Forest and Stream 
Terms, $3 a Year. 10 Cts. a Copy. 
Six Months, $1.50. 
NEW YORK, SATURDAY, APRIL 9, 1910. 
VOL. LXXIV.-No. 15. 
No. 127 Franklin St., New York. 
A WEEKLY JOURNAL. 
Copyright, 1910, by Forest J.nd 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. 
AS TO MIGRATORY BIRDS. 
There is now before the House of Represen¬ 
tatives a bill, introduced by Mr. Weeks, which 
brings up again a subject several times called 
to the attention of Congress within the past few 
years. Its purpose is to turn over to the Gov¬ 
ernment of the United States for custody and 
protection all migratory birds which in their 
Northern and Southern migrations pass through, 
but do not remain permanently for the entire 
year, within the borders of any State or Terri¬ 
tory. The Department of Agriculture is author¬ 
ized to adopt regulations fixing the closed sea¬ 
sons during which it shall not be lawful to shoot 
or capture such birds. Nothing in the bill shall 
be deemed to interfere with the local laws of 
States and Territories for the protection of game 
within their borders, nor to prevent States and 
Territories from enacting laws and regulations 
to render effective those established by the De¬ 
partment of Agriculture. 
In the year 1904 Hon. Geo. Shiras, 3d, intro¬ 
duced in Congress a bill providing for the turn¬ 
ing over to the United States the care and pro¬ 
tection of migratory birds and fishes. The mat¬ 
ter was then brought up more for the purpose 
of testing public opinion than for any other. It 
aroused much public interest, but the bill failed 
to pass. There were varying opinions on it 
among legislators, of whom many believed that 
the action suggested would be an interference 
with State rights and unconstitutional. Two 
years later Mr. Shiras wrote an elaborate brief 
on the matter, giving reasons why such action 
might properly be taken by Congress. D. C. 
Beaman, an eminent lawyer of Colorado, took 
the same view. 
The passage of a law such as this would ob¬ 
viously do much to protect our migratory birds, 
provided the regulations established by the Sec¬ 
retary of Agriculture were wisely drawn, and it 
is evident that it would be more easy to influence 
an individual to act in the right way than it is to 
influence Congress. 
Over a large part of the country we have ex¬ 
cellent laws protecting these migratory birds, but 
in many of the States these good laws are very 
badly enforced. It is characteristic of the Amer¬ 
ican people to believe that reforms may be in¬ 
stituted by the passage of laws, and until the 
American people learn that a faulty law well 
enforced is more effective than a good law un¬ 
enforced, we shall not make much progress in 
the way of game protection. 
Much effort is now being expended in trying 
to pass the Weeks bill. That it should pass is 
desirable, for it is a step in the right direction, 
and if enforced will accomplish much good. Yet 
since many good lawyers believe such a measure 
to bean interference with the rights of the States, 
and since this matter must be thrashed out at 
great length before the bill passes and will have 
to be adjusted if it should pass, we are not likely 
to see the law settled at once. Meantime it 
would be well if those who are so anxious to 
have this bill pass would expend some judicious 
effort on the game officials of their different 
States, towns and counties. After all it is on 
the local effort that we must depend for effi¬ 
cient game protection, and the enthusiast on this 
subject can do no better work in its behalf than 
'to urge it upon his neighbor, and his neighbor's 
neighbor. 
CANADA AT VIENNA. 
On Saturday last Warburton Pike, of Vic¬ 
toria, British Columbia, sailed from New York 
on his way to the Vienna Hunting Exposition. 
He takes with him for an exhibit in Vienna a 
large and fine collection of heads, horns and 
skins of British Columbia big game, and at the 
exposition will have charge of Canada’s exhibit. 
A number of British Columbia sportsmen have 
loaned their trophies for exhibition, and it is 
not to be doubted that the show will be very 
interesting. 
Mr. Pike is of course remembered by all big- 
game hunters as the Northern traveler who wrote 
that fascinating book “The Barren Grounds of 
Northern Canada,” and, the other interesting 
volume “Through the Sub-Arctic Forest.” Not 
long ago with an English friend he went south 
on a hunting trip into Lower California and 
Mexico, and for some weeks the newspapers 
declared that he was lost and professed to give 
accounts of expeditions sent out to discover him. 
Meantime, however, Mr. Pike calmly went his 
way and finally turned up at Victoria, having 
had, as he said, the finest kind of a time. 
It will be remembered that a year or two ago 
an effort was made to induce Congress to appro¬ 
priate money for an American exhibit of hunt¬ 
ing trophies at Vienna, but that the Senate was 
unwilling to consent to the appropriating of any 
money for this purpose. Canada alone will rep¬ 
resent North America at Vienna, and in respect 
to this exposition the United States finds itself 
in the same position that it occupied in respect 
to the Pablo buffalo herd which Canada so wisely 
purchased and took away from us—left behind. 
The United States Senate has passed a bill, 
carrying an appropriation of $15,000, for the 
establishment of an auxiliary fish cultural sta¬ 
tion in connection with the hatchery at Nashua, 
N. H. 
DEATH OF ALEXANDER AGASSIZ. 
1 he death last week of Prof. Alexander 
Agassiz removes another of the older genera¬ 
tion of eminent scientific men. 
Prof. Agassiz—Alex. Agassiz, as he was affec¬ 
tionately called by his associates of a generation 
ago—was born in Switzerland, came to America 
at the age of fifteen, graduated at Harvard five 
years later and from the Lawrence Scientific 
School in 1857. He did much work in collecting 
and sketching for his father, but in 1865 he went 
to Lake Superior and was appointed superin¬ 
tendent of the Calumet mine. On this and the 
neighboring Hecla mine he worked for four 
years, developing the properties and making the 
most of them, and in 1869 he returned to Bos¬ 
ton as the president of the joint company. 
Phis work gave him large wealth and he re¬ 
turned to his biological pursuits, in which he 
attained the highest eminence. His means en¬ 
abled him to carry out projects that a poor man 
could never have handled, and his benefactions 
to science and to Harvard University were very 
great. It is said that to Harvard University he 
has given $500,000. His collections, his work in 
South America, his report on sea urchins for the 
Challenger expedition, and his later deep sea 
work—all of it paid for out of his own private 
purse—have given him fame that will be lasting. 
APRIL DAYS. 
When the trout season opened in New Jersey 
and on Long Island last week, anglers found 
their favorite streams lower and clearer than 
is usual for the season. The warm, calm days 
of the last half of March, and the absence of 
rain left the marshes in much better condition 
than usual, and so the brooks and creeks were 
easily followed. 
In New Jersey the results of stocking one¬ 
time depleted brooks with speckled trout have 
begun to show, and fair sport was had on numer¬ 
ous small streams whose beds have not been 
trodden by trout fishermen in recent years. 
There are trout in these streams in fair num¬ 
bers, but the majority are still small. Unscrupu¬ 
lous fishers, who keep all they catch, and for¬ 
eigners who take fingerlings by stunning them 
with hammers as they hide under stones, should 
be punished, else the work will be wasted. 
The snow in the North Woods melted much 
earlier than the average, and on All Fools Day 
the ice in the larger lakes had broken up and 
was running out. This occurred nearly a month 
earlier than last year, although during the past 
winter the total snowfall was about nine feet 
and the ice was thick. 
In the Eastern States the mild days of March 
also affected the forests and waters, and it is 
said that the trout fishing, which opens with the 
clearing of the lakes, will begin as early if not 
indeed before the date of last season’s'opening, 
which was in April instead of May. 
