Forest and Stream 
Terms, $3 a Year, 10 Cts. a Copy. , 
Six Months, $1.50. 
NEW YORK, SATURDAY, MAY 20, 1911. 
VOL. LXXVI — No. 20 
No. 127 Franklin St., New York. 
A WEEKLY JOURNAL. 
Copyright, 1911, by Forest and Stream Publishing Co. 
George Bird Grinnell, President, 
Charles B. Reynolds, Secretary, 
Louis Dean Speir, Treasurer, 
127 Franklin Street, New York. 
THE OBJECT OF THIS JOURNAL 
will be to studiously promote a healthful in¬ 
terest in outdoor recreation, and to cultivate 
a refined taste for natural objects. 
—Forest and Stream, Aug. 14, 1873. 
WATER STORAGE. 
The Association for the Protection of the 
Aflirondacks in its efforts to preserve the State 
forests, has gained an important point. Assem¬ 
blyman Edwin A. Merritt, Jr., who represents the 
water storage interests, has agreed to accept as 
a substitute for his own amendment to Article 
7 , Section 7 of the New York State Constitu¬ 
tion, the concurrent resolution of Senator Burd. 
This provides that the State may take forest 
or private lands, after public notice and hear¬ 
ings, for water storage purposes, but such reser¬ 
voirs as may be bui.t can only be constructed, 
owned and operated by the State. It may dis¬ 
pose of water so impounded, but beneficiaries 
shail pay a reasonable sum to the State therefor. 
It may use water in producing light, heat and 
power for State use or for sale to municipali¬ 
ties. Senator Burd s resolution also embraces 
an amendment to Section 8, but the amendments 
constitute additions to Sections 7 and 8 and do 
not change those sections in other respects. 
The proposal to limit the area to be flowed 
to 3 per cent, of the entire State preserve has, 
we believe, been agreed to, but the proposition 
to include provisions for private camps on pub¬ 
lic land is not favored, and is therefore not men¬ 
tioned in the pending resolution. 
THE PUBLIC LANDS. 
By its unanimous decision, announced two 
weeks ago, the Supreme Court sustained all the 
rights of the T nited States Government in its 
control of the public lands. 
Ever since the first establishment of the forest 
reserves, some States, counties, communities and 
individuals have shown themselves here and 
there hostile to reserved lands, presumably be¬ 
cause they believed that the Federal Govern¬ 
ment was interfering with their rights, and was 
likely to take away from them something which 
they had always felt belonged to them—for no 
better reason than that it appeared to belong to 
no one else. 
More than nine years ago, in connection with 
a bill introduced by Mr. Lacey, authorizing the 
President to set aside game refuges, Attorney 
General Knox, when consulted on the subject 
by Mr. Lacey, offered an opinion which in sub¬ 
stance agreed with the decision recently ren¬ 
dered by the Supreme Court. This decision de¬ 
clares in effect that the statement of the con¬ 
stitution, ‘‘Congress shall have power to dis¬ 
pose of and make a 1 needful rules and regu¬ 
lations respecting the territory belonging to the 
United States,” means just what it says. This 
declaration applies to the lands, to the forests 
which grow on the lands, to the streams which 
flow over the lands and the power produced by 
these streams. 
Naturalists and big-game hunters who are 
anxious to see game refuges established on the 
public lands may feel encouraged by this decis¬ 
ion of the Supreme Court. It seems to point 
to a time when such action will be taken as 
shall give us game refuges—sources of supply 
for wild life—in many sections of the land. 
TROUT AND FOREST FIRES. 
Commenting on the effects of the forest fires 
on trout two years ago, we referred to the wash¬ 
ing of wood ashes into water courses by heavy 
rains which quenched the fires, and the loss of 
trout that followed. In view of the fact that 
this statement was widely commented on at the 
time, it is of interest to learn that in New Zea¬ 
land this form of water pollution is recognized 
and deplored. Many bush fires, says the Auck¬ 
land News, have been raging, and anglers in 
the Stratford district report a heavy mortality 
among the trout, the result, it is thought, of the 
prevalence of bush fires along the banks of the 
streams, and the consequent pollution of the 
water with ashes. 
When the water in brooks is reduced through 
drouth to isolated pools, the effects on trout of 
severe forest fires in the vicinity may be immedi¬ 
ate, for trout require as pure air, even if not in 
such quantities, as dry land creatures. If a heavy 
rain falls, and the light ashes are carried into 
the landlocked pools, the trout may be killed 
before the water has risen sufficiently to flow and 
become partially purified of the lye. 
In ordinary fires in the average season this 
danger may not be acute, but in seasons of 
severe drouth, accompanied by destructive fires 
covei ing wide areas, it probably is very destruc¬ 
tive to fish life in the way described. In the 
Northwest last autumn, when the conflagrations 
were beyond control, numbers of trout were 
actually boiled in their native element. 
The Lower House in Connecticut has recently 
passed a bill establishing a close season for two 
vears on upland game birds. This action is op¬ 
posed to the report of the committee, and the 
measure will probably be modified or killed in 
the Senate. The vote is interesting, however, 
as indicating the way in which the Connecticut 
representatives feel about this matter and en¬ 
courages the belief that there will be no exten¬ 
sion of the wildfowl shooting season at this 
session of the Legislature. 
STORIES OF AIGRETTES. 
Stories freely circulated recently by persons 
supposed to be interested in the millinery trade 
in this city state that the aigrettes so largely 
used in women’s hats come chiefly from Vene¬ 
zuela and are made up of shed plumes collected 
from the ground in the heronries where the white 
herons rear their young. 
It is well understood that the shed plumes of 
white herons gathered as stated have slight com¬ 
mercial value compared with those taken from 
the living bird. They are known as dead 
feathers and are worth only one-fifth or one- 
>ixth as much as those stripped from the freshly 
killed bird. The death of the parent birds means 
the starvation of the young, and the collection 
of the plumes is, therefore, doubly destructive. 
A plume hunter now residing in New YV>rk 
has sent to the National Association of Audubon 
Societies a letter describing the methods of plume 
collecting in Venezuela as he practiced them from 
1896 to 1905, inclusive. To the truth of his state¬ 
ment he has made oath before a notary. 
The statements that the aigrettes now used are 
made of shed feathers is reported to be based 
on a letter written by a certain Mayeul Grisol, 
declared to be a naturalist and explorer sent out 
by the Museum of Natural History in Paris. 
T. hese statements being quite incredible, it seemed 
worth while to find out who this man really is, 
and what his standing. Accordingly, Dr. Henry 
Fairfield Osborn cabled to Paris, April 20, and 
on April 22 received from the Museum of Natu¬ 
ral History of Paris a cablegram saying that 
Mayeul Grisol was unknown. There is a Mayeul 
Grisol who is an entomologist, but he is not 
known to be connected with any ornithological 
institution, nor to be an authority on birds. 
The millinery trade of New Y'ork is trying 
hard to secure the passage of the Levy bill, but 
their efforts should not be successful. 
The New York Senate finance committee on 
Friday last reported favorably the bill of As¬ 
semblyman A. E. Smith, of New York, appro¬ 
priating $30,000 for the protection of the State 
forests from fire. It was advanced to third 
reading. In order to be prepared for possible 
fires during the present dry season, State For¬ 
ester Pettis has appointed fifty-eight fire war¬ 
dens. Governor Dix himself guaranteed the pay¬ 
ment of the salaries of these men, pending action 
by the Legislature. The Governor has also issued 
a proclamation warning all persons of the danger 
of being careless with matches and camp¬ 
fires in the Catskills and the Adirondacks dur¬ 
ing the present drouth. Locomotives of trains 
passing through the State forests are burning 
oil. and protectors are on the lookout for fires, 
so that preventive measures are well in hand, 
but extraordinary vigilance is asked for. 
