May 14, 1910.] 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
777 
The Miller Hippos. 
New Orleans, La., May 4.— Editor Forest 
and Stream: The sportsmen of Louisiana are 
greatly interested in the session of the Legisla¬ 
ture which convenes for sixty days in Baton 
Rouge in May on account of the several game 
law amendments which will be introduced, and 
the act governing the game commission. The 
commission itself will introduce several amend¬ 
ments which it is claimed will remedy certain 
defects, so that there will be less friction than 
heretofore. 
It is known that one novel feature will be a 
law for the protection of hippopotami which 
it is intended to be imported into this State for 
the purpose of destroying the Japanese pond 
lilies. The United States Government, it is said, 
will set aside a fund for the purpose of pur¬ 
chasing hippopotami in Africa, and Congressman 
Brussard, of this State, has applied for quite a 
number of these animals to be sent to Louisiana. 
It is believed that the hippopotami will eat the 
water hyacinths and render an excellent and de¬ 
sirable service. It is pointed out also that these 
animals are entirely harmless and their meat is 
fine for human consumption and will largely 
take the place of pork and beef and thus con¬ 
tribute to the food supply of the people. 
Commissioner Miller says it will be useless to 
import hippopotami unless they are protected by 
law, as they will soon be exterminated. The 
question of the hyacinths in a large number of 
the streams in Louisiana is quite a serious one 
on account of navigation and the destruction of 
fish as well. He says the hyacinths absorb much 
of the oxygen in the water, causing the fish to 
perish. It is claimed that the hippopotami are 
perfectly harmless and are no more vicious than 
the ordinary hog. 
There is no doubt that the game commission 
has a number of enemies in several sections of 
the State who will try to have the body abol¬ 
ished by law. There are some who would like 
to see the rules and regulations governing hunt¬ 
ing and fishing placed in the hands of the police 
juries of the different parishes (counties) and 
the handling of all funds arising from licenses 
to fish and hunt handled by the police juries. 
There are some who are opposed to general laws 
on these subjects and they contend for what they 
call home rule in local communities. There are 
others who want more lenient laws and some 
who do not favor charging anything at all for 
licenses, and still others who are opposed to such 
long closed seasons. 
According to the estimates based on official 
reports the increase in game during the past 
season was 18 per cent., taking the State as a 
whole. Deer increased 10 per cent, and quail 
about 20. The sale from muskrat skins for the 
season is estimated to have brought to Louis¬ 
iana not less than $1,200,000 and from other furs 
$1,800,000. The remarkable demand during the 
past season for muskrat skins gave employment 
to scores of trappers who made more money 
than ever before out of this business. It is 
stated by those who have studied such matters 
that the muskrat destroys young alligators and 
also does a great deal of damage to levees and 
consequently his decimation serves a good end. 
It seems highly probable that a closed season 
will be provided by law for squirrels which here¬ 
tofore have had no protection in Louisiana. The 
squirrels have not increased in the last year or 
The game commission was presented with a 
sturgeon by some fishermen which weighed 169 
pounds this week. The fish was caught off the 
coast of Grand Isle. The sturgeon gave up 
thirty pounds of eggs which are worth over a 
dollar a pound. It is one of the largest fish 
caught in the Gulf in a long while and it was 
stuffed and placed on exhibition. In this con¬ 
nection it is stated that the game commission 
will establish a fish and bird exhibit to be taken 
over the State and remain in several of the 
towns for a few days at a time. Mr. Miller 
says that he thinks this exhibit will be appre¬ 
ciated by the school children of Louisiana and 
its educational value will be far reaching. Mr. 
Miller and Attorney Amos Ponder, of the com¬ 
mission, have delivered numerous lectures over 
the State on fish and game subjects, and it is 
thought this exposition will be a valuable sup¬ 
plement to these lectures. F. G. G. 
The Dog’s Punishment. 
A pretty story concerning our friend the dog 
is found in Father Meier’s “Myths and Tales of 
the Gazelle Peninsula in New Britain.” It con¬ 
flicts with our ideas of the dog’s faithfulness, yet 
it is interesting. The islanders’ story follows: 
In times before, that is to say once upon a 
time, the dog’s face was small like ours, his 
mouth was as the mouth of a man and he could 
talk. Just by reason of that fact the dog’s mas¬ 
ter found himself unable to lay up any store of 
shell money. 
When the dog’s master went with another 
man’s wife, the dog went to the injured husband 
and said: “To An, my master, ‘calling him by 
whatsoever name he had,’ has been walking out 
with your wife!” 
When the dog’s master stole his neighbor’s 
cocoanuts the dog betook himself to the owner 
of the plantation and said: “My master has 
stolen your cocoanuts and has eaten them, for 
I was there with him!” 
Even when the dog’s master went out to steal 
another man’s chickens the dog went to the 
owner of the fowls and divulged the matter in 
these words: “My master has stolen a hen from 
you, for I was there with him!” 
So the man was all the time paying out his 
shell money in compensation. Then one of his 
neighbors said to him: “What are we to do 
with that dog of yours? He betrays us in all 
we do, he is at the bottom of most of the fights 
between ourselves; we’re sick and tired of him. 
Now, think out what you can do to him!” 
The master beguiled the dog and enticed him 
to him and then he pulled his mouth wide open; 
he slit his face in two, so that it became big and 
the dog could speak no more, but only howl. 
Then said the man: “All the other of our 
domestic animals ought to have big faces, too; 
then they may see as much as they please of 
what goes on, but they cannot tell about it.” 
So they slashed the pig’s face into a big snout, 
too. Thus it is that the dog and the pig have 
big faces and no longer can divulge such things 
as robbery and pilfering and the theft of cocoa- 
nuts and chickens and matrimonial infelicities 
and the stealing of bananas. 
All the game laws of the "United States and 
Canada, revised to date and now in force, are 
given in the Game Laws in Brief. See adv. 
The Young Idea—Deer. 
Bennington, Vt., April 25.— Editor Forest and 
Stream: Permit me to offer a little friendly 
comment on two articles in this week’s issue of 
Forest and Stream. In the course of a very 
interesting and instructive article entitled “The 
Young Idea and Shooting,” the author offers 
some advice to the young to which I must take 
exception. 
After giving very capable instructions about 
teaching the young boy how to aim his gun, the 
author says: “After which he may be taken to 
a field and allowed a shot or two at small birds 
which may be perched on a tree.” To that ad¬ 
vice I most earnestly object. “Small birds which 
may be perched on a tree!” It makes no differ¬ 
ence, I suppose, what species of bird it is. Any 
useful, innocent, beautiful little song bird will 
do. Rather may that boy never see a gun nor 
hold one in his hands; rather let him be a molly¬ 
coddle and be frightened at the sound of a gun 
than start him in that way. Before boys are 
taught to use firearms in the woods and fields 
they should be thoroughly taught the value of 
these small birds to us and to them. The lesson 
should be fully instilled into their little heads 
that these small birds have a place in nature and 
are the friends of man, and that it is wrong to 
kill or molest them. In my opinion more harm 
is done—and the work of bird protectors is all 
in vain—when a full-blooded young boy is given 
a gun and permitted to shoot indiscriminately at 
any living bird or animal he sees, to the cause 
of game protection than from all other sources 
combined. You have started that boy wrong, 
and it will be much harder to correct him later 
than one imagines. Start him right. 
In R. S. Spears’ contribution on “Game and 
Trapping” I was a little bit amused and some¬ 
what surprised at the same time at his statement 
about the deer dragging their hoofs. He writes: 
“Some of the deer dragged their hoofs in the 
snow as if they were weary. One deer was 
around South Lake all winter and its tracks 
were easily recognized by the dragging of its 
hoofs. It was probably wounded in the fall.” 
I am surprised that such a good authority on 
game as Mr. Spears should be thus misled. That 
deer was not weary, neither was it shot. It was 
an old buck—that’s all. Of course, if the snow 
was very deep they would all show the drag, 
but if it was under a foot deep, you can de¬ 
pend upon it that was a buck. It is the only 
true way to tell the track of a buck from a 
doe in the snow. If it was an old buck, the 
drag is very pronounced and draws from one 
step to the next one; if a two-year-old it will 
not be so marked. Does and yearlings or fawns 
never show any drag, unless wounded or crip¬ 
pled, or the snow very deep. I have never met 
but three men who could tell surely a buck’s 
from a doe’s track, and they all used this method 
and I know it is correct. 
During the past winter I worked almost daily 
guarding a big herd of deer near the Vermont 
and Massachusetts line. In a small area of 
about two miles nearly one hundred deer were 
wintering. I tested this method hundreds of 
times and found it correct in every instance. 
Of course, when the snow was very deep and I 
was on snowshoes. nearly all the deer dragged 
their hoofs, but when there was only about an 
