56 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
[July io, 1909. 
whiz anyway. Without bothering with the sights 
I raised the rifle and fired. Poulin, who was 
watching for the splash of the bullet, suddenly 
exclaimed, ‘You have hit it!’ And sure enough 
when we paddled up to it, there it lay stone 
dead, with a bullet hole fairly in the middle of 
the head. * * * Shot offhand and from a 
moving canoe such a shot might not be repeated 
in a hundred thousand rounds.” 
Perhaps the most extraordinary shot given 
was made by Francis Labrie who was using an 
express of .50 caliber with hollow-pointed bul¬ 
lets filled with tallow. “There were two loons 
(great Northern divers) sitting on the water 
some distance off shore. Labrie was decoying 
them in by calling and waving a white rag. No 
amount of coaxing, however, could bring them 
in closer than about 100 yards. One of them 
turned and began swimming outward until it 
was separated about fifteen or twenty yards sea¬ 
ward and half that distance to the right. Labrie 
was near the water’s edge, and seeing that he 
could not get them closer, fired at the nearest 
one. I was standing nearby watching him. The 
shot was too low; the bullet, striking the water 
four or five yards from the loon, ricochetted and 
struck the first loon on the head, was deviated 
to the right and cut the neck of the second 
loon.” 
There is much in the volume about the trap¬ 
ping of fur-bearing animals, such as the lynx, 
the beaver, the marten and the fisher, and 
about killing bears and seals, the capture of 
poachers and caribou hunts of the olden times. 
There are chapters on angling and accounts of 
a wonderful story of suffering and endurance, 
and methods of taking the birds of the region. 
Mr. Comeau tells with humor of the way in 
which he demonstrated to a couple of English 
officers that the salmon, when they leave the 
salt water, are bursting with food, although 
food is seldom found in their stomachs while 
they are in fresh water. He announces an in¬ 
teresting discovery about kelts, stating that, re¬ 
maining in the fresh water, they shed their 
scales during the winter and grow a new set. 
Having described the spent fish or kelt, he asks: 
“How is it that this same fish, continuing to 
remain in the same water, emerges in April 
with bright scales showing again? He is no 
fatter, still a kelt, but he is bright and shiny. 
How was this brought about? Here is where 
I have something new. He has shed his coat. 
He has moulted, thrown off his outer slimy cov¬ 
ering with the old scales and grown new ones, 
just in the same way as an animal sheds his 
coat, birds their feathers and snakes their skins, 
also of scales.” 
Mr. Comeau writes as we have said, simply 
and directly. He possesses a keen sense of 
humor, a light touch, and a strong fund of sen¬ 
timent. Thus when in his chapter on “Grouse 
and other Land Birds” he speaks of the birch 
partridge, Bonasa umbellus, he alludes to it as 
“Mr. Hammond’s friend,” a friendly remem¬ 
brance of a brother sportsman, older in years 
if of narrower experience. Life on the North 
Shore is illustrated by a number of excellent 
half-tones, some of them portraits, others illus¬ 
trative of the life of that shore. There are 
several lists of salmon records which will in¬ 
terest present day anglers—among the lists one 
for the Godbout River running back over fifty 
years. There is also a list of the “Birds Occur¬ 
ring Within Ten Miles of Pointe des Monts, 
P. Q.” This was originally published by Dr. C. 
H. Merriam, but has been enlarged and brought 
to date by the author. The proofreading of 
the volume should be better, but we can hardly 
say that the volume’s matter could be improved. 
It is long since we have seen so interesting a 
book. 
Round About the Crescent City. 
New Orleans, La., June 22 .—Editor Forest 
and Stream: President Frank M. Miller, of the 
State Commission, left here luesday morning 
on the Royal Tern for Breton Island in the 
Gulf of Mexico for the purpose of studying 
bird life, taking pictures and making general 
observations. There are many species of birds 
on Breton Island and he expects to obtain some 
valuable information for the commission. This 
is the height of the breeding season for the 
various sea birds, and his report will doubtless 
be most interesting. He will spend one week 
on the island. The Royal Tern is a motor boat 
and belongs to the commission and is used by 
the various wardens on the waters near New 
Orleans. 
An amusing and interesting feature of this 
visit to Breton Island is the fact that Mr. Miller 
will act as his own chef and prepare all of his 
own meals. His friends are poking fun at him 
and tell him it is rather odd for the president of 
an important commission of the State to act as 
cook. 
Amos L. Ponder, of the commission, will de¬ 
liver an address at Arcadia, Bienville parish, on 
July 2, on game preservation. The occasion 
will be a big barbecue given by the Woodmen 
of the World, and 3,000 people are expected. 
Governor J. Y. Sanders, of Louisiana, will also 
speak on good roads. Mr. Miller and Mr. 
Ponder will speak before the State Normal 
School at Natchitoches on July 8 on game pres¬ 
ervation and the value of birds to the farmers 
of the State. 
Among the interesting features of a report 
from Game Warden Bryan, from East Baton 
Rouge parish, of game killed during the past 
year are wild cats to the number of fifty-five and 
10.000 rabbits; minks, 960; doves, 15,000; squir¬ 
rels, 5,000. The total value of all the game is 
put down at $11,120. 
New Orleans, La, June 25 .—Editor Forest 
and Stream: According to reports received by 
the State Game Commission there are large num¬ 
bers of Canada geese in Calcasieu parish and 
hundreds of blue-wing teals in all the parishes 
bo’rdering on the Gulf. I his is very unusual 
and I believe has never been known before in 
the history of the State. Ihese birds are breed¬ 
ing and raising their young and consequently 
the supply of geese and ducks in Louisiana for 
the coming fall will be much larger than last 
year. 
President Miller believes if the hunters would 
stop hunting geese and ducks on March 1 very 
few would go up North, and the consequence 
would be that this would become the great breed¬ 
ing center of the entire country. The season 
closes for ducks and geese on April 15 of each 
year. Mr. Miller is at a loss to understand why 
these birds remained here, except upon the 
theory they became too fat and lazy and con¬ 
cluded not to attempt to make the journey 
northward. 
President Miller, of the State Game Commis¬ 
sion, is in receipt of a communication from 
President William Dutcher, of the National As¬ 
sociation -of Audubon Societies, who says that 
the trustees of the Peabody Fund will be asked 
to donate $100,000 to the National Association 
of Audubon Societies, the interest to be used 
in an educational campaign in the Southern 
States. 
Among the members of the board of trustees 
for the Peabody Fund are the following: Judge 
C. E. - Fenner, of Louisiana; Governor Hoke 
Smith, of Georgia; Bishop William Lawrence, of 
Massachusetts; Bishop Doane, of New York, 
and Mr. Choate and Mr. Wetmore, also of New 
York. The trustees will meet in annual session 
next month in New York city. Mr. Dutcher 
and Mr. Miller are both very anxious to secure 
this donation to be invested in good securities 
for the benefit of the cause of education in the 
South. F - G - G - 
Municipal Forests. 
At the initiative of the American Civic Asso¬ 
ciation, Pennsylvania has established a precedent 
which other States should follow. The Pennsyl¬ 
vania Legislature has passed an act permitting 
the cities of the State to establish municipal 
forests. The German municipal forests have 
proved to be important sources of municipal 
revenue. They tend greatly to reduce the bur¬ 
den of municipal taxation. In Pennsylvania 
many townships, boroughs and cities are so lo¬ 
cated that it would be expedient for them to 
possess tracts of land to be used for the pur¬ 
poses of municipal forests. In many instances 
these would conserve and protect the water 
supply. They would promote the healthfulness 
of the municipalities and would yield revenue. 
The act gives cities, boroughs and townships (of 
the first class) authority to acquire, by purchase, 
gift or lease, either forested areas or areas suit¬ 
able for forestry. Such lands may be either 
within or outside of the municipal areas. Funds 
to pay for the lands so acquired may be derived 
either from current revenue or from bond issues. 
Before any land is purchased under the proposed 
Pennsylvania law, the approval of the land se¬ 
lected must be secured from the State Commis¬ 
sioner of Forestry. After the land has been ac¬ 
quired, the commissioner will be notified, where¬ 
upon it will be his duty to make rules for the 
government and administration of the forestry 
areas. Such rules will be published by the 
municipality, and it will be compulsory upon 
the municipality to follow them in its adminis¬ 
tration of the forestry areas. We are thus at 
last following the example of Germany. TheJ 
city of Baden alone owns over ten thousand 
acres, from which it derives a net income of 
$6.25’per acre. The city of Freiburg owns over 
eight thousand acres and the city of Heidelberg:' 
nearly seven thousand. The benefit is even, 
greater to the villages. Take Aufen, for in¬ 
stance, with only' 220 inhabitants but with i6j 
acres of timber land. Not only does this givfj 
two thousand board feet of fire-wood to eacl 
citizen, but the amount sold nets a sum suffi¬ 
cient for all expenses of the little community. 
The Outlook. 
