378 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
[March ix, I 9 11 * 
Canadian Camp Annual Dinner. 
The annual dinner of the Canadian Camp was 
held Monday, March 6, at Hotel Astor, in New 
York. The large dining room was crowded wit 
members and their guests. Dr. G. Lenox Curtis 
presided and introduced John C. Tomlinson, Sr., 
the toastmaster. , 
Among the viands served were the flesh ot 
African buffalo and eland, recently brought over 
by John J. White, Jr., of Washington, who has 
just returned from Africa; Persian lamb chops 
furnished by C. J. Jones, of Les Vegas, New 
Mexico, and some other unusual delicacies. 
Among the speakers were Charles Camsell, 
of Ottawa, who was born and lived most of his 
life in the Mackenzie Basin, and so is most 
familiar with the far North, of which he told; 
Robert H. Marshall, who showed wonderful pic¬ 
tures of some of our national parks, and Warner 
Miller, who spoke of European forestry. 
The features of the evening, however, were 
the extraordinarily interesting moving pictures 
shown by C. J. Jones (Buffalo Jones), which 
exhibited the roping and tying of a lioness, rhi¬ 
noceros, warthog, eland, giraffe and so on, and 
an account by John J. White, Jr., of buffalo and 
lion hunting in Africa. Colonel Jones’ pictures 
were not confined to Africa. He showed a num¬ 
ber of pictures taken in the West representing 
deer, elk, bears, mountain sheep and highly ex¬ 
citing pictures of buffalo fighting and of the 
capture of mountain lions, which had been run 
into trees by dogs. 
Toward the close of the meeting Dr. J. C. 
Allen, of Brooklyn, introduced a resolution which 
was passed by the club condemning carelessness 
on the part of hunters who shoot men for deer 
or other animals. 
A medal was presented to Colonel Jones by 
the club. 
Squirrels for Central Park. 
The gray squirrel colony in Central Park, 
New York city, is deteriorating to such an ex¬ 
tent that Commissioner Stover believes new 
blood is necessary. Several years ago Forest 
and Stream called attention to the fact that the 
popular pastime of feeding these interesting little 
animals with peanuts was killing them, but it 
was not until Mrs. A. F. Smith took the matter 
up with Mr. Stover that efforts were made to 
provide hard-shelled nuts for the squirrels. Mrs. 
Smith has devoted a great deal of time to look¬ 
ing after the welfare of the little colony, and 
she now proposes to replenish the stock with 
wild squirrels from New England. 
The squirrels have many enemies, chiefly 
human. Frequently the sly efforts of vandals 
to kill and pocket the squirrels, are frustrated, 
but the small boy with the bean-shooter is al¬ 
ways present, and difficult to catch. 
New York Legislature. 
The following bills have been introduced: 
By Senator Bussey, providing that fish, in¬ 
cluding pike and pickerel, may be taken through 
the ice by spearing in Silver Lake from Jan. 
15 to the last day of February, both inclusive. 
By Senator Bayne, in relation to the sale of 
game. It strikes out the provision permitting 
the forest, fish and game commissioner to order 
game animals, birds or fish seized because pos¬ 
sessed in violation of law to be sold. The com¬ 
missioner is still permitted to order such con¬ 
fiscated game and fish to be given away for 
charitable purposes. The bill prohibits the sale 
for food purposes within this State of wild rab¬ 
bits, hares and jack rabbits, squirrels of all 
species, deer, elk, moose and caribou. It makes 
a similar prohibition against the sale for food 
purposes of game birds and song birds belong¬ 
ing to any species or sub-species native to this 
State and protected by the law, or of any bird 
belonging to any family of which any species 
or sub-species is native to the State. These pro¬ 
hibitions apply in all cases whether the birds or 
game were killed within or without this State. 
The bill changes the period during which pos¬ 
session of deer or venison shall be presumptive 
evidence that it was unlawfully taken, so that 
this period shall extend from Nov. 5 to Sept. 15 
instead of from Oct. 31 to Nov. 5. 
By Assemblyman Constantine, providing that 
there shall be no closed season for blue pike on 
Lake Ontario. 
By Assemblyman T. K. Smith, providing that 
if in accordance with the provisions of this chap¬ 
ter the open season commences or ends on Sun¬ 
day, it shall be deemed to commence or end, as 
the case may be, on the Saturday immediately 
preceding such Sunday. 
By Assemblyman Ahern, prohibiting the hunt¬ 
ing of squirrels, hares, rabbits, partridge, grouse, 
pheasant, quail or woodcock by tracking them 
in the snow. 
By Senator Burd and Assemblyman Wende, 
relating to whitefish and lake trout. 
By • Assemblyman Shea, providing that dogs 
and bitches may be harbored in any part of the 
Adirondack Park and used in the hunting of 
deer during the last ten days of the open season 
for taking deer in Essex, Warren, Franklin and 
Clinton counties. 
Through some error this bill was sent into the 
Assembly library numbered 630 and was sum¬ 
marized as 630. The correct Assembly bill in¬ 
troductory number 630 is a bill by Assemblyman 
Shea, providing that any citizen may, upon pro¬ 
curing a license, hunt birds, foxes, hares and 
rabbits in the proper season with dogs or 
bitches, but not of a breed used in hunting deer. 
The license fee is one dollar for each dog. 
By Assemblyman Shea, relating to forest pre¬ 
serve boundaries. 
By Assemblyman Thorn, relating to pheasants 
in Erie county. 
The Senate committee on fisheries and game 
has reported favorably Senator Long’s bill rela¬ 
tive to the open season for certain wildfowl on 
Long Island. 
By Senator Griffith, relating to coarse fish in 
certain waters, and providing for an open season 
for woodducks from Sept. 16 to Nov. S’ 
By Assemblyman Shortt, two bills relating to 
shell fisheries. 
By Assemblyman Gregg, relating to tree cut¬ 
ting on public lands. 
By Assemblyman Hoyt, relating to nets in 
various waters. 
Book Exchange. 
No doubt there are many of our readers who possess 
old books, and others who would be glad to possess 
them, and we are, therefore, making a special place in 
our advertising columns, which may be called a book 
exchange, where those who wish to purchase, sell or ex¬ 
change second-hand books may ask for what they need, 
or offer what they have. 
A Plank. 
Reprinted from Forest and Stream of Feb. 3, 1894, 
This is 1894. We have just been celebrating 
the four hundredth anniversary of the coming 
to this continent of men equipped with firearms. 
For four centuries, from the time of Christo¬ 
pher Columbus to that of Charles Delmonico, 
we have been killing and marketing game, de 
stroying it as rapidly and as thoroughly as we 
knew how, and making no provision toward re¬ 
placing the supply. The result of such a course 
is that for the most part the game has been 
blotted out from wide areas, and to-day, after 
four hundred years of wanton wastefulness, we 
are just beginning to ask one another how we 
may preserve the little that remains, for our¬ 
selves and our children. 
With all the discussion of the subject in the 
columns of Forest and Stream from 1873 I® 
1894, there has been and is a general consensus 
of opinion that the markets are answerable for 
a larger proportion of game destruction than any 
other agency or all other agencies combined. 
The practical annihilation of one species of large 
game from the continent, and the sweeping off 
of other species from vast regions formerly 
populated by them, have not been brought about 
by the settlement of the country, but by unre¬ 
lenting pursuit for commercial purposes. The 
work of the sportsman, who hunts for the sake 
of hunting, has had an effect so trivial, that in 
comparison with that of the market hunter it 
need not be taken into consideration. The game 
paucity of to-day is due to the skin hunter, the 
meat killer, the market shooter. 
From the beginning wild game has played an 
important part in the development of the coun¬ 
try. It has supplied subsistence when there was 
no other food for the pioneer and the settler. 
Buffalo and elk and deer and grouse and quail 
and wild goose and wild ducks have sustained 
the men who first cut into the edge of the un¬ 
broken forests of the continent, who blazed the 
trails westward, and pushed their way, directed 
as mariners at sea by note of sun and stars, 
across the billowing prairies. Many a halt would 
have been made by these advancing hosts had 
they been compelled to depend upon sutler trains, 
instead of foraging on the abundant game re¬ 
sources of the country as they took possession 
of it. For generations, then, it was right and 
proper, and wise and profitable that game should 
be killed for food; that every edible creature 
clothed in feathers or in fur should be regarded 
as so much meat to be spitted or potted or 
panned. 
But times have changed. Conditions are not 
what they were. Game still affords food for the 
dweller in the wilderness, for those who live on 
the outskirts; and for people in such situations 
venison is a cheaper commodity than beef. But 
for the vast and overwhelming multitude of the 
people of the continent, game is no longer in 
any sense an essential factor of the food supply. 
It has become a luxury, it is so regarded, and 
it is sold at prices which make it such. With 
the exception, perhaps, of rabbits or hares, the 
supply of wild game as marketed is not such as 
to reduce the cost of living to persons of mode- 
(Continued on page 397.) 
