418 
[March 18, 1911- 
Sportsmen Talk at Albany. 
On Thursday, March 9, a discussion was had 
among members of the legislative committee at 
Albany, Forest Fish and Game Commissioner 
Osborne and a iarge number of sportsmen on 
proposed amendments to the fish and game laws. 
Among those present were: Dr. W. T. Horna- 
day, of Mew York; Isaiah Perkins, of Mason 
Lock, Hamilton Co.; Julge Boire, of Plattsburg, 
and Andrew D. Meloy, President of the M T ew York 
State Fish, Game and Forest League; Marshall 
McLean, of New York; T. Gilbert Pearson, of 
the Audubon Society, and others. The question 
of licensing bird dogs in the Adirondacks was 
discussed at considerable length, as was also the 
proposition to renew the hounding of deer. On 
this subject a vote was taken and the proposi¬ 
tion to permit the use of dogs was lost. A large 
number of sportsmen favored the lengthening of 
the deer season from Oct. 31 to Nov. 15, and 
to permit the killing of bucks only. 
Very active interest was displayed in the 
proposition to prohibit the sale of all game no 
matter where it comes from. The usual argu¬ 
ments pro and con were brought up, and the 
weight given to these arguments depended some¬ 
what on the views of the listeners. It was de¬ 
clared that ducks brought into New T ork State 
from the South are the same birds which, if not 
killed by the market gunners, would next season 
furnish sport for the gunners of this State, and 
it was shown that the permission to sell game 
within the State, which has been taken outside 
of the State, furnishes a blind for the sale of 
game taken in the State. 
A delegation of fur buyers was present to 
urge an amendment to the law making a close 
season on raccoons. The increase in value of 
all furs has been so great that some fur-bearing 
animals like the raccoon are now almost extinct 
in New York. 
An effort was made to secure action on a law 
to prohibit the use of ferrets in hunting rabbits, 
but this was bitterly opposed by the representa¬ 
tive of vine growers’ associations and vineyard 
men who favor the complete extermination of 
the rabbit. 
Increasing the minimum length limit of trout 
from six to seven inches was also discussed, as 
was also the proposition to permit the raising 
of trout in private hatcheries for the market. 
The pollution of streams was fully discussed. 
New York Legislature. 
Bills have been introduced as follows: 
By Assemblyman Evans, changing the deer 
season in parts of the Catskills to the first half 
of November. 
By Assemblyman Evans, permitting the propa¬ 
gation of skunks in captivity when licensed by 
the State commission. The license fee in the 
first instance is $10 and $5 for renewals. The 
applicant for a license must give a bond in the 
sum of $500. 
By Senator T. D. Sullivan, a bill amending 
the penal law (Section 2145) by permitting fish¬ 
ing, playing and outdoor athletic sports and 
games on Sunday. 
By Assemblyman Cheney, Cattaraugus county, 
prohibiting the taking by any person of more 
than five squirrels in one day in Cattaraugus 
county. 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
By Senator Roosevelt, providing that there 
shall be no open season for quail in Dutchess 
and Ulster counties until 1916. 
By Assemblyman Brereton, relating to fires to 
clear land. 
By Assemblyman Jones, amending the tax law 
by inserting a new section (16) providing that 
lands to the extent of one or more acres planted 
for forestry purposes with trees to the number 
of not less than 800 to the acre shall be ex¬ 
empted for thirty years from taxation. 
By Assemblyman Pierce, relating to fishing 
through the ice in Silver Lake. 
By Senator Burns, relating to whitefish and 
lake trout in Lakes Ontario and Erie. 
By Senator Saxe, prohibiting the use of 
automatic, and repeating shotguns in hunting 
birds. 
The Senate has advanced to third reading 
Senator Long’s bill in relation to the open sea¬ 
son for certain wildfowl on Long Island. 
The Boone and Crockett Antelope. 
Cache, Okla., March 6. — Editor Forest and 
Stream: In all there were eleven head of ante¬ 
lope shipped here from the Yellowstone Park. 
One male was dead in the crate when it arrived, 
and there were three others, two males and one 
female that died from injuries which they received 
in transit. We were very sorry to lose them, 
but since the antelope is perhaps the most timid 
animal we have to handle and ship, I consider 
we were lucky to not lose more of them. We 
have seven left, one male and six females, and 
I am glad to inform you that they are all feel¬ 
ing fine and doing well on shelled oats and 
alfalfa hay. Some of them are two years old 
and others are older. At present we have them 
in a small inclosure of about four acres made 
especially for them. I do not know just when 
they will be turned out in the buffalo park, 
which is fenced with a woven wire fence about 
ninety inches high and contains about 8,000 
acres, which was once the home of the buffalo, 
elk, deer and antelope. At present we have 
twenty-three head of buffalo, eleven of which 
were born here. There are ten males and thir¬ 
teen females all in good condition and doing 
well. About four or five buffalo calves are ex¬ 
pected this year. 
Inside of the buffalo park there are about 
forty head of whitetail deer which are natives 
of this country. 
At present we only have one elk, a bull which 
was presented to the Government by the city of 
Wichita, Kansas. 
Frank Rush, 
Game Warden in Charge. 
W. C. Allison. 
Custer, S. D., March 6. — Editor Forest and 
Stream: We have the sad duty of informing 
you that W. C. Allison has joined “the silent 
majority.” 
“He hears not the moan of the night winds now 
Or the sighing' of those who weep; 
The pallor of death is upon his brow, 
lie sleeps the eternal sleep.” 
D. N. Allison. 
All the game laws of the United States and 
Canada, revised to date and nozv in force, are 
given in the Game Laws in Brief. See adv. 
New Game Preserves in Montana. 
By what was well nigh the most rapid work 
on record, the State of Montana has created a 
new game preserve of noteworthy 'magnitude. 
Governor Edwin L. Norris, Senator McCone and 
the Legislature of Montana have drawn, intro¬ 
duced and enacted into a State law—all since 
Tan. 20—a measure that converts the famous 
“Hell Creek Bad Lands” country into a State 
game preserve. Primarily it is for the benefit of 
the remnant of prong-horned antelope, mule deer 
and mountain sheep still surviving in that wild 
and picturesque region, but it is reasonably cer¬ 
tain also that in the future a nucleus of Ameri¬ 
can bison will be added. 
The region fronts on the Missouri River, and 
it lies about 100 miles north by west of Miles 
City. The total area of the preserve is about 
100 square miles. About three-fourths of it 
consists of very deep and rugged bad lands, 
made by the waters of Snow Creek, Hell Creek 
and other streams. There is a good showing 
of cedar and pine timber in the gulches and 
arroyos, and hard wood on the bottom land of 
Snow Creek. 
The remaining one-fourth of the tract con¬ 
tains some high level grass lands that can sup¬ 
port a herd of perhaps a thousand bison. In 
the eastern side of the preserve lies the fossil 
region, now known widely as the Hell Creek 
formation discovered in 1902 by W. T. Horna- 
day and L. A. Huffman, and turned over to the 
American Museum of Natural History. Out of 
that region have come the great tyrant lizard 
(Tyranosaurus rex) and the giant three-horned 
dinosaur ( Triceratops brevicornis ). 
The new preserve contains even at this late 
day a small band of mountain sheep. Beyond 
question it will in a few years be teeming with 
wild life, and will form a feature of great in¬ 
terest to the American people. 
The sudden move for the creation of the Snow 
Creek Game Preserve was precipitated by news 
sent late in January to W. T. Hornaday by W. 
R. Felton, a civil engineer of Miles City to the 
effect that a new line of railway is about to be 
constructed within fifteen miles of the region. 
It was apparent that if the preserve were to 
be created at all, it must be done immediately. 
At once a campaign was started by L. A. Huff¬ 
man, of Miles City, and pushed with the utmost 
vigor. Senator McCone introduced the neces¬ 
sary bill, Governor Norris heartily favored and 
promoted it, and in the end so many strong men 
became interested that in spite of the lateness 
of its introduction it passed both houses of the 
Legislature, and on March 6 became a law. It 
is the intention of Mr. Hornaday eventually to 
ask Congress to make Snow Creek a National 
preserve. 
Besides the above, the Legislature has pro¬ 
vided for two other game preserves, one in Gal¬ 
latin county, and one in Carbon county. 
The Gallatin county preserve averages four 
miles in width and twenty miles in length, and 
is intended to offer a winter range for the elk 
which come down at that season out of the 
Yellowstone National Park. 
The Pryor Mountain preserve includes a region 
formerly within the boundaries of the Crow In¬ 
dian Reservation. 
The Forest and Stream may be obtained from any 
newsdealer on order. Ask your dealer to supply you 
regularly. 
