Afril 16, 1910.] 
617 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
That day at least I quit because our bag was 
as large as I cared to make it. 
The interior of the island looked as if no man 
had ever set foot on it. Many deer antlers were 
scattered about, some of them gnawed by rats. 
We found hear tracks and cat tracks, and while 
Tom was scouting toward the other end of the 
island I saw within twenty feet of me a large 
buck sitting on a broken-off cypress, his legs 
folded under him. He was as motionless as a 
bronze deer. We looked at each other for a 
perceptible interval and then I walked off, not 
being loaded for deer. 
After we got out of the swamp I told Tom. 
He set his gun down, took off his hat and said, 
“Gee-whillikens!” James Henry Rice, Jr. 
Spring Duck Protection in Connecticut 
A letter from the secretary of the commis¬ 
sioners of fisheries and game of Connecticut 
shows the results there of a law similar to the 
one now in force in Massachusetts for the pro¬ 
tection of wildfowl. It is as follows: 
Any attempt to repeal the law protecting the wild¬ 
fowl during the spring months is a sad mistake 
and it is to be hoped that it will not prevail. I 
am sure that if protection is continued during 
a few years the people will have no cause to re¬ 
gret the act of self-denial and will never want 
to open it up again after having a practical 
demonstration of what scientific protection will 
do, not only for the wildfowl, but in the matter 
of dollars for the average duck shooter as well 
as sport for sportsmen. 
The encouraging conditions prevailing in Con¬ 
necticut at the present time as the direct result 
of stopping spring shooting justify me in saying 
that the same conditions would obtain through¬ 
out the United States and Canada if uniform 
laws regarding spring shooting were enacted. 
During a period of nearly forty years of my 
own observation of wildfowl life on the Con¬ 
necticut River, I have not for many years seen 
or heard of so many ducks as have been on the 
river during the past year. Black ducks have 
been more numerous and in larger flocks dur¬ 
ing the past year than I have known of for 
many years past. Broadbills were on the river 
in immense numbers all the time last fall and I 
have seen flocks, estimated to contain more than 
1,000, feeding within sight of my house. 
It is estimated, and by careful computation, 
that larger numbers of black ducks were shot 
and shipped from along the Connecticut River 
the past season than have been shot previously 
during a period of five years altogether. With 
all of these encouraging signs pointing to an 
abundance of wildfowl again, which will afford 
opportunity for royal sport for four months of 
the year, we are not now hearing the clamor for 
a longer open season. 
Those who for selfish reasons were most per¬ 
sistent in asking our Legislature for a longer 
open season have had presented to their actual 
view an object lesson which cannot be disputed, 
and they are convinced of the wisdom of pro¬ 
hibiting spring shooting of the wildfowl for all 
time, and we are confident from these results 
obtained during the brief two years of protec¬ 
tion and of the great increase which is sure to 
follow the coming fall, that no serious attempt 
will be made at the next session of the Legis¬ 
lature to lengthen the open season. 
It certainly is nothing more nor less than a 
selfish motive on the part of a few hunters to 
think for a moment of shooting wildfowl dur¬ 
ing their breeding period. Are the great mass 
of the people of the State going to stand for 
the extermination of such desirable species for 
food and sport as the wild ducks just to gratify 
the greed of a very small number of irrespon¬ 
sible hunters? 
We have records from reliable sources that 
a larger number of black ducks were bred in 
this State last spring than ever before, and that 
being a fact it is proof that the increase will be 
proportionately larger the coming season, and 
where the duck was left to nest in peace last 
spring those which survive this spring will re¬ 
turn to nest again. 
We know positively that there were large 
quantities of the black duck after the close of 
the open season, Jan. 1, and we know that if 
the season had extended into February or May, 
as formerly, that they would have been hunted 
strenuously until they had either all been killed 
or driven away. One of the best laws ever en¬ 
acted in the State of Connecticut for preserva¬ 
tion of the wild game of the State was when 
the Legislature of 1907 made the close season 
for wildfowl to begin Jan. 1, and we confidently 
expect that it will continue to be the law for a 
great many years to come. E. Hart Greer. 
Hunting in California. 
San Francisco, Cal., April 4 .— Editor Forest 
and Stream: Hunters are now turning their at¬ 
tention largely to wild goose hunting, and those 
who have visited the hunting grounds in Yolo, 
Solano, Colusa and Glen counties assert that no¬ 
where on the coast can better sport of this char¬ 
acter be had than here. A party from Rio Vista 
recently secured 100 of the birds in a day. The 
hunting grounds are easy of access and are being 
visited by many sportsmen from San Francisco 
and the bay territory. In the vicinity of Norman 
and Davis, Canada geese are to be found by the 
thousands, and gray and white geese are also 
to be found there in large numbers. The best 
season for these wildfowl is during the latter 
part of March and the first part of April. 
English snipe shooting has been allowed until 
the first of April, but there is a movement on 
foot to have the season end with the open sea¬ 
son for ducks, as hunters declare that many of 
the birds that have been killed during the past 
month have been filled with eggs. In Yolo and 
Colusa counties measures are being prepared and 
will be acted upon shortly to put an end to mar¬ 
ket hunting in the future in those counties. From 
the favored haunts of the duck comes the news 
that many of these birds are remaining here in¬ 
stead of migrating to the North, and on some 
of the preserves they are almost as plentiful as 
they are at the height of the season. 
Hungarian partridges liberated a year ago at 
the head of Sonoma Creek have multiplied in a 
very satisfactory manner and out of the original 
eighteen, more than eighty birds have been 
counted. The wild turkeys liberated in the 
Sequoia National Park are also doing well and 
are now mating and laying. A. P. B. 
All the game laws of the United States and 
Canada, revised to date and now in force, are 
given in the Game Laius in Brief. See adv. 
For the Glacier National Park. 
The veteran explorer, Nathaniel P. Langford, 
w'ho is well known as the practical discoverer of 
the \ ellowstone National Park, the man to whom 
we owe its existence and its first superintendent, 
is now the president of the Minnesota Historical 
Society, and resides at St. Paul. 
Mr. Langford is much interested in the bill 
to establish the Glacier National Park in the 
Northern Rocky Mountains and has written to 
Lion. James A. Tawney, of Minnesota, under 
date of April 4, a letter in its behalf which we 
are permitted to print. He says: 
A bill establishing the Glacier National Park 
in the Northern Rocky Mountains has passed 
the United States Senate and has been favorably 
reported to the House by the Public Lands Com¬ 
mittee of that body. 
The country has little timber, no mines, no 
arable land, but the high mountains are snow¬ 
capped and glacier-scored, and form a reservoir 
for waters which will be abundantly flowing for 
many generations. 
I do not know that there will be any opposi¬ 
tion to the bill in the House. It calls for no 
appropriation or expenditure of any kind on 
the part of the Government, and the advocates 
of the bill are willing to wait as long as we did 
in the case of the Yellowstone National Park 
before any appropriation by the Government is 
called for. 
I was one of the party of explorers who, in 
the year 1870, discovered the geysers of the Yel¬ 
lowstone National Park, and upon the passage 
of the act of dedication I was made superin¬ 
tendent of the park. I held this office for over 
five years without pay or compensation of any 
kind and paying my own expenses, and during 
this period not one dollar of money was appro¬ 
priated nor w r as any expense incurred by the 
Government for the care of the park. From 
the standpoint of my personal experience I am 
prepared to say that there can surely be found 
competent honest men who will be willing to 
perform a like service without compensation in 
caring for the Glacier National Park. 
I send by this mail a copy of my 1870 jour¬ 
nal, in the preface of which is a history of the 
legislation which resulted in the creation of the 
park and the subsequent efforts and labors of 
George Bird Grinnell, William Hallett Phillips 
and Senator Vest in its preservation. George 
Graham Vest is perhaps better known through¬ 
out the Rocky Mountain States for his services 
in the preservation of the Yellowstone National 
Park from the encroachments of private greed 
than for any other one service for the country 
while he was United States Senator. 
One of the most important functions of the 
Glacier National Park must always be that of 
a source of water supply for the arid land on 
either side of the mountains. 
The creation of these National parks confers 
a distinctive character upon our country, and 
through all coming time nothing will be of 
greater interest than the history of the explora¬ 
tion of those who first penetrated these far-off 
recesses of the mountains as well as of those 
through whose foresight these beauty spots have 
been preserved for the use and enjoyment of 
the American people. 
It is a matter of regret that Minnesota has so 
few attractive outing places. 
