county court house at Bryson 
City one man was instantly killed, another lost 
both eyes and was otherwise seriously injured, 
and a third, the registrar of deeds of Swain 
county, was fatally injured. Two of the men 
were thawing the blasting powder on a radiator 
in preparation for what they called “a fishing 
trip” when the explosion came. 
Accidents similar to this one occasionally pre¬ 
vent the intended dynamiting of fish. By some 
they are regarded as a sort of merited punish¬ 
ment for lawbreakers. As a matter of fact, such 
accidents may occur whenever persons, ignorant 
of its sensitive nature, handle a high explosive, 
while every mining camp in the West has its 
record of experienced though careless men who 
have passed over the great divide through the 
agency of thawing blasting powder. 
To obtain evidence that will convict the fish 
dynamiter is. exceedingly difficult, for those 
skilled in the practice are thoroughly acquainted 
with the grounds on which they work, and if 
their suspicions are aroused after a “shot” has 
been fired, they have no difficulty in concealing 
their movements. Once in a safe place, with 
nothing in their possession that will betray them, 
they have no fear of the law. To catch them 
at work is more often the result of accident 
than design. There are waters that- are fre¬ 
quently dynamited, and the facts are known to 
people living in the vicinity, but for reasons 
best known to themselves they pretend not to 
see what is going on. 
This unwillingness to testify is greatly to be 
regretted. It is prevalent in the backwoods and on 
the wildfowl grounds; in the “moonshine whisky” 
country and in the forests where lumber crews 
are fed on “mountain mutton”; along trout 
streams; in the densely packed tenement dis¬ 
tricts where the tradesman who fails to heed 
“black hand” warnings is brought to time by 
means of a bomb. But wherever found there 
is the same disinclination on the part of those 
in possession of valuable information to assist 
the authorities. In one locality fear seals the 
lips of all; in another a misguided but earnest 
desire to “mind their own business” prevents 
those who could do so from assisting the au¬ 
thorities. 
Dynamiting streams and ponds is particularly 
despicable, because it is so wasteful. Not only 
the fish wanted for market or for personal use, 
but every living thing in the vicinity of the ex¬ 
plosion is destroyed or injured. 
An inkling of what is required of the game 
warden of to-day will be found elsewhere in 
this issue, in the report of the meeting in Al¬ 
bany of the protectors employed by the State 
Forest, Fish and Game Commission. Only those 
men who pass the civil service examination are 
retained or employed by the commission, and 
the result is a force of workers who act intelli¬ 
gently and with good judgment in all of the 
emergencies that arise. In their line of duty 
they are required to be not merely patrolmen 
but missionaries. The chief protector’s policy 
and theirs is to so educate the people that ar¬ 
rests and punishment for violations of the law 
will decrease; to instil into the mind of every 
youth and every alien resident the benefits that 
will accrue through careful observation of the 
law, and to impress on every person the desire 
of the department to work in harmony with the 
people, each assisting for the good of all. 
**» 
It is reported that in a number of the trout 
streams of Germany and Switzerland the fish 
have been dying from an unknown disease. 
European ichthyologists, with their greater ex¬ 
perience, corroborate the statements made by the 
fish culturists on this side of the Atlantic, that 
fish diseases are not well understood, and that a 
great deal remains to be learned about them. 
The Forest and Stream prize story contest, 
which closed with the old year, brought out a 
very large number of excellent manuscripts. To 
read all of them and to decide on their relative 
merits required considerable time, but within 
the next fortnight the classification will be fin¬ 
ished and the result announced in these columns. 
