Feb. 12, 1910.] 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
Saskatchewan Game Laws. 
Regina, Feb. 1 .—Editor Forest and Stream: 
At the session of the Saskatchewan Legislative 
Assembly just past, the game ordinance was 
amended in several important respects. The pro¬ 
hibition of Sunday shooting was made more em¬ 
phatic by adding the words “and the carrying of 
a gun ready for use in the vicinity of game shall 
be prima facie evidence of hunting.” The open 
season for chicken has, owing to the rapid de¬ 
crease in numbers of this, our favorite game 
bird, been reduced to the month of October. The 
close season for beaver has been extended to 
the year 1915, but power is given the Minister 
of Agriculture to permit the breaking of dams 
or removal of beaver when they are found to 
be damaging property. The use of poison for 
the destruction of fur-bearing animals is. for¬ 
bidden, but this term does not include wolves, 
and the export of unprime skins is prohibited. 
A fee of $1 must now be paid for a permit to 
export a deer and a like sum for each shipment 
of one dozen or less of ducks or geese, and no 
person may export in one season more than five 
dozen of such birds. No permits may be granted 
for export of dead prairie chicken or other 
grouse. 
A new schedule of licenses to shoot has been 
made as follows: 
For residents of cities, towns and villages, 
bird license . $1.00 
For all residents of Saskatchewan, big- 
game license . 2.00 
For non-residents of Saskatchewan, big- 
game license . 50.00 
For non-residents of Saskatchewan, bird 
license (season) . 25.00 
For non-residents of Saskatchewan, bird 
license (six days) . 10.00 
Provision for the issue of permits for guests 
has been repealed. 
Taxidermists doing business in the province 
must pay a license of $5 annually. 
Penalties for contraventions of the game ordi¬ 
nance now range from a minimum of $10 to $300 
and costs according to the nature of the offense. 
Persons away from home in close season are 
liable to be searched by game guardians if found 
carrying guns as if for use, and provision has 
been made for the issue of warrants for search 
of buildings. 
The most important amendment to the game 
ordinance is the setting apart of the Dominion 
forest reserves known as The Beaver Hills, The 
Pines, The Moose Mountain and the Porcupine 
Reserves as game refuges where the carrying of 
guns and hunting and trapping at any time are 
forbidden. In this matter the provincial authori¬ 
ties are co-operating with the Dominion Forestry 
service. 
The annual meeting of the Game Protective 
Association of Saskatchewan held in Regina was 
on the whole a great success and was filled with 
unusually interesting reports by several of the 
officers of the association. 
T. N. Willing, the chief game guardian of the 
province, in his report of progress on certain 
issues for which he had been delegated, censured 
the Legislature for their failure to pass legisla¬ 
tion that was petitioned foi; by the association 
at their last meeting. The Government w-as ex¬ 
pected to introduce certain bills, pertaining to 
the game conditions in the province, and their 
neglect to do so caused the game guardian to 
express his regret. The association is doing a 
good work and is rapidly growing stronger. 
1 he annual election of officers followed the 
completion of the regular business, and the fol¬ 
lowing were elected officers: Hon. President, 
W. R. Motherwell; Hon. Vice-President, T. N. 
Willing; President, Dr. Low; Vice-President, J. 
A. Wetmore; Secretary, W. M. Van Valken- 
burg; Directors, H. F. Mytton, H. Acaster and 
H. C. Lawson. j. H. M. 
Speculations on a New Brunswick Moose 
Oxbow, N. B., Canada, Feb. 2.— Editor Forest 
and Stream: Accompanying this little moose 
talk is a photograph taken by John S. Perry of 
what I consider to be New Brunswick’s record 
moose horns and which I thought might be in¬ 
teresting to some of the many readers of your 
interesting magazine. 
The antlers in question we found (shed) on 
a clean maple ridge in one of the most remote 
sections of the province, and they were of such 
MR. OGILVY’s MOOSE ANTLERS. 
unusual size and beauty and so well mated that 
I concluded they were shed by the same animal, 
consequently I had them mounted as near to 
their proper position as I could, and when done 
they gave a spread of 72^ inches. Their other 
measurements are as follows: Points on each, 
18; width of palms, one 16 inches, the other 15 
inches; and in length one measures 471/j and the 
other 50^2 inches; the latter measurement being 
taken from the longest points at the upper end 
of the horns, thence down the back to the long¬ 
est brow points. There is of course room for' 
argument as to the spread of this set of antlers 
when they were the property of the moose. It 
remains a problem whether their spread was 
under 72 inches or more; they could easily hav& 
been more. I think, however, that there is no 
doubt but that this grand specimen of the New 
Brunswick moose, either before or since we 
found the horns, had or has carried record ant¬ 
lers on his head. To my mind these antlers go 
to show that there are moose in this province 
that compare very favorably with the Alaskan 
monsters. 
An American sportsman and I had the pleas¬ 
ure one day of meeting this grand old bull face 
to face, and although the sportsman turned, he 
had jumped in the moose’s direction and poured 
in a volley of shots. There seemed to me no 
visible deadly effects, as buck fever had the 
sportsman shaking all over by its effects, and 
the atmosphere possessing at this time the deadly 
missiles intended for the moose, his lordship 
made good time for another part of the coun¬ 
try. He carried a magnificent set of antlers on 
his head when we saw him, which I guessed 
would spread about seven feet, and I had a 
steel tape all ready to measure them, but he 
left and my reputation was spared. 
I he year following this another of our sports¬ 
men had a good look at what I supposed was 
the same big bull. We found him feeding in 
a small pond and we sat down and watched him 
for half an hour. This time his antlers showed 
a tremendous growth, looking even bigger than 
before. Again the monarch’s life was spared, 
as this sportsman had killed his moose a few 
days before, never dreaming that he should meet 
with such a monster as this in New Brunswick, 
but he was a true sportsman and did not draw 
a bead, hoping to get back some other time when 
he would not kill until he saw the real giant 
again. To the best of my belief this moose still 
' lves> David Ogilvy. 
Birds in the Sleet Storm. 
Williamsport, Pa., Feb. 7. — Editor Forest and 
Stream: During the middle of the week of Jan. 
3 there was general throughout Central Pennsyl¬ 
vania a storm of sleet that lasted some eighteen 
hours and covered trees, bushes and even the 
stubble standing in the fields with a thick coat 
of ice. 
Such storms in my experience are followed by 
warmer weather that soon frees the vegetation 
of its coat of mail, but in this case it was dif¬ 
ferent, and for a week the trees, bushes and 
plants continued to carry their load. On the 
Sunday following the storm I drove over some 
twenty miles of country roads and through the 
woods, and while the sun, shining through the 
branches of the trees and across the stalks in 
the fields, made a rare and wonderful picture, I 
could not help wondering how the wild life in 
w 7 oods and fields was faring. Excepting for the 
center the branches and twigs of the trees and 
stems and grass of the fields might have been 
made of glass. The top of the wild carrot was 
a ball as thick as one’s fist and yet often it stood 
erect supported on a stem of glass thicker than 
one’s finger. Many trees were bowed or broken 
entirely off. 
In this section at this season of the year the 
food of the ruffed grouse is the buds of the 
birch. I have frequently seen along mountain 
roads early in the morning or late in the even¬ 
ing a dozen of these birds perched in a birch tree 
busily at work filling their crops with buds. But 
during the week that followed the storm no 
grouse could have had birch buds on its bill of 
fare. They were put in cold storage beyond the 
reach of any bird. It is possible that where a 
flock of grouse was inhabiting a dense laurel 
swamp or an evergreen thicket so close that the 
ground had not been covered with ice, the grouse 
could manage to scratch and peck enough from 
the ground and the bushes to survive, but it must 
have been a very meagre diet. And yet a phy¬ 
sician of my acquaintance, who lives close to the 
edge of a large forest and who generally knows 
what is going on within its depths, told me that 
in his opinion only those birds caught in the 
open woods would perish. On the other hand a 
forest warden who traverses weekly large 
stretches of mountain territory, expressed it as 
his opinion that all small game that depended 
on the vegetation for a living must starve. He 
